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      Many Republicans think climate crisis is a hoax, says Nancy Pelosi – video

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      Speaking at a Cop27 panel discussion, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said it was difficult to predict how the results of the midterm elections would affect US action on climate change, but that such action was ‘long overdue’. ‘We have had, shall we say, a disagreement on the subject,’ said Pelosi, referring to the Democrats and the Republicans. ‘When Kathy [Castor, a congresswoman] had her bill on the floor, our [Republican] colleagues said why are we having this discussion, there is no climate crisis, it’s all a hoax.’

      Cop27: climate justice activists call for fossil fuel ‘criminals’ to be kicked out of conference – live More

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      in US Politics

      US voters hit hardest by climate crisis: ‘I need politicians to care about this’

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      US voters hit hardest by climate crisis: ‘I need politicians to care about this’The devastating effects of climate change are motivating how voters cast their ballots in the midterm elections Across the US, temperature records tumbled in a summer of heatwaves, enormous floods drowned entire towns and, in the west, an ongoing drought is now so severe that corpses are being uncovered in rapidly drying reservoirs.Despite these increasingly ominous signs, the climate crisis has struggled to gain much visibility in the lead-up to next week’s midterm elections. “Many voters are more focused on things like inflation, understandably, because people are struggling to get by in this economy,” said Geoffrey Henderson, an expert in climate policy at Duke University.Republican candidates on climate: ‘fake science’ to ‘carbon is healthy’Read moreBut, Henderson added, this will still be a “very high-stakes election for climate change”, with probable Republican control of at least one chamber of Congress likely to result in the gumming up of Joe Biden’s climate agenda. While the president managed to get a huge climate bill passed in the summer, any further legislation or even moves to implement the Inflation Reduction Act, will face obstruction. We spoke to six voters to ask what the climate crisis means for them ahead of the midterms.Wendy Johnson, Phoenix, ArizonaJohnson, 62, is the executive director of the Justa Center – a non-profit organization supporting homeless seniors in Phoenix, America’s hottest city, where it’s getting hotter, drier and deadlier. Returning to live in her home town five years ago after several decades, it’s become clear to Johnson that the climate crisis is hitting Phoenix hard, yet still isn’t a top priority for most voters or elected officials.“It’s obviously hotter in Phoenix than in the 1980s, but there are still too many people who deny climate change and keep voting for their pocketbooks. I see the effects everywhere: at work, elderly homeless people have come in with first and second degree burns from the asphalt or cement which is 30 degrees hotter than the just bearable 105F ambient temperature,” she said.She also described helping elderly people with dehydration, young kids collapsing while playing football or at band practice, and electricity bills doubling. “Climate change is everywhere but it’s still a peripheral issue for most people in the midterm elections.”Inflation hit 13% in Phoenix earlier this year – a record for any US city according to data going back 20 years – exacerbating the climate and homelessness crises driving heat deaths which have almost doubled since 2019.Johnson, who describes herself as a conservative Democrat, has looked into the climate credentials of all the candidates including the down-ticket races, which include the unintended consequences of some seemingly progressive climate pledges, like the displacement of families by a proposed light rail service. But Johnson fears that she’s in the minority.“Election deniers are the same people who still deny climate change, and if we can’t move them despite the proven facts, then for many election integrity is the most important thing.”Alyssa Quintyne, Fairbanks, AlaskaQuintyne is a community organiser in Fairbanks, a city with some of the worst air pollution in the country. This summer, as a record number of blazes enveloped the state after a record-breaking dry spell in the Fairbanks region, Quintyne said she had to really grapple with the meaning of climate crisis. The air had always been bad in her town due to wood-burning stoves and wildfires, but this year was unprecedented. “Things get worse and worse, year after year. And it can happen subtly until it catches you off guard.”Quintyne, 28, has a heart condition that has been linked to air pollution, as well as respiratory issues. “It’s ridiculous that climate change has become such a partisan issue, when really, this is really about are you able to breathe,” she said.In recent years, Quintyne has also seen severe winter storms damage her home and the homes of neighbors and family members; she has seen friends who don’t have the same health issues she does struggle with breathing difficulties as heatwaves and wildfire, fueled by global heating, exacerbate pollution.Of the independent and Democratic candidates for governor, Quintyne said she was still deciding who will strike the right balance between helping uplift and transition the state’s economy – which remains heavily dependent on oil and gas extraction – and prioritizing environmental justice. “I’m still teetering,” she said. “I’m still asking questions.”But above all, in a state that until recently has elected mostly conservative and moderate politicians, she’s looking for candidates who are open to working with environmental activists. “Having a candidate that is at least listening to you to understand where you are coming from, that’s incredibly important,” she said.Edith Tapia, El Paso, TexasLiving in the border city of El Paso, Tapia has noticed several environmental changes in recent years: the change of seasons has felt delayed and unpredictable, and the warmer weather has felt more prominent. Then, there’s the storms. “Every couple of years, [there are] these big snowstorms – or freezes – that shut everything down,” Tapia said. Because El Paso is on a separate electrical grid from the rest of Texas, the city was largely spared power outages during the freeze of 2021. “But Juárez [wasn’t],” said Tapia, referring to the Mexican city across the border from El Paso.Tapia works on both sides of the US-Mexico border as a technical adviser for a humanitarian organization, and saw up close what a freeze can do. Colleagues in Juárez were left without water or gas for multiple days. Additionally, she’s seen power outages in El Paso during extremely hot summer months. Despite the prevalence of environmental and climate issues facing the border region, and Texas more broadly, Tapia hasn’t seen any candidates campaigning on taking bolder climate action. “No candidate, at least that I’ve heard [of], is using this information as a major selling point,” said Tapia.In 2020, a mayoral candidate ran on the issue of fighting climate change in El Paso. “I thought she was excellent,” said Tapia, although the candidate ultimately lost. In general, Tapia notes that climate is on the minds of voters and candidates alike, but not always at first glance. “It is [there], but you have to dig a little deeper,” she said.Shelley Hunter, Quincy, CaliforniaIn the aftermath of the Dixie Fire, Hunter’s hotel, the Quincy Featherbed Inn, was first frequented by fatigued firefighters and now has been filled by construction workers and displaced neighbors. “We have turned to hopefulness instead of being victimized,” she said. But it hasn’t been easy. “Quincy is just trying to survive,” she added.Many of the restaurants have shuttered. Residents are moving away. Tourists that fuel the town’s economy are in shorter supply. “It is not just the fire – it is the pandemic and inflation and the lack of labor is just a perfect storm to impact everyone.”A lifelong Democrat, Hunter is now exploring a political shift in response to the change in circumstances she’s experienced. With increasing threats posed by the climate crisis, which have made water more scarce, spurred the rise in megafires like the Dixie, and spiked temperatures, Hunter fears for her both livelihood and her life. That, she said, has made voting more complicated.“It feels like it is one extreme to the other,” she said of the Democrats and Republicans, who she feels split messaging between climate consciousness and small business support respectively. “Climate change is real. It is happening and it is going to affect everybody,” she said. “And, it’s getting harder and harder to stay in business.”As an early voter who was vocal about her support of the Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, Hunter cast votes for Republicans down-ballot for the first time this year. It helped that former president Trump wasn’t on the ballot, she said, noting her refusal to vote for candidates supportive of him. But her belief that conservatives will help her small business survive the bumpy road ahead is a complicated one. She’s looking for moderates who can address a multitude of concerns in the face of escalating catastrophes.“It is a shift for me,” she said. But anybody who denies climate change I am not voting for – let’s get real here.Sophie Swope, Bethel, AlaskaSwope is a city councilmember in Bethel, a western Alaskan city in a region that has been warming three to four times faster than the lower 48 states. Melting permafrost and storms have wreaked havoc on infrastructure, and the ground under Swope has literally cracked and shifted. In recent years, Swope, who is Yupik and a member of the Orutsararmiut tribe, has seen erosion and flooding displace homes, schools and even entire villages surrounding Bethel. “Climate change is happening before our eyes,” she said.Swope, 24, said she was looking for candidates who possess an understanding of how the climate crisis is affecting rural and tribal communities, their livelihood and their survival. She’s especially excited to vote for Mary Peltola, the Democratic candidate for Alaska’s sole seat in the US House of Representatives. This summer, Peltola, who is also Yupik and from Bethel, became the first Alaska Native to be elected to Congress. “She has fished in our rivers for the majority of her life,” Swope said. “She understands how precious all of our natural resources are.”Swope founded a non-profit to oppose the development of the Donlin Gold mine – which if completed would be the largest open pit goldmine in the world. In a state where the economy is enmeshed with extractive industries, and where the people live at the Arctic edge of the climate crisis, Swope is also wary of candidates who prioritize development over the health of communities and ecosystems. “I understand that there is a need for mining and extraction at some level,” she said. “But we have to keep in mind how in Alaska every piece of land is precious.”Stuart Palley, Orange county, CaliforniaPhotographer Stuart Palley has been on the frontline of disasters for nearly a decade, capturing the devastation and escalation of wildfires in the west from behind his camera. For Palley, a lifelong Californian, the crisis is also personal. He’s watched as lands he loves turned to moonscapes, seen infernos swallow whole towns and lamented the loss of thousands-year-old trees that succumbed to firestorms. A self-described progressive, bearing witness to countless catastrophes has brought the climate crisis into sharper focus for Palley and the issue is now central to how he vets candidates from either party.“It is important to me that a candidate actually has a plan,” he said, emphasizing that that includes a greater acknowledgment of the intersectionality between climate action and equity and inclusion. “I tend to vote Democrat but there are independents and even the Green party that have better platforms,” he added, noting that his home district’s distinctly purple hue has at times skewed his support blue.“Our district is such a purple district and such a swing district for Congress and the county board of supervisors that the margin is down to a few thousand votes.”But even beyond the scope of his work, he’s worried about California’s treasured landscapes and ecosystems, including Joshua Tree national park near his home, bear the brunt of a warming world. “A lot of these areas are under threat,” he said, adding “I need politicians to care about this.” So, Palley plans to cast his votes with an eye toward the escalating threats looming now and in the future – with full knowledge of what’s at stake.“What’s the point of anything else if we don’t have a livable planet?”TopicsUS midterm elections 2022Climate crisisUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      in US Politics

      After the flood: inside the 4 November Guardian Weekly

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      After the flood: inside the 4 November Guardian WeeklyCop27’s climate prospects. Plus: Can the Democrats rescue the US midterms?Get the Guardian Weekly delivered to your home address For readers of the Guardian Weekly magazine’s North American edition this week, the cover focuses on the Democrats’ precarious hopes in the midterm elections. Elsewhere, the spotlight shines on the Cop27 climate summit in Egypt.Cautious optimism followed the last Cop conference in Glasgow, where an international roadmap was agreed to keep the world within 1.5C of global heating. On the eve of this year’s summit, however, a slew of alarming reports have shown that carbon emissions are still rising.Further carbon cuts therefore ought to be a priority, argue scientists. However, Cop27 is likely to be dominated by debate about compensation that poorer nations feel richer countries should be paying for climate damage. Observer science and environment editor Robin McKie sets the scene for a summit that seems engulfed in a storm of its own. And there’s a fascinating report by Mark Townsend on the Just Stop Oil protests, as debate stirs among activists about whether direct action tactics are effective in changing attitudes.The US midterm elections next week could see a Republican party still dominated by Donald Trump gain control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. David Smith asks whether an intervention by former president Barack Obama could give a late kickstart to the Democrats’ hopes.Jubilation and relief accompanied Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s narrow election victory in Brazil, ending Jair Bolsonaro’s era of Amazon destruction. Latin America correspondent Tom Phillips reports on a much-needed moment of hope for the region and the world, but Andrew Downie warns that difficult challenges await the returning president-elect.On the culture front there’s an interview by Simon Hattenstone with the actor Damian Lewis, who talks about life after the death of his wife, Helen McCrory. And Jonathan Jones meets the artist David Shrigley, for whom a move to the countryside has not exactly mellowed his anxiety-laden brand of pop art.Get the Guardian Weekly delivered to your home addressTopicsCop27Inside Guardian WeeklyClimate crisisUS midterm elections 2022DemocratsRepublicansUS politicsBrazilReuse this content More

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      in US Politics

      The Guardian view on climate diplomacy: it’s crunch time – again | Editorial

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      The Guardian view on climate diplomacy: it’s crunch time – againEditorialFreezing relations between the US and China threaten this year’s crucial Cop27 summit Less than two weeks before Cop27 opens in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, an outline of what to expect from the negotiations is becoming more distinct. The issue of loss and damage is expected to dominate – as it should. Wealthy countries have broken the promise made in 2009 at Cop15 in Copenhagen. An annual climate finance budget of $100bn was agreed then to help the countries most dangerously exposed to global heating to adapt. But contributions have fallen short. The group of countries known as the V20, which includes the Philippines and several small island states, are justifiably angry and determined to ensure that past failures are confronted.So is Pakistan, which is not part of V20 but suffered catastrophic losses during recent floods. With one-third of its landmass under water and valuable crops destroyed by what one senator, writing in the Guardian, called a “monster monsoon”, the country now faces an immediate crisis as well as a longer-term, existential threat from melting glaciers. Pakistan, with its population of around 220 million people, is responsible for just 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, G20 countries between them produce 80%.“People are enjoying their lives in the west, but someone here is paying the price,” said one government minister, Ahsan Iqbal. Such views have been echoed by other leaders. At Cop26, Madagascar’s environment minister, Baomiavotse Vahinala Raharinirina, told the Guardian she believed that some short-haul flights should be banned. “You have to make a choice or have to make a sacrifice,” she said, pointing to the climate-induced famine in her country as the price being paid for western consumption habits.But while lifestyle changes such as reducing meat-eating and car use are increasingly recognised as an important element of emissions-cutting plans, it is governments that must step up in Egypt. A bilateral agreement between the US and China was among the most encouraging developments at Cop26. Then, the US’s climate envoy, John Kerry, spoke of global heating as an issue of “math and physics” rather than politics. His Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, said “there is more agreement between China and the United States than divergence”.Eleven months on, relations between the two superpowers have chilled. Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in the summer angered Chinese leaders. A recently unveiled US national security strategy described China as “America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge”. It was swiftly followed by new export controls on microchips, intended to hamper Chinese ambitions. The question is whether climate negotiations can be forced back on track despite this. While Mr Kerry used an interview in the Guardian on Tuesday to appeal for renewed cooperation, the war in Ukraine, combined with the China-US standoff, have significantly raised tensions and lowered expectations.The hope is that once leaders gather in Egypt, the scale of the threat from rising temperatures will focus minds. In asking for international support with loss and damage, the global south countries have right on their side – as rich countries knew when they agreed to the original climate finance package. Governments left Glasgow last year knowing that they had fallen short of what is required if humanitarian disasters of unimaginable severity are to be prevented. The window of opportunity for policies that will deliver on the headline commitment to keep global temperature rises below 1.5C gets smaller every year.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.TopicsCop27OpinionClimate crisisJohn KerryChinaUS politicsExtreme weatherGreenhouse gas emissionseditorialsReuse this content More

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      in US Politics

      The American EV boom is about to begin. Does the US have the power to charge it?

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      The American EV boom is about to begin. Does the US have the power to charge it? States have plans to ban gas-powered cars and the White House wants chargers along highways, but implementation is a challengeSpeaking in front of a line of the latest electric vehicles (EVs) at this month’s North American International Auto Show, President Joe Biden declared: “The great American road trip is going to be fully electrified.”Most vehicles on the road are still gas guzzlers, but Washington is betting big on change, hoping that major federal investment will help reach a target set by the White House for 50% of new cars to be electric by 2030. But there are roadblocks – specifically when it comes to charging them all. “Range anxiety,” or how far one can travel before needing to charge, is still cited as a major deterrent for potential EV buyers.The auto industry recently passed the 5% mark of EV market share – a watershed moment, analysts say, before rapid growth. New policies at the state and local level could very well spur that growth: the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed this summer, offers tax credits of $4,000 to purchase a used EV and up to $7,500 for certain new ones. In August, California, the nation’s largest state and economy, announced rules that would ban all new gas-powered cars by 2035. New York plans to follow.So now, the race is on to provide chargers to power all those new EVs.The administration’s target of 500,000 public charging units by 2030 is a far cry from the current count of nearly 50,000, according to the Department of Energy’s estimate. And those new chargers will have to be fast – what’s known as Level 2 or 3 charging – and functional in order to create a truly reliable system. Today, many are not.Last week, the White House approved plans for all 50 states, along with Washington DC, and Puerto Rico, to set up chargers along highways, unlocking $1.5bn in federal funding to that end. The money comes from the landmark infrastructure bill passed last year, which invests $7.5bn for EV charging in total.Electric vehicle charging stations get green light across USRead moreBut how much of that money is spent is largely going to be determined at the local level. “It’s a difference between policy and practice,” said Drew Lipsher, the chief development officer at Volta, an EV charging provider. “Now that the federal government has these policies, the question becomes, OK, how does this actually get implemented?” The practice, he said, is up to states and municipalities.As EV demand spikes, a growing number of cities are adopting policies for EV charging construction. In July, the city of Columbus passed an “EV readiness” ordinance, which will require new parking structures to host charging stations proportionate to the number of total parking spots, with at least one that is ADA-accessible. Honolulu and Atlanta have passed similar measures.One major challenge is creating a distribution model that can meet a diversity of needs.At the moment, most EV owners charge their cars at home with a built-in unit, which governments can help subsidize. But for apartment dwellers or those living in multi-family homes, that’s less feasible. “When we’re thinking about the largest pieces of the population, that’s where we need to really be focusing our attention. This is a major equity issue,” said Alexia Melendez Martineau, the policy manager at Plug-In America, an EV consumer advocacy group.Bringing power to people is one such solution. In Hoboken, New Jersey, Volta is working with the city to create a streetside charging network. “The network will be within a five-minute walk of every resident,” said Lipsher. “Hopefully this is a way for us to really import it to cities who believe public EV charging infrastructure on the street is important.” Similarly, in parts of Los Angeles – as in Berlin and London – drivers can get a charge from a street lamp.And there may be new technologies that could help, exciting experts and EV enthusiasts alike. That could include the roads themselves charging EVs through a magnetizable concrete technology being piloted in Indiana and Detroit. And bidirectional charging, where, similar to solar panels, drivers can put their electricity back into the grid – or perhaps even to another EV, through what’s known as electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE). Nissan approved the technology for their Leaf model this month.Prochazka said he imagined a future where cities rely on excess EV charge when energy demand spikes, rather than polluting peaker plants that are currently turned on to boost supply. “We haven’t even scratched the surface on the opportunities that are gonna exist once we get bidirectional happening,” said Prochazka.Experts hope these advances will help bridge the gap in historically disconnected areas, such as rural communities and communities of color. But first, planners have to listen: although extensive community engagement trials have been praised in states such as Arizona, the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter in Indiana accused the state’s draft plan of excluding Black communities.“The more the community has input on where these chargers go, how they’re used and how they’re designed,” said Melendez Martineau, “the better they’re going to serve the community.”Still, the US seems significantly more poised to electrify now than it did six months ago, says Dale Hall, a senior researcher who focuses on EVs at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).He says that the private sector, which is behind much of the charging infrastructure, is moving ahead with clear signals of support from the public sector. Stronger local policies or cutting-edge technology will only help dictate the speed of that transition, Hall added.He thinks the Biden administration’s goal for chargers is achievable. “The business case is just going to keep getting better.”TopicsElectric, hybrid and low-emission carsBiden administrationUS politicsClimate crisisAutomotive industrynewsReuse this content More

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      Criticism intensifies after big oil admits ‘gaslighting’ public over green aims

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      Criticism intensifies after big oil admits ‘gaslighting’ public over green aimsFury as ‘explosive’ files reveal largest oil companies contradicted public statements and wished bedbugs upon critical activists Criticism in the US of the oil industry’s obfuscation over the climate crisis is intensifying after internal documents showed companies attempted to distance themselves from agreed climate goals, admitted “gaslighting” the public over purported efforts to go green, and even wished critical activists be infested by bedbugs.The communications were unveiled as part of a congressional hearing held in Washington DC, where an investigation into the role of fossil fuels in driving the climate crisis produced documents obtained from the oil giants ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP.“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they wish bedbugs on you, then you win,” said Varshini Prakash, executive director of Sunrise. The organization accused Shell of a “legacy of violence and of ignoring the wellbeing of communities across the globe”.Pakistan floods ‘made up to 50% worse by global heating’Read moreThe revelations are part of the third hearing held by the House committee on oversight and reform on how the fossil-fuel industry sought to hamper the effort to address the climate crisis. Democrats, who lead the committee, called top executives from the oil companies to testify last year, in which they denied they had misled the public.The new documents are “the latest evidence that oil giants keep lying about their commitments to help solve the climate crisis and should never be trusted by policymakers”, said Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity.“If there is one thing consistent about the oil and gas majors’ position on climate, it’s their utter inability to tell the truth,” Wiles added.Ro Khanna, co-chair of the committee, said the new documents are “explosive” and show a “culture of intense disrespect” to climate activists. The oil giants’ “climate pledges rely on unproven technology, accounting gimmicks and misleading language to hide the reality,” he added. “Big oil executives are laughing at the people trying to protect our planet while they knowingly work to destroy it.”Several of the emails and memos within the released trove of documents appear to show executives, staffers and lobbyists internally contradicting public pronouncements by their companies to act on lowering planet-heating emissions.Exxon, which recently announced profits of $17.9bn for the three months until June, more than three times what it earned in the same quarter a year ago, has publicly said it is “committed” to the Paris climate agreement to curb global heating.However, the documents released by the Democratic-led House committee include an August 2019 memo by an executive to Darren Woods, Exxon’s chief executive, on the need to “remove reference to Paris agreement” from an announcement by an industry lobby group that Exxon is a member of.Such a statement “could create a potential commitment to advocate on the Paris agreement goals”, the executive warned. A separate note on a 2018 Exxon presentation also admitted that biofuels derived from algae was still “decades away from the scale we need”, despite the company long promoting it as a way to lower emissions.Shell, meanwhile, has committed to becoming a “net zero” emissions business by 2050, and yet the documents show a private 2020 communication in which employees are urged to never “imply, suggest, or leave it open for possible misinterpretation that (net zero) is a Shell goal or target”. Shell has “no immediate plans to move to a net-zero emissions portfolio” over the next 10 to 20 years, it added.A Shell tweet posted in 2020 asking others what they could do to reduce emissions resulted in a torrent of ridicule from Twitter users. A communications executive for the company wrote privately that criticism that the tweet was “gaslighting” the public was “not totally without merit” and that the tweet was “pretty tone deaf”. He added: “We are, after all, in a tweet like this implying others need to sacrifice without focusing on ourselves.”The UK-headquartered oil company, which in July announced a record $11.5bn quarterly profit, also poured scorn on climate activists, with a communications specialist at the company emailing in 2019 that he wished “bedbugs” upon the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led US climate group.Previous releases of internal documents have shown that the oil industry knew of the devastating impact of climate change but chose instead to downplay and even deny these findings publicly in order to maintain their business model.The hearings have been attacked by Republicans as a method to “wage war on America’s energy producers” and the oil companies involved have complained that the documents don’t show the full picture of their stance on the climate crisis.Exxon supports the 2015 Paris climate deal, a spokesman said, claiming that the “selective publication of dated emails, without context, is a deliberate attempt to generate a narrative that does not reflect the commitment of ExxonMobil and its employees, to address climate change and play a leading role in the transition to a net-zero future.”A Shell spokesman, meanwhile, said the committee chose to highlight only a small handful of the nearly half a million pages it provided to the body on its “extensive efforts” to take part in the energy transition.“Within that pursuit are challenging internal and external discussions that signal Shell’s intent to form partnerships and share pathways we deem critical to becoming a net-zero energy business,” he said.TopicsClimate crisisUS politicsFossil fuelsOilnewsReuse this content More

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      Republicans planning legal assault on climate disclosure rules for public companies

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      Republicans planning legal assault on climate disclosure rules for public companiesThe SEC’s proposed new rules, which would require public corporations to disclose climate-related information, have been critized by industry groups Republican officials and corporate lobby groups are teeing up a multi-pronged legal assault on the Biden administration’s effort to help investors hold public corporations accountable for their carbon emissions and other climate change risks.The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed new climate disclosure rules in March that would require public companies to report the climate-related impact and risks to their businesses.The regulator has since received more than 14,500 comments. Submissions from 24 Republican state attorneys general and some of the country’s most powerful industry associations suggest that these groups are preparing a series of legal challenges after the regulation is finalized, which could happen as soon as next month.“I would expect a litigation challenge to be brought immediately once the final rule is released,” Jill E Fisch, a business law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told the Guardian. “They probably have their complaints already drafted, and they’re ready to file.”Some opponents claim that requiring companies to publish climate-related information infringes on their right to free speech. Others (often the same ones) say that the rule exceeds the SEC’s legal authority.Both critiques feature prominently in comments from the Republican attorneys general and the US Chamber of Commerce, which spent more than $35m lobbying the federal government in the first half of 2022, according to OpenSecrets. The Republican letter warns that if the new disclosure requirements are finalized, “capitalism will fall by the wayside.”The SEC proposal does not establish environmental policy or require that companies take any climate-related actions other than making more information publicly available.The free speech and legal authority objections have been met with profound skepticism from legal experts and former SEC officials.In a letter to the commission, John Coates, a Harvard Law School professor and former SEC general counsel, said that instead of challenging the climate disclosure rule on its merits, “critics have resorted to mischaracterizing the proposal, and inventing their own, fictional rule”.How a top US business lobby promised climate action – but worked to block effortsRead moreIn another letter, a bipartisan group of former SEC officials, legal scholars, securities law experts and corporate lawyers noted that “the SEC has mandated environmental disclosure at least as far back as the Nixon administration.” Even though not all of the letter’s authors support the substance of the rulemaking, they agreed without exception “that there is no legal basis to doubt the commission’s authority to mandate public-company disclosures related to climate.”“The SEC is promulgating a disclosure rule that’s square within its wheelhouse,” said Fisch, of the University of Pennsylvania. “It’s exactly what Congress told it to do, and which it has done consistently since 1933.”But the legal authority and free speech charges, however tenuous, are not the only grounds on which opponents of the climate disclosure rule have hinted at litigation.In a recent analysis, the Guardian revealed how the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group for CEOs of America’s biggest companies, opposes a key provision of the SEC proposal that would require some large companies to measure and report emissions generated throughout their supply chains – known as Scope 3 emissions.Chart showing the difference between Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.In addition to challenging the substance of the rule, the Business Roundtable also rejects the SEC’s estimate of how much it would cost businesses to comply. (The organization said in an email that its comments “[are] focused on identifying challenges in the proposed rule in the hopes the SEC will address them.”)The SEC projects that companies will face compliance costs of $490,000 to $640,000 in the first year of climate reporting, and less in subsequent years. (By comparison, a 2019 study predicted that climate change could cost firms around $1trn over the following five years.)A detailed assessment from Shivaram Rajgopal, Columbia Business School professor of accounting and auditing, concluded that even without taking into account any benefits from the climate disclosure rule, the costs would prove negligible for most firms. “The loss in market capitalization, if any, from compliance costs is likely too tiny for any outsider to detect and to separate from daily volatility in the stock returns for unrelated reasons,” Rajgopal wrote.Last quarter ExxonMobil earned nearly $18bn in profit, the largest quarterly earning in the company’s history. Over the same period, General Motors generated more than $35bn in revenue, while Walmart reported revenues of nearly $153bn. The Economist recently reported that after-tax corporate profits as a share of the US economy have surged to their highest level since the 1940s.ExxonMobil, GM and Walmart are members of the US Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable. According to a report from the nonprofit Center for Political Accountability, during the 2020 election cycle each company donated at least $125,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association, which supports the political campaigns and legal agendas of GOP attorneys general across the country.In their letter to the SEC, 24 of these attorneys general called the commission’s cost-benefit analysis “woefully unfinished” and warned that finalizing the climate disclosure rules “will undoubtedly draw legal challenges”.The Business Roundtable, meanwhile, described the analysis as “fundamentally flawed” and said that its member companies “believe [the costs of the rule] will be orders of magnitude more than what the SEC estimates.” The chamber issued a similar condemnation, writing in its voluminous submission that the SEC’s “economic analysis … is incomplete and substantially underestimates compliance costs.”Asked to comment, neither organization responded specifically to questions of whether it planned to pursue legal action against the SEC if the final rule is not changed significantly.Trade associations might be expected to instinctively oppose new regulations, but in the past such statements have proven to be more than routine political rhetoric. On multiple occasions in response to prior rulemakings, the chamber and the Business Roundtable have successfully sued the SEC on cost-benefit grounds.In 2011, following a suit filed by the two groups, the DC circuit struck down an SEC rule that would have made it easier for shareholders to consider new board members for public companies, deeming the rule “arbitrary and capricious”. The decision in Business Roundtable v SEC said that the commission “neglected its statutory obligation to assess the economic consequences of its rule”, citing, among other figures, a cost estimate submitted to the SEC by the chamber.In their comments on the climate disclosure proposal, the Republican attorneys general and the chamber each cite Business Roundtable v SEC in claiming that the SEC’s cost-benefit analysis is flawed.The Republican letter is co-led by Patrick Morrisey, the West Virginia attorney general who recently helmed a successful legal challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).In West Virginia v EPA, the Supreme Court endorsed a relatively novel legal notion – the so-called “major questions doctrine” – to halt an EPA effort to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. As the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists explained, “Under this doctrine, when a regulation crosses a certain threshold of being ‘major’ – a line which remains poorly defined – the court rejects the regulation unless it has been clearly authorized by Congress.”The major questions doctrine looks to be the basis of Morrisey’s campaign against the climate disclosure rule. In a July TV appearance, Morrisey said that the Biden administration “can’t get the congressional majorities behind their policies, so they’re trying to resort to the [regulations]. But as we saw with West Virginia v EPA, I don’t think the courts are going to let that happen.” (Morrisey’s office did not respond to emails requesting comment.)“I don’t think there’s any natural reason to infer that the court’s decision [in West Virginia v EPA] would have any implications for the SEC,” said the University of Pennsylvania’s Jill Fisch. “At the same time, you can read the West Virginia case, and you can say: ‘This is part of the Supreme Court, and the federal courts generally, taking a different look at government agencies. This is cutting back on the fourth branch, on the power of the administrative state.’ And if that’s true, in theory, everything is up for grabs.”“Historical legal precedent suggests that the SEC has a pretty strong case,” Tyler Gellasch, the president and CEO of the nonprofit Healthy Markets Association, said. “But if you’re the Business Roundtable, you don’t necessarily need historical legal precedent on your side. You just need a court today. And that seems far more likely today than it would have been at any time in modern history.”TopicsClimate crisisBiden administrationSecurities and Exchange CommissionUS politicsReuse this content More

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      ‘Transformational’: could America’s new green bank be a climate gamechanger?

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      ‘Transformational’: could America’s new green bank be a climate gamechanger?Long championed by climate activists, the green bank would provide funding to expand clean energy use across the US Buried on page 667 of the Inflation Reduction Act is a climate policy that has been in the making for more than a decade.The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund provides $27bn in funding for projects aimed at lowering America’s planet-heating emissions. Some of those funds, roughly $7bn, will be dedicated to clean energy deployment in low-income communities – but the vast majority of the funds will be used to create America’s first national green bank, an initiative long championed by climate activists. Those activists hope that the national green bank, which will provide ongoing financial assistance to expand the use of clean energy across the country, will accelerate America’s transition away from fossil fuels.TopicsUS politicsAmerica’s dirty divideClimate crisisBiden administrationfeaturesReuse this content More