American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2021 - 13

IndustryDigest
Biden Issues Order On
Climate Financial Risks
WASHINGTON-Claiming that it
will help Americans better understand
climate change's impacts on their
financial security, President Joe Biden
issued the Executive Order on ClimateRelated
Financial Risk on May 20.
According to the White House, the
EO will:
· Develop a governmentwide
approach to mitigating climate-related
financial risk;
· Encourage financial regulators to
assess climate-related financial risk;
· Bolster the resilience of life
savings and pensions;
· Modernize federal lending,
underwriting and procurement; and
· Reduce climate change risks to
the federal budget.
To encourage regulators to consider
climate risks, the EO instructs Treasury
Secretary Janet Yellen to work with the
other members of the Financial Stability
Oversight Council, which she chairs, to
assess climate-related financial risk to
the stability of both the federal
government and the U.S. financial
system, the White House describes.
Additionally, Yellen is to work with the
council's member agencies to consider
issuing a report on actions the council
recommends to reduce risks to financial
stability, including actions member
agencies plan to take to improve
climate-related disclosures and other
sources of data, and to incorporate
climate-related financial risk into
regulatory and supervisory practices.
The EO's section on pensions directs
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh to
consider suspending, revising or
rescinding any federal rules that bar
investment firms from considering
environmental, social and governance
factors, including climate-related risks,
in their investment decisions related to
workers' pensions. The order also asks
the department to report on other
measures that can be implemented to
protect the life savings and pensions of
U.S. workers and families from climaterelated
financial risk, and to assess how
the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment
Board has accounted for ESG factors,
including climate-related risk.
The portion of the order dealing with
risk to the federal budget says that, in an
effort to be fiscally responsible, the
federal government must develop and
publish an annual assessment of its
climate-related fiscal risk exposure. The
order also directs the Office of
Management and Budget to reduce the
federal government's exposure as it
helps formulate the president's budget
and oversees budget execution. ❒
EPA Clears Its Own Path
For New Air Quality Rules
WASHINGTON-The Biden
administration revoked another rule its
predecessor touted as a transparency
measure in mid-May, when the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency issued
an interim final rule to rescind the
Trump administration's regulation titled
" Increasing Consistency and
Transparency in Considering Benefits
and Costs in the Clean Air Act
Rulemaking Process, " also known as the
Benefit-Cost Rule. The agency says the
rule saddled it with unacceptable
procedural restrictions and requirements.
EPA notes its review was prompted
by President Biden's Executive Order
13990, " Protecting Public Health and
the Environment and Restoring Science
To Tackle the Climate Crisis. "
According to the agency, the Trump-era
regulation:
· Imposed broad restrictions and
requirements on when and how the
Agency must conduct benefit-cost
analyses (BCA) for CAA rulemakings
without explaining why those
requirements were needed;
· Was unnecessary because EPA
already prepares BCAs under CAA
actions that warrant them;
· Limited EPA's ability to rely on
the best available science;
· Included presentational
requirements that invited net benefit
calculations in misleading regulatory
preambles that clashed with economic
best practices;
· Did not reconcile its provision
that EPA consider the required BCAs
with substantive CAA mandates.
EPA says the interim final rule
becomes effective 30 days after
publication in the Federal Register. The
agency indicates it invites comment on
this rule and intends to follow it with a
final rule that responds to those
comments and reflects any accompanying
changes to the agency's approach.
For more on the rescission of the
Benefit-Cost Rule, and how to comment,
visit www.epa.gov/air-and-radiation/ -
rescission-2020-benefit-cost-rule. ❒
Biden Moves To Undo
Trump MBTA Changes
WASHINGTON-The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service has proposed a rule to
revoke a regulation issued by the
Trump administration to limit the
scope of the Migratory Bird Treaty
Act. According to USFWS, the
proposal provides the public with
notice of the agency's intent to revoke
the Trump administration's regulatory
interpretation of the MBTA and return
to implementing the MBTA as
prohibiting incidental take and
applying enforcement discretion,
consistent with judicial precedent.
According to USFWS, it published
on Jan. 7 a final rule defining the scope
of the MBTA as it applies to conduct
resulting in the injury or death of
migratory birds protected by the MBTA,
in which it excluded incidental takes
from MBTA's scope. Oil and gas
representatives, including the Western
Energy Alliance, applauded the Trump
era-revision.
" Congress did not intend for
criminal prosecution under the MBTA
for accidental bird deaths, and three
federal circuit courts have ruled as
such, " says Alliance President
Kathleen Sgamma. " This rule codifies
the court rulings and reverses years of
executive branch overreach. The
Alliance is particularly supportive of
this rule, as MBTA prosecution had
been targeted at oil and natural gas
companies even for low numbers of
common birds' deaths, while other
industries went unscathed for much
greater numbers, with some even being
allowed to kill threatened and
endangered species. "
If the Biden administration moves
forward with revoking that revision, oil
and gas companies again will face
criminal and litigation risks for accidental
avian deaths in waste pits that lack netting.
USFWS was scheduled to take
public comments on issues of fact, law
and policy raised by the MBTA rule
published on Jan. 7 until June 7. To
view the notice about its plans to
revoke the rule, visit
www.regulations.gov and search for
FWS-HQ-MB-2018-0090-18943. ❒
JUNE 2021 13
http://www.epa.gov/air-and-radiation/-rescission-2020-benefit-cost-rule http://www.epa.gov/air-and-radiation/rescission-2020-benefit-cost-rule http://www.regulations.gov
American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2021

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