POLITICO Morning Energy for 6/19/2015
By Elana Schor, with help from Alex Guillén
POPE’S ‘COMMON HOME’ HITS HOME: Pope Francis entered the climate debate in a huge way Thursday with the release of a 184-page environmental encyclical “on care for our common home” that calls for serious action to curb greenhouse gases — which, he acknowledges, “requires honesty, courage, and responsibility,” particularly among the world’s wealthiest nations.
President Barack Obama led Democrats in hailing the pope’s moral leadership as valuable to marshal support for domestic climate action. Republicans faced a trickier task in distancing themselves from the religious leader’s recommendations, and many ended up taking a much softer line in response to the papal encyclical than they did to a leaked draft that came out earlier this week. But just because the GOP agreed to disagree with His Holiness doesn’t mean they’re ready to warm to emissions limits. Darren Goode and Andrew Restuccia teamed up for the big-picture analysis: http://politico.pro/1Gvc6WH
PARIS ON KERRY’S MIND: Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement that the pope’s “plea for all religions to work together reflects the urgency of the challenge” and suggested the encyclical could strengthen momentum for a global emissions deal during December’s hotly anticipated United Nations talks on a pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol. “Engagement on this issue from a wide range of voices is all the more important as we strive to reach a global climate agreement this December in Paris.”
KIRK’S SEQUEL — THE WRATH OF GREENS: Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) picked a fresh fight with environmentalists Thursday when he voted to preserve language in EPA’s fiscal 2016 spending bill that would block its landmark greenhouse gas rules for power plants. A Democratic bid to strip the GOP’s anti-EPA rider fell, 15-15, with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) crossing the aisle to back the rules. The budget bill for EPA and the Interior Department ultimately cleared the Appropriations Committee on party lines but now heads straight for a Democratic blockade on the floor. Darren Goode was on the scene: http://politico.pro/1FpJBFZ
Remember that Kirk, who faces a reelection challenge from former Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), was one of only five Republicans to agree that “human activity significantly contributes to climate change” during a symbolic vote in January. “While Senator Kirk voted to at least acknowledge the reality of man-made climate change” in that vote, Sara Chieffo of the League of Conservation Voters said in a statement, “the real question is whether he would support action on climate change.” Kirk’s vote appears to have answered that question for greens, who are now planning follow-up campaigns to draw voters’ attention back home in his blue state.
HAPPY FRIDAY FROM MORNING ENERGY. I’m Elana Schor, and I’ve been honored to serve as your temporary guide to the day’s top news. But like you, I’m eagerly anticipating the tales Darius Dixon will bring back from his reporting in Japan. Welcome him back to the host’s chair by sending your tips, energy news and commentary to ddixon@politico.com, and follow us on Twitter @dariusss, @Morning_Energy and @POLITICOPro.
** A message from Chevron: Can an idea work in real life? The best way to know is to try it. Chevron is proud to support Fab Labs to provide students a place to explore, design, and prototype their ideas — and become tomorrow’s engineers and scientists in the process. Learn more at http://tinyurl.com/p4kaq8y **
KEEP ON TRUCKIN’ — PHASE 2 RULE EXPECTED TODAY: Three industry and environmental sources tell ME that today is the day EPA and the Transportation Department will release their proposed Phase 2 rule fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty trucks. That covers tractor-trailers, garbage trucks, delivery vans, school buses — basically anything bigger than a Ford F-150. It builds on a 2011 rule that required trucks to decrease consumption and GHG emissions by 10 to 20 percent of 2010 levels, depending on the vehicle. This new rule, which covers post-2018 model year vehicles, is expected to go further than that first rule, both in goal (greens are pushing for 40 percent improvement over 2010 levels by 2027) and scope. The new rule is expected to consider not just boosts to engine efficiency but other fuel-saving initiatives such as improved aerodynamics and lighter-weight materials. Citing sources with knowledge of the rule, NYT said late Thursday that the proposal would seek efficiency gains of “about a third”: http://nyti.ms/1QFNL8H
Why the big deal? Trucks make up just 4 percent of the U.S. fleet but around 20 percent of U.S. transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions.
TRADE-TALKS CLIMATE RIDER HEADED FOR CONFERENCE: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) late Thursday teed up a vote next week on the stand-alone Trade Promotion Authority bill that the House cleared hours earlier, giving new life to Obama’s bid for the fast-track authority needed to complete the 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership deal. Greens vowed to keep battling the trade package in the Senate, but the fate of one of their most hated items in the mix — a House GOP rider added to a related customs bill that bars trade negotiators from making climate commitments — likely won’t get resolved until after July 4.
The House version of the customs bill that puts climate handcuffs on trade talks, albeit nonbinding, now heads to conference with a Senate version that lacks that language. “Given the complex and thorny procedural processes at work here, we will have to turn to that one as soon as we’re able — but we will turn to it” with a floor vote after the conference is done, McConnell said in a floor speech.
SHELL PASSES NEW ARCTIC TEST: The Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said on Thursday that tests on key equipment Shell is required to have in place before returning to drill in the Arctic resulted in a clean bill of health. The oil giant’s capping stack, intended to halt the flow of crude in case all other blowout prevention technology malfunctions, worked as expected under pressures greater than those it’s expected to see this summer in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, according to BSEE.
But Greenpeace pointed to a letter obtained via the Freedom of Information Act in which BSEE regional director Mark Fesmire cites “technical and operational difficulties” observed during March tests of Shell’s Arctic containment dome in Seattle’s Puget Sound. Interior “was not transparent with the American public during an earlier round of testing of a different Arctic response system, so we have no reason to trust them on” the capping stack tests, Greenpeace said in a statement. Read Fesmire’s full letter here: http://politico.pro/1TyQKPe
CSB SHAKEUP: TURMOIL OR FRESH START? Mismanagement charges are nothing new at the Chemical Safety Board, an independent agency that investigates accidents at refineries, chemical plants and other industrial facilities, whose chairman resigned in March at the urging of Obama himself. But a new twist emerged Thursday when the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility released documents showing that General Counsel Richard Loeb and Managing Director Daniel Horowitz were placed on administrative leave by CSB member Richard Engler earlier this week. Engler notified CSB staff by email of a meeting next week to “answer any questions” about the move, which PEER said involved armed agents showing Loeb and Horowitz off the agency’s grounds: http://bit.ly/1N7tHXg
“The level of hypocrisy on display here gives opportunism a bad name,” PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch said in a statement. But House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), whose committee has worked with whistleblowers to investigate mismanagement allegations at the agency, hailed Engler for starting “the process of rebuilding confidence in the CSB. Chaffetz added in a statement that “we look forward to working with him on additional reforms.”
PIC OF THE DAY: Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) marked #ThrowbackThursday with a sweet shot of her family at a past White House picnic. http://bit.ly/1N6QbHN
IT’S GETTING EFFICIENT IN HERE: A Department of Energy-created working group representing industry, environmental, and contracting interests reached agreement Thursday on conservation benchmarks and metrics for commercial package air conditioners and warm furnaces, paving the way for what American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy Executive Director Steven Nadel called “the biggest efficiency standards rulemaking in DOE’s history.” Advancing the new consensus standards, Nadel said in a statement, would result in energy savings equivalent to one year’s worth of coal burned by U.S. power plants. Also leading the announcement were the Appliance Standards Awareness Project and the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute.
ETHANOL GROUP BACKS DOT ON RAIL SAFETY: Oil companies are pursuing a court challenge to key portions of the fuel-train safety rules that the Department of Transportation finalized last month, but some of its occasional foes in the ethanol industry are taking the opposite view. The biofuels trade group Growth Energy last week asked to intervene on behalf of DOT’s timeframe for retrofitting fuel-train tank cars in the brewing legal battle in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The American Petroleum Institute-backed “challenge threatens to upend [DOT’s] final rule and will introduce substantial financial and regulatory uncertainty” for ethanol-shipping members, Growth wrote in its motion.
A spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association declined to comment on whether it would consider a similar strategy to its fellow ethanol group. Check out the filing here: http://politico.pro/1J6tViM
ME FIRST — CAP FINDS PRIVATE DRILLING ROYALTIES DOUBLE BLM’S: The Center for American Progress drops a new report today aimed at bolstering the case for higher royalties for oil and gas extraction on federal land as the Interior Department takes its first steps on a royalty reform effort. The liberal think tank found Texas and Louisiana drilling leases for private lands that match the 25-percent royalty rate Texas currently imposes to extract on state lands, which is double the Bureau of Land Management’s 12.5-percent rate. Check out the full CAP report: http://politico.pro/1Lib6JT
QUICK HITS
-U.K. government ordered to publish in full a heavily redacted report on the impacts of fracking: http://bit.ly/1H1kX5S
-Funding is drying up for the United Nations program that helps the world’s poorest countries cope with climate change. Thomson Reuters Foundation: http://reut.rs/1TyoQ5H
-Democrat Paul Clements will once again challenge House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton for his southwest Michigan seat. WSJM: http://bit.ly/1L3O4FB
-A day in the life of “Nebraska’s Most Controversial Woman,” anti-Keystone XL organizer Jane Kleeb. Omaha Magazine: http://bit.ly/1Tyo3C2
Tags: energy, fuel, gas, oil