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CONGRESS SWARMED BY CLIMATE ACTIVISTS LOOKING TO WIN OVER THE GOP: The hundred-thousand member strong Citizens’ Climate Lobby wants to turn global warming into an issue that unites Republicans and Democrats rather than driving them apart.

That’s the message the bipartisan grassroots coalition is bringing as it descends Tuesday on Capitol Hill to deliver the first big lobbying push on climate change since the midterm elections.

“We hope to find ways to continue to get Republicans to work to have this become a bridge issue and not a wedge issue in the House and Senate,” James Tolbert, the climate lobby’s conservative caucus outreach director, told John.

The group intends to push that message in a series of 400 meetings with lawmakers and staff. The group’s main goal is for Congress to pass a carbon tax bill, which they argue will address climate change without harming the economy.

Meanwhile, conservative tax hawks like Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, are seeking to halt any momentum for a carbon tax, urging the GOP to resist such a policy as harmful to the economy.

One principal way to advance the policy is to grow the House’s Climate Solutions Caucus, Tolbert said. The caucus lost some members in the midterms, but it still retains 20 Republicans.

Tolbert wants Republicans to embrace climate change mitigation policy as something that benefits them and ultimately makes them more competitive in political races.

Tolbert provided the example of Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., as what he would like to see. Even though Curbello lost his re-election race, his aggressive stance on climate change allowed him to run a “very competitive race” against his Democratic challenger, said Tolbert.

Other Florida Republicans that share Curbelo’s climate convictions are returning.

Read John’s full story here.

ALSO: Youth activists conducted a sit-in Tuesday morning in the office of Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, demanding action to combat climate change. Members of Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats led the protests, and they were joined by congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who campaigned on an aggressive platform urging the elimination of fossil fuels for electricity.

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EPA TO ANNOUNCE NEW TRUCK RULES TO CUT EMISSIONS ON TUESDAY: Environmental Protection Agency Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler is rolling out a new plan Tuesday afternoon to cut emissions from 18-wheeler big rig trucks.

EPA said that Wheeler will make the announcement at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, and that it will be called EPA’s Cleaner Trucks Initiative.

The new program is expected to significantly cut nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel engines that are blamed for creating smog.

Industry groups and environmentalists have called for new guidance from EPA on how reduce big rig pollution, especially as California is moving forward with its own rules to tackle the problem.

California also wants EPA to act because of the huge amount of truck traffic the state invites from outside its borders.

IEA PROJECTS OIL USE FOR CARS TO PEAK BY MID-2020S: The International Energy Agency projects that global oil use for cars is expected to peak by the mid-2020s, and that half of the global car fleet will be electric by 2040, displacing three million barrels per day of oil.

However, oil consumption will grow overall in the coming decades, due to rising petrochemical use, trucking and aviation demand, according the IEA’s World Energy Outlook released Monday night.

Those projections assume that countries follow their announced plans for reducing carbon emissions.

Under that assumption, which IEA calls the “new policies scenario,” the agency expects global energy demand to grown by more than 25 percent to 2040, requiring more than $2 trillion a year of investment in new energy supply.

RENEWABLES ARE GROWING WORLDWIDE, BUT NOT ENOUGH: IEA projects most of that energy will be supplied by renewables. Renewables will account for two-thirds of added global electricity capacity up until 2040, because of falling costs and supportive government policies.

That means renewables will generate 40 percent of the world’s electricity by 2040, up from 25 percent today.

The world is still falling short: But the IEA says renewable energy will not grow fast enough given current government policies and investments to meet international climate change targets required to avoid the worst consequences of global warming, putting more pressure on politicians to act.

“Our analysis shows that over 70 percent of global energy investments will be government-driven and as such the message is clear – the world’s energy destiny lies with government decisions,” said Fatih Birol, the IEA’s Executive Director.

Coal won’t go away: The growth of renewables is not enough, the IEA report shows, because fossil fuels will continue to be used to meet growing energy demand in Asia.

Coal remains the largest energy source in the world, and natural gas the second-largest.

The agency projects that renewables will surpass coal as China’s biggest source of electricity by 2040, thanks to aggressive government policies. But coal plants that already exist in Asia were recently built, and have decades left to operate.

The IEA says that coal represents more than a third of carbon emissions that are already “locked-in” across the world before 2040.

TRUMP WARNS OPEC TO NOT CUT PRODUCTION: President Trump warned the oil cartel OPEC Monday to not cut production, which he fears would raise costs for consumers.

Trump was responding to Saudi Arabia and Russia signaling this past weekend that they are seeking to cut oil production again next year to increase prices, after temporarily boosting their output this year to mollify Trump ahead of the midterm elections.

OPEC PROVES IT’S BEEN PUMPING MORE OIL: Increased oil production from OPEC and Russia offset losses from Iran in October, the oil cartel said Tuesday morning.

Crude output from OPEC rose 127,000 barrels per day last month, averaging 32.9 million barrels per day, the group said in its monthly report. The higher production came mostly from Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest producer, and the United Arab Emirates. Russia also provided a 50,000 barrels per day increase. These increases helped compensate for Iran’s production falling 156,000 barrels a day in October to 3.296 million barrels a day, ahead of sanctions Trump imposed earlier this month.

The Trump administration granted temporary exemptions from the sanctions to some of Iran’s biggest customers, allowing them to continue importing Iranian oil, which, along with prolific U.S. shale production, has given OPEC the confidence that it can pump the breaks on its production increase next year.

TRUMP APPROVES DISASTER REQUEST AS CAMP FIRE BECOMES DEADLIEST IN CALIFORNIA HISTORY: The Camp Fire raging across 117,000 acres in Northern California has killed 42 people, making it the deadliest in the state’s history. The fire was already the most destructive ever in California, destroying about 6,500 homes and 260 businesses. It was only 30 percent contained as of Monday night.

Two more people have died from the nearly 100,000 acre Woolsey Fire in Southern California.

Trump late Monday issued a disaster declaration to address the wildfires in California, after earlier being criticized by Democrats, firefighters, and even some Republicans for threatening to cut federal aid to the state for an alleged “mismanagement” of forests.

Mounting criticism: The criticism continued Monday, with local officials saying Trump is being negligent by not appreciating the role of climate change in making wildfires more destructive.

“I personally find that statement very hurtful to all first responders, who are putting their lives on the line to protect lives and property,” Daryl Osby, the Los Angeles County Fire Chief, said in a press conference Monday.

AIRLINE INDUSTRY RELIES ON NEW TRICKS TO HANDLE SKYROCKETING FUEL COSTS: The profits that U.S. airlines garnered this summer despite a double-digit rise in jet fuel costs are a testament to the industry’s adaptations since a price surge more than a decade ago threatened the survival of some of its biggest players.

New technology is allowing carriers to more quickly cancel or redirect unprofitable routes and scale seating capacity appropriately. Updated aircraft provide more fuel efficiency, while growing opportunities for cargo shipments due to the rise in e-commerce are providing new revenue streams. And cabins are increasingly more segmented, making it easier to manage the profitability of each flight.

“Technology is enabling the airlines to take that framework that used to exist a decade ago and further optimize,” Harsha Majeti, general manager at travel technology firm Sabre Corp., told the Washington Examiner.

Read more in this week’s Washington Examiner magazine.

MORE THAN 200 MAYORS PLEDGE TO BOOST SOLAR ENERGY: The Environment America Research and Policy Center released a letter Tuesday morning signed by 216 mayors, including 25 Republicans, who promise to support policies to increase the use of solar energy.

“While our federal government is promoting 19th-century energy policies, Americans can look to  local governments to lead the United States’ transition to clean energy,” said Emma Searson, Environment America’s “go solar” campaign advocate.

RUNDOWN

Wall Street Journal Big Oil is now thrifty—but that comes at a cost

Charleston Gazette-Mail Royalty disputes continue as West Virginia’s natural gas industry booms

Bloomberg The EPA can’t wait to reopen the mine that poisoned north Idaho

New York Times The wheels on these buses go round and round with zero emissions

Associated Press Zinke ’100 percent confident’ he’ll be cleared in probes