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TRUMP JOINS EPA HEAD WHEELER TO BOAST OF ENVIRONMENTAL SUCCESSES: President Trump will hold a rare briefing Monday afternoon to underscore his environmental achievements, including a 1% drop in air pollution since the start of the administration.
Trump will be joined by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, who will preview a report coming out of the EPA next week showing a significant drop in criteria air pollution, such as harmful air emissions like sulfur dioxide.
He told reporters ahead of the briefing that there has been a 74% decrease in the criteria pollutants since 1970, with a 1% decrease in 2018. The percentage change is meant to show the environmental progress being made under the administration.
But Trump is not expected to discuss greenhouse gas emissions in any great detail. The emissions are blamed as the cause of climate change.
Wheeler told reporters ahead of the briefing that the United States is making great strides on CO2 reductions, highlighting the finalization of the Affordable Clean Energy rule last month, which would replace the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. Environmentalists have criticized the Trump rule for increasing greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging coal use.
In response to a reporter’s question on whether Trump still believes climate change is a “hoax” created by the Chinese, Wheeler said the president’s frustration over climate change stems from a focus on “worst-case” scenarios in last year’s National Climate Assessment.
The Trump EPA chief said that other scenarios, such as the assessment’s medium-case scenarios, do not show such a big hit to the country’s economy if greenhouse gases are allowed to grow in the next few decades.
Wheeler also said that the EPA will be issuing new regulations to cut methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas, in the next few weeks.
Wheeler and Trump will boast of other environmental achievements, such as removing the most toxic waste sites in 14 years from a list of polluted areas requiring reclamation.
The discussion will tout the successes of EPA’s water infrastructure program, providing grants to states to make key improvements to pipelines distributing drinking water and removing wastewater.
Trump and Wheeler will also brag about the inclusion of environmental chapters under the trade deal with Mexico and Canada.
Environmental groups began lashing out at the president ahead of the speech.
“The United States’ emissions have dropped — and clean energy has continued to grow — in spite of President Trump’s policies, certainly not because of them,” said Dan Lashof, U.S. director of the World Resources Institute environmental think tank in Washington.
“Since taking office, President Trump has appointed foxes to guard the environmental henhouse,” Lashof said.
Trump is holding the environmental briefing at the White House at 3:30 p.m.
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RENEWABLE FUEL GROUP PUSHES BACK AGAINST TRUMP EPA’S REFINERY POLICY: The National Biodiesel Board launched an ad campaign Monday criticizing the EPA’s use of small refinery exemptions, which free the oil industry from having to blend renewable fuels into the nation’s fuel supply.
“The president’s EPA is hurting farmers and eliminating jobs by giving special favors to big oil companies,” stated the ad that is airing in Washington and Des Moines, Iowa. “The EPA’s big oil bailout is destroying demand for biodiesel.”
Both the ethanol and biodiesel industries make the argument that the oil industry waivers are shrinking the market for the fuels, which the refinery industry firmly opposes as untrue.
President Trump reportedly asked the EPA to review the practice of granting refineries exemptions after hearing from ethanol producers during a recent trip to Iowa, the largest producer of ethanol in the country.
EPA proposes new ethanol standards, and no one is pleased: On Friday, the EPA issued its annual blending requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standard for 2020. Both ethanol lobbyists and oil refiners voiced concerns with the requirements.
Emily Skor, the president of Growth Energy, representing large ethanol producers, called the administration’s requirements an outrage. She wants the EPA to restore the lost ethanol from the over two dozen exemptions given to the oil industry, which the proposed RFS does not address.
The 2020 renewable volume obligations “are a drop in the bucket compared to the demand lost due to a flood of refinery exemptions,” Skor said.
The RFS requires that refiners blend billions of gallons of ethanol and other biofuels into the nation’s fuel supply.
But the refinery industry also didn’t like the 2020 standard, saying the levels being proposed for next year are too high.
“[S]imply put, these high mandates won’t help American farmers and will just cost drivers more at the pump,” said Chet Thompson, president and CEO of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers.
EARTHQUAKES ARE CLIMATE CHANGE, TOO?: The anti-fossil-fuel group 350.org is linking the recent spate of earthquakes in California to the oil-drilling practice known as fracking, despite there being no substantial use of the method in the state.
However, there are concerns that the Trump Interior Department wants to open the Golden State to fracking by holding lease sales on federal lands.
The group wants Gov. Gavin Newsom to enact laws to combat what it calls “climate destruction,” including last year’s severe wildfires, which the group links to global warming. It suggests that earthquakes could add to the destruction in the state.
The group stated that scientists have made “fresh connections between fracking and earthquakes, but the greater necessity is for action from California’s administration to limit the climate impacts of future disasters.”
PUBLIC HEALTH GROUPS SUE OVER TRUMP’S COAL RULE: Public health groups on Monday became the first to sue against the Environmental Protection Agency’s replacement for Obama-era climate rules for coal-fired power plants.
“In repealing the Clean Power Plan and adopting the [Affordable Clean Energy] rule, EPA abdicates its legal duties and obligations to protect public health under the Clean Air Act, which is why we are challenging these actions,” the American Lung Association and the American Public Health Association said in a statement.
The groups argue in the lawsuit that the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA affirmed the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and that it is “simply not lawful” for the agency to use its authority to increase dangerous air pollutants and harm the health of Americans. The recently enacted Affordable Clean Energy rule would allow coal plants to increase emissions.
KAMALA HARRIS RISKS SCORN OF GREENS FOR FAILING TO CRAFT CLIMATE PLAN: Despite having endorsed the Green New Deal, 2020 candidate Kamala Harris risks blunting her rise in the polls after a strong performance in the first Democratic debate if she doesn’t soon propose her own policies to combat climate change, some activists say.
The California senator is surging but has failed to introduce a comprehensive environmental plan as some of her competitors have, including Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren.
“Given her new prominence in the recent polling, it’s time Sen. Harris put forward a clear and ambitious climate plan, or she may risk losing her credibility with party activists, younger voters, and other key cohorts she’ll need,” Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton White House climate adviser now with the Progressive Policy Institute, told Josh. Bledsoe noted Harris has not provided her position on several “controversial” topics, including nuclear energy, carbon pricing, and fracking.
Harris, however, was the first candidate to proclaim support for the Green New Deal on the debate stage, deeming climate change a “crisis.” She also scored a memorable moment when she warned Trump’s skepticism of climate change science is a danger to the world.
Harris’ challenge: But candidates such as Harris and Bernie Sanders with clearly defined economic equity and social-justice-driven agendas face challenges about how to incorporate climate change policy.
“The problem we’re finding is campaigns are not articulate enough yet on where they stand,” a progressive climate policy advocate who advises campaigns told Josh. “There is also a political calculation of ‘Do I know where I want to be, how does climate fit into my platform, and can I compete with the Jay Inslees of the world, who will always knock it out of the park?’”
Supporters see potential: Supporters boast of Harris’ environmental voting record in the Senate and admire her work as California’s attorney general challenging fossil fuel companies.
“She has a strong climate record and has been an environmental justice leader throughout her career,” said Matt McKnight of the League of Conservation Voters, which has given Harris’ voting record in the Senate a score of 100%.
Read more of Josh’s report here.
ANCHORAGE BEATS 50-YEAR HEAT RECORD: Alaska’s largest city is reeling from a record-breaking heatwave that canceled Fourth of July fireworks and has sent residents on a quest for fans and ice.
On Independence Day, the temperature Anchorage’s Ted Stevens International Airport broke an all-time high, clocking in at 90 degrees, an astounding 5 degrees higher than the previous record in 1969.
EAST COAST SCRAMBLES TO SHORE UP GAS SUPPLY: The loss of the largest refinery on the East Coast two weeks ago due to an explosion that rocked the Philadelphia area continues to drive fuel prices up as the region is forced to replace lost gasoline supplies, indefinitely, from as far away as India.
The average price of gasoline on the East Coast rose by nine cents in the last week since the refinery fire, the federal Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday.
Read more of John’s coverage here.
The Rundown
New York Times Florida’s utilities keep homeowners from getting the most out of solar power
Wall Street Journal The U.S. is overflowing with natural gas. Not everyone can get it
Politico ‘The system was broken’: How The Nature Conservancy prospered but ran aground
Calendar
MONDAY | July 8
July 8-10, Denver. The Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, or ARPA-E, holds its annual Innovation Summit.
July 8-9, 1030 15th St. NW. The Atlantic Council hosts the International Energy Agency’s 13th meeting of the Gas and Oil Technology Collaboration Program. The meeting will focus on efforts by government, academia, and industry to explore the role of low-carbon oil and gas in meeting the challenges of growing energy demand.
