Overnight Energy & Environment

Energy & Environment — Biden officials target transportation emissions

by Zack Budryk and Rachel Frazin 04/21/22 08:00 PM ET

A new federal program puts more than $6 billion toward reducing emissions from transportation, the EPA is looking at cutting emissions from gas plants and the General Services Administration announces an emissions milestone.

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Transportation Dept. rolls out $6B to battle emissions

The Federal Highway Administration will put more than $6 billion toward state carbon reduction efforts, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced Wednesday.

The Carbon Reduction Program (CRP), funded by the bipartisan infrastructure law, will go toward local and state projects aimed at reducing on-road highway-based carbon dioxide emissions. These could range from installing infrastructure to electrify freight vehicles to improving the terrain for bicycles.

What’s in the program? The program will include $6.4 billion in formula funding over a five-year period for states and localities, which would be contingent on reducing transportation-based emissions.

“As the sector generating the most carbon emissions in the U.S. economy, transportation must play a leading role in solving the climate crisis,” Buttigieg said in a statement. “The Carbon Reduction Program will help reduce pollution from transportation and move us closer to the President’s ambitious goal of cutting emissions in half by 2030.”

How’s this different from other transportation programs? A Transportation Department official on a press call Wednesday confirmed the program would be distinct from transportation initiatives with similar aims such as the Highway Safety Improvement Program.

“The idea is to provide states with both funding but also flexibility to allow them to make investments that have to meet the primary purpose of the program… but at the same time giving them flexibility for [the fact that] each state may have a different mix of investments that they want to make,” the official said. “There is of course some overlap with those other programs, but each program has its own rules, its own eligibility.”

EPA floats emissions cuts for gas plants

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is floating ways to cut planet-warming emissions for gas-fired power plants as it waits for a Supreme Court ruling that could limit its regulatory power.

The agency on Thursday issued a new technical “white paper” that laid out potential ways to limit the plants’ contributions to climate change.

These methods include efficiency improvements, co-firing natural gas with other fuels like hydrogen and implementing carbon capture technology to prevent the plants’ emissions from going into the air and heating the planet.

The agency said in a statement that its paper is not “targeted” to any specific policy, it expects the paper to help inform its future rulemaking efforts.

The paper comes ahead of an anticipated Supreme Court ruling that could limit the scope of its authority to regulate power plants’ climate contributions.

The court is weighing whether the agency can attempt to reshape parts of the economy like the energy sector through regulation, or if its powers are confined to the source of the climate pollution.

EPA administrator Michael Regan indicated to Congress that he was awaiting that decision to move ahead with power plant regulations.

“We’re going to be ready to go as soon as the Supreme Court rules,” he said.

The story so far: Power plant regulations have been at the center of a major partisan battle. The Obama administration put forward a “Clean Power Plan” that sought to limit emissions from both coal and gas plants.

It also sought to set emissions targets aiming to move away from coal plants in particular.

The Trump administration repealed that plan and only put forward regulations for coal plants. The Trump plan was expected to have significantly fewer climate benefits than the Obama plan.