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DEMOCRATS COMMIT TO CLIMATE: It appears the odds have increased for sweeping climate change action in a Democratically-controlled Washington, after Joe Biden identified the issue as a top priority upon accepting the party’s nomination on Thursday night. That’s especially true if Democrats kill the filibuster, which is sounding more plausible (see more on that below).
“We heard Vice President Joe Biden accept the nomination with a clear call to act on the climate crisis,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of government affairs for the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund.
Biden satisfied the concerns of activists who fret about climate fading from the agenda when he takes office.
Biden listed the issue as one of “four historic crises” demanding immediate attention, along with the pandemic, the economy, and racial justice. He positioned climate change as “an opportunity for America to lead the world in clean energy and create millions of jobs,” ensuring it would be front and center for Democrats looking to provide stimulus to lift the economy from the coronavirus.
And the Biden campaign signaled its candidate is responsive to the demands of progressive activists, calming a kerfuffle over the DNC’s backtracking on repealing fossil fuel subsidies by declaring he would take action if elected.
“Climate activists are coalescing around the idea that Biden is less ideological and more driven by humanity,” said RL Miller, founder of the group Climate Hawks Vote. Miller was critical of Biden in the primary. “He’s generally going to be a fair-to-middling partner on climate progress instead of an obstacle,” Miller told Josh.
Indeed, party leaders credit Biden with making climate change legislation seem palatable to the broader audience the convention is intended for. Biden and the DNC highlighted personal stories to show the effects global warming is having on everyday life, while hiding potential costs of his proposed clean energy mandates by not sounding threatening to fossil fuel production or workers.
“The magic of Joe Biden is that everything he does becomes the new reasonable,” said Andrew Yang, Biden’s former opponent. “If he comes up with an ambitious new plan to address climate change, all of a sudden everybody is going to follow his lead.”
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.
RELATED…NIXING FILIBUSTER ON SCHUMER’S MIND: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has made comments in recent days indicating killing the filibuster is very much a live option if Democrats take control of the chamber with Biden in November.
“We have a moral imperative to the people of America to get a whole lot done if we get the majority, which, God willing, we will, and keep it in the House, and Biden becomes president, and nothing is off the table,” Schumer said Thursday in an interview on SiriusXM.
Referring to Republicans, Schumer said Democrats would work to get their agenda done “whether they work with us or not.”
He made similar comments to the New York Times Thursday, saying, “We have to get a lot done. The nation demands it, and nothing is off the table.”
Nixing the filibuster would allow the Senate to pass legislation with a simple majority, rather than a 60-vote minimum (check out Josh’s explainer on the subject).
The fact establishment traditionalists like Schumer and Biden are expressing openness to ending the filibuster shows Democrats’ restiveness towards achieving progress on key priorities like climate change, which has been stymied by Republicans in the past.
BLACKOUTS FORCE CALIFORNIA TO DEFEND RENEWABLE GOALS: Republican politicians have blamed the rotating blackouts California experienced over the weekend on the state’s efforts to limit fossil fuel energy use and phase out nuclear energy, putting the state on the defensive.
“This week in California, there were rolling blackouts because the radical Democrats have mandated impossible restrictions on energy production,” President Trump said Thursday during remarks in Old Forge, Pennsylvania.
California officials have insisted renewable energy wasn’t the root cause of the rolling blackouts. “Clean energy and reliable energy are not contradictory goals,” the leaders of the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Independent System Operator, and the California Energy Commission wrote in a letter Wednesday.
Nonetheless, the bitter politics over climate threaten to overshadow challenges energy experts say California will have to manage as it moves more rapidly toward renewables, including longer-term planning to ensure the state has enough resources on its grid.
Dig into the details in Abby’s story posted this morning.
TRUMP SLAMS CALIFORNIA OVER WILDFIRES: Trump criticized California officials for not listening to his suggestions to better manage the state’s forests to prevent wildfires, arguing state officials are more concerned about “the environment.”
“I said, ‘You got to clean your floors. You got to clean your forests.’ They have many, many years of leaves and broken trees” that are “so flammable,” Trump said during his remarks Thursday.
“I’ve been telling them this now for three years, but they don’t want to listen,” the president added. “Maybe we’re just going to have to make them pay for it because they don’t listen to us.”
Counterprogramming: California Gov. Gavin Newsom hit back Thursday evening, during brief remarks at the Democratic National Convention given just a mile outside of where one of the state’s more than 370 wildfires was burning.
“Just today the president of the United States threatened the state of California, 40 million Americans who happen to live here in the state of California, to defund our efforts on wildfire suppression because he said we hadn’t raked enough leaves,” Newsom said. “You can’t make that up.”
California is involved in more than 90 lawsuits with the Trump administration on environmental issues, Newsom added, arguing climate change is one of the most important issues at stake in this election.
“The hots are getting hotter. The drys are getting drier. Climate change is real,” Newsom said. “If you are in denial about climate change, come to California.”
ALASKA ONE STEP CLOSER TO EXPORTING LNG: The Energy Department issued a final order Thursday authorizing the export of LNG from a terminal in Nikiski, Alaska.
DOE’s action is the latest regulatory milestone for the $43 billion Alaska LNG project to export North Slope natural gas to Asian countries, which would diversify the U.S.’ growing LNG export capacity that is mostly situated on the Gulf Coast.
“I am proud to sign this export authorization that allows a path for the otherwise stranded gas resources on the North Slope of Alaska to be made available both to the people of Alaska and to the export market,” said Deputy Energy Secretary Mark Menezes.
FERC’s Republicans approved the project in May, over the opposition of Democrat Richard Glick.
Hurdles remain: All federal reviews and authorizations for the project are expected to be completed by the end of 2020, according to Alaska’s Republican congressional delegation.
“Even when markets are unstable and times are tough, permitting progress on what could be one of the largest projects in the world is encouraging,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, chairman of the Energy Committee.
Glick and other Democrats, however, have expressed doubts on whether the project would ever get built considering financial challenges exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, which has restrained demand for U.S. LNG.
It still lacks investor commitments for completion, causing the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., which manages the project, to suspend its plan to construction.
PELOSI BACKS KENNEDY OVER GREEN NEW DEAL CO-SPONSOR MARKEY: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally endorsed Rep. Joe Kennedy in his bid to unseat incumbent Sen. Ed Markey on Thursday, breaking with Schumer who backed Markey last year, Washington Examiner political reporter Naomi Lim reports.
It’s an unusual move likely to intensify an already bitter primary contest. Pelosi told the Washington Post that Markey’s campaign crossed a line with a recent ad that included a dig at the Kennedy family dynasty.
“I wasn’t too happy with some of the assault that I saw made on the Kennedy family, and I thought, Joe didn’t ask me to endorse him, but I felt an imperative to do so,” she said.
Roles reversed: In this contest, Kennedy, despite being the challenger, has been viewed more as the establishment figure, while Markey has earned the endorsements of left-wing Democrats and environmentalists, including his Green New Deal co-sponsor Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“No one gets to complain about primary challenges again,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet reacting to Pelosi’s endorsement.
Worth remembering: Markey served 37 years in the House before he was elected to the Senate in 2013, and 26 of those years he served alongside Pelosi, who put him in charge of the original select panel on climate change the first time she was speaker.
The Rundown
Bloomberg EPA launches investigation into massive Florida methane leak
The Guardian Revealed: how the gas industry is waging war against climate action
Wall Street Journal Natural gas prices are on fire, but producers are holding back
The Atlantic How a plan to save the power system disappeared
Calendar
FRIDAY | AUG 21
The House and Senate are out.
