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RENEWABLE INDUSTRY WARY OF ‘MOONSHOT’ ‘GREEN NEW DEAL’: The renewable energy industry, one of the few industries that might have been expected to sign off on the “Green New Deal,” is instead quietly distancing itself from it.

Renewable energy officials don’t see what their companies build, deploy and promote as a partisan issue. Rather than taking the risk of backing a divisive, nebulous policy like the Green New Deal, they will likely be advocating pragmatic, bipartisan, fully-fleshed out policies that they have supported for years.

Go with what you know: Those proposals have more to do with fixing subsidies and tax credits than pursuing a bold new agenda with no specifics attached to it, according to officials that spoke to John.

“I guess you could view it as a good conversation to be had, but from our standpoint, we want to look at those things that are going to get into a spot of bipartisan support, so we can actually get things passed,” said one senior renewable energy official on condition of anonymity, because of the delicate nature of discussing an industry’s lobbying strategy in light of the deal.

“We certainly don’t think you need any type of moonshot program to achieve a cleaner economy,” the official added, noting that there are many affordable renewable energy technologies that exist today.

Is watching the same as support? Renewable energy groups are watching the Democratic deal’s progression, but in terms of their lobbying agenda, getting certainty on the tax subsidies the industries receive is a priority. The National Biodiesel Board’s leadership had mentioned that being a priority to John at their annual convention last month in San Diego.

The renewable fuel industry succeeded in getting a bipartisan letter from 44 House lawmakers sent to Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, asking that they support a multi-year tax credit for biodiesel producers. The subsidy expired two years ago, and its status has presented uncertainty to the industry.

On the renewable electricity side, dozens of companies are pressing Congress to pass a new robust investment tax credit for all energy storage technologies, not just big, expensive lithium-ion batteries. Energy storage is seen as the key to making renewable energy a 24-hour 365-day provider of electricity just like coal and nuclear plants.

Why so silent? A number of energy trade groups at a Bloomberg New Energy Finance conference Wednesday declined to respond when asked why none of them mentioned the Green New Deal in public remarks at the forum.

Tom Kiernan, the president of the American Wind Energy Association, along with Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, declined to comment publicly on why they did not mention the Democratic proposal in making remarks on the panel.

Even Dave McCurdy, the outgoing president of the American Gas Association, representing natural gas utilities, was quiet.

“We are certainly watching what ideas might roll out of the Green New Deal, but in terms of changing our expectations on what we think is helpful, I would say ‘no,’” said the senior industry official.

What Kiernan and McCurdy said during their opening remarks reflected advocacy priorities they have had for years.

Kiernan said transmission issues in the large regional grid systems overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission continue to be a prime focus. And McCurdy was adamant that natural gas has to be part of any energy solution, without mentioning by name the Green New Deal.

Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers John Siciliano (@JohnDSiciliano) and Josh Siegel (@SiegelScribe). Email [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list.  

FERC TAKES HEAT FOR NOT SUPPORTING MANDATORY SECURITY STANDARDS FOR PIPELINES: Republican and Democratic senators scolded the head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday for not giving a clear answer on whether he will be pushing for mandatory cybersecurity standards for natural gas pipelines.

Implementing new federal standards for natural gas pipelines would be a huge step-up in the enforcement reach of the federal government if they were adopted.

But the discussion before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday showed that legislation could be coming to force FERC to do something soon.

“Isn’t it time we had mandatory standards?” Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., asked at the hearing on cybersecurity.

She mentioned that the recent polar vortex showed the vulnerabilities the nation faces, noting natural gas facilities that failed last month forced manufacturing to close and for homeowners to take emergency actions to dial down electricity use.

The nation’s switch to natural gas as the primary fuel for electricity generation has raised the question about pipelines being subject to the same reliability standards that electric utilities are subject to. Those standards can result in $1 million per violation, per day fines.

“We are entirely too calm about this,” Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, chimed in. “We are under attack,” he said “We are in a very dangerous place.”

What the regulators say: FERC chairman Neil Chatterjee, a Republican, said he has raised the issue with his Democratic colleague on the commission, Richard Glick. Chatterjee said he was concerned the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration didn’t have the resources to oversee security pipelines.

He also had concerns that they only have authority to issue voluntary standards. But he said in meeting with the head of TSA that he has been impressed with their commitment to guarding pipelines.

Not an answer: “I didn’t hear yes or no on mandatory cyber standards,” Stabenow fired back.

Chatterjee said he would remain “vigilant” on the issue.

“Without fuel, power plants can’t run,” James Robb, president and CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. “It is incumbent on the natural gas community to be as secure as the industry they serve.”

NERC was authorized by Congress to pull together mandatory standards to guard against outages on the electricity side after the 2003 blackout on the eastern seaboard. FERC oversees NERC’s activities and approves their standards.  

“This is a very real threat,” said Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., focusing on industry not having the security access necessary to coordinate with the federal government on these security risks.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., blasted Chatterjee for there not being enough information sharing happening between FERC, the Energy Department, and industry.  

EPA TO REGULATE PFAS CHEMICALS AFTER PRESSURE FROM REPUBLICANS: The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday announced a national plan to regulate a class of chemicals that have contaminated water supplies across the U.S.

The EPA will launch a process for setting a drinking water limit for two toxic chemicals known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has been under intense pressure to set a drinking water limit for the chemicals, including from Senate Republicans who live in states with PFAS contamination. Wheeler needs support from GOP senators if he’s going to be confirmed as the EPA’s administrator.

It’s only a first step: EPA’s plan is not a formal regulatory proposal. But Wheeler said the agency intends to begin a rulemaking process this year to set a “maximum contaminant level” under the Safe Drinking Water Act for the amount of PFAS allowed in drinking water. He said EPA would propose a rule by the end of the year. EPA’s plan also begins a process of declaring PFAS “hazardous” under the Superfund law, forcing polluters to clean up contamination.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, stopped short of celebrating EPA’s action, calling on the agency to fulfill its promise to regulate PFAS.

“Local communities and state regulators from across the country as well as members of Congress are concerned about PFAS pollution,” Barrasso said. “The Environmental Protection Agency’s PFAS plan is only a first step. As I have said before, EPA must speak clearly about the risk that this class of chemicals poses to public health and the environment. The agency must be willing to take decisive action where it is warranted.”

WAITING FOR THE WATER WAR: Valentine’s Day kicks off the beginning of what will likely become a long, protracted battle between environmentalists and the EPA over one of the pillars of President Trump’s deregulation agenda — repealing the Waters of the United States rule.

EPA’s proposed replacement for the Obama administration’s WOTUS rule was published in Thursday’s Federal Register, which officially begins a two-month long public comment period on the measure.

Not long enough: Already, a large coalition of environmental groups called Environment America has begun to push back by saying the comment period is “astonishingly brief” when considering the repeal is the “most sweeping attack on clean water in recent memory.”

“The health of America’s rivers, lakes, and bays depends on the streams that feed them and the wetlands that filter out dangerous toxins,” said the coalition. “Eliminating protections from these waterways would put the drinking water sources for up to 117 million Americans at risk of pollution.

The EPA proposal published on Thursday is the second step in a comprehensive, two-step process intended to review and revise the definition of ‘waters of the United States’ in line with Trump’s two-year old executive order to revise and replace the overarching regulation.

The GOP has long criticized the WOTUS regulation for over-reaching EPA’s authority under the Clean Water Act. Numerous states have fought the regulation in court, and the rule had stayed by a judge more than once.

GOP COMMITTEE LEADERS PROMOTE ‘REALISTIC’ GREEN NEW DEAL ALTERNATIVE: The Republican leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee called Wednesday for a sensible, realistic, and effective alternative to the Green New Deal to combat climate change.

“America’s approach for tackling climate change should be built upon the principles of innovation, conservation, and adaptation,” said Reps. Greg Walden of Oregon, the committee’s ranking member, Fred Upton of Michigan, and John Shimkus of Illinois, in an op-ed published in RealClearPolicy.

The Republicans said policy should focus on promoting research and development in technologies such as carbon capture and advanced nuclear energy. They urged for easing energy market rules to allow for more use on the power grid of energy storage and commercial batteries “to make renewable sources more viable.”

The Republicans argue the government-centric Green New Deal would have “devastating consequences” for the economy, and criticized the plan for reaching into non-climate related issues such as health care and guaranteed employment.

HOUSE GOP CONFERENCE CHAIR DEMANDS VOTE ON GREEN NEW DEAL: House GOP Conference chairwoman Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., encouraged Pelosi on Wednesday to hold a vote on the Green New Deal resolution to test whether Democrats support the measure.

“We think Democrats need to be held accountable,” Cheney said. “If they support this as they say they do and as their presidential candidates do, then let’s have a vote on it and see to what extent they’re all going to get behind moving toward this kind of fantasy.”

House Republican efforts to pressure Pelosi into scheduling a vote on the deal comes after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday vowed to bring it up in the Senate.

BIPARTISAN HOUSE LAWMAKERS INTRODUCE CARBON CAPTURE BILL: A bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a bill Wednesday to promote carbon capture research and development.

The bill would invest $50 million into a government program to research carbon capture and utilization technologies that would trap carbon from industrial facilities and reuse it for commercial products. It would facilitate the construction of pipelines to transport the captured emissions.

The legislation also would set up a program to incentivize the creation of technologies that can suck carbon directly out of the air. It’s a companion bill to a bipartisan measure introduced in the Senate last week.

The bill’s co-sponsors are: Reps. Scott Peters, D-Calif., David McKinley, R-W.V., Marc Veasey, D-Texas, David Schweikert, R-Ariz., and Cheri Bustos, D-Ill.

“The USE IT Act provides a step toward a clean energy economy by reducing emissions, diversifying our nation’s energy resources, and spurring new technologies and uses for carbon. It also offers a new approach to reducing carbon pollution: instead of releasing CO2 into the atmosphere, we can convert it into new uses,” Peters said.

A broad coalition of trade associations, unions, environmental groups, and centrist think tanks support the legislation, including the Bipartisan Policy Center Action, Carbon180, Carbon Wrangler, Clean Air Task Force, the Nature Conservancy, Third Way, the Utility Workers Union of America, and others.

CARPER URGES TVA BOARD TO RETIRE KENTUCKY COAL PLANT: The Tennessee Valley Authority board will vote Thursday whether to close a Kentucky coal plant.

Ahead of the vote, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., is urging the board of the federally owned utility to retire it despite Trump’s push to keep it alive.

“I encourage the TVA board to do what is right for the TVA ratepayers,” Carper, the top Democrat of the Environment and Public Works Committee, wrote in a letter to TVA Board Chairman Richard Howorth.

TVA is studying whether to close the Paradise Fossil Plant’s Unit 3 generator. Its two other power producing units have already been converted to cleaner-burning natural gas. TVA is a large federally owned company that was created during the Great Depression to spur economic development in the southeast. It has said the coal plant is too expensive to operate.

TRUMP DEMANDS CALIFORNIA RETURN MONEY FROM HIGH-SPEED RAIL PROJECT: Trump demanded Wednesday night that California return $3.5 billion in federal money dedicated to a suspended high-speed rail route to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles.

“California has been forced to cancel the massive bullet train project after having spent and wasted many billions of dollars,” Trump said in a Twitter post. “They owe the Federal Government three and a half billion dollars. We want that money back now. Whole project is a “green” disaster!”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, announced Tuesday he was suspending the decade-long planned route between San Francisco and Los Angeles because of costs and logistical problems, but would continue with the high-speed rail project through the Central Valley part of the state.

Newsom shot back at Trump later Wednesday, saying California won’t be returning any money, and mocking the president’s spending priorities.

“Fake news,” Newsom said in a Twitter post. “We’re building high-speed rail, connecting the Central Valley and beyond. This is CA’s money, allocated by Congress for this project. We’re not giving it back. The train is leaving the station — better get on board! (Also, desperately searching for some wall $$??)”

FORMER INTERIOR SECRETARY RYAN ZINKE JOINS LOBBYING FIRM: Weeks after Ryan Zinke resigned as Interior secretary amid scandal, he and Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski are joining forces at a Washington lobbying firm.

The two have signed on as senior advisers at Turnberry Solutions, Politico reported Wednesday.

Zinke is the first former Trump Cabinet member to join a lobbying firm. He stepped down at the end of last year amid several investigations into his personal finances and other matters.

Zinke will focus on energy and defense matters at Turnberry.

FEMA HEAD BROCK LONG RESIGNS: Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long is resigning nearly two years into the job, which included a finding from his agency’s watchdog that $150,000 went to inappropriate use of federal vehicles for travel back to his home in North Carolina on the weekends.

Brock assumed the position in June 2017 as part of Trump’s initial team entering the White House, and since then, he has overseen the federal government’s response to multiple natural disasters. That includes the wildfires of California, hurricanes Florence and Michael, and the response to damage in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, which drew considerable criticism for long power outages and a range of other problems.

RUNDOWN

New York Times Millions flowed from Venezuelan oil firm to small Bulgarian bank

Associated Press North Korea exploring sanctions-proof energy technologies

Washington Post EPA top air official Bill Wehrum stayed in touch with his former law firm

Wall Street Journal GE Power has a $92 billion backlog. For new boss, that’s a problem.

SPONSOR MESSAGE: 
Separating Fact from Fiction – GAIN Launches Fact Checker Site
The spread of misinformation about energy infrastructure projects is unfortunately not a new phenomenon. The GAIN Coalition recently launched a new website dedicated to countering targeted attacks of coordinated disinformation campaigns by so-called environmental activists. Through fact checking and original reporting, GAINFactChecker.org will provide straightforward, evidence-based analysis in order to increase the public’s knowledge and understanding of pipeline infrastructure.