Governors' Biofuels Coalition

Agriculture policy advocates face a major shake-up in the next Congress, with significant turnover possible on the House and Senate agriculture committees. At least nine House Agriculture Committee members and five Senate Agriculture Committee members are leaving Congress at the end of the 119th Congress, including leadership.

Retirements, bids for other offices, primary defeats and competitive elections will reshape a new set of leaders that will begin on Jan. 3. According to an analysis by agricultural lobbying firm Invariant, 86 House members and 16 senators are departing.

The House Agriculture Committee faces the confirmed departure of six members following retirements or primary defeats, while two members are running for other offices. Another six members face competitive midterm races that could cost them their seats.

In the Senate, four members are retiring, while two are seeking other offices.

With oil refining margins at an all-time high, a group of 22 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including 13 from Texas, are calling for reforms to the Renewable Fuel Standard if a farm bill passes and launches permanent year-round E15.

The lawmakers expressed concern about the Senate markup of the Agricultural Act of 2026, in a letter on Tuesday to House Speaker. Mike Johnson, R-La., saying the draft legislation raises “significant concerns” for the American refining industry and consumers, and without “meaningful reforms, risks codifying a flawed approach” to the RFS at a time when fuel markets are already adapting to a global fuel “crisis.”

President Donald Trump on Tuesday pulled back regulations on a major global warming pollutant — just days after a satellite discovered a large plume of methane pouring out of oil and gas wells near the Lubbock, Texas, campaign rally where Trump made his announcement.

Governments and the private sector are deploying a wave of new technology to pinpoint methane leaks like never before. But that technological revolution is colliding with political decisions in the U.S. and Europe to weaken regulations that are designed to curb the powerful driver of climate change.

“The methane problem,” Trump said Tuesday night. “I’m officially terminating Biden’s expensive and unnecessary methane regulations to save consumers and energy producers $45 billion in costs, unlock vast quantities of Texas natural gas and produce 210 million barrels of oil.”

In a rare moment of bipartisan agreement, Iowa’s gubernatorial rivals are on the same page when it comes to not supporting the use of eminent domain for private carbon dioxide pipelines. The consensus came during Tuesday’s debate in Iowa’s open governor race between Republican Zach Lahn and Democrat Rob Sand.

Next week’s midterm elections could usher in the revival of a rare type of politician: Democratic senators representing states rich in fossil fuels and Republicans.

Moderate Democrats view potential wins from Senate candidates like James Talarico of Texas and Mary Peltola of Alaska as a way to broaden the party’s tent on energy issues heading into what’s expected to be a competitive 2028 election cycle. Either candidate winning office in what have for decades been Republican-led states would be a major electoral upset — and potentially challenge the sway environmental groups have had with the party in recent decades.

The surge in construction of fossil-fueled power plants to run AI data centers is set to undo 15 years’ worth of greenhouse gas reductions from US electricity generation, according to an internal analysis by the Sierra Club.

The US power sector would emit 2.1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2030, after factoring in planned AI projects. That’s 618 million tons more than 2025 levels, by the Sierra Club’s calculations, or about a 42% increase.

A year and a half ago, researchers at the nonprofit environmental group would have estimated that the buildout and its impact would have been a quarter or half of current projections, said Jeremy Fisher, the Sierra Club’s principal advisor for climate and energy. “The numbers continue to sort of boggle our minds,” he said.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday pulled back regulations on a major global warming pollutant — just days after a satellite discovered a large plume of methane pouring out of oil and gas wells near the Lubbock, Texas, campaign rally where Trump made his announcement.

Governments and the private sector are deploying a wave of new technology to pinpoint methane leaks like never before. But that technological revolution is colliding with political decisions in the U.S. and Europe to weaken regulations that are designed to curb the powerful driver of climate change.

“The methane problem,” Trump said Tuesday night. “I’m officially terminating Biden’s expensive and unnecessary methane regulations to save consumers and energy producers $45 billion in costs, unlock vast quantities of Texas natural gas and produce 210 million barrels of oil.”

The negative health impacts of climate change are not only increasing but doing so at a faster pace than a decade ago, according to a major global assessment released Wednesday.

The 10th annual Lancet Countdown report — by an international collaboration of scientists that tracks the relationship between global warming and human health — compares the decade since the signing of the Paris climate agreement with the decade before. It finds that several major health threats, including deadly heat and drought, increased more rapidly after the accord, even as countries ramped up investments in clean energy and protecting people from climate hazards. The report comes after a summer when heat waves in Europe killed tens of thousands and just ahead of the United Nations COP31 climate summit in Turkey.

With less than a week before the high-stakes elections on Nov. 3, the only real certainty is that no matter the results, the powerful Senate and House Agriculture committees are poised to look different, possibly in major ways.

A report out Monday from Democrats on the Joint Economic Council said Trump’s personal wealth in oil and gas holdings has grown this year by as much as $35.8 million. They said most of the stock purchases happened after he launched the Middle East war at the end of February. The president is not to blame for his outized profits on rising oil prices, the White House says.