Draft rule to limit GHG emissions from future power plants at White House

The Environmental Protection Agency, moving quickly in the aftermath of President Obama's announcement last week of administration plans to combat climate change, has sent a draft rule that limits future power plant emissions of greenhouse gases to the White House.

According to a report in The Hill, a newspaper focused on the work of Congress, the proposed regulation is now in the hands of the Office of Management and Budget. OMB, along with other agencies of the federal government, will weigh in on the rule before returning it to EPA by September 20.

EPA missed an April deadline for finalizing the rule, which it had first proposed in March 2012. 

Utilities have objected to the proposed regulation on grounds that it set pollution standards that are not achievable with current technology. Republicans in Congress, as well as some Democrats, have also expressed concern that it will hurt the economy by increasing the cost of energy.

The draft rule would require natural gas-fired power plants and coal-fired power plants to meet the same pollution limits. While natural gas plants would be unlikely to have difficulty doing so, generation facilities that rely on coal would be forced to integrate a mechanism that captures carbon dioxide emissions before they enter the atmosphere.

Coal burning accounts for about 40 percent of U.S. electricity production and is the nation's single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Cross-state pollution rule to get scrutiny by U.S. Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide next term whether a controversial Clean Air Act regulation can be implemented.

Requests for review of a lower court decision striking down the Cross-state Air Pollution Rule were filed by the Obama administration as well as a coalition of non-profit organizations including the American Lung Association and several environmental advocacy organizations.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held in August 2012 that CSAPR  exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency's authority under the Clean Air Act.

CSAPR would apply to 28 states, all in the eastern and southern regions of the country, requiring them to limit emissions of several pollutants that travel at high altitude across borders into surrounding states.

Environmentalists argue that the rule will save as many as tens of thousands of lives each year because smog and particulate pollution would be reduced. EPA has said that it believes the rule would generate at least $120 billion in annual health and environmental benefits, a sum that is well in excess of the costs of compliance expected to be incurred by regulated entities.

The Supreme Court issued the order granting petitions for certiorari in the case on Monday.

The cases are United States Environmental Protection Agency v. EME Homer City Generation, L.P., No. 12-1182, and American Lung Association v. EME Homer City Generation, L.P., No. 12-1183.

Oral arguments will be conducted after the Court's 2013-2014 term begins in October. A decision is expected before July 2014.

EPA finalized CSAPR in July 2011. The D.C. Circuit's order invalidating it also required the agency to reinstate a less expansive rule having the same objective that was instituted by the George W. Bush administration.

Supreme Court dismisses only environmental law case on 2013-2014 docket

The U.S. Supreme Court might not have to decide soon questions relating to environmental law.

The justices dismissed on Monday the only case raising such questions that had been on its docket for next year.

In an unsigned, one-line order the Court vacated the judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in U.S. Forest Service v. Pacific Rivers Council and ordered the district court to dismiss the case on mootness grounds.

The Court's action has alarmed some commentators.

Richard M. Frank, a University of California at Davis law professor, wrote on the respected Legal Planet blog that the order might reflect a belief by environmental advocacy organizations that they cannot get a fair hearing at the Supreme Court.

Frank explained that the plaintiffs in the case, including Portland-based Pacific Rivers Council, entered into an agreement with the United States government not to further challenge USDA Forest Service's compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act in a dispute over planning of management actions on national forests in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

The Ninth Circuit rejected the 2004 planning effort on grounds that the Forest Service's efforts did not properly account for the impacts of planned extraction and other activities on fish populations within the national forests in that region.


Historically, NEPA has not faired well in the Court. One analysis demonstrated that environmental groups have never convinced the Court to rule in their favor in a case arising under the law in its entire 44-year history.

Other environmental laws have also not fared well before the Court lately. During this year's term the justices overturned two Ninth Circuit decisions that enforced the Clean Water Act.

NYT: Obama to move forward with CO2 limits on existing power plants

The Obama administration will proceed with regulations that limit emissions of carbon dioxide from existing electric power plants, according to an article in the June 19 edition of the New York Times.

The piece by veteran reporter John Broder says that the Environmental Protection Agency will begin the process of drafting the complex rules this year.

Broder's article quotes unnamed "senior officials" of the administration.

The path to regulation of such greenhouse gas emissions has been open since 2007, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that EPA must regulate CO2 as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.

Emissions from existing electric power plants account for at least one-third of America's greenhouse gas pollution of the atmosphere, according to EPA.

The question whether, and how, to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants is entirely separate from the issue of regulating emissions from new power plants. The administration proposed such rules in 2012 but missed an April 13 deadline to finalize them.

Obama himself has repeatedly signaled an intention to take executive action on measures aimed at mitigating climate change. In Germany on Wednesday he said the nation has a "moral imperative" to combat the phenomenon, calling it the "global threat of our time."

Montana wolf death toll: 225

The rate at which gray wolves are dying in Montana took a big jump during the state's second hunting season since a rider to federal budget law cost the species Endangered Species Act protection.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks announced Monday that 225 gray wolves were killed in the state during the recently-closed hunting season, a 36 percent increase over the 2011-2012 seasonal total.

"We're generally pleased with these results," Jeff Hagener, MFWP's director, said in a statement. "The overall harvest of 225 wolves this season is higher than last year and reflects the more liberal harvest opportunities that were added for 2012. The effectiveness of hunters and now trappers together continues to grow."

Hunters accounted for 128 deaths, the agency said, while trappers killed 97 more.

The toll does not indicate a high likelihood of success for individual hunters. According to data released by MFWP, 18,642 permits to hunt wolves were issued during the 2012-2013 hunting season.

Next year's total might be even higher. The Montana legislature recently enacted, and the state's governor signed into law, a bill that increases the number of wolf hunting licenses that any individual can hold and lowers the price of an out-of-state resident's license to shoot a wolf from $350 to $50.

That said, the number of living wolves within the state likely exceeds this year's death toll. At the end of 2011 there were more than 600 wolves in the state, according to MFWP.

Colorado city becomes second in state to ban fracking

The Colorado city of Fort Collins has become the second municipality in the Centennial State to ban hydraulic fracturing.

The community's governing council gave final approval Tuesday evening to an ordinance that also forecloses any oil and gas exploration within the city limits.

Colorado's Democratic governor, John Hickenlooper, has publicly threatened to sue any city or town in the state that bans fracking.

Fort Collins officials were not swayed by the threat.

Denver 9News quoted criticism of Hickenlooper by the city's mayor pro tempore, Kelly Ohlson.

"He seems at times to be more concerned about the gas industry, rather than the health and safety of the citizens he represents," Ohlson said. 

Loveland, a community in Boulder county, has also prohibited fracking.

 

California legislator proposes bill to ban bobcat trapping

California legislators are considering a proposal to prohibit the commercial trapping of bobcats.

The bill was introduced by a Los Angeles-area state assemblyman in response to protests against traps set near Joshua Tree National Park.

The Los Angeles Times has the story.