Daily on Energy: House Democrats hide carbon pricing in their climate bill

Their newly released climate legislative framework, though, tells a bit of a different story. While it doesn’t include a carbon tax, the draft outline describes a clean electricity standard that some Republican lawmakers have already compared to the failed 2009 cap-and-trade bill.

The framework also builds in a federal “carbon fee” to act as a backstop for states that don’t meet their requirements to cut emissions.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone was insistent an explicit carbon price wasn’t needed in the draft climate plan Democrats on the committee rolled out this week. Their memo outlined a multi-pronged, economy-wide set of programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which Pallone said would form the basis of legislative text released later this month.

Reading the fine print: Nonetheless, the draft includes a number of nods to carbon pricing that would likely deter Republicans and potentially cause pause for more progressive Democrats skeptical that market-based policies could cut emissions quickly enough.

For example, under the draft bill’s clean electricity standard, power suppliers would be able to trade “clean energy credits” or buy them through an auction. Pallone struggled to explain how that proposal was different than cap-and-trade.

His Republican counterpart on the committee, Oregon’s Greg Walden, though, took one look at the clean electricity standard and said it was the “same thing” as cap-and-trade, just with different language.

In addition, the draft bill includes carbon pricing in a program requiring states to submit plans to reduce emissions consistent with a national net-zero goal to the Environmental Protection Agency. If states fail to submit acceptable plans, emitters within that state would automatically be subject to a carbon fee, though the outline doesn’t specify at what level that price would be set.

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HOUSE PASSES ‘FOREVER CHEMICAL’ PACKAGE: But it’s likely dead-on-arrival in the Republican-led Senate, leaving the fate of the chemicals’ regulation with the Trump administration.

Two dozen Republicans joined with Democrats to approve legislation Friday forcing the EPA to regulate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The bill is unlikely to advance beyond that, though, as Senate Republicans have all but promised to not take it up and the White House has threatened to veto it.

Republican congressional leaders and the White House have argued the bill, which combined a number of Democratic-led measures, was too far-reaching, especially in its mandate that the EPA designate all several thousand PFAS chemicals as hazardous under the Superfund law within a year.

House Democrats, though, said that provision lifts a critical barrier to getting sites, particularly close to military bases and industrial facilities, cleaned up.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SLAPS NEW SANCTIONS ON IRAN: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced new sanctions on Iran’s exports and eight senior Iranian officials on Friday.

The Trump administration officials said the new penalties will target top Iranian officials involved in “destabilizing” activities in the Middle East and Tuesday’s missile strike.

Iran fired more than a dozen missiles at Iraqi bases that were housing U.S. troops in retaliation for the U.S. killing of Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike last week, which caused brief spikes in the price of oil.

Mnuchin said Trump would impose sanctions on anyone involved in the country’s textile, construction, manufacturing or mining sectors. Separate sanctions would be imposed against the steel and iron sectors. The administration has already choked off Iran’s oil exports, the centerpiece of its so-called “maximum pressure” campaign.

WEST COAST CO-OP TO CLOSE COAL PLANTS: Tri-State Generation, one of the largest co-ops in the U.S., is closing its coal plants in New Mexico and Colorado.

Tri-State announced Thursday it will shutter the Escalante coal plant by the end of this year in western New Mexico, and the Crag Station and Colowyo Mine in northwest Colorado by 2030.

This would eliminate Tri-State’s entire coal generation in both states.

“Serving our members’ clean energy and affordability needs, supporting state requirements and goals, and leading the fundamental changes in our industry require the retirement of our coal facilities in Colorado and New Mexico,” said Rick Gordon, Tri-State’s chairman of the board.

The Democratic governors of Colorado and New Mexico have committed their states to significant carbon reduction goals. That push has helped prompt Tri-State to develop a “responsible energy plan” that will include “significant renewable energy additions,” which it plans to announce next week.

Tri-State still has coal plants in Arizona and Wyoming. But its transition away from the fuel is significant because co-ops, which provide energy to rural consumers, many of them low-income, generally have been slower to get off coal compared to other utilities.

ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE WORKS THROUGH CLIMATE BILL CONTROVERSY: The House Energy and Commerce Committee, despite fighting over a larger climate package, approved a suite of nine clean energy and efficiency bills, some of them bipartisan, on Thursday.

The 21st Century Power Grid Act would establish a DOE grant program for projects that enhance the resilience and efficiency of the grid.

A second bipartisan bill, the Energy Savings through Public-Private Partnerships Act, would leverage private investment for energy efficiency improvements in federal buildings.

A third bill, the NO EXHAUST Act, supported by Democrats and opposed by Republicans, would provide $2 billion per year in grants through 2030 to state and local governments and private entities for electric vehicle charging stations and network development.

BUTTIGIEG LOOKS TO PREPARE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE: Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg unveiled a $1 trillion infrastructure plan Friday that he says would prepare for the effects of worsening extreme weather from climate change.

His proposal would provide $200 billion for programs to transition workers to a “clean energy economy,” $40 billion for a “Sea Level Defense Fund,” and $6 billion for EV charging infrastructure. Buttigieg pledges to set 12 “science-based standards” to limit PFAS contamination in drinking water, tripling the budget for EPA’s cleanup programs. And he would spend $20 billion on replacing 3 million lead service lines by 2030.

SENATE CLEARS CONSERVATION BILL: The Senate unanimously passed bipartisan legislation Thursday reauthorizing and expanding programs for wildlife conservation. Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso teamed up on the bill with his Democratic counterpart, Tom Carper.

America’s Conservation Enhancement (ACE) Act also authorizes new programs and studies to address the threats of invasive species and wildlife disease.

The Rundown

Wall Street Journal Puerto Rico power plant sustains ‘destruction on a grand scale’

Bloomberg Gasoline price fears stoked by Iran may still roil US election

Associated Press Steyer wants climate change refugees to enter US legally

Calendar

TUESDAY | JAN. 14

10 a.m. 406 Dirksen. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee holds a business meeting to consider H.R. 5430, United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act.

10 a.m. 2167 Rayburn. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee holds a hearing entitled “The Path to a Carbon-Free Maritime Industry: Investments and Innovation.”

10:30 a.m. 2322 Rayburn. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee holds a hearing entitled, “Promoting American Innovation and Jobs: Legislation to Phase Down Hydrofluorocarbons.”

WEDNESDAY | JAN. 15

10 a.m. 406 Dirksen. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee holds a hearing entitled “One Year of Progress: An Update on Implementation of the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act.”

10 a.m. 2318 Rayburn. The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology holds a hearing entitled “An Update on the Climate Crisis: From Science to Solutions.”

2 p.m. 2318 Rayburn. The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology holds a hearing entitled “The Department of Energy’s Office of Science: Exploring the Next Frontiers in Energy Research and Scientific Discovery.”