Sean Duffy Targets Biden’s Fuel Economy Standards

Current conditions: Storm Herminia moved over Europe, bringing severe flooding to Spain and France • The air quality is low in Mumbai, where a panel is considering banning vehicles powered by gas or diesel • It’s chilly but sunny in Washington, D.C., where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will face the Senate Finance Committee in his confirmation hearings to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Judge halts Trump’s funding pause

A lot happened in Washington yesterday. Chaos erupted after the Office of Management and Budget dropped a two-page memo ordering a pause on federal grant programs that “advance[s] Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies.” According to Heatmap’s Jael Holzman, the freeze targets programs including vast swathes of the federal government most relevant to the energy sector, from major Energy Department cleantech research offices and labs to all implementations of energy tax credits, including those in the Inflation Reduction Act. It also includes essentially all work at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a Commerce Department subagency that produces climate science and weather forecasting. The order was set to take effect at 5 p.m. but a federal judge temporarily halted enforcement of it until a hearing on February 3.

Also yesterday, Sean Duffy was confirmed by the Senate as the new Transportation secretary. He wasted no time, signing an order to roll back former President Biden’s fuel economy standards aimed at reducing emissions. His memo said the standards “put coercive pressure on automakers to phase out production of various models of popular (internal combustion engine) vehicles.”

2. Study: Climate change made California wildfires more likely and more intense

Human-caused climate change increased the likelihood of California’s wildfires by 35%, according to a rapid analysis from the World Weather Attribution. Warmer weather, drier conditions, and a longer fire season all supercharged the fires, the group said, making them not only more likely, but 6% more intense. It also found that the state’s dry season has gotten about 23 days longer, and the likelihood of no rainfall in the last three months of the year has doubled since pre-industrial years. “What makes [these fires] ever more dangerous, and what is something that the government of California alone can definitely not do anything about is human-induced climate change,” said WWA co-lead scientist Friederike Otto. “And drill, baby, drill will make this much, much worse.” The study hasn’t been peer-reviewed yet.

3. A quick EV news roundup

General Motors reported solid Q4 earnings for 2024 yesterday that beat expectations, but it’s the year ahead that investors are worried about. The automaker’s shares fell after the earnings call because analysts don’t think the company is prepared for potential policy changes under President Trump. “In our view, the guidance for 2025 leaves no room for errors, and also does not include impact from regulatory changes in the U.S., especially on tariffs and BEV support,” analysts at Bernstein said in a note. GM CEO Mary Barra said the company’s EV business was moving toward profitability. The Chevy Equinox EV saw an 85% quarterly increase in sales, and the GMC Hummer EV had its “best sales quarter ever.” Tesla will report its Q4 financial results this evening.

In other EV news, Volkswagen has reportedly canceled the U.S. rollout of the ID.7 electric sedan. We might have seen this coming. The company delayed the original rollout, which was slated for last May. Now, a company spokesperson told Automotive News the “ongoing challenging EV climate” in the U.S. was the reason for the decision to pull the plug.

4. Solar industry group calls for major increase in energy storage

The large trade group that calls itself “the voice of the solar industry” is calling for a major ramping up of U.S. energy storage by 2030. The Solar Energy Industries Association wants to see 10 million storage installations deployed by 2030 so the country can reach a total of 700 gigawatt-hours of installed storage capacity across the grid. For context, current installed storage capacity is an estimated 83 GWh, and there are about 500,000 storage installations. Current projections suggest the U.S. will have 450 GWh of storage capacity by 2030. The group calls on states, regional transmission organizations, and the federal government to speed things up, and offers some suggestions for how they might do that:

SEIA

5. Researchers detect heavy metals in soil near California battery fire

Raised levels of heavy metals have been detected in the soil surrounding the Moss Landing Power Plant in California’s Monterey County, where a massive battery fire burned for five days earlier this month. KQED reported that scientists at San José State University’s Moss Landing Marine Laboratories found “a hundreds-fold rise” in toxic metals including nickel, manganese, and cobalt in the topsoil within a two mile radius of the plant. The findings contradict those of the Environmental Protection Agency, which said its air monitoring didn’t find any evidence of harmful toxins released from the fire. Residents near the plant have reported health problems like headaches, nosebleeds, and nausea in the weeks after the blaze. The metals detected are linked to long-term health problems including lung disease, cancer, and Parkinson’s disease.

THE KICKER

The Doomsday Clock was updated yesterday. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board moved it from 90 seconds to midnight to 89 seconds to midnight, “the closest the Clock has ever been to midnight in its 78-year history.”

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