Confirmation hearing to preview EPA’s future under Trump

OVERSIGHT: A confirmation hearing will be held today for EPA nominee Lee Zeldin, a Trump loyalist with minimal environmental experience, who will likely be primarily tasked with reviving the returning president’s first-term efforts to dismantle the agency. (New York Times)

ALSO:

• At his confirmation hearing, Energy Secretary nominee Chris Wright says he will support all forms of energy while scrutinizing the DOE’s loan office, and acknowledges the ​“global challenge” of climate change but says addressing energy poverty is more important. (E&E News)
• Wright also says at the hearing he will support federal efforts to expand and improve the grid and streamline permitting for energy projects, priorities shared by Democrats. (E&E News)
• Wright refuses to rule out restarting the defunct Yucca Mountain spent nuclear reactor fuel repository in Nevada, but says such a big project would need ​“local buy-in.” (Nevada Current)

GRID:

• In what may be the last large Inflation Reduction Act disbursement under President Biden, the Department of Energy announces $22.4 billion in conditional loans for utilities to help cut emissions and bolster the grid. (Canary Media)
• The Department of Energy also finalizes $1.5 billion in financial guarantees for four major transmission lines. (E&E News, subscription)

WIND: An offshore wind trade association releases a report finding the industry has generated $40 billion in investments in the U.S. and created thousands of jobs. (RTO Insider, subscription)

NUCLEAR: Federal regulators express concerns over a plant owner’s ​“very, very demanding” schedule to reopen its shuttered Michigan nuclear plant by this fall. (Michigan Public)

CLIMATE: A judge dismisses New York City’s lawsuit claiming that major oil companies misled the public about the climate impacts of their products, saying the city failed to prove its case. (E&E News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Some California residents say the risk of a wildfire-related power outage makes them wary of relying solely on electric vehicles. (Los Angeles Times)

PIPELINES:

• Federal pipeline regulators for the first time propose guidelines for pipelines transporting gaseous carbon dioxide, including a requirement that operators prepare first responders for emergencies. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
• Dominion Energy suspends new gas customer hookups in the greater Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area in response to a lawsuit from environmental groups challenging a planned 15-mile pipeline. (WPDE)

COMMENTARY: The CEO of the Electric Power Supply Association notes there is ​“a long history of overestimating load growth” and there are signs that anticipated demand from data centers is wildly exaggerated. (Utility Dive)