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CHIEF ARCHITECT OF TRUMP’S PARIS PULL-OUT QUITS EPA TO RESIST GREEN DEAL: Mandy Gunasekara quit the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday to launch a group to promote President Trump’s energy agenda ahead of the 2020 election.

The website for the group refers to Gunasekara as the “chief architect” of Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, as well a key official involved in the repeal of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan climate rules.

Gunasekara’s new job is leading “The Energy 45 Fund,” a Jackson, Mississippi-based 501(c)(4) non-profit educational organization, which is focused on informing the public about Trump’s “bold domestic energy dominance agenda” and the benefits she claims it has brought to the environment.

All about the election: The fund was launched as Democrats in both the House and Senate floated their “Green New Deal,” which also is aimed at shaping the 2020 election.

“This is going to enter the 2020 election cycle,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the Senate author of the Green New Deal resolution, said Thursday. “We now have the troops, we now have the money. We are ready to fight.”

Gunasekara’s group would seek to counter the principles of the Green New Deal, which her group’s website argues would drive up energy costs and harm the economy.

Invoking Stalin against the Democrats: “Their policies to combat climate change are nothing but a proxy for draconian government control that prohibits car ownership, kills domestic energy production, and harms low-income communities the most,” the fund’s website says. “Led by self-avowed socialists, the Democrats have made a leftward lurch so dramatic that it would make Stalin blush.”

Gunasekara was serving as EPA’s principal deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation, a senior role at the agency, before dropping out to form Energy 45.

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DINGELL PASSES AWAY AT 92, AND WITH HIM THE ERA OF ‘BIG TENT’ ENERGY POLITICS: When Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., was the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, he sought to pass legislation to increase fuel economy standards for cars, but to do it in a way that gained support rather than fomented dissent.

He was critical of environmental policy when he needed to be, but said he always sought to create a “big tent” to gain a broad cross-section of support for legislation, and was straightforward about his intent.

Straight shooter: He also said that he was direct with the auto industry, which resided in his backyard of Detroit: That they will be getting more stringent regulations to meet, but he would do it in a way meant to protect the economy and jobs.

In the interview, he emphasized that both responsibilities to the economy and to the environment were “very heavy.”

Coincidentally, the CAFE rules that he helped shuttle into the Energy Policy Act of 2007, Trump is now seeking to reverse.

Difficulty arises from the wings: Dingell also said that the most difficulty he had encountered in passing environmental legislation came from the far left and far right.

He had served as energy chairman from 1981 to 1995, which was the time when major changes to the Clean Air Act, giving EPA greater authority, were passed. He said all the detractors on those amendments to the environmental law came from lawmakers on the far right and left of both parties, but they still managed to pass the measures by a high number.

He later served as chairman once again from 2007 to 2009, until Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., took the helm to usher in a debate on comprehensive climate legislation.

GREEN NEW DEAL ROLLOUT CREATES CONFUSION ABOUT ROLE OF NUCLEAR, FOSSIL FUELS: Green New Deal advocates created confusion Thursday with the rollout of their congressional resolution.

The office of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., published a “frequently asked questions” fact sheet on the Green New Deal that included proposed policies contradicting the text of the actual resolution — and then later appeared to take down the fact sheet after reporters and commentators noted differences.

Notable differences: For example, the fact sheet said the Green New Deal would “not include creating new nuclear plants” as part of its goal to achieve “net-zero greenhouse gas emissions” by 2030. It also says the Green New Deal makes “new fossil fuel infrastructure unnecessary.”

However the resolution itself is “silent on individual technologies,” Markey told reporters at a press conference.

The subtle distinction is important. Progressives originally promised the Green New Deal would explicitly call for the end of fossil fuels or a shift to 100 percent renewable energy. The resolution introduced Thursday, however, leaves the door open for noncarbon-emitting energy sources that aren’t wind and solar power to reach the net-zero emissions goal — such as nuclear power and carbon capture on fossil fuel plants.

The fact sheet also dismissed carbon capture, saying “the technology to date has not been proven effective.”

But Markey specifically left an opening for carbon capture during the press conference.

“While it doesn’t mention carbon capture, we are open to whatever works, and will leave it to committees to devise the smartest ways in which those technologies are used,” he said.

Splitting apart Democrats: The confusion angered some moderate Democrats, and center-left think tanks like Third Way.

“What we need is the pragmatic approaches to actually get as rapidly as we can to where we want to go,” Ernest Moniz, the secretary of the Energy Department in the Obama administration, told Josh. “Putting forth unrealistic goals may impede our progress if it starts to leave behind key constituencies.”

Paul Bledsoe, a former climate change adviser to President Bill Clinton, told Josh: “Any zero-emissions electricity standard that could pass Congress has to include nuclear and carbon capture, along with wind and solar.”

OCASIO-CORTEZ PRAISES PELOSI AS ‘LEADER ON CLIMATE’: Ocasio-Cortez praised House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday for her work on climate change, and rejected initial reports that said Pelosi kept her off a new select committee on that issue.

“Nancy Pelosi is a leader on climate; has always been a leader on climate,” Ocasio-Cortez said at the press conference unveiling the Green New Deal. “I will not allow our caucus to be divided up by silly notions of whatever narrative. We are 100 percent in this together.”

Ocasio-Cortez won’t be on the committee, but Pelosi, D-Calif., said she invited the freshman Democrat and she declined.

Ocasio-Cortez said it’s going to take several committees working together on the issue to address a comprehensive climate policy and legislation. The effort will include the select committee on climate change, the energy committee, the judiciary committee, all playing roles.

BIPARTISAN GROUP OF SENATORS INTRO CARBON CAPTURE BILL: A bipartisan group of senators re-introduced a bill Thursday to promote carbon capture research and development, showing that the Green New Deal is not the only game in town.

The bill would require the government to research carbon capture and utilization technologies that would trap carbon from industrial facilities and reuse it for commercial products, and to facilitate the construction of pipelines to transport the captured emissions.

The legislation also would set up a program to incentivize the creation of technologies that can suck carbon directly out of the air.

It’s co-sponsored by Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Tom Carper of Delaware, the committee’s top Democrat.

“Carbon capture, utilization and sequestration, or CCUS, technologies are critical in our fight against climate change,” Carper said.“The USE IT Act helps lower the current barriers that are preventing the widespread development and deployment of CCUS.”

The bill passed the Environment and Public Works Committee last May, but it did not move to the Senate floor.

BROUILLETTE AND BUCHAREST: The Energy Department focused on helping Romania with its energy needs with a meeting Thursday with the country’s vice prime minister in Washington.

The conversation was held between Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette and Vice Prime Minister Ana Birchall, Energy Secretary Rick Perry disclosed in a tweet.

“My Department stands firmly behind #Romania in their pursuit of European energy security and looks forward to continued partnership on this important issue,” Perry said.

Romania has an all-of-the-above energy strategy that places emphasis on two key areas that mirror the Trump energy agenda. First, it is investing in “clean coal” technologies. Second, it is seriously looking to develop its shale natural gas resources as a hedge against Russian imports.

“Romania is looking to develop a shale gas industry and reduce its reliance on Russian natural gas supplies,” the Energy Information Administration said. Imports of natural gas from Russia accounted for 24 percent of the gas Romania consumed and 100 percent of the gas Romania imported in 2012.

SEISMIC TESTING FOR OIL AND GAS IN ANWR DELAYED UNTIL NEXT WINTER: The Interior Department said Thursday that seismic testing for oil and gas won’t occur this winter in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as originally planned.

Steve Wackowski, the department’s senior adviser for Alaska affairs, made the announcement at a local hearing Tuesday, according to E&E News.

Interior spokeswoman Faith Vander Voort said the company behind doing the seismic testing, SAExploration, asked the start date be moved to next December.

Leasing to continue as promised: The delay is not expected to slow plans for leasing in the refuge, known as ANWR, which is targeted for this year.

Environmental groups and Democrats cheered the delay of seismic testing but still criticized the Trump administration for rushing the leasing process faster than the timeline Congress outlined when it voted in 2017 to allow drilling in the refuge.

“This is good news for denning polar bears and those who believe the Arctic Refuge coastal plain deserves to be protected from oil exploration and development,” said Lois Epstein of The Wilderness Society.

BERNHARDT PROMISES ‘BALANCE’ TO INTERIOR’S AGENDA: Interior Department acting secretary David Bernhardt is promising to bring “balance” to the agency’s agenda if he is confirmed to stay on leading the agency.

Trump last week officially nominated Bernhardt, a former oil industry lobbyist, to replace Ryan Zinke.

“At the end of the day, the secretary’s job and the department’s job is one of balance,” Bernhardt told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Friday. “You have to harmonize. We have a very balanced agenda and that’s where we’re headed.”

Environmental groups and Democrats have accused the Interior Department of favoring oil and gas development on public lands and waters, and neglecting its conservation mission. Critics also question Bernhardt’s independence considering his ties to oil and gas.

In recent weeks, however Bernhardt has taken steps to emphasize renewable energy, announcing plans to reverse course and advance a major offshore wind project during the government shutdown.

HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE PASSES NOPEC BILL: The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday passed a bill allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC under anitrust laws for price fixing and production cuts.

The bill, No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act (NOPEC), looks to protect U.S. shale producers from price swings created by OPEC.

It passed in a unanimous voice vote, but is unlikely to move in the House with oil prices relatively low.

RUNDOWN

Politico The impossible green dream of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

New York Times A ‘Green New Deal’ is far from reality, but climate action is picking up in the states

Bloomberg Battery-backed solar breaks into grid long seen off limit

Washington Post Hurricanes are strengthening faster in the Atlantic, and climate change is a reason why, scientists say

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