 |
|
|
|||||
The Senate voted on Thursday to block Californias first-in-the nation rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, acting to kill the nations most aggressive effort to transition toward electric vehicles as President Donald Trumps administration has doubled down on fossil fuels. The resolution approved by the Senate goes to the White House, where Trump is expected to sign it, along with two other measures blocking Californias rules that the Senate is poised to pass. The House approved the three resolutions earlier this month. The GOP effort to kill the rules could have a profound impact on Californias longtime efforts to curb air pollution. The push comes after Senate Republicans established a new exception to the filibuster on Wednesday to allow them to weigh in on the issue. California makes up roughly 11% of the U.S. car market, giving it significant power to shape purchasing trends. Vehicles are one of the largest sources of planet-warming emissions. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state air regulators say that what Congress is doing is illegal and they will likely sue to keep the rules in place. The two other resolutions would block rules to cut tailpipe emissions from medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and curb smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks. Democrats charge that Republicans are acting at the behest of the oil and gas industry and they say California should be able to set its own standards after obtaining waivers from the Environmental Protection Agency. Republicans say the phaseout of gas-powered cars, along with other waivers that California has obtained from the EPA, is costly for consumers and manufacturers, puts pressure on the nations energy grid and has become a de facto nationwide electric vehicle mandate. The waivers in question allow California to implement a stringent electric vehicle mandate, whichgiven Californias size and the fact that a number of other states have signed on to Californias mandatewould end up not just affecting the state of California, but the whole country, said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., before the vote. Newsom, a Democrat, announced plans in 2020 to ban the sale of all new gas-powered vehicles within 15 years as part of an aggressive effort to lower emissions from the transportation sector. Plug-in hybrids and used gas cars could still be sold. The Biden administration approved the states waiver to implement the standards in December, a month before Trump returned to office. The California rules are stricter than a Biden-era rule that tightens emissions standards but does not require sales of electric vehicles. Bidens EPA said in announcing the decision that opponents of the California waivers did not meet their legal burden to show how either the EV rule or a separate measure on heavy-duty vehicles was inconsistent with the Clean Air Act. Through a series of votes on Wednesday, Republicans set a new precedent for the Senate to reject the state EPA waivers with a simple majority vote, as opposed to the 60 vote threshold on legislation that is subject to a filibuster. The votes were a workaround that enabled them to hold the votes after the Senate parliamentarian agreed with the Government Accountability Office that Californias policies are not subject to the Congressional Review Act, a law that allows Congress to reject federal regulations under certain circumstances. Democrats fought the changes, which were the latest attempt to chip away at the Senate filibuster after both parties have used their majorities in the past two decades to lower the threshold for nominations. Democrats tried in 2022 to roll back the filibuster for legislation, as well, but were thwarted by members of their own caucus who disagreed with the effort. Republicans have insisted that they would not try a similar move after regaining the majority this year. But Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the move to block Californias laws were a point of no return and called the Republicans fair weather institutionalists. Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Hinge Health Inc, the digital physical therapy health startup that is expected to make its market debut on Thursday, in a closely watched initial public offering (IPO) that will test the market’s interest for a new digital health offering, after what has been a challenging few years for the sector. Recently, there have been fewer tech IPOs, but they could be making a comeback, according to CNBC. The San Francisco-based company priced shares at $32 on Wednesday, the higher end of its expected range, in an offering led by Morgan Stanley, Barclays, and BofA Securities. The stock will list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the HNGE ticker symbol. Based on its IPO share price, HNGE has an approximate valuation worth about $2.6 billion, though it could be higher on a fully diluted basis; and is much lower than its October 2021 valuation of $6.2 billion, according to CNBC. What does Hinge Health do? Hinge Health leverages software, including artificial intelligence (AI), to largely automate care for joint and muscle health, to improve outcomes, and cost reductions for its clients via a digital platform. That platform is designed to address a broad spectrum of musculoskeletal health needs (MSK) carefrom acute injury, to chronic pain, to post-surgical rehabilitationand aims It aims to reduce pain, improve function, and decrease the necessity for surgeries; while promoting health equity because it allows members to engage in their exercise therapy sessions from any location. The company was founded in 2014 by Daniel Perez and Gabriel Mecklenburg after both experienced MSK injuries, and both had to undergo surgery and physical therapy, enduring a frustrating recovery process.
Category:
E-Commerce
Hurricane season officially begins in 10 days. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced today that the U.S. is likely to see an above-average number of hurricanes this year, with 1319 named storms, six to 10 hurricanes, and three to five major hurricanes. It’s not just hurricane season, but disaster season in general. Recent tornadoes have killed dozens of people. As the summer progresses, there’s a bigger risk of both extreme heat and wildfires. (The nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists calls May through October “danger season,” and points out that the risk of major hurricanes, floods, heat waves, and fires keeps getting significantly worse because of climate change.) We’re not ready for the next big disaster. At NOAA, which collects crucial data and makes forecasts, more than 1,000 employees have been fired or took retirement offers because of DOGE. The administration also wants to cut NOAAs budget by around 30%. At FEMA, an internal memo last week said that the agencys normal process to prepare had been derailed by other activities like staffing and contracts. At least 2,000 of the agencys roughly 6,000 full-time employees have left or plan to leave. I think Americans are going to start seeing after a major disaster that the response they normally see from FEMA is just not there, says Joel Scata, a senior attorney at the nonprofit NRDC. Theyre going to be left fending for themselves. Theyre going to be left wondering where FEMA staff are because FEMA doesnt have the capacity to address it right now. Some changes are already apparent. In St. Louis, a historic 23-mile-long tornado killed five people, injured 38, and caused more than $1.6 billion in damages on May 19. Despite the scale of the disaster, FEMA was slow to arrive. Republican lawmaker Josh Hawley had to beg for help. In Mississippi, the state is still waiting for approval of a disaster declaration for tornadoes that happened two months ago. Tornado damage in Tylertown, Mississippi, March 2025. [Photo: Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images] Trump suggested maybe getting rid of FEMA, shortly after taking office, and Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said in March that she wanted to eliminate FEMA. Project 2025, the policy blueprint that the Trump administration is closely following, calls for moving the responsibility for disasters to states. Trump has echoed that idea. But states arent ready to fill the gap. Right now, states depend on support from FEMA, including through grants for emergency management and preparedness. Those grants have been put on pause, says Scata. Other grants that would really help states prepare and shoulder some more of the burden that the Trump administration keeps pushing them to do have also been cut. So they’re kind of putting states in a position where they’re saying, You need to take on more responsibility, but also undercutting their ability to take on more responsibility. FEMAs newly appointed head, David Richardson, reportedly admitted this month that the agency didnt yet have a plan for hurricane season. Richardson, who doesn’t have a background in emergency management, also seemed unfamiliar with what his job entailed. I feel a little bit like Bubba from Forrest Gump, he said in a recent video viewed by the Wall Street Journal. Weve got hurricanes, weve got fires, weve got mudslides, weve got flash floods, weve got tornadoes, weve got droughts, weve got heat waves and now weve got volcanoes to worry about. At NOAA, DOGEs push to cut employees and funding could potentially impact forecasting. Weather balloons record data, such as wind speeds, used in forecasts. But the National Weather Service has started reducing balloon launches. Ocean buoys measure temperature, a key factor in forecasting hurricanes. They require regular maintenance, which will be more challenging with fewer employees. (At a press conference today, however, NOAA said that it’s continuing to roll out more accurate models for forecasting, and emphasized that it believes it’s fully prepared for the upcoming hurricane season.) The Trump administration is also pushing to shut down a research division that includes hurricane hunters who fly into oncoming storms to gather more data to predict a hurricanes path and strength. Proposed budget cuts would also gut research on climate change and models to improve future forecasting. Grants to help communities become more resilient to disasters have also been cut. Some National Weather Service field offices are now severely short staffed and scrambling to try to find more employees, including offices in Texas and Louisiana. At the moment, some dont have regular overnight coverage. At the offices, meteorologists take warnings from the National Hurricane Center and localize the information, predicting where flooding and other impacts may hit hardest, and working with local emergency managers to plan evacuations. While other offices can provide remote support, and employees can work extra shifts if a severe storm is predicted, the shortages will strain the remaining staff. Brian LaMarre, who recently accepted an early retirement offer at the Tampa Weather Forecast Office, says he still expects the National Hurricane Center to provide excellent data. But if staff shortages continue in local offices, the people who need to provide critical cverage in emergencies could quickly burn out. We make it work, but is it sustainable? Probably not, LaMarre says. Because the more active the weather becomes, you can only do that so many times before burning people out, and morale gets impacted. That’s why hiring needs to start and there needs to be real strong congressional and public support for the National Weather Service. It’s a public safety mission. The weather knows no bias when it comes to politics. The weather impacts everyone the same. In a statement, a National Weather Service spokesperson said, “The National Weather Service continues to meet its core mission of providing life-saving forecasts, warnings, and decision support services to the public, our partners and stakeholders. In the near term, NWS has updated the service level standards for its weather forecast offices to manage impacts due to shifting personnel resources.” The spokesperson didn’t comment on whether the agency had an exemption from a current federal hiring freeze. NOAA was short-staffed even before DOGE began aggressively trying to push more people out. NWS staff will have an impossible task to continue its current level of services, all five former National Weather Service directors wrote in a recent open letter about the DOGE cuts and proposed budget cuts. Some forecast offices will be so short-staffed that they may be forced to go to part-time services. Our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||