SIGN UP! If you’d like to continue receiving Washington Examiner’s Daily on Energy newsletter, SUBSCRIBE HERE: http://newsletters.washingtonexaminer.com/newsletter/daily-on-energy/

DEMOCRATS FAIL TO GATHER MORE REPUBLICANS IN PASSING INTERIOR SPENDING BILL: The Democratic leadership on Friday failed to pick up any new Republican votes on a spending bill to open the Department of Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Only 10 Republicans voted for the measure, leaving the final vote tally at 240-179, as the GOP dug in its heels to oppose any new spending bills without adequate funds for President Trump‘s border wall.

On Thursday, 12 Republicans voted for a bill to reopen the Department of Transportation, and 10 voted to reopen the Department of Agriculture. Democrats are calling up the bills in the hopes of putting pressure on GOP lawmakers to start voting for the bills as the shutdown continues.

Democrats spent the morning trying to persuade their Republican colleagues to join them in opening the government, calling Trump’s insistence on $5.7 billion for the wall a source of self-inflicted punishment.

Natural Resources Committee chairman Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Arizona, called the shutdown a source of “Republican inflicted damage.”

He noted that the administration’s priority of continuing the leasing process for natural gas, oil drilling and mining on federal lands has gone on unabated during the shutdown, while members of Indian tribes go without adequate healthcare.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attempted to sway the GOP by insisting there were other ways to guard the border without funding Trump’s wall.

“We can hire more personnel,” she said.

“We must have more people to do the job here,” which “is what the administration has asked for,” she added.

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.  

DEMOCRATS FEAR INTERIOR IS PREPPING FOR A LONG SHUTDOWN: Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt held surprise discussions with Capitol Hill staff earlier this week to help make the legal case for using maintenance funds to keep national parks afloat during the shutdown, a move Democrats are saying demonstrates the administration’s resolve not to open the government.

Bernhardt visited with Natural Resources Committee staff from both sides of the aisle on Tuesday at a special briefing at Interior headquarters ostensibly meant for laying out the legal opinion that justifies Interior’s move to use maintenance money to pay park staff, according to Democratic and GOP committee aides privy to the meeting.

However, Democrats saw Bernhardt’s presence as odd because the gathering was not supposed to be a meeting between staff and a senior Cabinet official. It was simply billed as a time for the agency counsel to share a legal opinion, said an aide. Democrats saw the maneuver as a sign that the agency is digging in for a potential drawn-out shutdown.

GOVERNORS CRITICIZE TRUMP’S POTENTIAL MOVE TO USE STORM AID FUNDS TO PAY FOR BORDER WALL: U.S. governors on Friday criticized the Trump administration’s consideration of diverting disaster aid funding to build a border wall.

White House officials told various news outlets Thursday that Trump is weighing using billions of dollars of Army Corps of Engineers funding allocated for states and territories suffering from storm or wildfire damage, including Puerto Rico, Florida, Texas, and California, in order to get around Congress and build his border wall.

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello was among the officials quick to criticize the potential move, as the U.S. territory continues to recover from Hurricane Maria’s devastation in 2017.

“No wall should be funded on the pain and suffering of US citizens who have endured tragedy and loss through a natural disaster,” Rossello, a Democrat, wrote in a Twitter post. “This include[s] those citizens that live in CA, TX, PR, VI [U.S. Virgin Islands] and other jurisdictions. Today it’s us, tomorrow it could be you.”

The pushback is bipartisan: New Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a conservative and Trump supporter, also said Friday he opposes the president using hurricane funding for a border wall. Florida is still recovering from Hurricane Michael, which hit the state in October and is blamed for at least 60 deaths.

“We have people counting on that,” he told reporters in a Friday morning media availability, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “If they backfill it immediately after the government opens, that’s fine but I don’t want that to be where that money is not available for us.”

Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the state’s former Republican governor, spoke to Trump Thursday night, the New York Times reported. Scott’s office downplayed any potential action from the president.

“At this time, we have no reason to believe that Florida disaster funds will be repurposed for any reason,” Scott’s Senate office said.

Democrats say climate is the real crisis: Leading Democrats also criticized Trump’s potential use of an emergency declaration for illegal immigration, saying he is overlooking the real emergency: climate change.

“Instead of declaring a national emergency to address a fictional emergency – @realDonaldTrump needs to stop denying a real one: climate change,” former Secretary of State John Kerry tweeted Friday.

GOP CENTRIST AND SKEPTIC JOCKEY FOR SPOT ON PELOSI’S CLIMATE COMMITTEE: A centrist and a skeptic of man-made global warming are jockeying for the top Republican spot on a new climate change committee that Pelosi created.

Reps. Francis Rooney of Florida, a climate change hawk, and Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, a longtime skeptic, are openly campaigning to be ranking member of the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, which Democrats created to elevate the issue ahead of the 2020 election.

“It might be interpreted as a less than positive thing if someone who is made ranking member doesn’t really care about climate change,” Rooney told Josh in an interview.

Why the choice matters: The appointment will be made by House GOP leadership, which now faces a choice between trying to shape Democratic-led climate policy and trying to stop it.

Serving on the committee to hamper it: Sensenbrenner, a veteran lawmaker in his 21st term who has the advantage of seniority, would undoubtedly take a more adversarial approach to the Democrat-controlled committee.

“I am interested in selling the American people that market-based solutions work rather than all kinds of bureaucratic taxes or regulations that haven’t worked in Europe, wouldn’t work here, and would be extremely unpopular with voters,” Sensenbrenner told Josh in an interview. “We won’t win the House back if the Republican position is Green Revolution-light.”

Read more of Josh’s report here.

CHAMBER PUSHES FOR INFRASTRUCTURE PACKAGE, EYES GAS TAX HIKE TO PAY FOR IT: U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Donohue called Thursday for Congress and Trump to enact a major infrastructure bill this year, a goal that would face resistance from some Republicans.

Donohue said that the Chamber will push for an increase in the gas tax in order to pay for new building and transit projects and that the group believes Congress would have the votes to pass legislation to that effect.

“Not only would it have 218 votes, it would have 218 bipartisan votes,” said Neil Bradley, the Chamber’s chief policy officer, during a press conference following the speech. Bradley also expressed optimism that the funding mechanism could pass the Senate. The Chamber favors raising the gas tax and also indexing it to inflation.

Longtime conservative opposition: Conservative activists, particularly low tax advocates, would oppose the push, setting up the potential for an unusual intraparty legislative battle between Republicans. The federal gas tax has not been raised since 1993, holding steady at 18.4 cents per gallon and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel.

“The president agreed with increasing the gas tax,” said Donohue, adding, “We can do roads, bridges, and light transit with an increase in the gas tax.”

NEW DEMOCRATIC LEADER OF ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE EMPHASIZES CLIMATE: Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, announced Thursday the names of the panel’s six subcommittees.

The announcement included a notable name change: the Subcommittee on Environment — which has oversight of the EPA’s use of the Clean Air Act — will now be called the Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change.

“I’m confident these six subcommittees will allow us to focus on our priorities of strengthening the economy, reducing costs for consumers, combating climate change and conducting vigorous oversight,” Pallone said in statement.

Mixed reviews for Pallone’s leadership: The move is a further sign the committee will prioritize climate change under Pallone’s watch. He recently announced the committee’s first hearing later this month will be focused on the economic impacts of climate change.

But a new crop of freshmen progressives have criticized Pallone for not being aggressive enough, citing his resistance to embrace the “Green New Deal” and his refusal to reject donations from fossil fuel companies and executives.

WASHINGTON IS STILL USING A LOT OF ENERGY DESPITE THE SHUTDOWN: The partial government shutdown has not had much effect on energy demand in the Washington D.C. region, says the large regional utility Pepco.

“During the past few weeks, we have not seen significant changes in electrical load other than those that we would expect due to changing weather conditions,” Ben Armstrong, spokesperson for Pepco Holdings, told John.   

The utility closely monitors customer electric usage across the company’s service areas, including the greater Washington D.C. area, Armstrong said. He will continue to provide updates if the shutdown affects electricity use.

Armstrong said the shutdown primarily has to do with furloughing federal employees, but federal facilities that house them aren’t closed and are still consuming electricity.

The federal government in Washington consumes enormous amounts of electricity over a 24-hour period.

News reports in recent years have shown many agencies remain bright throughout the evening, with very few attempting to reduce energy consumption even when employees aren’t there.

Nevertheless, the Energy Information Administration reports that the federal government’s energy use has improved.

ENTERGY COMPLETES FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND NUCLEAR POWER PLANT SALE AS IT EXITS MARKET: Power plant owner Entergy on Friday completed a first-of-a-kind sale of one of its shuttered nuclear power plants in Vermont, leaving it to the new owners to complete the painstaking decommissioning of the site.

The Vermont Yankee plant is being sold to NorthStar Group Services, which will decommission the site, including securing any left over nuclear fuel at the site.

“The sale is a first-of-its-kind in the nuclear power industry – a permanent ownership and license transfer to a company that is slated to perform timely and efficient decommissioning and site restoration,” Entergy explained.

Typically, the power plant owner either does the decommissioning itself, or contracts with a partner to do so. In this case, the owner decided to sell off the plant, which will be followed by Entergy exiting from the merchant power utility business altogether.

Entergy owns some of the first nuclear power plants to be built and operated in the U.S., but has struggled in recent years from waning revenues and increased competition from renewable energy and natural gas.

The company has annual revenues of $11 billion and owns energy assets from New York to Texas.  

NASA SPOKESWOMAN MARKS FINAL DAY IN DC AFTER SERVING TWO YEARS WITH TRUMP: Friday marks the final day for Megan Powers’ service as NASA’s spokeswoman under the Trump administration.

“While I will miss working with the incredible team here, last month I accepted an exciting new offer, which will be announced in the near future,” she said in an email to reporters on Thursday.

Powers had been with NASA for nine months, from April 2018-January 2019.

Prior to that, she was the senior lead press representative in the White House Office of Presidential Advance from March-April 2018 after serving in the same office for well over a year.

Before coming to the Washington she had worked on the Inauguration and the Trump Campaign.

FRETTING ABOUT THE SHUTDOWN’S IMPACT ON ROCK CREEK PARK: The Rock Creek Conservancy, an advocacy group, expressed concern Friday to the Interior Department that the government shutdown is causing damage to Washington D.C.’s Rock Creek Park.

“Without staff, the shutdown is disrupting the balance between visitor engagement and resource conservation, with a negative impact on both,” the group said in a letter to Dan Smith, the acting director of the National Park Service. “The damage that occurs in a very short time will take a very long and expensive effort to reverse.”

RUNDOWN

Wall Street Journal America’s electric grid has a vulnerable back door—and Russia walked through it

New York Times Ocean warming is accelerating faster than thought, new research finds

Reuters GM’s Cadillac will introduce EV in fight against Tesla

Bloomberg Winners and losers in Big Oil’s offshore spending revival