Focus
Public health and green groups sue EPA over repeal of 2009 endangerment finding
Associated Press – February 18
A coalition of health and environmental groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this Wednesday over the agency’s repeal last week of the 2009 endangerment finding. The endangerment finding, which determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, serves as the legal underpinning of nearly all climate regulations under the Clean Air Act. The finding supported common sense safeguards to cut climate pollution, including from cars and trucks, the lawsuit says. An EPA spokesperson said that the agency reevaluated the finding in light of recent court decisions, including a 2022 Supreme Court decision limiting how the clean air law can be used to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. The current dispute is likely to end up before the Supreme Court.
News
California sues federal government over billions in canceled clean energy funding
Los Angeles Times – February 18
California and a group of other states filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California this Wednesday challenging the U.S. Department of Energy and the Office of Management and Budget’s cancellation of about $2.7 billion in clean energy funding awarded under President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The cancelled funds include $1.2 billion for California's effort to develop clean hydrogen and $4 million for energy-efficient building upgrades in the state. The funding cuts reflect “partisan retribution” and will lead to more than 200,000 lost union jobs, higher energy prices, and worse pollution in California, said Attorney General Rob Bonta, who co-led the suit with attorneys general from Washington and Colorado. The suit was also joined by 10 other states.
New cleanup proposed for old San Jose Superfund site near San Jose State
The Mercury News – February 13
EPA is proposing a $24 million high-tech project to remove most of the last remnants of pollution at the Lorentz Barrel & Drum Co. Superfund site in San Jose. The site is home to one of Silicon Valley’s longest-running environmental cleanups — a former business where workers scrubbed and recycled industrial steel drums between 1947 and 1987, often dumping pesticides, solvents, acids, and other chemicals onto the ground and into storm drains. EPA officials plan to place metal probes in the ground to heat the dirt 20 to 30 feet below the surface. That technique, already used at a few other environmental cleanup sites in Los Angeles and elsewhere in California, is expected to cause particles of solvents, volatile organic compounds, and other chemicals remaining in the soil to vaporize, so those vapors can be captured in new wells, treated, and removed.
States miss a big deadline, ending chance for a Colorado River water deal
The New York Times – February 14
After two years of negotiations, the seven Western states that rely on water from the Colorado River failed to meet a February 14 deadline to reach consensus on a plan to guide the use of the river over the coming decades, just as new projections show reservoir levels could sink to a critical low by the end of this year. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the federal Bureau of Reclamation would instead soon impose its own plan. He said the plan could include “fair compromise with shared responsibility” over significant water-use cuts that will be necessary as the Colorado basin becomes more arid, but acknowledged it may be difficult for states to cooperate without taking disagreements to court.
New York Senate passes bill targeting corporate climate disclosures
ESG Dive – February 13
The New York State Senate on February 10 passed the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act — or Senate Bill 9072A — which requires entities who do business or derive receipts from business activities in the State and generate over $1 billion in revenue in the prior fiscal year to annually disclose their direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions. If adopted, the bill would require corporate climate-risk disclosures that mirror California’s SB 253, also labeled as the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act.
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