Boiling Point: Biden is running out of time to lock in climate action

Donald Trump and Joe Biden seated in armchairs

By Sammy RothClimate Columnist

Dec. 3, 2024 6 AM PT

In the final weeks before President Biden leaves office, federal officials and climate advocates are scrambling to secure as much progress as they can before President Trump returns to the White House.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced a $6.6-billion conditional loan to electric vehicle maker Rivian, to help the Southern California company finish building an EV factory in Georgia. Details here from L.A. Times reporter Laurence Darmiento, who writes that the money comes from Biden’s major climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. Laurence and Queenie Wong also note that Rivian closed a $5.8-billion joint venture with Volkswagen.

In other news, the Biden administration has proposed tightening restrictions on nitrogen oxide pollution from gas plants for the first time in almost two decades. That would benefit air quality and climate, although there’s a good chance the new rule doesn’t survive Trump, as the New York Times’ Austyn Gaffney reports.

Landscape conservation is another major focus this month. Conservation groups and Native American tribes are urging Biden to establish four new national monuments in California before he leaves office, including two in the desert, per The Times’ Lila Seidman. Activists are pushing similar proposals on public lands in other states:

In North Dakota, conservation groups and Native American tribes want Biden to protect 140,000 acres of Badlands near Theodore Roosevelt National Park. (Story by Jack Dura, Associated Press)
In Oregon, conservationists hope Biden will protect 1.1 million acres of sagebrush desert and river gorges in the Owyhee Canyonlands. (April Ehrlich, OPB)
It’s unclear what Trump’s election means for congressional efforts to establish a national monument via legislation along Colorado’s Dolores River corridor. (Dennis Webb, the Daily Sentinel)

In other public lands news:

The U.S. Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee will be led by Utah Republican Mike Lee, who opposes federal ownership of Western public lands. (Erin Alberty and Nick Sobczyk, Axios)
Tracy Stone-Manning, outgoing director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, has been named the next president of the Wilderness Society, a prominent conservation group. (Matthew Brown, Associated Press)

As attention turns to Trump, one of the biggest climate questions is how he’ll approach electric cars, after promising during the campaign to end Biden’s tailpipe pollution rules.

The New York Times’ Coral Davenport and Jack Ewing report that car companies aren’t asking Trump to erase the tailpipe rules entirely — they’ve invested too much in electric vehicles. But while most automakers want Trump to preserve a $7,500 tax credit for EVs, Toyota is breaking with the rest of the industry, calling on the president-elect to alter the tax credit so that its fleet of hybrids can qualify, per E&E News’ David Ferris.

“We at Toyota believe that providing customers with affordable vehicles and a variety of options is the best path forward for reducing emissions,” a Toyota executive wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, which offered no context on the level of reductions that scientists say is necessary to preserve a safe planet.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs an executive order

If Trump does end the $7,500 tax credit for electric cars, Gov. Gavin Newsom says, California will offer rebates to fill the gap, as my colleague Russ Mitchell reports. Trump could also raise the price of EVs, solar panels, gasoline and more through his promised tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico, E&E News reports.

Trump’s nominees could affect climate policy and energy prices, too:

Trump’s pick for transportation secretary, Fox Business host and former member of Congress Sean Duffy, would help set fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks. (Ian Duncan, Washington Post)
Brooke Rollins, tapped to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has said that “research of [carbon dioxide] being a pollutant is just not valid.” Assuming she’s confirmed by the Senate, she’ll lead an agency tasked with helping farmers respond to the climate crisis. (Georgina Gustin, Inside Climate News)
Trump’s choice for Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has called Biden’s climate law a “doomsday machine for the budget.” Bessent would have significant authority to rewrite or reverse some of the law’s clean energy tax credits. (Jason Plautz, E&E News)

Before we move on, some global updates. The latest round of international climate negotiations wrapped last month in Azerbaijan, yielding a deal that many observers saw as disappointing. Lower-income countries asked for $1.3 trillion annually to help them respond to climate change. Higher-income countries — the ones mostly responsible for global warming — instead promised $300 billion, the Associated Press reports.

In South Korea, meanwhile, 175 nations attempted to finalize a treaty on plastic pollution — an important but divisive endeavor, as The Times’ Max Kim reports. Alas, no agreement was reached.

Speaking of plastic: Newly revealed documents show that petrochemical companies have paid influencers — as well as actor Dennis Quaid — to convince social media users and TV viewers that plastic pollution isn’t such a big problem. Here’s the story from the New York Times’ Hiroko Tabuchi.

On that note, here’s what’s happening around the West:

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE

Hoover Dam stands in front of Lake Mead.

As climate change and heavy water consumption drain the Colorado River, California and Arizona officials don’t sound thrilled with the options being studied by the federal government for keeping Lake Mead and Lake Powell from crashing. Details here from my L.A. Times colleague Ian James.

California and Arizona had wanted federal officials to study a possible “compact call,” which would involve forcing the Colorado River’s Upper Basin states to deliver a certain amount of water, as guaranteed in a 1922 interstate compact. The Colorado Sun’s Shannon Mullane wrote about what that might have looked like.

Also in Arizona, Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a historic settlement that would resolve Native American water rights claims on the Colorado River. If Congress approves the settlement and it’s signed into law, the Navajo, Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute tribes would benefit, per the Arizona Republic’s Arlyssa D. Becenti.

In related news, Ian James reports that Southern California’s behemoth Metropolitan Water District is preparing to vote on whether to contribute $141.6 million in planning and preconstruction costs for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta tunnel project, which would help move water from Northern California to L.A. and other cities. Supporters say the tunnel would reduce SoCal’s reliance on the Colorado River; critics say it would harm rivers and fish.

The Delta tunnel would also bring water to San Joaquin Valley farms. Speaking of which:

Large portions of the valley’s land area have been sinking at record rates as farmers pump huge amounts of groundwater to grow their crops, new research shows. (Ian James, L.A. Times)
California’s biggest farmers helped elect Trump again, lured by promises of more water. But they’ll be in trouble if he starts deporting their workers — as will Americans who buy groceries. (Jessica Garrison and Rebecca Plevin, L.A. Times)

One more water story. Residents of south San Diego County are still frustrated by what they see as insufficient state and federal support for cleaning up Tijuana River sewage pollution, The Times’ Jireh Deng reports.

CLIMATE CONSEQUENCES

Tony Berastegui Jr., right, and his sister Giselle Berastegui drink water during a historic July 2023 heat wave in Phoenix.

There’s no form of extreme weather more deadly than extreme heat. The Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Alan Halaly and Katie Futterman shine a spotlight on this quiet crisis in a powerful three-part series. They report that high temperatures killed at least 400 people in Las Vegas this year and sent at least 4,000 people to emergency rooms across Nevada — numbers that are definitely undercounts, and that keep rising with global warming.

Here in Southern California, climate-fueled weather whiplash helps explain how the Mountain fire — which is now 100% contained — became the region’s third-most-destructive blaze in a decade. For details, check out this story by my L.A. Times colleagues Sean Greene and Noah Haggerty.

In addition to destroying nearly 250 buildings, the Mountain fire hammered farms in Ventura County. Smoke and flames forced farmworkers to head home, leading to lost wages for people who couldn’t afford to lose them, per The Times’ Karen Garcia. The inferno also burned one-fourth of the county’s avocado acreage — an especially big deal considering Ventura is the state’s largest avocado producer, as Cindy Carcamo notes.

In other wildfire news:

South Stockton residents already breathe some of America’s dirtiest air. Now they’re concerned a biofuel project to reduce wildfire risk in Northern California could increase shipping traffic at the local port, making air pollution worse. (Noah Haggerty, L.A. Times)
PG&E says its equipment may have ignited the 19,000-acre Sites fire in Colusa County. (Ted Goldberg, KQED)

Global warming is driving plants and animals toward extinction, too — but we can fight back:

California released a plan for protecting Joshua trees from climate change, wildfires and development. The goal is to identify and protect 70% of priority conservation areas by 2033. (Alex Wigglesworth, L.A. Times)
The Golden State’s gray wolf comeback continues. There are now nine confirmed packs in California — up from one pack just four years ago. (Lila Seidman, L.A. Times)
In Wyoming, biologists are trying to lure sage grouse back to abandoned mines by building human-made breeding grounds known as leks. Will it work? Only time will tell. (Mike Koshmrl, WyoFile)

A few stories from America’s public lands and waters:

Will the U.S. Forest Service let a private company fly well-paying customers to a revitalized Angeles National Forest ski resort via helicopter? Early signs point to “no.” (Lila Seidman, L.A. Times)
Elevated levels of radiation have been detected at a popular San Francisco Bay Area park called the Albany Bulb. It was built on a former landfill. (Tony Briscoe, L.A. Times)
The once-glorious cruise ship that inspired the TV show “The Love Boat” is fading away on the California Delta — and threatening Stockton’s drinking water supply with toxic oil leaks. (Jessica Garrison, L.A. Times)

To end on a hopeful note, here’s a wonderful tale from L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez about volunteering on the beautiful California coast — “in the service of greater appreciation that might lead to better stewardship of a planet in peril as climate change accelerates and biodiversity declines,” Steve writes.

ONE MORE THING

Thank you to everyone who attended our L.A. Times Climate California Live event in September! The full video is now online, featuring great discussion with many members of our 17-person environment, health and science reporting team. I hope you’ll check it out.

This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. Or open the newsletter in your web browser here.

For more climate and environment news, follow @Sammy_Roth on X and @sammyroth.bsky.social on Bluesky.