Energy, Business Groups Sue Biden Admin over ‘EV Mandate’ Rule

API Senior Vice President Ryan Meyers

Three coalitions of business interests are suing the Biden administration over its recently-finalized emissions standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles.

The coalitions — which include the American Petroleum Institute (API), the American Farm Bureau, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), numerous car dealers and more — filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Thursday morning to try to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rules, which critics have characterized as an electric vehicle (EV) “mandate.” The regulations will require manufacturers to ensure that up to 56 percent of all new light-duty vehicle sales are EVs by model year 2032, according to the EPA.

Read More

Biden Admin Announces Massive Restrictions on Alaskan Oil Reserve and Hampers Key Mining Project in One Fell Swoop

Alaska Petroleum Reserve

The Biden administration moved to block oil and gas activity on millions of acres of Alaskan land and effectively rejected a road project needed to mine large reserves of copper in the state on Friday, Bloomberg News reported.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) finalized a plan that will restrict future oil leasing and development on about half of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), an area in the state’s north approximately the size of Indiana first designated by former President Warren Harding as an emergency source of fuel for the U.S. Navy, according to Bloomberg News. The DOI also moved to all but shoot down the Ambler Access Project, a previously-approved proposal for a mining company to build a 211-mile long road needed to mine copper reserves potentially worth billions of dollars.

Read More

Ellison Faces Scrutiny for Use of San Francisco Firm on Lawsuit Against Energy Companies

Keith Ellison

A trio of Republican lawmakers are asking Attorney General Keith Ellison to provide the public with more details on his office’s contract with a San Francisco-based law firm hired to aid in an ongoing climate change-related lawsuit against three major oil companies.

Sens. Mark Koran and Andrew Mathews, and Rep. Jim Nash sent Ellison a detailed letter last week that claims the law firm, Sher Edling, LLP, has received more than $13 million from special interest organizations outside of Minnesota to help fund its climate litigation efforts, including the one ongoing in Minnesota. And they want Ellison to provide the public with “a complete accounting of who is providing financial support for Sher Edling’s work on the Minnesota case.

Read More

Media Picks Up Novel Legal Theory Suggesting Big Oil Is Homicidal

Oil Rig

A new narrative is making its way through major media outlets about major oil corporations: climate change that they purportedly caused is taking lives, and they could be held liable for homicide.

In recent weeks, numerous outlets have run stories or opinion pieces promoting or otherwise examining the novel legal theory, which is the subject of a new paper published by the Harvard Environmental Law Review, according to a Tuesday E&E News report detailing the architects’ efforts to market their idea to prosecutors. The Boston Globe, The Guardian, Newsweek, Inside Climate News and other outlets have all recently published pieces promoting the idea that leading oil companies could or should be charged with murder for their role in climate change, which the theory’s architects claim has caused thousands of deaths in the U.S.

Read More