Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine and get Washington Briefing: politics and policy stories that will keep you up to date with what’s going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue!
INTERVIEW WITH WESTERMAN: Republican control of the House Natural Resources Committee will mean a significant change in direction after two terms with Rep. Raul Grijalva at the helm, when environmental justice and climate change were at the fore.
Don’t expect more of the same under the leadership of Chairman Bruce Westerman, who flaunted his subpoena power and threatened the Interior Department’s appropriations in an interview discussing where he wants to take the committee.
More from the interview: The party’s goal, Westerman said just after Republicans took the majority in November, will be to “stop bad policy” of the Democrats as much as it will be to pass their own policies.
Blocking President Joe Biden may well be most of what they’re able to do with a Democratic Senate, but Westerman said he plans to take up legislation early on energy, as well as mining, to facilitate more domestic sourcing of critical minerals.
“The country’s got to come to grips with where we want to go with this electric economy, and if we do, are we going to be totally dependent on China and other countries like that to supply the materials we need to do the electrification?” Westerman told Jeremy. “And I think the answer to that is, no, we’re going to produce these elements and minerals on our own.”
Democrats have promoted more domestic mining with changes they made to the clean vehicle tax credit in the Inflation Reduction Act, although some members and the administration have opposed some major mining projects over environmental concerns.
The Biden administration has proposed to withdraw mineral-rich acreage in the Rainy River watershed in Minnesota, where the Twin Metals sought to mine copper, nickel, and other metals, to protect it from any mineral leasing for a 20-year period.
Another major project, the Resolution Copper mine project in Grijalva’s home of Arizona, has been held up by litigation. The Biden administration in 2021 withdrew a decision by the Trump administration to advance a land exchange for the mine, and Grijalva introduced legislation last Congress to prohibit the Forest Service from handing over the land, which is sacred to some Native American groups.
Westerman said these kinds of decisions don’t align with the scale of expansion necessary to meet demand, adding that he and his fellow committee members on Natural Resources plan to make it a priority to poke holes in these components of the Democrats’ green energy agenda.
“It’s a ‘not in my backyard’ policy, and we saw a Democratic majority in the House in the last Congress that wasn’t just neutral on the issue. They actually attacked mines,” the Arkansan said.
Permitting reform priorities: Talk of reforming environmental review and permitting laws has been muted so far early in this Congress, overtaken by initial housekeeping work and other immediate legislative priorities. Westerman said it’s high on the list, though, and said he’s talked with Sen. Joe Manchin, whose permitting bill sought to speed up the review of all categories of energy infrastructure projects but failed to pass.
“I hope to work with him. I hope to work with others that want to get something done,” Westerman said. “It’s not just that you can’t permit gas and oil. You can’t permit a lot of these so-called green energy projects. It’s not that you can’t just permit a natural gas pipeline, you can’t permit a cross country electrical transmission line.”
This is one of a few areas ripe for compromise in the new Congress. Republicans have long advocated reforms to implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act and other environmental laws, and Senate Democrats, including some “climate hawks,” overwhelmingly supported Manchin’s bill. Biden approved of Manchin’s bill, too.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Jeremy Beaman (@jeremywbeaman) and Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep). 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.
HOUSE PASSES BAN ON SPR SALES TO CHINA: The House voted 331-97 this morning to approve the Protecting America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve from China Act, which would prohibit the Department of Energy from selling oil to any entity owned, controlled, or influenced by the Chinese Communist Party. The bill was fast-tracked by Republicans by their rules package.
Of note, Democrat Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania criticized Republicans for fast-tracking their measure, saying that her own bill, which bans sales not just to China but also to Iran, Russia, and any other country under U.S. sanctions, would fare better in the Senate.
ADMINISTRATION ASKS ENERGY FIRMS ABOUT MEXICO TRADE POLICIES BEFORE SUMMIT: As President Biden prepared to travel to Mexico this week to meet with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trade talks, the State Department reached out to U.S. energy companies asking them how Mexico’s protectionist policies have affected their business operations in the country.
The query, obtained by Reuters, asks U.S. companies how many permits and applications they applied for in Mexico over the past three years, and to identify any projects that were denied or shelved due to “permitting challenges.”
Biden and Lopez Obrador have failed to make progress in resolving a years-long dispute over Mexico’s nationalist energy policies, which the U.S. and Canada argue prioritize his own country’s companies ahead of private outside investors.
Since the start of Lopez Obrador’s presidency in 2018, U.S. oil and gas companies said they’ve struggled to get applications approved or renewed. Washington and Ottawa have both launched dispute proceedings over the matter, accusing Mexico of breaching the USMCA trade deal.
RUSSIA ASKS IF SWEDEN HAS ‘SOMETHING TO HIDE’ ON NORD STREAM PROBES: Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticized Sweden for refusing to allow Russian investigators to join a probe into the cases of the Nord Stream gas pipelines and insinuated that Sweden was withholding results of its probe.
“Maybe Russian investigators, conducting an objective investigation, could come to an inconvenient conclusion… about who conducted this act of sabotage, terrorism. About who thought it up, and who carried it out,” she told reporters in Moscow, according to Reuters.
Moscow has blamed the West for the explosions, although it hasn’t provided evidence for its accusations. The U.S. and other western governments, meanwhile, have held off on assigning blame other than to say that the blasts were intentional.
POLICE EVICT PROTESTORS IN GERMAN VILLAGE TO BE RAZED FOR COAL: Police are squaring off against protestors in Luzerath, Germany, a small village slated to be razed to dig for coal.
Initially the showdown was wild, and activists reportedly attacked police with Molotov cocktails, but then became peaceful as police moved out protestors yesterday.
Energy giant RWE plans to tear down the empty village, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and dig up lignite coal.
The situation is a bit complicated. The national and local governments have struck a deal with RWE to phase out coal in the state by 2030. But the destruction of Luzerath has still been given the go-ahead as demand for coal in the near-term has soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
NIMBY BURNING MAN VERSUS GEOTHERMAL PROJECT: In case you missed it – Burning Man has sued the Biden administration over the Bureau of Land Management’s approval of a geothermal project in its region in northwestern Nevada. The arts and cultural festival alleges that the agency’s environmental review failed to adequately consider the effects of the project on spring water availability.
Remember that the Biden administration has set a goal of making geothermal a “widespread” energy option and of lowering the price by 90% by 2035. Lawsuits under the National Environmental Policy Act – the subject of ongoing debate over reform – such as this one are a major obstacle to its ambitions.
UK SETS RECORD FOR WIND GENERATION AMID BLUSTERY CONDITIONS: United Kingdom wind power generation set a record by exceeding 21.6 gigawatts Tuesday, according to the National Grid Electricity System Operator. Nationwide demand yesterday around lunchtime was about 35 GW, in comparison.
High winds helped set the record and lower prices, helping push down natural gas prices.
RECORD-HIGH OCEAN HEAT IN 2022: Ocean heat content hit a new record in 2022, according to a new paper in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, as energy and water cycles have been “profoundly altered due to the emission of greenhouse gasses and other anthropogenic substances by human activities, driving pervasive changes in Earth’s climate system.”
BREAKTHROUGH CLAIMED IN CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE: Climeworks says that its Iceland facility successfully pulled carbon dioxide from the air and stored it underground, the first such instance of direct air capture being done at a significant scale through a process verified by third parties.
Microsoft, Shopify Inc. and Stripe have prepaid for carbon credits from Climeworks.
“This is an important inflection point in the development of direct-air capture,” said Stacy Kauk, Shopify’s head of sustainability, told the Wall Street Journal. “It isn’t just science fiction. It’s reality.”
HOUSE SEEC CAUCUS ADDS THIRD CO-CHAIR: Members of the House’s Democratic-led Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition selected Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois to co-chair the caucus with Reps. Doris Matsui and Paul Tonko, who were reelected to their leadership posts.
Quigley said the SEEC would serve as a proxy for the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, which Republicans dismantled.
CRES PICKS UP WESTERN CAUCUS ALUMNA: Conservative energy policy group Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions announced the hire of Elizabeth Daniels, who will be the outfit’s new senior communications director.
Daniels was previously communications director for the Congressional Western Caucus.
The Rundown
Financial Times Saudi Aramco bets on being the last oil major standing
Bloomberg Wall Street’s new ESG money-maker promises nature conservation — with a catch
E&E News How the Hummer is fueling a backlash against electric trucks
Calendar
THURSDAY | JANUARY 19
3:00 p.m. Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The Washington Council of Government’s Climate, Energy, and Environment Policy committee will host a meeting on accelerating electric vehicle deployment in the DMV. Learn more about the event here.
