| | | | |  | | By Debra Kahn | Presented by GE | | | | | 
The EPA is going to have a harder time regulating power plants. | Charlie Riedel, file/AP Photo | POWER PLAY — The last of the big Supreme Court decisions that we were waiting for came out yesterday. And...it could be worse for EPA's ability to address climate change, all things considered. The 6-3 ruling in favor of West Virginia's challenge to the EPA's greenhouse gas rules for power plants erects a significant obstacle to President Joe Biden's hopes of addressing global warming through executive action — barely six months after a Senate stalemate shut down Democrats' efforts to pass their biggest-ever climate bill, as our Alex Guillén writes. Yesterday's ruling circumscribes whatever Biden is going to do on power plants by saying EPA can't act on "major questions" such as limiting greenhouse gases across the power sector without congressional approval. But it isn't as sweeping as Democrats and other supporters of climate action feared — it doesn't remove EPA's basic ability to regulate carbon emissions, and doesn't take away the courts' basic deference to agencies. And it won't halt the power sector's shift to renewable energy, which has been happening without a federal mandate. The Obama-era Clean Power Plan that it struck down has been "far surpassed by the marketplace," Gregory Wetstone, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy, told Niina H. Farah, writing for POLITICO's E&E News. The decision's main practical function is as a new weapon for opponents of regulations to wield against a wide range of rules. Republicans already have their sights set on the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed rule requiring publicly traded companies to disclose risks stemming from climate change as well as their actual greenhouse gas emissions. "That would also fall into the major questions [doctrine] category where the Biden administration is trying to transform all these agencies and turn them into an environmental regulator," West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said of the SEC proposal, as our Josh Siegel reports . "We will be standing by at the point making sure that doesn't happen." [Note: The SEC is an independent agency, rather than part of an administration.] The SEC rule and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's consideration of carbon pricing could be on shaky ground because the statutes that founded those agencies don't explicitly mention climate or greenhouse gas emissions, Allison Wood, an attorney at McGuireWoods who has represented utilities in a series of high-profile Clean Air Act cases before the Supreme Court, told E&E News' Benjamin Storrow. But assuming the SEC is just sticking to its existing authority to require companies to disclose material risks, it's "probably pretty safe," said Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University and co-founder of the conservative and libertarian legal group Checks and Balances. If the agency could be seen as "taking old authority that was provided to them for one set of purposes and reorienting it to something else," that could be a problem, he said. "I'm confident attorneys at the SEC should be looking very closely at this ruling and the way they're drawing the line about what types of disclosures are mandated to make sure that they don't trip over the same hurdle," he said.
| | | | A message from GE: Innovation and sustainability will reshape the world as we know it. For the last 130 years, GE has pioneered technologies spurring world-transforming changes and improving the lives of billions. Every day, our people rise to the challenge of building a world that works with sustainability at its core.
The energy transition, precision healthcare for all, and the future of more efficient flight depend on innovation, read about it in GE's sustainability report https://www.ge.com/sustainability | | | | | | PLASTIC PACT — California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a major bill yesterday to address the glut of plastic building up in the world. SB 54 sets up an "extended producer responsibility" organization that will be in charge of making sure all single-use plastic packaging and foodware is made out of recyclable or compostable materials by 2032. After three years of bashing similar proposals as "job killers," California industry groups not only agreed to recycling targets for the materials starting in 2028, they also agreed to pay $500 million a year for 10 years for environmental cleanup. What changed? A nudge in the form of a stricter ballot initiative that scared them into coming to the table. "We believe that this proposal ensures long term policy certainty around recycling and packaging to help create a circular economy and avoids a costly and disruptive ballot initiative," the California Chamber of Commerce said in a statement. The relative purity of the ballot initiative, which would have banned Styrofoam altogether, rather than a "de facto" ban in the form of a steep recycling requirement, made the bill look dirty to some environmentalists. But they held their noses and withdrew the initiative as agreed: "If our elected representatives believe that we can achieve the laudable reforms in SB54 and defend its provisions against industry tactics aimed at maintaining the status quo, we will withdraw the measure," the initiative sponsors wrote Wednesday. You can also tell it's a solid piece of sausage-making by looking at who's still unhappy on each end. The American Chemistry Council and environmental justice groups each opposed it, for opposite reasons. ACC thinks it will limit the use of "advanced recycling," or industrial gasification of plastics into new products, while EJ groups are reading it the other way — that it will expressly permit those technologies. Lawmakers are already planning cleanup legislation for later in the year. But product stewardship advocates who have been fighting for this kind of regulation for years are thrilled: "This is a very, very big bill. I don't think people realize how big it is," said Heidi Sanborn, founder and executive director of the National Stewardship Action Council. "We want to bring this to the nation and the world, what we just did."
| | | | INTRODUCING POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don't miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY. | | | | | | | | Happy Friday and an early Happy Fourth. Any burning thoughts or questions over the long weekend, get in touch: Team Sustainability is editor Greg Mott, deputy editor Debra Kahn, and reporters Lorraine Woellert and Jordan Wolman. Reach us at gmott@politico.com, dkahn@politico.com, lwoellert@politico.com and jwolman@politico.com. Want more? You can have it. Sign up for the Long Game. Four days a week and still free. That's sustainability!
| | | | A message from GE:   | | | | | | — The New York Times takes a deep dive to explore McKinsey & Co.'s role in advising the company that promoted the painkillers at the center of the opioid crisis. – General Motors is looking to pick up the pace to meet demand for its electric Hummer. – Tesla, meanwhile, has been hit with another lawsuit alleging racial discriminiation. – Agriculture giant Cargill, one of the world's biggest ship charterers, is planning to test whether adding state-of-the-art sails to vessels can help reduce carbon emissions, Reuters reports – India has made a big move toward phasing out single-use or disposable plastic products.
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | Events are listed in Eastern Time. July 5 — The Center for Strategic and International Studies holds a virtual event to discuss the book "On Dangerous Ground: America's Century in the South China Sea." 9:30 a.m. July 6 — The Commerce Department; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hold a meeting of the Ocean Exploration Advisory Board. 9 a.m. July 6 — The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft holds a virtual discussion on "Active Denial: A Roadmap to a More Effective, Stabilizing, and Sustainable U.S. Defense Strategy in Asia." Noon. July 7 — Resources for the Future holds a virtual discussion on "Climate Change and the Supreme Court: West Virginia v. EPA." 11 a.m. July 11 — Brookings Metro holds a virtual event on "State legislators and the future of transportation." 2 p.m.
| | | | A message from GE: For the last 130 years, GE has pioneered technologies spurring world-transforming changes and improving the lives of billions. With a focus on continuous improvement, we are taking steps to further strengthen our commitment to sustainability, through climate change initiatives, human rights, product safety, quality and more. Our employees serve customers and communities across the globe and are passionate about helping solve the world's most pressing sustainability challenges. This is the impact of GE—building a world that works in service of a more connected, healthier, and more sustainable future.
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