Mondays Overnight Energy & Environment – Welcoming YouThe Hill is your source for the most recent news on energy, the environment, and beyond. Subscribe here: thehill.com/newsletter-signup.
Today’s news included the Biden administration’s reported plans to tap strategic oil reserves, a Supreme Court ruling on water rights and action by the Department of Interior regarding the greater sagegrouse.
Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk were the Hill’s editors. Send tips to [email protected], [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter @RachelFrazin @BudrykZack.
Lets jump in.
Biden expected release spare oil: Reports
Multiple news outlets reported Monday that the Biden administration, along with other countries, is expected to release some of its strategic oil reserves.
BloombergPoliticoBoth reported that the administration was in preparation to release barrels of its Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Bloomberg reported that this could occur as soon as Tuesday.
Bloomberg reported that the release will take place alongside India and Japan as well as South Korea.
The White House however stated that no decision was made at the time The Hill reached for comment. The Energy Department did no respond to requests for comment.
How did we get here?These reports come after months of struggle with high energy prices. Petroleum is the main ingredient in gasoline.AverageMonday: Nearly $3.41 per gallon
The main reason for the rise in oil prices is that demand has not been matched by a return to supply. Major oil-producing countries have not returned production levels pre-pandemic.
Biden’s administration has asked OPEC+ oil-producing countries to add more oil to their market. The group has rebuffed his requests.
Learn more about the report.
Supreme Court rejects Miss. water claims
Monday’s Supreme Court ruling in a water dispute between Tennessee and Mississippi was a victory for Tennessee. The court should split up water from the aquifers between the states in order to determine how much each state can use.
The high court ruled unanimously that Mississippi was not entitled to damages from Tennessee for using the resource to pump water.
Instead, the judges decided waters should be governed according to equitable apportionment. This process determines how much water each state can use.
What does this all mean?This process is used often in water disputes between two state, but this is the first time it has been applied to an aquifer in which groundwater is held in sediment or rocks that sit between two states.
The judges ruled that Mississippi is wrong to claim all groundwater located beneath it, as the waters flow between the two states.
Mississippi’s ownership approach would allow an Upstream State to cut off flow completely to a Downstream State, according to the opinion, which was written by Chief Justice John Roberts.
During oral arguments last month, the judges appeared skeptical of Mississippi’s claims. At the time, the state claimed that Tennessee was acting extraterritorially by setting up pumps near Mississippi’s border in order to get water under Mississippi.
Find out more about this decision.
Biden mulls restoring sage grouse habitat
The Bureau of Land Management will examine an update to protections for greater sage grouses habitat habitat, after it has been reduced under Trump’s administration, the bureau announced Friday.
The bureau will evaluate information that has been made available about the birds habitat since the 2019 update, Director Tracy Stone-Manning stated. This will include assessing the impacts of climate change and other environmental factors.
The U.S. habitat for the sagegrouse is primarily found in the western U.S. in 11 states.
This is the story so farTrump’s administration reduced protections for 10 million acres of habitat in 2019 for the bird, a move that was reversed by the Obama administration in 2015.
According to Erik Molvar, the Western Watersheds Project’s executive director, a plan was put in place that drastically reduced sage-grouse habitat protections. The administration was sued by the Western Watersheds Project as well as other environmental advocates. They obtained an injunction, but not a ruling on its merits.
Molvar said that the U.S. Geological Survey released new research earlier this year on sage-grouse population dynamics. Its findings show a sharp decline of the birds numbers since 2015.
You can read more about the announcement here.
WHAT WAS READING
ICYMI
- Charging stations for electric cars To be requiredIn new homes in England
- One-fifth of giant Sequoias Potentially lostRecent California wildfires
Offbeat and offbeat: The all-mighty dog-lar
That’s all for today. Thank you for reading. Check out The Hills Energy & Environment pageStay up-to-date with the latest news and coverage We look forward to seeing you Tuesday.
