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EPA GIVES A BIT IN FIGHTING OFF WATCHDOG AND DEMOCRATS IN SCIENCE CONTROVERSY: After weeks on the offensive, the Environmental Protection Agency is giving a little bit, as it fights off allegations from Democrats on the Hill and its own watchdog office that Trump officials have had a heavy political hand in the agency’s scientific work.
The EPA, for example, is allowing the House Science Committee access to a chemical risk program document it had previously shielded from Democrats on the panel. Top agency officials had tried to ward off Democrats’ request, arguing repeatedly the document was deliberative and would have a “chilling” effect on internal agency processes if released.
But the EPA ultimately relented in response to two subpoenas issued Friday by House Science Committee Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat.
Johnson has argued the EPA was refusing to cooperate with the committee’s requests for information about its decision to shift a nearly completed review of formaldehyde from the agency’s chemical risk assessment program to start anew under its chemical safety office.
“The Agency is only releasing this document to comply with the Committee’s subpoena,” Joseph Brazaukas, the EPA’s associate administrator in the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations, wrote in a letter to Johnson on Tuesday.
Brazaukas also noted the EPA has agreed to make David Dunlap, a top EPA science official who formerly worked for Koch Industries, available for a transcribed interview Dec. 13. The letter says House Science Committee Democrats agreed to withdraw their subpoena to Dunlap if he shows for the interview.
Does the EPA’s cooperation mean calmer waters ahead? It’s doubtful Democrats in Congress will let up on their criticism of the Trump EPA.
But the back-and-forth with the House Science Committee suggests EPA’s offense may only go so far. Agency officials can and will continue to staunchly defend the Trump administration’s agenda, but they may not be able to spare themselves from tough questions at a drumbeat of Hill hearings or completely stonewall oversight inquiries.
The EPA may have some more luck defending itself against its own watchdog office, in part because the agency’s inspector general largely lacks the teeth of the threats of congressional subpoenas.
Acting Inspector General Charles Sheehan has accused EPA chief of staff Ryan Jackson of “open defiance” in two investigations, allegations the agency has so far been able to defend against without much interference.
That could change if Congress were to get involved in some way — but senators in both parties are hoping that dispute can be resolved before President Trump’s nominee to lead the EPA’s watchdog office is confirmed by the full Senate.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved Trump’s nominee, Sean O’Donnell, by unanimous voice vote Wednesday. Senate environment committee Chairman John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, told reporters following the vote he hopes to get O’Donnell confirmed by the full Senate by the end of the year.
He added having O’Donnell in place could help resolve the ongoing dispute, though he didn’t elaborate how beyond saying “it’s just better to have confirmed people making these recommendations.” But Barrasso also defended Jackson, who was a staffer for Oklahoma Senator and former environment committee Chairman James Inhofe, saying he reviewed the situation and has “full confidence” in the EPA chief of staff.
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CLIMATE CAUCUS GETS THE BAND BACK TOGETHER…SORT OF: The bipartisan House Climate Solutions Caucus met for the first time since its poorly attended organizing meeting in June.
The attendance was mostly the same for Wednesday morning’s meeting, which focused on green finance and included speakers from Goldman Sachs.
The retiring Republican co-chair, Francis Rooney of Florida, did not attend the meeting. That was due to a scheduling conflict, his staff told Josh.
Democratic co-chair Ted Deutch of Florida organized the meeting, which came weeks after the Senate established a similar bipartisan caucus with high-profile members, and is already convening meetings of its own.
Deutch said his caucus is planning another meeting focused on the national security implications of climate change for December. He defended the caucus’ work, noting the challenge of convening the group’s 65 or so members, which include 23 Republicans.
“The challenge is scheduling,” Deutch told Josh after Wednesday’s meeting. “The challenge isn’t a lack of interest or commitment. There is great interest to do more.”
Deutch said he is “disappointed” Rooney is retiring at the end of this term, but he said he’s confident another Republican can fill the void.
“There is a long time between now and then [before Rooney’s leaves Congress], and we will certainly be using that time to build more support for what we are trying to do, which is recognize this is an issue that is bipartisan everywhere in America and ought to be treated the same way here.”
RICK PERRY’S SWAN SONG: Outgoing Energy Secretary Rick Perry warned about the possibility of a “catastrophic road to overregulation,” in what was dubbed his final public speech before a friendly audience at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Tuesday.
Perry, whose last day is Dec.1, largely used the Chamber’s new talking points of embracing private sector innovation to reduce emissions, touting the Energy Department’s work in promoting R&D into “clean coal” and advanced nuclear, along with wind and solar and energy storage.
“It is my hope we choose the path of innovation,” Perry said, after criticizing unnamed political opponents who he said “want to ban” coal and nuclear, which he called “the world’s two most reliable 24/7 fuels.”
Perry was speaking at the Chamber’s “Task Force on Climate Actions” kickoff roundtable, but he never used the phrase climate change.
He also had kind words for his presumed successor, Deputy Secretary Dan Brouillette, who Perry predicted would be confirmed by the Senate before the end of the year.
“That would be a good Christmas present,” Perry said, calling Brouillette a “good, focused disciplined young man who knows the agency well, knows the Hill well.”
ENERGY COMMITTEE BOOSTS LWCF, ARPA-E, AND NATIONAL PARKS: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee advanced a slew of 15 energy and conservation bills Tuesday, along with approving key nominees.
Among the measures approved were the Restore Our Parks Act, which addresses the $12 billion deferred maintenance backlog in national parks, and the Land and Water Conservation Fund Permanent Funding Act, which does what the name of the bill suggests it will.
“There is perhaps no better step we can take to protect those treasured places than sending this bill to the President in this Congress,” Chairman Lisa Murkowski said of the deferred maintenance bill, perhaps the best bet of the bunch for getting full Senate approval given it has bipartisan support and is endorsed by the Trump administration.
The committee also approved bills supporting innovation in advanced geothermal R&D, and another reauthorizing the Energy Department’s ARPA-E program for advanced energy research breakthroughs.
HOUSE ENERGY & COMMERCE ALSO MOVED SOME BILLS: In a much, much longer markup that didn’t run quite as smoothly and isn’t even finished.
The committee only approved two out of the four energy and environment-related bills it was slated to consider in a marathon markup Tuesday. One of those was a bipartisan bill to ban asbestos, which passed on a near-unanimous vote.
Pipeline politics: Though, to be fair, the panel only got through four bills total — out of the 18 they were scheduled to vote on. That’s in part because panel’s markup started with an hours-long fight over pipeline safety legislation that put on display the breakdown in negotiations between the parties.
Democrats on the committee ultimately sent through, on a party-line vote, their version of legislation to reauthorize the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration — but not without a tense back-and-forth with their Republican colleagues. Democrats rejected a pared-down substitute bill offered by Michigan Republican Fred Upton.
Republicans leaders on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee put forth another counter-offer, though, unveiling a pipeline safety bill they say incorporates many provisions that were agreed to by both parties in negotiations.
Expect a fight on PFAS when the committee reconvenes this afternoon: Democrats on the committee are trying an “everything and the kitchen sink” approach, attaching portions of nearly a dozen other related bills to their legislation on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, chemicals.
But Republicans say that approach is sure to fail in the Senate and with the White House.
THE CHINA COAL PLANT PROBLEM: China has nearly as much coal capacity coming online than the amount currently operating in the entire Europen Union, according to a report Wednesday from Global Energy Monitor, a non-profit group that tracks coal.
China has 147.7 gigawatts of coal plants either under construction or under suspension and likely to be revived. That is nearly equivalent to the existing coal power capacity of the European Union (150 GW) and is more than the amount of coal under construction in the rest of the world (105.2 GW).
China is fighting against the tide, the report says, risking the viability of the Paris Agreement.
Countries outside of China decreased their total coal power capacity by 8.1 GW between January 2018 and June of this year, while China increased its coal fleet by 42.9 GW in that time.
“China’s proposed coal expansion is so far out of alignment with the Paris Agreement that it would put the necessary reductions in coal power out of reach, even if every other country were to completely eliminate its coal fleet,” said Christine Shearer of Global Energy Monitor.
TRANSMISSION GETS NORTH AMERICAN LOVE: Transmission is so hot right now. A coalition of utility, clean energy, and manufacturing groups across the U.S. and Canada signed a “statement of principles” Wednesday supporting efforts to encourage the build-out of transmission lines to help enable the transport and consumption of renewables.
“We are calling for more leadership, cooperation and investment at the federal, state and regional levels to address the barriers that have inhibited the planning and execution of critical transmission projects that will be absolutely necessary to support the new electrified economy,” says the statement written by groups including Edison Electric Institute, the Canadian Electricity Association, Solar Energy Industries Association, and Great Plains Institute.
The groups call on policymakers to revise regulations to streamline environmental reviews, and ensure “equitable cost of sharing” for building transmission, among other ideas.
The statement came about as a result of the International Summit on the Electric Transmission Grid, an event held last month at the Canadian Embassy hosted by WIRES, a nonprofit trade group.
NEW JERSEY DOUBLING-UP ON OFFSHORE WIND: The state’s governor, Democrat Phil Murphy, signed an executive order Tuesday more than doubling its goal for generating power from offshore wind.
Murphy is raising the state’s goal from 3,500 megawatts of electricity generated from offshore wind by 2030 to 7,500 megawatts by 2035 — enough to power 3.2 million homes.
This commitment to offshore wind will help New Jersey reach its goal of 50% renewable energy by 2030 and switching to a 100% clean energy economy by 2050.
“There is no other renewable energy resource that provides us with either the electric-generation or economic-growth potential of offshore wind,” Murphy said, announcing the executive order alongside former Vice President and climate activist Al Gore.
New Jersey issued its first offshore wind contract in June for 1,100 megawatts to Danish company Orsted off the coast of Atlantic City.
RGGI PROGRAM NOT ALL IT’S CRACKED UP TO BE: The Northeast’s nine-state carbon trading program could actually be increasing pollution in low-income and minority communities, the environmental group Food & Water Watch says in new research.
The group says its analysis of emissions levels in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative states shows some facilities in the region were allowed to increase emissions, even as greenhouse gases in the overall region declined. And those emissions increases had the greatest impact on communities surrounding those facilities, which tend to be lower income and minority neighborhoods, the Food & Water Watch report says.
Their report comes as at least three other states — New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia — are considering joining the typically much-lauded climate program.
The Rundown
Los Angeles Times Newsom blocks new California fracking pending scientific review
KCRA.com PG&E to shut off power to at least 150,000 customers
New York Times As climate risk grows, cities test a tough strategy: saying ‘no’ to developers
Washington Post What it takes to be carbon neutral — for a family, a city, a country
Axios America’s war over natural gas hits home in New York
Associated Press Urkrainian gas executive cooperating in US probe of Giuliani
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | NOVEMBER 20
1:30 p.m. 1334 Longworth: House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis holds a hearing on “Creating a Climate Resilient America: Reducing Risks and Costs.”
2 p.m. 2118 Rayburn. House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Intelligence and Emerging Threats and Capabilities holds a hearing entitled “Climate Change in the Era of Strategic Competition.”
