Overnight Energy: Trump adviser Kudlow seeks end to electric car, renewable energy credits | Shell to pay execs based on carbon reduction | Justices reject greens’ border wall lawsuit
KUDLOW TARGETS ELECTRIC CAR, RENEWABLE ENERGY CREDITS: White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Monday the Trump administration will seek to end subsidies for electric cars and renewable energy sources, according to reports.
Kudlow said he expected subsidies for electric cars would end by 2020 or 2021.
“We want to end, we will end those subsidies and others of the Obama administration,” he said, according to Bloomberg.
{mosads}It’s unclear how the administration plans to cut the tax credits, since Congress enacted them and would have to act to end them.
Electric car buyers currently get tax credits of $7,500 per vehicle. But that phases out as each company sells 200,000 cars — a level that a handful of companies including General Motors Co. are approaching.
Utilities also get tax credits for producing wind power and for installing solar power equipment. Those incentives, enacted before former President Obama took office, are on track to phase out in the coming years.
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SHELL TO LINK EXECUTIVE PAY TO CARBON GOALS: Gas giant Royal Dutch Shell announced dramatic goals Monday to cut carbon emissions starting in 2020, including a pay incentive for top executives to meet them.
The company plans to set annual three- to five-year carbon reduction targets beginning in 2020 to reduce its carbon footprint. The program will run until 2050.
The decision comes after mounting pressure from Shell’s investors to actively decrease carbon emissions. Fossil fuels are a leading contributor to greenhouse gases, which add to the effects of climate change.
Shareholders previously criticized Shell’s plan last year to set nonbinding goals to halve its emissions by 2050. Major investors include asset management company Robeco and the Church of England.
The new plan will link emissions targets to its executive compensation policy.
Shell has already linked ten percent of its policy for executives to carbon-cutting goals, but the new policy will go further by looking at ways to cut the emissions coming from customers who burn Shell fuel and millions of drivers who use their gas.
No formal benchmarks were put forth by the company on Monday. It said investors will not vote on the proposal until 2020.
JUSTICES WON’T TAKE BORDER WALL CASE: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a case arguing that a key law giving President Trump authority to build a border wall is unconstitutional.
Conservation groups, led by the Animal Legal Defense Fund and the Center for Biological Diversity, argued that the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996’s provision giving the Homeland Security secretary nearly limitless authority to waive laws in the name of building border protection infrastructure like walls is unconstitutional.
The groups said the provision violates the Constitution’s separation of powers, a principle that reserves legislative power for Congress and prohibits the executive or judicial branches from writing laws.
“Section 102’s waiver and jurisdiction-stripping provisions unconstitutionally consolidate the power to make, enforce, and review laws in the Executive branch,” they said in an August petition to the high court, arguing that only Congress has the power to change laws and it can’t delegate that power to the executive branch.
The Trump administration argued that the legal provision at issue is sufficiently specific to be allowable under the Constitution.
EPA WATCHDOG EXPANDS TRUCK POLLUTION PROBE: The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of the Inspector General is expanding its probe into the agency’s proposal to roll back regulations for trucks with old engines, known as glider trucks.
The OIG said Monday that it will now examine whether the EPA complied with two executive orders that govern how federal officials evaluate potential regulations: Orders 12866 and 13045.
It appears to be in response to an October request by Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.).
They said that the EPA, under then-chief Scott Pruitt, changed the proposal on the day it was released in 2017 to say that it is “not” economically significant, thus exempting it from close White House scrutiny and cost-benefit analysis under 12866.
That change also exempted the rule from 13045, which requires certain analysis for regulations that impact children’s health.
The OIG is already examining whether the EPA’s research, which found much higher levels of certain pollutants from glider trucks versus new trucks, complied with agency standards for scientific studies.
ON TAP TUESDAY:
The Senate has moved its initial procedural vote on confirming Bernard McNamee to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to Tuesday. It was scheduled for Monday, but was moved due to former President George H.W. Bush’s funeral.
OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY:
Environmentalists are suing to stop Minnesota officials’ approval of the proposed PolyMet copper and nickel mine in the state, the Associated Press reports.
The United Kingdom may require developers to improve wildlife habitat for project approval, the Guardian reports.
Incoming Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) named 40 people as environmental policy advisers for his transition team, Sunshine State News reports.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Check out Monday’s stories…
– Kudlow calls for end to subsidies for electric cars, renewables
– Shell to enact first of its kind policy linking executive pay to carbon emissions
– Qatar plans to leave OPEC to focus on natural gas
– Supreme Court rejects greens’ challenge to border wall law
– UK man equates veganism to religion in lawsuit
– UN secretary general urges world leaders to take climate threat seriously: ‘We are still not doing enough’
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