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U.S. to boost spending on tribal lands, protect Nevada sacred site

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WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) – The Biden administration will give Native American tribes more say in managing federal and tribal lands as part of a plan that includes assistance for tribes whose land has been harmed by climate change, the White House said on Wednesday.

President Joe Biden and other Cabinet officials announced the measures at a two-day Tribal Nations Summit, with additional steps focused on providing better access to capital for tribal nations.

Biden also said at the summit that he intends to protect the area surrounding Spirit Mountain in Nevada, known as Avi Kwa Ame to the Fort Mojave tribe, which has been urging the United States to designate the huge swath of land as a national monument.

“I’m committed to protecting this sacred place that is central to the creation story of so many tribes that are here today,” Biden announced during remarks at Tribal Nations summit in Washington.

Biden was met by applause when he commented that he intends to visit tribal lands while in office.

Among the other new actions announced by the administration are efforts to boost purchases of tribal energy and other goods and services, and to revitalize Native languages.

The three signature pieces of legislation passed during Biden’s time in office – laws dealing with infrastructure, climate and COVID-19 relief – have provided nearly $46 billion in funding for tribal communities and Native American people, the White House said.

The actions include new uniform standards for how federal agencies should consult Native American tribes in major decisions that affect their sovereignty, the creation of a new office of partnerships to advance economic development and conservation initiatives and agreements promoting the co-stewardship of federal lands, waters, fisheries and other resources of significance and value to tribes.

“I made a commitment my administration would prioritize and respect nation-to-nation relationships,” Biden said. “I hope our work in the past two years has demonstrated that we’re meeting that commitment.”

The Interior Department also announced it would award $115 million to 11 tribes that have been severely impacted by climate-related environmental threats, and $25 million each to two Alaska tribes and the Quinault Nation in Washington state to help them execute their plans to relocate their villages to safer ground.

Federal agencies will also be instructed to recognize and include indigenous knowledge in federal research, policy, and decision-making, by elevating tribal “observations, oral and written knowledge, practices, and beliefs” that promote environmental sustainability.

The Small Business Administration will announce plans to boost access to financing opportunities, while the Energy Department plans to increase federal agencies’ use of tribal energy through purchasing authority established under a 2005 law unused for more than 17 years.

The administration will also work to deploy electric-vehicle infrastructure in tribal lands, prioritize the replacement of diesel school buses with low or zero emission school buses, and help tribes buy or lease EV fleet vehicles.

As part of that drive, the Interior Department will set a goal to award 75% of contract dollars from Indian Affairs agencies and 10% of the department’s remaining contract dollars to Native-owned businesses. Along with a new Indian Health Service goal of 20% of purchases, the actions could redirect hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses on tribal lands.

The government will also release a draft of a 10-year plan to revitalize Native American languages and which underscores the urgency for immediate action, while formally recognizing the role that the U.S. government played in erasing Native languages.

The administration also announced a new initiative that will aim to widely deploy broadband and other wireless services on tribal lands, helping Native American tribes improve communication services that have lagged those of non-tribal lands.

Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Valerie Volcovici and Jeff Mason in Washington
Additional reporting by Katharine Jackson in Washington
Editing by Robert Birsel and Matthew Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Biden administration denies Cheniere’s request to sidestep LNG pollution rule

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WASHINGTON, Sept 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Tuesday it has denied a request from leading liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter Cheniere Energy Inc (LNG.A) to exempt turbines at its two U.S. Gulf Coast terminals from a hazardous pollution rule.

The rejection raises questions about whether the Texas-based company will have to reduce exports of the supercooled fuel to install new pollution control equipment at its facilities at a time that Europe is depending on increased shipments of LNG from the United States to offset cuts from Russia.

Europe is facing its worst-ever gas supply crisis, with energy prices soaring and German importers discussing possible rationing in the European Union’s biggest economy after Russia reduced gas flows westward. Moscow has cited a pipeline fault for the halt, but Europe sees it as apparent retribution for Western sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

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“Though EPA is denying Cheniere’s request for a special subcategory to comply with the turbines rule, the Agency will continue to work with them and with other companies as needed to assure they meet Clean Air Act obligations,” EPA spokesperson Tim Carroll said in an email.

Owners and operators of gas turbines had a Sept. 5 deadline to comply with the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), which the administration of President Joe Biden put into effect after an 18-year stay.

The rule imposes curbs on emissions of known carcinogens like formaldehyde and benzene from stationary combustion turbines, like those used by LNG facilities.

Cheniere had asked the Biden administration to exempt a specific kind of turbine that it installed at its LNG terminals from the NESHAP limits, arguing they would reduce shipments from the top U.S. exporter for an extended period and endanger the country’s efforts to ramp up supplies to Europe. read more

Cheniere was the only company to request such an exemption, according to the EPA. The company claimed the model of turbine it uses at its Texas and Louisiana facilities is the best technology for withstanding the types of storms that often strike the Gulf Coast, but that the equipment is also exceptionally hard to retrofit, and that engineering and installation of pollution controls could take years.

Cheniere spokesperson Eben Burnham-Snyder said that while the company “strongly disagrees” with the EPA’s decision, “we will work with our state and federal regulators to develop solutions that ensure compliance.”

He said the decision may result in “unwarranted expenditures” but added that coming into full compliance will not result in a material financial or operational impact and will not affect its ability to supply LNG to customers and countries around the world.

Gas-powered turbines emit formaldehyde and other dangerous pollutants through a chemical transformation that occurs when methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, is superheated.

Around 250 U.S. gas turbines are subject to the new rule, according to an EPA list, nearly a quarter of them Cheniere’s.

The Houston-based company accounts for around 50% of U.S. shipments of LNG abroad.

Ilan Levin, associate director of the Environmental Integrity Project, said the decision by EPA to deny Cheniere’s request was not a surprise because it had warned the company that it needed to meet the standard for years.

Reuters reported last month that the EPA had questioned Cheniere’s selection of gas turbines without adding pollution controls in 2011 and again in 2013. read more

“We applaud the EPA for enforcing the law and making sure the people living near these plants in the coastal bend and southeast Texas/southwest Louisiana get the same clean air protections as everybody else,” he said.

Cheniere shares closed 2.3% lower at $158.58 on Tuesday.

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Reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington and Nichola Groom in Los Angeles; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Matthew Lewis and Himani Sarkar

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Biden administration leans on Tesla for guidance in renewable fuel policy reform

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June 23 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden rarely mentions electric car maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) in public. But privately his administration has leaned on the company to help craft a new policy to allow electric vehicles (EVs) to benefit from the nation’s lucrative renewable fuel subsidies, according to emails reviewed by Reuters.

The Biden administration contacted Tesla on its first day in office, marking the start of a series of meetings on the topic between federal officials and companies linked to the EV industry over the months that followed, according to the emails.

The administration’s early and extensive outreach reflects that expanding the scope of the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to make it a tool for electrifying the nation’s automobile fleet is one of Biden’s priorities in the fight against climate change.

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The RFS, which dates back to 2005, is a federal program that requires transportation fuel sold in the United States to contain a minimum volume of renewable fuels. Until now, it has been primarily a subsidy for corn-based ethanol.

The White House’s outreach to Tesla also shows that, despite a public grudge match between Biden and Tesla founder Elon Musk, the Biden team tried early on to involve the carmaker in one of its key policy pushes. Biden has set a target to make half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 zero-emissions vehicles.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the RFS, is expected to unveil proposed changes to the policy sometime this year, defining new winners and losers in a multibillion-dollar market for credits, known as RINs, that has supported corn growers and biofuels producers for more than a decade.

Early signs are that the administration is leaning toward a rule that benefits carmakers like Tesla, giving them the greatest access to so-called e-RINS, or electric RINs. But the reform could also spread the subsidy to related industries too, like car charging companies and landfills that supply renewable biogas to power plants, according to industry players.

“We have heard through the grapevine that car companies are really, really going to like this rule,” said Maureen Walsh, director of federal policy with the American Biogas Council, speaking at a conference in May. But she added: “We have all been scrapping at that pile.”

The idea of including electric vehicles in the RFS has been under consideration for years, but gained steam as Biden’s transition team zeroed in on EVs as a job-friendly solution to the climate crisis. Transport accounts for more than a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

The EPA said it was consulting “all interested stakeholders” in its RFS policy review.

The current RFS requires oil refiners to blend ethanol and other biofuels into the fuel pool or buy RINs from those who do. That policy has spurred an economic boom in Farm Belt states. But it has also angered environmental groups who say the extra corn production damages land and water while prolonging the era of the internal-combustion engine.

Friends of the Earth, an environmental group, has voiced disapproval over an e-RIN program. The group sees the RFS as a policy that has failed to increase production of new generation lower-carbon fuels, while also harming the environment. It also sees expanding the program as a slippery slope toward increasing the use of feedstocks for wood and wood waste, which can generate electricity.

“The RFS should be reformed to tackle giveaways for dirty corn ethanol. It shouldn’t be expanded to include new giveaways for factory farming and woody biomass,” said Friends of the Earth spokesman Lukas Ross.

TURN TO TESLA

On the morning of Biden’s presidential inauguration in January 2021, EPA staffer Dallas Burkholder emailed a top Tesla lobbyist, Rohan Patel, to set up a meeting on how to incorporate electric cars into the RFS, according to the documents reviewed by Reuters. They scheduled a meeting for a week later, records show.

Since then, the Biden EPA has had additional meetings on the topic with Tesla, groups representing biogas producers like Waste Management Inc (WM.N) and Republic Services Inc (RSG.N) and charging station companies like ChargePoint Holdings Inc (CHPT.N), according to the documents.

The EPA has also set up at least one meeting with White House staff members, including climate adviser Ali Zaidi, to discuss the reforms, according to the emails.

The Biden White House has been an unapologetic supporter of the EV industry, pinning much of its climate hopes on getting more electric cars on the road. The bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed last year included $7.5 billion for new EV charging stations and Biden has sought to reinstate expired tax credits to help consumers pay for new vehicles.

Even so, Tesla’s CEO, Musk, has often been at odds with the White House, sending out harsh tweets directed at Biden. In February, Biden publicly acknowledged the role of Tesla in EV manufacturing, after Musk repeatedly complained about being ignored. read more

WHAT EVERYONE WANTS

Tesla is seeking changes to the RFS that will allow it to earn renewable fuel credits based on kilowatt hours driven or similar metrics, according to two sources familiar with the plan. The company has also explored partnerships with biogas-producers to give them leverage in whatever market emerges from the new rule, the sources say.

Tesla did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Members of the car-charging industry, meanwhile, are also pushing for a share.

Matthew Nelson, a lobbyist with Electrify America, a charging company trade group, wrote to the EPA in October and told them that e-RINs would do more to enable Biden’s 2030 goals of 500,000 charging stations and 50% EV sales than any other policy, according to the emails. He added that charging companies need the credit to compete with gasoline.

The United States currently has about 48,000 charging stations, concentrated around coastal regions, according to Department of Energy data.

Biogas producers, like landfills, also want credits, arguing they provide renewable fuel to the grid that generates the power for electric vehicles.

Biogas-derived electricity is already eligible for generating RINs. But the EPA has never approved an application from the industry because it has yet to determine the best way to trace the power entering EVs back to its origin.

In 2020, landfill gas generated about 10 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, or 0.3% of U.S. utility-scale power.

“We feel that implementing the electricity program in the RFS aligns well with the Biden administration’s climate goals,” Carrie Annand, executive director of the Biomass Power Association, wrote to the EPA, according to the documents.

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Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia and Stephanie Kelly in New York
Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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U.S. plastic recycling rate drops to close to 5% – report

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WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) – The rate of plastic waste recycling in the United States fell to between 5%-6% in 2021 as some countries stopped accepting U.S. waste exports and as plastic waste generation surged to new highs, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The report by environmental groups Last Beach Clean Up and Beyond Plastics shows the recycling rate has dropped from 8.7% in 2018, the last time the Environmental Protection Agency published recycling figures.

The decline coincides with a sharp drop in plastic waste exports, which had counted as recycled plastic. China and Turkey have since implemented plastic import bans and other countries set plastic waste contamination limits under the Basel Convention Plastic Waste Amendments, which the United States did not ratify in 2019.

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“The U.S. must take responsibility for managing its own plastic waste,” said the report, which used 2018 EPA, 2021 export and recent industry data to estimate the 2021 recycling rate.

The EPA did not release its updated yearly recycling rate data last year. It last published data in 2020 showing 2018 rates.

The agency received funding from the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed last year to support local waste management infrastructure and recycling programs.

“EPA is aware of the report and will review the data,” an EPA spokesperson said, adding it will update its waste and recycling web page “later this year.”

The recycling rate is falling as plastic waste generation soars in the United States, the report said. Per capita plastic waste went from 60 pounds per year in 1980 to 218 pounds in 2018 – a 263% total increase.

The petrochemical and plastic industry has been advocating for improved recycling across the country but is facing pressure to curb its production of virgin plastic.

Last week, California Attorney General Rob Bonta launched an investigation into the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries’ role in “causing and exacerbating the global plastics pollution crisis” and accused the industry of “perpetuating a myth that recycling can solve the plastics crisis.” L2N2WQ2LY

“Recycling does not work, it never will work, and no amount of false advertising will change that,” said report author Judith Enck, a former EPA regional administrator.

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Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Lincoln Feast

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Biden taps ethanol to help lower fuel prices as consumer inflation surges

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WASHINGTON, April 12 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden will unveil plans on Tuesday to extend the availability of higher biofuel blends of gasoline during the summer to curb soaring fuel costs and to cut reliance on foreign energy sources, the White House said.

The move represents the administration’s latest attempt to tamp down inflation, which hit a new 40-year high on Tuesday.

Biden’s poll numbers have sagged under the weight of higher consumer costs and inflation is seen as a significant liability heading into the November mid-term elections.

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The decision represents a win for the U.S. corn lobby by likely expanding demand for corn-based ethanol and a setback for oil refiners, which view ethanol as competition.

The measure will allow Americans to keep buying E15, a gasoline that uses a 15% ethanol blend, from June 1 to Sept. 15. While E15 is only 10 cents cheaper on average and is less “energy dense,” meaning drivers would need to buy more fuel, it should still help lower expenses, senior administration officials told reporters on a Monday call previewing the announcement.

“Those savings can add up, especially during the summer months, when fuel is elevated and as the supply emergency caused by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin aggression continues,” a senior administration official said.

White House spokesperon Jen Psaki later confirmed the move to reporters on Air Force One en route to Iowa, where Biden planned to make the announcement.

The decision comes after several weeks of internal debate within the White House that pitted environmental advocates like Gina McCarthy against Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former governor of Iowa, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.

The summertime ban on E15 was imposed over concerns it contributes to smog in hot weather, though research has shown that the 15% blend may not increase smog relative to the more common 10% blends sold year-round.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and sanctions and boycotts that followed launched retail gasoline prices to record highs, a vulnerability for Biden’s fellow Democrats in November’s congressional elections.

Biden last month announced that the United States would sell 180 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at a rate of 1 million barrels per day starting in May, the biggest release from the stockpile since it was created in the 1970s.

CORN VS OIL

Biden will make the E15 extension announcement during a visit to POET Bioprocessing, the largest biofuels producer in the United States in major corn producing state Iowa.

“We applaud President Biden and his administration for recognizing that low-cost, low-carbon ethanol should be given a fair opportunity to strengthen our energy security and reduce record-high pump prices,” Renewable Fuels Association President Geoff Cooper said.

Representatives of the oil industry slammed the administration for the decision.

“Americans are looking for long-term solutions, not short-term political fixes (to high gas prices)” said Ron Chit, a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s main lobbying organization.

“The best way to ensure Americans have access to the affordable and reliable energy they need is to promote policies that incentive U.S. production and send a clear message that America is open for energy investment,” he said.

The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFP) industry group questioned whether the expansion of E15 sales was lawful.

To make the change, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to issue a national emergency waiver closer to June, the administration officials said. The EPA is also considering additional action to allow for the use of E15 year-round, the White House said.

“Emergency fuel waivers are short term and reserved for very specific unforeseen events and regionally acute supply disruptions, such as those resulting from a hurricane,” AFP Chief Executive Chet Thompson said.

Iowa Republican Joni Ernst also welcomed the move but echoed calls for a more lasting change.

“This is one step in the right direction,” Ernst said during a 20-minute press call, describing it as one way to combat the rising prices of fuel. “But long term, we need to make sure that this goes into place permanently and that we allow E-15 year-round, ongoing, into the future.”

The courts struck down a prior bid by Biden’s predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, in 2019 to extend a waiver that allowed year-round sales of E15.

The officials previewing Biden’s announcement said his administration would us a different “approach” and “authority” than Trump, but did not offer details.

They also said the EPA would work with states to ensure that there would be no “significant” negative impact on summer air quality due to the extended sale of E15.

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Reporting by Alexandra Alper, Jarrett Renshaw and Steve Holland; additional reporting by Stephanie Kelly and David Morgan; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Mark Porter and Bill Berkrot

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Business

Exclusive: Canada to invest C$2 billion on mineral strategy for EV battery supply chain

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OTTAWA, April 4 (Reuters) – Canada’s federal budget will include an investment of at least C$2 billion ($1.6 billion) for a strategy to accelerate the production and processing of critical minerals needed for the electric vehicle (EV) battery supply chain, two senior government sources said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, which is due to release its budget on Thursday, will make the investment to ramp up the extraction of processing of critical minerals including nickel, lithium, cobalt and magnesium, said the sources who are familiar with the matter but were not authorized to speak on the record.

The investment could be spread over more than one year, but the sources declined to comment on the time frame.

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Canada last month announced financial support for building two facilities that will make battery materials for electric vehicles, and one battery gigafactory, but no agreements have yet been announced for mineral extraction or refining. read more

“There are some particular projects that we are looking at and working on at the present time,” Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said in a recent telephone interview with Reuters.

All the potential projects, “whether they’re extraction or processing, need to be accelerated significantly, and that’s what the critical mineral strategy will be about,” he added.

Canada’s finance ministry declined to confirm whether the investment would be in the budget that will be presented by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in the House of Commons.

“Canada has an abundance of valuable critical mineral deposits, and with the right investments, this sector can create thousands of new good jobs, grow our economy, and make Canada a vital part of the growing global critical minerals industry,” said Adrienne Vaupshas, press secretary for Freeland.

There are “many active conversations” between the Canadian government and companies “on the need to accelerate and scale up the production of raw materials used in EV batteries,” one of the sources said.

Canada, which is home to a large mining sector, has a multi-billion-dollar fund set up to invest in green technologies and is trying to woo companies involved in all levels of the EV supply chain to safeguard the future of its manufacturing heartland in Ontario as the world seeks to cut carbon emissions.

Ontario is geographically close to U.S.-based automakers in Michigan and Ohio, and General Motors Co (GM.N), Ford Motor Co (F.N) and Stellantis NV (STLA.MI) have all announced plans to make electric vehicles at factories in the Canadian province.

MINERALS FROM MINING WASTE

Since it can take many years – even a decade or more – to open new mines, Wilkinson said some of the projects being considered involve “tailings from existing mines from which you could extract critical minerals.”

“We’re looking at brines and oil sands, tailings ponds, and all of those things,” he said.

Brendan Marshall, the vice president of economic and northern affairs for the Mining Association of Canada, said this kind of project would require research.

“There needs to be research and development” to develop technologies that can identify and separate critical minerals “from the general waste stream,” Marshall said.

Canada’s critical mineral strategy will focus on, among other things, driving research, innovation and exploration, one of the sources said.

GM said on Monday that it was investing C$2 billion on two plants, including one that will produce an electric vehicle for commercial use in Canada. Last month, GM said it had partnered with South Korea’s POSCO Chemical (005490.KS) to build a facility to make battery materials in Quebec. read more

Scott Bell, the president and managing director of GM Canada, said last month that Canada’s abundance of nickel and other raw materials would be used to make cathode active material in the Canadian province, without elaborating.

“These companies are going to need those critical minerals that our country has, so we need to start aggressively ramping up the mining and processing required,” Canadian Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said in Vancouver last week.

Demand for minerals needed for batteries, including lithium and cobalt, could increase by almost 500% by 2050, the World Bank estimates. Currently Asia, and in particular China, dominates global production and processing of critical minerals, rare earths and rare metals used to make EVs.

Constantine Karayannopoulos, president and chief executive officer of Neo Performance Materials Inc(NEO.TO), a rare earths and rare metals processing company based in Toronto, said Canada and North America have a lot of catching up to do.

“We are behind the eight ball collectively in the West, behind China,” Karayannopoulos said in a telephone interview. “China is dominating this space … We need a lot of money (to build the supply chain) because we’re playing catch-up.”

($1 = 1.2517 Canadian dollars)

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Reporting by Steve Scherer
Editing by Paul Simao

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U.S. SEC proposes companies disclose range of climate risks, emissions data

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WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) – The U.S. securities regulator on Monday proposed requiring U.S.-listed companies to disclose a range of climate-related risks and greenhouse gas emissions, part of President Joe Biden’s push to join global efforts to avert climate-related catastrophes.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) unveiled its long-anticipated draft rule under which companies would disclose their own direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, known as Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. It would also require companies to disclose emissions generated by their suppliers and partners, known as Scope 3 emissions, if they are material.

SEC chair Gary Gensler said the agency was responding to investor demand for consistent information on how climate change will affect financial performance of companies they invest in. But prominent Republicans accused the regulator of overstepping its legal authority, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce vowed to fight parts of the rule.

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The draft proposal, subject to public feedback and likely to be finalized later this year, should help investors get the information they are seeking while also increasing the reporting burden for Corporate America.

It would also require companiesto disclose the “actual or likely material impacts” that climate-related risks will have on their business, strategy and outlook, including physical risks as well as possible new regulations such as a carbon tax.

Companies that have set emissions goals or announced other plans to transition away from fossil fuels would have to provide details on how and when they expect to do so. read more

“Companies and investors alike would benefit from the clear rules of the road,” Gensler said.

Senator Patrick Toomey, the Senate Banking Committee’s top Republican, blasted the rule, saying it “extends far beyond the SEC’s mission and expertise.”

Progressives and activist investors have pushed for the SEC to require Scope 3 emissions disclosure to hold companies accountable for all the carbon dioxide and methane they help generate. Corporations have been pushing for a narrower rule that will not boost compliance costs too sharply.

“This proposal will be the light in a pathway toward addressing President Biden’s priority of disclosing climate risk to investors and all areas of our society,” said Tracey Lewis, a policy counsel at Washington-based advocacy group Public Citizen. “There will be a lot of critics,” she added.

The SEC said the Scope 3 requirement would include carve-outs based on a company’s size, and that all the emissions disclosures would be phased in between 2023 and 2026.

It was not immediately clear how many companies would have to make Scope 3 disclosures, given they would have largely have the discretion to decide what counts as ‘material.’

The Chamber of Commerce, the country’s biggest business lobby, called the proposal too prescriptive and complained it would force companies to disclose information that was largely immaterial at the expense of more meaningful data.

“The Supreme Court has been clear that any required disclosures under securities laws must meet the test of materiality, and we will advocate against provisions of this proposal that deviate from that standard,” Tom Quaadman, an executive vice president with the group, said in a statement.

The Investment Company Institute, which represents global investors, broadly welcomed the rule.

“The enhanced disclosure that the proposal calls for will provide investors with comparable, consistent, qualitative, and quantitative information.”

LEGAL CHALLENGES

The SEC spent the past week shoring up the draft against potential legal challenges, six sources told Reuters.

Corporate groups have argued there is no agreed methodology for calculating Scope 3 emissions, saying it can lead to double-counting, and that providing so much detail would be burdensome and would expose companies to litigation if third-party data ends up being wrong.

The SEC tried to address that concern by proposing Scope 3 disclosures would be protected by a legal safe harbor that already exists for companies’ forward-looking statements.

Any legal challenges to the rule will likely argue that the SEC lacks the authority to require Scope 3 emissions data, something the agency’s lone Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce said on Monday in voting against the proposal.

Some experts said the SEC’s authority in this area was clear, noting investors poured more than $649 billion into environmental, social and governance-focused funds worldwide last year and were calling for better data.

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Reporting by Katanga Johnson in Washington
Editing by Michelle Price, David Gregorio and Matthew Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Katanga Johnson

Washington-based reporter covering U.S. regulation at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, previously e3xperience in Ecuador, alumnus of Morehouse College and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

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Business

U.S. offshore wind auction attracts record-setting bids

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Feb 23 (Reuters) – The largest ever U.S. sale of offshore wind development rights – for areas off the coasts of New York and New Jersey – attracted record-setting bids on Wednesday from companies seeking to be a part of President Joe Biden’s plan to create a booming new domestic industry.

It is the first offshore wind lease sale under Biden, who has made expansion of offshore wind a cornerstone of his strategy to address global warming and decarbonize the U.S. electricity grid by 2035, all while creating thousands of jobs.

With bidding still underway, the auction was on track to easily top the $405 million U.S. offshore wind auction record set in 2018, according to updates posted on the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) web site.

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After 11 rounds, bidding stood at a record-setting $250 million for a single lease 32 miles (51.5 km) off the coast of New Jersey. The government had identified that 114-acre area – the largest offered in the sale – as being capable of producing power for more than 485,000 homes.

The previous record amount paid for a U.S. offshore wind lease was $135.1 million in 2018 for a lease off the coast of Massachusetts.

High bids on each of the other five areas in the auction ranged between $12.6 million and $134.3 million as of Wednesday afternoon.

The auction’s scale marks a major step forward for offshore wind power in the United States, which has lagged European nations in developing the technology. Currently, the United States has just two small offshore wind facilities, off the coasts of Rhode Island and Virginia, along with two additional commercial-scale projects recently approved for development.

BOEM, which has not held an auction for wind leases since 2018, is offering 488,201 acres (197,568 hectares) in shallow waters between New York’s Long Island and New Jersey, an area known as the New York Bight.

The area is 22% smaller than what was initially proposed last summer due to concerns about the developments’ impact to commercial fishing and military interests.

‘ENOUGH WIND TO POWER MILLIONS OF HOMES’

The sale’s 25 approved bidders include entities controlled by Equinor ASA (EQNR.OL), Avangrid Inc (AGR.N), BP Plc and Eletricite de France SA (EDF.PA), according to government documents. Each bidder may only win one lease.

The energy generated from the newly offered areas could one day power nearly 2 million homes, the administration has said.

Last year, the Biden administration set a goal of installing 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2030 along the nation’s coastlines. Much of the current development is happening in waters off of Northeastern states.

New York and New Jersey have set targets of building more than 16 GW of offshore wind by 2035, and Wednesday’s lease areas – which lie between 20 and 69 nautical miles off the coast, according to BOEM – could deliver more than a third of that capacity.

“That’s enough wind to power millions of homes,” Ed Potosnak, executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, said in an interview. “That’s a big deal in a state with about nine million people.”

Not everyone supports offshore wind development. The Biden administration’s ambitions have stoked concerns among commercial fishermen and coastal communities about harm to their livelihoods and property values.

In January, a group of New Jersey residents sued BOEM over its leasing plans for the New York Bight. The group, from the summer colony of Long Beach Island, is concerned about the aesthetic impacts of the turbines and potential lost tourism.

Greg Cudnik, owner of a fishing charter boat business on Long Beach Island, worries about what thousands of wind turbines will do to the ocean habitat.

“For all this that’s taking place and all this that is put in jeopardy, to me, I don’t see the net benefit,” Cudnik said.

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Reporting by Nichola Groom in Los Angeles and Christine Kiernan in Ship Bottom, New Jersey; Editing by Bill Berkrot

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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EXCLUSIVE U.S., EU pursuing global deal to slash planet-warming methane -documents

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BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON, Sept 13 (Reuters) – The United States and the European Union have agreed to aim to cut emissions of the planet-warming gas methane by around a third by the end of this decade and are pushing other major economies to join them, according to documents seen by Reuters.

Their pact comes as Washington and Brussels seek to galvanize other major economies ahead of a world summit to address climate change in Glasgow, Scotland, in November, and could have a significant impact on the energy, agriculture and waste industries responsible for the bulk of methane emissions.

The greenhouse gas methane, the biggest cause of climate change after carbon dioxide (CO2), is facing more scrutiny as governments seek solutions to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, a goal of the Paris climate agreement.

In an attempt to jumpstart the action, the United States and the EU later this week will make a joint pledge to reduce human-caused methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030, compared with 2020 levels, according to a draft of the Global Methane Pledge seen by Reuters.

“The short atmospheric lifetime of methane means that taking action now can rapidly reduce the rate of global warming,” the draft said.

A separate document listed over two dozen countries that the United States and the EU will target to join the pledge. They include major emitters such as China, Russia, India, Brazil and Saudi Arabia, as well as others including Norway, Qatar, Britain, New Zealand and South Africa.

The U.S. State Department and the European Commission both declined to comment.

“The Pledge would represent a very encouraging sign that the world is finally waking up to the urgent need to rein in methane pollution,” said Sarah Smith, program director for super pollutants at the non-profit Clean Air Task Force.

PRESSURE

The agreement would likely be unveiled on Friday at a meeting of major emitting economies intended to rally support ahead of the COP26 Glasgow summit.

World leaders are under pressure from scientists, environmental advocates and growing popular sentiment to commit to more ambitious action to curb climate change in Glasgow.

Methane has a higher heat-trapping potential than CO2 but it breaks down in the atmosphere faster, so “strong, rapid and sustained reductions” in methane emissions in addition to slashing CO2 emissions can have a climate impact quickly, a fact emphasized by a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last month.

Experts say the fossil fuel sector has the biggest potential to cut methane emissions this decade by mending leaky pipelines or gas storage facilities, and many of those fixes can be done at a low cost.

Yet satellite images and infrared footage have in recent years revealed methane emissions spewing out of oil and gas sites in countries including the EU, Mexico and the United States. read more

The United States and EU are both due to propose laws this year to restrict methane emissions.

The U.S.-EU pledge would cover key sources of methane emissions, including leaky oil and gas infrastructure, old coal mines, agriculture and waste such as landfills, the draft said.

Countries that join the pledge would commit to take domestic action to collectively achieve the target methane cut, “focusing on standards to achieve all feasible reductions in the energy and waste sectors” and reducing agricultural emissions through “technology innovation as well as incentives and partnerships with farmers,” it said.

Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Leslie Adler and Sonya Hepinstall

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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