Cracks in Democratic unity on climate

The decision to remove an anti-fossil fuel subsidies provision from the DNC platform, confirmed by the DNC to Josh, is rankling some of the same liberal climate activists who have been praising their nominee, Joe Biden, an establishment figure who’s proposed the most progressive climate change agenda in history.

“I really want to feel good about my vote for @JoeBiden in November, but how do the @democrats think they can win the trust of young ppl and progressives when they pull this kind of weasely shit on behalf of Big Oil?” tweeted Phil Aroneanu, a co-founder of 350.org who was the New York state director for the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016.

Aroneanu was not alone.

“The DNC’s last-minute decision to remove language opposing fossil fuel subsidies from the party platform is a bewildering betrayal of climate voters and a surprising rejection of the climate leadership of the Biden-Harris campaign,” said Jamal Raad, campaign director of Evergreen Action, a new climate policy group of aides from Washington Gov. Jay Inslee‘s presidential campaign. “The DNC should immediately take steps to fix its platform,” Raad told Josh.

Other activists noted Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris pledged in their campaigns to end fossil fuel subsidies. Biden even says doing so would help him pay for his revamped climate plan, which envisions spending $2 trillion in his first term on clean energy and infrastructure.

“I don’t know why the DNC leadership refuses to support basic climate action. They are removing a core part of the party platform which was in place in 2016 and is only more widely supported today, including by the party’s nominee,” Leah Stokes, an assistant professor of political science at the University of California Santa Barbara, told Josh.

A veneer of a unity? The DNC went out of its way to argue it was not acting alone, claiming the Biden and Sanders campaigns agreed to remove the amendment stating Democrats support eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and tax breaks, and blamed its original inclusion on an “error.”

In general, the DNC is trying to project Democrats as devoted to Biden’s agenda.

“We will stay united, from Sanders and Warren to Manchin and Warner—and together, we will bring bold and dramatic change to our country,” Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s Democratic leader, said during a speech Tuesday night.

Inslee, a one-time critic of Biden’s climate plans, called the vice president’s revamped agenda “perfect for the moment” and “sufficiently bold and electorally practical” during an address Tuesday to the DNC’s Council on the Environment and Climate Crisis.

Playing politics: Some Democrats and analysts argued the DNC’s platform barely registers with voters and is not indicative of the policies Biden would pursue.

Biden “continues to be committed to ending U.S. fossil fuel subsidies & then rallying the rest of the world to do the same—as was outlined in his climate plan last year,” his policy director Stef Feldman tweeted Wednesday.

The DNC’s flip on fossil fuel subsidies could be a practical recognition that explicit anti-oil and gas rhetoric might be damaging in swing states like Pennsylvania. Biden’s climate plans are carefully crafted to focus on demand-side policy to encourage or mandate clean energy use without wholesale banning oil and gas extraction.

“Biden and Harris are proposing the most ambitious climate protection and clean energy stimulus in history to re-animate the faltering economy — but they will also not allow Republicans to falsely scare voters into thinking they’ll take away the oil and gas they use right now,” Paul Bledsoe, strategic adviser at the Progressive Policy Institute, told Josh.

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.

US OIL DEMAND FALLS FLAT: U.S. oil demand fell across all three major fuels last week, dropping to the lowest level since May, as the recovery continues to be uneven.

EIA said in its Weekly Petroleum Status report Wednesday that oil demand for the week ending Aug. 14 fell to 17.2 million barrels per day from 19.4 million b/d the week prior.

Gasoline consumption declined to 8.6 million b/d from 8.9 million b/d.

Jet fuel demand remained down last week, and is still at less than half of normal levels. Consumption of distillate, or diesel, also fell slightly.

CALIFORNIA BLAME GAME: Everyone seems to have their own ideas about what led to the rolling blackouts the state’s grid operator imposed over the weekend amid an intense heat wave. For President Trump and many Republicans, the answer is California’s aggressive climate policies.

Trump, in a series of tweets Tuesday, said Democrats are “unable to keep up with energy demand,” and he accused Democrats in the state of “intentionally” implementing the blackouts. He also said Biden’s climate policy plans “would take California’s failed policies to every American.”

However, the head of California’s grid operator, the California Independent System Operator, which is nonpartisan, said the power shut-offs had nothing to do with politics.

“The load disruptions, those are actually issued by a shift manager down in our control room,” Steve Berberich, CAISO’s chief executive, told reporters Tuesday, according to news reports. “There wasn’t any party affiliation or other kind of input into the decision to shed load on Friday and Saturday night.”

CAISO said it didn’t end up having to implement any additional blackouts Monday or Tuesday, but Gov. Gavin Newsom told people in the state to be on alert through Wednesday.

What’s really going on here? The California blackouts have intensified a broader dispute over the state’s future energy mix, and namely how much of it should be renewable energy. (The same thing happened last fall, when Pacific Gas and Electric shut down the power for hundreds of thousands of its California customers to try to prevent wildfires, Abby reported then.)

California’s critics, including Trump, argue a larger share of renewable power threatens the reliability of the grid, because the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing all the time. They say California is wrong to shut down baseload power, such as natural gas and nuclear energy.

Is renewable energy really the root cause? California officials have said the issue is capacity, and Berberich has urged an even greater buildout of renewable energy and battery storage.

And some renewable energy groups say the situation proves California needs to build out a more diverse supply of renewable power and transmission to bring wind power in from other states, instead of relying heavily on just solar energy.

“Right now California relies heavily on solar, storage, and gas—and during this week’s blackouts, there is once again a push for more storage, microgrids, and other alternatives to back these systems up,” said Danielle Osborn Mills, direct of the American Wind Energy Association’s California chapter. “State leaders must recognize that we need more renewables of all kinds to keep the lights on.”

LOUISIANA SETS ITS SIGHTS ON NET-ZERO BY 2050: Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, signed two climate change executive orders Wednesday setting the state, a major oil and gas producer that is also one of the regions hardest hit by sea level rise, on a path to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The first executive order, setting the emissions targets, also includes interim goals calling for a 26-28% reduction by 2025 and an up to 50% cut by 2030. It also sets up a climate change task force that will develop recommendations for the state to meet the emissions targets, with an interim report due by Feb. 1, 2021.

The second executive order directly addresses the climate effects Louisiana is already facing, including by creating a new role of chief resilience officer within the governor’s office. State agencies must also include resilience considerations in their planning under the order.

“In many ways, Louisiana is the poster child for climate risk. We are the canary in the coal mine,” Edwards said Wednesday before signing the orders, according to The New Orleans Advocate. “Beginning today, we want to be the gold standard for climate solutions.”

DEMOCRATIC STATES CHALLENGE TRUMP ON LNG BY RAIL RULE: A coalition of 15 Democratic state attorneys general are challenging in federal court a Trump administration rule to allow the transport of liquified natural gas by rail for the first time.

The attorneys general filed a petition for review Tuesday in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing the rule by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration understates safety risks, and provides an insufficient assessment of the environmental harms including the effects on climate change.

“Californians who live, work, or go to school near train routes are not interested in being specimens in a crash-test laboratory for the Trump Administration,” said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who joined the legal challenge with the states of Maryland, New York, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, along with Washington, D.C.

The Trump administration rule is intended to allow energy shippers to sidestep congested pipelines to move gas to market.

MORE PIPELINE LEGAL FIGHTS: The administration of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, filed an appeal Tuesday challenging approvals by state utility regulators of Enbridge Energy’s plan to replace the Line 3 pipeline.

The project, supported by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, would replace a deteriorating oil pipeline that crosses northern Minnesota with a new larger pipe along a different route. It would transport Canadian oil to Superior, Wisconsin. Walz’ Commerce Department plans to formally file its challenge with the Minnesota Court of Appeals today. His administration argues Enbridge failed to submit an accurate long-term oil demand forecast and said the PUC approved the project based on those faulty assumptions, among other things.

The oil and gas industry says the project would promote union jobs and bring billions of dollars of investment during the pandemic-fueled economic downturn.

“It’s disappointing that Governor Walz’s Department of Commerce continues to attempt to justify activist claims against this project without any substantial evidence,” said Robin Rorick, vice president of midstream and industry operations at the American Petroleum Institute.

TRUMP PROMISES TO TALK TO EPA ABOUT RFS WAIVERS: Trump said Tuesday during a visit to Iowa he would personally weigh in with EPA officials about dozens of exemption waivers small oil refiners are seeking, potentially giving corn farmers a leg up in a long-running Renewable Fuel Standard fight.

“We’ll speak to them. I’ll speak to them. I’ll do it myself,” Trump said during a visit to Iowa, under pressure from Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican. Ernst asked Trump to direct the EPA to “dispense of” the waiver requests, through which small oil refiners are seeking exemptions from prior years of the RFS requirements.

The pledge puts Trump in the middle of another tense political battle over the RFS. The EPA is weighing several dozen exemption waivers from small oil refiners, following a court ruling earlier this year that significantly curbed the agency’s ability to grant such requests going forward.

Trump, while agreeing to speak with EPA officials, didn’t commit to blocking the waivers, as Ernst and other corn-state lawmakers are seeking.

PANDEMIC ONLY SLIGHTLY DELAYS ELECTRIC VEHICLE GROWTH: Global electric car sales are set to reach 45 million per year by 2040, according to new Wood Mackenzie research released Wednesday, 2% lower than pre-pandemic forecasts but still strong growth driven by clean energy recovery plans in China and Europe and climate commitments by major automakers.

That level of growth in sales would put at least 323 million electric vehicles on the roads by 2040, the firm says.

Wood Mackenzie expects commercial EV sales to grow, too, with a tipping point occurring when cost of ownership becomes more favorable for electrified options. The firm projects commercial EV sales to hit at least 5.5 million by 2040, with sales driven by electric buses until 2026 and light-duty truck sales dominating after that.

US-NORWAY TO PARTNER ON OFFSHORE ENERGY: The Interior Department and the government of Norway agreed Tuesday to strengthen cooperation on offshore oil, gas, and wind development.

A MOU signed by the two governments says the countries will exchange scientific and technical information and cooperate on research and development of new technologies.

The U.S. and Norway are two of the world’s largest offshore oil and gas producers, while both countries are also interested in expanding offshore wind. The new agreement identifies boosting floating wind technology as a shared priority.

“We appreciate this opportunity to highlight our strong relationship with Norway and our continuing investment in safe and responsible offshore energy development,” said Interior Deputy Secretary Kate MacGregor in a D.C. signing ceremony.

The Rundown

Wall Street Journal Oil industry frets about recruiting its next generation of workers

New York Times ‘Climate donors’ flock to Biden to counter Trump’s fossil fuel money

Associated Press Public lands chief hangs on despite nomination getting nixed

E&E News EPA@50: Administrators tell their story

Reuters OPEC+ plus meets to review compliance with oil cuts

Los Angeles Times Renewable energy corporations fight endangered species status for Joshua trees

Calendar

WEDNESDAY | AUG 19

The House and Senate are out.