The Biden administration is poised to spend the coming months finishing major climate rules, distributing billions of dollars for clean energy — and, most likely, sending out a flurry of press releases promoting every step. Welcome to 2024, a year of frantic climate action before voters cast their ballots in November — with the polls overwhelmingly pointing to a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, who has vowed to “terminate” Biden’s “Green New Deal atrocities on Day 1.” Biden has every incentive to get his action done sooner rather than later: Any rules finished too close to the end of the year would be vulnerable to nullification if Republicans win control of Congress, Robin Bravender writes. This year is “a political year,” Frank Maisano, a senior principal at the law firm Bracewell, told Robin. “The first half is the only time when you can get anything substantive done before — as [former House Energy and Commerce Chair] John Dingell always used to say — ‘The silly season kicks in.’” Among the regulations the administration has proposed: limits on pollution from fossil fuel power plants, new fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks and limits on toxic wastewater from coal-fired power plants. The administration also aims to overhaul oil and gas leasing rules (and has already decided to not offer any offshore drilling lease sales this year — a first since the leasing program began). Congressional Republicans have fought against such environmental rules. Last month, Emma Dumain reported that two top GOP senators — Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and John Barrasso of Wyoming — were attempting to thwart EPA’s proposed power plant rule by pressuring another federal agency to “fix” it. Republicans are more conflicted about the hundreds of billions of dollars available through the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s landmark climate law. Much of that money is set to filter through states this year — and as Adam Aton recently reported, both Democrats and Republicans will rush to tap into it. EPA will also announce two or three applicants to run the Inflation Reduction Act’s $14 billion “national green bank,” a program that promises affordable financing for clean energy projects. The clean energy industry also awaits the administration’s final guidance outlining the requirements for IRA tax breaks, including for “clean” hydrogen fuel producers and for renewable projects using American components. A majority of spending allocated in 2021’s bipartisan infrastructure law also has yet to be distributed, writes Mike Lee. And of what has been spent, only a fraction has gone to completed projects. For example, a $7.5 billion initiative to build a national network of electric vehicle chargers has built just two charging stations (for reasons James Bikales chronicled last month). The administration says it will spend more of the infrastructure money this year. Beyond action from the administration, federal court cases will determine regulators’ ability to curtail greenhouse gas emissions, writes Niina H. Farah. One of the biggest cases is Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which could overturn the Chevron doctrine — a 40-year-old legal precedent that has given agencies such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission broad leeway in interpreting unclear statutes.
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