Climate Policy News You Can Use — June 2024

Dear Colleagues,

Happy June and happy summer. I hope you are surviving any potential heat waves coming your way.

As you know, a hot topic we like to discuss is trade associations – and a coalition of organizations including Race to Zero and WBCSD have you covered. Their Business Associations Climate Action Guide provides companies with key steps to ensure business associations they entrust with representing their interests drive an agenda in line with the 1.5°C climate ambition. Please check it out, and reach it out if you are interested in discussing more with us. The Climate Policy Leadership team is working on a resource that brings together a compilation of the most helpful trade association resources to aid companies in finding best practices. Be on the lookout for that this summer!

Farm Bill Debate Continues

Ranking Member Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) released a Senate Republican vision for the Farm Bill, which resembles the House version and makes the similar cuts to important IRA funding and programs. It is unlikely to reach the floor before August. Billions of dollars in funding intended to help American farmers adopt innovative practices and protect their businesses from climate-related disasters are at stake. If done right, food companies will see increased farmer engagement in climate-smart agriculture, which will support farmers to remain competitive and participate in new markets as consumer trends shift to more sustainably produced products.

Take Action:

• Advocate to both chambers about the importance of moving the IRA funding into the Farm Bill and maintaining the critical climate guardrails that prioritize reducing GHG emissions in agricultural production.

Go Deeper:

• Read EDF’s latest blog post on how Farm Bill programs impact companies.
• Check out this Op-Ed about what climate action meat and dairy companies can take now.

Washington’s Climate Commitment Act at Risk

The Climate Commitment Act (CCA) is under threat. Passed in 2021, it established Washington’s own cap-and-invest program and a declining limit on climate emissions to provide cleaner air and water, invest in green jobs and technologies, and fund climate resilience around the state. In its first year, the CCA raised $1.8 billion for climate and community investments, demonstrating its potential to drive meaningful change. Ballot Initiative I-2117 seeks to repeal the CCA and ban any future carbon tax or credit trading in Washington. If passed, this repeal would undermine Washington’s progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and have concerning implications for national momentum on climate. State level action is crucial to fighting the climate crisis.

Take Action:

• Learn more about No on 2117 coalition to keep Washington’s climate progress on track.

Go Deeper:

• Learn more about the repeal effort and why businesses are coming together to protect climate progress.

The Latest from Capitol Hill

This week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will markup 4 Congressional Review Acts (CRAs) that aim to roll back important rulemaking. These include vehicles and trucks rules, heavy duty vehicle standards, a set of rules to regulate emissions from power plants, and the clean air standards regulating fine particulate matter (PM) 2.5, also known as soot. This markup signals these CRAs are likely headed to the House floor in the coming weeks. It is critical for businesses to share their support for these rules with Members of Congress to reinforce their commitment to cleaning up pollution and environmental protection. Please reach out if you have questions about any of these priorities.

What’s new with the IRA?

The Treasury Department released its final rules for the Inflation Reduction Act’s prevailing wage and apprenticeship (PWA) requirements. To be eligible for the increased tax credit, generally, taxpayers must pay prevailing wages, employ apprentices, keep adequate books and records, and ensure any contractors and sub-contractors also comply.

• See this one-pager from the IRS for more.

Keeping up with the Administration

• The Biden administration released a Climate Capital Guidebook to help navigate all the federal capital programs in this space.
• Check out the administration’s state factsheets to see the extent of infrastructure investments in the states you have operations.
• The administration released its updated Agency Climate Adaptation Plans which continues to integrate climate into policy decision-making.

ICYMI – Things We’re Tracking

1. Check out what’s new from the Net-Zero Action Accelerator – including their Sustainability Summer School series which includes more details on fleet electrification, freight, and taking advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act.
2. The new Transform to Net Zero Sustainable Supply Chain Finance Transformation Guide (SSCF) analyzes what’s working — and, what’s not — with sustainable supply chain finance programs that aim to tackle the Scope 3 problem.

That is all for June. Thank you for reading, and if this was forwarded to you, email us to subscribe!

As a reminder, these newsletters live online for easy access following their exclusive release via email.

Best,
Daniel Neff on behalf of the Climate Policy Leadership Team