While the Biden administration is working to advance equity in its pursuit of environmental crimes, lawmakers are talking tax credits as part of their bipartisan climate push.
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DOJ announces new strategy for environmental justice
The Justice Department announced on Thursday that it will create a new office focused on environmental justice.
Many polluting plants have been historically located in minority areas, posing additional health risks.
The department announced the opening of the office and a new strategy for environmental justice.
A new approach: Vanita Gupta, associate attorney general, stated that the department’s environmental justice strategy would prioritize enforcement of civil rights statutes and environmental laws.
She also stated that it will direct DOJ to prioritize cases that reduce environmental damage for overburdened populations.
It directs the Office of Environmental Justice, to work with communities that have been victims of environmental crimes, and requires all 93 U.S. Attorneys to designate an Environmental Justice Coordinator to identify areas of concern in their respective communities.
The SEPs are back! The department also announced that it would restore the use supplemental environmental projects (SEPs), which are used to punish violators of environmental laws and allow polluters to choose to subsidize clean-up projects.
Trump’s administration had ended their use.
The Justice Department issued a memo last January that included nine Trump-era directives. This memo also contained restrictions on SEPs.
Wyn Hornbuckle, spokesperson at Justice Department, stated that the prior memo removed the restrictions pending a review. The issuance of Thursday’s interim rule completes this process.
The background: While on the campaign trail President Biden made it clear that environmental justice would be a central theme in his administration. He has also launched the Justice40 initiative. This initiative states that 40 percent of the government’s climate and clean energy investments should be given to historically disadvantaged groups.
Learn more about the new moves.
LAWMAKERS LOOK AT TAX CREDITS IN BIPARTISAN PUSH
Late Wednesday, lawmakers announced that a third bipartisan climate meeting was held on Capitol Hill. It was focused on energy tax credits.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said lawmakers were looking at tax incentives, including benefits for wind, solar, electric vehicles, nuclear and carbon capture, which seeks to prevent emissions from burned fossil fuels from going into the air.
Almost everything you can imagine has been suggested in [the]He told reporters that he had been in the same position for the past couple of years.
The North Dakota Republican acknowledged, however, that not all credits would end up in a package.
Next, we need to examine all these technologies and have someone explain to us how incremental emissions reductions are achieved. We can’t afford to fund all of them, Cramer stated.
Biden officials plan purchases in order to replenish the oil reserve
The Department of Energy announced Wednesday it will solicit bids to buy 60 million barrels of oil to help start to replenish the record release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) that President Biden approved earlier this spring to address high gas prices.
The bidding process for the replacement of about one-third (or more) of the 180 million barrels of oil that were released as a result of the Russian invasion will begin in the autumn.
In a statement, the department stated that it has scheduled the buyback and subsequent delivery to occur when it expects oil prices to drop significantly. It did not provide details about when delivery would take place.
Here are the details: The department stated that it will make efforts to relax buyback regulations in order to allow competitive bidding and not the traditional index-pricing system used to sell SPRs. The buyback is separate to revenue-raising SPRs sales, which Congress mandated. The department forecasts that there will be approximately 265 million barrels of oil between fiscal years 2023-2031.
Biden announced in March that the SPR 180million barrels would be released in record time. This was in response to price spikes, which began months prior and were exacerbated due to the war in Ukraine. Before that, the administration had released smaller SPR releases of only 30 million barrels in February and 50 million in November.
Learn more about the announcement.
YES TO NOPEC
Thursday’s House Judiciary Committee vote approved a bill to amend antirust laws so that the U.S. can sue OPEC (an organization of oil-producing countries) over alleged price manipulation.
The bipartisan bill was passed with 17-4 votes.
The White House is not clear on its position on the bill.
Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, stated Thursday that while I don’t have an official position on the bill right now, we believe that the potential consequences and unintended consequences are worth further study and discussion.
WHAT WE’RE READING
- Russia to Use Nord Stream 2 At Home as Europe Shuns Its Gas. (Bloomberg).
- CEQ hires top environmental justice professionals (E&E News).
- According to studies by The Guardian, only 5% are recycled in the US.
- OPEC+ agrees on a modest production increase following EU’s Russian oil ban (CNBC).
- The House is cleared by Vermont’s proposed environmental justice bill (VTDigger).
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