Energy & Environment
Coverage of the congressional committees that write America’s energy, environment, water, lands and infrastructure law: Senate Environment and Public Works, Senate Energy and Natural Resources, House Natural Resources, House Energy and Commerce and House Transportation and Infrastructure, with a California lens.
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EPA agrees to a five-year schedule to clear a backlog of California air-quality plans
A proposed consent decree in a San Francisco lawsuit would set deadlines through 2030 for EPA to act on California clean-air submissions dating to 2018.
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Energy Department adds helium to its critical materials list as a Gulf shortage squeezes chipmakers
The designation, formalized in the Federal Register on Tuesday, matters to Silicon Valley’s chip-equipment makers and to hospital MRI machines across the Bay Area.
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California’s share of Colorado River cuts starts Jan. 1, but the three-state deal behind it is still unsigned
The Interior Department’s 2027-28 rules would cut California’s Colorado River water by 440,000 acre-feet a year if Arizona, California and Nevada sign an agreement to divide the reductions, and with nine weeks to go that agreement…
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Six California lease sales remain in Interior’s offshore drilling plan as its October target passes
The Trump administration’s draft offshore program, which would hold the first federal oil and gas lease sales off California since 1984, is still on its first of three drafts as its October completion target passes, but…
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EPA says off-grid data-center power plants fall outside the Acid Rain Program, and Senate Democrats are pressing for answers
The agency calls its July guidance a commonsense reading of the Clean Air Act that shields ratepayers; the top Democrat on Senate EPW calls it a handout to the world’s richest companies.
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The House highway bill would add a $130 federal fee for electric cars. California drivers already pay a state one.
The BUILD America 250 Act’s registration charge is pitched as a fair share for the Highway Trust Fund, but the bill as written doesn’t steer the money there.
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Senate Democrats and environmental groups join California’s appeal over Energy Department order restarting Sable pipeline
The Energy Department says its Defense Production Act order shores up West Coast fuel supplies and military readiness; California, three Democratic senators and environmental groups are asking the Ninth Circuit to block it.
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House Energy and Commerce Democrats ask Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and seven other companies whether personal data shapes their prices
Rep. Frank Pallone wants answers by Nov. 5 on what critics call surveillance pricing, as the companies that have spoken publicly say their prices follow market conditions, not who the customer is.