Overnight Energy & Environment — Supreme Court to hear climate case

Welcome to Friday’s Overnight Energy & Environment, your source for the latest news focused on energy, the environment and beyond. Subscribe here: digital-stage.thehill.com/newsletter-signup. 

Today we’re looking at an upcoming Supreme Court case with climate change implications and the record-breaking results of an offshore wind lease sale this week. 

For The Hill, we’re Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk. Write to us with tips: rfrazin@digital-stage.thehill.com and zbudryk@digital-stage.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @RachelFrazin and @BudrykZack. 

Let’s jump in. 

SCOTUS case could limit EPA’s climate scope

The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Monday in a case that could limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to regulate climate change.   

At issue in the case is the extent to which the agency can pursue climate regulations that have broad impacts on areas such as the power sector.   

Two coal companies, as well as a group of states led by West Virginia and North Dakota, are challenging a lower court ruling that tossed a Trump-era rule governing power plants.   

Some background info: That Trump rule loosened regulations surrounding climate change when compared to the Obama-era Clean Power Plan (CPP), which sought to reduce releases of greenhouse gases through improved efficiency measures, as well as the adoption of more natural gas and renewable energy, as opposed to coal.   

The Supreme Court stayed that plan, preventing it from taking effect, in 2016. And the Trump administration replaced it with the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, which still sought efficiency improvements, but excluded the switch to cleaner fuels.   

The bottom line: The CPP was expected to be significantly more impactful than ACE, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 415 million short tons by 2030 compared to its successor’s 11 million short tons.  

Neither rule is currently in place, as a court also struck down the Trump rule last year.   

But as the Biden administration is working on its own regulations for power plants, the states and coal companies are seeking to limit its authority to do so.   

“They have the ability to regulate a source, and so for instance that could be the coal fired power plant, and that could be for heat efficiencies or items within the power plant,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey (R) told The Hill in an interview.

But, he added, they can’t “go so far afield” and create a system that could “impact consumer demand or force rewrites of the power grid.”

The government disagrees, arguing that the law’s call for a “best system of emissions reduction” enables it to regulate both within the power plant and outside its boundaries.   

It said in a court briefing that the definition of the word “system” “encompasses inside- and outside-the-fenceline measures alike.” 

Read more about the case this weekend when the story appears on our website. 

 

Offshore wind lease sale nets $4.4 billion 

A lease sale for rights to build wind farms in an area off the New York and New Jersey coasts netted a record-breaking $4.37 billion, the Interior Department announced on Friday.  

This week’s lease sale not only broke records for offshore wind, still a burgeoning industry in the U.S., but also for oil and gas leasing, the department said.  

The lease sale offered up six tracts — totaling about 488,000 acres in the New York Bight — where offshore wind farms can be built.  

Combined, the areas have the potential to host wind farms that generate enough electricity to power up to 2 million homes, the Interior Department said.  

Secretary Deb Haaland, in a statement, said that the results demonstrate significant interest in clean energy. 

 “This week’s offshore wind sale makes one thing clear: the enthusiasm for the clean energy economy is undeniable and it’s here to stay,” she said. 

Read more about this week’s sale here.  

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UN: UKRAINE NUCLEAR OPERATING SAFELY AFTER CHERNOBYL ATTACK

The United Nations’ nuclear energy agency said that Ukraine’s power plants are operating safely on Friday following Thursday’s attack on the Chernobyl plant. 

International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement that Ukraine informed the agency that “the country’s nuclear power reactors are continuing to operate safely and securely.” 

Previously, Grossi had said the agency was following the situation with “grave concern” and called for  “maximum restraint to avoid any action that may put the country’s nuclear facilities at risk.” 

On Thursday, Ukrainian officials said that Russian forces took the Chernobyl power plant  — the site of a 1986 nuclear disaster.  

ON TAP NEXT WEEK

Monday 

• The Supreme Court will hear West Virginia v. EPA — a case that will have major implications on the agency’s ability to regulate climate change  

Tuesday

• The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on bills relating to energy and the Energy Department.  

Thursday 

• The Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee will question all five Federal Energy Regulatory Commission commissioners on recent agency guidance regarding pipelines.  

 

WHAT WE’RE READING

• Under bombing, Ukraine’s climate scientists withdraw from global meeting (Politico) 
• U.S. environmental enforcement activity has dropped, study shows (Reuters) 
• Brazil mudslides: Climate change turns favelas into disasters waiting to happen (The Washington Post) 

And finally, something offbeat but ON-beat: People react to the offshore wind lease sale…in GIFs. 

 

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s energy & environment page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you Monday. 

 

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