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!
James Danly, President Trump’s FERC nominee, carefully maneuvered through questioning during his confirmation hearing Tuesday about how he would handle issues related to the evolving electric grid and the commission’s consideration of climate change in approving fossil fuel infrastructure.
Danly, a Republican working as FERC’s general counsel since 2017, said he agreed with the commission’s decision in 2018 to reject the Trump administration’s original bid to subsidize coal and nuclear plants.
Asked by Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich about whether the grid is facing a resilience and reliability threat, Danly said: “I don’t see there’s a need to be a wholesale revision of the wholesale markets.”
In later questioning before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Danly assured his commitment to upholding the competitive wholesale power markets.
“FERC is not in the business of creating winners and losers and never has been,” he said. “FERC’s commitment to market-based solutions has been pretty obvious the last two decades regardless of who has been in the majority.”
Danly was later pressed by coal-state senator John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican, about whether the grid is challenged by retiring “baseload” plants, and the FERC nominee again treaded carefully.
“Absolutely,” Danly responded. “The transition from the old dinosaur era of vertically integrated utilities to the current market system has been a challenge and there are many problems. But the electric system is better for it.”
He is bullish on renewables, and said the grid’s transition is a good thing: Danly’s nomination has sparked concern from clean energy groups who worry he would take a hands-off approach at FERC, meaning he could be reluctant to push through changes to modernize the electric grid.
He sought to address those worries in his opening statement, saying he’d work “to remove barriers to entry that could stifle progress as new technologies are developed.”
He said renewables “undoubtedly” will have a significant role in the future electricity mix, and said wind and solar can reliably be integrated onto the grid “under the right circumstances.”
And he said he backs the authority of states to set their own clean energy policies.
Evading questions on climate reviews: Danly also was careful responding to questions on how FERC handles evaluations of the effects of downstream greenhouse gas emissions in approving natural gas projects, saying he’d follow a court ruling that it must consider them.
“I agree with the D.C. Circuit when it hands down a binding ruling, yes,” he said.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Josh Siegel (@SiegelScribe) and Abby Smith (@AbbySmithDC). 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.
EXCLUSIVE…HAPPER DISHES ON FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE SCIENCE: William Happer failed at the chance of his lifetime.
A notorious climate change science skeptic, Happer, 80, recently left the Trump administration after the White House killed his plan to create a panel to challenge government assessments of global warming.
But Happer remains undeterred, confident that Trump, the most vocal climate change skeptic to occupy the White House, is naturally inclined to come around to the idea.
“Hard things often take a long time,” Happer told Josh in his first interview since leaving the administration in September. “I hope it’s in my lifetime.”
After leaving his post as a National Security Council senior director, Happer has returned to Princeton, where he is an emeritus physics professor.
Happer is as eager as ever to challenge the climate science consensus, calling it a “completely imaginary threat that doesn’t exist. People are afraid to stand up and say that.”
He compared his crusade to the experience of the protagonist in an 1882 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, “An Enemy of the People,” which tells the story of a man who speaks an “unpalatable truth” and is punished for it.
Happer said he’d consider returning to the Trump administration, if asked, to press his case after the election, but he’s not “coveting it.”
“When the history of this period is written, I want historians to say not everyone was corrupt,” Happer said. “So, I want to look good in history. I have no doubt that I will, but I am realistic about these things.”
Read more of Josh’s interview with Happer here.
TRUMP BEGINS LEAP OUT OF PARIS PACT ON DAY ONE: The Trump administration leaped at the opportunity Monday to start the process of leaving the Paris climate agreement, setting in motion a long-anticipated move to become the first country to exit the pact.
The State Department filed a notice of its intention to the U.N. Under the terms of the agreement, the United States had to wait until Monday to submit the paperwork even though Trump announced in June 2017 that he rejected the deal.
“In international climate discussions, we will continue to offer a realistic and pragmatic model — backed by a record of real world results — showing innovation and open markets lead to greater prosperity, fewer emissions, and more secure sources of energy,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
“We will continue to work with our global partners to enhance resilience to the impacts of climate change and prepare for and respond to natural disasters.”
Filing the paperwork starts a one-year countdown for the actual withdrawal that can become official one day after the November 2020 presidential election.
The reality is this changes nothing: Nat Keohane, senior vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund, said he expects Monday’s announcement to result in little change on the ground.
“The big change was when Trump made that announcement — not when we pass a formal deadline,” he told Josh. “At the political level, the U.S. has effectively been a no-show under this administration, and the rest of the world has responded accordingly: by moving on.”
DEMOCRATS PROMISE PARIS PAYBACK: Democratic presidential candidates plan to quickly reverse course if they win the White House.
Amy Klobuchar tweeted “I’m getting us back into the international climate change agreement,” on her first day in office.
Elizabeth Warren tweeted the same promise. Joe Biden called Trump’s move out of Paris “shameful.” Bernie Sanders deemed Trump a “national embarrassment” and said he would enact a Green New Deal in addition to rejoining Paris.
THE MAKINGS OF THE SENATE’S CLIMATE CAUCUS: When the Senate’s new bipartisan climate caucus meets for the first time this week, it will be joined by industry CEOs.
That’s in part because the caucus’ two founders — Delaware Democrat Chris Coons and Indiana Republican Mike Braun — say the group is rooted in industry’s shift on climate change, which creates an opening for both parties to work on the issue.
Companies’ shift toward greener, more climate-friendly business practices “made me realize, there’s a window here to appeal to Republicans who are grounded in business, who want metrics for an outcome, and who are willing to meet with and hear from not so much advocates as industry,” Coons told Abby.
Already three Republicans — Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, Utah Senator Mitt Romney, and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham — have joined Braun on the caucus, Braun said.
The reaction Braun’s gotten from his colleagues has been positive, along the lines of “glad you did it, we need to be in the conversation,” he recalled. “That’s all I wanted to do was be in the conversation.”
Read more from Abby’s sit-down, joint interview with the senators in this week’s Washington Examiner magazine.
GIVE PG&E TO THE PEOPLE, MAYORS SAY: San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo has recruited more than a dozen California mayors and city officials to back his plan for a customer-owned Pacific Gas & Electric.
The group of mayors — which include the leaders of Sacramento, Oakland, and Berkley — are calling on California utility regulators to include Liccardo’s plan as they weigh the future of the utility, currently in bankruptcy proceedings. PG&E has been California’s punching bag in recent weeks, as it has shut down the power multiple times for millions of customers amid severe weather and heightened risk of wildfires in the state.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said he would convene a meeting this week of PG&E officials and shareholders, wildfire victims, and creditors about how to get the utility out of bankruptcy.
The mayors want a customer-owned PG&E to be on the table: A customer-owned PG&E would be better positioned to make the millions in investments needed to harden the grid and protect the state from wildfires, the city officials wrote in a letter Monday to the California Public Utilities Commission. The plan would also allow a path to restore trust in the company, they say.
“To the extent that the public continues to believe that a profit motive has dominated PG&E’s decision making, the enterprise will never regain the trust of its customers, its regulators, and public policy-makers,” add the officials, who together represent more than 5 million Californians.
FREEDOMWORKS SEEKS PROBE OF CLIMATE ADVOCACY GROUP: The conservative free market group is calling on the Trump administration to scrutinize how the Climate Investigations Center — which describes itself as a watchdog on climate deniers and fossil fuel companies — obtains its information.
The climate group is improperly obtaining fee waivers under the Freedom of Information Act, abusing the process for “fishing expeditions” to attack companies and groups they oppose, Chris Gober, the lawyer representing FreedomWorks, wrote in a complaint to the Justice Department on Tuesday. The group sent similar letters to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Interior.
Jason Pye, vice president of legislative affairs at FreedomWorks, told Abby the climate group is abusing its nonprofit status to bypass FOIA fees “in a way that is profound.”
Stopping the group’s practice of receiving FOIA fee waivers is “on the very, very low-hanging fruit side,” Pye said, adding he is hopeful the Justice Department will revisit the climate group’s nonprofit status.
EFFICIENCY STANDARDS LIGHT UP COURT BATTLE: More than a dozen state attorneys general and several environmental groups are taking Trump to court for rolling back energy efficiency standards for lightbulbs.
The lawsuits, filed Monday, argue the Department of Energy’s move violates the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which says the agency can’t backtrack on or weaken efficiency limits for appliances. The Energy Department has also separately proposed not to update efficiency limits for incandescent bulbs, even as efficiency groups say LEDs are ultimately cheaper for consumers.
“[T]he United States will become the dumping ground for the inefficient incandescent and halogen models already banned in Europe and being phased out by countries around the world,” Kit Kennedy, senior director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s climate and clean energy program, said in a statement.
The Rundown
New York Times Diplomats plot to save climate accord
Bloomberg How serious is climate change risk? Just ask a banker
Vox Bernie Sanders’ new bet: a climate change message can win him the Iowa caucuses
New York Times Banned ozone-harming gas, once on the rise, declines again
Reuters Scramble for propane marks Mother Nature’s latest challenge for U.S. farmers
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | NOVEMBER 6
10 a.m. 406 Dirksen. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee holds a legislative hearing on S. 2662, the Growing American Innovation Now (GAIN) Act.
THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 7
10 a.m. 366 Dirksen. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing on issues and legislation related to energy development on federal land
