Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo on May 9 announced that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation established regulations requiring all the power plants in the state to meet new emission limits for carbon dioxide. No existing coal-fired sources are expected to continue beyond 2020 under the new rule, as emissions control technology needed for…
The Colorado legislature approved a measure on May 1, setting a goal of achieving emission cuts of 26 percent by 2025, 50 percent by 2030, and 90 percent by 2050, relative to 2005 levels. The bill requires state regulators to establish implementation rules that may be revised as necessary to ensure timely progress toward the…
The Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board on April 19 approved a regulation to lower and cap carbon emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants with more than 25 megawatts of generation capacity, starting in 2020. The rule will set an initial cap of 28 million tons of carbon dioxide. The agency said that the measure…
Democratic Governor Ralph Northam vetoed legislation on March 14 that would prohibit the state from joining a regional carbon program to reduce power plant emissions, without a two-thirds majority vote from both the legislative chambers. Northam also vetoed a similar bill related to limiting emissions from vehicles, saying that the measures violate the state constitution…
U.S. energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) will remain largely unchanged through mid-century, according to projections in the Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook 2019. Assuming no changes to current laws and regulations, the agency projects that carbon dioxide emissions will be 5,019 million metric tons in 2050, or 4% below their 2018 value, as emissions associated with coal…
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Feb. 26 that it will not revise the existing standard for sulfur dioxide, a harmful pollutant emitted from coal-fired power plants and industrial sources, citing scientific evidence that found the current limits sufficient to protect public health. The existing standard, established in 2010 under the Obama administration, is 75…
The eighteenth quarterly carbon auction held by California and Quebec sold all 80,847,404 carbon permits offered for current emissions at $15.73, above the floor price of $15.62, according to the results released on Feb. 27 by the California Air Resources Board. The auction sold about 66 percent of the permits offered for 2022 emissions at…...
Southern California Gas Company will pay $119.5 million to compensate for the methane emissions from a major gas leak at the Aliso Canyon storage facility in October 2015, according to a Feb. 25 press release from the California Air Resources Board. The settlement, approved by the Los Angeles Superior Court, will fully mitigate the 109,000 metric…
The Connecticut Light and Power Company submitted its final procurement plan for the approval of 15-year contracts to purchase class I renewable energy credits from renewable energy projects in the state, totaling $2.83 million per year in contract commitments from low emissions renewable energy projects and $5.6million per year for medium and large zero emission projects. The company’s Year…
The California Public Utilities Commission has begun developing a policy framework on decarbonizing buildings as part of its ambitious goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045, according to a Feb. 8 order. The Commission recognizes that the state’s ambitious 2030 greenhouse gas reduction goals cannot be achieved with 100 percent renewable energy alone since 25 percent…
The Virginia legislature approved a bill that would prohibit the governor or any state agency from participating in a regional carbon market, without a two-thirds majority vote from both the legislative chambers. The state is considering its own proposed cap-and-trade rule designed to link with the nine-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, the nation’s…...
Democratic Senator Ed Markey and Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced a Green New Deal resolution on Feb. 7 setting out the goals and aspirations of the ambitious plan which seeks to tackle the nation’s contribution to climate change by making it carbon free over just a decade. The resolution calls for unprecedented, World War II-style mobilization of the U.S. economy…
