Daily on Energy: Under-wraps White House climate panel may have something to say soon

The climate change panel is being developed within the National Security Council by one Dr. William Happer, a 79-year-old physicist by trade with a skeptical attitude toward manmade climate change.

The purpose and direction of the climate panel could go two ways: It could objectively look at the science of climate change to assess the threat of global warming to national security, or it can function as a sort of antagonistic rebuttal machine to take on the findings of government studies that demonstrate climate change as a serious threat.

The latter is what many believe to be true about the direction of Happer’s panel.

Yet, the deliberative process underway at the White House in creating the panel hasn’t given any definitive word on its status for months, since the news broke earlier this year that the National Security Council had taken up the project.

President Trump was scheduled on Wednesday to hear from Happer’s group of skeptics, while also hearing from critics of the Happer’s antagonistic direction.

Friends of Happer, and some advising the formation of the group, say they expect an announcement soon from the panel on its direction and structure.

One such confidant to Happer is Myron Ebell, the energy and environment director at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Ebell, who served as Trump’s EPA transition chief, says the panel has come under fire by the climate science community “because they’re scared of being exposed.”

He argues that climate science is not “normal science.” Instead, its conclusions are generated by consensus, and not achieved by the “usual scientific methods which involve productive disagreement at every stage.”

He expects Happer’s panel will provide that step-by-step “critical review,” where “the climate consensus cannot survive.”

Other sources with close White House ties tell John there may be more to say about the panel on Friday, although most were tight-lipped in divulging any details.

The decision to create the panel surfaced earlier this year in the wake of the U.S. National Climate Assessment and a recent U.N. climate panel report. Both called for aggressive action to combat the threat of global warming to the economy and the society at large.

The recent U.N. climate assessment formed the basis for much of what was later published in the progressive Green New Deal resolution.

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HOUSE DEMOCRATS SET TO REBUKE TRUMP OVER PARIS AGREEMENT EXIT: House Democrats were set Thursday to rebuke Trump for rejecting the Paris Agreement by passing a bill that would bar him from taking the U.S. out of the landmark international climate change accord.

“This is an attempt to try to get us back on the right track,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., the chairman of the Rules Committee, in comments on the House floor ahead of the vote. “It’s time to come together and tell the president who doesn’t believe in science that the science is real and it’s time we do something. The cost of climate inaction will far exceed the cost of acting now.”

TRUMP’S INTERIOR NOMINEES COME UNDER FIRE BY DEMOCRATS: Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, on Thursday pressed Trump’s nominees for Interior’s top lawyer and investigator on some thorny issues.

“I am troubled by the fact … that seven of the eight legal opinions you have issued as acting solicitor have overturned well-reasoned legal opinions of the previous solicitors,” Manchin, the top Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in questioning Trump’s pick to be Interior solicitor, Daniel Habib Jorjani, at a confirmation hearing.

Manchin’s main problem with Jorjani is that legal statute should not be up for interpretation from one administration to the next. He sees the acting solicitor as confounding the law.

Wyden said it was “bizarre” for Jorjani to ask for a job promotion as the agency’s top ethics adviser, even though his current role at the agency coincides with former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s “blizzard” of ethics violations.

Wyden also took issue with Mark Greenblatt, the nominee to be the agency’s inspector general, questioning his ability to remain independent while likely feeling political pressure from the likes of Jorjani.

Greenblatt said he would follow the evidence “wherever it goes.” Wyden wants answers in writing on specific steps he will take to maintain independence as inspector. Wyden has been leading the charge in opposing many of Trump’s nominees, including trying to delay the vote on Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.

US NATURAL GAS EXPORTS TO EUROPE SURGE NEARLY 300%: The European Union announced Thursday that its imports of U.S. liquefied natural gas have climbed 272% since 2016, with the steepest increases occurring after Trump met last July with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to hash out a trade deal.

The EU announced the big statistic in kicking off a high-level meeting between U.S. and European business leaders in Brussels on ways to further enhance the LNG trade, featuring Energy Secretary Rick Perry and EU Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete.

The EU said it recorded its highest level of EU-U.S. natural gas trade in March with more than 1.4 billion cubic meters of LNG imports.

“We share a history of transatlantic cooperation, through good times and bad, and together, we promote our heritage of freedom,” said Perry in a statement. “When it comes to natural gas, we each have what the other needs to derive tremendous mutual benefit from advancing our energy relationship.”

Increased cooperation between the U.S. and Europe will include a range of infrastructure projects from building new pipelines to LNG import terminals, the EU statement added.

Read more here from John’s story.

TRUMP TELLS SENATORS HE WON’T WAIVE JONES ACT TO SHIP NATURAL GAS: Louisiana Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy said Wednesday they received assurances from Trump after a meeting at the White House that he would not grant waivers to bypass the Jones Act, a century-old law regulating domestic maritime commerce, to ease the transport of natural gas to the Northeast and Puerto Rico.

Cassidy’s office said that he and other members of Congress had met with Trump at the White House “to advocate on behalf [of] Louisiana shipbuilders and maritime workers.”

MORE OIL ON HAND FROM SAUDIS AS IRAN SANCTIONS KICK IN: Saudi Arabia’s efforts to clean up its electric grid have released a good amount of spare oil for export, which would help the U.S. avoid price spikes as Trump’s oil sanctions on Iran go into effect on Thursday.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday that Saudi Arabia’s ability to transition away from its use of crude oil for electricity production has freed up a significant amount of oil. In addition, it has also increased its exports of diesel and gasoline into the market.

“In addition to refining more crude oil domestically, using less crude oil in power generation can enable Saudi Arabia to increase crude oil exports, if needed,” the Energy Administration’s “Week in Petroleum” analysis read.

Read John’s full story here.

INTERIOR TO RELEASE WEAKENED OFFSHORE DRILLING SAFETY RULES: The Trump administration plans to release on Thursday a final version of its plan to weaken Obama-era offshore oil and gas drilling safety rules established after BP’s 2010 Deepwater Horizon deadly spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Interior Department officials are hosting a press conference in Louisiana Thursday afternoon to announce the rule changes.

The original Well Control Rule, issued in 2016 by the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, or BSEE, set minimum standards for drilling, well design, and equipment maintenance in hopes of preventing another major oil spill.

What Trump is changing: Interior officials say the proposed changes reflects technical modifications sought by industry to ease their costs.

Environmental groups say the existing rule has worked effectively, and tampering with it would increase the risk of another major spill.

BETO FLIPS ON FOSSIL FUEL DONATIONS: 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, under pressure from climate activists, changed course Wednesday and said he would sign a pledge to not accept money from fossil fuel interests during the campaign.

O’Rourke said he decided to sign the pledge after he was asked to do so by student activists he encountered at the College of William & Mary.

“We don’t want there to be any real or perceived conflicts of interests,” O’Rourke said in a Twitter video.

Several other Democratic presidential candidates have signed the pledge, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Kirsten Gillibrand; Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Ind.; and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

TVA TURNS RAINFALL INTO REVENUE IN 2ND QUARTER: The federal mega-utility Tennessee Valley Authority reported Thursday that record rainfall in its territory helped it produce more low-carbon energy while increasing its operating revenues 3% in the six-month period that ended on March 31.

TVA, in its quarterly summary, attributed lower fuel costs to overall cheaper commodity prices and significantly more hydroelectric generation from record rainfall this winter.

“Not only did TVA help prevent approximately $1.6 billion dollars of flood damage earlier this year, we were able to turn much of that rainfall into low-cost, carbon-free energy, providing increased value to those we serve,” said Jeff Lyash, TVA’s president and CEO.

TVA is a federally-owned multi-state public utility, one of the largest in the country. It uses the revenues it generates from power sales to improve grid operations for consumers. It operates autonomously from the federal budget.

The Rundown

Wall Street Journal Tighter Iranian sanctions set stage for U.S.-Saudi showdown

Axios Trump seeks to flex America’s energy muscles abroad

Washington Post Trump administration pushes forward on seismic mapping in Atlantic

Calendar

THURSDAY | May 2

8:30 a.m.-2 p.m., 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. American Climate Leadership Summit kicks off in Washington with panels on clean energy breakthroughs, energy efficiency, and energy storage. Livestream here. Former Obama EPA chief Gina McCarthy addresses the conference on Thursday.