Originally posted on old Community by: Tony Sirna. Links may no longer be active
Hi Folks, After getting some new information about the current state of climate regulations under the Clean Air Act we have updated some of our info about the regulatory provisions of our bill. On the Energy Innovation Act - How it Works page it now says:Regulatory Adjustment This policy preserves effective current regulations, like auto mileage standards, but pauses the EPA authority to regulate the CO2 and equivalent emissions covered by the fee, for the first 10 years after the policy is enacted. If emission targets are not being met after 10 years, Congress gives clear direction to the EPA to regulate those emissions to meet those targets. The pause does not impact EPA regulations related to water quality, air quality, health or other issues. This policy’s price on pollution will lower carbon emissions far more than existing and pending EPA regulations. You'll find identical language on the Citizens' Climate Lobby site and the bill Fact Sheet. We've provided even more details in the bill Energy Innovation Act Q&A question 2.10. The main change is that we incorrectly thought that there were no regulations currently in place on greenhouse gases (GHG) under the Clean Air Act. We thought the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards on vehicles were based only on fuel economy via the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and that the the Clean Power Plan (CPP) was not in force (nor is its replacement). It turns out that the CAFE standards are a joint regulation from the NHTSA and the EPA (which covers them for GHG). Plus there is another set of GHG regulations related to permitting rules for new industrial plants and for major plant modifications referred to as ‘New Source Performance Standards’ (NSPS). So we had to update our materials reflect this new information. See the Energy Innovation Act Q&A for more info. We apologize for any confusion and misinformation. Please consider reprinting Fact Sheets and updating other documents as needed. If you have questions please ask them here and we will do our best to answer them. Thanks, Tony
Originally posted on old Community by: Tony Sirna. Links may no longer be active
So just to clarify: Would the CAFE standards still be in effect or not? If they would still be in effect, would this bill change how stringent they could become?
Originally posted on old Community. Links may no longer be active.
Thank you Terry for your request for versioning updates moving forward - know that while we won't be able to include the date in the name of the document we are looking into other options for indicating revision dates to help with tracking changes. Thank you Cathy for asking for more clarity behind the legislation's interaction with CAFE standards. Let us know if this additional information from the Energy Innovation Act Q&A speaks to your question:This bill explicitly preserves the limits on greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles that are part of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards, including California’s waiver to apply more stringent emission standards. This policy would not touch regulations affecting pollutants like NOx, sulfur, ozone, particulates, and mercury; CAFE mileage standards for cars and trucks; GHG authority over non-road vehicles and aircra; and the methane abatement program that applies to the oil and gas industry. Additionally, states would retain authority to pass GHG regulations within their borders
There's a couple of ways we're trying to make sure that training opportunities can be found afterwards if folks can't make the event live.
Feel free to try out any of the three listed here and let us know any questions:
1. The Training Topics homepage features a "Recent Trainings" block here that lists the two most recent weeks trainings and is kept up to date.
2. You can always use the General Search feature with keywords - i.e. here's the results from "regulations" including Ross Astoria's training you're referencing:
https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/261
3. You can also search the Events calendar for recent webinars listed from both CCL national trainings as well as action team meetings, etc. The events that we host for CCL trainings will have the link to the updated recording posted in the description and comments field like the Greenhouse Gas Regulation training you're referring to.
4. Feel free to browse the trainings as well. This one focused on exploring carbon fee and dividend type policies so it was housed in the Understanding Carbon Fee & Dividend topic category.
And, include the increased ramping of price starting in 5? years if targets aren't met, and that not only does the bill restore EPA authority after 10 years, it MANDATES that the EPA act to achieve the cumulative required reductions:
"
and
‘‘(B) the Administrator shall—
‘‘(i) issue such regulations as the Ad-
ministrator deems necessary to bring greenhouse gas emissions from covered fuels subject to taxation under section 9902 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to levels that are at or below the emission reductions targets in section 9903(a)(2) of such Code; and
‘‘(ii) require in such regulations that additional reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are achieved to fully compensate for any amount by which greenhouse gas emissions from covered fuels subject to taxation under section 9902 of such Code have exceeded the targets in section 9903(a)(2) of such Code.
Thanks for posting this! We really appreciate your feedback! I've passed on your request to the Design Team we'll keep the thread posted when we know more about what's possible.
Thanks so much!
Adeline
Ventura, CA 93001
Thank you.
jan
In this thread, Tony said "It turns out that the CAFE standards are a joint regulation from the NHTSA and the EPA (which covers them for GHG)."
In the FAQs that the thread refers to it says this: "This bill explicitly preserves federal authority over greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles that are part of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards, including California’s waiver to apply more stringent emission standards."
I assume that what's in the FAQs is the current understanding, even though Tony implied that the CAFE standards might be affected.
Do I have that right?
I'm copying Tony Sirna and Rick Knight to make sure that one of them can address your important distinction!
The EPA authority in regards to CAFE standards are explicitly preserved in the bill.
What needed to be corrected was our top level description that erroneously said that there were no existing policies in effect based on GHG emissions, when in fact the CAFE standards are a joint standard of the EPA (based on GHG) and NHTSA (based on fuel economy). So we were wrong to say nothing is currently in place. We were correct to say that the EPA's powers related to the CAFE standards are explicitly preserved in the bill.
Tony
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