New soot rules could save thousands of lives

EMISSIONS: The Biden administration looks to lower limits on soot emissions from vehicles, power plants and construction sites — a rule change that could save thousands of lives each year. (Grist)

ALSO:
• Washington state schedules the first pollution allowance auction under its carbon cap-and-invest program for late February. (Grist)
• The White House proposes new guidance to help federal agencies consider greenhouse gas emissions in their environmental reviews. (The Hill)

TRANSPORTATION:
• Electric vehicles with built-in heat pumps do a better job keeping passengers warm when they’re running or idled and tend to lose less of their battery range in cold temperatures, a study shows. (Washington Post)
• As the U.S. EPA rolls out funding for electric school buses, districts that don’t own the diesel buses they look to replace run into a roadblock. (Inside Climate News)
• Rhode Island advocates want the state to invest more aggressively in mass transit and other measures to reduce transportation emissions to hit its 2030 greenhouse gas goal. (Energy News Network)
• U.S. Defense Department planners want to add anti-idling technology to the next fleet of military vehicles, potentially cutting each vehicles’ fuel consumption by 20%. (Washington Post)

OIL & GAS:
• The U.S. Interior Department prepares an offshore drilling plan that aims to balance energy security and phasing out fossil fuels. (E&E News)
• Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signs legislation that designates natural gas as ​“green energy” and opens state parkland to oil and gas drilling. (Ohio Capital Journal)

BUILDINGS: As studies repeatedly show the dangers of gas stoves’ emissions, the top federal consumer safety official says a ban on the appliances should be on the table. (Popular Science)

UTILITIES: Investor-owned electric and gas utilities paid their CEOs a total of $2.7 billion between 2017 and 2021, with total compensation more than rebounding in 2021 after a 2020 slump. (Energy and Policy Institute)

BATTERIES:
• Arguments conclude in an Indigenous and environmentalist advocates’ lawsuit aimed at blocking the proposed Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada, leaving the case in a federal judge’s hands. (NPR)
• Georgia, Kentucky and Michigan are expected to be dominant players in electric vehicle battery manufacturing by 2030. (CNBC)

CLIMATE: Sending climate aid to developing countries is one of the cheapest ways for the U.S. to reduce its own climate vulnerability, experts and advocates argue. (E&E News)

CRYPTOCURRENCY: Environmentalists want New York’s partial cryptocurrency mining ban to serve as a model for other states as it drives several mining companies to relocate. (Politico New York)

COMMENTARY: A successful, equitable phaseout of coal power will require billions of dollars of effective financing, two clean energy advocates write. (Canary Media)