Daily on Energy: Pressure mounting against White House climate panel

The Center for Climate and Security is leading a “big push” against the White House effort to politicize the science of climate change with the panel and limit the nation’s ability to make long-term security decisions based on science, Frank Femia, the co-founder of the Center, tells John.

The group organized a letter sent to President Trump on Tuesday, signed by dozens of former military commanders, diplomats and other national security officials, including former Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

“Imposing a political test on reports issued by the science agencies, and forcing a blind spot onto the national security assessments that depend on them, will erode our national security,” the letter stated. “Let’s drop the politics, and allow our national security and science agencies to do their jobs.”

Read Josh’s story on the letter here.

Recent retirees that served under Trump also appear on the letter, including former Coast Guard Commandant Paul Zukunft, who retired last year.

The National Security Council effort has elicited a “visceral response” from within the defense community, Femia said, which doesn’t want it to put a “political chill” on the analysis that the military relies upon to make critical decisions about national security.

Donors want a unified response: The climate center’s donors are also raising the alarm about the White House effort. A few days before the letter was sent, Susan Wickwire, vice president of the board of governors of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, a nonprofit that supports a range of causes including human rights and the environment, told an audience on Capitol Hill that the organization is “deeply dismayed” by the White House effort.

Wickwire was speaking on military grid resilience put on by the bipartisan Environmental and Energy Study Institute.

She said the foundation believes in a “unified response by the national security community,” together with public events, is required to make clear to the administration that climate change poses a “clear and present national security threat.”

More pressure coming later this month: The Center for Climate Security is in the beginning stages of organizing a public event on March 26 to underscore the points made by Tuesday’s letter, Lara Iglitzin, executive director of the foundation, told John.

Democratic presidential runner-up Inslee gets involved: The foundation is also sponsoring a talk at Washington University on Wednesday afternoon called “Climate Change and National Security,” where Washington Gov. Jay Inslee will be speaking on the panel with members of the American Security Project, which helped organize the letter with Femia.

Inslee, who threw his hat into the race for the Democratic nomination for president on Monday, will be featured on a panel with retired Brigadier General Stephen A. Cheney and retired Admiral William Fallon.

Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, a Republican who led the Environmental Protection Agency under former President George W. Bush, will also be on the panel. She is also a member of the American Security Project.

Scott Sklar, who advises the Defense Department on how to best cope with the effects of climate change, tells John that he does not believe the White House panel will ultimately matter — because it can’t.

“The Defense Department is sort of protected in the right that the military guys are going to do what’s right,” Sklar said. “And frankly, they don’t give a damn about the political games about it, they know these things are happening, they see it right in front of them, and they are going to deal with it, period.”

Military is authorized to take action: Sklar explains the National Defense Authorization Act, without using the word climate change, authorized the military last fall to begin making bases and installations more resilient to hurricanes and other events that are becoming more intense due to global warming.

Making the bases more resilient means phasing out reliance on diesel back-up generators to power bases during events when the power is knocked out. To do this, the branches are switching to solar and large battery banks, and even natural gas where the fuel is piped into the bases, Sklar said. Diesel fuel is less reliable because it has to be trucked in, and can’t easily resupply bases when a prolonged weather event closes roads.

Sklar now teaches a class on resiliency at George Washington University environmental engineering department, and is president of the Stella Group consulting firm.

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.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO ELIMINATE FOSSIL FUELS: Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Tuesday a new campaign to eliminate fossil fuels, after forgoing a presidential run.

Bloomberg, a major financier of climate change activism, said that rather than joining a presidential field crowded with candidates vowing to tackle the issue, he could do more “organizing and mobilizing communities to begin moving America as quickly as possible away from oil and gas and toward a 100 percent clean energy economy.”

The new project, called Beyond Carbon, represents a shift for Bloomberg, who is best known for his work with the environmental group the Sierra Club on a campaign to eliminate coal.

Gas as a thing of the past: Although he has previously supported natural gas, which emits half the carbon as coal, as an alternative fossil fuel, Bloomberg said Tuesday gas should have a limited shelf life in favor of zero-emission sources such as wind and solar.

Bloomberg did not call for a specific timeline to eliminate fossil fuels, unlike the progressive Green New Deal, which pushes for 100 percent of U.S. electricity to be provided by “clean, renewable and zero-emission sources” by 2030.

Bloomberg also did not say how much money he would devote to the new Beyond Carbon effort.

RAUL GRIJALVA REBUKES TOP REPUBLICAN OVER OPPOSITION TO CLIMATE HEARINGS: Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the Democratic chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, on Tuesday forcefully rebuked the panel’s top Republican, Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah, for his monthlong attempts to undermine the majority’s climate change agenda.

“It is not simply industry attempts to deny science you do not wish the public to hear about; you and other Republicans on the Committee have repeatedly stated that the House Natural Resources Committee should have no interest in the Earth’s changing climate at all,” the Arizonan chairman wrote in a letter to Bishop.

Grijalva said the panel will continue to examine the economic and natural resource management issues that the GOP wants the committee focused on, but it will do so with a focus on future generations affected by a warming climate and not corporate profits. The latter was the committee’s focus when Bishop was chairman last Congress, Grijalva said.

Read more on the ongoing fight from John’s coverage here.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS PUSH TRUMP TO REGULATE PFAS CHEMICALS AS PART OF OVERSIGHT AGENDA: The House Oversight Committee’s environmental panel launched into its first hearing on Wednesday to pressure the Trump administration to begin regulating so-called “forever chemicals” that don’t break down in nature, referred to as PFAS.

Democratic Chairman Rep. Harley Rouda of California presided over the hearing, explaining that there has been a long list of victims from PFAS exposure.

“PFAS chemicals can lead to serious adverse health outcomes in humans, including low fertility, birth defects, suppression of the immune system, thyroid disease, and cancer,” said Rouda. “The information available is sufficient to trigger immediate action from this administration.”

Where is EPA? The Trump Environmental Protection Agency has been playing defense amid ongoing criticism that it had not planned to set strict drinking water limits for the chemicals.

In May of last year, EPA held a summit to gather feedback from community leaders and others to address the issue of PFAS contamination. Last month, it released an action plan to comprehensively address exposure to the chemical.

But environmental groups and Democrats continue to urge EPA to enact limits for PFAS in drinking water.

A problem for the military: The oversight hearing also focused on the Department of Defense’s long history of using these chemicals, and the ongoing problems it faces in decontaminating its bases and installations.

Maureen Sullivan, the Pentagon’s deputy environment chief, assured the committee that ”DOD has been leading the way on addressing these substances,” explaining that during the last two years the department has made substantial resources available to respond to the chemicals present at its installations.

Environmental groups used the hearing to urge emergency action to address drinking water contamination due to PFAS.

The Environmental Working Group issued a report on Wednesday that identifies 106 military sites in the U.S. where drinking water or groundwater is contaminated by unsafe levels of PFAS chemicals.

DEMOCRATS SAY HIGHWAY INFRASTRUCTURE BILL MUST CONSIDER CLIMATE CHANGE: Senate Democrats said Wednesday that any infrastructure bill investing in federal highways must consider how sea level rise and flooding from climate change could impact future projects.

Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said during a hearing hosted by the committee that federal infrastructure must be designed to be “resilient” to extreme weather events.

Michael Replogle, deputy commissioner for policy for the New York City Department of Transportation, advised the committee to advance infrastructure policy that “can help address climate mitigation and adaptation.”

Replogle, in testimony before the committee, also called on Congress to extend and expand the electric vehicle tax credit, and support the buildout of charging stations.

On cue, Carper said he intends to introduce legislation Wednesday providing grants for installing electric vehicle charging infrastructure along the National Highway System, noting that the transportation sector is the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions.

CHUCK SCHUMER AIMS TO CREATE SENATE CLIMATE CHANGE COMMITTEE: Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday he is introducing a resolution to create a new select committee on climate change similar to one created by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

“Climate change is a urgent crisis, an existential threat to our country and our planet,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor. “It requires a singular focus from this chamber.”

He aid the committee should be bipartisan, hold hearings, and build momentum for legislation.

“I understand my friends on the other side of the aisle don’t like the Green New Deal,” Schumer said of Republicans. “Okay, fine. What’s your plan?”

DEMOCRATIC ATTORNEYS GENERAL TRUMPET REPORT CHARGING TRUMP’S CLIMATE ROLLBACKS WOULD INCREASE EMISSIONS, HARM PUBLIC HEALTH: A nonprofit group helping state attorneys generals fight Trump’s deregulatory agenda said Tuesday that the administration’s rollbacks of environment rules would raise carbon emissions by nearly 200 metric tons annually, costing hundreds of billions of dollars in public health damages.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh — all Democrats who have sued the Trump administration over environmental issues — released a report, produced by the State Energy & Environment Impact Center at New York University, focused on six proposed Trump administration rules expected this year, including its weakening of the Obama’s administration’s Clean Power Plan and strict fuel efficiency standards for vehicles.

The Trump administration argues its deregulatory actions would result in significant cost savings to industry. But, the new report says “the cost savings to industry are minuscule in comparison to the public costs of these rollbacks.”

More lawsuits are coming: Frosh said the report adds fresh evidence that the Trump administration’s approach does not fulfill a government legal finding, upheld by the Supreme Court, that says carbon dioxide is a pollutant endangering public health that the EPA should regulate under the Clean Air Act.

He expects state attorneys general to continue succeeding in court, as they have earlier in the Trump administration when EPA and Interior were led by Scott Pruitt and Ryan Zinke, respectively, who had no agency experience, unlike their successors, Andrew Wheeler and David Bernhardt.

OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY PROTESTS PROPOSED COLORADO DRILLING BILL: The American Petroleum Institute came out hard Wednesday against a proposal in Colorado to restrict oil and gas drilling in the state.

A Democratic-backed bill, which passed a Senate committee Tuesday, would amend state law to require the state’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to prioritize protecting public health and safety when the energy regulator considers permitting drilling projects, rather than its obligation under current law to “foster development.”

Power play: The legislation would also give cities and counties more power to regulate approvals of oil and gas facilities.

Supporters say Colorado’s constitution has allowed the state to take away control of permitting decisions for oil and gas projects from localities, cutting off community input, which has allowed Colorado to become America’s fifth-largest gas-producing and seventh-largest oil-producing state.

Tracee Bentley, executive director of the Colorado Petroleum Council, said that Democrats are moving to pass the bill too quickly, after the party flipped the state Senate in 2018, giving it full control of the legislature. Democratic Gov. Jared Polis also backs the bill.

A second try: The push for the new bill comes after Colorado voters in November rejected a ballot initiative that would have curbed fracking in the state, proposing to ban oil and gas drilling unless it occurred father away from homes, schools, and other vulnerable areas, in response to complaints from communities close to fracking who say wells are increasingly encroaching on populated areas.

The Rundown

Wall Street Journal Chevron, Exxon Mobil tighten their grip on fracking

Bloomberg Environment House’s tax writers enter ‘thorny’ carbon tax debate

Washington Post Can climate change be the issue that finally spurs heavy youth turnout?

Baltimore Sun Maryland legislators push for increase in renewable energy, jobs

Calendar

WEDNESDAY | March 6

All day, 525 New Jersey Ave. NW. American Wind Energy Association holds final day of Wind Power on Capitol Hill.

2 p.m., 1324 Longworth. House Natural Resources Committee Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee holds a hearing on “Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and the U.S. Geological Survey.”

5 p.m., 1619 Massachusetts Avenue NW. The John Hopkins school of international studies holds a forum entitled “India’s Energy and Climate Policy.”

THURSDAY | March 7

10 a.m., 366 Dirksen. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds roundtable to provide an overview of the multiple values and unique issues of access and development associated with public lands in the western United States.

10 a.m., 2123 Rayburn. House Energy and Commerce Committee holds a hearing on DOE’s inaction on efficiency standards and its impact on consumers and climate change. The Subcommittee on Energy will lead the hearing.

Noon, Senate Visitor Center 202-203. Energy Department and the clean energy group ClearPath host lunch on “Jobs in Nuclear Energy: From Trades to Engineers and Physicists.”