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HOW BIG A DEAL IS EPA’S SCIENCE RULE? EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler says environmentalists and public health experts are overstating the effects of the agency’s newly final “science transparency” rule, putting him in the odd position of arguing his action isn’t as big a deal as his critics say it is.
“There is no scientific study based on this rulemaking that will be absolutely ruled out from use by the agency,” Wheeler said, unveiling the new rule during a virtual event this morning hosted by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
In fact, Wheeler, though saying the rule is important for transparency, several times appeared to downplay and dismiss claims that the rule would limit the scope of scientific studies the EPA considers in the future or tie the hands of any future administration that wanted to set stricter pollution standards.
For example, he noted the rule doesn’t block studies from being used, but rather requires the EPA to give greater weight to research where the underlying raw data is publicly available. He said researchers can satisfy the public data requirement in the case of private health data and confidential business information by making that data available on a restricted access basis, so independent researchers can verify the study’s conclusions.
In addition, Wheeler pointed to a provision within the rule that allows the EPA administrator to exempt specific studies from the public data requirements on a case-by-case basis.
Environmentalists say Wheeler’s effort to minimize the restrictions is disingenuous: They argue the Trump administration’s rule — which they say has its roots in proposals from the tobacco industry and House Republicans — would undercut the EPA’s ability to use scientific studies that rely on epidemiological data to determine how pollutants affect people’s health.
Those studies have formed the basis of many of the EPA’s health protections over the years, including air pollution controls, pesticide restrictions, and limits on toxic chemicals in drinking water.
“When EPA talks about giving greater consideration to specific studies or granting exemptions from this supposedly crucial rule on a case-by-case basis, that’s really a signal to me that this is a pretext for enabling political leadership at EPA to interfere and basically shape the underlying evidence base,” said Vijay Limaye, a climate and health scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Limaye, who formerly worked as an epidemiologist in the EPA’s air office, told Abby the Trump rule simply introduces new “arbitrary” hurdles for the agency to consider public health research. It also sets up a new burden for already strapped scientists and public health experts to meet if they want their research to be considered fully by the EPA as it sets pollution standards, Limaye added.
Setting up roadblocks: Even though Wheeler dismissed the notion that the rule would limit the Biden administration or other future agency officials, he did note the rulemaking would allow people and groups to sue the EPA if it doesn’t follow its requirements.
For groups like the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which often complain the EPA is shielding the studies it uses to set strict pollution limits, that offers an opportunity to challenge in court the science behind the agency’s policies.
“I think this rule is a big step forward in putting the administrator accountable for especially discretionary decisions,” said Myron Ebell, CEI’s energy and environment director, during this morning’s event.
Environmentalists, however, say opening the door to such lawsuits could further delay the EPA from tightening health protections and subject the agency’s science to a new raft of challenges from industry and other opponents.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Josh Siegel (@SiegelScribe) and Abby Smith (@AbbySmithDC). Email [email protected] or [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.
MORE LATE-DAY ACTION: The Trump administration’s Bureau of Land Management announced a record of decision yesterday allowing oil and gas leasing across 18.6 million acres of Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, the largest tract of public land in the U.S.
The administration and supporters in Congress, including the all-Republican Alaska delegation led by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, said the move promotes energy development in the oil state, which is struggling economically from the coronavirus, while protecting sensitive areas and wildlife.
But environmental groups said expanding drilling in the reserve could encroach on wetlands around Teshekpuk Lake, which provides habitat for caribou, migratory birds, raptors, and polar bears.
Bigger than ANWR: The National Petroleum Reserve is an often overlooked 23.5-million acre area of federal land in northwest Alaska — roughly the size of Indiana — where there has long been energy development, as opposed to the more controversial neighboring Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated the region, located on the western North Slope, contains 8.7 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and 25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The Obama administration allowed about half of the reserve to be open to oil and gas development.
Bottom line: Like other late Trump administration actions, there won’t be an immediate effect. The action allows future administrations to sell oil and gas leases in the expanded area, but it’s unlikely the Biden administration would proceed as he’s promised to ban all new drilling on federal lands.
ANOTHER ONE: The Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service finalized a rule today reinterpreting the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act to roll back companies’ legal liability for killing birds.
The amended regulation excludes “incidental take” — the unintentional killing of birds — from the enforceable bird deaths.
Under the interpretation, it’s possible that events like BP’s Deepwater Horizon explosion would no longer leave oil and gas companies liable for the hundreds of thousands of birds killed by those incidents. Because of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the enforcement of incidental take, BP paid a $100 million settlement that went toward funding wetland restoration.
Biden’s choice for Interior secretary, Deb Haaland, is expected to seek to reverse the new measure, but she would have to undertake the lengthy regulatory process to do so.
WAITING ON OPEC+: Talks between OPEC+ ended in a deadlock yesterday as Saudi Arabia and Russia split over whether to boost oil production amid the coronavirus pandemic. OPEC+ met again today.
The coalition of oil producing nations is debating whether to stick with its compromise deal to modestly increase output by 500,000 per day in January for another month, or to raise production further.
Saudi Arabia and most of the rest of the alliance prefer to stand pat, according to the Wall Street Journal, but Russia is pushing to increase production by another 500,000 barrels per day because it fears losing market share to U.S. producers who are not subject to quotas.
Moscow argues there will be strong recovery of oil demand in 2021 as a result of progress on vaccinations.
Seeking a compromise, Saudia Arabia countered today at the outset of the meeting by proposing a voluntary unilateral cut, according to reports.
BUT OIL PRICES ARE UP: Despite the uncertainty around OPEC+’s next moves, oil prices are up today with tensions flaring in the Middle East.
Iran confirmed yesterday it seized a South Korean oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, again raising questions over the reliability of crude transport through the Gulf.
“If the situation doesn’t deescalate quickly, oil prices will benefit from the unpredictability,” said Bjornar Tonhaughen, head of oil markets at Rystad Energy.
BIPARTISAN PARTNERSHIP TO CLEAN UP OCEAN PLASTICS: Sens. Dan Sullivan and Sheldon Whitehouse have forged a partnership that has led to Congress unanimously passing two measures to clean up plastics in the ocean, and their work isn’t complete.
The Alaska Republican and Rhode Island Democrat told Abby in a joint interview that they’re working on the Save Our Seas Act’s third iteration. The Congressional Research Service called the second Save Our Seas package, which President Trump just signed into law last month, the most comprehensive ocean cleanup bill that Congress has ever passed, Sullivan said.
The two senators are also hoping to gain as much support from Biden and his team on ocean plastics cleanup as they have from the Trump administration.
Whitehouse said he has already raised the issue with Biden’s nominee for secretary of State, Antony Blinken. He is also hoping that Biden’s special climate envoy John Kerry, who hosted the first global oceans conference while secretary of State, can be a “secret weapon” on ocean plastics.
More on the senators’ partnership, their plans for future legislation, and how they’ll keep the pressure on Biden in Abby’s story in this week’s Washington Examiner magazine.
DEMOCRATS SLAM EFFORT TO KEEP BANKS FROM DROPPING FOSSIL FUELS: The effort from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency “runs counter to the overwhelming sentiment among economists and financial experts that financial institutions need to do more to avoid climate-related financial risks, not less,” wrote 13 Senate and House Democrats in a comment letter to the agency.
The November proposal would bar big U.S. banks from restricting specific industries from access to lending and other financial services. The move responds to outcry from congressional Republicans over banks refusing to invest in new oil and gas drilling in the Arctic.
The Democratic lawmakers, led by Whitehouse and Rep. Sean Casten, say the proposal could exacerbate potential financial risks from climate change because it would keep banks from managing the risks their portfolios face from continued investment in fossil fuels.
The public comment period for the OCC’s proposal closed just yesterday, so it’s unlikely the Trump administration could finalize the rule before Biden takes office. Biden is expected to take a much stronger stance on climate finance, including likely requiring companies to disclose their financial risks to climate change effects and incorporating pricing of such risks into financial regulations.
CHAIR OF NUCLEAR REGULATOR TO STEP DOWN: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chair Kristine Svinicki announced yesterday she will leave her post later this month.
Svinicki, a Republican, is the longest tenured member of the NRC, appointed in 2007 by the George W. Bush administration and kept on by President Barack Obama. Trump designated her chairman in 2017, but Svinicki was likely to lose that slot to a Democrat when Biden takes office.
Sens. John Barrasso, the GOP chairman of the Environmental and Public Works Committee last Congress, and Shelley Moore Capito, who is slated to be the new top Republican on the committee, credited Svinicki with helping to implement a process to approve advanced nuclear reactors.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: The Energy Department’s Shaylyn Hynes, who is the director of media affairs for the agency, is leaving her position Friday to join Venture Global LNG as vice president of strategic communications, according to an email to colleagues obtained by Josh.
Hynes has been the top spokesperson for Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette and his predecessor, Rick Perry.
In that role, Hynes traveled around the world promoting U.S. LNG exports, working with government and industry counterparts.
At Venture Global LNG, which is building natural gas export terminals along the Gulf Coast, Hynes said in the email she looks forward to “continuing to champion the export of clean, reliable, and affordable American energy all over the world.”
More: The conservative clean energy group ClearPath has hired Jena Lococo, a former engineer at oil giant ExxonMobil, as a policy analyst.
Lococo will focus on carbon capture, petrochemicals, EPA regulations, and regulatory reforms to accelerate clean energy development.
The Rundown
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Calendar
THURSDAY | JAN. 7
12 p.m. The Bipartisan Policy Center holds a webinar event with ARPA-E Director Lane Genatowski to discuss energy innovation in 2020 and beyond.
