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- Wall Street Journal: Halliburton Feels Impact from Low Oil Prices
- Wall Street Journal: Utilities’ Profit Recipe: Spend More
- National Journal: Other Countries Seek Reassurance Obama Can Deliver on His Climate Pledge
POLITICO Morning Energy for 4/21/2015
By DARIUS DIXON
THE QER IS HERE: The Obama administration has just rolled out its first attempt at a Quadrennial Energy Review — a wide-ranging study of the nation’s energy policies that calls for programs aimed at making the electric grid more resilient, accelerating the replacement of aging pipelines, improving measurements of methane emissions, boosting coordination of products shipped by rail and rethinking the release authorities of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. See the whole thing here: http://1.usa.gov/1HQgj91
The QER crafters — and despite the name, there is supposed to be another one next year — were tasked with addressing issues across transmission, storage and distribution infrastructure (think pipelines, railroads and power lines). Here are some of the QER recommendations:
— DOE should create a competitive program to accelerate pipeline replacement and enhance maintenance programs for natural gas pipeline distribution systems. The department should also provide financial assistance to states to create incentives for cost-effective improvements. Estimated cost: $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion over 10 years.
— As part of the Obama administration’s plans to release a “formal national strategy for strengthening the security and resilience of the entire electric grid for threats and hazards” later this year, DOE should coordinate with federal agencies and states to mitigate the loss of electric transformers. “Approaches for mitigating this risk should include the development of one or more transformer reserves through a staged process,” an administration factsheet says.
— DOE should analyze the appropriate size and configuration of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and make infrastructure investments to its distribution systems. Congress should also revisit SPR release authorities to “allow the SPR to be used more effectively to prevent serious economic harm to the United States in case of energy supply emergencies.”
— Given the development of oil fields more toward the geographic center of the country (and the resulting rail competition for agricultural and other commodities), a new grant program should be established at the Transportation Department dedicated to improving energy transportation infrastructure connectors. Estimated cost: $2 billion to $2.5 billion over 10 years. Congress should also provide funding to the Energy Information Administration to fill in the gaps in data that deal with the transport of energy commodities.
— Congress should approve the administration’s $10 million request to help update methane emissions data from natural gas systems.
The review, which tapped more than 20 federal agencies and tries to take a holistic approach, officially kicked off in January 2014 with a presidential memo putting the Energy Department in charge of heading the analysis. While the QER cuts across several areas, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and his team made efforts to corral the first study to something less-than-comprehensive. Your morning host got into that a bit last fall: http://politico.pro/1teTrWm
MARK THE TIME: Vice President Joe Biden, Moniz and Obama science adviser John Holdren will be in Philadelphia this afternoon, when Biden is expected to talk about energy and the QER at the PECO building in City Center. The event starts at 2:30 p.m. and will be webcast here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/live
ON TOP OF THE QER, the White House today is also planning to roll out a Partnership for Energy Sector Climate Resilience aimed at improving the resiliency of energy infrastructure against extreme weather. That partnership kicks off with a summit at the Energy Department with 17 utility company CEOs on April 30, one week from Thursday. The utilities on the list include Con Edison, Exelon Corp., the New York Power Authority and Xcel Energy.
— Not to be left out, the Department of Agriculture plans to announce $72 million in support of six rural electric infrastructure projects, which includes a big push for solar energy and transmission line improvements.
THE LITTLE PIPELINE AGENCY THAT COULDN’T: The Energy team’s Elana Schor and Andrew Restuccia are out with a heart-wrenching deep-dive into the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which is supposed to oversee the nation’s network of oil and gas lines — and they find some big gaps. “Oil and gas companies like to assure the public that pipelines are a safer way to ship their products than railroads or trucks. But government data makes clear there is hardly reason to celebrate,” the duo write. “Last year, more than 700 pipeline failures killed 19 people, injured 97 and caused more than $300 million in damage. Two of the past five years have been the worst for combined pipeline-related deaths and injuries since 2000.” They also reviewed more than a decade of government data on fatalities, injuries, property damage, incident locations, inspections, damages and penalties. Elana and Andrew talked to families hurt by pipeline accidents as well as more than two dozen government officials, safety experts, state regulators and others to give the story a stiff backbone.
“The picture that emerges is of an agency that lacks the manpower to inspect the nation’s 2.6 million miles of oil and gas lines, that grants the industry it regulates significant power to influence the rule-making process, and that has stubbornly failed to take a more aggressive regulatory role, even when ordered by Congress to do so.”
Fatal incidents continue, they add. A gas explosion in Alabama killed one man in January, and PHMSA reported 10 injuries in the three months it took to report this story. The story also has some neat infographics to go along with it. Read. It. Now: http://politico.pro/1P8hbbb
TUESDAY IS UPON YOU. I’m your host, Darius Dixon, and Mrs. ME and I have learned our lesson about letting a baby stop and smell the flowers: Their sinuses aren’t ready for it. Send your energy tips to ddixon@politico.com, and follow us on Twitter @dariusss, @Morning_Energy and @POLITICOPro.
** In recognition of Earth Day, a new Business Roundtable report, “Create, Grow, Sustain: Leading by Example,” features the sustainable practices of 148 of America’s leading businesses. By employing sustainable business practices, CEO-led efforts are improving communities throughout the United States and around the world. Learn how at: http://bit.ly/1NXUoBK **
JEWELL IN THE LION’S DEN: The Energy team’s Darren Goode is Houston for CERAWeek and gets into Interior Secretary Sally Jewell’s seemingly conflicted relationship with the industry in which she started her career: Jewell “delicately stepped into enemy territory at a conference attended by many critics of her department’s policies — even if she didn’t quite see it that way. ‘I don’t consider it a lion’s den,’ she told reporters Monday at the IHS CERAWeek conference, an annual gathering for business leaders and policymakers in the energy world. ‘Working on an oil rig when I was 22 years old, that was a little tougher than this is.’ Jewell is still trying to sell herself as someone who knows the energy industry well, even though more people may think of her as a longtime conservationist and as the former CEO of outdoor retailer REI than as the first Interior secretary to have actually fracked an oil well.” Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski weighs in as well. http://politico.pro/1O9A5Bo
WHITE HOUSE CONSERVATION ANNOUNCEMENT TODAY: According a blog post yesterday by Obama energy and climate adviser Brian Deese, the White House plans to announce “four landscapes throughout the country where we’ll focus our conservation and climate resilience efforts,” as part of a week of Earth Day activities. Obama is slated to go to the Everglades tomorrow. http://1.usa.gov/1J4FhTR
HOUSE TO VOTE ON MINI-PORTMAN-SHAHEEN: The House clocks back in today and holds a series of votes at 6:30 p.m., including on S. 535, the Energy Efficiency Improvement Act, which also goes by the name “mini” Portman-Shaheen. The Senate approved the bill last month after its budget vote-a-rama. The bill includes language the exempt certain grid-enabled water heaters from DOE efficiency standards that took effect last week, a move supported by efficiency groups, environmentalists and electric co-ops. The bill is being considered under a process used for the quick passage of uncontroversial legislation.
THE LATEST IN OUR PLAN FOR WORLD DOMINATION: First, it was Washington. Then, New York. Then a toe in Florida. And after much anticipation, POLITICO now has a foothold across the pond in Brussels. POLITICO Europe launched last night, http://www.politico.eu/. The homepage is in English and shares the same design features of the stateside version that relaunched after last year’s midterm elections, but has a European flavor (dates are presented dd/mm/yy). The first print edition goes out Thursday. The website includes separate pages of energy (http://bit.ly/1HcRYLu) and environment (http://bit.ly/1FbibIZ) policy news. It’ll also have a Playbook Brussels covering European Union politics. But more importantly, they plan to have a Euro version of Morning Energy!
Bonus round: There’s a very meta Q&A on POLITICO Europe on the creation of, well, POLITICO Europe: http://bit.ly/1Qc1GQU and a half-hour podcast:
WHATCHA GONNA DO WITH ALL THAT GAS? Oil and gas operations around the world leaked $30 billion worth of natural gas into the atmosphere in 2012, according to a report commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund coming out today. The analysis, conducted by the Rhodium Group, says that the top seven emitting countries were responsible for more than half of the globe’s total leaked methane in 2012, but many countries don’t control the fugitive gases. Methane leaks due to oil and gas systems can represent a big chunk of a country’s greenhouse gas emissions. The report estimates such leaks in Russia to be 14 percent of the country’s GHG footprint, while it’s about 40 percent of Uzbekistan’s. EDF’s pitch: “For many countries, tackling oil and gas methane emissions, including as a component of their Intended Nationally-Determined Contributions to the global climate change agreement to be adopted this year in Paris, could make a meaningful contribution to their overall GHG reductions by 2030.” The report: http://bit.ly/1F9mUe3
The thing to remember about methane is that scientists believe it has a far more potent impact on the climate than carbon dioxide — about 25 times the global warming potential over a 100-year period, according to the EPA — but it resides in the atmosphere for a shorter period of time.
EDF and Rhodium are holding a conference call at noon today to discuss the report.
SO LONG ‘TEXAS RAILROAD COMMISSION’? The Energy Resources Committee of the Texas House is in the midst of considering legislation that would finally update the name of the Texas Railroad Commission, which oversees the state’s oil and gas industry and has had nothing to do with railroads for a decade. If the bill becomes law, the agency, which is officially called the Railroad Commission of Texas, would be called the Texas Energy Commission. The bill: http://bit.ly/1Fa1kpZ
LABOR ON THE HILL: Members of the Laborers’ International Union of North America are flying in for a lobby day on Capitol Hill, pressing lawmakers in at least 30 states on a bevy of infrastructure as well as health care and energy issues. LIUNA is slated to bring more than 200 members to lobby their members of Congress to support domestic natural gas and oil extraction, the development of renewables and a relook at the gasoline tax that funds the Highway Trust Fund.
QUICK HITS
— Utilities’ Profit Recipe: Spend More. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1Hc8hbF
— Julia Wolfe’s ‘Anthracite Fields’ wins 2015 Pulitzer Prize in music. The Los Angeles Times: http://lat.ms/1cTOlNY
— China Could Cut Coal (Mostly) by 2050. Scientific American: http://bit.ly/1G2jkOW
— Halliburton Feels Impact from Low Oil Prices. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1HqjnIt
— Batteries and Renewable Energy Set to Grow Together. The New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1DGO8q8
Tags: energy, fuel, gas, oil