2025

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a top oil and gas industry trade group are suing Vermont over its new law requiring that fossil fuel companies pay a share of the damage caused over several decades by climate change.

The federal lawsuit filed Monday asks a state court to prevent Vermont from enforcing the law, which was passed last year. Vermont became the first state in the country to enact the law after it suffered catastrophic summer flooding and damage from other extreme weather. The state is working to estimate the cost of climate change dating back to Jan. 1, 1995.

The lawsuit argues the U.S. Constitution precludes the act and that the state law is preempted by the federal Clean Air Act. It also argues that the law violates domestic and foreign commerce clauses by discriminating “against the important interest of other states by targeting large energy companies located outside of Vermont.”

The Chamber and the other plaintiff in the lawsuit, the American Petroleum Institute, argue that the federal government is already addressing climate change. And because greenhouse gases come from billions of individual sources, they argue it is impossible to measure “accurately and fairly” the impact of emissions from a particular entity in a particular location over decades.

“Vermont wants to impose massive retroactive penalties going back 30 years for lawful, out-of-state conduct that was regulated by Congress under the Clean Air Act,” said Tara Morrissey, senior vice president and deputy chief counsel of the Chamber’s litigation center. “That is unlawful and violates the structure of the U.S. Constitution — one state can’t try to regulate a global issue best left to the federal government. Vermont’s penalties will ultimately raise costs for consumers in Vermont and across the country.”

A spokesman for the state’s Agency of Natural Resources said it had not been formally served with this lawsuit.

Anthony Iarrapino, a Vermont-based lobbyist with the Conservation Law Foundation, said the lawsuit was the fossil fuel industry’s way of “trying to avoid accountability for the damage their products have caused in Vermont and beyond.”

“More states are following Vermont’s lead holding Big Oil accountable for the disaster recovery and cleanup costs from severe storms fueled by climate change, ensuring that families and businesses no longer have to foot the entire bill time and time again,” Iarrapino added.

Under the law, the Vermont state treasurer, in consultation with the Agency of Natural Resources, is to issue a report by Jan. 15, 2026, on the total cost to Vermonters and the state from the emission of greenhouse gases from Jan. 1, 1995, to Dec. 31, 2024. The assessment would look at the effects on public health, natural resources, agriculture, economic development, housing and other areas. The state would use federal data to determine the amount of covered greenhouse gas emissions attributed to a fossil fuel company.

It’s a polluter-pays model affecting companies engaged in the trade or business of extracting fossil fuel or refining crude oil attributable to more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions during the time period. The funds could be used by the state for such things as improving stormwater drainage systems; upgrading roads, bridges and railroads; relocating, elevating or retrofitting sewage treatment plants; and making energy efficient weatherization upgrades to public and private buildings. It’s modeled after the federal Superfund pollution cleanup program.

The approach taken by Vermont has drawn interest from other states, including New York, where Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law a similar bill in December.

The New York law requires companies responsible for substantial greenhouse gas emissions to pay into a state fund for infrastructure projects meant to repair or avoid future damage from climate change. The biggest emitters of greenhouse gases between 2000 and 2018 would be subjected to the fines.

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DETROIT (AP) — New vehicle sales in the U.S. rose 2.7% last year as prices and interest rates eased a bit, making SUVs, cars and trucks a little more affordable.

Industry analysts say discounts such as rebates and low-interest financing should get even better as 2025 rolls along, with the biggest deals to be had at dealerships representing automakers that had trouble selling in 2024.

Despite high sales prices that averaged more than $47,000, automakers sold just over 16 million vehicles in the U.S. last year, Motorintelligence.com said Friday. It was the best year for sales since 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic hit. But prices were still 27% above what they were in 2019.

Electric vehicle sales rose 8.8% for the year to just under 1.3 million, beating 2023’s record of 1.19 million. That’s slower growth than the 47% increase in 2023, and EVs face an uncertain future with the possibility that President-elect Donald Trump will scrap a $7,500 tax credit when he takes office later this month.

Gas-electric hybrids kept rising in popularity with just over 1.6 million sold, a 36% increase over 2023.

General Motors finished the year with the U.S. sales crown, posting a 4.3% increase for the year, its best performance since 2019. Toyota reported a 3.7% sales jump, while Ford sales rose 4.2%.

Jeep and Ram maker Stellantis, which struggled much of the year with too many high-priced vehicles on its dealer lots, saw a 14.8% sales decline. It was pushed out of fourth place and into fifth by Honda, which posted an 8.8% increase.

Nissan sales were up 2.8% for the year, barely beating Hyundai with sales up 4.8%. Kia sales rose 1.8%.

During the year, the average sales price of a vehicle fell just under 1%. Ivan Drury, director of insights for the Edmunds.com auto site, said he expects that to continue at least in the second half of the year.

Plus, the Federal Reserve expects two more interest rate cuts this year on top of three in 2024. That should help to lower monthly payments a little more, Drury said. The average auto loan rate fell from last year’s peak of 7.3% in July to 6.6% in December, Drury said.

He said he doesn’t think prices will change much in the first three months of this year as automakers try to clear their lots of 2024 models. “If you’ve got six months or more, then just wait it out,” he said. “Farther out there’s the potential for better things to come.”

To get a great deal, buyers may have to switch brands to Stellantis or possibly Ford, which have more inventory on their dealer lots than Honda and Toyota, Drury said.

Even the Toyota brand, which had among the lowest inventory in the industry with enough to supply only five days’ worth of sales, said it expects to increase discounts this year as supplies of vehicles increase.

“Incentive spend is probably going to go up next year for the industry and for us, because more availability will be out there,” said David Christ, vice president of Toyota North America.

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By Scott DiSavino

(Reuters) – Freezing weather and snow storms across the U.S. could cause massive power outages over the next week and boost natural gas demand to its highest levels of the winter, according to energy analysts and reliability coordinators.

The bump in demand comes as supplies of gas could drop due to the freezing of oil and gas wells and pipes, known in the energy industry as so-called “freeze-offs.”

Gas provides about 43% of the nation’s power generation and heats about 45% of the country’s homes, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The jump in demand coupled with a drop in supply could drive up prices next week.

“Appalachia and Rockies production face freeze-off risks as temperatures drop into the single digits or below,” analysts at energy consulting firm Gelber and Associates said in a note.

The U.S. produces about 105 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas with about a third of that supply coming from the Appalachia region of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio, according to data from financial firm LSEG and the EIA.

In past winters, freeze-offs have slashed gas output by massive amounts, including the loss of around 16.5 bcfd in January 2024, according to data from LSEG.

Frigid temperatures in December 2022 cut supplies by 19.4 bcfd, and in February 2021 hit output by 20.4 bcfd, according to LSEG data.

One billion cubic feet of gas is enough to supply about five million homes for a day.

As heating demand picks up, LSEG projects total U.S. gas use, including exports, could reach 156.4 bcfd on Jan. 9. That compares with the nation’s daily record of 168.4 bcfd hit on Jan. 16, 2024 during another brutal winter freeze.

The combination of soaring demand and freeze-offs in January 2024 boosted spot gas prices at the U.S. Henry Hub benchmark in Louisiana to over $13 per million British thermal units (mmBtu).

Next-day prices at the Henry Hub were currently around $3.65 per mmBtu, the highest levels since January 2024.

POWER COMPANIES PREPARE

Some 250 million people will feel frigid air across 40 states in the next week, according to meteorologists at AccuWeather. They warned of significant ice accumulations that could cause power outages in parts of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky over the weekend and through Monday.

U.S. energy company CenterPoint Energy on Friday said its cold weather action plan was in place for power and gas customers in several states, including Texas, Louisiana, Indiana, Ohio and Mississippi.

Earlier this week, the North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC), the nation’s reliability coordinator, urged everyone in the electricity supply chain to take steps now to ensure the highest levels of reliability.

NERC said it is “especially concerned about natural gas supply given the significant amount of production in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast.”

Extreme weather in February in 2021 left millions in Texas without power, water and heat for days and resulted in over 200 deaths as the state’s power grid scrambled to prevent the electric system from collapsing.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Liz Hampton and Sandra Maler)

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