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TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OVERHAULS ENDANGERED SPECIES REGULATIONS: The Trump administration finalized modifications Monday to the implementation of the Endangered Species Act to make it more accommodating to businesses that view the law as cumbersome and restrictive to developers.

The administrative changes are the most far-reaching regulatory revisions to the 1973 Endangered Species Act in decades, environmental groups say.

“The best way to uphold the Endangered Species Act is to do everything we can to ensure it remains effective in achieving its ultimate goal—recovery of our rarest species,” said Interior Department Secretary David Bernhardt. “The Act’s effectiveness rests on clear, consistent and efficient implementation.”

Republicans note the law has only recovered about 1% of the species that have been placed on the endangered species list.

Court challenges coming: Democratic states and environmentalist groups, which plan to sue, counter that the rule changes would weaken a law credited with saving the bald eagle, humpback whale, American alligator, and others. They say the law has successfully kept 99% of listed species from becoming extinct.

And they argue Republicans aim to benefit miners, farmers, rangers, and oil and gas companies that in the course of operations have to avoid harming species protected by the law.

The modifications come after a report by the United Nations released in May projected that 1 million plant and animal species around the world face possible extinction, threatening the stability of ecosystems around the world.

Democratic Attorneys General Xavier Becerra of California and Maura Healey of Massachusetts led a coalition of 10 states in submitting comments to the Trump administration when it introduced the draft of the rule changes last year, arguing the modifications are “in clear violation of” the law’s “overriding conservation purpose.”

“When of course the whole purpose of the letter and spirit of the act is to institutionalize caution, these proposals throw caution to the wind and try to avoid determinations that species qualify as threatened and endangered and try to reduce what has to be done if they are on the list,” David Hayes, executive director of the New York University School of Law’s State Energy and Environmental Impact Center, which works with attorneys general to protect environmental rules, told me.

Not a ‘radical’ change: The Trump administration, however, is casting the changes as less far-reaching than Democrats and environmentalists claim.

“We developed these regulations primarily to provide greater transparency and consistency in our regulations. Nothing in here is a radical change from how we have been listing species in the last decade or so,” said Gary Frazer, assistant director for endangered species at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in a press call with reporters.

The rule modifications don’t change the underlying statute, and do not go as far as congressional Republicans would like.

“These final rules are a good start, but the administration is limited by an existing law that needs to be updated. I am working in the Senate to strengthen the law, so it can meet its full conservation potential,” said John Barrasso of Wyoming, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

What the rule changes would do: Among other things, the new rules allow the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to consider economic analyses in listing decisions for species that may become threatened or endangered.

It would end the so-called “blanket rule” of automatically granting protections to species that are classified as threatened, and would instead make a distinction between “threatened” and “endangered” species. Threatened is a weaker classification than endangered that provides for looser regulations.

Another proposed change would give the government more flexibility in how it determines whether species face threatening conditions in the “foreseeable future,” defining the term in a more narrow way that critics say would discount longer-term impacts such as climate change.

The May U.N. report listed climate change as one of the threats to biodiversity and endangered species.

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TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DELIVERS SETBACK TO NATION’S FIRST MAJOR OFFSHORE WIND PROJECT: The Trump administration delivered a setback Friday to the planned development of the nation’s first major offshore wind farm, delaying the final environmental review of the project until next year.

Vineyard Wind had been scheduled to be operational by early 2022, with turbines built off Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts expected to provide enough power for more than 400,000 homes.

The developer of the Vineyard Wind have warned permitting delays could jeopardize the project, given its contract with Massachusetts is based on the assumption that the company will be able to collect a federal investment tax credit that expires at the end of this year.

Vineyard Wind spokesman Scott Farmelant called the Interior Department’s decision “a surprise and disappointment,” but said the project remains “viable” and is moving forward.

“We urge the federal government to complete the review as quickly as possible,” he said. The company had expected the review to be completed this summer.

But the Interior Department ordered a supplemental review for the project to consider the potential impact on commercial fishing.

Industry groups criticized the Interior Department’s delay of the project, noting that it could interfere with the Trump administration’s claim that it is not neglecting renewables as part of its “energy dominance” agenda, and is supportive of offshore wind.

Vineyard Wind is the first of several offshore wind farms planned off of the East Coast that could power millions of homes, with projects proposed for Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Maine.

“The Department of the Interior’s regrettable decision to further delay the review of the Vineyard Wind project undermines the Trump Administration’s American energy dominance agenda and a major U.S. economic growth opportunity,” said Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association.

EPA DENIES SIX APPLICATIONS FROM REFINERIES SEEKING EXEMPTIONS FROM RFS MANDATES: The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that it has exempted 31 oil refineries from 2018 requirements to use renewable fuel, while denying six applications.

This marks the first time the Trump administration has denied small refiner exemption applications under the Renewable Fuel Standard.

The RFS requires refiners to blend billions of gallons of corn ethanol into the nation’s fuel supply each year. The exemption program aims to protect companies that find it economically untenable to meet the standard.

Corn farmers and their representatives in Congress have accused EPA of excessive use of the refinery exemptions, which they argue are eroding the market for ethanol.

Status quo? Biofuels stakeholders said EPA’s denials of exemption applications do not go far enough compared to the number it approved.

“At a time when ethanol plants in the Heartland are being mothballed and jobs are being lost, it is unfathomable and utterly reprehensible that the Trump administration would dole out more unwarranted waivers to prosperous petroleum refiners,” said Geoff Cooper, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association.

The refining industry, meanwhile, supported the exemptions EPA granted.

“We are pleased that EPA recognized the extreme hardship that the RFS program is having on small refineries. These waivers will go a long way to protecting manufacturing jobs in Pennsylvania, the Midwest, and across the country,” said Chet Thompson, president and CEO of American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers.

EPA IS DOING MORE DEREGULATION THAN ANY AGENCY, INTERNAL WATCHDOG SAYS: The EPA is doing more deregulation than any other federal agency, according to a report Friday from the agency’s inspector general.

EPA took 16 deregulatory actions in fiscal year 2017, more than all other agencies, and did another 10 deregulatory actions in fiscal year 2018.

For those two fiscal years years, the EPA surpassed what was required by Trump’s “two-for-one” deregulatory executive order that requires agencies to weaken or eliminate two regulations for every new regulation issued.

The deregulatory moves in fiscal years 2017 and 2018 generated $96.6 million in cost savings.

But environmental groups and other critics say weakening regulations related to air, water, and climate change results in foregone health and environmental benefits that exceed the cost savings.

The Rundown

New York Times A giant factory rises to make a product filling up the world: plastic

Wall Street Journal Saudi plans for biggest-ever IPO are back on

Wall Street Journal Giant batteries supercharge wind and solar plans

Bloomberg Trump’s top energy regulator invites execs to coal country

Calendar

TUESDAY | August 13

American Wind Week 2019 continues, lasting through August 17. During Wind Week, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and supporters of wind energy highlight the “many ways that wind powers opportunity” at dozens of events across the country and online with #AmericanWindWeek.