| Chrysler the Latest Emissions Cheater? The Environmental Protection Agency accused Fiat Chrysler on Thursday of violating emissions standards with two of its vehicle models. Chrysler, EPA alleges, outfitted more than 100,000 diesel cars with secret software allowing them to obscure the amount of pollutants they emit and “cheat” vehicle emissions tests. Chrysler has denied the accusations, which come a day after Volkswagen plead guilty to criminal conspiracy and agreed to pay a $4.3 billion fine in federal court for equipping over 600,000 vehicles with similar emissions-cheating software. (Washington Post $, New York Times $, AP, WSJ $, The Hill, NPR, Bloomberg, Vox)
DOI to Trump: Overhauling Coal Program Makes Sense: The Obama administration on Wednesday rolled out a long-anticipated suite of options for updating the management of coal sales on federal lands, which contain an estimated 7.4 billion tons of coal. The Interior Department’s current program, which hasn’t been updated since the 1980s, fails to properly account for a number of factors, including climate change, the plunging cost of and domestic production of coal, and how to provide a fair rate of return on sales to taxpayers. The administration issued a temporary stop on federal coal leases a year ago to begin the review process, and Trump made reversing the moratorium a firm point of his energy policy during the campaign. While an incoming Trump administration could ignore the recommendations entirely and press for new leases, the report does present mounting evidence for an overhaul of the industry-friendly program. (AP, Bloomberg, Washington Post $)
Clean Energy Investment Down, But Renewables Looking Up: Global investment in clean energy dropped by 18 percent in 2016 partially due to plummeting solar and wind prices, according to a report issued Thursday by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The drop, the first since 2013, is mostly due to decreased investment from China and Japan as the countries put a pause on renewables development to best utilize the capacity they have developed after years of growth in the sector. Global offshore wind investment, the report finds, has skyrocketed to $29.9 billion, a 40% increase from 2015. (Bloomberg, Nexus Media News, Financial Times $, Greentech Media, Reuters)
New York Wants In on the Wind: Speaking of increased wind investment…Gov. Andrew Cuomo made wind development a core policy point of his “state of the state” addresses this week, committing New York to develop up to 2,400 MW of offshore wind by 2030. If fully realized, this wind development could power 1.25 million homes and would be a boost in the state’s goals to source 50 percent of power from renewables by 2050. Cuomo’s wind proposals include immediate approval for a 90 MW wind farm off the coast of Montauk, which would be the largest offshore wind project in the US. (Reuters, UPI, UtilityDive, EnergyWire $) |
