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EPA GETS READY TO ROLL OUT THE WELCOME WAGON FOR CORN ETHANOL AND REFINERS ALIKE: The Environmental Protection Agency as soon as Friday is expected to release its finalized biofuel mandate for 2019, which will require more renewable fuels to be pumped into the nation’s transportation system while leaving in place key exemptions for oil refiners.

The Renewable Fuel Standard, which is required by Congress to be set on Nov. 30, is expected to raise the requirements for refiners to blend diesel fuel derived from crop waste by 15 percent to nearly 5 billion gallons next year, according to a draft of the final regulation reviewed by Reuters.

What about corn ethanol? The mandate to blend corn ethanol in the nation’s gasoline supply will remain static at 15 billion gallons, which is the limit that corn-based fuels can be pushed into the fuel system under the renewable fuel law. The remaining amount of the 32 billion gallons required to be blended in the next three, or so, years must come from advanced renewable fuels like cellulosic ethanol. But advanced fuels have failed to meet EPA production targets for years.

What does the RFS do? EPA is required to set annual targets for blending renewable fuels into the nation’s fuel system, ratcheting up the amount of fuel each year.

However, the RFS program has suffered a number of setbacks in recent years, as the oil industry has managed to sway EPA to take into consideration market limitations to blending ethanol, forcing EPA to roll back the standard.

Trump’s been pro-ethanol: Perhaps surprisingly, much of the rollback occurred under the Obama administration. President Trump has pledged to support the RFS as a promise to Iowa farmers. But he has landed in hot water and court for granting oil companies waivers, allowing them to forgo the ethanol requirement.

Chevron, a large multinational oil company, received the latest “hardship” waiver from EPA earlier this month, sparking criticism from the ethanol industry.

The 2019 RFS is not expected to make up for previous oil company exemptions that the ethanol industry has called for under the law.

BIOFUELS STILL NEED CONGRESS TO SHOW THEM SOME LOVE: Even with the expected boost in biodiesel from EPA, Congress still needs to do its part to reinstate expired tax credits for the fuel.

A report issued by FTI Consulting on Thursday showed that farmers lose 25 cents for each gallon of biodiesel produced without the tax credit in place.

Jamie McInerney, senior director at FTI, told John that a bill was dropped in the House earlier in the week that would reinstate the tax credit, along with many other clean energy subsidies. But the Senate has yet to act in introducing a companion bill, he said.

There is hope for a tax credit extenders package in December during the lame duck session of Congress, but nothing is for certain right now.

Welcome to Daily on Energy, compiled 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.  

TOP DEMOCRAT SAYS EXTENSION OF TAX CREDIT ‘BIGGEST DRIVER’ TO MORE ELECTRIC VEHICLE USE: Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., on Friday called for his colleagues to extend or expand the federal electric vehicle tax credit as one of its first moves in the new Congress.

Tonko delivered the keynote address at an event in Washington hosted by utility trade group Edison Electric Institute, which was celebrating the milestone of 1 million electric vehicles now being driven on U.S. roads. Attendees at the event included representatives from utilities such as Exelon, and automakers General Motors, BMW, and Nissan.

Tonko outlines potential ‘policy wins’: Tonko, who is expected in the new Democratically-controlled House to lead the Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on environment, said extending or expanding the tax credit would be the “biggest driver” of more electric vehicle adoption.

He added that Congress should focus on achieving “singles and doubles” with policy to boost electrification, such as accelerating the deployment of electric vehicle charging stations, and providing incentives for localities to purchase electric buses.

Push for Congress to expand tax credit: The electric vehicle industry is calling for Congress to reform the $7,500-per-vehicle tax credit for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, primarily by lifting the individual manufacturer cap, and allowing the credit to be used into future years.

The credit, which does not have an expiration date, is capped at 200,000 vehicles sold per automaker. The effort to expand the credit has bipartisan support, with Republican Sen. Dean Heller, whose state of Nevada houses Tesla battery manufacturing, recently introducing a bill to remove the limit on manufacturers.

Trump disrupts the politics: Trump recently drew attention to the debate over the electric vehicle tax credit when he threatened to retaliate against General Motors for laying off thousands of workers and shuttering several North American facilities to focus attention on emissions-free and self-driving vehicles.

Trump threatened Tuesday to cut GM’s federal subsidies, including for electric vehicles.

Only Congress has the power to alter the electric vehicle tax credit, so it’s unclear what Trump meant, and he could not on his own limit the company’s ability to use the subsidy, but his threat could undermine the effort in Congress to expand the credit.

GM is already close to using up its availability of the tax credit, and has called for its expansion. Tesla has already reached the limit.

GENERAL MOTORS IS UNFAZED BY TRUMP’S THREATS, PREDICTS ‘ALL-ELECTRIC FUTURE’: Dan Turton, GM’s vice president of North American policy, said Friday that the company took notice of Trump’s comments, but is unconcerned the president will hamper the progress of electric vehicles. He said he GM foresees an “all-electric future.”

“We pay a lot of attention to what any president says. But the reality is this electrification movement is going forward anyway,” Turton said in a response to a question from Josh at the event hosted by Edison Electric Institute. “Not one thing will make it happen or not. The public debate is going to go on as it does. With the tax credit there is opposing views on that. Our job as policy representatives is to be out and engage on those conversations and win the day. How the public is responding, I think we will win that day.”

FEDS TO ALLOW COMPANIES TO HARM WHALES AS THEY SURVEY FOR OIL OFF THE COAST: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will announce its decision later on Friday to allow companies to accidentally harm or injure marine life by conducting geophysical surveys in support of oil and natural gas exploration off the Atlantic Ocean.

Environmentalists says seismic survey methods used by companies to map the ocean’s continental shelf for oil deposits harms marine mammals, and should be banned. The Trump administration argues that the surveys are needed to understand if it is feasible to drill off the Atlantic, a region that has been untouched by offshore energy development.

Upsetting the majority: Rep. Raul Grijalva, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, called the forthcoming decision ironic, given the recent findings of a national climate change report.

“There is nothing this administration won’t do for the fossil fuel industry, including destroying local economies and ruining endangered species habitats,” Grijalva said in a statement.

Vowing oversight: Grijalva is expected to lead the committee next year after the Democrats took back the House in November. He vowed to use the committee to “provide serious checks and balances on this behavior from day one in the next Congress.”

MEANWHILE…KIDS APPEAL CONSTITUTIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE LAWSUIT IN ALASKA: A group of 16 youths is appealing a decision by the Alaskan superior court last month to throw out their climate change claims.

The appeal was sent to the state’s Supreme Court late Thursday, noting that it comes just days after the U.S. national climate change assessment was released showing that it would be devastating not to combat global warming.

What are they appealing? The state’s superior court had concluded that the youths did not point to any policy of the state that has contributed to climate change. The court ruled that the claims must be addressed by Alaska’s executive and legislative branches of governments.

The Trump administration is fighting a similar lawsuit making its way through the federal court system. The youths in both cases argue that government actions have helped create an energy system that has spurred on global warming, undermining their constitutional rights for personal well-being.

SENATE TO VOTE ON FERC NOMINEE MCNAMEE NEXT WEEK: The full Senate plans to vote next week on Trump’s nomination of Bernard McNamee to serve on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., filed cloture on the nominee.

The move signals McNamee has enough support from Republicans, and perhaps a few Democrats, to advance in the Senate — which the GOP controls by a 51-49 seat margin — despite controversy over comments he made critical of renewable energy.

He succeeded because Republicans — mostly importantly, committee chairwoman Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska — stood by McNamee after a newly unearthed video from earlier this year showed him criticizing renewable energy and supporting fossil fuels, prompting critics to renew questions about his independence.

McNamee, who was working for the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, delivered a speech in February to Texas lawmakers in which he said fossil fuels are “key to our way of life,” but renewable energy “screws up the whole physics of the grid.”

THIRD REPUBLICAN ENDORSES BIPARTISAN CARBON TAX BILL: Rep. Dave Trott, R-Mich., on Thursday became the third GOP member to co-sponsor the first bipartisan carbon tax legislation in nearly a decade, introduced earlier this week.

Trott joins Reps. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., along with Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida, the Democratic co-chair of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, Charlie Crist, D-Fla., and John Delaney, D, Md.

The bill would impose a tax of $15 per ton of carbon dioxide in 2019, increasing $10 each year, rising to nearly $100 per ton by 2030.

It distributes all of the proceeds from the tax into equal portions in the form of a monthly rebate to American households.

REPUBLICANS WARM UP TO CLIMATE CHANGE: In a huge shift, a majority of Republicans now believe in climate change, but many still don’t consider it to be a manmade phenomenon, according to a poll released Thursday.

Of the Republican U.S. adults surveyed by Monmouth University, 64 percent attribute extreme weather patterns and rising sea levels to a changing climate, the new study found. That figure represents a 15-percentage point spike for GOP respondents since Monmouth began asking the question in 2015. In contrast, 92 percent of Democrats share the same sentiment, up from 85 percent in 2015.

There are caveats: While a plurality of Republicans may believe in climate change, only 13 percent think human activity is a driving factor behind the issue. That number is stagnant compared to Monmouth’s previous research from 2015.

More than 2-in-5 Democrats, however, consider climate change to be exacerbated by people, an increase from 39 percent three years ago.

Although more than half of GOP respondents think the government should take action to mitigate the effects of climate change, 55 percent have little confidence in Congress’s willingness to do so in the next few years. The same percentage of the survey takers doubt lawmakers can take meaningful action.

The poll was conducted after the deadly California wildfires broke out earlier this month but before the Trump administration published its National Climate Assessment on Black Friday.

EPA INSPECTOR GENERAL SHUTS DOWN TWO PROBES INTO SCOTT PRUITT: The EPA’s inspector general has shut down two investigations into former administrator Scott Pruitt, according to a report posted online Friday, because he resigned before he could be interviewed.

The internal watchdog did not make a conclusion on whether Pruitt violated federal law in either case.

The closed investigations focused on Pruitt’s $50-per-night condo rental deal with the wife of an energy lobbyist who had business before the EPA, and his use of agency staff for personal tasks. The latter probe covered allegations that Pruitt sent his security personnel on errands, asked employees to a secure a mattress for him from the Trump hotel, and used them to them to try to find a job for his wife with Chick-fil-A.

ZINKE STRUGGLES TO RESPOND TO QUESTIONS ABOUT INVESTIGATIONS: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke snapped back at a Fox News host late Thursday after being asked about more than a dozen investigations into his use of government resources.

Zinke fumbled for words when Shannon Bream asked about criticism by the Center for Western Priorities regarding his actions in office, including 18 requested and opened investigations the organization has chronicled.

Zinke said he was “10 for 10,” then called for his accuser to be investigated as a front for the Democratic Party.

“I’ve been investigated on my socks. I have had been investigated taking jets, which I don’t, completed,” said Zinke.

“And you know what they all say? Ryan Zinke follows all the rules, all the regulations, all the procedures,” he said. “This is politically motivated. In Montana, we call it ‘BS.’ Organizations like Western Values Project that pretends to be a 501(c)3 — an advocacy group — I would like to see their books. I think everyone would like to see the books, way they’re funded. They are operatives from the Democratic Party. They are hacks. They have always been. And they need to be investigated.”

In October, the Center for Western Priorities said it was aware of 18 probes the Office of Special Counsel and Office of Inspector General had launched or been asked by members of Congress to launch into Zinke.

RUNDOWN

Bloomberg Flood policy standoff tests Democrats’ promise of climate action

Wall Street Journal Prized ‘rare earth’ minerals feel scorch of tariffs

New York Times Trump’s ‘energy dominance’ doctrine is undermined by climate change

Axios Coal CEO losing hope in salvation from Trump

SPONSOR MESSAGE: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have spoken about supporting improvements to America’s infrastructure, with little ever being done. Now politicians have an opportunity to bridge the bipartisan divide and work to rebuild the nation’s roads, bridges, pipelines, and waterways. When lawmakers reconvene in Washington in January, GAIN encourages returning and newly-elected officials to find common ground to grow America’s infrastructure. To learn more and stay up to date on the latest go towww.gainnow.org or follow us @GAINNowAmerica.