Daily on Energy: Mayor Pete thinks Democrats look alike on climate. Is he right?

“We have all put out highly similar visions on climate,” said Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. “It is all theoretical. We will deal with climate, if and only if we win the presidency, if and only if we beat Donald Trump.”

There is certainly a real gulf between centrist Democrats and progressives over whether to frame climate change as an all-encompassing issue that should also entail enacting “Medicare for all” and instituting a federal jobs guarantee, as opposed to looking at global warming more narrowly.

Asked if the Green New Deal is unrealistic, centrist John Delaney said:

“It ties its progress to other things that are completely unrelated to climate, like universal health care, guaranteed government jobs, and universal basic income. So that only makes it harder to do.”

I’ve seen this before: Delaney proceeded to explain his agenda, which he called “realistic,” that actually shares a lot in common with other candidates.

He would tax carbon and return the revenue to Americans. While candidates disagree with how to do it, and how big a component of their agenda it should be, most have proposed pricing carbon in some form. Delaney also supports uncontroversial ideas among Democrats like increasing the Energy Department research budget by “fivefold,” boosting investments in renewables, and supporting progress in direct air capture technology to swipe carbon directly from the atmosphere.

All of that, he claimed, would “get us to net-zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the timeline that most candidates and the United Nations climate panel say is necessary to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.

“All of us agree that we have to address climate change,” said another centrist candidate, Steve Bullock, the governor of red-state Montana. “The Republicans won’t even acknowledge that climate change is real.”

Liberals say that’s a false choice: Green New Deal supporters Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren disagreed with the moderates’ framing.

“What you want to do instead is find the Republican talking point and say, ‘Oh, we don’t really have to do anything,’” Warren said. “That’s the problem we’ve got in Washington right now. It continues to be a Washington that works great for oil companies, just not for people worried about climate change.”

Warren, who has released detailed climate change plans, and Sanders, who has not released a plan, say their approaches are different because of their confrontational approach to fossil fuel companies, and focus on restructuring the economy with high-paying clean energy, union-backed jobs.

“Look, I put a real policy on the table to create 1.2 million new jobs in green manufacturing,” Warren said. “This could revitalize huge cities across this country. And no one wants to talk about it.”

What do voters want?: Buttigieg and Bullock seem to be arguing that while Democratic voters say climate change is among, if not the most, concerning issue to them — especially as Trump treads water on the subject — people don’t appreciate the distinction between specific plans that look broadly similar when deciding who to vote for.

A recent poll by the Sierra Club and Morning Consult published last week supports this contention.

Voters who say that Democratic candidates’ climate plans are “very important” picked Joe Biden as their top choice. Biden, not known as the most aggressive climate hawk, continues to lead in national polls. Warren and Sanders are second and third in the Sierra Club poll respectively. But Jay Inslee, who has the most detailed and ambitious climate change plans, does not rank in the poll.

Some of this could reflect name recognition, just like the national polls at this early stage.

Paul Bledsoe, a former climate change adviser to President Bill Clinton, sees the poll as more telling.

“Whoever gets the nomination will have the most aggressive climate proposals in history — voters know this, so distinctions between plans are being lost,” Bledsoe told me.

Others analysts disagree, and said the nuances between candidates’ climate change agendas are meaningful, similar to other issues like health care.

“Would we accept this argument on any other issue?” Leah Stokes, an assistant professor of environmental politics at the University of California at Santa Barbara, told me. “Would we say ‘we all agree on healthcare’ even if it’s not true? No. That wouldn’t be acceptable. To me this shows an ignorance of the scale of the crisis and the need for meaningful plans to meet this problem.”

Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writer 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.

SANDERS AND BULLOCK FIGHT OVER HOW CLIMATE PLANS TREAT WORKERS: Sanders bristled at a suggestion at Tuesday night’s debate that supporters of the Green New Deal don’t care about workers in the fossil fuel industry, insisting that he supports a transition to clean energy that would protect workers.

Sanders took exception after Bullock said, “As we transition to this clean energy economy, you have to recognize there are folks that have spent their whole lives powering our country, and far too often Democrats sound like they’re part of the problem.”

“Ain’t nobody in Congress more strongly pro-worker than I am,” Sanders said. “We can create what the Green New Deal is about. It’s a bold idea. We can create millions of good-paying jobs. We can rebuild communities in rural America that have been devastated. So we are not anti-worker.”

Sanders generally attacks the “fossil fuel industry” rather than its workers.

Some Democratic presidential candidates, including Inslee, Biden, Warren, and Beto O’Rourke, have emphasized helping fossil fuel-dependent communities as part of their plans to eliminate the use of coal, oil, and gas, proposing guarantees for health insurance and pension benefits, as well as funds for career training.

INSLEE SUPER PAC AIRS AD ATTACKING OTHER DEMOCRATS DURING DEBATES: A super PAC that supports Inslee is airing an ad criticizing his Democratic primary opponents during the presidential debates Tuesday and Wednesday, the Washington Examiner’s Emily Larsen reported.

The ad from Act Now on Climate pictures five top-tier candidates — California Sen. Kamala Harris, Buttigieg, Warren, Biden, and Sanders — as its narrator says, “Democrats aren’t making climate change the number one issue.”

Act Now on Climate will spend six figures to show the ad in Iowa during the debates and continue in Iowa media markets for another week, Politico reported.

REPUBLICANS, BUSINESS COMMUNITY TOUT ‘INNOVATION’-FIRST APPROACH TO CLIMATE CHANGE: Trump administration officials and Republicans in Congress touted the approach of spurring private sector innovation to combat climate change during appearances at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Energy Innovates summit Wednesday morning.

“We are determined to lead the drive for a cleaner energy world,” Energy Secretary Rick Perry said, ticking off “strides” in renewables, energy storage, and advanced nuclear technologies. “We will continue to do so without surrendering one iota of growth. I totally respect people’s sometimes single minded focus on climate change, but the United States is leading the role in the reduction of emissions.”

The Chamber of Commerce has recently shifted its rhetoric on climate change to acknowledge climate change as a problem best addressed through technologies such as carbon capture, advanced nuclear, and energy storage, while dismissing mandates, carbon pricing, or regulation.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, struck a similar note at the Chamber event, expressing alarm about the hot weather and rise in water temperature off her state’s coast this summer, and celebrating legislation in her Energy and Natural Resources Committee on “energy innovation” bills.

“It’s more than just a blip,” Murkowski said off the climate-change related impacts on her state. “It’s what we have been seeing.”

“We don’t seem to get those top of the fold headlines about good news,” she said earlier. “How we are leading in this country when it comes to energy innovation that will move us to this cleaner energy future, reduce emissions, and a stronger economy.”

EPA VACATES OBAMA-ERA DECISION BLOCKING ALASKA MINING PROJECT: The EPA said Tuesday it is revoking the Obama administration’s proposed veto of a gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay that prevented it from being built since 2014.

The EPA said the Obama administration was incorrect to propose water pollution restrictions against the proposed gold mine before a review process was completed. But the agency has not decided whether to approve the gold mine. It is allowing for the completion of an ongoing permitting process being conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

A flip of a flip-flop: Former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt had left in place the Obama administration’s block of the project, agreeing the proposed mine would poison rivers leading to Bristol Bay, which supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

Pruitt’s decision reversed a prior determination he made, where he had begun a process of undoing the Obama administration’s attempt to block the mine.

But now, the EPA under Administrator Andrew Wheeler — who has recused himself from the review of project — wants to complete the permitting process for the mine, arguing the prior administration stopped the project preemptively.

“[The] decision restores the proper process for 404(c) determinations, eliminating a preemptive veto of a hypothetical mine and focusing EPA’s environmental review on an actual project before the Agency,” said EPA General Counsel Matthew Z. Leopold.

MANCHIN URGES TRUMP TO NOMINATE FERC COMMISSIONERS FROM EACH PARTY: Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia urged Trump Tuesday to rise above the “political fray” and simultaneously nominate one Republican and one Democrat to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

FERC will have two vacancies at the end of August after its longest-serving Democrat Cheryl LaFleur retires. LaFleur’s departure will leave FERC with only three commissioners — Democrat Rich Glick and two Republicans, Chairman Neil Chatterjee and Bernard McNamee.

Former Republican Chairman Kevin McIntyre died of cancer in January. While no political party can hold more than three seats on the five-member commission, Trump could technically nominate a Republican to replace McIntyre and stall on nominating a Democrat, leaving LaFleur’s seat open.

“I urge President Trump to nominate two individuals, one Republican and one Democrat, so the Senate can consider and confirm them together in the bipartisan manner that has become the norm and restore a fully functioning commission,” said Manchin, the top Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which oversees FERC.

DEMOCRATIC ATTORNEYS GENERAL SEEK ACTION FROM CONGRESS ON PFAS CHEMICALS: A coalition of 22 Democratic state attorneys general urged Congress Tuesday to pass legislation combating toxic chemicals known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that have contaminated U.S. water supplies.

The attorneys general wants Congress to provide financial assistance to help state and local governments offset the cost of cleaning up drinking water supplies. They also say lawmakers should pass legislation designating PFAS as a hazardous substance under the Superfund law, and to phase out the use of PFAS in firefighting foam

“When it comes to the health and safety of New Yorkers, inaction isn’t an option,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James, who spearheaded the coalition’s letter to congressional leadership. “These toxic ‘forever’ chemicals endanger the wellbeing of people across our state, and we need federal legislation to address the threat.”

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IS INVESTIGATING RYAN ZINKE OVER EMAIL USE: The Justice Department is investigating former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke over his use of private email to conduct official business.

The Interior Department inspector general confirmed in a letter to Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee that it is jointly investigating Zinke’s use of private email as part of a “related criminal investigation.”

That larger investigation is believed to be focused on a real estate deal involving a foundation Zinke once ran, and David Lesar, the chairman of the large oil services firm Halliburton, as reported by the New York Times.

“Leaving office half a step ahead of the law doesn’t wipe the slate clean,” said Natural Resources Committee chairman Raul Grijalva of Arizona, in a statement Tuesday upon publishing the Interior IG letter. “It’s imperative that political appointees at the Department of Justice allow this investigation to continue unimpeded regardless of the risk to Mr. Zinke or other Trump officials.”

The Rundown

New York Times The White House blocked my report on climate change and national security

Reuters Inside a Trump-era purge of military scientists at a legendary think tank

Bloomberg Turning a dead coal plant Into a hip waterfront experience

WTAP-TV West Virginia lawmakers approve bill to help struggling coal plant

Calendar

WEDNESDAY | July 31

9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. 1615 H St. NW. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute hosts its “EnergyInnovates” summit with appearances by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Cory Gardner, and more.

THURSDAY | Aug. 1

11 a.m. ET. The House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis holds its first field hearing in Boulder, Colo. focused on “Colorado’s Roadmap for Clean Energy Action: Lessons from State and Local Leaders.”