A few interesting bits of news
[If you don’t feel like reading this post, just click Play above and I’ll read it to you.]
Happy Inauguration Day, Voltsians!
I know it’s getting somewhat tedious to keep saying this, but yes, I’m still working on that transmission post. I swore when I started my own publication that I was not going to rush anymore — that I would research and work on stuff until I was happy with it. But I never swore not to be neurotic and apologetic about it!
Anyway, it’s in the works. Until then, let’s look at a few interesting news developments from this eventful past week.
Biden administration pledges to come out of the gate swinging
A few weeks ago, I shared some simple advice with the Biden administration: blitz. Do everything within your power, as fast as possible, and don’t get tripped up trying to finesse the media narrative or secure chimerical congressional cooperation.
In what is clearly a direct response to my piece (I mean probably), the administration recently leaked plans for its first term, to be kicked off with a 10-day spree of executive actions — roughly a dozen on Day One alone. CTV News got the scoop from a memo by incoming Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain, which Politico subsequently confirmed.
I really encourage you to click over and read the list — it’s the best I’ve felt in ages. So many lives will be immediately improved through health, immigration, and Covid relief measures. Elections really do matter.
But we’re here to talk about climate and energy, so I went through and picked out the relevant stuff:
Wednesday, after inauguration
Declaration that the U.S. is rejoining Paris climate accord.
Start of a process to restore 100 public health and environmental rules that the Obama administration created and President Donald Trump eliminated or weakened.
Not included in the memo but confirmed by CNN reporting: rescind the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.
By February 1
Executive actions to address climate change.
Beyond
Win passage of a $2 trillion climate package to get the U.S. to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Win passage of a plan to spend $700 billion boosting manufacturing and research and development.
The list suggests that the administration is going to move aggressively on multiple fronts, but it doesn’t reveal much about what direction it will go on climate.
The last two items are going to be pure messaging efforts — as long as the filibuster remains in place, neither has a chance of passage in Congress.
The first item, getting back in the Paris agreement, is low-hanging fruit, more symbolic than impactful. Ultimately, a Paris pledge is simply a pledge to pass domestic carbon policy, so it’s the domestic carbon policy that really matters.
The second item, cleaning up Trump’s regulatory mess, is extremely important, but it’s a matter of restoration, not building. The third item, Keystone XL, is a genuinely nice-to-see nod to climate activists, but not that big a deal in carbon terms.
So everything rides on that vague fourth item: “Executive actions to address climate change.” Will Biden’s EPA launch work on new rules to tackle fuel economy? A new plan to decarbonize the electricity sector? More stringent rules on air pollution? Rules that encourage building electrification?
My fear is that the administration will put off that work, thinking that being gentle will make legislation easier. It won’t. Just do the rules!
Court strikes down Trump’s plan to (no
