- Wall Street Journal: Despite Oil’s Plummet, Some Smaller Drillers Faring Well
- Oil & Gas Journal: API’s Gerard: Crude exports campaign gaining bipartisan momentum
- Wall Street Journal: Shale drillers beat major oil companies in weathering low prices
- The Washington Examiner: Feds to give states more time for power plant rule compliance, source says
POLITICO Morning Energy for 7/30/2015
By NICK JULIANO, ith help from Darius Dixon, Darren Goode, Andrew Restuccia and Alex Guillen
IMPATIENT FOR THE CLIMATE RULE? TIDE YOURSELF OVER WITH AN ENERGY BILL: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has spent much of the week plugging away at its bipartisan energy bill, while D.C. energy wonks have seemed more interested in the latest gossip around the imminent release of the EPA’s final climate change regulations. And since that Clean Power Plan isn’t expected until Monday at the earliest, spare some attention this morning for the happenings in Dirksen 366.
The committee is on the cusp of advancing its most sweeping update to energy policy since 2007, with the bill expected to win approval this morning. The five-part bill could complement the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan — even if that’s not exactly the idea Republican backers have in mind. Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski is no fan of the EPA rule, which she says would drive up power prices for consumers and impose heavy burdens on utilities. But there’s no question that several aspects of the bill she assembled with top ENR Democrat Maria Cantwell could help states eventually hit their climate targets.
By design, it also draws heavily on recommendations laid out in the Energy Department’s Quadrennial Energy Review regarding updates to infrastructure that Secretary Ernest Moniz has said are needed to usher in a clean energy future. And it includes plenty of support for carbon-free electricity sources and measures to boost energy efficiency — all of which observers see as key tools that could be drawn on for eventual CPP compliance.
To be sure, the bill does offer support for fossil fuels, too. It would expedite liquefied natural gas exports — which has prevented some of the leading green groups from lending their support — and modernize the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But Murkowski and Cantwell have so far managed to avoid any items that would jeopardize the bipartisan support for the bill. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who’s made climate change a key tenant of his presidential campaign, yesterday saw the committee vote down his nonbinding amendment to declare human-caused climate change a reality and call for a shift away from fossil fuels.
Senate floor debate may be another matter. Republicans are largely holding their fire in offering a host of dicey language, including on coal ash and Keystone XL, to try to preserve broad support at least until the committee reports it out. Out of 94 amendments filed to the bill, the committee has voted on or otherwise for now disposed of 45 of them heading into the markup’s third day.
Murkowski intends to hold a separate debate today or next week in her panel on her OPENS Act, which would lift the oil export ban and expand offshore drilling and revenue sharing.
If you go: 10 a.m., 366 Dirksen.
THANK YOU SIR, MAY I HAVE ANOTHER? EPA’s expected change to give states an extra two years to comply with its landmark climate change rule is nice and all, but states and utilities want to know: What else ya got? ME will be counting down the remaining hundred or so hours before EPA drops the final Clean Power Plan as eagerly as anyone. But in the meantime, Alex Guillen runs through some of the items that plan-watchers see as the most likely to change, potentially including more generous treatment for nuclear power and tweaks to individual state targets. Pros can find the full rundown of what to expect here: http://politico.pro/1ODxo78
— Lawyers on your marks, get set, go! Critics of the rule have been whispering that EPA may delay publishing it in the Federal Register, which formally opens the window to legal challenges, to forestall a potential injunction until after the year-end climate talks in Paris. But EPA says that the rule will be published there as soon as it is unveiled. “The rumors you’re hearing are not true,” EPA spokeswoman Melissa Harrison emailed after POLITICO’s Andrew Restuccia asked about a potential delay.
— ICYMI, Alex dished on the details that have already leaked, including EPA’s pushing back interim compliance date back two years to 2022 and the new incentives for states to deploy renewable energy so they don’t just sit on their hands during that time. White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough doubled-down on the administration’s commitment during an appearance yesterday morning. “We will not back down. We will finalize a stronger rule,” he promised. Pick up a dead-tree copy of POLITICO this morning or click here: http://politico.pro/1I92eAM
LONGTIME READER, FIRST-TIME WRITER: Hello, I’m Nick Juliano, filling in as ME scribe for the first time since joining POLITICO about a month ago. You may recognize me as that guy with the beard, or the one who loves tweeting about sage grouse riders. (For the record, I wish I had any artistic ability; that illustration comes from a friend on the Hill who prefers to remain anonymous.) Send your energy news, tips, and commentary to njuliano@politico.com, and follow us on Twitter @nickjuliano, @Morning_Energy and @POLITICOPro.
ABOUT THAT OTHER LOOMING ANNOUNCEMENT: The Keystone XL rumor mill is also in full swing this week. As ever, the White House continues to point to the review still underway at the State Department, but spokesman Eric Schultz did at least repeat yesterday that President Obama would make his decision before leaving office. ME thinks there’s a decent chance we see some movement before Jan. 20, 2017, but opinions appear divided on whether a pipeline decision will come alongside a final Clean Power Plan announcement or if the administration leaves some light between the two.
— Schultz also downplayed — but did not deny — Sen. John Hoeven’s anonymously sourced assertion that State would reject Keystone while lawmakers are home for August recess. “I’m not sure I would classify him as a confidant of our State Department. But you should check with him to see what he is basing that off of,” Schultz said during yesterday’s briefing. For his part, Hoeven wouldn’t divulge his sources when ME’s colleagues pressed him.
— Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who would like to see Keystone approved, said he and Obama recently chatted about the pipeline. But Harper said he worries the “very peculiar politics” around the pipeline would lead Obama to reject it, though he predicted it would eventually get built. Bloomberg: http://bloom.bg/1LRE5mS
** A message from Earthjustice: President Obama: One in six black children suffer from asthma. That’s not a statistic. It’s a shame. Will you stand with vulnerable communities and reduce ozone pollution to levels that protect children? Or will you cave to Big Oil and its allies’ attempts to pollute the issue? The science is clear: finalize the most protective ozone standard. http://asthmafeelslike.org **
MURKOWSKI, WARNER UNVEIL ENERGY SECURITY REPORT: Murkowski’s not content to just shepherd the biggest energy bill in years — she’s also teaming up with Sen. Mark Warner to help unveil a new U.S. energy security report coming out today. ME got a peak of the report being released by The Atlantic Council, which says that given “instabilities” posed by the Middle East, Africa, and a more aggressive Russia and China, the U.S. should wield its energy abundance to deepen ties with allies. Among the nine recommendations in report, at least one shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s followed Murkowski for the last several weeks: Lift the crude oil export ban. Still, the report highlights a few less-talked-about issues, including an argument for concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations without restrictions on U.S. energy exports, such as the Energy Department’s national interest determination on liquefied natural gas. “We believe that U.S. gas supply is now so robust that all LNG exports should be deemed to be in the national interest, regardless of free trade agreement status,” the report states. It also recommends non-Keystone XL pipeline connections between the U.S. and Canada to “connect Canadian gas sources to U.S. LNG export facilities, and reduce methane emissions in the Bakken by capturing supplies that could be connected back to the Canadian pipeline system.” The report will be unveiled today at 8:30 a.m., and the event will be livestreamed here (as will the report): http://bit.ly/1LRUwzA
THIS SANTA BARBARA OIL, NOT THAT SANTA BARBARA OIL: The U.S. Coast Guard investigated a large oil sheen off the California coast west of Santa Barbara on Wednesday, Reuters reports. Although an oil spill in the area closed beaches and upset residents when a pipeline ruptured earlier this year, there were no immediate reports of any link between the two incidents. “We don’t have a definite source yet,” Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Andrea Anderson said of the oil sheen discovered on Wednesday. Plains All American, which operated the coastal pipeline that ruptured and caused the spill in May, said the latest oil sheen could not have come from one of their pipelines since they do not operate any underwater pipes in the area, company spokeswoman Meredith Mathews told Reuters. http://reut.rs/1OPo94y
ALL THE MOD CONS: Wondering what those protesters who dangled from St. John’s Bridge in Portland, Oregon were thinking while they blocked the path for Shell’s icebreaker bound for the Chukchi Sea? They conducted a mid-air AMA on Reddit. http://bit.ly/1MutU8n
EXITING SANS EX-IM: The House has started its August recess, and the Senate is set to shut down no later than the end of next week. But the Export-Import Bank charter still has not been renewed since expiring at the end of June. Businesses are fuming, and Tea Party conservatives are celebrating. Rami Touma, president of Houston-based oil equipment exporter CECA Supply & Services, said Ex-Im’s services are critical to his business’s ability to sell products to Algeria, its major source of income. “We do not have the ability to just not have $6 million accessible to us,” Touma said. “So Ex-Im, they put the money in for us, and we pay a fee.” POLITICO’S Victoria Guida has the goods: http://politico.pro/1KzTJo1
ME Mailbag:
— House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield and Energy and Power Vice-Chair Pete Olson wrote to White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough to reiterate their concerns that EPA lowering the ozone standard would be too expensive. They ask that the standard remain at its current 75 parts per billion. http://1.usa.gov/1Mub5lP
— House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop and 45 other Republicans today asked the Interior Department to extend the public comment period on its proposed stream buffer zone rule by 120 days, citing projections that 450 jobs could be lost in Appalachia. http://1.usa.gov/1SNEua9
QUICK HITS:
— Some Smaller Drillers Faring Well. Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1ODiVId
— Energy stocks just did something remarkable: CNBC: http://cnb.cx/1ezNHWf
— A low-energy solution for drying clothes faster. Marketplace.org: http://bit.ly/1I9qOBt
— If wind energy is ‘strong,’ why does it need subsidies? Christian Science Monitor: http://bit.ly/1eBKuW5
— Black & Veatch’s energy leader will retire. Kansas City Business Journal: http://bit.ly/1OPFmuL
Tags: energy, fuel, gas, oil, policy