- Associated Press: Plains All American says cost of Calif. oil spill cleanup hits $62M
POLITICO Morning Energy for 6/11/2015
By DARREN GOODE, with help from Elana Schor, Andrew Restuccia and Alex Guillén
CHECK THE OIL (EXPORT) PRESSURE!: The Senate’s defense authorization bill remained in a procedural holding pattern Wednesday, delaying votes on symbolic amendments from Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) that would put lawmakers on record for the first time about the decades-old ban on exporting domestic crude. Both Cornyn’s amendment, which endorses the value of overseas oil and gas sales to U.S. allies, and Markey’s amendment, which opposes any crude export approvals that would increase dependence on oil imports or raise gasoline prices, could see votes as soon as today if a deal is worked out on timing.
In the House, North Dakota GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer filed an amendment that would lift the oil export ban to a package granting the president fast-track trade authority the House is expected to take up starting today. But the House Rules Committee late Wednesday didn’t include it in a complex three-part, two-day process governing the debate.
CLIMATE TRADE FIGHT: Cramer earlier Wednesday told POLITICO his export language could build conservative support for the trade package ahead of a very tight vote. But Democrats and environmentalists are already seething over late language House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan added to the package’s customs bill http://amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/sa644610150 to appeal to fellow Republicans by blocking the White House from negotiating climate deals in trade agreements. Ways and Means ranking member Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) told the House Rules Committee Wednesday that the climate language in the customs bill is “seriously flawed” and “essentially ties the hands of our negotiators whose hands you say you want to strengthen.”
Ryan told the committee that the language merely clarifies that you “can’t put in a climate change policy in a trade agreement that does not exist today” and to make certain the administration can’t use trade agreements to reach new international climate agreements. It’s needed, he said, because lawmakers are “rightfully concerned that this administration might find a way to abuse authority” in seeking new climate agreements.
ALL THINGS CONSIDERED: The House GOP climate language appeared after a week in which conservative web sites began to seize on comments that Obama made in a June 3 interview with the Marketplace radio program (http://bit.ly/1TcT6TI) about his ability to make progress on fighting climate change, “one of my highest priorities,” through the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal. “Obama would not need to get Congress to approve the unfair climate change treaty terms that he negotiates” if he could affect those changes through trade deals, the American Thinker wrote.
IRONY CAN BE PRETTY IRONIC SOMETIMES: The League of Conservation Voters sent a letter [http://bit.ly/1L2QAwR] to lawmakers asking their opposition to fast-tracking trade authority, saying it would be “severely hampering Congress’ ability to ensure these agreements benefit communities, workers, and protect our environment.”
House GOP leaders have said the trade authority is needed because they don’t trust the Obama administration and it would allow Capitol Hill more control. Yet, the White House has been working with those same Republicans — including 2012 GOP vice presidential candidate Ryan — to get a bipartisan vote if possible amid broad opposition from House Democrats. But a lack of a deal between Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on even how to proceed to the package complicates matters. Jake Sherman, Lauren French and John Bresnahan explain: http://politi.co/1FagSVB
LOOKS LIKE I PICKED THE WRONG WEEK TO STOP…: I’m your host Darren Goode, continuing the Morning Energy supporting cast filling in for Darius Dixon during his trek to the Land of the Rising Sun. I also just discovered the classic version of House of the Rising Sun by The Animals was recorded in just one take. I can’t even master ME headlines. Regardless, please send tips to dgoode@politico.com and I’ll see if I can get this right before handing the reins to Elana Schor next week. Follow us on Twitter @DarrenGoode, @Morning_Energy and @POLITICOPro.
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AUF WIEDERSEHEN TO PA COAL MANDATE: The House late Wednesday, 252-179, approved a bipartisan amendment to its 2016 defense spending bill removing a longtime provision that required the military to purchase Pennsylvania coal to use at military bases in Kaiserslautern, Germany. The provision, which forced those bases to use anthracite coal from the Keystone State, was added to spending bills years ago by Pennsylvania Democrat Dan Flood, who left Congress in 1980 following censure for bribery. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) were behind the amendment, which garnered the support of environmental groups and spending watchdogs. The Defense Department buys 5,000 to 9,000 tons of coal annually to meet the requirements at a cost of around $20 million per year, according to Huffman’s office. Taxpayers for Common Sense has a nice history of the provision: http://bit.ly/1M8qUMh
SPENDING BILL KILLS CLIMATE FUND: The House Appropriations Committee will vote [http://1.usa.gov/1KKGiRJ] this morning on its fiscal year 2016 State Department spending bill, which includes no money for the Green Climate Fund that President Obama in November pledged $3 billion for over several years. The panel is expected to approve the bill and there is little chance Democrats will be able to muster enough support to restore the funding. The president’s fiscal 2016 budget requested $500 million for the fund.
The State Department spending bill also includes no funding for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as well as the George W. Bush-era Strategic Climate Fund and the Clean Technology Fund. And it allows the financing of coal-fired power projects by U.S. companies overseas and otherwise overrides regulations limiting coal under the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the Export-Import Bank and the World Bank. These are among the concerns the White House outlined to House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers in a letter [http://1.usa.gov/1JL9I0m] Wednesday.
If you go: The markup will take place at 10:00 a.m. in 2359 Rayburn. Watch it here: http://1.usa.gov/1HsLlEl
WHAT’S OUR VECTOR, VICTOR?: The Obama administration’s first step Wednesday to limiting greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes took the predictable beating from Republicans who decried it as the latest move by EPA and the White House to overregulate. Administration officials stressed it was a necessary move to join an international deal that airlines themselves are seeking in order to replace a patchwork of emission requirements. Indeed, with EPA estimating a final domestic rule won’t come until at least during the next administration in 2018, all eyes are on the process of setting global standards by the International Civil Aviation Organization that will conclude in February 2016 under the current administration.
YES, BUT HOW WILL IT AFFECT 2016?: Shockingly, the announcement made its way onto the 2016 presidential trail, with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker tweeting [https://twitter.com/ScottWalker/status/608750850719232001] that it was “another high cost power grab by @BarackObama’s EPA.” He also helpfully linked to a story by our own Alex Guillén (with a little help from your ME author) that provided the full skinny of Wednesday’s announcement: http://politi.co/1Mrrkxq
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: Liberal Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Brian Schatz faced a barrage of skeptical queries when they announced at the American Enterprise Institute’s headquarters on Wednesday their new bill that would impose an escalating tax on carbon dioxide emissions. The revenues from the $45 per metric ton tax would be used to slash the top marginal corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 29 percent, provide a payroll tax credit to workers and send an annual $500 benefit to retirees and veterans. Some conservatives at AEI and elsewhere have advocated similar ideas and Whitehouse told reporters afterward that he was “very satisfied” with the discussion at AEI. Andrew Restuccia gives the full rundown for Pros: http://politico.pro/1Fah4nF
CLIMATE DENIALAPALOOZA: Leading climate deniers (ahem, skeptics) will gather today and Friday at a conference hosted by the Heartland Institute. That includes a breakfast speech this morning by snowball enthusiast and Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman James Inhofe and later a panel featuring Willie Soon, the solar physicist who got in a wee bit of trouble when he failed to disclose funding from energy companies when publishing articles skeptical of man-made climate change in scientific journals. Watch it here: http://bit.ly/1k0CNJl
ME SNEAK PEEK: MCKIBBEN’S OPEN LETTER TO OBAMA: Bill McKibben, the 350.org co-founder who played a major role in making Keystone XL into one of the president’s biggest political headaches, plans to publish an open letter today to President Obama that starts by acknowledging it’s “a little awkward” to personally communicate with someone he’s come closest to while “being chained to the fence outside their house protesting the Keystone pipeline.” McKibben goes on to tell Obama: “As I’ve learned more about how Washington works, I’ve understood better some of the paths you took and didn’t.”
OIL COMPANIES QUIETLY PAY QUEBEC TRAIN VICTIMS: The Wall Street Journal reported that Royal Dutch Shell, Marathon Oil, ConocoPhillips and Irving Oil have agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars into a $345 million compensation fund for deaths and destruction from the oil train disaster caused by a 2013 explosion in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec. The energy industry has contended it wasn’t responsible for the disaster that killed 47 people when the oil train operated by Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd. derailed and exploded. If U.S. and Canadian courts approve the fund, the companies would be shielded from several lawsuits claiming wrongful death and negligence in connection with the tragedy. The full article: http://on.wsj.com/1B8dUpp
HARVARD BACKS EXPORTS: A new report from Harvard Business School and the Boston Consulting Group gives a blueprint to expand unconventional energy resources, including lifting the 40-year-old ban on U.S. crude oil exports to World Trade Organization nations and removing restrictions to Energy Department permitting of liquefied natural gas export facilities. Among the other recommendations are finalizing Obama administration rules to reduce methane leaks in the oil and gas sector by as much as 45 percent, setting long-term targets for greenhouse gas emissions, and creating and enforcing existing state and federal timetables for infrastructure permitting. Read the full report: http://politico.pro/1FL8T2X
POLL SHOWS KEYSTONE, DRILLING SUPPORT: The pro-drilling Consumer Energy Alliance has a new poll showing a majority or plurality of voters in Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia want construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline feeding natural gas into the region, more offshore energy exploration, keeping coal power plants running and expanding shale production through hydraulic fracturing. The poll also showed energy policy being a major issue in the upcoming election, along with a tightly packed Republican presidential field and Hillary Clinton leading big among Democrats in all three states. Read the full 151-page survey: http://bit.ly/1S6StcK
QUICK HITS
— After plunge in oil prices, hope fades for group of long-beleaguered workers. Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1HuqX5U
— Green groups urge ban on corporate polluters at UN climate talks. Reuters: http://reut.rs/1C09kEO
— Nuclear energy may have big future in Virginia: Study. Washington Times. http://bit.ly/1KrOtBp
— NextEra said to be frontrunner for Energy Future’s Jewel. Bloomberg: http://bloom.bg/1C08Cre
Tags: energy, fuel, gas, oil