HAPPY TUESDAY! Welcome to Overnight Energy, your source for the day’s energy and environment news.Please send tips and comments to Rachel Frazin at rfrazin@digital-stage.thehill.com . Follow her on Twitter: @RachelFrazin . Reach Zack Budryk at zbudryk@digital-stage.thehill.com or follow him at @BudrykZack .
TAKING A SECOND LOOK: EPA to review part of cancer-linked chemical regulation after industry request
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will reconsider decisions underlying a rule governing emissions of a chemical that it has deemed carcinogenic following a request from an industry group.
The agency told stakeholders in letters dated last week that it would reconsider its risk information for ethylene oxide, a chemical the EPA currently says is carcinogenic if it is inhaled.
The EPA also said it would reconsider its prior decision not to use a much lower risk finding from the state of Texas as an alternative risk value.
The backstory: Last year, the American Chemistry Council (ACC), a trade group representing chemical manufacturers, petitioned the EPA to both reconsider its risk information system value for ethylene oxide and to consider the Texas assessment.
Environmentalists have raised concerns about the Texas finding and sued in an attempt to compel the state to release the documents used as the technical basis for it.
And what do people think??? The ACC praised the Biden administration’s move to reconsider these parts of the rule in a statement.
Environmental advocates argued that some good could come from the EPA’s current review if it affirms its existing risk value, and they hope the agency would use that affirmation to strengthen the rule.
But some have also expressed worry that they still are waiting to find out if the Biden administration will take stronger action to protect people.
Read more about the matter here.
COMING SOON, TO A HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NEAR YOU: House GOP to launch climate caucus
House Republicans on Wednesday will launch a caucus aimed at educating its members about climate change.
The effort, spearheaded by Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah), won’t endorse particular policies, but instead will try to give members information, new strategies for how to talk about the issue and possibly even change some minds on climate change.
Drawing on personal experience: Curtis told The Hill in an interview on Tuesday that it took him a long time to “get my climate feet underneath me” and that he hopes to help his colleagues do the same.
“Early on, when I was asked in town hall meetings if the climate was changing and man was influencing it, I would not answer that question, I would dodge that question, I don’t think I knew the answer to that question,” Curtis said.
“I didn’t really know what solutions were good solutions, I didn’t know which ones I could support,” he said. “It felt like, and I think a lot of Republicans feel this way, I had to endorse the Green New Deal if I was going to … be part of the solution and a lot of Republicans find that troubling.”
Read more about the caucus here.
A NEW REVIEW: Haaland announces program to review impact of Native American boarding schools
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the nation’s first Native American Cabinet secretary, on Tuesday announced an initiative that will review the legacy of federal boarding schools that numerous Native children were forced to attend.
Haaland announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative in remarks to the National Congress of American Indians’ 2021 mid-year conference. The program, which will be carried out under Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland, will assess the impacts of the schools across generations.
The agency head has separately instructed the Interior Department to prepare a report detailing the initiative’s findings, including records on cemeteries or other possible grave sites connected to federal boarding schools. A mass grave believed to contain the remains of more than 200 children was discovered last month at the site of one such facility in Canada.
Read more about the program here.
SOME PERSONNEL NEWS: New appointees for EPA, NOAA
- Today, President Biden announced that he’d nominate former Justice Department official David Uhlmann to lead the EPA’s enforcement office
- Yesterday, it was announced that Janet Coit will lead NOAA fisheries
ON TAP TOMORROW:
- Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is expected to appear before the House Natural Resources Committee for a budget hearing
- Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is expected to appear before the Senate Appropriations Committee for a budget hearing
- The House Energy & Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on energy programs for rural and low-income communities
- The Senate Environment & Public Works Committee will hold a hearing on water resources projects
WHAT WE’RE READING:
Biden faces climate change conundrum in EU steel tariff talks, S&P Global reports
The weird argument that offshore oil is good for the climate, debunked, Vox reports
Australia’s new deputy PM casts shadow over 2050 net zero emissions ambition, Reuters reports
‘Woke up sweating’: Some Texans shocked to find their smart thermostats were raised remotely, WFAA reports
ICYMI: Stories from Tuesday…
Chesapeake Bay’s health increases slightly to a C
Haaland announces program to review impact of Native American boarding schools
Ossoff introduces solar energy tax credit legislation
Judge rejects challenge to Trump environmental review rule rewrite
Australia to fight plans to downgrade Great Barrier Reef’s World Heritage status
Dead turtles, dolphins washing ashore after ship carrying chemicals burns, sinks
EPA to review part of cancer-linked chemical regulation after industry request
Man charged with Endangered Species Act violation in theft of lemur from zoo
FROM THE HILL’S OPINION PAGES:
Biden’s corporate tax hike is bad for growth — try a carbon tax instead, write Alex Brill, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Alex Flint, executive director of the Alliance for Market Solutions
OFF BEAT AND OFF-BEAT: Appreciate this moray eel (and excellent headline).