- Wall Street Journal: OPEC Sees Lower Demand for Its Oil Despite Higher Global Consumption
POLITICO Morning Energy for 7/13/2015
By DARIUS DIXON, with help from Alex Guillén
IRAN SO FAR: Via Reuters: “After more than two weeks of negotiations in Vienna, Iranian and Western officials said the earliest an agreement could be ready was Monday, the self-imposed deadline for clinching a deal, though that could be extended again … Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for the Iranian delegation, said on Twitter that the draft agreement Iran and the powers — the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China — were working on was ‘a 100-page document.’” http://reut.rs/1NYzAWz. Meanwhile, The Washington Post throws some cold water on that timeline, quoting a senior State Department official, “We have never speculated about the timing of anything during these negotiations, and we’re certainly not going to start now — especially given the fact that major issues remain to be resolved in these talks.” http://wapo.st/1JcNMYe
Whether something is announced today or not, any deal is now well within the period that allows Congress to conduct a longer, 60-day review, which would end in mid-September. And with all the chatter around sanctions relief for Iran, comes speculation around the availability of Iranian oil, its impact on crude prices already on a dive — and the renewed congressional effort to lift the U.S. crude oil export ban. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski, for one, has explicitly argued that any move to lift sanctions on Iranian oil ought to also lift the current U.S. ban.
Reuters: “Oil prices fall as Iran nuclear deal seems likely”: http://reut.rs/1fByt4g
Your host can’t resist sharing: All the talk about Iran lately has had ME thinking about one of my favorite Digital Shorts from Saturday Night Live circa 2007. You’re welcome: http://yhoo.it/1M4AqU3
WHAT’S PROBABLY NOT HAPPENING THIS WEEK? SPENDING BILLS: House leadership had planned to take up the Financial Services appropriations bill this week but it appears that the whole train of spending bills has been derailed by Confederate flag infighting, prompting talks of having a continuing resolution. As bipartisanship brought the Confederate flag down in South Carolina last week, Southern Republicans revolted over amendments to the House Interior-EPA appropriations bill restricting its sale and display by the National Park Service (Interior-EPA spending chairman Rep. Ken Calvert voiced support for the limit on sales but Republicans didn’t use debate time to support or counter the display amendment). The GOP infighting over the issue presented Democrats with an opportunity to embarrass House leadership, which promptly yanked the bill.
Although the display amendment had an exemption for “historical context,” via POLITICO’s Jake Sherman and Rachael Bade: “The concern for the GOP is that Democrats can use each spending bill to debate whether the Confederate flag belongs on tombstones in federal cemeteries.” http://politi.co/1RrMrXf.
And there’s, oh, only four weeks of legislative business left before the August recess. Rachael puts it best, in a separate story: A growing number of top lawmakers in both chambers are predicting they’ll have to pass a stopgap spending bill this fall as partisan warfare over spending levels — and the Confederate flag — have plunged the appropriations process into gridlock. This was supposed to be the year of regular order — the year the new, GOP-controlled Congress would return Capitol Hill to the days when lawmakers actually scrutinized each spending bill… “CR is the worst possible scenario because it negates the work that we’ve done. … I don’t want to do it, but being realistic, that’s what we’ve had to do in the past,” House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) told POLITICO in a short interview. http://politi.co/1NZeKGp
YUP, IT’S ME AGAIN! Happy Monday. I’m Darius Dixon and while you may have thought you got rid of me forever, I’m covering for your regular host this week. But don’t worry, he’ll be back soon enough. For now, send your energy news, tips and commentary to ddixon@politico.com, and follow us on Twitter @dariusss, @Morning_Energy and @POLITICOPro.
MONUMENTAL YUCCA HURDLE? President Barack Obama created three new national monuments on Friday — and one of them could complicate any future plans to get the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site up and running. While the Basin and Range monument created at the end of last week set aside more than 700,000 acres of public land in Nevada ostensibly for landscape, ancient art and the like, part of the designation includes the site where a proposed railroad would theoretically link to the repository. The Las Vegas Sun interviewed Robert Halstead, executive director of the state’s Agency for Nuclear Projects, which has long fought the effort, who explains: “He said the proposed 300-mile route of the railroad would go through the newly created Basin and Range National Monument … Halstead said the Department of Energy looked at nine railroad routes to carry the high-level radioactive waste and narrowed them down to the Caliente-to-Yucca Mountain route, which would run through the monument area.” Halstead argues that, “This is the final nail in the coffin.” There have been a lot of final nails. The Las Vegas Sun: http://bit.ly/1D9ogkF
Defense-in-depth (ask your NRC friends if you’re scratching your head): As a former geologist, I can personally attest to the majesty of the Basin and Range area. It lacks trees, leaving one to enjoy the rocks, but for a state that’s fought Yucca at every turn, this certainly looks like another layer of protection. Between the years of funding cuts, Nevada’s upward mobility in presidential primary season, resistance within DOE, the doings of former NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko, yet another bureaucratic hurdle may have just been placed in the Yucca saga.
** A message from The Pew Charitable Trusts: This is our last chance to protect the sage-grouse and our Western way of life. The Bureau of Land Management must include strong science-based protections in final plans for sagebrush habitat that supports wildlife like sage-grouse, elk, pronghorn, and golden eagles. Let’s keep our Western landscapes iconic: www.pewtrusts.org/sage-grouse. **
THE WEEK IN CONGRESS:
— The Senate: The Energy and Natural Resources Committee plans to have a hearing Tuesday to discuss “islanded energy systems” in place like Alaska, Hawaii and U.S. territories, where they’ve had to be fairly inventive about infrastructure issues. Alaska has obvious challenges around tackling such a large area. Meanwhile, Hawaii — already with the most expensive electricity prices in the country and tired of importing energy — has mandated that utilities generate 100 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2045. On Thursday, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs chief Howard Shelanksi will appear before a Homeland Security and Government Affairs subcommittee. The panel says it’ll explore “ways in which OIRA might leverage its role in the federal rulemaking process to improve certain agency regulatory actions and facilitate greater transparency” and “may encourage OIRA to take measures responsive to concerns about agency avoidance of OIRA review.”
— The House: Besides trying to figure out the whens and ifs of the appropriations process, the lower chamber intends to stay busy on energy issues. Tuesday’s main event in the House is the Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on how the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has “progressed, or not, in implementing reforms” in the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011. Following Plains All American’s oil spill in Santa Barbara in May, bipartisan leadership of the committee pinged PHMSA for answers (http://1.usa.gov/1KezzOy) on the 2011 law. In particular, E&C leaders grilled the agency on 17 congressional mandates under the Pipeline Safety Act that are still unfinished and have missed their statutory deadlines. PHMSA’s Interim Executive Director Stacy Cummings is set to testify. Wednesday has a trio of energy-related hearings: The Natural Resources Committee plans to discuss fracking on public land, the Oversight and Government Reform will discuss cybersecurity and the Interior Department, and a Judiciary panel will have a go at OIRA’s Shelanksi. On Thursday, two Foreign Affairs subcommittees will take a crack at the Obama administration’s renewal of the U.S.-China civil nuclear agreement.
TWO MORE STATES DROP DOI PARTNERSHIPS ON STREAM RULE: Two of the last three states toiling with the Office of Surface Mining have abandoned agreements to work with the administration on its rewrite of the stream buffer zone rule, according to letter released Friday by the House Natural Resources Committee. Indiana official Steven Weinzapfel wrote that there has been no outreach from OSM since early 2011 and that he remains “disappointed in the process.” He adds that the failure to share, particularly given expected major changes to proposed rule in the last four years, “has undermined our status as a cooperating agency as well as the meaningfulness of our participation.” Letter: http://politico.pro/1HXRIzG. Edward Coleman of Montana sent a similar letter, though he noted that while Montana was treated as a participating agency in the rulemaking process it never held that role officially. Read: http://politico.pro/1DaWrby.
Virginia is for lovers: According to the committee, the only state out of the original nine that remains signed on is Virginia, which has also raised some concerns about the process. OSM sent its proposed rule to OMB for review in March and is expected to release it soon.
BIZ GROUPS TO GOVS: DON’T LISTEN TO ANTI-EPA TALK: A pair of business groups today are trying to counter the earful governors are getting about just saying no to the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. The Environmental Entrepreneurs and the American Sustainable Business Council, which say they represent more than 200,000 businesses as well as thousands of individual investors and executives, argue that the CPP will spur new renewable and efficiency technology. “[S]ome in Congress and industry stakeholders are advising states to skirt the law by not developing or submitting a compliance plan,” their letter to the National Governors Association states. “The decision to ‘opt out’ of the Clean Power Plan is simply bad for business.” NGA is prepping for its annual summer meeting set for next week, which is happening deep in Coal Country this year: West Virginia. The letter: http://bit.ly/1KZVavV
UTILITY GROUP REPORT SNIPES AT NET METERING: A new report from the utility-backed Electric Markets Research Foundation is pushing the oft-pressed button around rooftop solar and the potential for electric rate inequality even if it prevents a utility from having to build a new facility. “The net metering incentive, common in many states, provides an example of what can happen when we transition from a system of shared costs by the many, to a system where individual consumers can find the best deal for themselves,” the report, conducted by Build Energy America consulting firm, states. But while it firmly opposes net metering as a way to incentivize distributed generation, the report does take a somewhat more nuanced view than merely suggesting hookup fees and other charges. Rooftop solar generators, it says, should be compensated “based on the costs that the local utility avoids by not having to generate or buy the same amount of power itself.” Of course, calculating that is non-trivial. EMRF plans to release the report today at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ summer meeting in New York City, which kicked off Sunday. The report: http://bit.ly/1HoR78E
Out of curiosity: Has anyone seen a study of how utilities and rooftop solar owners would fare if the latter were given wholesale prices for their excess electricity? Asking for a friend…
QUICK HITS
— Ballot fight over fracking could be shaping up in Colorado. The Associated Press: http://bit.ly/1fBx3XC
— Tom Steyer’s intensifying war on Big Oil takes center stage in California. The Sacramento Bee: http://bit.ly/1Rt0w6T
— South getting its first wind farm soon as bigger turbines make the region viable. The Associated Press: http://bit.ly/1gwryK6
— Fossil fuel industry must ‘implode’ to avoid climate disaster, says German adviser. The Guardian: http://bit.ly/1RrHRs1
— Wind Farms now off limits for Australia’s $7 billion energy fund. Bloomberg: http://bloom.bg/1M4CBXF
— Greeks don’t like to pay taxes, and they also aren’t keen on paying for power. POLITICO Europe: http://politi.co/1SikRqH
THAT’S ALL FOR ME. Cloudy with a high of 81 and thunderstorms are possible throughout the day.
Tags: climate, energy, fuel, gas, oil