POLITICO Morning Energy for 3/26/2015
By DARIUS DIXON 3/26/15 10:09 AM EDT
DOE’S BIG DEAL: The Energy Department is offering Alcoa a $259 million conditional loan commitment today out of the agency’s long-dormant Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program. The metals giant intends to use the financing to help expand its manufacturing facility in Alcoa, Tenn., to produce high-strength aluminum aimed at reducing the fuel-consuming weight of new vehicles. The company also expects its operations growth to create about 200 permanent full-time jobs. ATVM’s last loan was hammered out way back in March 2011.
The timing could hardly have been better: Less than 24 hours ago, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz got an earful about the ATVM program from Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski, who raised concerns about its long drought in loan-making. “It really begs the question in terms of why we would continue to have this program on the books,” she told Moniz at an appropriations hearing yesterday afternoon. About a year ago, the Government Accountability Office was of the same mind. Without directly recommending that ATVM lose its accounts, the watchdog said that “unless DOE can demonstrate a demand for new ATVM loans and viable applications, Congress may wish to consider rescinding all or part of the remaining $4.2 billion in credit subsidy appropriations.” But just days before that GAO report, Moniz and his loan office chief, Peter Davidson, attempted to breathe new life into the George W. Bush-era program by tweaking it to attract auto-parts manufacturers.
Still, there are undoubtedly some Republicans unhappy with any action the DOE loan program takes even though agency accountants say that the interest payments it’s received have more than covered the government’s losses from infamous failures like Solyndra and Fisker. Prepare to hear comments preaching the wrongs of government-as-venture-capitalist, but no one can expect DOE to sit on its hands. Besides, what Congress giveth, Congress can taketh away, right? And remember, this is supposedly to be just the beginning: The loan program also has solicitations out for fossil and nuclear energy projects. No pressure.
READING THE SCOTUS TEA LEAVES: The EPA appeared to sway a majority of the Supreme Court yesterday during debate on a landmark power plant pollution rule — and one justice, Stephen Breyer, even seemed to think he could have written better arguments for the agency. Breyer’s pet subjects include cost-benefit analysis, an issue at the heart of the dispute on an EPA rule that has provoked a nationwide wave of coal-plant shutdowns. In Wednesday’s oral arguments, he offered a defense that even the EPA had failed to raise in its briefs to the court. And Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan spoke even more aggressively in favor of the agency’s approach to Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, often replying to other justices’ questions before attorneys had the chance to speak.
Although the challenge against the mercury rule is a prelude to the inevitable legal fight that EPA will face over its upcoming greenhouse gas regulations for power plants, nothing the justices said during yesterday’s arguments offered a preview of their leaning in that case. Erica Martinson puts you in the room: http://politico.pro/1EGLTRq
YOU’VE MADE IT TO THURSDAY. I’m Darius Dixon, and given my love of good insults, I offer a variant of this for when you encounter someone with a big ego: “[Treasury Secretary Salmon] Chase is a good man, but his theology is unsound. He thinks there is a fourth person in the Trinity.” Send your energy commentary, news, scoops and tips to ddixon@politico.com, and follow us on Twitter @dariusss, @Morning_Energy and @POLITICOPro.
** America’s national forests, wildlife refuges, parks, and public lands belong to all Americans. But misguided Congressional and state efforts to seize public lands put this at risk. These are American Lands, and we should keep them American. Watch the ad and learn more: http://goo.gl/XKqFMC **
JOINING THE ANTI-EPA BANDWAGON: Wisconsin’s new attorney general, Brad Schimel, asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday to allow his state to join 13 others in a case challenging EPA’s proposed greenhouse gas rule for existing power plants. The deadline to join the other states was Nov. 7, but like Arkansas, Wisconsin elected a new attorney general who got to office in January. Schimel, who replaced fellow Republican J.B. Van Hollen, promised not to file any new briefs before the case goes to oral arguments April 16. The proposed rule asks Wisconsin to reduce its power plants’ carbon output 34 percent by 2030, which “will have a detrimental impact on our economy, particularly because of Wisconsin’s large manufacturing sector,” he said in a brief: http://politico.pro/1LZQuHN
BRING ON THE BUDGET RESOLUTION VOTE-A-RAMA! The Senate comes back at 9:30 a.m. today and the debate clock on its fiscal 2016 budget resolution expires at High Noon, triggering a series that could see more than 60 amendments votes. After that, lawmakers break for a two-week Easter/Passover recess. Here are a few on our radar:
— Sen. Maria Cantwell, who introduced a crude-by-rail regulations bill yesterday with Sen. Tammy Baldwin, has a pending amendment to create a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to a comprehensive approach to crude-by-rail safety.
— Sen. Dean Heller wants a fund ensuring that the Interior Secretary “enters into candidate conservation agreements with each of the relevant 11 Western States before the United States Fish and Wildlife Service makes a listing determination on the greater sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act.”
— Sen. Joe Manchin has a measure relating to investing in advanced fossil energy R&D.
— Sen. Bill Cassidy is seeking a fund for the promotion of offshore energy production, and one relating to authorizing the permitting of construction projects.
— Sen. Michael Bennet has one for creating jobs through “predictable and fair incentive” for renewable energy.
Additional amendments are expected to come in between 9:30 a.m. and noon. Meanwhile, the conservative Americans for Prosperity has drawn up its own checklist of several other possible amendments that it’s tracking. AFP: http://politico.pro/1GrwRDP
AND THE VOTES THAT HAPPENED WHILE YOU WERE COOKING DINNER: The Senate rejected an amendment that would have tied climate change to human activity and called for Congress to take action to cut carbon pollution. The non-binding resolution from Sen. Bernie Sanders went down on a 49-50 vote. Four Republicans — Kelly Ayotte, Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham and Mark Kirk — who voted for the Sanders amendment also had supported an amendment during January’s Keystone XL debate from Sen. Brian Schatz that said “human activity significantly contributes to climate change.” Sen. Rob Portman — who is up for reelection in 2016 and has filed an amendment to the budget bill looking to curtail EPA power plant and other Clean Air Act rules — also supported the Sanders amendment, although he voted against the Schatz amendment.
The Sanders amendment was meant as a side-by-side with one from Sen. Roy Blunt aimed at blocking a tax or other fee on carbon emissions. Blunt’s amendment was withdrawn after the Sanders’ was defeated.
THE HOUSE IS DONE WITH THEIRS: The House approved a GOP-leadership backed budget resolution. The vote was 219-208. The GOP proposal — an amendment to a measure adopted by the Budget Committee last week — cuts spending by $5.5 trillion while not raising taxes, balances the nation’s finances in a decade, and repeals Obamacare, according to Republican leaders.
DOE, SENATORS TO WORK ON PRIVATE NUKE WASTE SITES: The Energy Department and four top senators will work together in the coming month to determine what authority DOE may need from Congress in order to use a proposed private nuclear waste storage facility. The proposed facility from Waste Control Specialists, projected to come online in 2020 without any federal funding, would be licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But the company hopes to snag DOE as a customer to store the nation’s growing piles of spent fuel there, which would likely require congressional approval. Alex Guillén has more: http://politico.pro/1FJmfAY
CITIES TAKE BIG SOLAR BITE — REPORT: A new report from Environment America out today says that the top 20 cities in solar power installations accounted for 6.5 percent of the nation’s solar capacity, a figure juxtaposed with the fact that those cities account for just one-tenth of a percent of the nation’s land area. While the sun-rich cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, and Phoenix topped the list for total solar power installations, Honolulu, Indianapolis, San Jose, San Diego and Wilmington, Del., ranked highest on in solar installation per capita ranking. The report: http://bit.ly/1BpWwqM
BUCKLE UP KORNZE: House Republicans aren’t happy with fracking regulations the Interior Department proposed last week and some of them intend to take it out on Bureau of Land Management director Neil Kornze today. “Everyone and their cousin studied the rule in DC this past weekend, and the only consensus is that no one is happy,” House Natural Resources spokeswoman Julia Bell wrote in an email yesterday. “In all seriousness, though, there is a lot of concern about its impacts and a lot of questions have been raised. Conveniently, we have Director Neil Kornze coming in tomorrow for our [Energy and Mineral Resources] Subcommittee budget hearing so the members of the Committee will get a chance to ask the BLM Director himself some of those unanswered questions.” The hearing starts at 9:30 a.m. in Longworth 1324.
FULL-FRIDGE PRESS: Members of the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute are planning to swarm Capitol Hill today pressing lawmakers to address the Energy Department’s “extremely aggressive approach” to efficiency regulation. The group intends to press lawmakers into amending the Energy Policy Act with new transparency language for efficiency rulemakings and they’ve got meetings with Senate Environment Public Works Chairman Jim Inhofe, as well as Reps. Marc Veasey, Gary Palmer, and Jody Hice. They’re also planning to meet with the staff of nearly a dozen senators, including Barbara Boxer, Pat Toomey and Kirsten Gillibrand. House and committee staffers are also on their to-do list.
QUICK HITS
Schlumberger Unit to Plead Guilty to Violating Iran, Sudan Sanctions. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/19mCENm
— Illinois seizing clean-energy funds to balance budget. Crain’s Chicago Business: http://bit.ly/1GXyzee
— Oil Hits Two-Week High on Dollar-Fueled Rally. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1BqlTIR
— Vt. lawmakers consider climate change resolution. Burlington Free Press: http://bfpne.ws/1D0gXAI
Tags: energy, fuel, gas, oil