President Joe Biden on Jan. 20 put the wheels in motion to reverse Trump administration energy and climate policies, signing a sweeping order directing federal agencies to move ahead with tightening greenhouse gas emissions limits, strengthening efficiency standards, and unwinding policies t…
The $1.9-trillion pandemic relief proposal rolled out Jan. 14 by President-elect Joe Biden includes $5 billion to cover home energy and water costs and bill arrears for renters.
The Senate's changing hands following Democrats' twin victories in Georgia's Jan. 5 special election likely is a boost for President-elect Joe Biden's energy and climate agenda.
Extended tax incentives, technology research programs, and measures to speed deployment of efficiency, storage, nuclear and renewable resources are among the broad array of energy provisions included in the mammoth budget and pandemic relief package that Congress passed Dec. 21.
President-elect Joe Biden on Dec. 17 announced senior members of his incoming administration's "climate team," including former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm as his choice for secretary of energy and Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) for Interior secretary.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Dec. 7 finalized a rule leaving ambient air quality standards for particulate matter unchanged.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) will be the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the 117th Congress, House Republicans decided Dec. 2.
General Motors on Nov. 23 announced withdrawal of its support for the Trump administration's legal defense of its action stripping California of authority to set its own tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions standards.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Nov. 19 affirmed Order No. 872, the rule revamping implementation of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act.
Four years after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved a federal plan to cut haze-causing emissions from two PacifiCorp coal plants in Utah, the agency instead replaced it with a state plan that doesn't require the use of stricter controls for emissions of nitrogen oxides.
Combating climate change is one of the incoming administration's four top priorities, President-elect Joe Biden said Nov. 7 in declaring victory in the presidential election and kicking off the 10-week transition to his Jan. 20 inauguration.
The outlook for significant energy and climate policy changes next year looks cloudy as dust settles from the Nov. 3 election, with former Vice President Joe Biden closing in on winning the presidency but the race still not called as of Nov. 6, Republicans likely but not certain to hold onto…
Sharply different energy futures for the U.S. are at stake in the Nov. 3 election.
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden reiterated their starkly different campaign stances on climate and energy in their final debate Oct. 22. Trump boasted of reductions in carbon dioxide emissions on his watch and defended his opposition to the Paris climate accord, wh…
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee signaled that if confirmed, her interpretation of laws would follow the "textualism" championed by the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.
The Supreme Court on Oct. 2 agreed to hear an appeal touching on whether climate torts litigation can be heard in state courts.
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden stuck to their climate talking points at their Sept. 29 debate, with Trump tying Western wildfires to what he called inadequate forest management and Biden asserting his $2-trillion climate plan would create "millions of good-paying jobs."
Federal climate policy could be in for a significant shift if the Senate acts in the next few weeks to confirm a conservative Supreme Court justice to succeed the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Sept. 11 granted Portland, Oregon-based NuScale Power standard design approval for its small modular reactor.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Sept. 17 approved a sweeping order opening organized wholesale power markets to distributed energy resources.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) coronavirus relief bill failed Sept. 10 when it fell eight votes short on a motion to cut off debate.
The proposed Jordan Cove natural gas liquefaction and export terminal is one of more than two dozen energy-related projects and federal resource-management plans targeted for accelerated environmental review in an Interior Department list made public Sept. 2.
President Donald Trump on Aug. 27 accused Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden of promising to "abolish American production of oil, coal, shale and natural gas, laying waste" to the economies of swing states, including Colorado and New Mexico.
Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden vowed to "deal with climate change," describing "clean energy" as "an enormous economic opportunity" in his Aug. 20 speech accepting the presidential nomination.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Aug. 13 rolled back emissions regulations for new and modified upstream oil and gas facilities, dropping emissions standards for transmission and storage and eliminating methane controls for production and processing.
President Donald Trump on Aug. 4 signed into law legislation permanently requiring $900 million to be deposited into the Land and Water Conservation Fund each year to be available for the fund’s land purchase and conservation purposes without further congressional appropriation.
President Donald Trump on July 29 nominated Mark Christie, a Virginia utility commissioner, and Allison Clements, a former executive and now consultant with the Energy Foundation, to fill vacancies on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The House on July 22 passed legislation mandating full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund and setting aside energy-development revenues for restoring national parks and other federal lands.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on July 16 rejected a petition asking FERC to take over regulation of net metering, drawing cheers from state utility regulators.
The Department of Energy on July 6 authorized the proposed Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas terminal to export up to 1.08 Bcf of LNG per day.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on July 10 denied petitions against a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order that strengthened the ability of energy storage resources to participate in wholesale electricity markets.
The House on July 1 passed a $1.5-trillion infrastructure bill, HR 2, that would authorize $70 billion for electric grid improvements and extend tax credits for renewable resources and energy efficiency.
The Trump administration's "Waters of the U.S." rule took effect June 22, except in Colorado, after a federal court denied a preliminary injunction sought by California and 16 other states.
The House is the next stop for legislation mandating full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund and setting aside energy-development revenues for restoring parks and other federal lands.
Legislation to require permanent full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund advanced toward passage June 12 as the Senate approved a procedural motion, 65-19, that cleared the way for a floor vote during the week of June 15.
President Donald Trump on June 4 signed an executive order directing federal agencies to speed up approvals of pipelines and other infrastructure projects by invoking emergency authority to bypass environmental reviews.
The Treasury Department on May 27 extended by one year the "safe harbor" for renewable-energy developers, giving project developers extra breathing space for claiming production and investment tax credits.
Seventeen states on May 18 filed a motion for a nationwide preliminary injunction to block the Trump administration's replacement "Waters of the U.S." rule, but the court raised questions May 20 on whether an injunction should be imposed before the rule takes effect June 22.
The House on May 15 passed a procedural motion clearing the way for a floor vote on a $3-trillion pandemic relief bill, HR 6800, that would send nearly $1 trillion in aid to state, local, tribal and territorial governments; appropriate $1.5 billion for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance P…
The Treasury Department on May 7 said it would modify "safe harbor" rules for production and investment tax credits, a sign that the Trump administration plans to grant extensions sought by renewable-energy industries.
The Department of Energy on May 1 said President Donald Trump signed an executive order to prevent the acquisition by the government or U.S. persons of bulk power system equipment that poses a security risk, based on its country of origin.
President Donald Trump on April 24 signed into law the fourth coronavirus pandemic response bill.
Former Vice President Joe Biden's emergence as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has set up a fall contest with President Donald Trump in which U.S. voters will have a clear choice between two sharply different energy and climate policy platforms.
The Federal Reserve on April 9 announced $2.3 trillion in credit support for the pandemic-stressed economy, including $500 billion in lending to states and municipalities, $1.45 trillion in credit flows to businesses and households, and lending to banks originating Paycheck Protection Progra…
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave top priority to maintaining reliability in a regulatory guidance policy issued April 2 in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Renewable-energy tax-credit extensions and $3 billion in purchases for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve did not make the cut for the $2.2-trillion coronavirus pandemic relief package that President Donald Trump signed into law March 27 following the House's voice-vote approval earlier in the day..
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will be open to requests for deadline extensions and delays in compliance requirements from utilities and system operators impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee said at a March 19 press conference.
The Senate on March 12 confirmed James Danly's nomination to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The Senate on March 4 passed a procedural motion clearing the way for a floor vote on the broad energy package that Energy and Natural Resources Committee leaders introduced Feb. 27.
A federal judge on Feb. 27 threw out nearly 1 million acres of oil and gas leases on Western federal lands within sage grouse habitat, ruling that the Trump administration unlawfully curtailed public comment on the sales.
