Advanced BioFuels USA

by Kelsey Tamborrino (Politico’s Morning Energy)  Top EPA and Transportation Department officials will likely face intense grilling from Democrats today at a joint hearing of two House Energy and Commerce subcommittees on the Trump administration’s proposed rollback of auto emissions standards. Headlining are EPA air chief Bill Wehrum and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration head Heidi King. Another high-profile witness, California Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols, will appear on a separate, overstuffed panel that includes officials from Louisiana and Colorado, industry representatives and other experts. The rule is expected to be finalized in the coming months.

Wehrum will say the administration “aims to strike the right regulatory balance based on the most recent information that will enable more Americans to afford newer, safer vehicles,” according to a prepared statement.

Nichols won’t pull her punches . In her prepared testimony, she complains that both “EPA’s professional staff and California’s engineers were cut out of this proposal’s development” and argues that the oil industry pushed for the rollback by influencing the “former oil and coal industry lobbyists and lawyers who now work in leadership at the agency.”

Dept. of Investigations: E&C Democrats on Wednesday launched an investigation into whether the oil and refinery industries influenced the auto deregulatory push, Zack Colman reports. Committee leaders sent letters to Marathon Petroleum, American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, American Legislative Exchange Council, Energy4Us and Americans for Prosperity seeking documents regarding their involvement in the rule, saying the oil industry “stands to profit significantly” from the Trump administration’s proposal. The probe is based in part on a December New York Times story on Marathon’s lobbying efforts to weaken the Obama-era standards.

Marathon spokesman Jamal Kheiry said the company has not yet received the letter, but said, “In general terms, our industry is among the most heavily regulated in the nation, and we consider it a responsibility to provide information about our industry to those who hold positions of public trust.”

Freeze frame: The Trump administration’s proposed Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient rule for model years 2021-2026 would lock in 2020 standards through 2026 to provide a “time-out from further, costly increases.” POLITICO Pro DataPoint’s Patterson Clark breaks down the numbers here.   READ MORE

HEARING ON “DRIVING IN REVERSE: THE ADMINISTRATION’S ROLLBACK OF FUEL ECONOMY AND CLEAN CAR STANDARDS” (U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce)

California and Canada Come Together to Advance Clean Transportation (NGT News)

Nearly Half U.S. Governors Stand Up To Trump On Clean Cars (Our Daily Planet)

Excerpts from U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce: The Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce and the Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change of the Committee on Energy and Commerce will hold a joint hearing on Thursday, June 20, 2019, at 10 a.m. in the John D. Dingell Room, 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building on the Trump Administration’s efforts to roll back Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards and carbon pollution regulations from light duty cars and trucks. The hearing is entitled, “Driving in Reverse: The Administration’s Rollback of Fuel Economy and Clean Car Standards.”