Energy

China pledges to go carbon neutral by 2060


With help from Eric Wolff, Alex Guillén and Anthony Adragna

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China pledged to become carbon neutral by 2060 and peak its emissions before 2030, a move that stands in stark contrast with those by President Donald Trump.

The House last night approved a stopgap measure to keep the government funded through mid-December — with guardrails to ensure that the money won’t go toward bailing out oil refiners.

The White House finished reviewing the final version of a regulation that would undo the “once in, always in” pollution policy.

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CHINA MAKES BOLD CLIMATE PLEDGE: President Xi Jinping pledged Tuesday in an address to the U.N. General Assembly that China, the world’s top carbon dioxide polluter, would reach its peak emissions ahead of a 2030 goal and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 by implementing “more vigorous policies and measures.”

“We call on all countries to pursue innovative, coordinated, green and open development for all, seize the historic opportunities presented by the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, achieve a green recovery of the world economy in the post-Covid era and thus create a powerful force driving sustainable development,” Xi said in pre-recorded video remarks.

The pledge was unexpected, particularly given the delay of the U.N.’s climate conference this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, Pro’s Zack Colman reports. “This is designed to blow the U.S. away,” said Li Shuo, a policy expert with Greenpeace East Asia.

But Xi did not detail how specifically China will hit its 2060 target. The announcement also comes on the heels of reports that the nation has prepared to loosen environmental regulations to continue its expansion of coal-fired power plants, and as the Europeans during a summit last week urged China to promise to reach carbon neutrality by 2060 or risk facing tariffs from the economic block.

President Donald Trump attacked China’s environmental record in his own pre-recorded UNGA remarks. “Those who attack America’s exceptional environmental record while ignoring China’s rampant pollution are not interested in the environment, they only want to punish America and I will not stand for it,” Trump said.

By the numbers: If China fulfills the target, it could prevent 0.4 to 0.7 degrees (0.2 to 0.4 degrees Celsius) of further warming, The Associated Press reports, according to “very rough estimates” by MIT management professor John Sterman, who tracks emission reductions and pledges with Climate Interactive.

CONGRESS TO REFINERS: NO SOUP FOR YOU! The House’s stopgap government funding bill passed Tuesday night included a provision that forbids the Agriculture secretary from giving money to refiners to comply with the Renewable Fuel Standard. The White House had been contemplating spending around $300 million to help out small refiners who are watching the small refiner exemption program vanish out from under them. But the spending deal, H.R. 8337 (116), blocks that effort and even goes a step further in putting in place a 180-day moratorium on DOE authorities that let it trade petroleum products for biofuels to help refiners comply with the law.

“We have reached an agreement with Republicans on the CR to add nearly $8 billion in desperately needed nutrition assistance for hungry schoolchildren and families,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. “We also increase accountability in the Commodity Credit Corporation, preventing funds for farmers from being misused for a Big Oil bailout.”

Refiners are running out of options: EPA did not appeal a court decision from January that put the entire small refiner exemption program in jeopardy, and earlier this month it rejected dozens of requests for economic hardship status from RFS requirements dating back to 2011.

There’s still an out though: EPA has yet to produce a rule setting the blending mandate for this coming year, and who knows what that will look like after the election.

ON THE FLOOR: House Democrats will begin consideration of their sprawling clean energy package, H.R. 4447 (116), on the floor today. The nearly 900-page document is a compilation of dozens of committee-passed measures, including some targeting buildings and energy retrofitting for schools and homes, new investments in renewable energy technologies, environmental justice initiatives and workforce training programs.

The Rules panel has teed up 98 amendments to the bill. But you can also expect Republicans to argue Democrats significantly altered bipartisan provisions that had been adopted in committee — a claim Democrats disputed during Monday’s Rules meeting. The White House has already warned it would veto the package.

ENDANGERED SPECIES BILL FOCUS OF SENATE HEARING: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing this morning on Chair John Barrasso (R-Wyo.)’s legislation to reauthorize the Endangered Species Act for the first time since 1992. The Endangered Species Act Amendments of 2020, S. 4589 (116), would elevate the role of state wildlife agencies in species management. It would require state negotiation prior to releasing an experimental population of a species and would codify a prioritization system for addressing listing petitions, status reviews, and proposed and final determinations. Read a section-by-section breakdown of the bill.

SCIENCE DEMS PRESS ON WILDFIRES: Eight Democrats on the House Science Committee are asking GAO to investigate the impacts of more frequent and intense wildfires on air quality and public health. “Increasingly frequent and severe wildfires, as well as lengthening wildfire seasons, are erasing decades of air quality improvements in many areas of the country,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter. They note that in recent years “more frequent and severe wildfires due to climate change” have led to “spikes in episodes of unhealthy particulate pollution” in parts of the country impacted by fires.

OLD MACT-DONALD HAD A HARM, REVERSING OIAI: EPA is close to reversing a longtime policy to allow potentially thousands of industrial facilities around the U.S. to comply with a less stringent regulation for hazardous pollution. The White House has finished reviewing the final version of a regulation (Reg. 2060-AM75) that will undo the “once in, always in” policy that said any facility that is ever classified as a “major source” over a certain emissions threshold can’t later be downgraded to an “area source” facing lesser regulations. EPA’s proposal last year projected saving industry hundreds of millions of dollars in compliance costs, but environmentalists and blue states warned that the reversal could open up some facilities to increase their pollution.

WHEELER THREATENS TO DECAMP MANHATTAN: EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler on Tuesday threatened to move the agency’s Manhattan regional headquarters out of New York City over monthslong protests in the area, the latest hostile tango between the Trump EPA and deep blue cities. In a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, Wheeler said EPA’s headquarters in a building a couple of blocks from city hall has been caught up in area protests and sometimes had to tell those workers still coming to the office during the pandemic to stay away.

“If you cannot demonstrate that EPA employees will be safe accessing our New York City offices, then I will begin the process of looking for a new location for our regional headquarters outside of New York City that can maintain order,” Wheeler wrote.

State officials thumbed their noses at Wheeler in the New York Post. “The fact is the EPA has abandoned every state since 2017 and they should quit playing political flunky and actually do their job,” Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said. De Blasio spokeswoman Julia Arredondo similarly called Wheeler’s letter a “political stunt.”

SIERRA CLUB TO LAUNCH CAMPAIGN EMBEDS: The Sierra Club announced the launch of its nationwide Victory Corps program for the 2020 election — a coordinated program that embeds staff on congressional and senatorial campaigns. The environmental group will remotely deploy more than 40 staffers in early October to campaigns across the country in support of “pro-environment” candidates. The full list of campaigns is here, but includes a mix of Democratic incumbents and challengers.

PUTTING THE GREEN IN GIVEGREEN: The political arms of three of the nation’s biggest environmental groups — LCV Victory Fund, NRDC Action Fund PAC and NextGen America — announced this morning they have raised more than $35 million for federal and state candidates this election cycle through their GiveGreen fundraising platform. The figure outpaces the total $8.35 million the groups raised during the entire 2016 election cycle and the $23 million they raised in the 2018 cycle through GiveGreen. Half of the $35 million total, the groups announced, has been raised in support of the Biden-Harris campaign.

UP FOR DEBATE: The Commission on Presidential Debates laid out six debate topics for next week’s debate showdown between Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, and notably, climate change is not on the list. Instead, the 90-minute debate will be divided into six, 15-minute discussions on Trump’s and Biden’s records; the Supreme Court; the coronavirus pandemic; race and violence in cities; election integrity; and the economy. Of course, the issue could still come up, potentially in the portion on the nominees’ records, but it certainly cuts the odds of a lengthy debate on climate policy amid raging wildfires and hurricanes across the country.

Related: Nearly three-quarters of voters want debate moderators to ask questions about climate change during the three televised presidential debates, according to new polling out today from Climate Nexus, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication.

STEYER MEETS WITH BIDEN OFFICIALS: Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer is interested in serving in Biden’s administration and has discussed the possibility with Biden’s advisers, Pro’s David Siders reports.

CHESAPEAKE CLIMATE BACKS BIDEN: The Chesapeake Climate Action Network Action Fund endorsed Biden for president on Tuesday, marking a first for the climate group in its seven-year history. In the endorsement, Mike Tidwell, director of the CCAN Action Fund, cited Trump’s denial of “the basic science of climate change” and called Biden a “true climate candidate.”

“We are not a partisan group, and climate science should not be a partisan issue,” Tidwell said. “But Trump has made it one. So it’s time to be partisan. It’s time to choose sides. No one can sit out this election. The stakes are too high.”

— Trump officially withdrew Katherine Crytzer‘s nomination for inspector general of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Crytzer, who currently serves as principal deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy, has instead been nominated for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

— American Council for Capital Formation added Efe Kurt as a senior fellow for nuclear energy policy. Kurt is on assignment to the ACCF by Idaho National Laboratory.

— Commissioner Christi Craddick was unanimously elected chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission on Tuesday.

— “Trump’s SC offshore drilling moratorium doesn’t stop seismic testing, feds say in lawsuit,” via The Post and Courier.

— “Climate change since 2000 will cut U.S. growth over next 30 years – CBO,” via Reuters.

— “Democratic donors push Biden for a Cabinet free of fossil fuel connections,” via The New York Times.

— “From LA to Oslo, 12 cities pledge to divest from fossil fuel,” via The Associated Press.

— “Tesla Battery Day: Expect battery costs to drop by half within 3 years,” via GreenTech Media.

— “America’s top oil field was desperate for pipelines. Now it has too many,” via The Wall Street Journal.

— “BlackRock, JPMorgan climate votes at odds as new rules loom,” via Reuters.

THAT’S ALL FOR ME!



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