Greenhouse Gas Policy in the New Federal Administration
Clean Air Council, Clean Air Task Force, Earthjustice, and Earthworks will discuss the new federal administration’s possible paths to reducing greenhouse gas pollution in 2021, with opportunities for questions.
Who: Lauren Pagel, Policy Director, Earthworks
Caitlin Miller, Associate Attorney, Earthjustice
Lesley Fleischman, Policy Analyst, Clean Air Task Force
Robert Routh, Public Policy and Regulatory Attorney, Clean Air Council
Clean Air Council, Clean Air Task Force, Earthjustice, and Earthworks all work to reduce greenhouse gas pollution by supporting federal emissions limits for fossil fuel infrastructure. Earthworks recently published a study that determined while 8 major oil and gas companies have made public climate commitments, in the last 3 years no voluntary corporate commitments have resulted in reductions of methane pollution from oil and gas extraction sites. The Dornslife School of Public Health at Drexel University just published a study concluding that “exposure to fracking activity may increase heart failure hospitalizations across large regions.”
Policy experts from each organization will discuss their priorities for addressing climate change in the upcoming 117th Congress. Many see passing the “American Energy Innovation Act” as a major priority for the Senate in 2021, with added pressure on passing an additional green infrastructure bill.
The National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI) has concluded that this year the U.S. has already witnessed 16 weather and climate related disasters that each cost at least a billion dollars in damages. NCEI expects to break previous 2011 and 2017 records for billion dollar weather events. The U.S. annual average is 6.6 events. This year the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also observed the second lowest arctic sea ice coverage ever on September 15th.
President-Elect Joe Biden has already announced that within his first 100 days in office the U.S. will hold a global climate summit as the nation rejoins the Paris agreement and considers a path to avoiding the worst effects of climate change.
This is an incredibly complex time for air pollution regulations. The Trump administration has declined to update the current particulate matter 2.5 standard, last updated in 2012, even though U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) staff estimated that an updated standard could save the lives of 12,500 U.S. residents a year.
The Trump administration also finalized a dangerous new rule that allows the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ignore the indirect health benefits, called co-benefits, of individual air pollution regulations. Correctly accounting for the total benefits of reducing air pollution is vital to finalizing comprehensive regulations.
The Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states are also considering a regional cap on transportation pollution in the form of the Transportation Climate Initiative as Pennsylvania considers becoming the largest electricity producing state to enter the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).
Please join us to discuss the future of greenhouse gas regulations.
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The Clean Air Council is a member- supported, non-profit environmental organization dedicated to protecting everyone’s right to breathe clean air. The Council is headquartered in Philadelphia and works through public education, community organizing, advocacy, and government oversight to ensure enforcement of environmental laws. For more information, please visit www.cleanair.org.
