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TRUMP’S LIKELY FERC NOMINEE WON’T BE SLAM-DUNK FOR COAL BAILOUT: Think again if you assume President’s Trump’s expected nominee to fill a seat on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will be a rubber stamp for the administration’s coal bailout.

At first glance, opponents of subsidizing uneconomic coal and nuclear plants would have reason to worry about Bernard McNamee, the presumed nominee for a spot on FERC.

McNamee currently leads the policy office of the Energy Department, the very agency that Trump tasked to devise a plan rescuing coal and nuclear using rarely invoked emergency powers.

But in conversations with nearly 10 energy policy experts, conservative allies, and politicians who’ve worked with McNamee — all of whom oppose subsidizing coal and nuclear plants — they describe a principled, serious, independent figure who would approach his new job without a bias in favor of Trump’s agenda.

‘Independent’ thinker: “If the Trump administration’s goal is to politicize FERC, they picked the wrong person,” Kenny Stein, director of policy and federal affairs for the American Energy Alliance, said of McNamee.

“Bernie is not going to do that,” Stein told Josh. “He has decades of experience doing filings with FERC, going before FERC. He is very familiar with independent role of the commission. So I won’t expect him to try to upend the commission, or its process or goals.”

Stein worked with McNamee when they were both policy advisers for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, from 2013 to 2014.

Free-market background: Allies say his work for Cruz, and in other stops, reveal McNamee to be a supporter of free-market principles, who dislikes subsidies and would oppose efforts to favor coal and nuclear over other energy sources.

McNamee has also led the Tenth Amendment center at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank that opposes propping up coal and nuclear plants..

Conservative roots: But McNamee got his start as a policy adviser from 1995 to 1998 for Virginia Gov. George Allen, a Republican who credits McNamee for helping reshape the state’s government to model “conservative principles” in its welfare programs, criminal justice system, and public schools.

“Bernie is so studious, he is very principled, he’s a conservative, and he likes applying the law and constitution, rather than inventing it,” Allen told Josh. “If confirmed to FERC, he would decide issues based on merits and facts and would be constrained by whatever the evidence is.”

The big question: But can he credibly change hats? McNamee’s supporters say it’s unfair to criticize him for advocating Trump administration policy priorities at the Energy Department.

“I would raise a distinction between his personal views and what he says at DOE,” Stein said. “He is good lawyer and advocate. He is advocating a position that he is employed to advocate for. The coal subsidy scheme was already defeated at FERC and adding Bernie to FERC won’t defeat that status quo.”

Welcome to Daily on Energy, compiled 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.  

RICK PERRY PREPARED TO PICK ‘WINNERS AND LOSERS’: Energy Secretary Rick Perry reaffirmed Tuesday the Trump administration doesn’t have a problem helping coal and nuclear at the expense of other energy sources.

“The government’s been picking winners and losers since government was created,” Perry said at the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in comments reported by Bloomberg. “We do it by tax policy, we do it by regulation, we do it by permits. Pick good! Be smart! Use the right kind of technical people to help you decide where to invest and pick the winners, pick them right. Government’s going to continue to do that.”

Perry has used rhetoric in like this in the past, saying that subsidies may impose costs on consumers, but “you cannot put a dollar figure on the cost to keep America free.”

THE SENATE ENERGY COMMITTEE COMES BACK TO LIFE ON WEDNESDAY: The Senate Energy Committee jumps back into action late Wednesday afternoon, but the major action doesn’t start until Thursday with a confirmation hearing for William Cooper, the Energy Department’s top lawyer.

Letters from industry groups started piling up at the committee, calling for the quick confirmation of Cooper.

The air conditioning industry was the first to chime in: Given the role the Energy Department plays in setting requirements for how the industry builds their equipment, it makes sense that manufacturers want some say on the next Energy Department general counsel.

Their impressions of him are positive: Cooper “clearly has a deep understanding of energy policy and the regulatory process under which it is implemented,” especially given his service as a senior staffer to two House committees with energy jurisdiction, said Joe Trauger, regulatory affairs VP with the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute, in a letter sent this week to the committee. The trade group clashed with the agency during the Obama administration, as the agency sought to ramp up the stringency of standards at a pace the industry did not agree with.

Second to chime in on Cooper was the natural gas pipeline industry: The pipeline industry has become increasingly reliant on the Energy Department for natural gas export permits.

Don Santa, the president of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, said in a letter sent to the committee on Wednesday that Cooper recognizes the “necessity of expanding and maintaining the pipeline infrastructure that connects domestically produced natural gas to markets.”

The Energy Committee is also slated to take up the confirmation of Lane Genatowski to be director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy at the Energy Department.

The research agency within the Department of Energy has been a target for major cuts under Trump’s last two budget proposals, although Congress has sought to keep it healthy and up and running. Genatowski is has extensive experience in the banking sector.

Meanwhile, the committee holds a legislative hearing on Wednesday on National Parks’ bills, but it covers nothing too controversial or reform-focused.

JUDGE SLAMS CHILDREN’S CLIMATE LAWSUIT IN LATE-NIGHT RULING: A judge in Washington state issued a late-night ruling Tuesday that killed off a climate change lawsuit filed against the state by a group of child activists.

King County Superior Court Judge Michael Scott ruled in favor of the State of Washington’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Aji P. v. State of Washington. The 13 young activists in the suit argue that the state is violating their constitutional rights through actions that cause climate change. Judge Scott ruled that issues brought up in the case are political questions that cannot be resolved by a court, and must be addressed by Congress and the president.

A similar lawsuit by child activists has also targeted the Trump administration, and will be heard in federal district court in October. It appears the child plaintiffs are having better luck going up against big government, and not the states.

WHEELER NOTES FAILURES IN FLINT AND GOLD KING MINE DISASTER: Environmental Protection Agency acting administrator Andrew Wheeler says the agency must improve its communications with citizens about the risks they face from environmental crises.

“We have fallen short in the past from our response to the Gold King Mine in Colorado, to the Kanawha River in West Virginia, to Flint, Michigan,” Wheeler said. “We owe it to the American public to improve our risk communication.”

Wheeler made the comments Wednesday morning in a video address to the members of the the first in-person National Environmental Justice Advisory Council public meeting in Boston.

The three environmental disasters he mentioned all grabbed national headlines and embroiled EPA in controversy. Earlier this month marked the three-year anniversary of the Gold King mine spill, in which EPA was to blame for sending 3 million gallons of toxic sludge into the Animas River that the agency is still in the midst of cleaning up. The Flint, Michigan, drinking water crisis became part of the 2016 presidential race, with candidates trying to one-up each other on promises regarding Flin’ts recovery. And the 2014 chemical spill in West Virginia made water undrinkable in the state across nine counties.

EPA: TRUMP’S CLEAN CAR RULES WOULD INCREASE HIGHWAY FATALITIES: EPA had argued for months that annual traffic fatalities would increase by an average of 17 deaths per year under Trump’s clean car rules, according to documents released Tuesday. The documents showed that EPA fought for months against a Transportation Department analysis of the rules that said they would prevent about 1,000 fatalities per year. It only makes sense that EPA saying the opposite would make headlines on a slow news Tuesday.

But does it mean anything? Seeing that EPA now appears to have signed off on the rule using the DOT analysis, it is unclear what it means for the agencies.

However, it could be used against Trump: To be sure, opponents will be digging through the heap of documents released Tuesday to discover what other gems they can find to argue against the regulations.

California has already preemptively sued the administration over the regulations, and the environmentalists at preparing to mount a major offensive to block Trump’s rollback.

HOW TO PREVENT THE NEXT OIL CRISIS: The 400,000-member strong Consumer Energy Alliance released a policy blueprint Wednesday morning for avoiding the harmful consequences of a rise in oil prices.

The group includes everyone from large steel manufacturers to fuel-dependent trucking firms and airlines. Even if the price of oil rises by a few pennies, the implications for rising industry and consumer costs will be huge, the report explains. “As little as a one-cent increase in the average price of diesel fuel can add up to another $350 to $370 million per year in fuel costs across the shipping industry — eventually making its way across the supply chain and into the price of products we purchase at the grocery store,” the study reads.

The report’s strategy is focused on federal lands: “While fluctuations in global energy markets are part of the problem, American energy resources are the solution,” according to the report. “Currently, the United States has large amounts of oil and natural gas resources on federal lands onshore and offshore, as well as technologically feasible renewable energy solutions,” it continues.

In addition to drilling, the policy blueprint also calls for more renewable energy: Don’t count out other forms of energy. The group believes it will take a combination of all forms of energy to insulate the U.S. from global energy price shocks.

This will take a heavy lift by Congress and the administration: The report calls for significant reforms to the Renewable Fuel Standard, the nation’s biofuel program. It wants more biofuels introduced into the U.S. fuel system to act as a price cushion when oil prices go up. “In addition, the federal government should support the research, development, and demonstration of advanced biofuels to ensure their commercial success,” it says.

The group also calls for Congress and the administration to leverage “advancements made with regards to vehicle technologies.”

But oil production must increase: “The single largest factor in the price of gasoline and diesel at the pump is the price of oil,” it explains. “In order to foster responsible development of domestic oil supplies, the federal government should recognize the significant oil and natural gas resources on federal lands.”

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S LATEST OFFSHORE DRILLING AUCTION IN GULF FARES SLIGHTLY BETTER THAN LAST: The Trump administration on Wednesday morning held a new auction for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, yielding $178 million in winning bids, a modest improvement from its last major lease sale.

The 77 million-acre offering is slightly larger than a similar oil and natural gas lease sale conducted by the Interior Department in March, in what the agency billed as the as the largest offshore drilling sale in U.S. history.

Comparing results: The new sale covered 77.3 million acres and 14,474 unleased blocks, in federal waters offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. It received 171 bids by 29 companies, with Hess Corporation making the largest bid at $25 million.

It covers almost the same area as the previous sale, in which companies bid on just 1 percent of available acreage.

The March 21 sale offered 76.9 million acres, raising $124.8 million on 159 bids from 33 companies, including Shell, Chevron, Total and BP.

Stressing improvement: Trump administration officials said Wednesday’s sale was an improvement, and downplayed perceptions of reduced interest in offshore oil and gas drilling.

“I look at it as a positive sale,” Michael Celata, Gulf of Mexico regional director at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, told reporters Wednesday morning. “There is obviously continued interest in deep water. Overall, I still think the Gulf is a very viable place.”

But risks abound: The industry may not be overly interested in offshore drilling, critics say, because it is expensive, more risky, and overshadowed by easier-to-access onshore fracking opportunities from the shale boom.

POWER FINALLY RESTORED TO ALL ENERGY CUSTOMERS IN PUERTO RICO: Power has been restored to the final home in Puerto Rico nearly a year after Hurricane Maria destroyed the island’s electricity grid.

The island’s state-run power utility Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, confirmed Tuesday that a family in Ponce became the last customers to have had their power restored.

Puerto Rico has spent $3.2 billion on repairs, installing some 52,000 new electrical poles and 6,000 miles of wire, the New York Times reported.

That’s not all: But there’s more work to do. Jose Ortiz, PREPA’s new CEO, said up to one-quarter of the completed work to restore the power grid after the storm will have to be redone, to rebuild in a more sustainable way.

“There are many patches — too many patches — developed just to bring power to the people,” Ortiz told the Times. “Now we have to redo that thing.”

Rebuilding 101: Earlier this summer, the Energy Department released a report recommending ways to make Puerto Rico’s power grid more resilient from future disasters, and criticizing PREPA’s performance during Maria.

The report said Puerto Rico should get more of its power from renewables, as required by local law, and lessen its dependence on imported fossil fuels.

CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIVISTS TOUT PRIMARY WIN: The anti-fossil fuel group 350.org says it received a victory in Tuesday night’s Minnesota primary win by Democrat Ilhan Omar for Congress.

“Ilhan Omar’s victory joins a wave of primary wins for climate progressives,” said May Boeve, 350 Action’s executive director. “Her campaign is lifting up climate action and challenging Big Oil billionaires as part of a broad platform for justice,” Boeve said in a statement.

Boeve’s group rose to prominence during the 2016 presidential election: The group was notorious for pressuring candidates to endorse a 100-percent renewable energy platform that calls for an end to all drilling and mining. The movement the group helped foment is often referred to as “Keep It In the Ground.”

Boeve said Omar supports a move toward 100-percent renewable energy as a jobs creator. “Minnesotans deserve a representative in Congress who’s willing to fight against dangerous fossil fuel projects … and support the transition to a 100% renewable energy economy that puts millions of Americans to work,” Boeve stated.

Boeve’s mid-term strategy is to back Democrats that support the 100-percent renewable platform: On top of Omar, the group has also endorsed several other Democratic congressional candidates, including Deb Haaland of New Mexico, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Jess King of Pennsylvania, Katie Wilson of New York, Dana Balter of New York, and Rashida Tlaib of Minnesota.

It has also endorsed Democratic Senate candidate Kevin de León of California, and the gubernatorial candidates Cynthia Nixon in New York, Ben Jealous in Maryland, Andrew Gillum in Florida, and Bob Massie in Massachusetts.

CHINA FILES WTO COMPLAINT ON TRUMP’S SOLAR TARIFFS: Trade tensions between China and the U.S. worsened Tuesday, as Beijing filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over Trump’s solar tariffs.

China was the main target of the 30 percent tariffs on imported solar panels that Trump imposed in January, the first of the president’s trade moves that have left U.S. companies begging for exemptions, worried about paying more for overseas components.

Threatening China’s dominance: About 65 percent of all solar modules are made in China, and seven of the top 10 module manufacturers are Chinese.

“As the U.S. violations have severely distorted the global market [for solar panels] and seriously damaged China’s trade interests, China’s use of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism is a necessary measure to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests and maintain multilateral trade rules,” the commerce ministry statement said in its filing, reported by Reuters.

FLORIDA GOVERNOR DECLARES EMERGENCY FOR RED TIDE PROBLEM: Florida Gov. Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency to combat toxic algal blooms, which are killing wildlife and harming beaches.

An outbreak of toxic algal blooms, known as red tide, has lasted for nine months in waters off Florida’s southwestern coast.

The harm to life: Florida residents in retirement communities are reporting respiratory problems from vapors associated with red tide, the Washington Post reported. Almost 300 sea turtles have been found dead since January.

The emergency declaration covers seven counties stretching from Tampa Bay south to the Everglades. Scott, a Republican running for Senate, said he is providing $1.5 million in emergency funding to respond to the environmental crisis.

Answering the climate question: Is climate change contributing to the problem?  While red tide is a natural occurrence, they have occurred more frequently seem since the 1950s and 1960s. Scientists say climate change could be making red tide more common, because warmer waters can create ripe conditions for algal growth.

Touring the damage: Officials from the EPA, Interior Department, and Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday are touring areas impacted by the Florida algal bloom, led by Rep. Francis Rooney, a Republican.

TRUMP HOTEL IN CHICAGO SUED OVER RIVER WATER USE: Trump International Hotel & Tower in Illinois is being blamed by the state for allegedly threatening the ecosystem of the Chicago River.

A lawsuit filed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan claims that the building uses nearly 20 million gallons of river water on a daily basis for various cooling systems. The warm water is then put back into the river.

As a result, the lawsuit alleges the complex has not met various requirements involved with a state permit designed to mitigate the harm to fish.

The Trump Organization has accused Madigan, a Democrat, of filing the lawsuit because of political motives.

RUNDOWN

Reuters Chinese oil importers shun U.S. crude despite tariff reversal

Bloomberg Elon Musk’s vast oil conspiracy ends with Saudi billions

New York Times Puerto Rico spent 11 months turning the power back on. They finally got to her.

Washington Post The next five years will be ‘anomalously warm,’ scientists predict

Wall Street Journal Diamondback to acquire Energen as oil patch consolidation continues