Climate

In the first lawsuit of its kind, an environmental group is claiming that ExxonMobil Corp. not only is leaking pollution beyond its permit limits into Boston Harbor, but it alleges that the supermajor did not prepare the oil storage terminal for the impacts of climate change.

Congressional critics of the Obama administration’s final guidance to federal agencies for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions accused the White House in a hearing Wednesday of giving environmental groups ammunition to bring lawsuits against energy projects.

California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law SB 1383, said to enact the nation’s toughest restrictions on methane and other “super pollutants,” which include black carbon and fluorinated (HFC) gases.

Amid a chorus of praise from California’s environmental and climate activist groups, California Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday signed into law two precedent-setting bills (SB 32 and AB 197) designed to accelerate the state’s reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by deemphasizing the burning of fossil fuels while increasing reliance on renewable energy, storage and efficiency.

Two bills that have the oil and natural gas industry uneasy (SB 32 and AB 197) were passed by California’s legislature on Wednesday, and Gov. Jerry Brown indicated he would sign both.

Six years after launching an effort to modify how federal agencies conduct National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews with regard to climate change, the Obama administration unveiled final guidance it said is designed to quantify the impacts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Nineteen Democratic senators are taking to the Senate floor this week to call out ExxonMobil Corp. and industry-backed groups for spinning a “web of denial” to block legislative action on climate change.

Progressives in the Democratic Party, many of them supporters of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and his failed bid for the presidency, were reportedly unable to get a nationwide moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking), an idea championed by Sanders, added to their party’s official platform.

ExxonMobil Corp. has scored a win in the wide-ranging inquiry into its climate change research, with the Virgin Islands Department of Justice agreeing to withdraw a subpoena that was requesting years of internal documents.