Your guide to the political forces shaping the energy transformation
| | | | |  | | By Arianna Skibell | |  Light illuminates part of the Supreme Court building on Capitol Hill. | Patrick Semansky/AP Photo | The Supreme Court just took another swipe at the Biden administration’s regulatory authority, delivering a major win for multiple industries including oil and gas. The court’s conservative majority vastly narrowed the reach of federal clean water protections, erasing protections for millions of acres of wetlands, write E.A. Crunden, Pamela King and Ariel Wittenberg. It also sent yet another signal of the justices’ skepticism toward federal regulations, which potentially bodes ill for President Joe Biden’s other environmental and climate policies. The decision will require the administration to rework a recent regulation that provided broad protections for wetlands, which trap and store carbon pollution, provide critical wildlife habitat, and soak up floodwaters, writes Annie Snider. The ruling is a victory for homebuilders and fossil fuel companies, which need permits to build on or damage federally protected waters under the Clean Water Act. For decades, those industries and agricultural businesses have fought to limit the law’s reach. Environmental groups decried the ruling, calling it a catastrophic loss for water protections that will imperil the nation’s wetlands. It’s been a rough year for federal climate rules. The Supreme Court last year scaled back federal regulatory options for controlling greenhouse gas emissions from the nation’s thousands of power plants. And the high court may get another crack at that issue — Republicans have pledged to challenge Biden’s newest proposals for slashing power plants’ greenhouse gas pollution. And the Supreme Court has opened the door toward upending a decades-old legal doctrine that bolsters federal agencies’ power to regulate on key issues like climate change.
| | | It's Thursday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to askibell@eenews.net.
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A Washington state coalition including fossil fuel groups and builders has sued to strike down the first statewide mandates for electric space and water heat. The Seattle skyline is pictured. | Donald Miralle/Getty Images | Stove wars: GOP strikes back
Furious that the Biden administration wants to curb pollution from gas stoves, House Republicans are advancing two bills to squash the effort and holding an oversight hearing, write Nico Portuondo and Jeremy Dillon. The attack comes as Washington state voted to delay the first statewide mandate for electric heat pumps in new buildings, dealing a blow to a landmark restriction on natural gas hookups, writes David Iaconangelo. Major polluter escapes
Two steam turbines at the Nine Mile Point power plant near New Orleans emit more carbon dioxide than any other gas-fired units in the country, writes Benjamin Storrow. But neither would need to reduce emissions under the administration's new rule to limit pollution from power plants. Hurricane uncertainty
NOAA projected a “near normal” Atlantic hurricane season Thursday, writes Zack Colman. But officials cautioned unusually high sea-surface temperatures and a likely El Niño complicate the forecast.
| | Power barriers: Texas has gone big with renewable energy. Why can’t it go all the way? Development: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill that environmental groups and other opponents called a "death knell" for smart growth in the state.
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POLITICO illustration/Photo by Getty Images | Biden and his critics agree that the free-trade era is over in Washington. They just aren’t sure what comes next. Automakers investing in electric vehicles are increasingly making direct deals with miners in the U.S. and abroad, an accelerating trend fueled by sourcing requirements in Biden's climate law. Months before Minnesota Democrats passed some of the country’s strongest climate laws, two progressive power brokers started strategizing about how to leverage their surprise one-vote majority. That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
