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FORMER PRESIDENT GEORGE H.W. BUSH HONORED AS FRIEND OF THE OIL INDUSTRY AHEAD OF FUNERAL: The National Petroleum Council on Tuesday held a moment of silence with senior Energy Department officials and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke present to honor the 41st president of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush, as a lost friend of the oil industry.

“I think it’s appropriate for a moment of reflection and celebration of a life well lived,” said Greg Armstrong, chairman of the federal advisory panel made up of oil industry heads and related officials.

Bush had been the head and co-founder of two oil firms, including the Zapata Petroleum Corp. that opened operations in Texas’ Permian Basin, the region credited for the recent shale oil boom.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry later addressed the conference on Tuesday, beginning his remarks by honoring the former president, calling him an “amazingly good and decent man.”

“We’ll miss him,” Perry said.

Armstrong directed all in attendance to stand for a moment of prayer and reflection on the legacy of Bush.

Zinke later asked: What’s driving the economy? “It’s you,” he told the audience of oil industry members, answering his own question.

Oil price guessing: Zinke said he agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin that $60 per barrel is a good price point “to keep the economic engine pretty good.”

If the price of oil goes too low, it will stop oil drillers in the U.S. from producing and lead to tens of thousands of job layoffs as it did in recent years past, such as when the price dropped to around $30 per barrel ahead of the 2016 election.

ZINKE SAYS HE PREFERS BEING A SEAL TO INTERIOR SECRETARY: When taking the mic, Zinke quipped that he preferred being a Navy special forces commander. “As a SEAL when people shot at you, I could shoot back,” he said.

Zinke’s been picking fights: Zinke has been sparring via Twitter with some top Democrats in the House, namely Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee that oversees the Interior Department.

Zinke in a post last week referred to Grijalva as a drunk, which raised a lot of eyebrows across town.

Under a microscope: Zinke is under investigation for activities as secretary that may have violated federal rules, while Grijalva has consistently criticized his actions. There is also the constant rumor that Zinke is readying to step down as secretary and leave Washington.

“I’ve been criticized for saying, ‘I want to work with you,’” Zinke said Tuesday before the oil advisers. “I’ll take the criticism.” He said industry has the best technology to improve stewardship, and that industry and government should work toward a higher purpose.

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.  

TRUMP STILL WANTS A SEAT AT THE GLOBAL CLIMATE TABLE DESPITE PARIS EXIT: The Trump administration may have pulled out of the Paris climate accord, but the White House isn’t abandoning the field on global climate policy. U.S. officials made their presence known in force at this week’s United Nations climate conference in Poland.

This particular meeting, COP24, could be a deciding factor on the future direction of the 2015 Paris climate accord, making it more strict than originally envisioned, and speeding the transition away from fossil fuels at a faster clip than President Trump may want.

In response, Perry tasked a group of senior office heads to push for technologies that the administration wants to export overseas, including cleaner fossil-energy technologies, liquefied natural gas, and advanced nuclear energy technologies.

“Under Secretary Perry’s leadership, the Department of Energy remains focused on our efforts to positively impact the environment by exporting more American LNG, advocating for zero emission civil nuclear energy, and developing innovative technologies to modernize the production of all forms of energy,” said Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes.

White House’s push forward: The White House wants to use the conference to tout American energy innovation, especially when it comes to the continued use of cheap fossil fuels like coal. Perry has been pitching U.S. clean coal technologies that can capture carbon dioxide emissions from the smokestack and recycle them to reduce coal plants’ impact on warming.

Sources close to the White House say the administration wants the U.N. to recognize that coal and other fossil fuels will remain in high demand across much of the developing world, and even in some developed countries throughout the next century, and that a rapid transition to 100 percent renewables isn’t yet feasible.

Read more from John’s story here in Tuesday’s edition of the Washington Examiner magazine.

CARBON EMISSIONS FROM ADVANCED COUNTRIES SET TO RISE IN 2018: Carbon emissions from advanced economies is projected to rise in 2018 after a five-year decline, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday.

Emissions in North America, the European Union, and other major economies in Asia grew as higher oil and gas use offset declining coal consumption and growth in solar and wind. As a result, the IEA expects carbon emissions to increase 0.5% this year in those economies.

The IEA also said emerging countries will emit more carbon than last year.

Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, said the uptick in emissions is a bad sign for the world’s ability to achieve targets set in the Paris climate agreement.

“This turnaround should be another warning to governments as they meet in Katowice [Poland] this week,” he said in a statement.

Birol called on more use of renewables and nuclear power, greater energy efficiency measures, and investments in technologies such as carbon capture and storage.

BERNIE SANDERS PARTNERS WITH OCASIO CORTEZ TO LOBBY FOR CLIMATE ACTION: Progressive leader Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont partnered with up-and-coming liberal sensation Rep-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York on Monday night, hosting a town hall in Washington D.C. to rally action on climate change.

“Tonight we are dealing with what the scientific community tells us is the great crisis facing our planet and facing humanity,” Sanders said. “What we are trying to do tonight is be part of the revolution in terms of the need to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and to not only save the planet but create millions of good-paying jobs in the process.”

Advocating a ‘Green New Deal’: Ocasio-Cortez has already generated attention before joining Congress next year by trying to pressure her party into pursuing an aggressive “Green New Deal” agenda.

She is promoting a resolution giving new power to a select climate committee that Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California wants to revive, so it can draft a climate bill by 2020 that would require 100 percent of electricity to come from renewable sources.

On Monday, Ocasio-Cortez said climate change “is going to be the Great Society, the moon shot, the civil rights movement of our generation.”

“That is the scale of the ambition that this movement is going to require,” she added.

PROGRESSIVES RALLY AGAINST JOE MANCHIN’S LIKELY RISE ON ENERGY COMMITTEE: The Sunrise Movement, a young progressive activist group, rallied outside Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s New York office on Monday, urging him to block coal-supporting Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia from becoming the top Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

“Putting someone who has taken $1 million from fossil fuel CEOs in charge of climate policy is like pouring oil on a fire and saying you’re trying to put it out,” said Aracely Jimenez, a member of the Sunrise Movement, which has advocated for the “Green New Deal.”

How Manchin could rise: Manchin could lead Democrats on the key committee because the current ranking member, Maria Cantwell of Washington, is reportedly considering becoming the top minority senator of the Commerce Committee.

Other Democrats with seniority over Manchin on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee have said they are not interested in taking over, including Sanders.

Manchin’s potential elevation has environmentalists worried because he is a devout supporter of coal, a key industry in his state. He also has a working relationship with Trump. He has encouraged Trump to take action to save retiring coal and nuclear plants. Coincidently, Manchin met with Trump on Monday, where the two discussed coal miners’ pension reform, among other issue.

CLIMATE CHANGE COULD FORCE THE WORLD TO SAY GOODBYE TO COWS: A new National Academies of Sciences study from 18 top scientists suggests that a “Soylent Green”-style cultured protein will be needed in the not-too-distant future to deal with the problems of population growth and climate change.

The new Department of Energy-funded study on environmental engineering released Monday doesn’t suggest that switching the global diet to a lab-made protein will lead to the horrifying climax of “Soylent Green,” but it does suggest that beef will have to be made more scarce.

The emissions impact: The report finds that livestock farming could be responsible for as much as 14.5 percent of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions, which are blamed for raising the temperature of the Earth.

Beef and dairy farming also require far more water per unit of protein produced compared to plant-based protein equivalents, the study says.

The more we eat: The study estimates that global meat production could grow as much as 12 percent by 2026 due to population growth and increasing demand due to rising standards of living in lower- and middle-income countries.

A dystopian-like answer: Evoking “Soylent Green,” the National Academies report says a variety of meatless protein products, including protein products grown from “animal and plant tissue cells in culture, are becoming available” and could reduce the demand for livestock.

Some estimates show that such dietary changes could allow 30 percent more people to get fed with the same agricultural land and crop patterns.

Activists will be promoting this idea at the COP24 climate conference in Poland that goes until the middle of the month.

Former California Gov. and action star Arnold Schwarzenegger told the Associated Press on the sidelines of the meeting on Monday that he only allows himself to eat meat three days a week.

“I mean, maybe it tastes delicious, but I think we should think then and there before we eat about the world and about the pollution,” he said.

He also said that he wished he could go back in time like the Terminator, which he is most known for in his film repertoire, and stop fossil fuels.

UN CLIMATE SUMMIT TO EMIT MORE C02 THAN 8,000 AMERICAN HOMES IN A YEAR, REPORT SAYS: The United Nations climate summit in Poland this week will emit more carbon dioxide than the yearly average of 8,200 American homes, according to Environmental Protection Agency and U.N. estimates.

COP24, as the summit is called, is expected to emit approximately 55,000 tons of carbon dioxide over the course of the 60-day conference in Katowice. This much carbon dioxide, according to the EPA, is also equivalent to the emissions from 11,700 cars driving for one year and 728 tanker trucks worth of gasoline.

FRANCE’S MACRON TO DELAY FUEL-TAX INCREASE AFTER PROTESTS: French President Emmanuel Macron is delaying a planned tax increase on fuel in response to protests across the country.

Prime Minister Édouard Philippe said at a news conference Tuesday the tax hike would be pushed back six months. The fuel tax increase has inflamed frustrations among the French working class who accuse Macron of pursuing policies, including his focus on combating climate change, that favor the rich.

LARRY KUDLOW PLEDGES TO END SUBSIDIES FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES: White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow said Monday the Trump administration wants to end subsidies for purchases of electric vehicles, projecting 2020 or 2021 for an end date.

“We want to end, we will end those subsidies and others of the Obama administration,” Kudlow said.

It’s a retaliatory policy:  The comment came after Trump said last week he would seek to cut General Motors’ federal subsidies, including for electric cars, over the automaker’s move to shutter U.S. plants so it can focus on the development of alternative vehicles.

The threats from the Trump administration have slowed momentum for a bipartisan push in Congress to reform the electric vehicle tax credit, and emboldened critics of it.

SUPREME COURT REJECTS REQUEST TO HEAR ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGE TO TRUMP’S BORDER WALL: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request from a trio of conservation and environmental groups seeking to block construction of Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The justices declined to consider the groups’ appeal of a lower court ruling that paved the way for the federal government to begin replacing border fencing in two locations and building wall prototypes.

What the lower court said: U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel — once described by Trump as a “hater” — rejected the groups’ challenge to a 1996 federal law that gives the government the power to waive environmental laws to more quickly begin work on a wall.

RUNDOWN

Reuters U.S. investment firms rake in ‘staggering’ returns on clean coal tax credits

Washington Post Why the climate change problem is starting to look too big to solve

Politico Trump administration to pare fatality reduction from car efficiency plan

Wall Street Journal Big fracking profits at $50 a barrel? Don’t bet on it

Bloomberg Environment Nixed solar grant opportunity cost $500,000, drawing hill scrutiny

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