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TRUMP’S RARE MOMENT WITH CUOMO SHOWS OFF HIS FRACKING, PIPELINE PUSH: President Trump met with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday, and fracking and pipeline expansion in the Northeast were a top point of discussion.

White House spokesman Judd Deere said the meeting was at the Democratic governor’s request, and that Trump took it as an opportunity to talk tax cuts and push for lower energy prices in New York and the Northeast by moving more natural gas into the region via the fracking fields of Pennsylvania.

“The president discussed economic growth opportunities for the State of New York, including helping lower energy prices throughout the entire Northeast by allowing low-cost, American energy to thrive with fracking and pipeline systems,” Deere said.

Why bring this up now? The Northeast has struggled to build pipelines to get deliveries of natural gas from Pennsylvania, as environmental groups and fracking opponents have been strident in their efforts to block pipeline development.

Pipeline development has been a key choke point in Trump’s energy dominance agenda to produce more energy at home and export it abroad to expand the nation’s economy.

Cuomo is not likely to change his tune on fracking: In fact, the meeting with Trump came just days after the governor announced his plan to move the Empire State toward its own “Green New Deal” after Democrats in Washington unveiled their resolution last week.

The New York Green New Deal moves in the direction of a recent U.N. report that says countries need to be carbon-neutral by the middle of the century, which means they produce only as much carbon dioxide as they eliminate.

Slamming Trump on the science: “With the Trump Administration ignoring science and putting the profits of the fossil fuel industry over the future of our planet, it’s up to states like New York to lead,” Cuomo’s office said earlier this week.

Trump and Cuomo have subsidies in common: New York has banned fracking in the state, while granting subsidies to zero-carbon nuclear power plants that have been suffering economically from increased competition from low-cost natural gas. The subsidies are meant to help keep nuclear in the mix until New York transitions to more renewable energy.

Coincidentally, Trump had sought to provide market-based incentives in his first year in office to try and save nuclear and coal power plants. The administration’s proposal was rejected by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission due to a lack of evidence.

However, FERC is still examining the possibility of implementing some kind of market-based fix to incentivize certain plants for the resiliency they provide to the grid during times when electricity generation is stressed. That effort is still ongoing.

Welcome to Daily on Energy, written 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.  

MURKOWSKI SEES GREEN NEW DEAL AS OPPORTUNITY TO PUSH ENERGY BILL: Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Wednesday the push for a “Green New Deal” could provide an opportunity for her to revive a comprehensive energy bill she co-authored that would be the first update to the country’s energy policies from Congress in a decade.

“There is a different dynamic in this Congress,” Murkowski said at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ Winter Policy Summit. “There is a lot of discussion on this so- called Green New Deal. A lot of folks are saying there is no way we can figure things out in energy space. I disagree. We can find some common ground here. A refreshed energy bill is one of things on my to do list.”

Murkowski, the chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has long pushed to update and modernize the nation’s energy laws, and is one of the most outspoken Senate Republicans about the challenge of climate change.

“We are seeing the impact of climate change and it is literally there at our front door,” Murkowski said, noting melting sea ice and glaciers, and the displacement of villages in her home state.

A stalled push: A version of a comprehensive energy bill she co-authored with Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., passed out of the Senate in 2016 by a 85-12 vote but failed to advance in the House. The legislation would boost energy efficiency and improve land management, infrastructure and cybersecurity of the energy system.

It aimed to increase U.S. shale gas exports by speeding up the permitting process for liquefied natural gas export facilities, invest in research for industrial-scale batteries, and improve the efficiency of commercial buildings and homes.

Murkowski also said Congress’ could reach compromise on promoting clean energy research, development, and deployment, which she said is important to help combat high electricity costs because of a reliance on diesel fuel rural parts of Alaska.

“We are pairing renewables with [energy] storage to combat the high cost and emissions of diesel fuel, but today’s technologies are not enough to fight the high cost of electricity in rural areas of our state,” she said. “We know we need to do better.”

Pushing for nuclear power: She said any deal to promote zero-carbon energy must include nuclear power, which is a sore subject for the Green New Deal. But, she said, Congress must resolve the issue of nuclear waste to get the most of the zero-carbon energy source.

CARBON TAX PROPONENTS SEE GREEN NEW DEAL AS BLOW TO THEIR CAUSE: Centrist Republicans and Democrats who favor a carbon tax see progressives’ Green New Deal as a setback that will make it harder for them to broaden their base of support.

“It’s unfortunate it might undermine the opportunity to do the right thing for the environment,” said Rep. Francis Rooney of Florida, the Republican co-chair of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus.

The Green New Deal is mostly a federal investment program. It does not mention a carbon tax, although it leaves the door open for it.

But progressives have quietly been moving away from carbon pricing has the best way to combat climate change in favor of government mandates.

Easy for Republicans to back out: Republicans who may have been open to carbon pricing could lose interest if progressives also oppose the policy, says former Rep. Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania, a Republican who retired from Congress last year and who is now managing director of Americans for Carbon Dividends, a group that backs a carbon tax.

“The risk is the rollout has not created a political imperative for Republicans in Congress to offer an alternative,” Costello told Josh of the Green New Deal.

Democrats are concerned too: Former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland, a Democrat running for president in 2020, says the Green New Deal slows momentum for a carbon tax because of its extraneous focus on social and economic policy.

“I worry that saying to deal with climate change, we also need universal healthcare and guarantees jobs, that is making it harder to get something done on carbon pricing, which should be central to any strategy,” Delaney said.

In December, Delaney co-sponsored the first bipartisan carbon tax bill to be introduced in nearly a decade. Rooney and Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., reintroduced the bill last month, and it now has 11 other co-sponsors, all Democrats.

Read more of Josh’s report here.

COAL PLANT CLOSURES NEED TO BE ‘RADICALLY ACCELERATED’ TO MEET CLIMATE CHANGE, REPORT FINDS: Coal plants can’t close fast enough to meet United Nations’ climate goals, according to a new report released Wednesday.

The Washington-based environmental think tank World Resources Institute said in its progress report on climate change mitigation efforts that drastic action needs to be taken to close coal plants faster to meet the climate targets outlined in the latest U.N. climate assessment.

“The research finds that we are missing the mark, in almost all cases,” the report says.

Read the full story here.

SENATE WILL VOTE ON GREEN NEW DEAL: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he’ll soon bring up the Green New Deal resolution for a vote, a move designed to put Democrats on the spot on the controversial measure.

“We’ll give everyone an opportunity to go on record and see how they feel about the Green New Deal,” said McConnell, who represents the coal state of Kentucky and has long been a skeptic of taking action to combat climate change.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., along with Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced the resolution last week, and it currently has 67 co-sponsors in the House, and 11 in the Senate — all Democrats.

The Green New Deal resolution contains several nonbinding goals for transforming the U.S. economy to fight climate change, with the goal of reaching 100 percent clean, renewable, and zero-emission electricity — and achieving net-zero emissions — by 2030.

But it contains no actual policies to get there, and supporters say it’s a broad first step intended to lead to the design of several specific pieces of legislation in the future.

There are no immediate plans to bring the resolution up for a House vote. Instead, Democrats are waiting to see how many people sign on as co-sponsors, said House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern, D-Mass.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., challenged Republicans to consider their own version of the deal.

“The first question Republicans should answer is what is their answer on climate change, what are they going to put forward,” he told reporters Tuesday.

MARKEY CRIES ‘SABOTAGE’: Markey’s response to the vote was to call out McConnell as a climate change saboteur.

The GOP offers “no plan to address this economic and national security threat and want to sabotage any effort that makes Big Oil and corporate polluters pay,” Markey said after McConnell’s announcement.

Markey said Republican opposition to the Green New Deal will be the conservative party’s undoing.

“The Green New Deal resolution has struck a powerful chord in this country, and Republicans, climate deniers, and the fossil fuel industry are going to end up on the wrong side of history.”

KLOBUCHAR SAYS GREEN NEW DEAL SHOULD INCLUDE NUCLEAR POWER: Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said Tuesday night she would vote for the Green New Deal resolution, however she said it must leave room for nuclear power to meet the net-zero emissions goal.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen in the next few years,” Klobuchar said in an interview on Fox News. “You can imagine by new technology and by the way, that includes nuclear and everything else, that we could get to a better place.”

Klobuchar is one of several Democratic senators running for president in 2020 who have endorsed the Green New Deal resolution.

HOWARD SCHULTZ SAYS GREEN NEW DEAL ‘NOT REALISTIC’: Possible independent presidential candidate and Democratic spoiler Howard Schultz on Tuesday night criticized the Green New Deal, warning it would be “immoral” to spend trillions of dollars on an “unrealistic” solution.

The billionaire former Starbucks CEO and executive chairman, speaking at a town hall hosted by CNN, urged Democrats to be “truthful” about their environmental initiatives rather than just throwing policies “against the wall because it’s a good slogan.”

TRUMP MEETS WITH NUCLEAR INDUSTRY TO DISCUSS GLOBAL LEADERSHIP: Trump met with leaders of the nuclear energy industry Tuesday to discuss deploying American nuclear technology in the Middle East to combat competitors like Russia and China.

A source familiar with the White House meeting told Josh the meeting was organized by IP3 International, a group led by retired Army Gen. Jack Keane.

Representatives from Exelon, Westinghouse, General Electric, NuScale, X-energy, and more attended the meeting.

“We simply cannot do what has always been done and must reclaim global nuclear leadership for our own energy security, national security and to ensure the highest standards of safety for the world,” said J. Clay Sell, CEO of X-energy, which designs advanced nuclear reactors. “We support the president and his call to win the global nuclear technology race.”

US SANCTIONS ON VENEZUELA MAKING IT ‘DIFFICULT’ FOR PDVSA TO EXPORT OIL: The Trump administration’s oil sanctions on Venezuela “are already making it difficult” for state-run PDVSA to export oil, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday in its monthly oil market report.

While the global market is sufficiently supplied because of output cuts from Saudi Arabia-led OPEC and its allies that began in January, Venezuela’s heavy higher-sulfur crude used by U.S. refiners could become tough to replace because of a shortage of alternatives.

“In terms of crude-oil quantity, markets may be able to adjust after initial logistical dislocations,” IEA said. “Crude-oil quality is another issue, and, in the wider context of supply in the early part of 2019, it is even more important.”

Other producers of heavier crude that could replace Venezuela, such as Saudi Arabia, have shown no signs so far of pushing more barrels into the market to offset shortfalls.

So far, benchmark oil prices have barely budged since U.S. sanctions began on Jan. 28.

SENATE OK’S PUBLIC LANDS PACKAGE, SAVES KEY CONSERVATION PROGRAM: The Senate approved a bipartisan public lands package Tuesday evening that permanently reauthorizes the popular Land and Water Conservation Fund, which Congress let expire in September.

Supporters say the bill, which passed 92-8, is the largest public lands bill considered by Congress in a decade, packaging 100 separate bills into one. The legislation now moves to the House, where it is also expected to be approved.

What’s in the bill: The measure provides environmental protection for 1.3 million acres as wilderness areas, a designation which prohibits development, roads, and motor vehicles. It withdraws 370,000 acres of federal land from mineral development In Montana — around Yellowstone National Park — and Washington. It also creates four new national monuments, and expands five existing ones.

“The Senate’s overwhelming approval of this bipartisan lands package is a significant victory for Alaska and states across the country, particularly out west,” said Murkowski, who spearheaded the legislation with Cantwell. “From increasing access to federal lands for sportsmen, to creating new economic opportunities for local communities, and protecting Americans from natural hazards, our bill addresses a wide range of priorities important to many Americans.”

New life for key public lands fund: The most important part permanently reauthorizes the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which pays for public lands projects using offshore drilling revenue, not taxpayer money. It provides money to federal, state, and local governments for buying land and waters to improve national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and other public areas.

The bill won the praise of conservation groups, but they preferred for the LWCF’s spending to be made mandatory, and not subject to the appropriations process. Actual funding for the program has fluctuated since its creation in 1964.

NATURAL GAS AND RENEWABLES CONTINUE TO BOOM IN 2018: The use of of natural gas and renewables for electricity continued to grow in 2018, according to the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Fact Book released Wednesday.

The amount of natural gas generation added to the grid was the most in 14 years, propelling the energy source to a record 35 percent of the country’s power mix.

Wind power, meanwhile, now has just as much installed capacity as nuclear. Hydropower remains the most used renewable energy source, with wind just behind.

Renewables including hydro now provide 18 percent of U.S. power.

Electricity consumed in the U.S. rose 2.2 percent last year, due to more energy use during an extreme summer and winter. But carbon emissions from power plants rose by a lesser amount, 0.6 percent, because of the continued growth of natural gas and renewables.

“More coal plants closing and being replaced by cleaner sources of power marked a key trend that continued in 2018,” said Ethan Zindler, BloombergNEF’s head of Americas. “However, the overall jump in CO₂ emissions during 2018 is a clear reminder that technological advancements on their own cannot address the climate challenge. Strong, supportive policies are needed at the local, state, as well as federal level.”

Transportation decarbonization challenges: The transportation sector for the second straight year accounted for the largest share of carbon emissions, the Fact Book says. It notes strong federal fuel efficiency rules could make a difference, but Trump has moved to weaken them.

“If implemented as proposed, it could impact future sales of battery, plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell electric vehicles,” the Fact Book said of the EPA’s move to freeze fuel efficiency rules, rather than raise them each year as the Obama administration proposed.

Electric vehicles became more popular in 2018, as battery prices to power them fell. EVs accounted for only 1.3 percent of total vehicles sold in the U.S in the fourth quarter of 2017, but hit 3 percent by the end of last year.

RUNDOWN

Houston Chronicle Pipeline fight drags on, tempting intervention from Trump

Reuters Venezuela turns to India for oil exports as US sanctions bite

Reuters Amazon, GM in talks to invest in electric pickup truck maker Rivian

Bloomberg South Africa’s biggest coal power plants are ‘badly designed’

SPONSOR MESSAGE: 
Separating Fact from Fiction – GAIN Launches Fact Checker Site
The spread of misinformation about energy infrastructure projects is unfortunately not a new phenomenon. The GAIN Coalition recently launched a new website dedicated to countering targeted attacks of coordinated disinformation campaigns by so-called environmental activists. Through fact checking and original reporting, GAINFactChecker.org will provide straightforward, evidence-based analysis in order to increase the public’s knowledge and understanding of pipeline infrastructure.