Latest news with #CamillevonKaenel
Politico
03-07-2025
- Automotive
- Politico
Jumping fuel prices are a gas, gas, gas
With help from Camille von Kaenel STEPPING ON THE GAS: Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Donald Trump are both basking in relatively low gas prices ahead of one of the country's biggest driving weekends. But California regulators and lawmakers are also desperately scrambling to keep gas prices steady in an acknowledgement that Republican political attacks on the issue are sticking. Tuesday could have been a doozy, after both the state's annual gas tax hike and closely watched amendments to the low-carbon fuel standard aimed at hastening the transition away from fossil fuels took effect — and didn't cause an immediate spike in gas prices. 'Republicans spent the last 6 months fearmongering that gasoline prices would 'increase by 65 cents on July 1,'' Newsom's office said in a press release Wednesday, pointing to data from AAA. 'Did this happen? The answer: No.' But lawmakers are getting impatient. They advanced a bill Wednesday that would have the state immediately allow suppliers to blend more ethanol into gasoline — 15 percent, up from a limit of 10 percent now. The move would make California the last state to switch to E15, a blend that a study last year by UC Berkeley and US Naval Academy economists found could lower gasoline prices by 20 cents per gallon. It's something the California Air Resources Board has been studying since 2018 but hasn't yet greenlit. Ethanol, while less carbon-intensive than gasoline, comes with separate concerns related to growing corn for production. Assemblymember David Alvarez said needs to pick up the slack. 'The reason this bill is needed is due to regulatory delays that we've seen from the Air Resources Board,' he said at today's hearing. CARB didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. But the concept dovetails with Newsom's budget language, which gives $2.3 million to help CARB finish the job. Another idea, floated by Senate Democrats last week in a sweeping bill that also took aim at the low-carbon fuel standard, is to move away from another of the state's bespoke gasoline formulations: CARBOB, a '90s-era summer blend aimed at reducing smog, in favor of a West-wide blend that refineries in neighboring states would also produce. That West-wide fuel standard concept has garnered a surprising amount of interest among environmental and clean transportation groups. 'I do think it's something worth examining,' said Katelyn Roedner, California director for the Environmental Defense Fund. 'Do we still need a special blend?' And the E15 idea is getting good reviews, too. 'Generally speaking, it makes a lot of sense, provided we do it in a way that doesn't require expanding ethanol production capacity,' said Colin Murphy, co-director of the Low Carbon Fuel Policy Research Initiative at Davis' Institute of Transportation Studies. But neither is a quick fix. If California moves away from its low-smog formulation toward more reliance on outside sources, it would need to quickly build up its capacity to import more fuel while making sure not to undercut in-state refineries and potentially create more closures, Murphy said. It's unclear, so far, what other states think of the idea, which would hinge on their buy-in to pull off. Spokespeople for the governor's office in Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the bill. But Arizona and Nevada rely on California for gasoline supplies and are the most likely candidates to have open ears. The governors of both states jumped into the Sacramento fray last year, lobbying against a special session bill that requires refineries to maintain backup fuel supplies for when facilities go down for maintenance. And CARB cautioned that its E15 rulemaking could still take a while. CARB spokesperson Lindsay Buckley said that process could be finished sometime in 2026, 'assuming we get the staff and are able to start the rulemaking process later this year.' — AN Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here! CEQA HANGOVER: State lawmakers are still advancing a suite of one-off bills poking holes into environmental reviews days after Newsom signed a sweeping overhaul of the California Environmental Quality Act in the name of speeding up housing development — though at least one said she's had enough. 'At least for me personally, it's going to be very difficult for me to support any CEQA exemption or streamlining bills moving forward, just because I think we need to tip the balance the other way now, just because CEQA has been really dismantled,' Sen. Caroline Menjivar said at a Wednesday hearing on several more of them. Menjivar voted for the CEQA overhaul on Monday but declined to support bills waiving more environmental reviews for wildfire prevention projects near evacuation routes and for exploratory geothermal energy projects in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee on Wednesday. Both bills passed with little to no other opposition. — CvK SUN BURN: The board of a powerful irrigation district in the desert of Southern California has had enough with solar panels replacing crops. The Imperial Irrigation District passed a resolution on Tuesday opposing new utility-scale renewable energy development on farmland in the Imperial Valley, where farmers grow alfalfa, lettuce and other crops but face increasing water restrictions that have forced some to leave their fields fallow. Renewable energy developers see potential in the desert region's open spaces and have already covered nearly three percent of the region's total farmland with solar panels. 'It's time to draw a line,' said IID vice chair JB Hamby. 'Farmland in the Imperial Valley feeds this country and anchors our economy. … We support renewable energy — just not at the expense of our future.' Hamby is currently locked in multi-state negotiations over dwindling Colorado River supplies, which irrigate the Imperial Valley's farmland. The irrigation district will pass along its recommendation to local, state and federal land use decision makers, including the Imperial County Board of Supervisors. — CvK GRID GAMES, CONT: The Public Advocates Office, an independent organization within California's utility regulator that lobbies on behalf of ratepayers, has taken its stand on a controversial grid regionalization proposal winding its way through the state Legislature: yes, if amended. The position, detailed in a letter on Friday, matters because the proposal has divided environmental and ratepayer groups, with some saying the proposal would reduce costs and improve grid reliability and others saying it could undercut California's renewable energy goals. The director of the Public Advocate's Office, Linda Serizawa, is largely taking the side of the business and utility groups who want to see state lawmakers reverse recent amendments to the bill. Those amendments gave California more control of the regionalization, but Serizawa wrote that may risk alienating other states interested in linking up with California. — CvK — Tesla posted another drop in vehicle deliveries for the second quarter of 2025. — Between rising seas and raging wildfires, California may be running out of safe places to build the housing it needs. — Recycling firm Redwood Materials is hooking up used electric vehicle batteries and solar panels to power a data center in Reno, Nevada.
Politico
26-06-2025
- Business
- Politico
Labor and enviros take it to the parking lot
With help from Camille von Kaenel THIS WAY OR THE HIGHWAY: The fight over California's highway expansion efforts is entering the affordability arena. Environmental groups and labor unions plan to fill the Sacramento Convention Center tomorrow in a face-off over roughly $600 million in funding for six highway projects ranging from the Bay Area to Los Angeles County. The California Transportation Commission is expected to approve the slate of projects, which have been in the pipeline for years and already have sign-off from Caltrans. But environmental groups say they plan to use the moment to unveil a change in strategy: talk less about pollution, and more about keeping dollars in people's pockets. 'Driving is the most expensive way to get around,' said Jeanie Ward-Waller, director of ClimatePlan and a former Caltrans official who sued the agency after saying she was demoted for objecting to highway expansion plans. 'Owning a car, maintaining a car, putting gas in your car. There's so much focus right now on gas prices, and we're not doing anything to give people affordable options.' It's the next chapter of a fight at the typically sleepy California Transportation Commission that started playing out last year over $200 million to widen I-15 in the Inland Empire, which ended with former commissioner Joe Lyou, president and CEO at Coalition for Clean Air, blasting his colleagues from the dais. Greens are hoping to keep the agency in the spotlight by arguing that road-widening is part of the affordability agenda that's taken Sacramento by storm. They're tying it to the same angst around high gas prices, housing costs and food prices that's shifted the political discourse around climate from an emphasis on reducing emissions to helping Californians afford living in the state. (Look no further than the bill introduced Tuesday that takes aim at the state's emissions market for transportation fuels.) The construction labor unions that build and maintain California's expansive highway system aren't buying it. Michael Quigley, executive director of the California Alliance for Jobs, which represents carpenters, laborers, contractors and other construction unions, called enviros' opposition to highway projects a political ideology that's not rooted in concerns about costs. 'Historically, infrastructure has not been such a politicized issue,' Quigley said. 'I think it goes back to the philosophical disconnect between the people who have postgraduate degrees in environmentalism seeking to impose policies and programs that make it harder to live for working Californians.' While environmental groups are leaning hard into the affordability rhetoric, they're less worried about the threat of federal funding linked to pollution standards being held up. That's because if President Donald Trump has his way, California officials could be forced to think about their transportation infrastructure strategy sooner rather than later. EPA could soon attempt to sanction California for failing to meet federal air quality standards under the Clean Air Act — something that's all but assured after Republicans revoked California's authority to enforce its vehicle emissions rules. That would put billions of federal highway dollars at risk, and CARB Chair Liane Randolph told lawmakers last month that the loss of the waivers would mean they'd have to think hard about spending more on public transit and things like electric vehicle incentives to reduce pollution. From Ward-Waller's perspective, that's a potential win. 'For the funds that are being used to expand highways, good riddance,' she said. — AN Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here! FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN: Could $9 million in fuel breaks have slowed the Eaton Fire enough for firefighters to evacuate Altadena residents and prevent damage to homes? It's hard to know for sure, but that's the case made by new research from analytics firm Vibrant Planet, shared exclusively with California Climate. The findings use Vibrant Planet's wildfire behavior model to highlight how preventative landscape-scale treatments can avoid losses in the case of a fire. For example, the model determined that $15.3 million spent around Boulder, Colorado, in prescribed fire and both commercial and non-commercial vegetation trimming could reduce structure losses by 62.9 percent in case of a fire sparking in the forest, avoiding $123 million in losses. The data is part of a pitch for more investment in wildfire prevention and fewer limits on the treatments. On Thursday, Vibrant Planet CEO Allison Wolff is scheduled to testify to Congress on wildfire technology and her support of the Fix our Forests Act, a bipartisan bill that passed the House and is pending in the Senate. — CvK TURN ON THE POWER: Over a dozen blue states are about to have their federal electric vehicle charging taps turned back on. A Washington federal judge late Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from freezing funding approved under President Joe Biden through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, POLITICO's James Bikales reports. That funding won't restart immediately, as Judge Tana Lin issued a seven-day stay pending an appeal by the government. Trump's Department of Transportation suspended all new spending through the $5 billion program in February, arguing that it was reviewing the funding criteria. That pushed some states, like Michigan and Vermont, to pause their NEVI programs, though California did not cancel its first round of nearly $33 million in awards. California charger operators say that while the $352 million in NEVI funds the state is slated to receive is dwarfed by in-state and private resources, the program incentivizes building in less profitable rural areas. — AN DRAMA IN THE FAST LANE: Senate Republicans' budget wonk is raising a red flag over a plan to use gas tax dollars to create temporary priority lanes for athletes and officials during the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Sen. Roger Niello, vice chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, said in an interview that he's not opposed to spending in support of the Olympics, but pushed back on the budget item being included late in the cycle without debate in prior committees. Democrats' budget would tap $17 million from the State Highway Account, which is funded by gas taxes, to help Caltrans design a transportation network for the Olympics. (The agency could request up to $20 million more as needed.) That would include temporarily converting carpool and toll lanes for use only by approved vehicles, and new digital signage alerting residents to the changes. Niello contended that gas taxes are for new construction and repairs, and suggested that the state could instead offer Los Angeles a loan to be repaid if the games prove profitable. 'I can certainly see the need for lane repurposing to help traffic move more smoothly,' Niello said. 'But the problem is it will be exactly the same transportation infrastructure once they're done.' — AN IT'S NOT ALL BAD: The death of California's electric vehicle waiver and potential loss of federal tax credits have EV makers in a bind, but Cox Automotive analysts say it's not all doom and gloom for the market. Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive, said during the company's mid-year review of the auto industry Wednesday that rapid expansion of EV options on the market offers 'a bright spot that signals long-term strength.' Streaty cautioned, however, that while more market maturity is a 'win for consumers', it does pose challenges for companies that now have to deal with more supply chain constraints in trying to build out so many different models. But she said the tradeoff is that more car buyers can now find an EV model that fits their 'lifestyle, budget and brand preference.' Streaty's assessment of the EV market comes amid concerns about the overall health of the auto industry. That has largely been driven by Trump's 25 percent tariff on imported cars and parts, which automakers warn will drive down supply and raise prices. — AN — A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled that California's insurer of last resort is violating state law by mishandling smoke damage claims after the Los Angeles fires. — Tech companies have put nearly half of their data centers in water-scarce regions. — A Houston-based startup is testing oil-eating microbes in a retired California oilfield.
Politico
25-06-2025
- Business
- Politico
Democrats take on their problem climate policy
With help from Camille von Kaenel, Anne C. Mulkern and Chelsea Harvey CARBON CURVEBALL: President Donald Trump is threatening California's marquee carbon-trading program. But it's in-state Democrats who are taking aim at the state's other emissions market for transportation fuels. Credit prices in California's low-carbon fuels market dropped $4 per ton Tuesday morning on the recognition of a credible threat in SB 237, a bill introduced overnight that would cap prices instead of letting them rise as planned in service of encouraging refiners to sell more biofuels, electricity and other non-fossil fuels. This isn't some potshot from marginalized Republicans — it's a gut-and-amend bill from seven Democratic senators during the thick of the legislative session, blessed by Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire. 'This critical legislation will reduce costs for drivers across the Golden State while continuing to move our climate and energy goals full steam ahead,' McGuire said in a statement. And it's not all moderate Democrats, either — besides Sens. Tim Grayson, Anna Caballero and Melissa Hurtado, Sen. Jesse Arreguín, a former Berkeley mayor, is signed on, as is Sen. Jerry McNerney, a freshman and eight-term U.S. House member who was known for being Congress' 'science guy." The bill is a grab bag of measures to address gas prices, along the lines of another sprawling affordability bill this session, Sen. Josh Becker's SB 254. In addition to capping credit prices at roughly $75 per ton, with increases pegged to inflation, it would also push state officials to ditch California's unique, lower-emission gasoline blend in favor of a broader, West-wide standard. It would also offer refiners a 'one-stop shop' for environmental permitting and impose more state oversight of any future rules that affect retail fuel prices. The bill is already triggering some odd-bedfellows alliances. The petroleum industry's main trade group, the Western States Petroleum Association, supports it — but so do environmental justice advocates who have long opposed the fuel market's incentives for dairy farms that capture their methane emissions and sell it for electricity. So does at least one sitting member of the state agency that put the policy in place. 'This isn't a surrender,' said Dean Florez, a member of the California Air Resources Board and a former state lawmaker from Bakersfield. 'It's a reality check. When credit prices spike so high they quietly tack 85 cents onto a gallon of gas, people stop believing that the green future includes them.' But other environmentalists are concerned about losing another climate policy in the state's toolbox, right after Trump revoked the state's permission to enforce its nation-leading electric vehicle targets. 'Why would we handcuff ourselves by not using a key policy to address transportation, the single largest emitting sector in California?' asked Katelyn Roedner Sutter, California director for the Environmental Defense Fund. For Gov. Gavin Newsom — who's beat up on oil companies but then instructed his California Energy Commission to try to keep refiners from leaving after two of them subsequently announced departure plans — the bill could cut both ways. (Newsom's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.) It puts a spotlight on the state's perpetually high gas prices and reopens a wound from last year, when lawmakers hit CARB over its admission and subsequent walkback of its estimate that the program could raise gas prices by 47 cents per gallon. But it could also help close another wound from last year, when neighboring governors whose states depend on California gas publicly complained about Newsom's bill to have refiners keep more supplies on hand in the event of outages. There's surprisingly wide agreement that California's custom blend of gasoline, formulated to reduce smog in the summer, might not need to be so uniquely tailored. Dan Sperling, a former CARB board member and director of the University of California, Davis' Institute for Transportation Studies, said broadening the market to align with the fuel used in other Western states would bring down prices and reduce the impact of refinery closures, while having minimal effect on emissions. 'If you can make some minor modifications and open up the market to more refiners outside California, then the concern about refiners leaving goes away,' he said. Grayson acknowledged things could change. 'Details of the policy are up for negotiation, but I will be fighting to ensure that we get needed change for Californians who are fed up with our fuel economy,' he said in a statement. But the mere fact of the bill is already juicing conversations about how it could interact with the ongoing negotiations to reauthorize the state's other carbon price, its cap-and-trade program. Environmental justice advocates are hoping it will count as a win for industry and moderate Democrats so they'll soften their opposition to proposed cap-and-trade changes like eliminating offsets. 'It's not really benefiting us and it is costing us, and we'd rather see that [price] go down than cap and trade go down,' said Katie Valenzuela, a consultant for environmental justice groups. — DK, AN, CvK Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here! SPEAKING OF CARBON MARKETS: Global carbon trading markets and tax policies are quickly expanding, thanks in large part to China. China, the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, has recently extended its emissions-limiting program beyond the power sector to cover cement, steel and aluminum production. That move means that 40 percent of global industrial emissions are now taxed or regulated by carbon markets, according to a new World Bank report. Carbon markets are expected to see continued growth as Brazil, India and Turkey plan to add their own programs, Anne C. Mulkern reports for POLITICO's E&E News. The quality of those carbon markets, however, is questionable, according to Danny Cullenward, a carbon market economist at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and vice-chair of CARB's own Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee. 'There are a lot of markets with low prices,' he said. 'There are very few programs that have a substantial impact in terms of either having a meaningful carbon price or contributing meaningfully to emission reductions.' — AN JUST SIGN HERE: Legislative leaders and Newsom decided to compromise on funding Cal Fire as part of their overall budget agreement released on Tuesday. Newsom had wanted to spend $1.5 billion of the revenues from the state's cap-and-trade program on backfilling a general fund cut to Cal Fire amid a wider state deficit; state lawmakers wanted to reduce that to only $500 million, arguing Cal Fire is too essential to be funded with sometimes fickle cap-and-trade revenues. Ultimately, they agreed to $1 billion. Still largely unresolved: Sen. Scott Wiener's proposal to exempt many types of urban housing projects from environmental review. Lawmakers are expected to fill in the details and take up the proposal later this week. — CvK MOSTLY GOOD NEWS ON GROUNDWATER: California's groundwater grew by 2.2 million acre-feet over the 2024 water year — about equivalent to half the storage capacity at Shasta Lake, the largest aboveground reservoir in the state. The new numbers come from the Department of Water Resources' semi-annual groundwater report published Tuesday. State water officials attribute the growth to two major reasons: First, California had about average precipitation levels over the 12 months from October 2023 to October 2024, avoiding the pressures of drought for a second year in a row. Second, farmers and local water officials have increased their efforts to send water underground and slow overpumping to meet a milestone law requiring groundwater levels to stabilize by 2040, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. For only the second time since the state started counting, more wells last fall had increases in their water levels over the past ten years than decreases (the first time was in the spring of 2024.) To be sure, California isn't out of the woods on groundwater yet. Farmers and individuals used 11.7 million acre-feet of groundwater last year to meet roughly 40 percent of the state's overall needs — far more than they used during the exceptionally wet 2023 water year, which saw groundwater grow by four times as much as in 2024, but far less than what they usually use during drought years. The first half of 2025 has been drier, especially in the southern part of the state where overpumping is most critical and still causing land subsidence. — CvK HEAT'S ON: A new dashboard launched Tuesday by the Latino Policy and Politics Institute at UCLA shows just how much more Latino neighborhoods face extreme heat and air pollution than their non-Latino White counterparts — and suffer worse health outcomes as a result, writes Chelsea Harvey of POLITICO's E&E News. In Los Angeles County, for instance, 25 percent of workers in Latino neighborhoods are employed in heat-exposed industries, such as agriculture or construction. That's compared with just 8 percent of workers in non-Latino White neighborhoods. And 13 percent of adults in Latino neighborhoods in Los Angeles County live with diabetes, compared with 8 percent of adults in non-Latino White neighborhoods. Adults with diabetes are at greater risk of complications from exposure to extreme heat. — California politicians harbor an implicit belief that producing movies is more important than producing food, opines Dan Walters in CalMatters. — Catherine Reheis-Boyd, departing CEO and President of the Western States Petroleum Association, does an exit interview with VerdeXchange News after 45 years in the industry. — Trump's bid to repeal the 'roadless rule' protecting national forests has a long road ahead indeed.
Politico
20-06-2025
- Politics
- Politico
NASA's space station blues
With help from John Hendel, Camille von Kaenel and Tyler Katzenberger WELCOME TO POLITICO PRO SPACE. I've been reading how rocket science pioneer Wernher von Braun first floated the idea for what would become NASA's International Space Station in 1952. Check out the wild illustrations. What do you think the U.S. needs in a space station? Email me at sskove@ with tips, pitches and feedback, and find me on X at @samuelskove. And remember, we're offering this newsletter for free over the next few weeks. After that, it will be available only to POLITICO Pro subscribers. Read all about it here. The Spotlight After two billion miles and nearly three decades, NASA is ready to trade in its old, leaky space station for a flashy new one. The problem: NASA can't decide what it wants. A sleek research base? A bare bones structure? A hotel where tourists rub shoulders with astronauts? The indecision could bankrupt space companies, crank up tensions with Congress and leave astronauts without a long-term home in near-Earth orbit. The International Space Station is essential for research that could lead to humans living in space, as well as thousands of other science experiments that inform everything from cancer treatments to robotics. Tell you what I want: NASA is supposed to give companies a peek by late June at what it wants in a space station. The agency would like a commercially-operated one in orbit by 2029, and aims to crash the ISS into the ocean in 2031. These plans became even more critical this month after an air leak on its space station delayed the visit of four astronauts. NASA, at the last minute, canceled a long-planned May event to discuss its goals for a new one, an ominous sign of the space agency's commitment to the mission. The meeting was supposed to help lay the groundwork for what NASA would ask for in June, but officials haven't rescheduled it. The only language companies have to go on — such as 'solve Earth's challenges' — is vague at best. Businesses that hope to make millions off space stations want clarity in order to lure investors and spend wisely. 'Companies can raise the capital necessary to build and launch a space station, but only if the U.S. government makes the plan clear,' said Jared Stout, chief global policy officer at space station company Axiom. About your old ride: Congress is also worried. 'We're all anxious to see that [request for proposal] come out sometime this summer,' said a Senate Republican Committee aide, granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. 'We really do need to start seeing NASA make some serious moves here.' Lawmakers are talking with NASA about the program to ensure it stays on track, the aide said. But if the space agency fails to make headway by early fall, when NASA faces a deadline to make clear what it wants, they may consider more serious levels of oversight. (Think hearings or rearranging funding.) They may be waiting awhile. NASA is operating with only an acting administrator until at least the fall, and isn't getting much direction from the White House. That makes it tough for the agency to move forward with any major decisions. NASA didn't respond to our requests for comment. Out of gas: The longer NASA waits, the fewer bidders it will have left. Space stations are expensive. Axiom estimates a four-module station costs $3 billion. NASA only forks out a few hundred million dollars each year in awards. That means companies have to win over the handful of investors who have both the deep pockets and risk tolerance to bet on a space station, said Alex MacDonald, NASA's former chief economist. NASA's refusal so far to choose one or two companies is another potential problem for investors, he said, as it makes it less clear who to bet on. The ISS can limp along for a bit longer. The station could even extend its service life past 2030, although a lack of spare parts will make it increasingly hard to run. Eventually, the bill will come due — and a bold experiment in living in space may grind to an end. Spectrum SKY HIGH DREAMS FOR BROADBAND: Elon Musk, who has had a tough month, may finally get a win. The Trump administration just handed satellite companies a victory in overhauling a $42 billion program meant to expand internet to underserved areas. Give satellite a chance: The original version of the infrastructure grant program relegated satellite broadband to a lower status reserved for extremely remote regions. The new rules, released June 6 and spearheaded by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, wipe out technology preferences. They put satellites on par with fiber, wireless and other tech. Lutnick stressed a desire to make deployments 'cheap.' That could benefit Musk's satellite broadband offering, Starlink, and possibly Project Kuiper, a similar service from Amazon that's yet to sign up private customers. States have a say too, though, and can choose not to spend the money on satellites. Funny timing: Another curious detail: The program's satellite-friendly revamp arrived right after President Donald Trump threatened Musk's government subsidies, seemingly undercutting the seriousness of the president's promise to hurt his former ally's business. The administration wouldn't say whether the White House is considering further changes but stressed it's 'exploring all options' to deliver broadband effectively. Some states were scheduled to begin installing internet networks this year, but the overhaul bumped that into at least 2026. Lutnick said he hopes to release the money by year's end. Now or never: Some Republicans don't want to wait. 'I would rather have our money now,' Sen. Shelley Moore Capito ( a member of GOP leadership, told John. Advocacy groups and Democrats, meanwhile, worry who will actually benefit. 'It feels like they're just stalling things to reward some of their wealthy friends,' Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), the top Democrat on the telecom subcommittee, told John. In the States MUSK VS CALIFORNIA: One of Musk's favorite foes is under new leadership — and already girding itself for battle. California's Coastal Commission, which set off a row with the SpaceX founder last year when it rejected the company's plan for increased rocket launches, elected new leaders last week to help oversee the agency tasked with protecting the state's coast. That includes new chair Meagan Harmon, who hails from Santa Barbara County, home of Vandenberg Space Force Base, and vice chair Caryl Hart, a former parks director who also served as chair during the agency's SpaceX decision. As our own Camille von Kaenel reports, Hart acknowledged last week that 'this is a challenging time' for the commission, which both Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom also criticized over its SpaceX decision. See you in court: SpaceX launched a legal challenge against the agency, alleging 'naked political discrimination.' The case is still pending before a Trump-appointed judge. A Republican state lawmaker had tried to pass a bill to side with SpaceX and reverse the Coastal Commission's decision. But that Assembly member, Bill Essayli, has since been promoted by Trump to become a U.S. attorney for California's central district. His bill, to let SpaceX launch up to 14 more Falcon 9 rockets from Vandenberg each year, died after no other Republicans took it up, our own Tyler Katzenberger reports. That means the original decision stands, for now. Former Commission Chair Justin Cummings nodded at the hurdles ahead for the agency last week when welcoming the new leaders. 'This coming year is not going to be easy, and probably won't be easy for the next few years,' he told them. The Reading Room Satellite industry derides cuts as national security threat: POLITICO New NASA Boss May Not Take Over Until Next Year, Acting Head Says: Bloomberg Private Space Stations Are Racing to Be the Next 'It' Destination: The Wall Street Journal Varda to launch its first in-house built spacecraft for on-orbit manufacturing: SpaceNews Report Proposes Fixes For The Aerospace Talent Gap: Payload Event Horizon MONDAY: The Center for Strategic and International Studies holds a fireside chat with Air Marshal Paul Godfrey. TUESDAY: The Mitchell Institute holds a discussion with Dr. Kelly D. Hammett of the Space Force. WEDNESDAY: The 2025 SmallSat & Space Access Summit runs from Wednesday to Thursday. SpaceNews holds a discussion on geospatial intelligence. Photo of the Week
Politico
13-06-2025
- Automotive
- Politico
Los Angeles is about to get a lot smoggier
With help from Camille von Kaenel THE DAY AFTER: It's getting hotter in Los Angeles — and we're not talking about ICE raids or wildfires. President Donald Trump on Thursday killed California's vehicle emissions rules, designed to reduce emissions and pollution in smoggy regions like SoCal, delivering on his Day 1 executive order to quickly roll back electric vehicle mandates around the country. 'We officially rescue the U.S. auto industry from destruction by terminating California's electric vehicle mandate, once and for all,' Trump said at a White House ceremony before signing three resolutions nixing rules aimed at phasing out gas-powered cars and heavy-duty diesel trucks. Gov. Gavin Newsom offered a glimpse of California's next steps: Besides the obvious lawsuit (the state's 26th under Trump 2.0, for those keeping track at home), he put out an executive order to start developing new regulations — to be approved under a future Democratic administration — and start tracking which car and truck manufacturers are still following the state's ZEV sales targets. That data would be used to offer compliant companies preferential treatment, like incentives to encourage drivers to buy their vehicles. But there's very little the state can do in the near term to replace the rules aimed at weaning drivers off fossil fuels to meet lofty climate goals and reach federal pollution standards. 'It's impossible without unbelievably massive, draconian steps that are politically untenable, like no-drive days,' said Craig Segall, a former deputy executive officer at the California Air Resources Board and a policy consultant. Meanwhile, there's another threat coming. The Trump administration could attempt to sanction California for failing to meet federal air quality standards under the Clean Air Act — standards they've assured the state won't reach. As CARB Chair Liane Randolph cautioned state lawmakers during a hearing last month, it could be years before a court decision is reached, and the state will have to find alternatives or risk losing billions of federal highway dollars. That threat is especially acute for California, which has struggled for decades to reduce the nation's worst smog in the Los Angeles area and Central Valley and comply with the Clean Air Act. The American Lung Association released a report earlier this year that found California's now-dormant rules could have reduced 75 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides a day and saved residents billions in medical bills. If history holds, it may already be too late for state officials to avoid a fight with the EPA. The agency threatened sanctions against the state in 2019, during Trump's first term, just days after it revoked an earlier version of its electric vehicle rules. 'It is hard to imagine that they will not threaten sanctions,' said Ann Carlson, who led the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under then-President Joe Biden. 'The president clearly has it out for California, and Los Angeles is obviously in his sights.' EPA, when asked about the possibility of sanctions, said in a statement that it 'will continue to implement the Clean Air Act as provided in law and will continue to hope that California can get into attainment after decades of nonattainment.' The auto industry doesn't appear ready to strike a bargain with California. John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the industry's main trade group, blasted the state's rules in a statement, calling them 'harmful to auto affordability, to consumer choice, to industry competitiveness and to economic activity.' But California will have at least one car company on its side. Stellantis, which inked a deal last year to follow the EV rules even if they went away, reaffirmed its commitment Thursday. 'Stellantis continues to honor its agreement with CARB,' Stellantis spokesperson Jodi Tinson said in a statement. — AN Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here! QUICK JAB: Trump also used his White House signing ceremony to take a jab at Tesla CEO Elon Musk, with whom he's been beefing since the billionaire left his administration. 'Now we know why Elon doesn't like me so much,' Trump quipped during a wide-ranging that also touched on topics like inflation and his disdain for wind turbines. Trump later said that Musk never asked him to save EV rules and that 'he got a little bit strange' over other 'smaller things.' — AN DELAYS DELAYS: California officials are delaying some of their own climate rules, too. The California Public Utilities Commission decided to give builders a little more time to wean themselves off natural gas and propane Thursday when it pushed back the date by which it would end an incentive for buildings that use both natural gas or propane and electricity. Builders can now claim a subsidy for extending an electrical line to a building that also uses natural gas or propane until June 30, 2027, instead of June 30, 2025. The CPUC had decided to end the subsidy to subtly disincentivize the mixed-fuel buildings but pushed it back Thursday because of a 'material shortage in supply chain' and 'permitting delays,' according to a summary Thursday. Also this week: CalRecycle granted packaging manufacturers an 18-month extension Wednesday to meet new requirements to label products 'compostable,' citing the risk of market disruption and customer confusion. — CvK AND THEN THERE WERE THREE: Sacramento isn't the only West Coast state capital in a cap-and-trade debate. A bipartisan group of Oregon lawmakers is considering setting up a more robust carbon market, but can't agree how to spend the money, Anne C. Mulkern reports for POLITICO's E&E News. Oregon Republicans supported using market revenues for projects that include freeway widening. But a coalition of climate, health and disadvantaged community advocates are pushing back, saying larger highways would increase driving and planet-warming emissions. A cap-and-invest program approved by the state Legislature would likely replace a smaller carbon market set up by the state's environmental agency, which started in January. The Oregon lawmakers hope to have a framework by early 2026, when they reconvene for the next legislative session. — AM, CvK RAIL REBUFF: The leader of California's high-speed rail project is not giving up on $4 billion in federal grants quietly. High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Ian Choudri slammed the Trump administration in a letter Thursday, calling its justification for a proposed termination of Biden-era grants 'unfounded' and 'outright misleading.' 'Hostility to public investments in high-speed rail, and to California's leadership — hostility that dates back to FRA's initial attempt to revoke federal funding to the Program in May 2019 — appears to be the real basis for the proposed determination,' Choudri wrote, referring to the Trump administration's attempt to terminate a $1 billion grant during his first term. The Federal Railroad Administration announced earlier this month that it was prepared to claw back federal funding, arguing that the project has no viable path forward. The agency, in a 315-page report, said the rail line hadn't identified $7 billion needed to finish its initial Central Valley line, and cited instability in cap-and-trade auction revenues, the project's largest funding source. Choudri rejected those claims, pointing to a Newsom proposal that would guarantee at least $1 billion annually from cap and trade through 2045 and an October FRA report that didn't find significant compliance issues with grant criteria. — AN — An Environmental Defense Fund and Cornell University report details how state insurers of last resort can drive climate resilience with mitigation discounts and grants. — The Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability's Asha Sharma opines against Newsom's proposal to reauthorize cap and trade without pollution-reducing reforms in the Fresno Bee. — United Farm Workers and Faith in the Valley have received increasing reports of ICE agents in the Central Valley.
