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TOP CLIMATE COMMITTEE REPUBLICAN GARRET GRAVES PUSHES BACK ON DEMOCRATIC NET-ZERO GOALS: Representative Garret Graves of Louisiana is voicing skepticism of the need for federal legislation to address climate change, six months after taking a Republican leadership role on the issue as the ranking member of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.
“You need these abrupt changes like the Green New Deal when you are doing something wrong,” Graves told me over the phone Thursday from his district office. “When you are the global leader in emissions reductions, that is not wrong. What we need to be doing is exactly what we have been doing.”
Graves says he’s seeking to balance the concerns of coastal residents in his district worried about climate change with the demands of the oil and gas industry prominent in his state.
During his town halls across Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District, residents described the personal and economic harm from increased flooding and sea level rise. But the energy industry has his ear too. His state is the leading exporter of liquified natural gas and a major hub for petrochemicals and oil refiners.
“I hear from people every single day about flood resilience,” said Graves, who previously ran the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority under Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal. “The biggest thing, hands-down, is people feel they are being increasingly flooded. Statistics show that is accurate. On the energy side, we are a big solid oil and gas state. We hear a lot from folks on the importance of the energy industry.”
Political messaging ahead of 2020: House GOP leadership selected Graves, 47, to represent the party on climate change, meaning that he has the task of recognizing climate science while making the case against Democratic proposals to mandate or encourage emissions reductions, like the Green New Deal.
Upon Democrats taking control of Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revived the select committee, which existed previously in a different form, to bring attention to climate change ahead of the 2020 election. While it doesn’t have the power to write legislation, both parties want to use it to hone their messaging on climate change.
Skeptical of net-zero goals: Graves is using his perch to question calls from scientists and Democrats for the U.S. to reach net-zero emissions by midcentury.
He told me there is no “technological basis” for the U.S. to achieve net-zero emissions, citing insufficient transmission and energy storage, which would both help with the progress of renewables. He also argues that setting a goal for the U.S. would have little impact on global emissions.
“Anyone who would be charged with executing net-zero emissions by 2050 would fall off a cliff,” Graves said. “I am not saying it is an impossible goal. But at this point it’s not technologically grounded. What the U.N. needs to be doing is calling out China for their gross increases in emissions and their cheating on emissions.”
Graves is dismissive of policies that Democrats, and some Republicans, say would encourage clean energy innovation, such as carbon pricing, clean electricity mandates, and increasing spending on R&D.
“I am not entirely convinced at this point that additional federal investment is needed,” Graves said. “A lot of people look at a problem and think the solution is money. I don’t always believe that’s the case.”
Democratic counterpart fights back: Representative Kathy Castor of Florida, the chairwoman of the Select Climate Crisis Committee, told me Graves and other Republicans are insufficiently devoted to fighting climate change if they don’t favor new legislation.
“Some Republicans are changing how they talk about this issue, but very few of them have backed legislation that would actually address the climate crisis,” Castor said after I briefed her on Graves’ comments. “Our hearings have provided ample reasons to act and plenty of examples of solutions that are ready right now. If they don’t support innovation, if they don’t support setting goals in line with science, what do they support?”
There’s room for cooperation, sort of: Graves did reference some potential areas of cooperation. He said he supports aspects of a plan submitted to the committee by Representative Cheri Bustos of Illinois to encourage carbon reduction efforts in agriculture.
Bustos, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, released a “Rural Green Partnership” policy framework that contains proposals for boosting clean energy in rural America, including supporting research on soil carbon sequestration, in which carbon is removed from the atmosphere and stored in soil. Graves favors the focus on CCS.
But Graves criticized other aspects of the plan, mainly its focus on growing workforce development programs focused on clean energy jobs within community colleges, technical schools, and unions, and its emphasis on boosting rural broadband.
“While there are some components in here that have merit without a doubt, I couldn’t help but see the politics sort of seeping through this whole thing that undermined the credibility of the overall proposal,” Graves said. “There is clearly some potential political signaling that is largely irrelevant to climate.”
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NOTE TO READERS: Daily on Energy will not publish Monday, Sept. 2, in observance of the federal Labor Day holiday. We’ll be back Tuesday, Sept. 3.
CLIMATE HAWK REPUBLICANS OPPOSE TRUMP ROLLBACK OF METHANE RULE: Leading House Republicans who back federal policies to curb climate change say they oppose the Trump administration’s move Thursday to eliminate direct federal regulation of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
“I have serious concerns about this decision by the EPA,” Representative Francis Rooney of Florida told me. Rooney is the chairman of the bipartisan House Climate Solutions Caucus and the leading Republican proponent in Congress of a carbon tax.
“Even the major oil companies such as Shell, Exxon, and BP, agree that this rule rollback is unnecessary,” Rooney added. “The only entities pushing this change are certain independent producers who do not want to spend the money to comply with the higher standards that provide greater protection for our environment.”
What EPA did: The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule to reverse regulations imposed by the Obama administration in 2016 requiring oil and gas companies to install technologies to inspect and repair wells, pipelines, and storage facilities that leak methane. Methane, the main component of natural gas, is more potent than carbon dioxide, although its emissions don’t last as long in the atmosphere.
Graves also said he opposes the EPA’s proposed action to stop direct federal regulation of methane.
I asked him if he supports the EPA’s decision. “I don’t think I do. No. Based upon the reports, I do have some concerns at this point,” Graves told me.
Graves added: “Methane has greater global warming potential than many other greenhouse gases. To the extent we can sensibly capture fugitive emissions, we should do it.”
GOP hawks are exception to the rule: Most Republicans stood by the EPA’s decision, with a slew of senators and House members issuing supportive statements, including Senator John Barrasso, chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Representative Rob Bishop, the top Republican of the House Natural Resources Committee.
SCHUMER VOWS TO OVERTURN EPA’S METHANE MOVE: Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer vowed Thursday to try and overturn the EPA’s weakening of methane regulations using the Congressional Review Act, which would allow for overturning the rule, should it be finalized, with a simple majority in the Senate.
“This illogical and devastating rule to weaken one of the most important regulations to address greenhouse gas emissions would be a dagger in the heart of efforts to preserve the planet,” Schumer said in a statement.
Democrats would need the support of four Republican senators to repeal the methane rule, given they hold 47 seats, including independents who caucus with Democrats.
‘UNPREDICTABLE’ HURRICANE DORIAN KEEPS LOOKING WORSE FOR FLORIDA: Hurricane Dorian is looking more ominous as its approaches Florida, with a landfall expected on the eastern coast over Labor Day weekend.
The latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center puts it mildly, acknowledging a “slightly higher peak intensity than the previous forecast,” but the numbers indicate catastrophic damage is possible.
Maximum sustained wind speeds are projected to be 130 miles per hour by Sunday, enough for Dorian to be a Category 4 hurricane.
In the days to come, the storm, currently a Category 1, brings the threat of heavy rains, life-threatening storm surge, and strong winds to the Bahamas and Florida.
Landfall over Florida, which most models predict, is expected to happen Monday, but the far-reaching effects of the storm will hit the shore sooner.
US CHAMBER WARNS TRUMP TO SLOW ROLLBACK OF FUEL RULES: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce pushed back at the Trump administration Thursday over its expected rollback of Obama-era fuel efficiency rules.
The chamber said freezing the standards, instead of increasing them year over year as the Obama administration proposed, would be “insufficient.”
“Continued progress on fuel economy and emissions reductions can be achieved without undue harm to the economy, and predictable year-over-year efficiency improvements are key to enabling the U.S. to maintain environmental and manufacturing leadership,” Neil Bradley, the Chamber’s executive vice president and chief policy officer, said in a letter to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.
The Chamber, which represents the broader business community, joins leading automakers in calling for the Trump administration to not go too far in weakening the Obama rules, fearful that doing so would bring market uncertainty and lead to drawn-out litigation.
Four automakers — Ford, Honda, VW, and BMW — announced last month they struck a deal with California to produce more fuel-efficient cars.
The Trump administration is expected to finalize its planned weakening of the rules this fall, while also revoking the right of states like California to set their own tougher rules.
DOMINION AIMS TO MAKE ALL VIRGINIA’S SCHOOL BUSES ELECTRIC: Dominion Energy announced an initiative Thursday to transition all of Virginia’s school buses from diesel fuel to electric power by 2030.
Virginia’s largest utility called the project, if implemented, the largest deployment of electric buses in the nation.
School districts in Northern Virginia, Central Virginia and Hampton Roads can apply for the first 50 buses beginning this year. Dominion will pay the price difference between an electric school bus and a diesel one, as well as the cost of charging infrastructure.
In subsequent phases of the plan, Dominion plans to make the program available for 200 buses per year over the next five years and all school buses beginning in 2030, pending state approval.
The company said replacing 1,050 diesel buses with electric ones would reduce carbon emissions by 810 million pounds.
Dominion will also benefit from the electric buses by using their batteries when the buses are not being used to store excess energy to feed back into the grid during an emergency, or periods of high demand.
CLIMATE ACTIVIST GRETA THUNBERG TELLS TRUMP TO ‘LISTEN TO THE SCIENCE’: “It’s strange, everyone always asks me about Donald Trump,” Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16, told reporters in New York City ahead of a major U.N. conference next month after crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a solar powered boat, instead of flying, to cut down on emissions. “But, I mean, my message for him is just ‘listen to the science,’ and he obviously doesn’t do that.”
The Rundown
Wall Street Journal Oil and gas bankruptcies grow as investors lose appetite for shale
Reuters Saudi Aramco board sees too many risks for New York IPO
Bloomberg Trump gives businesses deregulation whether they want it or not
Cleveland.com Proposed anti-House Bill 6 referendum clears initial hurdle
Calendar
FRIDAY | August 30
House and Senate in August recess.
