His tweet comes as conservative groups in Washington and Republican politicians have been waging a campaign to counter efforts by prominent conservatives such as Donald Trump Jr. and Nick Ayers, former chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence, to urge Trump to block the mine.

The project, which would be the largest gold and copper mine in North America, sits in the Bristol Bay headwaters. Environmentalists, as well as Trump Jr. and Ayers, have said the mine threatens to significantly harm one of the world’s most productive salmon habitats.

Groups like Americans for Tax Reform and the Competitive Enterprise Institute have been steadily ramping up the pressure on Trump, arguing he’d essentially rip a hole in his efforts to speed up the permitting process and expand U.S. development if he backtracked on the Pebble project.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who’s worked with Trump to open up his state for energy and other development, said he was surprised by Republican opposition to the mining project. “There is no doubt that this project has been politicized,” he told Abby in a recent interview.

And other GOP lawmakers have been sounding alarm bells that uncertainty around Pebble Mine’s future could deter other mining investment in the U.S., for fear those projects wouldn’t make it through the permitting process.

Coincidentally, or not, Trump’s tweet also came following ads running on Fox News, paid for by Pebble’s developers, calling on the president to not “let politics enter the Pebble Mine review process.” Those ads ran on Tucker Carlson’s show, even as Carlson has been involved in the conservative campaign to kill the project, running a segment on his show last month against the mine.

Pebble Mine is not out of the woods yet: Trump’s tweet suggests he won’t involve himself in the review directly, but it doesn’t indicate how the permitting process will ultimately shake out.

Last month, the Army Corps of Engineers set a high bar for Pebble’s developers to meet, requiring significant additional mitigation before it can be permitted to account for harms to thousands of acres of wetlands and hundreds of miles of streams. That came after it appeared in July the Trump administration was set to rubber stamp the project.

Pebble’s developers have said they’re confident they can meet the requirements, and they should be submitting a plan to the Army Corps soon (if they’re on schedule).

But if the Trump administration doesn’t approve the mine before next year, it could risk the project’s future altogether if Joe Biden wins the White House in November. Biden has already said he would halt the project.

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.

FERC REMOVES BARRIERS FOR DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCES: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted during a meeting Thursday to approve an order allowing distributed energy resources — such as rooftop solar, home energy storage, and electric vehicles and their supply equipment — to participate in wholesale electricity markets.

Republican Chairman Neil Chatterjee and Democratic Commissioner Richard Glick voted to approve the order, while Republican Commissioner James Danly dissented, though he gave no details during the meeting as to why.

Chatterjee lauded the order as a “landmark foundational rule that paves the way for the grid of tomorrow.” The order is in a similar vein to another FERC action issued two years ago that broke down barriers to allow energy storage to compete in electricity markets.

Allowing distributed energy resources to participate in electricity markets has direct benefits for consumers, too, Chatterjee said, suggesting the move could lower customer energy costs and help keep the lights on during times of stress on the power grid.

Bonus from the FERC meeting: Chatterjee also announced he has asked FERC staff to probe California’s rolling blackouts imposed last month during peak energy demand amid a severe heat wave for any issues related to grid reliability and energy markets. FERC staff will present its findings at the commission’s meeting in November, the chairman said.

NEW TOOL TO PROVIDE REAL-TIME METHANE DATA IN THE PERMIAN: The Rocky Mountain Institute, along with Spherical Analytics, unveiled Thursday a new tool, called the Climate Action Engine, to continuously aggregate emissions data to give a comprehensive, up-to-date view of how much methane is leaking from oil and gas operations.

Several oil and gas operators, including ExxonMobil and Chevron, are working with Rocky Mountain Institute on the tool, providing insights on what data would be most useful to help reduce methane emissions in the Permian Basin. Financial institutions are offering input, too.

Taku Ide, a principal at Rocky Mountain Institute who helped design the tool, told Abby he wanted to create something that can pinpoint emissions leaks down to the asset level, so operators would know which of their wells or equipment is emitting and how much. That type of data can lead to insights oil and gas companies can act on, such as how much transition risk they could face from methane regulations or other climate policy, he said.

The Climate Action Engine data can also be used to help celebrate the oil and gas companies that are doing a better job of controlling their methane emissions, Ide said. “For us to be able to say, ‘If you buy gas from that operation, you are actually helping to promote and proliferate the practice of low-emissions production and gathering and transportation” of natural gas creates competition and encourages other companies to step up their game, Ide added.

NEW BIPARTISAN CLIMATE LEGISLATION: West Virginia Rep. David McKinley and Oregon Rep. Kurt Schrader unveiled Thursday a discussion draft of climate legislation that would establish a nationwide clean electricity standard that kicks in after a 10-year clean energy innovation program.

With their effort, announced earlier this year, the lawmakers are aiming to strike a balance: innovate first, regulate later. Their aim, McKinley and Schrader have said, is to ensure the power sector has all the technologies it needs to decarbonize before it is forced to do so at a rapid pace. The lawmakers say they’ll release the final bill later this year.

Nitty gritty details: The draft legislation would set a clean electricity standard requiring utilities to cut their carbon emissions 80% by 2050. Under that standard, utilities would also be able to purchase and trade clean electricity credits, similar to a cap-and-trade system.

In addition, the draft bill would significantly ramp up clean energy research and development. That includes for carbon capture and storage (in part by extending federal tax credits for the technology and creating new ones), nuclear energy (including by creating a federal zero emissions credit program to reward existing nuclear), and renewable energy (by bumping up research spending, extending wind and solar tax credits, and creating a tax credit for energy storage).

LEGISLATIVE ROUNDUP: Sen. Cory Booker and Rep. Deb Haaland introduced Wednesday legislation to invest $100 billion to clean up toxic pollution sites in minority and low-income communities, including addressing abandoned polluted industrial sites (under the EPA’s Superfund or brownfields programs) and replacing lead service lines for drinking water.

The bill would also block industrial facilities from being able to renew air pollution permits or apply for new permits in regions with high levels of air pollution, especially fine particulate matter.

Barrasso takes on Endangered Species Act revisions: Also on Wednesday, Senate Environment Committee Chairman John Barrasso unveiled legislation that would reauthorize the Endangered Species Act for the first time since 1992 and make changes to how species are listed and delisted.

Barrasso and other Republicans have long complained the Endangered Species Act has restricted development of energy and other infrastructure projects. “Species that go on the endangered species list seem to stay there forever and never recover to the point of coming off the list,” Barrasso said. The Senate Environment Committee will hold a hearing Sept. 23 on Barrasso’s bill, featuring Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon.

WILDFIRES INTENSIFYING CONCERN ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE: Roughly three-quarters of voters are more worried about climate change in the wake of extreme weather events like the Western wildfires, including more than half of GOP voters, new polling from Environmental Defense Fund Action and Morning Consult found.

Even more Republican women (57%) and millennial (68%) voters, two constituencies Trump is vying to keep on his side, said the wildfires are adding to their concerns about climate change. Most voters also agree wildfires are more frequent and severe in the past few years, the polling found.

The polling comes after Trump, on Monday, rejected mainstream climate science during a wildfire briefing in California, saying the world will “start getting cooler.”

The Rundown

Wall Street Journal Trump’s promise to revive coal thwarted by falling demand, cheaper alternatives

Bloomberg Gas companies are abandoning their wells, leaving them to leak methane forever

New York Times What Trump’s environmental rollbacks mean for global warming

Calendar

TUESDAY | SEPT. 22

10 a.m. 366 Dirksen. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing on offshore energy technologies.

WEDNESDAY | SEPT. 23

10 a.m. 106 Dirksen. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee holds a hearing on legislation to amend the Endangered Species Act.