Daily on Energy: FERC’s Neil Chatterjee backs off interim proposal for coal

Delay sought: Kevin McIntyre, FERC’s newly sworn-in chairman, told Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Thursday the commission needs a 30-day extension before it can rule on his proposal to ensure “adequate time for the new commissioners to engage fully in deliberations.” Perry had been expecting FERC to rule by Dec. 11 on his plan to prop up coal and nuclear power plants, but McIntyre and fellow commissioner Richard Glick were just sworn in over the last several weeks.

Ally of Perry plan: Chatterjee had expressed strong support for Perry’s proposal in a way that no other commissioner has, and said he was trying to convince colleagues to act on an interim solution to save ailing coal and nuclear plants.

‘Takes time’: But he changed his tune during an event hosted by Axios Monday morning, perhaps realizing the reality of the delay sought by McIntyre.

Chatterjee said his “first priority” is a long-term grid resilience analysis. He said it would be “problematic” if plants retire in the interim, but a longer analysis is “more important.”

“We need to build that record and it takes time to do so,” Chatterjee added, referring to the delay as “prudent.”

On the home front: The three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will take up the case, Juliana v. United States, at 10 a.m. PST in San Francisco. The judges will hear arguments on whether Trump and his administration can evade a trial over the administration’s climate change policies. The children charge that the administration is imperiling their constitutional rights to health and happiness by not fighting climate change. The appeals court will look at whether an Oregon court should throw out the case, as Trump wants.

Julia Olson, who heads the group Our Children’s Trust, is arguing the side of the youth, while Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eric Gant with be arguing for Trump. Gant was recently appointed to head the Justice Department’s Natural Resources Division’s appellate attorneys.

The international scene: Meanwhile, environmental groups will be joining with European leaders and the United Nations in Paris to mark the two-year anniversary of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo joined with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former governor of California, to release findings Monday morning on the health benefits of climate policies.

“As we both know, governors and mayors have a duty to protect the health and safety of their citizens, and air pollution is one of the greatest threats to mankind, with over 7 million people dying worldwide every year,” Schwarzenegger said. The report he released Monday from C40 Cities, a coalition of cities and researchers, showed how moving cities from automobiles to bicycles improves overall health of citizens by cutting both carbon dioxide and traditional forms of pollution.

The climate summit this week in Paris will focus on the need to shore up climate financing to assist emerging economies adapt to global warming. The Climate Action Coalition, another group of non-state actors, finalized a document outlining 13 proposals to assist in climate financing.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and French President Emmanuel Macron will discuss the role of the World Bank in making financing a priority this year.  

Agree to disagree: Perry grudgingly approved the request, saying the “better course would be for the commission to adopt the proposal within this reasonable deadline,” referring to the Dec. 11 deadline that he requested FERC meet in September.

He added that if the commission failed to meet the original deadline, then “the security of the nation’s electric grid will continue to be at risk.”

Perry approved Jan. 18 to be the new deadline for instituting the proposal.

More action coming? In the meantime, Perry said he would look for “all options” available to him under the law to address grid resilience as a matter of economic and national security.

Reality check: FERC, which is independent, has the authority to approve, modify or outright reject Perry’s plan and doesn’t report to him.

‘Must have’ immediate action: “We must have the plan ordered by Perry enacted by FERC,” Murray told the Washington Examiner. “We must have it. The 30-day delay is disappointing. I am concerned. It needs immediate action. This would be the most significant action by the federal government in my 60 years in the electric power and coal industries.”

Murray Energy, the country’s largest privately owned coal company, is uniquely set up to benefit from Perry’s proposal. Perry’s narrowly written plan would mostly help power plants in parts of the Midwest and Northeast where Murray Energy is the predominant supplier.

‘Facilities will close’: First Energy Corp., a utility and customer of Murray’s that is considering filing for bankruptcy, warns that FERC’s delay could force more coal and nuclear plants to close.

One Planet Summit: Kim will co-host a major climate change meeting in Paris, called the One Planet Summit, with French President Emmanuel Macron and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres to “mark the two-year anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement,” Kim told reporters on a conference call.

Reaffirming Paris goals: “We’re coming together to not only reaffirm our commitment to the agreement and to showcase some of the great work taking place, but more importantly look at ways to mobilize the scale of financing needed to create a low-carbon, climate-resilient economies,” he said.

No mention of Trump: Without mentioning President Trump’s June 1 announcement that he would withdraw the U.S. from the global deal, Kim said there “is a lot of positive news” since the Paris deal was reached in December 2015.

“The Paris Agreement entered into force in record time, and 170 countries have ratified it,” he said. In addition, the green bond market had continued “to boom, with the market expected to exceed $130 billion this year,” he said.

What can Trump do?: The U.S. “has the largest number of voting shares” at the World Bank, and the “Treasury should exert pressure to move away from funding renewable energy projects that poor countries can’t afford and back to financing coal-fired power plants,” said Myron Ebell, Trump’s former head of the Environmental Protection Agency transition team.

‘Wrath of God’: “I don’t think — President Trump has a fear of the Lord, the fear of the wrath of God, which leads one to more humility,” Brown, a Democrat, told CBS’ “60 Minutes.”

“And, this is such a reckless disregard for the truth and for the existential consequences that can be unleashed,” he continued.

‘New reality’ on wildfires: Brown, who is battling some of the worst wildfires in his state’s history, said nature is not “a political game.”

Earlier in the weekend, Brown warned that climate change could bring more wildfires to the state as firefighters continue battling at least six blazes that have spread throughout Southern California.

Official use only: “On these instances, I conducted an aerial survey of a million acres of federal monument lands, an aerial survey of a power line project which was under scrutiny for possible compensatory migration corruption from the previous administration, and a national command authority directed emergency response exercise.”

Dems bring the snark: Meanwhile, Democrats on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee trolled Zinke on Twitter Friday over his helicopter use in the Washington area that cost $14,000.

The committee Democrats responded to Zinke’s tweet about putting up his office Christmas tree by asking him, “Did you chopper it in?”

The tweet was sent via the SenateEnergyDems Twitter account.

Add to flightgate probe: Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state, the top Democrat on the committee, had earlier blasted Zinke in a statement by “calling on the Department of the Interior’s Inspector General to add Secretary Zinke’s use of taxpayer-funded helicopter rides to the ongoing investigation into his use of taxpayer-funded private jets.”

Write Treasury a refund check: “If the secretary misused public funds, he should write the treasury a check for the full amount and apologize,” she said.