Clearing the air on particulate matter

Feb 07, 2022

With help from Alex Guillén

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QUICK FIX

— The stage could be set for EPA Administrator Michael Regan to tighten standards on particulate matter, thanks to draft recommendations from the agency's science advisers quietly released late Friday.

— Virginia's legislature will consider a measure this week to leave the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, but Democrats' slim Senate majority could derail Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin's exit plans.

— The House and Senate will need to reconcile their competitiveness bills, but one Democratic moderate said the House version passed on Friday would be "DOA" in the Senate.

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Driving the day

CASAC WEIGHS IN ON SOOT: EPA's scientific advisory board released a draft review Friday that recommended Administrator Michael Regan tighten standards on particulate matter, possibly setting the stage for stronger protections on substances with well documented health hazards, Pro's Alex Guillén reports. The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee's recommendations came in a review of an EPA staff draft policy assessment last October, which recommended tightening the agency's annual standards.

"All CASAC members agree that the current level of the annual standard is not sufficiently protective of public health and should be lowered," the draft CASAC report said.

The particulate standard was last updated in 2013 under the Obama administration. Trump-era EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler maintained that standard to the chagrin of environmentalists and public health advocates who wanted stronger measures. But Regan indicated last summer he wanted to reconsider that decision, kicking off a new review.

Some CASAC members also pressed for more environmental justice considerations in EPA's analysis, with Michelle Bell of Yale University writing in individual comments: "studies provide evidence, in some cases strong evidence, for higher health burden by some subpopulations including racial/ethnic minorities, individuals and communities with lower socio-economic position, etc."

CASAC will discuss its draft review on Feb. 25, Feb. 28 and March 4. Alex has more.

A VREXIT VOTE: The Virginia House panel will vote today on a Republican proposal to leave the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, with the freshly inaugurated Gov. Glenn Youngkin pushing to ax the commonwealth's membership in the cap-and-trade program.

Critics of the regional pact argue it unduly burdens Virginia ratepayers and merely pushes emissions onto neighboring states. But those who want to stay in the pact retort that leaving would derail the commonwealth from achieving its goals under the Virginia Clean Economy Act — which Youngkin also opposes.

"One thing I find really problematic about what's going on in Virginia is this huge uncertainty they're creating," Nate Benforado, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, told Pro's Jordan Wolman. "It's a huge whiplash effect that is incredibly unfortunate considering how well RGGI is working."

If Virginia leaves, it will be the second state to do so after New Jersey, which later rejoined in 2020. Youngkin's office said he wants the bill passed so that a future Virginia governor wouldn't be able to rejoin via executive action.

Still, Youngkin faces a razor-thin Democratic majority in the state Senate, which could keep Virginia's membership intact if they maintain party discipline. The state's upper chamber is slated to vote on the measure Tuesday. Read more from Jordan here.

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On the Hill

THE COMPETITION CONFERENCE: The House and Senate are slated to go head to head on their competing versions of innovation and competitiveness legislation, with House progressives insisting on priorities likely to be nonstarters with senators who negotiated a more bipartisan package. The House passed its version, the America COMPETES Act, on Friday, with only one Republican, Rep. Adam Kinzinger , voting in favor and after weeks of prodding from the White House to get on with it to secure an economic legislative win. The House version includes a harder line on trade protections to shield U.S. manufacturing from foreign competition. But that course is likely to receive a frostier welcome in the upper chamber.

"This bill is going to arrive in the Senate DOA, and because it is so chock full of progressive, protectionist policies that will never make it through the Senate," Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) told POLITICO. But making too many concessions toward Senate centrists risks losing progressive support in the House, and vulnerable Democrats don't want yet another bill to stall or sink as midterms approach.

The House passed bill also includes provisions to expand renewable energy development, including an amendment to authorize offshore wind lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and around the Southeast and provisions directing the Energy Secretary to create a reserve of backup transformers and promote domestic grid equipment manufacturing. It would also authorize a DOE grant and loan program to encourage domestic solar manufacturing.

Pro's Gavin Bade and Sarah Ferris have more.

COMING UP IN COMMITTEE: The Senate Energy Committee has several hearings on its agenda this week. The full panel will meet Tuesday to go over three nominations at DOE and DOI, including Laura Daniel-Davis, nominee to be Interior's assistant secretary for land and minerals management. Daniel-Davis will be facing a rare double-questioning from the committee after having already had a confirmation hearing last year. Last week's scheduled hearing was bumped due to a conflict with a classified Senate briefing, according to a committee aide.

The committee's National Parks subpanel will meet Wednesday to go over the implementation of the Great American Outdoors Act, and the full committee will meet again Thursday to discuss opportunities for clean hydrogen use.

In the water space, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee is meeting Tuesday to set the stage for renewing the Water Resources Development Act. The subpanel will hear from local stakeholders on proposals to go into a revamped WRDA for this year.

The House Oversight Hearing Committee will convene climate experts and advocates to discuss the merits of oil majors' climate pledges. Several board members on some of the nation's largest oil companies declined invitations to testify at a committee hearing Tuesday, prompting the committee to give them a Monday deadline to voluntarily commit to attend a March 8 hearing.

The House Natural Resources Committeewill also have a hearing Tuesday on social justice in environmental policy making, particularly the role of environmental groups and grantmaking foundations.

Finally, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will have a legislative hearing Wednesday on the American Nuclear Infrastructure Act, S. 2373 (117), and the STRANDED Act, S. 1290 (117), which would assist with community nuclear waste management.

WOTUS ON NOTICE: All 50 Senate Republicans are urging EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers not to update its definition of waters protected under the Clean Water Act until the Supreme Court finishes considering a long-running court battle in Sackett vs. EPA, which examines lower court implementations of WOTUS standards. EPA was hoping the Supreme Court would not take on the case until it had completed its own WOTUS definitions, but Senate Republicans are now saying the administration should take a pause.

"Proceeding with the rulemaking at this time, despite the pending litigation and potentially influential ruling, will only deepen uncertainty within the regulated community," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Regan and Michael Connor, assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works.

The lawmakers also protested the administration's proposed rule changes as a "land grab that arguably surpasses its 2015 predecessor." They asked the administration to suspend the WOTUS rulemaking or at least extend the public comment period until at least 60 days after the high court decides the EPA case. Read the letter here.

Around the Agencies

TARIFFS TO STAY: The Biden administration decided Friday to extend Trump-era tariffs on imported solar parts, but with caveats that aren't sitting too well with some domestic solar manufacturers. President Joe Biden's plan will implement a four-year extension to the Section 201 tariffs, while exempting imported bifacial solar panels and doubling the annual amount of imported cells allowed before tariffs are applied.

While large-scale solar industry backers had pushed to let the tariffs expire to meet the administration's ambitious deployment goals, they found solace in the modifications for cells and bifacial panels. But members of the U.S. solar manufacturing sector felt the exemptions gutted the protections offered by the tariffs. Read more from Pro's Kelsey Tamborrino and Gavin Bade.

USPS CLAPS BACK ON EVs: Postmaster General Louis DeJoy over the weekend fired back at the White House and EPA over their criticisms last week about the Postal Service's plans to purchase mostly gasoline-powered vehicles instead of battery electric. Democrats in the Senate have also been pressuring the Trump-era appointee to correct the Postal Service's "flawed" plan. DeJoy argued in a press release that he is limited by USPS's "dire financial condition" and said comparisons to private-sector competitors ramping up EV deployment "are not relevant in view of our perilous financial condition and universal service mission."

If Democrats want more EVs, DeJoy made it clear there's only one way to get them: "Congress is well aware of the additional resources that would be required if Congress would prefer the Postal Service to accelerate the electrification of our delivery vehicle fleet as a matter of public policy." The Build Back Better Act that passed the House in November, H.R. 5376, contained $6 billion for USPS electrification , including almost $2.6 billion for EV purchases and $3.4 billion for charging infrastructure. USPS previously said that funding would allow it to buy all-electric by 2028. But of course, that bill's future in the Senate is hazy.

FIRSTENERGY MUST FORK OUT THE DOUGH: Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp, which was at the center of a bribery scandal to secure a $1.3 billion coal and nuclear bailout, spent millions more in improper lobbying ventures than investigators initially found, according to a FERC audit released late Friday. The utility will have to pay back customers after committing a number of accounting violations that cost customers millions, according to the audit.

FirstEnergy "largely accepts the findings and recommendations in the draft FERC Audit Report," said Mark Durbin, a spokesperson for the company, in an email to Pro's Catherine Morehouse. "In many instances, the accounting recommendations have been implemented or are already underway. For the recommendations that have not yet been implemented, we look forward to working cooperatively with FERC staff during the compliance phase of the audit." Read more from Catherine.

KILLINGLY PROJECT LIVES TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY: A federal appeals court instructed FERC to hold off on its order allowing the termination of a contract between the Killingly gas plant in Connecticut and the New England grid operator for 30 days. The project's operators are petitioning for a rehearing after FERC sided with ISO-NE in axing the project over concerns it wasn't staying on top of its completion timeline. Killingly disputed the concerns and pushed to stay afloat. Pro's Catherine Morehouse has more.

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