Trump would torch Biden’s new green wish list

Your guide to the political forces shaping the energy transformation

Jul 10, 2024 View in browser   By Robin Bravender Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, gestures after speaking at a campaign rally at Trump National Doral Miami on Tuesday in Doral, Florida. | Rebecca Blackwell/AP President Joe Biden just laid out an environmental wish list that’s probably toast if former President Donald Trump wins in November. With a threat of Trump 2.0 looming, the Biden team sprinted to complete some of its biggest environmental rules early this year to protect them from future GOP rollbacks. But some significant regulations didn’t make it in time. That means some priority environmental and public health initiatives that started under Biden — including climate standards for existing gas-fired power plants, a rule to limit lead and copper in drinking water and an effort to shield workers from extreme heat — could all be trashed if Trump takes office. The Biden administration last week published its regulatory agenda — a wonky tome that lays out plans to issue rules across federal agencies. Virtually everything on that list is in jeopardy if Trump wins, my colleague Kevin Bogardus and I report today. “Everything is vulnerable should the administration flip,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group. Any rules that haven’t been finished before Inauguration Day will likely be frozen and reconsidered by a new president. And even regulations finalized later this year could be unraveled by a law called the Congressional Review Act, which allows lawmakers and a sympathetic White House to undo recent rules. The Trump team used that playbook the last time to undo Obama administration rules that came late in the term and to overhaul agency regulations that were in progress. Green groups and Democrats are terrified about how a second Trump administration would overhaul environmental regulations. But conservatives are feeling giddy after Biden’s lackluster presidential debate and after recent Supreme Court decisions that could curtail federal agencies’ regulatory reach. Within conservative circles, there are discussions about “if things change and go our way — meaning President Trump gets in — then how can we use this to implement a smaller-government vision?” said Mandy Gunasekara, who served as the Environmental Protection Agency’s chief of staff during the Trump administration.   It's Wednesday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Robin Bravender. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to jkirkland@eenews.net.   Understand 2024’s big impacts with Pro’s extensive Campaign Races Dashboard, exclusive insights, and key coverage of federal- and state-level debates. Focus on policy. Learn more.     Listen to today’s POLITICO Energy podcast Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Former Sen. Jim Inhofe, the longest-serving U.S. senator in Oklahoma history, died at the age of 89 on Tuesday. POLITICO’s Josh Siegel and Annie Snider discuss Inhofe's influential energy and climate record. Power Centers The Biden administration is requiring damaged infrastructure to be elevated above flood levels. | Maria Lysaker/AP 'A really big deal' The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday finalized a rule that aims to protect federally funded construction projects from heightened flooding caused by climate change, writes Thomas Frank. Starting in September, public infrastructure that’s rebuilt after a disaster with FEMA cash will need to be elevated at least 2 feet above the local flood level. The rule marks a long-delayed victory for environmental, taxpayer and insurance groups that have sought to strengthen building standards in flood-prone areas. It took nearly a decade and spanned three presidencies. “This is a really big deal and historic for us to be able to help make these communities that we are responding to more resilient to the number one threat,” said FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell. She called flooding “the No. 1 threat we respond to.” Nuclear gets Biden's signature The nuclear bill signed by President Joe Biden this week aims to deploy advanced nuclear reactors more quickly. That could place wind at the backs of companies feverishly striving to carve out a bigger niche for nuclear technology as a zero-carbon source of electricity. The ADVANCE Act aims to further streamline permitting for new reactor designs, give the Nuclear Regulatory Commission more resources and promote deployment across the globe, writes Zach Bright. Both Biden and former President Donald Trump — with much of the Republican Party in tow — tout a return to nuclear power as a solution to rising energy demand as utilities use more carbon-free energy. The legislation passed with bipartisan support directs the NRC to readjust its mission to put an emphasis on promoting nuclear energy. But critics say they're concerned about safety. “It essentially compromises the independence of the NRC’s regulatory authority by forcing the agency to have to consider the health of the nuclear industry in everything it does,” said Edwin Lyman, nuclear power safety director for the Union of Concerned Scientists. Orbán slaps down EV tariffs The European Union should develop a plan to support the production of electric vehicles instead of slapping duties on Chinese EVs, Hungary’s National Economy Minister Márton Nagy said as he hosted his EU counterparts, reports Koen Verhelst. The informal meeting of industry ministers on Tuesday was the first such gathering of Budapest’s six-month presidency of the Council of the EU. It came as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán courted Chinese President Xi Jinping, days after the EU executive slapped punitive tariffs of up to 38 percent on Chinese EVs to keep out heavily subsidized imports. “We are very against these tariffs,” Nagy told reporters at a press conference on the banks of the Danube. “Protectionism is not a solution. We need more competition.” In Other News Chest thumping: Amazon says its electricity use in 2023 was effectively carbon-free. Experts don't believe the accounting. The oil cartel: OPEC projected relatively strong growth in global oil demand in 2024 and next year, citing resilient economic growth.   SUBSCRIBE TO GLOBAL PLAYBOOK: Don’t miss out on POLITICO’s Global Playbook, our newsletter taking you inside pivotal discussions at the most influential gatherings in the world. Suzanne Lynch delivers the world's elite and influential moments directly to you. Stay in the global loop. SUBSCRIBE NOW.     Subscriber Zone A showcase of some of our best subscriber content. House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) is planning to ask agencies about rules that have been upheld under the Chevron doctrine. | Francis Chung/POLITICO Both parties on Capitol Hill are talking about how Congress can make legislation airtight in response to the landmark Supreme Court ruling overturning the Chevron doctrine, a decision that opened up a release valve for legal challenges to agency actions. The White House unveiled new tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from Mexico, an effort to block China from U.S. markets, including some clean energy technology. The Department of Energy offered a $1.2 billion conditional loan to a company that is building a factory in Indiana to produce a critical component of electric vehicle batteries. That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.   Follow us on Twitter Arianna Skibell @ariannaskibell   Follow us

To change your alert settings, please log in at https://login.politico.com/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com/settings This email was sent to rouf@idiot.cloudns.cc by: POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service