It’s the most recent instance of how states are taking sharply divergent paths on local weather coverage this yr, with pink states like Ohio and Wyoming transferring to deepen their dependence on fossil fuels.
The main points: For the primary time since 2014, Democrats in Minnesota have management of each chambers of the legislature and the governor’s workplace. The trifecta means they’ll advance longtime priorities — together with proposals on local weather change, abortion rights and gun management — with no need Republican votes.
Minnesota Home Majority Chief Jamie Lengthy (D), a supporter of a invoice requiring utilities in Minnesota to achieve 100% clear electrical energy by 2040, stated in an interview that he’s optimistic the measure will advance quickly.
“That is undoubtedly the yr this can move,” Lengthy stated. “We heard loud and clear that local weather was one thing Minnesota voters needed us to take motion on.”
The state Home’s local weather committee will maintain a listening to on the invoice Wednesday. The state Senate is anticipated to maneuver the invoice “rapidly” as properly, Lengthy stated, though the precise timeline stays unclear.
For years, outstanding Democrats in Minnesota have fought for 100% clear electrical energy, solely to see their plans stymied by political head winds. Now that would lastly change.
- Gov. Tim Walz campaigned for his first and second phrases on the problem. A invoice mandating 100% clear electrical energy handed the state Home in latest classes, however it died within the Republican-controlled state Senate.
- In the meantime, Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) tried to incorporate a clear electrical energy provision within the lately handed local weather regulation, dubbed the Inflation Discount Act. However the plan was dropped due to opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a conservative Democrat. (Smith additionally championed a clear electrical energy commonplace that didn’t garner GOP help whereas serving as Minnesota’s lieutenant governor from 2015 to 2018.)
“Although we had been unable to get that laws handed on the nationwide stage, states are going to proceed to prepared the ground, and that’s thrilling,” Smith informed The Local weather 202.
The clear electrical energy invoice will “be good for decrease power prices, will probably be good for our financial system, and will probably be good for decreasing emissions,” she stated.
Walz spokeswoman Claire Lancaster stated in an e mail that the governor is “supportive” of the invoice, noting that he touted it in his inaugural deal with.
Crimson states transfer in a distinct path
Against this, Republican lawmakers in Ohio lately labored with darkish cash teams to champion laws that redefined pure gasoline, a fossil gas, as a supply of “inexperienced power,” as The Local weather 202 reported Tuesday.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed the laws this month, capping a profitable marketing campaign by the Empowerment Alliance, a darkish cash group with ties to the gasoline business, and the American Legislative Trade Council, one other anonymously funded group.
In the meantime, in Wyoming, Republican lawmakers launched a invoice final week that known as for phasing out the sale of recent electrical autos by 2035, The Washington Submit’s Brian Pietsch stories.
State Sen. Jim Anderson, who launched the invoice, informed Brian that the measure was meant to counteract California’s transfer in August to proceed with banning the sale of recent automobiles working solely on gasoline by 2035.
“I don’t have an issue with electrical autos in any respect,” Anderson stated. “I’ve an issue with someone saying, ‘Don’t purchase any extra petroleum autos.’”
Invoice Holland, vp of state coverage and advocacy on the League of Conservation Voters, stated states that embrace clear power may in the end profit probably the most from President Biden’s local weather agenda, together with the clean-energy jobs and investments spurred by the Inflation Discount Act.
“Quick legislative motion on 100% clear power may place Minnesota to rapidly reap the decrease prices and good jobs from the Biden Administration’s local weather plan,” Holland stated in an e mail. “That contrasts with states like Ohio, the place legislators as soon as once more did the bidding of fossil gas firms to intestine Ohio’s capacity to put money into clear power jobs.”
Reps. Gosar and Santos achieve seats on environmental committees
Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) will once more be seated on the Home Pure Assets Committee, which performs a key function in environmental coverage, The Submit’s Leigh Ann Caldwell and Amy B Wang report.
Gosar beforehand sat on the Pure Assets panel, however the Home voted in 2021 to expel him from all committees after he tweeted an altered anime video that depicted him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and swinging two swords at President Biden.
Pure Assets Committee Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) confirmed Gosar’s appointment together with seven different new members: Reps. Mike Collins of Georgia, John Duarte of California, Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, Wesley Hunt of Texas, Jen Kiggans of Virginia and Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Del. James Moylan of Guam.
In the meantime, Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) will likely be seated on the Home Science, House and Know-how Committee, based on a steering committee member and GOP aide who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to talk publicly, The Submit’s Azi Paybarah and Leigh Ann Caldwell report.
Santos, who flipped a seat on Lengthy Island, has fabricated a lot of his biography and is the topic of a lately filed grievance with the Federal Election Fee. The science panel, chaired by Rep. Frank D. Lucas (R-Okla.), has jurisdiction over analysis and growth at federal businesses together with the Vitality Division, Environmental Safety Company and Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Rep. Pingree requires federal probe of propane group
Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) is asking on the Vitality Division and the Federal Commerce Fee to launch an investigation into whether or not a propane business group violated federal regulation.
The transfer comes after the New York Occasions reported final week that the Propane Training and Analysis Council, a federally sanctioned commerce affiliation, has spent tens of millions of {dollars} on an promoting marketing campaign to advertise fossil gas use and discourage using warmth pumps and different clean-energy applied sciences.
In a Tuesday letter despatched to Vitality Secretary Jennifer Granholm and FTC Chair Lina Khan, Pingree stated the marketing campaign might have run afoul of a 1996 regulation that requires the funds PERC spends on advertising for use solely on analysis, training, coaching and security.
“This disingenuous marketing campaign has dire penalties for states like mine,” Pingree wrote. “Mainers face lengthy, tough winters the place cost-effective heating is important.”
The Vitality Division and the FTC didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
At Davos, Europe unveils inexperienced plan to counter Inflation Discount Act
European policymakers on Tuesday unveiled plans to counteract what they see as protectionist insurance policies within the Inflation Discount Act that would siphon clean-energy funding away from the continent, Maha El Dahan and Jan Strupczewski report for Reuters.
European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen stated Tuesday that the European Union will introduce a Internet-Zero Trade Act that can assist the bloc compete with America’s local weather regulation by 2030.
“To maintain European business engaging, there’s a should be aggressive with the gives and incentives which might be presently obtainable outdoors the E.U.,” she stated on the World Financial Discussion board annual assembly in Davos, Switzerland.
The transfer comes after French President Emmanuel Macron warned throughout his go to to Washington in December that the Inflation Discount Act and the CHIPS and Science Act would “fragment the West” except America and its allies “resynchronize” their financial insurance policies, The Submit’s Olivier Knox stories. His remarks prompted President Biden to say that he makes no apologies for both regulation, however that some unspecified “tweaks” is likely to be made to repair perceived “glitches” within the Inflation Discount Act.
In the meantime, United Nations Secretary-Normal António Guterres informed Davos attendees on Wednesday that “some in Massive Oil peddled the massive lie,” referring to revelations final week that Exxon Mobil scientists precisely predicted future world warming in stories relationship again to the late Nineteen Seventies whereas the corporate publicly questioned local weather change.