POLITICO Morning Energy for 2/23/2015
By Darius Dixon, with help from Alex Guillén and Darren Goode
GO-TO SCIENTIST FAILS TO DISCLOSE FOSSIL FUEL FUNDING: Wei-Hock “Willie” Soon, a scientist with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has testified before the Senate playing down the human components of climate change and spoken at conferences put together by the Heartland Institute, a group skeptical of established climate science. But, according to the New York Times and The Guardian, Soon has also taken $1.25 million from the fossil fuel industry over the last decade and failed to properly disclose the funds when several of his scientific papers were published. “At least 11 papers he has published since 2008 omitted such a disclosure, and in at least eight of those cases, he appears to have violated ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work,” reports the Times. The Times: http://nyti.ms/1z9mInt. The Guardian: https://bitly.com/1vZlQ4z
Who gave how much: Southern Company ($410,000), Exxon Mobil ($335,000), the American Petroleum Institute ($274,000), and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation ($230,000). The money from Exxon Mobil and API appears to have been “eliminated in recent years,” the Times says.
Where the documents came from: Greenpeace obtained Soon’s correspondence and grant agreements through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Smithsonian.
Conservatives rally to Soon. Soon wouldn’t give a comment for the stories that the Times or the Guardian ran, but he apparently spoke to the conservative media website Breitbart.com: “I spoke to Soon last night. He told me that of course he receives private funding for his research: he has to because it’s his only way of making ends meet, especially since the Alarmist establishment launched its vendetta against him when, from 2009 onwards, he became more outspoken in his critiques of global warming theory.”
FOR YOUR VETO PENS ONLY: Republicans are expected to finally send a bill approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline to the White House this week, where it faces its imminent demise at the hands of President Barack Obama and his veto. Obama would have 10 days, excluding Sundays, to act once the bill reaches his desk. This would be the third veto of Obama’s presidency. And once it’s vetoed, the pipeline’s boosters in Congress will have to decide whether they want to hold override votes even though neither GOP-held chamber is likely to garner the necessary two-thirds majority.
YUP, IT’S MONDAY AGAIN. But you’ll do just fine. I’m your host, Darius Dixon, and I’m still waiting for the Academy to open up a category for “Best Energy Newsletter.” But until they do, I’m more than happy to yuck it up here. Send your energy commentary, news, scoops and tips to ddixon@politico.com, and follow us on Twitter @dariusss, @Morning_Energy and @POLITICOPro.
RETURN OF THE POLS: Congress is back this week. The Senate gavels in today, Sen. John Hoeven will read George Washington’s 1796 Farewell Address and a procedural vote on the Homeland Security appropriations bill – heads-up: this will dominate the week – is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. The House returns tomorrow with a series of votes scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
IPCC CHIEF PULLS OUT OF NAIROBI MEETINGS: Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change, won’t be leading the plenary session of a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, “because of issues demanding his attention in India,” the group said in a statement. Pachauri, as you’ve likely heard by now, is being investigated for sexually harassing, stalking, and criminally intimidating a woman at the think tank he leads in New Delhi, according to The Economic Times, in India (http://bit.ly/19YeOsk ). The IPCC says that one of its vice-chairs will lead the meeting, which starts tomorrow. The brief weekend statement, making no mention of the case, ended: “The IPCC will have no further comment on the issues demanding Dr. Pachauri’s attention.”
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WEST VIRGINIA GOV ON THE SUN SPOT: West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and his veto pen will decide the course of rooftop solar power the state today. Legislation to rewrite West Virginia’s so-called net-metering policies, which govern how rooftop power producers are paid for their excess electricity, reached Tomblin’s desk last Wednesday. Under state law, the governor has five days to sign or veto non-appropriations bills – a countdown clock about to run out for the solar legislation. Utilities and the rooftop solar industry have started duking it out in several states where are reexamining their net-metering policies but the West Virginia bill (HB 2201) has attracted the vocal opposition of the pro-solar conservative group TUSK – Tell Utilities Solar won’t be Killed – chaired by former Rep. Barry Goldwater, Jr. Critics say the bill includes deceptively vague language to define the term “cross-subsidization,” which could allow utilities to impose fees on homes, businesses and churches with rooftop solar panels.
‘SMALL AMOUNT’ OF OIL REACHED KANAWHA: Cleanup effort around last week’s oil train derailment in West Virginia is making progress, but the EPA had confirmed that “a small amount of oil entered the Kanawha River as ice melted and water levels changed Sunday morning,” the state’s Department of Environmental Protection said. “However, ongoing containment strategy and water monitoring has confirmed no impact on drinking water or public safety.” None of the 109 cars in the train ended up in the river. Locking steel sheet panels were being installed through the ice to contain any leaked oil as temperatures rise and ice melts. As of yesterday afternoon, about 152,000 gallons of oil had been recovered from wrecked CSX tank cars, and empty rail cars have begun to be removed from the site. The Federal Railroad Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration have inspectors on site conducting a “full-scale investigation” into the accident. West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection: http://bit.ly/1MMk1lZ.
NUCLEAR EXPORT RULE REACHES CRITICAL: The Energy Department’s long-awaited civilian nuclear technology export rule, Assistance to Foreign Atomic Energy Activities, is being published into today Federal Register. This is the first comprehensive update to the regulations since 1986 (For scale, that’s the year Lady Gaga was born). The agency spent more than three years rewriting the rule, known more affectionately as Part 810, before sending a final version to the Office of Management and Budget in October. OMB sent the rule back to DOE less than three weeks ago and earlier this month Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz teased that the rule would be out “very, very shortly.” The domestic nuclear power industry is holding out a lot of hope that the revisions to Part 810 will let them jump into an international market – which is expected to climb to more than half a trillion dollars – for nuclear power that far dwarfs their prospects stateside. The rule takes effect March 25: http://1.usa.gov/1BDTNPk
HOW MONIZ LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING: Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz flew to Geneva, Switzerland, this weekend to join Secretary of State John Kerry in the talks with Iran over that country’s nuclear program. Energy Department officials have “consistently been involved in these in-depth technical discussions as part of the U.S. negotiating team,” said the agency, which maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. But things were getting complicated. Moniz’s presence, Kerry said, is “a reflection of the fact that these talks are very technical, and because we are pushing to try to come to agreement on some very difficult issues, it was deemed necessary and appropriate to be able to have our technical people be able to sit with their technical people at the highest level in order to try to resolve any differences that may exist.” DOE plays a significant role in U.S. nonproliferation efforts and Moniz was part of some the agency’s work in that area during his time there in the 1990s. Kerry, according to a State Department readout, also tempered expectations: “I would not read into it any indication whatsoever that something is about to be decided as a result of that. There are still significant gaps.”
LOCKHEED TARGETS POWER BUSINESS: Lockheed Martin, the world’s biggest defense contractor, is showing more interest in the energy business than ever before, reports USA Today. With U.S. spending on defense declining, Lockheed Martin is increasingly turning its resources toward helping utilities and industrial customers improve efficiencies, and protect against cyberattacks. ‘Eight of the 10 largest utilities in the U.S. use Lockheed Martin to help manage their operations, which have become increasingly complex with the emergence of wind and solar power, smart meters and sluggish demand for electricity.’ USA Today: http://usat.ly/1FfmShA
QUICK HITS
– Strike at U.S. Refineries Widens. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/17H9lUY
– Ten fuel-hauling trains could derail a year. The Associated Press: http://apne.ws/1MMk3KP
– Hedge Funds Raise Bullish Oil Bets as Drillers Idle Rigs. Bloomberg: http://bloom.bg/1zZsY1k
– Fresh leak of radioactive water into the sea detected at Fukushima. Daily Mail: http://dailym.ai/1D0ZEtf
– Cheap natural gas might doom new Fermi nuke plant. Detroit Free Press: http://on.freep.com/18etRh4
– Three counties hope to salvage $88M solar project by borrowing more money. NJ.com: http://bit.ly/1AzHfp2
– Florida sees strange bedfellows in fight over solar power. Fox News: http://fxn.ws/1EghoFz
Tags: energy, fuel, gas