- The Washington Examiner: Modest energy bills may still have controversial measures, observers say
- The Washington Examiner: API, AFPM urge feds to revisit draft ethanol mandate
POLITICO Morning Energy for 7/28/2015
By DARREN GOODE, with help from Alex Guillén, Elana Schor and Darius Dixon
HILLARY DRIVES CLIMATE WEDGE: Hillary Clinton’s campaign is aiming to turn climate change from an also-ran into a major wedge issue in her bid to win the White House. And that strategy has not gone unnoticed by some Republicans who are pressing the GOP candidates to develop a greener platform and engage their Democratic opponents in the climate debate.
New York-based precious metals magnate and longtime GOP donor Andrew Sabin says he’s part of a team meeting weekly to help Jeb Bush green up his platform and produce “a realistic plan, not a dreamer plan that Hillary’s got and can’t get done.” Jay Faison, the Republican businessman pledging at least $175 million to get the GOP to take climate change seriously, said Republicans “don’t need to be lectured” by Clinton on clean energy but “we do need to lead and I believe we will.”
But she’s won plenty of praise from the left, including Tom Steyer and former top Obama climate and energy aide Heather Zichal. “It underscores her commitment not only to tackling carbon pollution but also campaigning on this issue and showing the major divide between her views and those of the Republican candidates,” Zichal said. Your ME scribe lays it all out for Pros: http://politico.pro/1Iqfnc2
THE HOLES IN CLINTON’S PLAN: Clinton’s climate vision is ambitious in calling for 500 million new solar panels from coast to coast, eco-minded energy tax breaks and enough green power to keep the lights on in every U.S. home. But just as glaring were the details she left out. Does she support or oppose the Keystone XL oil pipeline? Or Arctic offshore drilling? Or tougher restrictions on fracking? Or the oil industry’s push to lift the 1970s ban on exporting U.S. crude oil? Elana Schor has the rundown of what was not in Clinton’s proposal: http://politi.co/1D3VmYT
Clinton declined yet again to say where she stands on Keystone during a stop in Des Moines Monday. Hadas Gold reports: http://politi.co/1MTs6nn.
CLINTON CAMP URGES PATIENCE: Clinton’s campaign made clear that more details will be in the offing. After Pros read environmentalists’ reactions to the omissions from Clinton’s Monday speech, a spokesman advised ME that her commitments on renewable power are not “the sum of her plan,” but only the first piece of a broad environmental platform. “We made clear these goals were just the first pillars of her larger climate and energy agenda,” a campaign spokesman said in an email to POLITICO, adding that “even many of the activists you quote seem to understand that.”
The Clinton spokesman also addressed the multi-billion-dollar gap between the price tag of the candidate’s solar-panel plan and the money raised by legislative proposals to pare back oil and gas subsidies, which the Democrat’s team had identified to pay for it all. Recent scores from the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation “show that it will be possible to offset most of the cost of Hillary Clinton’s clean energy challenge,” the campaign spokesman said. “The remainder will be covered by additional revenue raisers and loophole closures related to the oil and gas industry.”
HAPPY “TUESDAY”: I’m your grumpy host Darren Goode, who believes a rare news-packed Sunday continues to completely mess with his delicate sensibilities and internal clock. I’ll try to recover as I hand the reins over to Darius Dixon, who will gladly receive energy news, tips, and commentary at ddixon@politico.com. Follow us on Twitter @DarrenGoode, @Morning_Energy and @POLITICOPro.
SENATE ENERGY STARTS MARKUP: Roughly 95 amendments were filed as of late Monday afternoon to a five-part bipartisan energy bill from Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski and ranking member Maria Cantwell ahead of this morning’s markup. It’s still unclear whether multiple days in the panel will be needed to consider the plan. “We are hoping to see how many of these can be worked out, voted en bloc, or will be dropped, so as to use the members’ time most efficiently and get through as many amendments as possible,” committee Democratic spokeswoman Rosemary Calabro Tully said in an email.
Cantwell in her opening speech “is likely to acknowledge that the bill isn’t perfect — most bipartisan efforts can’t be, given they are compromises by their very nature,” Calabro Tully said. “And there are some areas that we hope to further improve, as the bill moves forward — such as efficiency and hydro relicensing.” But she said Cantwell will also acknowledge six areas she is most proud of in the bill: energy storage, grid modernization, cybersecurity, energy workforce, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and a permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
If you go: 366 Dirksen, 10 a.m.
GREENS AREN’T HAPPY: While Cantwell is usually a friend of the environmental community, a number of major green groups came out against her compromise with Murkowski, including the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council and League of Conservation Voters. Concerns include language to expedite permits for liquefied natural gas exports and replace a federal requirement to have federal buildings be free of fossil fuels by 2030. “Authoring a bill of such complexity in a bipartisan manner is a truly impressive accomplishment, but that does not justify removing key environmental protections,” the groups wrote. Read the letter: http://politico.pro/1U3Bwkl
SENATE BANKING CONSIDERS EXPORT BAN: About a half hour before the Senate energy markup, Murkowski will give a statement at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on lifting the U.S. crude oil export ban. Murkowski and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, the top Democrat on the Banking subcommittee overseeing exports, have introduced complimentary bills to lift the export ban, one going through the banking panel and the other in Murkowski’s committee. Witnesses also include Center for a New American Security CEO Michele Flournoy, who will tout the security benefits of lifting the ban. United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard will counter that lifting the ban will hurt refineries and impact gasoline prices. Read the witness statements: http://1.usa.gov/1fza2nx If you go: 538 Dirksen, 9:30 a.m.
ME FIRST — MANUFACTURERS PUSH OZONE OPPOSITION: The National Association of Manufacturers will launch a multimillion dollar TV and newspaper ad campaign today against EPA’s proposal to tighten ozone standards. The campaign, which highlights national parks that would be out of attainment with a lower standard, targets lawmakers heading home for the recess, as well as the White House and EPA officials ahead of the rule’s finalization by Oct. 1. “We’re turning up the volume,” NAM VP Ross Eisenberg told ME. “We still have activity on the Hill, now is the time to turn up the volume and be louder about this. For something that could possibly be the most expensive regulation of all time, we think it ought to be getting the attention that it deserves.” EPA proposed lowering the ozone standard from 75 parts per billion to a range of 65 to 70 ppb. Watch the spot: http://bit.ly/1GW13Ti
Birds of a feather: NAM’s campaign — which is “significantly bigger” than anything the group has done yet on ozone — comes just a week after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce kicked off a series of reports on the potential loss of federal transportation dollars from areas out of attainment with a lowered standard. And the American Petroleum Institute started its own ozone ad campaign in May.
** A message from Earthjustice: President Obama, 1 in 6 black children suffer from asthma. That’s not a statistic. It’s a shame. Will you stand with vulnerable communities and reduce ozone pollution to levels that protect children or cave to Big Oil and their allies attempt to pollute the issue? The science is clear finalizing the most protective ozone standard. http://asthmafeelslike.org **
ADS SUPPORT HIGHER COAL ROYALTIES: The Denver-based environmental watchdog Center for Western Priorities is starting a $30,000, two-week digital ad campaign to support potential increases in royalty rates in the Interior Department’s coal leasing program. The ads will run on social media and D.C. news sites, including POLITICO, to coincide with the start of Interior and Bureau of Land Management listening sessions. The first such session is in D.C. Wednesday, with others throughout August in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and New Mexico. View the ads: http://bit.ly/1KvzvJp
HOUSE GOP GAUGES EXPORT SUPPORT: The House Republican whip team planned to reach out to members during yesterday afternoon votes about overturning the crude export ban, with the goal of pushing legislation this year. “I’ve spoken to the rest of our leadership team in Washington, they recognize now that it doesn’t make any sense to have the ban in place,” House Majority Whip Steve Scalise said on local Louisiana TV Monday morning. He then promised his team would later that day be “asking all of the members in the House where they stand on lifting the ban … so it elevates the issue, it forces members to actually look at this.” In a note to GOP staff members Monday, Matthew Bravo, Scalise’s deputy floor director, wrote: “The Whip Team will talking to your boss this evening during the 6:30 PM vote series about lifting the 40-year-old crude oil export ban.” Watch Scalise: http://bit.ly/1SbhgzR
POMBO PORTRAIT UNVEILED: Former House Resources Chairman Richard Pombo’s official congressional portrait will be unveiled this afternoon. The 5 p.m. ceremony in the committee’s hearing room will also feature remarks from House Speaker John Boehner, House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop and Reps. Frank Lucas and Devin Nunes.
HOUSE TO APPROVE REINS ACT-AGAIN: The House today is set to again pass a perennial Republican bill aimed at increasing Congress’s oversight on regulations across the board. At the moment, when Congress doesn’t like a major regulation (::cough:: Clean Power Plan ::cough::) they have to pass a resolution that is subject to a presidential veto. The REINS Act would make it significantly harder — or essentially impossible, according to the bill’s opponents — for the administration to write any big rule. If Congress doesn’t sign off within 70 legislative days, a new rule couldn’t take effect. In theory this would add significantly to Congress’s to-do list; the past five years have seen an average of 82 such rules annually, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But the CBO cautions agencies would probably change their rulemaking strategies were this bill to become law.
REINS, REINS, GO AWAY: The White House threatened again last night to veto the House bill, which it called a “radical departure from the longstanding separation of powers” and “would throw all major regulations into a months-long limbo, fostering uncertainty and impeding business investment that is vital to economic growth.” SAP: http://1.usa.gov/1LOulcV
Amendment watch: Ten amendments, including seven from Democrats, will be considered. Most exempt certain rules, including one from California Democrat Lois Capps to shield pipeline safety regulations. Other amendments would exempt nuclear safety regulations, public health and safety rules, some veteran healthcare regulations, rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and any rule OMB says would result in net job growth. One amendment from Missouri Republican Jason Smith would make any Obamacare-related rule subject to congressional approval.
THERE’LL BE FERC TO PAY: Powhatan Energy Fund will have to wire the moola today if it wants to avoid being dragged into district court over a $16.8 million FERC fine over allegations of market manipulation. The Pennsylvania-based firm run by twin brothers Kevin and Rich Gates had 60 days to pay the fine and disgorge nearly $3.5 million in unjust profits. But don’t count on the U.S. Treasury looking any richer tomorrow. The brothers believe in their innocence enough that they created a website devoted to their defense and posted nonpublic FERC investigation documents other companies normally prefer to stay hidden. After today, the fines will start accruing interest.
Rich Gates sent this ME’s way: “Powhatan is not going to make payment to the FERC. If they take us to court, we anticipate continuing to build the memorial at www.ferclitigation.com with additional media stories and legal filings to further expose their incompetence and bullying tactics. When the saga ends and the site is complete, we expect FERC will be a better agency because of us.”
QUICK HITS
— Al Gore looks to states, not Canberra, on Australian climate visit. The Conversation: http://bit.ly/1HXGxWo
— Unsated by crude glut, Asian oil buyers size up Iran’s barrels. Bloomberg: http://bloom.bg/1MsLxWh
—A milestone for wind energy: Work underway on first offshore platforms in U.S. waters. Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1giyWJ4
—Texas on track to beat 1972 oil production record. Fuel Fix: http://bit.ly/1IFfrXw
Tags: energy, fuel, gas, oil