CONSERVATION IS CONSERVATIVE

The Biden administration’s new vehicle rules accelerate electrification just as artificial intelligence and manufacturing are spiking electricity demand. With utilities doubling their forecasts for new power demand in the next five years, ensuring grid stability will require much more power supply. Thankfully, President Richard Nixon laid out the blueprint for solving this problem with nuclear energy over 50 years ago.

ConservAmerica President Jeff Kupfer sat down recently with Roosevelt Conservation Caucus member and Ranking Member on the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW). Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV). Sen. Capito was also a recipient of ConservAmerica’s Congressional Leadership Award. Among many topics, Jeff and Sen. Capito covered movement of the Senators ADVANCE Act (Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act of 2023), along with the LNG export ban, and burdensome regulatory requirements.

ConservAmerica, along with C3 Solutions and American Conservation Coalition, submitted comments this week to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on whether the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) In-Use Locomotive Regulation meets the criteria for a waiver of federal preemption under section 209 of the Clean Air Act (CAA).  Approving the waiver would allow California and other states to mandate zero emissions locomotives even though these technologies are not available to meet the nation’s rail transportation needs.

We have often seen how overly aggressive environmental regulations can hinder economic growth and innovation – and contrary to their purported goals - even increase pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now weighing whether to allow California to move forward with strict emissions standards for locomotives that unfortunately would have economic ramifications well beyond the state’s borders and likely increase emissions.

In general terms, California’s standards require the use of zero-emissions locomotive engines by 2030. As a practical matter, this can be achieved only through the use of technologies – either hydrogen fuel cell or battery electric – that are both prohibitively expensive and cannot be deployed at scale within the proposed compliance timeframe.

Energy leaders, dignitaries, and policy makers from 85 countries descended upon Houston last month for CERAWeek 2024 where the focus on energy transition and reduction in global carbon emissions has grown in urgency.

President Biden has made CO2 reductions one of his Administration’s top policy priorities with an ambitious goal of net zero by 2050.  Over the next 10 years, the federal government will spend well over $500 billion through the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and CHIPS law to curb CO2 emissions.  

In the aftermath of the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident, then-Senator Joe Biden voted for a “temporary pause” on reactor permitting, despite no credible evidence of public harm from radiation. Although the measure failed, the nuclear industry never recovered from this political overreaction based on exaggerated fears. Forty-five years later, President Biden has unilaterally ordered a “temporary pause” on the permitting of liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals – a move the Washington Post editorial board aptly labeled “a win for political symbolism, not the climate.”

ConservAmerica is pleased to announce the launch of its new Roosevelt Conservation Fellowship program, which welcomes inaugural fellows Patrick Hynes and Alina Clough. This initiative aims to bring new voices and perspectives to the dialogue on commonsense, market-based solutions for today's pressing environmental issues.

"We believe that the key to addressing environmental and energy challenges lies in collaboration and fresh thinking," said ConservAmerica President Jeff Kupfer.

In 2016, af­ter a lengthy per­mit ap­proval pro­cess, the United States ex­ported its first cargo of liq­ui­fied nat­u­ral gas from the lower 48 states. Since then, the U.S. has leap­frogged ev­ery other coun­try to be­come the world’s larg­est ex­porter of LNG.

But in in Jan­u­ary, fol­low­ing the same play­book that Pres­i­dent Bar­rack Obama used for LNG and the Key­stone XL Pipe­line dur­ing his 2012 re­elec­tion cam­paign, Pres­i­dent Joe Biden an­nounced a “tem­po­rary pause” on LNG ex­port ap­prov­als.