Collected headlines from around the web, every weekday.
President Biden, vowing to restore environmental protections frayed over the past four years, has ordered the review of more than 100 environmental rules and regulations that were weakened or rolled back by his predecessor. But legal experts warn that the process could take two to three years, or Biden’s whole first term, The New York Times reports.
The New York Times
Some Western Republicans have launched a longshot bid to block President Biden’s executive orders to rejoin the Paris climate accord and revoke the permit for the Keystone pipeline. The lawmakers, many from big energy-producing states like Montana, plan to introduce two pieces of legislation that would give Congress a say in the decisions.
The Hill
President Joe Biden will announce a second round of executive orders focused on combating climate change early next week as he rushes to reverse Trump-era environmental rollbacks, according to a memo seen by Reuters. The White House will make the announcement, including a series of climate-related regulatory actions, on Jan. 27, but didn’t provide further details.
Reuters
The Biden administration is poised to name Dan Utech, who worked on climate change and energy issues during the Obama years, as the Environmental Protection Agency’s chief of staff, Bloomberg reports. His pick is the latest signal that President Biden plans to make climate change and the environment a fundamental part of his administration.
Bloomberg
Pete Buttigieg, President Biden’s choice to lead the Department of Transportation, vowed to make climate change a top priority during his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday. But that raises a question: How much can a transportation secretary realistically do to reduce emissions from America’s vast fleet of cars, trucks and airplanes—all of which the agency oversees, to varying degrees?
The New York Times
American rivers have been changing color over time, according to a new study that looked at satellite images of major rivers in the United States from 1984 to 2018. About a third of those have significantly changed color in less than 40 years. The significance of the changes are still unclear but could reflect various ways in which humans are impacting the environment, the study’s authors said.
The Guardian
After four years of steady erosion of the nation’s climate policy, President Biden offered big plans on day one through a flurry of executive orders. The orders included moving to rejoin the Paris climate agreement, signaling a review of vehicle emissions standards and directing federal agencies to review and even reverse more than 100 rules that the Trump administration made on the environment.
Inside Climate News
With the simple stroke of a pen, the United States is officially rejoining the Paris climate agreement—after a 30 day wait. It’s a critical moment for national and international climate policy. But achieving the pact’s target of capping global warming under 2 degrees Celsius will be extremely difficult, and rebuilding U.S. credibility on climate action will take time.
Inside Climate News
The era of the United States being the world’s top oil and gas producer may have come to an end with the inauguration of President Joe Biden. The president on his first day took sweeping executive action, including rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline’s presidential permit, signaling that his administration will scrutinize fossil fuel development and swiftly move toward a carbon-free economy.
Inside Climate News
Huge shifts in climate policy are already happening on the first day of the Biden administration. But when it comes to clean energy, much of the progress this year will remain at the state level. We look at three states to keep an eye on in the latest Inside Clean Energy by Dan Gearino.
Inside Climate News
A Washington State report put it bluntly: Because of the devastating effects of climate change and deteriorating habitats, some species of salmon in the Pacific Northwest are “on the brink of extinction.” Several species of salmon and steelhead trout in Washington state are lagging recovery goals and five species are considered “in crisis,” according to the new report.
The New York Times
China more than doubled its construction of new wind and solar power plants in 2020 from a year earlier, government data showed, reflecting Beijing’s pledge to cut fossil fuel dependence and bring carbon emissions to a peak within a decade. But the country is still constructing new coal and gas-fired power plants, Reuters reports, threatening the country’s climate goals.
Reuters
Among incoming President Joe Biden’s Day One priorities: Begin rolling back climate and environmental policies of the Trump administration, many of which were rollbacks of Obama-era or earlier rules. Biden’s advisers have compiled a list of more than 100 rules and policies developed by the Trump administration that it sees as targets for review, CNN reports.
CNN
On President Trump’s last full day in office a federal appeals court landed a major blow to his administration’s deregulatory campaign by rejecting its boldest attempt to stymie climate regulation. The D.C. circuit court threw out Trump’s Affordable Clean Energy Rule—which replaced Obama’s far more stringent Clean Power Plan—saying it failed to adequately protect the environment and human health.
Inside Climate News
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh cut to the chase during a hearing Tuesday in a climate change case in which the City of Baltimore is seeking major compensation from the fossil fuel industry related to climate-induced extreme weather and sea level rise. The high court will rule on a narrow legal question, but the outcome will reverberate in dozens of other climate-related lawsuits nationwide.
Inside Climate News
High winds, dry vegetation and unseasonably warm weather fueled several wildfires in Northern California on Tuesday as hundreds of residents were forced to evacuate, NBC News reports. Fire crews were working on multiple fronts to contain at least five active fires that ignited within the CZU Complex Fire burn area in Santa Cruz County. Several nearby neighborhoods were evacuated.
NBC News
Treasury secretary nominee Janet Yellen on Tuesday pledged to create a team to focus on climate change-related financial policy, in a move that’s likely to put the powerful agency at the forefront of the Biden administration’s efforts to combat what she called an “existential threat.” Yellen made the pledge in a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee.
Politico
Incoming President Joe Biden’s nomination of New York City Emergency Management Commissioner Deanne Criswell to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency marks the first time a woman has been selected for the position since the agency’s creation in 1979. It’s also another signal of Biden’s urgency in addressing the pandemic and climate change.
Scientific American
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