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BANKS RESIST ‘DICTATING’ CLIMATE POLICIES: Big banks are resisting pressure from activists to stop financing fossil fuels.
Mike Corbat, chief executive of Citibank, said Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos that it is not the role of banks to pick “winners and losers.”
“We don’t want to find ourselves being the person that dictates winners and losers,” Corbat said, according to the Financial Times. “A bank’s job is to support the communities in which it operates. It is not to dictate outcomes.”
David Solomon, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, also told the confab of business and world leaders that his bank would continue to raise money for fossil fuel companies.
“If you’re looking for a line, there’s not a line. There’s a transition that’s going on, and my view is this is going to be a multi-decade transition where we see changes in the way people allocate capital,” Solomon said during a panel discussion. “Should we not raise money for a company that is a carbon company or a fossil fuel company? The answer is no, we’re not going to [stop doing] that.”
The backlash from banks comes after climate activists, including Greta Thunberg, demanded at Davos that companies, banks, and governments “immediately” halt investments in fossil fuel exploration and extraction, and divest from fossil fuels.
It also comes a week after BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, pledged to make climate change central to its investment strategy and pressuring other companies to reduce their carbon footprints, in what activists hoped would be a watershed moment for the financial industry.
Blackrock CEO Larry Fink met with government and finance officials in Davos to explain the company’s new approach, the Financial Times reported.
Also Tuesday, leading Democratic presidential contender Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to executives of Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Bank of America, and more asking them to disclose the risks caused by climate change on the financial industry’s lending practices.
Ben Cushing, a campaign representative with the Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign, told Josh that activists would not be deterred by pushback from some banks reluctant to stop the flow of money into fossil fuels.
“While some bank executives may be stomping their feet and shouting how they won’t draw a line on funding the climate crisis, many banks already have,” Cushing said. “The public pressure led by this movement moved dozens of other financial institutions to begin drawing a line, and we will not stop until every financial institution does so.”
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.
STATES SEEK SUPREME COURT’S HELP TO FREE UP COAL TERMINAL: Montana and Wyoming say Washington state’s move to block a coal export terminal violates the Constitution, specifically the dormant Commerce Clause.
If the Supreme Court were to accept the request from Montana and Wyoming, the lawsuit would leapfrog the lower courts and go straight to the high court, a highly unusual path reserved for very few cases. The two coal-heavy states are challenging Washington’s move to block construction of a coal export terminal, which the states say would ship 44 million tons of Montana and Wyoming coal abroad annually.
The Montana/Wyoming vs. Washington fight is a test case: The Pacific Northwest state blocked the terminal by denying a permit under section 401 of the Clean Water Act. Since then, other states like New York have followed suit, using that water law provision to block other fossil fuel projects. The Trump administration has also stepped in, proposing to sharply limit states’ authority under section 401.
Fossil fuel states and industries argue the decisions are unlawful because Washington, New York, and others are blocking the projects for other reasons — namely, climate change — as opposed to true water quality concerns.
“Montana’s access to growing overseas markets shouldn’t be dictated by the latest political fads on the west coast,” said Tim Fox, the state’s attorney general, adding Washington has a “clear bias” against Montana and Wyoming coal.
CALIFORNIA’S POLICIES HAVEN’T CAUGHT UP TO WILDFIRES’ ‘NEW NORMAL’: The Golden State’s wildfire resilience policies are some of the most detailed in the country and the world, but even California isn’t prepared for its worsening wildfire seasons.
For example, California is one of the only states with fire-resistant building code provisions, but those are only required in certain areas considered the highest risk, and not in places just next door that have also been ravaged by fires in recent years.
One of the most significant steps California could take to increase its resilience to fires is to apply those provisions state-wide, according to a new report from Zurich North America, DuPont, and the nonprofit Institute for Social and Environmental Transition.
More on the report, which examined California’s response to four of the state’s most destructive wildfires in 2017 and 2018, in Abby’s story published this morning.
ARIZONA’S BIGGEST UTILITY TO GO CARBON-FREE: Arizona Public Service announced Wednesday it would aim to provide 100% zero-carbon power by 2050 and get out of coal entirely by 2031, seven years earlier than previously planned.
It’s an ambitious goal for the Arizona utility, which currently gets nearly half of its power from either coal or natural gas. APS says it has set an interim goal to provide 65% clean energy by 2030 and notes it will continue to use natural gas in the near term until intermittent renewables no longer need gas power as a backup.
Also critical to APS’ clean energy future is the utility’s Palo Verde Generating Station, the country’s largest existing nuclear power plant.
Like other utilities with 100% carbon-free goals, APS is betting on new tech: “Nobody today actually knows how you get to 100% carbon free,” Jeff Guldner, APS’ new CEO, said, according to the Arizona Republic. “I take some comfort from the fact that there are others who also believe we can get here to 100% by 2050 even if we don’t know what the answers are.”
FERC PRESSURED TO REVISIT ORDER TARGETING RENEWABLES: A coalition of clean energy groups called on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Wednesday to revisit its controversial December order to raise payments to fossil fuel plants in the PJM power market to combat state policies that subsidize renewables and nuclear.
The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), American Wind Energy Association, Solar Energy Industries Association, and Advanced Energy Economy filed a joint request for rehearing and suggested they would sue if FERC does not change course.
“FERC’s MOPR Order in the PJM capacity market actually bars consumers from paying less money for cleaner power,” said ACORE President and CEO Greg Wetstone. “It is a poorly disguised effort to undermine the success that cost-effective renewable energy has enjoyed in competitive electricity markets, and on every state’s authority to decide for itself where its electric power is generated.”
The groups argue the order violates the Federal Power Act by interfering with states rights to choose its energy mix.
“If left uncorrected, FERC’s MOPR Order is certain to be challenged in court, and will likely be withdrawn by future commissioners,” Wetstone said.
PJM is not content either: The grid operator called on FERC to rewrite portions of its order, warning that some states that subsidize clean energy could decide to remove their power sectors from PJM, creating inefficiencies in the market, unless FERC allows individual plants to opt out.
The order “does not maintain the careful balance followed by prior FERC orders and, in fact, disrupts the balance that has successfully worked to accommodate the interests of states and integrated utilities,” PJM wrote to FERC.
LARGEST COMMUNITY CHOICE SOLAR PROJECT COMES ONLINE: The 200 megawatt solar facility began providing power this month, according to Peninsula Clean Energy, which is purchasing the power for San Mateo County in California.
It’s a big step for California cities and counties looking to bypass larger investor-owned utilities like Pacific Gas & Electric and take more control over their energy mixes. Peninsula Clean Energy is a so-called community choice aggregation program, which allowed San Mateo County to take over electricity purchasing power for its community.
Peninsula Clean Energy says it aims to provide 100% carbon-free power by 2021.
MANUFACTURERS WON’T BACK NEW REGULATIONS AS PART OF 2020 AGENDA: The National Association for Manufacturers won’t be endorsing new federal regulations like a carbon tax this year.
NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons indicated Wednesday that his powerful trade group supports an “innovation agenda” for addressing climate change that does not explicitly require companies to curb fossil fuel use.
“Going forward, we need energy regulations that allow us to keep innovating and delivering reliable energy from all sources — oil, gas, nuclear, solar, wind, renewables and more,” Timmons said during his State of Manufacturing address in Pella, Iowa.
Translation — no carbon tax: NAM spokesman Michael Shapiro clarified Timmons was making a general point that “smarter regulations enable manufacturers to lead.”
“He’s not making an explicit call for new regulations,” Shapiro told Josh.
Timmons also said NAM supports “smart, bipartisan legislation that doesn’t put manufacturers in America at a competitive disadvantage.”
NAM has backed several bills to boost carbon capture technology, spark development of advanced nuclear technology and energy storage, and target research and development for ways to cut industrial greenhouse gases.
‘FOREVER CHEMICALS’ MAY BE MORE PREVALENT IN DRINKING WATER: It is likely that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are detectable in all of the U.S. major water supplies, the Environmental Working Group said in a new report Wednesday.
The environmental group’s scientists tested tap water in 44 places across the country in 31 states and D.C. and found only one location in Mississippi — which uses more than 700-foot deep wells for its drinking water — with no detectable PFAS.
Existence of the chemicals in drinking water hadn’t been previously reported by federal or state agencies in 34 of the places EWG tested, and major cities like Miami, Philadelphia, and New Orleans had some of the highest levels detected, according to the report.
OIL LOBBY TAPS NEW CHAIRMAN: Greg Garland, chairman and CEO of major refiner Phillips 66, was picked to lead the American Petroleum Institute’s board of directors for the next two years, the oil and gas group announced Wednesday.
FORMER STAFFER FOR CONVERTED REPUBLICAN JOINS CLIMATE COMMITTEE: Democrats on the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis hired Javier Gamboa as a senior professional staff member. Gamboa most recently served as deputy chief of staff and legislative director for Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, the former Democrat who became a Republican during the impeachment of President Trump.
The Rundown
Reuters BP’s Looney goes all-in on climate goals and explores overhaul
Bloomberg Oil chiefs at Davos debate tougher CO2 cuts as pressure mounts
Washington Post The audacious effort to reforest the planet: how trees can fight climate change
Reuters BlackRock, partners eye initial $500 million for climate fund
New York Times A late push to find wildfire victims doubles PG&E claims
New York Times Australian coal company says bush-fire smoke is slowing production
Calendar
THURSDAY | JAN. 23
The House is out
TUESDAY | JAN. 28
10 a.m. 2123 Rayburn. The House Energy and Commerce Committee holds a joint subcommittee hearing entitled, “Out of Control: The Impact of Wildfires on our Power Sector and the Environment.”
