Current Climate: EPA’s Key Climate Power Is In Danger

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USclimate policy, already battered by Trump Administration moves to end federal support for clean energy, abandon the Paris Agreement and set new restrictions on government scientists from working directly with the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change, could see another major setback.

Lee Zeldin, the newly appointed administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is privately urging the White House to abandon EPA’s 2009 scientific determination that planet-warming greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare, according to reports by the Washington Post and Associated Press.

Eliminating the so-called endangerment finding would be an unprecedented move by the head of an agency whose core mission is to ensure a clean, healthy environment for Americans. It comes at a time when the worsening impacts of carbon pollution have never been clearer, ranging from record-high temperatures year after year, monster, drought-fueled wildfires like those that ravaged Los Angeles in January or 2024’s unprecedented hurricane damage in Asheville, North Carolina, and the surrounding area, a region that until recently was considered a climate haven.

So far, all Trump’s climate moves, including the endangerment finding rollback, appear to come directly from the controversial Project 2025 that he claimed no connection with during last year’s presidential campaign. If he backs the reversal, the matter will likely end up in the Supreme Court, whose ruling on the 2007 Massachusetts v. EPA case is its legal basis. And based on its current makeup, it could greenlight Zeldin’s plan.

“The majority that decided Massachusetts v. EPA is long gone,” Ann Carlson, a professor of environmental law at UCLA, wrote in a blog post. “John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas all dissented in the case, including on the grounds that greenhouse gases aren’t pollutants under the Clean Air Act. As a judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, Brett Kavanaugh made his disagreement with Mass v. EPA well known. It’s hard to imagine Neil Gorsuch disagreeing with his conservative brethren.”

“One can imagine a majority of the Court using a case involving the endangerment finding to revisit and overrule Mass v EPA,” she said.

The Big Read

Competing With $1/Gallon Gas—The Strange Non-Economics Of EV Charging

The planned electric vehicle transition needs charging, but a great deal of planning and spending is being done by people who don’t understand how different their economics are from the gasoline industry—mostly people who don’t own an EV, but even a few who do.

While the mistake is often best called “gasoline thinking”—seeing the world in terms of filling the gas tank—it turns out that some gasoline analogies can help explain just how strange the economics are, and why it’s so hard to make charging a business.

One challenge of the public charging business is that some companies are effectively hoping to open gas stations that charge $4/gallon in a world where 80% of the drivers have a private station in their homes where it costs the gallon equivalent of $1.20.

You’re only going to get those who have no other choice, and they’re going to resent it.

Read more here

Hot Topic

Monarch Tractor CEO and cofounder Praveen Penmetsa on how electric, autonomous tractors help farmers

How has the business evolved since sales began a couple of years ago?

More than 500-plus farmers have already purchased our machines, and they’ve used them for more than 70,000 hours. We’re excited about the savings that we are bringing to our farmers, and also the sustainability in terms of removing emissions that are generated by farm activities.

How is your tractor actually saving farmers money and time?

It saves just on the electricity side. Farmers save $7 to $12 an hour for every hour they use the tractor because of the diesel savings they see on the dollars and cents versus how much they pay for electricity. That number varies based on which state you’re in and how much your electricity charges are.

On the autonomous side, we’ve started to roll out our autonomous features in a phased manner. A number of our customers are now starting to use some of our driver-assist features and some of our automation features, saving them labor costs and bringing labor efficiency.

Did making the Forbes Next Billion Dollar Startups list in 2023 have any impact on the business?

Yes, 100%. Agriculture and food security are still very much a news item. Thanks to Forbes shining a light on how important food security is, which is the amount of nutritious food that we can grow, but also how important farmer profitability is has been a big support for us.

Last year, in the middle of 2024, Monarch raised a very large investment round, one of the largest in the field of agricultural robotics, which positions Monarch as the leader in this space. We are excited to have folks support us in bringing this important, critical item of food security and food sustainability to mainstream attention.

See the interview here

What Else We’re Reading

Snowmobiling enters a shaky era. Warmer winters are part of the reason two of the biggest makers of snowmobiles are getting out of the business. (Michigan Public Radio)

‘Cruel and thoughtless’: Trump fires hundreds at US climate agency NOAA. Employees were informed by email that their jobs would be cut off at the end of Thursday in a move a worker called ‘wrong all around’ (The Guardian)

Trump paralyzes the U.S. wind power industry. The president, who despises wind turbines, has paused federal permits and leasing for such projects, putting company plans in limbo (Wall Street Journal)

She lobbied for a carcinogen. Now she’s at the EPA approving new chemicals. Lynn Dekleva, who recently took a senior role at the agency, once led an aggressive effort by industry to block regulations on formaldehyde. (New York Times)

Samsung Heavy Industries is developing ships to run on green ammonia, which is 100% cleaner than current ships powered by liquefied natural gas. (Forbes)

Data centers are overwhelming the grid. Could they help it instead? The boom in AI and data centers could drive increased reliance on fossil fuels. But there are better, cleaner options. (Canary Media)

Trial over Greenpeace’s role in pipeline protest begins. Energy Transfer, which owns the Dakota Access Pipeline, is seeking $300 million, a sum that Greenpeace says could bankrupt the storied environmental group. (New York Times)

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