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)
