- The Washington Examiner: Poll: Offshore drilling expansion likely if a coastal candidate wins
POLITICO Morning Energy for 5/27/2015
By DARIUS DIXON, with help from Alex Guillén, Darren Goode and Jenny Hopkinson
FEAST YOUR EYES ON THE AGENDA: POLITICO is rolling out its latest project today: The Agenda. ME will let its editor, Stephen Heuser, speak for himself. The Agenda is “POLITICO’s new home for the daily conversation around the ideas reshaping the country. What’s really at stake today, this week, and in the next session of Congress? How do we connect the dots between the robust debates in the war of ideas and the policy proposals actually on the table here in Washington?” The Agenda is envisioned as a daily policy magazine with deep-dive monthly issue packages. http://politi.co/1FWR7iD. And it’s front-loaded with energy content…
THE WAR ON WHAT? THE WAR ON WHO? The top-line piece comes to us from Agenda editor-at-large Michael Grunwald, who delves into one of the most repeated phrases in Washington these days: “The war on coal is not just political rhetoric, or a paranoid fantasy concocted by rapacious polluters. It’s real and it’s relentless. Over the past five years, it has killed a coal-fired power plant every 10 days. It has quietly transformed the U.S. electric grid and the global climate debate. The industry and its supporters use ‘war on coal’ as shorthand for a ferocious assault by a hostile White House, but the real war on coal is not primarily an Obama war, or even a Washington war. It’s a guerrilla war. The front lines are not at the Environmental Protection Agency or the Supreme Court. If you want to see how the fossil fuel that once powered most of the country is being battered by enemy forces, you have to watch state and local hearings where utility commissions and other obscure governing bodies debate individual coal plants. You probably won’t find much drama. You’ll definitely find lawyers from the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign.” http://politi.co/1HKaQCq
(Pro readers will already be familiar with some of the maps and graphics included with this story, which ran with this end-of-coal opus: http://politi.co/1JV8gJ8)
Ever the optimist. Grunwald also picks the brain of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz about the low-carbon revolution: http://politi.co/1PMh20X
TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO COAL PLANT HAS GONE BEFORE: POLITICO’s Darren Samuelsohn has a lengthy look at the stalled out prospects of the carbon capture and sequestration technology that was supposed to give coal a new lease on life. Darren ventured to De Kalb, Miss., to peel back the onion on Southern Co.’s Kemper project, an over-budget CCS endeavor. http://politi.co/1AsZekQ
And The Agenda’s energy stories just keep coming:
— How coal disrupted the world: A short history of (the other) black gold — and its power over us. http://politi.co/1chQ0vR
— ‘We are going to pursue all avenues.’ Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others make the case for coal’s survival. http://politi.co/1cYM2J7
— Five reasons Obama’s transformative Clean Power Plan won’t transform anything. http://politi.co/1FCCQnL
They also made this Power page, to put everything in one place: http://politi.co/1SBmW42
HAPPY WEDNESDAY! I’m Darius Dixon and while at first I was looking forward to having mornings without having to “negotiate” with mini-ME, your host has developed something of a proto-empty nest condition now that the little guy started daycare on Tuesday. Next, he’ll be going away to college. Send your energy news, tips and commentary to ddixon@politico.com, and follow us on Twitter @dariusss, @Morning_Energy and @POLITICOPro.
** A message from Fuels America: The EPA has a choice: Oil industry profits, or rural economies and American innovation? Congress designed the Renewable Fuel Standard to offer certainty to investors and employers. If the EPA caves to oil lobbyists, billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs will be threatened: http://bit.ly/1Hdnfyo **
A LITTLE SUNSHINE TIME: President Barack Obama is traveling to Miami this afternoon. Tonight, he plans to hit up a Democratic National Committee and make a speech. On Thursday, he’s visiting the National Hurricane Center to “to receive the annual hurricane season outlook and preparedness briefing,” according to the White House.
REPORT — EPA RULES SHOULD BE THE CLIMATE APPETIZER: The EPA’s forthcoming greenhouse gas rules for existing and future power plants isn’t enough to put the U.S. on track to meet Obama’s emissions target. But the capacity might exist to surpass its 2025 greenhouse gas emissions target without help from Congress, according to a new report from the World Resources Institute out Wednesday, Pro Energy’s Andrew Restuccia reports. The report says the U.S. must strengthen existing rules and impose new policies that expand the emissions cuts beyond the power sector to other parts of the economy in order to meet the Obama administration’s target of cutting emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. “The Clean Power Plan alone doesn’t get you there,” Karl Hausker, a senior fellow at WRI and lead author of the report, said in an interview. “You can’t coast forward on those policies and hit your 26 percent. You need to aggressively move on to pretty much every sector of the economy.”
“The WRI report is perhaps the most comprehensive analysis to date of how the United States can meet its climate change target,” Andrew writes. “It also offers the latest evidence that the U.S. cannot meet the target without sustained, ambitious action by both Obama and the next president.” http://politico.pro/1J4hsdA
DOE’S NUCLEAR CHIEF TO BOW OUT: Peter Lyons, the Energy Department’s top nuclear energy official, will retire on June 30. Lyons was confirmed to his agency post as assistant secretary for nuclear energy more than four years ago. Lyons, a Ph.D. astrophysicist who lived in Nevada for many years, has often told lawmakers how deep the local opposition to the Yucca Mountain project runs and famously told a House appropriations subcommittee “cut our losses” on the project in 2013. He also spent many years working for Los Alamos National Lab before becoming a science advisor to then-Sen. Pete Domenici, and later, a commissioner at the NRC.
Less than 45 minutes after Pros got the news around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz sent a memo to agency staff singing Lyons’ praises. “Pete has been a tremendous public servant throughout his stellar career, and all who have had the privilege of working with and getting to know him through these decades understand that he has been not only a dedicated and accomplished scientist and leader of the highest order, but also one of the most decent and kind individuals one will meet in government service,” Moniz wrote in a note co-signed with Deputy Secretary Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall. “We will miss him.”
STRAIGHT FROM THE LYONS MOUTH: “It’s been a tremendous honor to work with the NE team during my six years at the Department,” Lyons wrote in a separate email to the nuclear office staff and others. “We’ve accomplished a lot in those years, I’m proud of our work in this period and you should share in that pride. I can’t tell you how much I truly appreciate everyone’s dedication and support over the years to ensure nuclear continues to be a vital piece of our Nation’s energy portfolio.”
John Kotek, who joined DOE’s nuclear energy office in January and has a long history with the agency, will take on Lyons’ post in an acting capacity.
WITH THEIR POWERS COMBINED: The Second Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas Ministerial wrapped up Tuesday in Mexico but not before Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and his Mexican, Chilean, Colombian, Costa Rican, Peruvian, and Panamanian counterparts created a new Western Hemisphere Clean Energy Initiative. The new partnership plans to work toward a collective doubling of renewable sources by 2030, according to the Energy Department. The two-day Sixth Clean Energy Ministerial starts today.
PG&E CHIEF ALSO ON THE OUTS: PG&E President Christopher P. Johns plans to retire at the end of the year. He’s been with the utility since 1996 and became president in 2009 — 13 months before the deadly San Bruno gas explosion. The San Jose Mercury News has more: http://bayareane.ws/1AsD2ag
WOTUS ON THE WAY? EPA’s final Waters of the United States rule is expected to be released today, sources are telling our friends over at Morning Agriculture. Yes, yes, you’ve heard this story before, but now not only are the rumblings of its imminent arrival much louder, but going public today would follow the agency’s May timeframe laid out in the Unified Agenda and still give officials a moment to breathe before releasing the 2014 and 2015 Renewable Fuel Standards on June 1. Stay tuned.
BETTER BUILDINGS BUDDY SYSTEM: DOE is planning to make a few announcements today about its Better Buildings Challenge, including a call for existing partners to recruit another company or organization to cut their buildings’ energy use by 20 percent by 2025. The program, which has been going on since 2011, also plans to pour water usage into its efficiency efforts, and will set a new water savings goal. DOE is working with other federal agencies, including the EPA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
LAST-MINUTE LOBBYING: Oil and biofuel companies are blitzing Obama administration officials in the final days leading to an expected Monday release of proposed and final Renewable Fuel Standard requirements covering 2014, 2015 and 2016. The National Biodiesel Board and American Petroleum Institute separately met with the administration Tuesday on EPA’s RFS rollout. The Petroleum Marketers Manufacturers of America is holding court Wednesday. Petroleum refiners — including representatives of American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, Tesoro, Exxon and Marathon — met May 21 with a group of administration officials led by Office of Management and Budget policy analyst Chad Whiteman. And the Advanced Ethanol Council and Biotechnology Industry Organization are meeting with administration folk this Thursday.
EPA ON 112(c)(b) REQUIREMENTS: DONE AND DONE: EPA says it officially has met a requirement of the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990 to control emissions of seven specific pollutants, including mercury, PCB and alkylated lead compounds. In a final rule signed Friday but not yet published in the Federal Register, EPA says it has met the statutory obligation to write standards covering at least 90 percent of the aggregate emissions for these seven pollutants. EPA says it fulfilled that requirement in February 2011 via a long series of standards and regulations. This wasn’t exactly the most controversial thing EPA has done recently; the agency’s proposal back in December garnered only five public comments — one of which was an anonymous statement calling EPA “hypocritical” for regulating emissions from power plants but not wildfires. Pre-publication notice: http://1.usa.gov/1cXZNYI
GUVS AGAIN PUSH FOR PTC EXTENSION: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, the leaders of the Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition, are once again urging Congress to revive the wind production tax credit — and to please do it this time well before December. In a letter calling for extensions of the PTC and the investment tax credit, Inslee and Branstad write that growth in renewable energy deployment and jobs “are at risk today because ongoing federal policy uncertainty continues to hamper the further development of the nation’s wind industry.” Read: http://bit.ly/1EvXv9d
DOE DOUGH FOR SOLAR TRAINING: The Energy Department is making a total of $32 million available for solar workforce training and to develop better technologies. Of that funding, $12 million will go toward workforce training, including in the insurance, real estate and utility sectors. Another $15 million will go to developing new designs for concentrating solar power collectors. And the remaining $5 million is for projects boosting access to solar energy datasets.
SANTA’S GETTING HIS SHOPPING DONE EARLY THIS YEAR: For sale: 729 tons of coal (low sulfur) — buyer beware of forthcoming carbon regulations. The GSA is auctioning off the pile of coal, which is stored at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. As of last night, only one bid has been entered for $25 (a steal!), but the auction closes on June 2, so you’ve got some time if you can shake loose another fiver. Warning: There’s no shipping the coal via UPS; the buyer is responsible for every aspect of removing the pile. http://1.usa.gov/1FeBE7E
Shockingly, the GSA auction site indicates there isn’t much environmental benefit in using the coal. “Carbon savings for this item are not available,” reads the site. When carbon savings are possible for an auction item, the site lists the savings in several different metrics, including “hours listening to a stereo,” “dishwasher loads” and even “days of cow methane.” (h/t Alaska Dispatch News’ Erica Martinson)
ORANGE IS THE NEW GREEN: EPA will give $192,300 to the Fortune Society of New York for a program to train “formerly incarcerated people” in green jobs, particularly cleaning up brownfields. That money will allow for providing 50 ex-cons with 240 hours of instruction in areas like green infrastructure, treatment technologies and lead rules. “EPA is proud to provide financial support for job training in this growing field. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of contaminated properties in the New York City metropolitan area,” Regional Administrator Judith Enck said. While your host is a proud New York City kid, I’m pretty sure every acre of the place has been filthy for three hundred years.
QUICK HITS
— Berkeley Lab unveils new solar energy facility named after former Energy Secretary Steven Chu. ABC News: http://abc7ne.ws/1FWTq5d
— Crews close to excavating ruptured section of oil pipeline. The Los Angeles Times: http://lat.ms/1Ffmb7x
— Japan nuclear regulator clears first reactors after safety checks. Reuters: http://reut.rs/1F9P6c2
— China Nuclear Firm Plans Biggest Domestic IPO in 5 Years. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1FO8eB4
Tags: energy, fuel, gas, oil