Shorts
Updated July 25
The proposed Moving Forward Act by House Democrats is a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill that includes clean energy tax extensions and expansions. It also would create incentives for offshore wind and energy storage projects. The House bill “would provide a stable and effective policy reform platform for clean energy deployment over the next five years,” ACORE President and CEO Gregory Wetstone said June 25. The measure also would invest $70 billion plus in the grid to accommodate more renewable energy and promote an electric vehicle charging network.
Legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom announced June 22 they had agreed on a 2020-21 state budget, which went from being robust to decimated by the pandemic. “To be clear, this budget required some tough decisions and more work remains ahead,” Newsom stated. The final budget is expected to include major cuts to climate protection and wildfire reductions. The specifics of the new spending plans have not yet been released.
Nevada’s governor announced June 22 that his state would adopt California’s tailpipe emission standards that are more stringent than the federal ones. Nevada’s Division of Environmental Protection is proposing regulations “that would incorporate two parts of California’s benchmarks that would set new tailpipe emission standards for light and medium-duty vehicles sold in the state starting in 2024 and also require dealerships to sell a certain percentage of zero-emission vehicles,” The Las Vegas Review Journal reported. California and the Trump Administration have been battling over the legality of the Golden State’s emission limits on upcoming vehicle models.
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued 12 new permits for fracking at the beginning of this month. Two months earlier, the same company, Aera Energy, owned by ExxonMobil ad Shell, was given 24 fracking permits, Capital and Main reported June 19. “The fracking permits are the latest example of California’s oil industry benefiting from regulatory or deregulatory action during the COVID-19 pandemic and came just months after the Newsom administration said it backed actions to ‘manage the decline of oil production and consumption in the state’,” it warned.