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CALIFORNIA CLIMATE CHANGE REPORT PREDICTS WORSE WILDFIRES: After a record stretch of blazes, California has not seen the worst of wildfires.

If greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, the number of large wildfires across California will likely increase by 50 percent by the end of the century, while the amount of land that burns will grow 77 percent, according to a state report on the impacts of climate change released Monday.

The cause of more fires: California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment projects more wildfires to go along with higher sea levels, increased drought, and drier weather as a result of climate change.

The report’s release comes as state lawmakers are considering legislation requiring California utilities to obtain 100 percent of their energy from renewable or other zero-carbon sources by 2045.

Connecting the dots of a record toll: Wildfires in California this year have burned 1.1 million acres, easily outpacing last year’s record, including this month’s record-sized Mendocino Complex, and the deadly Carr Fire that killed four residents and two firefighters. Both fires continue to burn.

In California, 14 of the 20 largest wildfires on record have occurred over the past 15 years, coinciding with some of the warmest years documented in the U.S.

Trump officials dispute climate’s role: California officials have attributed the longer fire seasons, and more destructive wildfires, to drier and hotter conditions caused by climate change.

But the Trump administration, in helping respond to the fires, has downplayed the climate change link, and instead blamed insufficient forest management work, which involve the removal of trees and vegetation in forests to take away fuel for fires.

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.  

SENATE TAKES ON THE THREAT OF DEADLY ALGAL BLOOMS: The Senate is set Tuesday to tackle the growing threat to coastal states, and even the Great Lakes, from intense outbreaks of toxic algae.

The Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing, entitled “Harmful Algal Blooms: The Impact on Our Nation’s Waters,” is being led by Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, chairman of the subcommittee on oceans and fisheries. Harmful algal blooms have become more common off the coast of Alaska in recent years. But it’s a national phenomenon.

Dominating the news: The massive toxic algal bloom that hit the Florida coast in recent weeks has dominated environmental news coverage, following right behind the California wildfires.

The algae outbreak in the Sunshine State has led to enormous losses for fisheries, tourism, and other industries that rely on the ocean. Wildlife has suffered, with numerous fish kills and marine mammal die offs being reported off the coast.

What’s to blame? Everything from fertilizer run-off to climate change has been blamed for the massive algal bloom. Getting to bottom of it, and assessing what could be a federal and state response, is expected to come up at the hearing later on Tuesday afternoon.

It’s a problem further inland too: The threat posed by algal blooms to the Great Lakes will also come up. In recent years, algal blooms on Lake Eries have threaten drinking water supplies in Ohio’s densely-populated coastal cities like Toledo and Cleveland. Bryan Stubbs, board president of the Cleveland Water Alliance, will address those very real threats.

EPA CHIEF WHEELER VISITS OHIO TO SELL COAL RULE: EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler traveled again to friendly territory on Tuesday to sell his new regulation of carbon emissions from coal plants.

Wheeler’s visit to Ohio, a coal mining state that sued the Obama administration for its Clean Power Plan, comes after he traveled to Kentucky last week to talk up the agency’s proposal for power plants.

“What it does is kind of level of the playing field so we aren’t picking winners and losers,” Wheeler said in a press conference for local media. “The Obama plan certainly picked coal as a loser.”

What Wheeler is selling: The EPA proposed a rule Aug. 21 to replace the Clean Power Plan with a more modest measure designed to encourage plants to invest in efficiency upgrades that would allow them to burn less pollution, and exist longer.

The EPA’s so-called ACE rule, which is subject to public comment before being finalized, does not set a specific target to reduce carbon emissions, or force a shift in the electricity sector away from coal plants to natural gas and zero-carbon renewable energy, as the Clean Power Plan did.

Instead, it gives states the authority to write rules regulating its power plants.

MOODY’S: TRUMP’S CLIMATE PLAN ONLY SLOWS COAL’S DOWNWARD SPIRAL: Trump’s climate rule reboot will slow the decline in coal use over the last decade, but it won’t do much to reverse the shift toward more natural gas and renewables, reported credit-ratings giant Moody’s on Monday.

“We view the proposed approach as a less stringent form of regulation and much more moderate than the [Clean Power Plan],” the Moody’s analysis said. “As a result, we do not expect it to have much of an adverse effect, if any, on the operation or the economics of coal plants.”

The Moody’s report is its first analysis of the Affordable Clean Energy Rule’s effects on the financial standing of coal companies since it was first proposed on Aug. 21.

Good news for some producers, but not enough: The credit-rating firm declared the Trump plan “credit positive” for coal’s big producers, such as the mining firm Peabody Energy, in addition to power plant operators such as NRG Energy and Chief Power Finance. “But over a longer horizon the economic case against coal remains largely intact,” it said, meaning the decline in coal use can be slowed somewhat, but not reversed.

COLORADO REGULATORS APPROVE UTILITY’S PLAN TO RETIRE COAL: Utilities continue to retire their coal plants, despite the Trump administration’s attempt at helping coal.

Colorado’s Public Utility Commission voted unanimously Monday to approve Xcel Energy’s plan to shutter two coal units at the Comanche Generating Station in Pueblo a decade earlier than the company expected.

Closing coal saves money: The commission granted preliminary approval to the Xcel’s Clean Energy Plan, which invests $2.5 billion in renewable energy and battery storage. The utility expects the plan with the closing of the coal plants to save ratepayers $213 million. It also plans to retire to coal units in Minnesota.

Big clean energy goals, despite Trump: “While we are reviewing the proposed ACE rule, we remain committed to achieving our carbon emissions goals and implementing plans that will deliver the reliable and increasingly clean energy our customers want, while keeping their bills low,” Frank Prager, vice president, Policy and Federal Affairs for Xcel Energy, told Josh.

Xcel aims to reduce its carbon emissions 60 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels. The company claims to be one of the nation’s leading wind energy providers, promising to be the first utility in the U.S. to have more than 10,000 megawatts of wind power on its system by 2022.

OIL INDUSTRY ENCOURAGED BY TRUMP INTERIM DEAL WITH MEXICO: Trump’s announcement with Mexico on Monday is being taken as an encouraging sign by the U.S. oil and natural gas industry.

“We are encouraged that negotiators have reached a preliminary agreement to modernize our trade relationships,” said Mike Sommers, the new president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s top lobbyist in Washington.

Show me the energy: Energy has been a key aspect of the negotiations on a revamped version of NAFTA. However, no announcement on energy trade was made on Monday.

Mexico has become an important buyer of U.S. energy commodities, including both oil and natural gas. Energy Secretary Rick Perry was in Mexico last week to discuss the growing energy relationship.

INTERIOR LOSES STAFFER WHO OVERSAW SHRINKING OF NATIONAL MONUMENTS: The Interior Department official who oversaw the agency’s controversial shrinking of two national monuments in Utah is leaving the agency to join oil and gas giant BP, according to a report Monday.

Former Deputy Chief of Staff Downey Magallanes has left the department to join BP’s government affairs team, the Washington Post reported.

“Downey was an incredible asset and I trusted her to carry out some of the Administration’s highest priority projects,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a statement. “She will be missed in our office and I wish her all the best.”

Leading a push to slash monuments: Magallanes helped lead a Trump administration move last year to cut the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, established by Obama, by more than 1.1 million acres, or 85 percent.

Trump, at the recommendation of Interior, also slashed the 1.9-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante monument, designated by President Bill Clinton in 1996, nearly in half.

But what does this have to do with energy? Environmental groups have argued that shrinking the monuments could lead energy developers to seize on the land removed from protection to mine for oil and natural gas. Multiple environmental groups and American Indian tribes have sued the administration over the moves, arguing Trump doesn’t have the power to shrink the size of monuments so extensively.

While the area formerly protected in Grand Staircase has known coal reserves, there is limited opportunity for oil and gas drilling in the area removed from Bears Ears.

FORMER SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC VP JOINS AUTOMATION GROUP: The head of Schneider Electric’s U.S. business division is now heading the big International Society of Automation at a time when disruptive technology, cyber security and autonomous vehicles are dominating the policy landscape.

Mary Ramsay will serve as the group’s new executive director. Ramsay had been senior vice president of Schneider Electric’s U.S. business division since 2012, where she oversaw the company’s ventures into the energy management space, developing technologies required to increase energy efficiency and lower the cost of manufacturing.

Who sets the standard? Now she will be overseeing the large professional group’s charge to develop industry standards to address a number of challenges facing industrial automation, like cyber security.

A target of attack: A cyber attack last year targeted security systems that Schneider had developed for nuclear power plants and other energy facilities. Reports called it a watershed moment by a suspected nation state looking to target critical infrastructure.

FRENCH ENERGY MINISTER RESIGNS OVER CLIMATE CHANGE CLASH WITH MACRON: France’s Energy and Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot resigned Tuesday, accusing President Emmanuel Macron of not acting aggressively enough to combat climate change.

“I don’t want to lie to myself anymore,” Hulot said in announcing his resignation in a live radio interview with France Inter. “I don’t want to give the illusion that my presence in the French government shows that we are doing what it needs faced with these challenges.”

The list of complaints: Macron, a centrist leader, has backtracked some from campaign pledges, including a commitment to cut the share of nuclear power in France to 50 percent by 2025 and boost renewable energy. France helped broker the Paris climate change agreement.

Hulot’s resignation came after Macron relaxed hunting laws to appeal to rural voters, Reuters reported.

Hulot, a former green activist, cited Macron’s management of land, along with lax efforts on regulating pesticides, and biodiversity protection, in explaining his decision to quit the government.

FACEBOOK PROMISES TO USE 100 PERCENT RENEWABLE ENERGY BY 2020: Facebook announced a pledge Tuesday to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its operations by 75 percent, while using 100 percent renewable energy by the end of 2020.

“In a record-breaking year of corporate renewable energy purchases, Facebook is on track to be one of the largest corporate purchasers of renewable energy,” Facebook said in announcing its new clean energy  targets.

How tech giants use power: Like other tech giants, Facebook consumes lots of electricity to power its data centers.

Facebook produced 979,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent last year, with about two-thirds coming from powering data centers, according to the social network’s website.

Following a corporate trend: This is Facebook’s first stab at setting a greenhouse gas emissions target. It expands on a goal the company set in 2015 to get 50 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2018. Facebook says it achieved that goal a year early, in 2017.

Facebook’s move highlights the growth of corporate action driving expanded use of wind and solar power.

Google and Apple both announced in April that it already obtains 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources.

HUNDREDS OF KANSAS RESIDENTS EXPOSED TO CONTAMINATED WATER: State officials in Kansas let hundreds of residents near Wichita risk drinking contaminated water for six years before telling them there was a problem, according to a report.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment in 2011 found dry cleaning chemicals in groundwater in Haysville, but did not test nearby private wells used for drinking, washing, and bathing. The department also did not advise residents so they could test their wells themselves, the Wichita Eagle reported over the weekend. Public water sources were not contaminated.

Why Kansas didn’t act: The Kansas health department told the news outlet it did not act immediately because the agency believed the contaminated water was flowing away from private wells before it found out in 2017 that was not the case. Identifying and treating affected groundwater in Kansas is complicated by state laws that protect the dry cleaning industry.

Perchloroethylene, a dry cleaning chemical, can affect a person’s mood, memory, and vision when consumed over long periods of time. It has additionally been linked to cancer and thought to impact reproductive systems.

EPA defends state health officials: The EPA told the Washington Examiner on Monday state officials acted on the 2017 water sampling results promptly, providing at-risk households with bottled water within 24 hours and connecting 209 properties to public water sources as opposed to their private wells.

NORMAL EXPOSURE TO AIR POLLUTION SHAVES EQUIVALENT OF ONE YEAR OF EDUCATION FROM MEMORY: Exposure to air pollution has been linked to a “huge” decrease in brain function and is a direct cause of reduced mental capacity in people, according to a new study by an American scientific journal.

Researchers who studied a group of people living in China found those who breathed in toxic air saw drops in language and math test scores, the equivalent to losing a year of education, according to the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science’s Monday report.

RUNDOWN

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