Daily on Energy, presented by FreedomWorks: Republicans pressure nuclear watchdog to speed up small reactor push

Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Mike Braun of Indiana, pressed the issues in a letter Tuesday to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s chairwoman, Kristine Svinicki. Svinicki, a Republican, has presided over changes at the agency to certify more advanced and small nuclear reactors for construction in the United States.

Partly in response to renewed focus on advanced reactors by Congress, the Trump administration is pursuing smaller reactors a part of its ‘energy dominance’ agenda.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry told John in a recent interview that small reactors are now second only to natural gas exports on the agenda’s list of priorities.

The new, smaller reactors are seen as the future of the nuclear industry in the U.S. and abroad, as larger, more conventional, plants have become less attractive due to their higher costs and safety concerns.

But it’s not enough to just certify companies’ small reactor designs. Barrasso and Braun want to see Svinicki preparing a launch pad for these new reactors once they are licensed by the commission.

Barrasso, whose committee oversees the nuclear agency, is asking Svinicki to prepare a generic environmental review process to kick start the construction process as the agency readies to certify the first reactor design within the next two years.

Without a new environmental permitting process for the new reactors, they would be subject to the antiquated permitting reviews used for conventional plants, which would slow construction, say advocates.

The senators called the environmental review process “a critical step” in facilitating the deployment of new nuclear technologies.

The environmental review improvements would support other reforms to the commission’s reactor licensing program that were signed into law in January, said Barrasso.

The Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act directs the agency to completely reorient itself to more advanced and newer technologies by 2027. Although the agency is moving in that direction, it is still primarily oriented toward more conventional reactor types.

Svinicki to get an earful on Thursday: The letter was sent ahead of a stakeholder meeting at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday to address the small reactor licensing process.

Conservative clean energy advocates at ClearPath will be addressing the meeting.

Rich Powell, the group’s executive director, will address the need for the regulatory improvements the senators want to see.

“Unless we update the process, small modular reactors and microreactors would be subject to the same environmental impact study as a traditional reactor,” Powell said. “The first American advanced reactor design could clear NRC licensing within two years, and our regulatory process needs to be up to speed.”

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EPA OFFICIAL WHO LED ROLLBACKS OF ENVIRONMENTAL RULES RESIGNS: A top Environmental Protection Agency official who had led the agency’s weakening of Obama-era climate change rules is resigning.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced Wednesday the departure of Assistant Administrator Bill Wehrum, the chief of the agency’s Office of Air and Radiation. Wehrum had been facing scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups for his past ties to the industry, considering his role in drafting business-friendly regulations.

Wheeler named Anne Idsal acting assistant administrator. She is currently EPA’s principal deputy assistant administrator.

Wehrum spearheaded EPA’s rollback of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan that was meant to regulate carbon emissions of coal plants. The agency last week finalized its replacement for the plan, called the Affordable Clean Energy, or ACE rule, which would give states latitude to improve the efficiency of coal plants, which critics charge is intended to encourage struggling coal plants to exist longer.

He has also led EPA’s work, along with the Transportation Department, to weaken Obama-era fuel-efficiency rules for vehicles, a key initiative intended to reduce carbon emissions from transportation.

DEBATES WILL SHOW WHETHER DEMOCRATS ARE READY TO VOTE BASED ON CLIMATE CHANGE: This week’s Democratic presidential debates will measure climate change’s rank on the party’s agenda, testing whether voters will embrace activist calls for aggressive government action.

Environmental groups and political observers say that climate change will be a dominant topic during the debates Wednesday and Thursday nights, even though the Democratic National Committee dealt a blow to environmental activists by rejecting a debate focused solely on climate change.

Climate change has matched or overtaken healthcare and jobs in some polls as a top issue for Democratic voters, while Americans of both parties increasingly worry that it is driving extreme weather events.

“Climate has been a low salience issue on the Right and Left,” Jerry Taylor, president of the Niskanen Center, a free market think tank, told Josh. “Today, that’s changing. You are starting to see the conversation on the Left bleeding into a greater willingness on the Right to think seriously on these matters.”

Will it last? But exit surveys of past elections have shown voters did not care enough about the long-term costs of climate change to prioritize it ahead of more tangible issues such as healthcare and jobs.

“Without much difference among the candidates, it’s hard to see how this becomes a central issue at the end,” Matt Bennett, co-founder and senior vice president of public affairs at Third Way, a center-left think tank, told Josh. “It’s almost like President Trump’s border wall. That won’t be a central issue because everyone thinks it’s idiotic.”

Taylor disagreed, arguing Democratic primary voters are hungry for any conversation about climate change, given how it was ignored in 2016 debates.

“There is virtually no downside for Democrats to talk about climate change, even if they do it in sort of general fashion,” Taylor said.

One candidate’s plan: John Delaney, a presidential candidate competing in Wednesday night’s debate, says he plans to promote a carbon tax to contrast with more liberal plans like Jay Inslee’s that seek to eliminate fossil fuel production.

“Everyone agrees climate change is a big issue,” Delaney, a centrist former congressman from Maryland, told Josh. “Everyone has a plan. The real question is whose plan is workable, who has way to pay for it, and who can get it done? That’s where I am different.”

EPA MOVES TO RELAX POLICY THAT APPLIED STRICTER POLLUTION RULES TO EMITTERS: The EPA proposed a rule Tuesday that eases limits on hazardous air pollutants emitted by factories, plants, or other types of facilities considered “major” polluters.

The longstanding “once-in-always-in” policy, established in 1995, said that major polluting facilities that failed to meet certain emission thresholds would face tightened standards from then on, which would apply even if the facilities made changes to reduce pollution.

With the new Trump administration proposed rule, sources of hazardous air pollutants previously classified as “major sources” for their high amount of polluting can be treated as smaller facilities, subject to less rigorous rules, when they make improvements on limiting pollution.

The EPA said the “once-in-always-in” policy has discouraged facilities from implementing pollution control technology to reduce emissions.

Environmentalists say the EPA’s change would allow facilities to emit more pollution and have vowed to fight the move.

CARBON CAPTURE BILL TO GET VOTE AS PART OF SENATE DEFENSE BILL: A bipartisan bill to boost carbon capture and storage technology, the USE IT Act, will get a vote this week alongside the Senate’s 2020 Defense Department spending authorization legislation.

The USE IT Act would invest $50 million to research carbon capture and utilization technologies that would trap carbon from industrial facilities and reuse it for commercial products.

It would also facilitate the construction of pipelines to transport the captured emissions to where it can be sold, and set up a program to incentivize the creation of technologies that can suck carbon directly out of the air and store it underground, known as direct air capture.

The USE IT Act passed unanimously by voice vote through the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in April.

“We believe the USE IT Act should move forward now,” Brad Crabtree, co-director of the Carbon Capture Coalition, told Josh. “It represents the kind of forward-looking, bipartisan legislation that addresses climate, energy, environment and economic policy in a smart, effective way.”

US RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY GENERATION SURPASSED COAL FOR FIRST TIME, EIA SAYS: U.S. electricity generation from renewables have exceeded coal for the first time on a monthly basis.

Renewable sources provided 23% of electricity generation in April compared to 20% for coal, the Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday. EIA includes hydropower, wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass in its definition of renewables. The EIA cautioned that electricity consumption is usually low in the spring, meaning there is less demand for heating and air conditioning, leading to the temporary closure of some coal plants.

On an annual average basis, EIA still expects that coal to provide more electricity generation in the U.S. than renewables in both 2019 and 2020.

But EIA said the one-month occurrence will become part of a long-term trend, with record generation from wind and near-record generation from solar. Wind generation reached a record monthly high in April at 30.2 million megawatts.

DEMOCRATIC SENATOR INTRODUCES RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY MANDATE BILL: Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., introduced a bill Wednesday that would mandate that the U.S. obtain half its electricity from renewable sources by 2035.

Udall’s bill is narrower than a bicameral clean electricity standard bill recently introduced by Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., which would allow for nuclear power and carbon capture to count toward meeting a mandate of 90% clean power by midcentury or soon after.

Udall, by contrast, defines renewable electricity as primarily solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and hydropower, with no mention of nuclear or carbon capture. Udall’s bill also does not allow for flexibility between states, unlike the Smith/Lujan bill, which has less burdensome requirements on fossil fuel-dependent states.

Udall’s legislation forces electricity providers in every state to increase their annual sales from renewables by at least the same percentage.

His bill would result in a doubling of renewable electricity by 2035, cutting carbon emissions 46% in the power sector by that time, according to an analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

It would also cut natural gas generation 38% by 2035, while reducing coal 97%.

The Rundown

Oregon Live Oregon climate bill dead, top Senate Democrat says

Washington Post In lobbying battle for electric vehicle tax credit, it’s car makers vs. the oil and gas industry

New York Times A plan to mine in the Minnesota wilderness hit a dead end. Then Trump became president

Bloomberg Europe’s tough emissions rules come with $39 billion threat

Calendar

WEDNESDAY | June 26

2 p.m., 1324 Longworth. House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife holds legislative hearings to consider bills to settle tribal water rights claims.

THURSDAY | June 27

10 a.m., 366 Dirksen. The Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing to examine options for the interim and long-term storage of nuclear waste and to consider S. 1234, the Nuclear Waste Administration Act.