Daily on Energy: The Biden administration’s solo permitting reform efforts

The future of more permanent statutory changes to environmental laws and permitting timelines is still very much TBD in the new Congress. President Joe Biden made clear his sympathies for reforms late last year.

Biden also made clear that his preferences for reforms lie with those that would speed up clean energy projects (Permitting them is “too cumbersome and too time consuming,” he said in October) and the Interior Department and the Council on Environmental Quality have been working away on that.

What Interior wants to do: “Permitting reform” has become the default catch-all for “make things go faster.” It doesn’t really reflect all that Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management are doing with its new proposed rulemaking announced yesterday for offshore wind — or all that Sen. Joe Manchin and others sought to do with their recent legislative proposals, for that matter.

But the term does capture some of the department’s desired regulatory changes, which it said were designed to streamline “overly complex and burdensome processes” and reduce administrative burdens.

BOEM proposes to eliminate a requirement that parties seeking to deploy meteorological buoys, used to collect data to inform the siting and design of wind projects, submit a site assessment plan to receive a permit to place buoys. The proposed rulemaking said the process is “unreasonably burdensome” and that the assessment activities required “are disproportionate to the potential environmental impacts caused by met buoys.”

BOEM also wants to give project developers more flexibility when drawing up their construction and operations plans, which detail how lessees intend to develop wind leases. The proposal seeks to do that by deferring some of the survey data requirements for the plan until after construction is authorized.

CEQ’s move: The rulemaking from BOEM follows recent interim guidance from White House CEQ on how agencies should go about determining a given project’s prospective direct, indirect, and cumulative emissions, deepening its reversal of the council’s guidance during the Trump administration.

The interim guidance represents a “lean into greening,” observed analysts at ClearView Energy Partners, and seeks to extend clear flexibility to agencies to perform less intensive greenhouse gas analyses for renewable energy projects — something that could cut down on time.

Remembering the politics: Permitting reform is a malleable concept. To former House Natural Resources Chairman Raul Grijalva, it was a malicious “euphemism” used by oil and gas interests to make life easier for themselves. Republican members certainly have pursued reforms to make expansion easier for pipeline developers and the like.

But members of both parties have agreed that some version of reform to the environmental laws and regulations, to one degree or another, are necessary for the energy sector.

Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Jeremy Beaman (@jeremywbeaman) and Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep). 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.

BONUS: THE STAR OF INTERIOR’S RULEMAKING: Interior wants to take a page out of its oil and gas leasing book and bring it to offshore wind leasing.

Its new rulemaking proposes to establish a “Renewable Energy Leasing Schedule” to operate like the existing five-year offshore oil and gas leasing program. The proposed renewable leasing schedule would similarly provide the anticipated lease sales intended for the subsequent five years.

One key difference is the five-year oil and gas program is required by statute, whereas the renewable leasing schedule would be a novel regulation.

Interior already has a “path forward” in place for wind leasing through 2025 and has pretty well kept to it, and at least some offshore energy interests are wondering how a schedule would differ from the existing roadmap, which provides the OCS region and fiscal quarter for intended wind lease sales through 2025.

There are also questions about whether creating a leasing schedule for renewable energy could expose Interior to new streams of litigation when it doesn’t stick to the schedule, according to one industry source.

“How much more binding would it be [than the current roadmap]?” the person told Jeremy, pondering whether the courts would treat a prospective legal challenge brought on the basis of the renewable leasing schedule like they treat a challenge under the oil and gas leasing program.

The five-year program was integral to arguments over the fate of Lease Sale 257, the Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sale that Congress recently ordered reinstated after a federal judge tossed its underlying environmental analysis.

“It’s really hard to predict what courts will do sometimes,” the person said. “There’s a hesitancy … We think we know how the courts’ are going to rule, that they’re going to rule in our favor, but they might not.”

WHITE HOUSE BLASTS GOP BILL TO LIMIT MORE SPR SALES: The White House took aim at a bill introduced this week by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers that would prevent the president from tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve barring severe and narrowly defined instances of “supply interruption,” or unless he also opened more federal lands to oil and gas drilling simultaneously.

Republicans have blasted Biden for last year’s record SPR sales, which drained the nation’s emergency stockpile to its lowest point in 40 years in an effort to alleviate high fuel costs for consumers. The administration also declined several offers earlier this month to begin replenishing the reserve in February, saying the offers received were either too expensive or did not meet specifications for SPR storage (which is housed in four large underground salt caverns).

“It’s absolutely backwards for House Republicans to keep putting wealthy special interests ahead of middle-class families in this way,” a White House spokesman told Yahoo News. “They’re attempting to hike gas prices and neuter one of the best tools we have to deliver Americans relief from global oil spikes in the future, all to help Big Oil as they make record profits.” The White House did not immediately respond to the Examiner’s request for comment on the bill.

Yesterday, the House passed a separate bill that would ban the Department of Energy from selling SPR to China or to any entity owned, controlled, or influenced by the Chinese Communist Party. That bill cleared the lower chamber by a 331-97 vote.

SEVENTH WHALE WASHES ASHORE IN NEW JERSEY, SPARKING OFFSHORE WIND OPPOSITION: A 25-foot humpback whale washed up on the coastline of Brigantine, New Jersey, officials announced today— bringing to seven the number of dead whales that have been found in the area during the last five weeks, and prompting calls to halt offshore wind development.

The whale deaths have sparked outcry from climate groups and demands that New Jersey temporarily halt construction of its offshore wind projects until an investigation can be conducted. The dead whale reported today was found just miles from where two other humpback whales washed up in Atlantic City in recent weeks, and others have been found on the shores of Amagansett, New York, Rockaway Beach in Queens, and in Strathmere Beach, New Jersey.

While New Jersey has no active wind projects, several are in the works as Gov. Phil Murphy looks to reach his goal of reaching 11,000 MW wind generation by 2040.

But local climate groups, including several who gathered Monday to urge a temporary halt in the offshore wind projects, say they are concerned that whales could be harmed in the process, potentially from noise and sonar emissions during the pre-construction and construction phase. There is also a heightened possibility of vessel strikes during the siting and building process.

State Sen. Vince Polistina (R-Atlantic) called for a suspension of all work related to offshore wind development until the cause of death is determined: “The work related to offshore wind projects is the primary difference in our waters, and it’s hard to believe that the death of [the] whales on our beaches is just a coincidence,” Polistina said in a statement today.

Last month, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection held public hearings on the construction of the offshore wind facilities, which are expected to include construction of 98 wind turbines along the New Jersey coast. But companies are preparing to propose two additional projects, which could put as many as 350 turbines in the area.

JAPAN DELAYS PLAN TO RELEASE TREATED FUKUSHIMA WASTEWATER INTO SEA: Japan says it has delayed releasing treated radioactive wastewater from the site of the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea, citing longer-than-expected construction of a transport tunnel, as well as a lack of public support from the local fishing industry and residents.

The current plan calls for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) to release one million tons of treated wastewater from the site of the plant currently being stored in 1,000 tanks through an undersea tunnel and into the ocean.

There are risks to keeping the radioactive water in the tanks for much longer, TEPCO and government officials said, noting that they could be vulnerable to leaks or spills in the event of a major earthquake or tsunami—both of which occurred in 2011 to cause the Fukushima meltdown in the first place.

Still, concerns remain about funneling the treated wastewater into the sea. Though most of the radioactive material is removed from the water during the treatment process and diluted by seawater, government officials said there is no way to remove tritium, and acknowledged that some low levels of other radionuclides will also remain. The plan has sparked opposition from fisherman and some scientists, who say the long-term impact of low-dose exposure to both marine life and humans is unknown.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, said today that the government has adopted a revised action plan with a new target of “around spring or summer” of this year, pushing back its initial target of this spring. They will also be adopting enhanced efforts to ensure public safety, and introduce new measures to financially support the local fishing industry, Matsuno said.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE GAS STOVE KERFUFFLE: Uproar over the notion of a gas stove ban continued yesterday, even after the White House said that Biden is opposed to a federal ban, and the chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, whose commissioner started the whole kerfuffle earlier this week, poured cold water on the idea.

The commissioner in question would be one Richard Trumka Jr., the son of the late famed union leader by the same name (and very similar mustache). A former Cornell University linebacker and Democratic staffer on the House Oversight Committee, Trumka Jr. made a name for himself during the COVID-19 pandemic, when, as general counsel for the subcommittee on economic and public health policy, he exposed attempted price-gouging schemes from ventilator providers and fought the sale of fake COVID-19 tests. Read more about his background here.

…THE FIGHT IS LOCAL: Though the prospect of a federal ban remains highly unlikely, and Democratic proponents have pushed largely for regulations, not an outright ban, (the remedy requested by Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia who sent a letter to CPSC last month), restrictions and bans at the local and state level are certainly becoming more popular.

Already, nearly 100 U.S. cities and counties, mostly in blue areas, have adopted policies restricting the use of gas-powered stoves and heaters or to begin phasing them out in new construction. To preempt any perceived power-grab, some Republican-led states have passed laws to ban any attempted stove ban.

At least one city-wide stove ban has endured a federal court challenge from the California Restaurant Association, which argued that a law passed in Berkeley prohibits chefs from using gas-fired stoves to prepare food in the way they are classically trained. (It was dismissed by a Ninth Circuit judge.)

The Rundown

Time How India became the most important country in the climate fight

Financial Times How do the Federal Reserve and ECB differ on tackling climate change?

Washington Post In graying Puerto Rico, the elderly face climate disasters alone

Science Assessing ExxonMobil’s global warming projections

Calendar

WEDNESDAY | JANUARY 18

5:00 p.m. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will hold the first of three virtual public meetings on its draft environmental analysis for the proposed Sunrise Wind Offshore Wind Project in the Atlantic.