- U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations: Appropriations Committee Releases Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill
- Wall Street Journal: White House Says Obama Would Sign New Iran Bill
- New York Times: A Call to Look Past Sustainable Development
- Washington Examiner: U.S. to become net gas exporter
POLITICO Morning Energy for 4/15/2015
By Darius Dixon, with help from Alex Guillén, Darren Goode and Elana Schor
HILLARY’S POLICIES: TBD? Hillary Clinton’s campaign rollout has been slow to fill a large blank space in the center of her quest for the White House: What exactly she would do if she wins. Clinton has sketched out the policy broad strokes, declaring in her campaign launch video that she wants to be the “champion” for “everyday Americans.” On issues ranging from health care to climate change, she’s been largely in lockstep with President Barack Obama, and she used a roundtable discussion Tuesday at a community college in Iowa to outline four big fights she wants to take on — including getting “unaccountable money” out of the political system, using a constitutional amendment if necessary. She also backed Obama’s proposal for offering students two free years of community college. Clinton promised yesterday that she will offer “more to come.” Darren Goode maps out the known unknowns: http://politico.pro/1J15cIx
BAY WATCH: Norman Bay, FERC’s former enforcement director who was confirmed to the commission last summer, will formally become agency chairman today. The delay was part of a deal between the Senate and White House last year that secured his passage through the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and got Cheryl LaFleur nine more months as chair. FERC staff tell ME that because Bay has already been sworn in as a commissioner, there won’t be a formal ceremony.
LaFleur fired off a couple of tweets earlier in the week about the handover: “It has been a real honor to lead FERC the past 17 months– thank you to all FERC employees for their tremendous support.” And, “Congratulations to Norman Bay, who becomes Chairman April 15. Excited to continue working with him and all my FERC colleagues!”
She’s not going far: LaFleur plans to serve out her term as a commissioner, which ends in 2019.
HAPPY WEDNESDAY. I’m your morning host, Darius Dixon, and I got a kick out this collection of modern movies and TV shows turned into retro VHS covers: http://wrd.cm/1J1gahl. Send your energy tips to ddixon@politico.com, and follow us on Twitter @dariusss, @Morning_Energy and @POLITICOPro.
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ENERGY SPENDING BILL ON THE MOVE: The House’s energy and water spending panel will mark up their 2016 bill this morning, but when it comes to finally approving Yucca Mountain funds, the specter in the room is still Harry Reid. Despite having control of both chambers, Republicans are still keeping an eye on the Senate’s top Democrat. Asked yesterday if Reid will be easy to get around now that he is in the minority, House energy spending chairman Mike Simpson said, “Not at all. But we have a chance we didn’t have before.”
Cash money for NRC’s Yucca review: Simpson’s bill includes $50 million for the NRC’s ongoing review of Yucca’s license application. That’s in line with previous years, when the money was zeroed out by Reid’s Senate. Eventually the NRC will need $330 million to finish the review, though the Obama administration’s refusal to move forward with Yucca throws a wrench in things. Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Senate’s top energy appropriator, told ME yesterday that his panel is still hammering out details for their own spending bill, but that he’ll be “talking with Mike Simpson quite a bit in the next few weeks” when it comes to nuclear waste. The House markup is at 10 a.m. in Rayburn 2362-B.
How about twenty-one pilots? Simpson told ME that he is certainly willing to consider funding the bipartisan Senate proposal to create pilot interim storage sites — so long as Yucca is also funded. “If you can get money for both of them, then yeah, they’re a go,” he said.
MCAULIFFE TO TALK CLIMATE CHANGE: Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and White House Council on Environmental Quality managing director Christy Goldfuss are slated to discuss state and local efforts to address climate change this morning in Richmond. McAuliffe and Goldfuss will be interviewed separately for about 25 minutes each and take questions from the audience gathered at the Visual Arts Center and hosted by The New Republic. The event starts at 9 a.m. and is being webcast: http://bit.ly/1IaNmCE
ENVIROS WANT TO RAIN ON MCCONNELL’S LEADERSHIP: As Mitch McConnell marks his first 100 days as Senate majority leader this week, the NRDC Action Fund plans to unfold a two-pronged attack on the Kentucky Republican. First, the group is kicking off a five-figure online ad buy today in D.C. and Kentucky attacking McConnell for standing with “dirty polluters.” The ad also directs viewers to the NRDC AF’s new WhoVotesDirty.com website, which lets users track “dirty votes” by members of Congress and campaign contributions from polluting industries and track how “hero” and “villain” lawmakers vote. Sunlight Foundation developed many of the software tools at work in the site. NRDC Action Fund and Sunlight Foundation offer more details during a teleconference at 1:30 p.m. today. The ad: http://bit.ly/1GHYYjl. Call-in: (877) 418-4267, Passcode: Clean air villains.
The Center for American Progress is also releasing a new analysis today sniping at Congress for its fossil fuel-friendly first 100 days. More than 30 percent of the first 279 roll call votes of the 114th Congress were on energy- and environment-related topics. In the House, the lion’s share were aimed at blocking efforts to address climate change, the analysis states: http://ampr.gs/1FSnefF
BIPARTISAN WATER HEATER BILL SET TO CLEAR E&C: The House Energy and Commerce Committee today will mark up a bipartisan bill exempting certain water heaters from conservation standards taking effect tomorrow, an issue that has become a controversial flashpoint in the energy efficiency world. Lawmakers are pushing the exemption for some electric resistance water heaters that wouldn’t meet the new standards, but that are needed for some people to use in demand response programs. The “mini” Shaheen-Portman bill that cleared the Senate last month included similar language, which has garnered the support of efficiency groups, rural co-ops and environmentalists. The House passed similar legislation last year, but it was blocked in the Senate by the now-retired Tom Coburn.
Things aren’t so bipartisan for Rep. David McKinley’s coal ash bill, which is also up in E&C today. E&C Chairman Fred Upton called the measure, which would allow states to set up their own coal ash permit programs, “a practical solution.” But last night Frank Pallone, E&C’s top Democrat, called it “unnecessary and dangerous for public health and the environment.” The markup is at 10 a.m. in Rayburn 2123
THE REST OF YOUR AGENDA FOR THE DAY: Like yesterday’s packed schedule, you’ve just gotta grin and bear this one too:
— ON CAPITOL HILL: All four of the sitting NRC commissioners are scheduled to testify before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee starting at 10 a.m. The hearing is ostensibly about the agency’s fiscal 2016 budget request but you can expect questions about the stalled Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project. There’s also a good chance that Sen. Barbara Boxer will needle commissioners for their positions on a NRC staff recommendation to stop an internal investigation of the regulatory process that allowed Southern California Edison to install faulty steam generators at its San Onofre nuclear plant. 10 a.m. Dirksen 406.
— A House Natural Resources subcommittee will discuss the president’s offshore energy plan. North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and BOEM Director Abigail Ross Hopper are among those testifying. 10 a.m., Longworth 1334.
— The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee holds a hearing on efforts to reform the Export-Import Bank at 10 a.m., in Rayburn 2154.
— The House Science Committee is slated to review Obama’s UN climate pledge, which calls for the U.S. to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. The committee asks: “Scientifically Justified or a New Tax on Americans?” 10 a.m., Rayburn 2318.
GREENS, LABOR JOIN HANDS AGAINST TRADE PACT: If the Obama administration needs a reminder of how high a hill it has to climb with its liberal base in order to sell the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, it need only look outside the Senate this morning. At 11 a.m., environmental groups will join labor-movement allies and congressional Democrats at a rally to urge the rejection of the multilateral deal among North American and Pacific nations. The Sierra Club, 350.org and other green mainstays have slammed the TPP as lacking an environmental enforcement mechanism and a spur for expanded fossil-fuel development.
ME FIRST — YALE STUDY SHOWS DISCONNECT ON CLIMATE VOTES: A study from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication shows that most of the senators who voted against an amendment from Sen. Brian Schatz in January that said human activity significantly impacts climate change did so despite the majority of their constituents believing that the climate is indeed influenced by human activity. More people than not in 43 states say global warming is caused by humans, with the difference between those believing humans cause climate change and those who don’t the highest in Schatz’s home state of Hawaii. Colorado Republican Cory Gardner — followed closely by Nevada’s Dean Heller and Florida’s Marco Rubio — represented the state with the highest differential housing an opponent of the amendment, which said “climate change is real; and human activity significantly contributes to” it. The analysis: http://politico.pro/1FOshk1
THAT CANADIAN ENERGY: Quebec’s energy minister Pierre Arcand made the rounds with Obama administration officials yesterday pushing for the EPA to allow states to take into account imports of Canadian renewable energy — see: Quebec-based hydropower — in complying with the agency’s proposed greenhouse gas controls for power plants. “Our message was very simple: Here in North America, we are at what we call the epicenter of energy where we have gas, we have green electricity coming from Quebec…we are fighting climate change,” Arcand told ME, between meeting with Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Angus King. “We can provide solutions to many U.S. states and the U.S. states can provide solutions for us,” he added, noting Quebec could start importing shale gas from the U.S. instead of Alberta in the next five years. “It’s much closer. It’s much more good for us to have that,” he said. Arcand also met with FERC Chairwoman Cheryl LaFleur, the Energy Department’s Jonathan Pershing and officials at the White House and State Department. “In all of those exchanges I think that what we need is a better understanding and more win-win situation,” Arcand said.
NATURAL RESOURCES DEM: GOP BLOWING SMOKE ON WOTUS: Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee took aim at the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation yesterday over its refusal to testify about a proposed Waters of the United States rule in front of a subcommittee. Committee Chairman Rob Bishop went so far as to issue a statement calling the move “unacceptable” and demanded the agency “get its head out of the sand, and actually help solve our water problems.” But there’s a different, not-so-small, problem: Neither the committee nor BOR, which oversees water management in the West, has jurisdiction over the proposed rule. In the House, WOTUS falls to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and with the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers.
Rep. Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the subcommittee that held yesterday’s hearing, was quick to make that point in his opening statement, said the lack of jurisdiction raises “another question about whether this hearing is about the substance of the Clean Water Act or just another attack on the Obama administration” by the committee’s Republicans. A committee aide also said that Reclamation officials declined the invitation to testify at the beginning of the month. BOR also issued a statement for the record echoing its non-role in WOTUS: http://on.doi.gov/1FRXS1C (h/t Jenny Hopkinson)
QUICK HITS
— Florida Senate bill amended to ban fracking during study, rule-making. Florida Politics: http://bit.ly/1ypP9DW
— Broadcast meteorologists increasingly convinced manmade climate change is happening. The Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1JJtw2G
— Judge won’t take San Onofre case. U-T San Diego: http://bit.ly/1OzfHXk
— Texas Senate Votes to End Renewable Energy Programs. Texas Tribune: http://bit.ly/1ytfwcs
— Toyota Plots a Comeback for Prius After Tesla Takes Spotlight. Bloomberg: http://bloom.bg/1IbzwQz
— Canada Crude Needs Markets Outside U.S., Canadian Minister Says. Bloomberg (video): http://bloom.bg/1ysWR0g
Tags: energy, fuel, gas, oil