Oil groups target heat rule as workers bake
For oil and gas workers, heat exposure can turn deadly. The industry is trying to tank a federal rule intended to help.
The industry hopes its push will find favor with the Trump administration, which has pledged to eliminate barriers to fossil fuel production and dismantle policies to tackle climate change, writes Ariel Wittenberg.
The rule — which the Biden administration proposed in July — would require employers to offer outdoor workers paid water and rest breaks when combined heat and humidity reach 80 degrees. Companies would also have to train managers and workers to identify heat illness symptoms and know when to get medical attention.
The fossil fuel industry ranks third in the nation for heat-related hospitalizations and is among the top five for deaths. A reported 149 oil and gas workers have been hospitalized for heat exposure since 2017, compared with nine workers in the wind and solar industries.
'There are a lot of places where workers can't say, 'Oh, it's getting hot out here, I need to drink some water,' and this would help protect them before they are so ill they need to go to the hospital or die,' Jordan Barab, an Obama-era Occupational Safety and Health Administration official, told Ariel.
Strenuous labor can worsen the dangers of high temperatures, leading to kidney damage, heat exhaustion and even heat stroke, which can kill in a matter of minutes.
But industry groups, including the American Petroleum Institute, are urging the Trump administration to abandon the rule. They say it would apply 'a one-size-fits all' standard instead of letting employers set break schedules 'based on their specific workforce operations.'
Such 'unbridled access to breaks' is unworkable, the group wrote to OSHA in January.
Debate over the measure could bubble over next month when administration officials are scheduled to hold a hearing for public comment.
By that time, summer will be heating up, and it could be a scorcher if history is any guide. The U.S. has suffered a string of record-breaking temperatures as climate change driven by burning fossil fuels turbocharges heat waves around the world.
Temperatures in Texas have already broken 100 degree s — a record for May — and the rest of the country is on track to see hotter-than-normal days in the months ahead.
It's Thursday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to askibell@eenews.net.
Today in POLITICO Energy's podcast: Catherine Morehouse breaks down the forced power outages in New Orleans this weekend, which left 100,000 people in the dark, and how that could help the Trump administration's efforts to keep fossil fuel plants running.
Power Centers
Bitcoin miner moves on up A former bitcoin miner whose company had a track record of permit violations and conflicts with neighbors is now operating at the highest ranks of the Energy Department, writes Brian Dabbs.
Greg Beard, a career energy investor who ran the bitcoin firm Stronghold Digital Mining until March, joined the DOE's Loan Programs Office in recent weeks as a top-ranking political appointee — and staffers say he's already making big moves at the department.
Musk is out, but DOGE remainsElon Musk is stepping back from the federal government but his Department of Government Efficiency isn't going anywhere, write Robin Bravender, Danny Nguyen and Sophia Cai.
Just this week at the Interior Department, a 30-year veteran of the agency who told employees to ignore DOGE directives was escorted out of the building. Elsewhere, some DOGE employees have been hired on as permanent government staffers and given high-ranking positions inside agencies.
And Cabinet heads like Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought have been quietly prepping plans for lasting changes that stand to be even more consequential than the initial rounds of cuts from Musk's team.
From the sidelines: Musk and Tesla blast the GOPTesla criticized the Republican megabill for gutting clean energy tax credits, a message amplified by Musk hours after he announced he was leaving the Trump administration, writes James Bikales.
'Abruptly ending the energy tax credits would threaten America's energy independence and the reliability of our grid,' Tesla Energy, the company's solar and battery division, wrote on X.
In Other News
Glacier collapse: Nearly all of a Swiss Alpine village was buried when an unstable glacier in Switzerland collapsed this week.
Green fee: Hawaii has become the first U.S. state to charge tourists a fee in an effort to fund climate policies.
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The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that federal agencies conducting environmental reviews can take a more limited view of the impacts of transportation and energy infrastructure projects they are permitting.
April saw $4.5 billion in cancellations and delays of clean energy projects in the U.S., highlighting pressure on the clean power and low-carbon sectors as Congress weighs cutting billions of dollars in tax credits.
By the end of the decade, the cost of buying and operating electric trucks could equal to — or even beat — the price of comparable diesel vehicles.
That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.
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