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THE CASE FOR CUTTING RENEWABLE SUBSIDIES TO SAVE NUCLEAR: A new report on nuclear energy could ignite debate on Capitol Hill over whether to allow renewable energy subsidies to sunset, or renew them as Democrats are seeking to do.
The free-market Manhattan Institute’s latest report on nuclear energy says the best thing Congress can do to help nuclear energy is to eliminate both subsidies for wind and solar.
The July 10 study, now being circulated on Capitol Hill, concludes that renewables subsidies have hurt the market for nuclear power by making it harder for nuclear power plants to bid into the wholesale electricity markets to sell their power.
Tax credits for solar are slated to decrease in value at the end of the year toward phaseout, but Democrats have been mulling extensions to renew the subsidies.
Here’s the problem for nuclear: The subsidies create negative prices, which give renewable energy an advantage, given market rules that favor the lowest-cost form of generation. Large nuclear utilities like Exelon have argued against wind subsidies for years, blaming them for some of the financial difficulties power plants have been experiencing.
It is something that Democrats running for president should seriously consider in making climate change a key issue in their campaigns, said Jonathan Lesser, economist and author of the report.
All the Democrats are calling for something akin to a Green New Deal, which will demand increased electrification of the economy, but “they won’t say a damn thing about nuclear,” Lesser told John in an interview.
“They should realize that it is impossible to reach their goals without nuclear power,” he added. “Wind and solar won’t do it.”
The progressive Green New Deal calls for creating a carbon-neutral economy beginning in about a decade, with the nation transitioning to primarily solar and wind to provide its electricity.
Lesser’s previous reports have been influential in inspiring conservative lawmakers to introduce legislation to phase out subsidies, and the new report may have a similar effect.
John Barrasso, the Wyoming Republican who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, used one of Lesser’s reports to inform a bill he introduced earlier this year to end federal subsidies for electric cars.
Lesser explains that it would be immensely difficult to rely completely on renewables without the backbone of nuclear power plants also in the mix.
Solar and wind have the nation covered: The report shows that nearly a third of the nation would have to be covered with wind turbines in order to rely solely on renewable energy, along with an area the size of Oregon covered with solar panels. And that doesn’t take into consideration the reliability issues that come from the ebb and flow of renewable power when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.
New transmission lines and battery storage devices will be required to make up for the losses in electricity inherent in using more renewables, and the current state of battery technology isn’t efficient enough to do so, Lesser explained.
Meanwhile, a new report issued Thursday by the large environmental coalition Environment America argues that the federal government needs to better value the benefits of rooftop solar in developing energy policy.
The report looks to confront studies by utility firms and grid operators that tend to only look at the reliability issues confronted in adding more solar to the grid, failing to properly value the societal and public health benefits of rooftop solar, especially given the threat of climate change.
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.
BRITISH NAVY ESCORTS OIL TANKERS THROUGH STRAIT OF HORMUZ AFTER IRAN THREATS: The British Navy has escorted at least two ships through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran threatened revenge against the United Kingdom for its seizure of an Iranian tanker in Gibraltar.
Five Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps boats approached a British crude oil tanker Wednesday at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz and requested it stop in nearby Iranian waters. “It was harassment and an attempt to interfere with the passage,” a U.S. official told Reuters. The Iranian boats withdrew after a British warship communicated a warning via radio.
The HMS Montrose destroyer and a mine hunter escorted the British-flagged Pacific Voyager oil tanker through the strait Monday, according to ship tracking data.
Britain’s defense ministry did not say whether escorts are part of a new policy in the region.
“The U.K. maintains a long-standing maritime presence in the Gulf,” a ministry spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “We are continuously monitoring the security situation there and are committed to maintaining freedom of navigation in accordance with international law.”
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow 21-mile-wide waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. About 18.5 million barrels of oil travel through it daily, accounting for approximately 30% of the world’s sea-traded oil.
TRUMP MOTHBALLS CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE SKEPTIC PANEL: The White House won’t proceed anytime soon with creating a panel to challenge climate change science, indefinitely postponing the controversial proposal until after the 2020 election.
The White House, through the National Security Council, was considering creating a panel of scientists to scrutinize the consensus view that man-made climate change is harming national security.
William Happer, a National Security Council senior director and climate change science skeptic, has been pushing the idea for months, but it faced significant opposition within the government, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
“It’s clear that there is considerable opposition to this kangaroo climate panel idea from within the White House, across the Administration and in Congress, including the Defense Department, the intelligence community and the science agencies, and that it’s now dead on the vine,” Frank Fernia, co-founder of the Center for Climate and Security, which opposed the plan, told Josh.
Judith Curry, a scientist who was considering participating in the panel, said it appeared the Trump administration was not pursuing a good-faith effort to scrutinize climate science.
“A serious examination of the National Climate Assessment and its implications for national security would be a very good idea,” Curry, former head of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech, told Josh. “I’m not at all sure that this is what the White House had in mind. Personally, I’m not interested in participating in a politicized assessment.”
Sensitivity to environmental politics: Myron Ebell, a senior fellow at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, said while Trump has been receptive to the idea, some of his advisers have warned him the project could damage his reelection campaign by turning off swing voters who worry about his handling of environmental issues.
“What I have been told is that Happer’s climate review has been put on hold indefinitely, which I interpret to mean that it’s dead,” Ebell, who formerly led Trump’s EPA transition team, told Josh.
Read more of Josh’s report here.
STATE DEPARTMENT ANALYST RESIGNS AFTER WHITE HOUSE BLOCKS CLIMATE TESTIMONY: A State Department intelligence analyst has resigned after the White House blocked him from submitting portions of his written testimony to a congressional committee describing climate change as a threat to national security, according to reports.
The White House did not stop Rod Schoonover, a senior analyst at the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, from testifying before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence last month. But the White House cut Schoonover’s more detailed written testimony by half, the Wall Street Journal reported. He ultimately did not submit a written statement to the panel.
“Earth’s climate is unequivocally undergoing a long-term warming trend. Global temperatures are set to continue to increase over the coming decades,” Schoonover said in his verbal testimony. “We expect many climate linked stresses to intensify or emerge, many with outcomes important for national security. We expect no country to be immune to the threats of climate change.”
Schoonover described threats including economic damage, food and water security challenges caused by drought — leading to disputes between local populations over natural resources, sea level rise, and changing global migration patterns.
NOAA SCIENTISTS PROJECT INCREASE IN FLOODING: Heavy flooding in the United States isn’t on track to stop any time soon due to sea level rise caused by climate change.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, or NOAA, released a report Wednesday predicting that 2019 is on track to break annual flooding records, and it won’t stop there.
“Annual flood records are expected to be broken again next year and for years and decades to come,” the report said. “Tide gauges of the NOAA are measuring rapid increases in coastal flood risk along U.S. coastlines due to relative sea level rise.”
High-tide flooding is at its worst along the northeast Atlantic coasts because of a minor El Niño anticipated to last until early 2020.
The scientists found that 12 individual locations broke or tied their high-tide flooding levels, and 65 locations are significantly accelerating toward their records, “implying that impacts will soon become chronic without adaptation.”
INSLEE OPPOSES MICHIGAN PIPELINE AHEAD OF DEMOCRATIC DEBATE IN DETROIT: Presidential candidate Jay Inslee called for the closure Wednesday of an oil and gas pipeline that runs across the Great Lakes in Michigan, and said he opposes the construction of a replacement tunnel to improve the pipeline.
“The Enbridge Line 5 pipeline, and the proposed oil tunnel to replace it, are a clear and present threat to the health of the Great Lakes and to our climate,” Inslee, the Washington governor, said in a statement. “They threaten the clean drinking water that millions depend upon. And they would lock in decades of climate pollution that we can’t afford.”
Inslee said the pipeline proposal should be a “major topic” of discussion during the second Democratic debate held over two days in Detroit July 30 and 31. He has called for the end of all fossil fuel infrastructure as part of a multi-pronged climate change plan.
Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline, which is 66 years old, spans 645 miles, carries 23 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids per day.
While Enbridge says the pipeline is safe, it wants to move Line 5 into a new $500 million tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac to reduce the risk of leaks.
EPA TO HOLD FIRST PUBLIC FORUM ON 2020 ETHANOL MANDATE IN MICHIGAN: The EPA will announce soon in the Federal Register that it will hold its first public hearing on the 2020 Renewable Fuel Standard on July 31 in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
EPA’s long-time transportation chief, Chris Grundler, posted a letter earlier this week giving the details of all-day hearing in a pre-publication notice.
The oil industry says the standard for 2020 is set too high, while members of the ethanol industry say it is too conservative, and must include lost gallons that were eliminated from the market when EPA issued dozens of exemptions to refineries not to blend ethanol over the last two years. Both will be heard from at the hearing.
INTERIOR’S BERNHARDT DEFENDS SPENDING ON TRUMP’S JULY 4 EVENT: Interior Secretary David Bernhardt is defending his agency’s use of National Park Service funds from entrance and recreation fees to help pay for Trump’s Fourth of July celebration.
Bernhardt explained in a letter to inquiring Democrats Wednesday that the use of $2.45 million in park recreation funds was consistent with the practice of past presidents.
These fees, Bernhardt said, have long been applied by the National Park Service for celebratory events and “to enhance the visitor experience.”
“The Department of Interior is clearly within the bounds of its authority in taking these actions.” Bernhardt said the letter, addressed to Representative Raul Grijalva of Arizona, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee.
The Rundown
New York Times Arctic refuge likely won’t be surveyed before oil lease sales
Houston Chronicle In climate debate, Texas lawyer stands as possible roadblock
S&P Global Platts Coal’s share of US power generation may fall to 11% by 2030
Wall Street Journal PG&E knew for years its lines could spark wildfires
Calendar
THURSDAY | July 11
9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., 2168 Rayburn. The Environmental and Energy Study Institute holds its 2019 Congressional Clean Energy Expo and Policy Forum.
FRIDAY | July 12
9:30 a.m., 2123 Rayburn. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy holds a hearing entitled “Keeping The Lights On: Addressing Cyber Threats To The Grid.”
