EMISSIONS: President Biden is preparing to follow up the Inflation Reduction Act with a series of executive actions to crack down on emissions from tailpipes, power plants and oil and gas wells, among other sources. (New York Times)
ALSO:
• Analyses predict between 10-20% of the climate package’s promised emissions reductions will need to come from carbon capture and storage — technologies that are notoriously expensive and difficult to scale. (Inside Climate News)
• A federal lobbying group that counts major corporations among its members pledged to lead on climate action, but an analysis finds it has instead fought to ensure companies can keep their carbon footprints under wraps. (Guardian)
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CLIMATE LAW:
• The Inflation Reduction Act contains up to $350 billion for federal loans for energy and automotive projects, which could jumpstart technologies traditional lenders may find too risky. (New York Times)
• Subsidies and tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act will incentivize purchases and production of electric vehicles, heat pumps, geothermal heating projects and more; as well as encourage farmers to adopt more environmentally friendly practices. (Politico)
• The climate package will have a global impact as it reduces emissions and incentivizes clean energy technology production, but it fails to help poorer countries adapt to climate change. (New York Times)
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE:
• Advocates say the Supreme Court’s recent ruling restricting the U.S. EPA’s oversight of power plant emissions is likely to hurt low-income and minority communities the most, as they’ve already faced decades of disproportionate fossil fuel pollution. (E&E News)
• Largely Black communities in south Memphis spent decades suffering from pollution from a Tennessee Valley Authority coal plant — and now that it’s closed, the utility is trucking tons of toxic coal ash through their neighborhoods to a nearby landfill. (Energy News Network, Washington Post)
OIL & GAS:
• A federal judge revives his block on the Biden administration’s oil and gas leasing pause just days after an appeals court struck it down. (E&E News)
• University of New Mexico engineers develop a nanotech sealant for permanently plugging abandoned oil and gas wells that won’t crack and leak like cement. (Albuquerque Journal)
GRID: Utilities along the U.S. coastlines are finding it hard to obtain new power transformers due to supply chain issues, potentially delaying recovery times as hurricane season arrives. (E&E News)
WIND:
• Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say their computer models show that adjusting the rotor blades on a wind farm’s turbines can increase overall power production. (Boston Globe)
• Researchers find floating offshore wind turbines like those that would be deployed along California’s coast could cause ecosystem-altering turbulence. (E&E News, subscription)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Hyundai considers accelerating construction of its planned Georgia electric vehicle plant because the new federal climate law’s tax credits exclude electric vehicles assembled outside North America. (Reuters)
AFFORDABILITY: While New Hampshire’s governor says other New England states’ renewable energy investments are hurting the state’s ratepayers, clean energy experts say the state’s overreliance on fossil fuels is to blame. (Energy News Network)
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