- Wall Street Journal: U.S. Loosens Longtime Ban on Oil Exports
- The Washington Examiner: API: Feds to soon unveil methane emissions rules for oil, gas
POLITICO Morning Energy for 8/17/2015
By ELANA SCHOR, with help from Alex Guillén
NOT ALL STATES CONVINCED BY EPA’S EMISSIONS PROJECTIONS: As part of its sales pitch for sweeping new climate change rules, EPA is projecting that a handful of states — even coal-reliant Kentucky — will be able to surpass their carbon-reduction targets a decade early thanks to steps they should be taking anyway. But regulators in some of those states are questioning that assertion.
At issue are EPA’s forecasts for a “business-as-usual” scenario in 2020 in the absence of its power-plant emissions regulations. An EPA official describes those estimates, based on a broader set of assumptions than some state regulators may be using, as “not meant to be a precise number” and more of “an illustrative guidepost.” Yet Kentucky’s internal math, for one, shows a statewide drop in carbon emissions less than half the size of what EPA predicts by 2020.
Darren Goode has more in your deep dive of the day: http://politico.pro/1PuxC1y
TRUMP TO MAKE LIKE A TREE WITH ISIS OIL: Donald Trump doubled down Sunday on his plan to battle the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and it’s all about seizing back the terrorist group’s oil wealth. “ISIS is taking over a lot of the oil in certain areas of Iraq,” the GOP presidential frontrunner said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” vowing to “go and knock the hell out of the oil. Take back the oil.” Trump’s fellow Republican White House hopeful, Ben Carson, made a similar argument during his own Sunday appearance on ABC “This Week,” saying that “ground troops may well be necessary” to follow through on his own pledge to take land and oil back from ISIS. Afternoon Energy scribe Jennifer Shutt has your coverage of Trump’s sitdown: http://politi.co/1Pg0CcE
And as for the Saudis: Trump also suggested that record-high U.S. oil production should make it easier to reevaluate the terms of America’s longtime alliance with Riyadh. “The primary reason we’re with Saudi Arabia is because we need the oil,” he said. “Now we don’t need the oil so much.”
Some helpful context on ISIS and oil: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee warned last fall of “substantial uncertainty” affecting the various revenue estimates that the Islamic State truly receives from underground oil sales. Check out the panel’s full report: http://1.usa.gov/1pFeqzL
HAPPY MONDAY, MORNING ENERGY FANS! Please enjoy the most sci-fi reference-heavy, and therefore greatest, political ad of all time. Does this Keystone XL nerd even have to tell you it’s for a Canadian candidate? http://bit.ly/1DH17Ml. While you’re at it, send me all your best news, tips, and commentary at eschor@politico.com. And follow us on Twitter @eschor, @Morning_Energy and @POLITICOPro.
ENERGY NEWS COMIN’ … Start whistling “Farmer in the Dell,” dear readers, because two big regulatory moments are just around the corner this week. The Interior Department is set to decide any day now on Shell’s bid to tap oil- and gas-bearing zones in the Arctic — a significant expansion of its drilling campaign in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea — and EPA is on the verge of releasing its plan to expand curbs on the industry’s methane emissions. Environmentalists will hold a briefing today on what they hope to see in EPA’s proposal to regulate new and modified sources of methane, which drillers are already blasting as part of a “regulatory avalanche.”
Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff. Of course, it’s possible that the Shell and methane issues remain in limbo for another week. But the oil company has to consider a drilling season that it’s required to wind down by late next month, and EPA has stood by its vow to finish work on the methane plan this summer.
EPA PROPOSES TIGHTENING 111(D) STANDARDS — FOR LANDFILL METHANE: EPA wants to update some 111(d) standards, but it’s not the Clean Power Plan. The agency on Friday proposed tightening how much methane, a potent greenhouse gas, can be released from nearly 700 landfills across the U.S. EPA first proposed limiting methane emissions from the nation’s municipal solid waste landfills back in 1996 — coincidentally, under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act, the same section used for EPA’s recently released power plant carbon rules.
EPA says that an update to the landfill rule is needed because of improvements in technology and operations in the past two decades. And the agency makes an important legal argument: that the Clean Air Act does not require EPA to revisit emission guidelines, but that the agency “has the discretion to do so when circumstances indicate that it is appropriate.” How the landfill methane update is handled could have important implications should the EPA want to strengthen the carbon rules in the future.
What EPA is proposing: The agency wants to lower the annual emissions threshold that would require landfill operators to use collection and control systems from 50 metric tons of non-methane organic compounds to 34 metric tons (the rule uses NMOCs as a surrogate measurement for methane). The rule would mean an addition 106 open landfills would have to collect emissions, bringing the number up to 680 out of the 989 open and closed landfills in the U.S. The change would eliminate about 436,000 metric tons of methane starting in 2025, the equivalent of 10.9 million tons of CO2. EPA estimates the climate benefits would total $670 million in 2025, 14 times the compliance costs of $47 million. Landfills are the third biggest source of manmade U.S. methane emissions after oil and gas operations and livestock, at about 18 percent, according to EPA. Links to the proposed rules for existing and future landfills, plus fact sheets and the regulatory impact analysis: http://1.usa.gov/1DY88YZ
** A message from The Sierra Club: Love Clean Air? You’ll love the Clean Power Plan. Nearly 70 percent of Americans support it, and 8 million submitted favorable comments. We’re going @BeyondCoal toward a clean energy economy that means cleaner air, healthier families, and new jobs. #ActOnClimate = #GoodForAmerica: www.sierraclub.org **
BUSH STANDS BY ETHANOL MANDATE OPPOSITION IN IOWA: While Trump made the biggest splash this weekend at the Iowa State Fair, Jeb Bush arrived with some ground to make up given his lackluster standing in the polls ahead of the make-or-break caucuses. But that didn’t mean Bush was ready to bend on his support for phasing out the Renewable Fuels Standard, according to an Agri-Pulse reporter who heard Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) giving the former Florida governor a pitch for higher ethanol blending mandates. Bush allowed that “in business you have to have some certainty that you know what your production is,” but urged the reporter who pressed him further to “let me be president first.” The full report from Des Moines: http://bit.ly/1NbINh2
Ag Summit flashback: Recall that in March, Bush tried a kinder, gentler criticism of the RFS by saying the 2007 law creating the ethanol mandate “has worked” — before suggesting he’d try to wind down the standard in 2022 or “somewhere in the future.” http://politi.co/191KbC8
FIELD HEARING IN PALIN-TOWN: Alaska’s senators today head to the town of Wasilla, where Sarah Palin famously served as mayor, for a field hearing of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee that focuses “on federal mitigation requirements and interagency coordination related to economic development on federal, state and private lands.” Expect to hear a healthy back-and-forth between committee chief Sen. Lisa Murkowski, junior Alaska GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan, and the representatives from three federal agencies set to testify about what Republicans and the industry lament is a lackluster record of freeing up public lands for oil and gas development.
CAP RANKS ‘FAIR SHARE’ FOR ENERGY ON PUBLIC LANDS: Hardrock mining offers the least equitable return on investment for taxpayers, thanks to a nearly 150-year-old law that forces the public to foot the bill for cleanups but does not require the industry to pay royalties, the Center for American Progress writes in a report out today. The liberal think tank gave coal as well as onshore oil and gas a barely better “fair share” ranking, with offshore oil and gas scoring slightly higher and the only “adequate” scores given to geothermal, solar and wind. Check out CAP’s full report here: http://ampr.gs/1NzhGd6
JUDGE IN ANTI-KEYSTONE RULING GETS HIGH COURT SEAT: Nebraska’s GOP governor late Friday gave his first state Supreme Court appointment to a district court judge with an interesting highlight on her resume: last year, she ruled in favor of landowners who contested the law that let the state fast-track Keystone XL’s approval. Newly elevated Judge Stephanie Stacy, whose appointment is subject to a retention vote every six years, replaces a justice on the state high court who ruled against those landowners in January but did not comment on the constitutionality of the state’s Keystone routing law. That law was ultimately upheld when the anti-pipeline plaintiffs failed to persuade a supermajority of the Nebraska high court that they had standing for a challenge. Omaha World-Herald: http://bit.ly/1NzjzpW
QUICK HITS:
— A look at the conversions countries are considering for decommissioned oil rigs, such as artificial reefs and tourist attractions. NYT: http://nyti.ms/1ULmFLL
— Sanders touts his climate credentials during a weekend campaign swing. Iowa Press-Citizen: http://icp-c.com/1JkYCRS
— Ariz. utility gets out of the coal business with EPA regulations on the way. AP: http://bit.ly/1DY5uST
— ‘Re-fracking’ jobs give new life to an oilfield services industry battling the sting of low crude prices. Houston Chronicle: http://bit.ly/1EwdQwd
Tags: energy