Daily on Energy: Republicans look to stir up opposition to Biden agenda with ‘shadow cabinet’

Rep. David McKinley of West Virginia said Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee will be aiming to show the consequences, such as lost jobs and higher electric bills, that they argue Biden’s policies will bring about. They’re starting this afternoon with a forum on Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL oil pipeline, with plans to hold more in the coming weeks.

A ‘shadow cabinet’: McKinley, who came up with the idea to hold the forums, described the effort as similar to a “shadow cabinet” in parliamentary governments that scrutinize the actions of the majority party and offer alternatives.

In the coming weeks, as Biden is poised to unveil a new U.S. emissions reduction target under the Paris climate agreement, House Republicans will roll out a counter-agenda to curb climate change that will promote clean energy innovation but won’t include a specific mandate to cut emissions.

House Republicans are also collecting a series of “vignettes,” at the direction of Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, talking to fossil fuel workers and others who could bear the consequences of aggressive climate policies, McKinley said. He spoke to Abby yesterday after visiting a coal mining site, where he said miners told him they’d be out of work if Biden targets a carbon-free power sector by 2035.

“In the next few weeks and months, the American public will realize we’re not against renewables,” McKinley said of Republicans. “We just want to make sure that the people that are working in fossil fuels have a future, and it’s not just a promise. Because we’ve seen too many of those promises not be fulfilled.”

Starting with pipelines: During this afternoon’s forum, House Energy and Commerce Republicans will hear from premier of Saskatchewan Scott Moe, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, and John Stoody, vice president of government and public relations for the Association of Oil Pipelines.

McKinley said he is most interested to hear from Moe, who the congressman expects to correct “misleading” statements that canceling the Keystone pipeline will decrease Canada’s production of tar sands oil. The Keystone pipeline would have carried tar sands oil from Alberta down to the Gulf Coast where it could be refined.

House Republicans are starting with the Keystone decision because other pipeline projects hang in the balance, McKinley said. Environmentalists and Democrats have been ramping up pressure on Biden to kill other pipeline projects, including the Dakota Access Pipeline (which is caught up in litigation over a faulty Trump administration environmental assessment) and the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline replacement project.

The Biden administration last week declined to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline operations, sparking outcry from environmentalists, but it left the door open to do so in the future.

McKinley said Biden’s refusal to make a definitive decision on projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline creates uncertainty for companies and deters investment in future pipeline projects.

“If [Biden is] really serious about this, he would say, ‘Not only are we not going to withdraw permits, we’re going to defend them in court because we need energy independence and they’re going to help provide that,’” McKinley said of the recent Dakota Access decision. “That would send a message to the environmentalists: hands off.”

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GRANHOLM…DOING A CES THROUGH RECONCILIATION COULD ‘WORK’: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said this morning that there are “versions” of a clean electricity standard that “work for reconciliation rules,” which would enable passage with a simple majority.

Granholm, speaking at the BloombergNEF Summit, qualified her comment by saying “no decision has been made on how exactly it’s going to be working” and added the details are “subject to negotiation” with Congress.

But her comment suggests Granholm agrees with a view proffered by environmental groups such as Evergreen that a clean electricity standard can be designed to comply with the so-called “Byrd Rule” that prohibits “extraneous matters” unrelated to the budget from being considered in reconciliation.

Sen. Tina Smith, Democrat of Minnesota, is planning to introduce CES legislation under that premise (the parliamentarian will have the final say if they are right).

What it means: It’s far from guaranteed Biden could muster 50 Democratic votes for an aggressive CES mandating 100% carbon-free power by 2035, as he’s proposed in his infrastructure plan.

If negotiations with Republicans on the infrastructure fail, however, Democrats will quickly turn to reconciliation, and Granholm’s comments show they won’t hesitate to push for a CES as part of it.

One other thing: Perhaps appreciating the challenge ahead, Granholm also floated an alternative idea of providing incentives to states to encourage them to use more zero-carbon electricity.

“Carrots sometimes make states go a long way,” she said.

BIDEN ‘PREPARED TO NEGOTIATE’ ON INFRASTRUCTURE: Biden insists his talks with Republicans on getting an infrastructure package through Congress is not “window dressing,” and says he is prepared to negotiate everything from the scale of his plans to how to pay for them.

“If we can get a serious conversation about how to do that ⁠— I think everyone acknowledges we need a significant increase in infrastructure,” Biden said during a meeting with Democrats and Republicans in the Oval Office. A White House readout of the meeting characterized it as a “good exchange of ideas” and noted Biden asked lawmakers for “feedback and follow-up on proposals discussed in the meeting.”

But Republicans remain opposed to Biden’s proposed corporate tax hike and the expansiveness of his proposed policies related to infrastructure.

One idea seems off the table: Biden did not pitch raising the gas tax to help pay for his infrastructure plans, White House officials clarified after the meeting, swatting down an idea backed by some interest groups like the Chamber of Commerce.

According to news accounts of the meeting, Biden referenced raising the gasoline tax to make the point that it wouldn’t generate enough money to pay for the level of infrastructure spending he’s seeking.

ANOTHER ONE…BP BACKS DEMOCRATS’ BID TO SAVE METHANE RULES: BP this morning became the second oil and gas major to endorse an effort by Democrats to use a procedural tool to cancel a Trump administration action to block the EPA from the direct regulation of methane emissions.

European-based BP joined Shell in tweeting support of a resolution introduced by Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats, to use the Congressional Review Act to scrap the Trump administration methane rollback in a fast-tracked manner with a simple majority vote.

We’re curious if American oil majors Exxon Mobil and Chevron will follow suit. Those companies and their trade groups have been silent about Democrats’ CRA tactic even as they say they support Biden’s plan to propose new direct regulations of methane.

BIG BUSINESS ASKS BIDEN TO TARGET 50% EMISSIONS CUT BY 2030: More than 300 businesses and investors are matching calls from environmental groups for the Biden administration to set a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half in the next decade as the new U.S. commitment to the Paris climate agreement.

The Biden administration is reportedly considering a target within the range of a 50% reduction, which environmental groups have said would put the U.S. on a path to reach net-zero emissions by midcentury. Biden is set to announce the new target before he holds a global climate summit next week on Earth Day.

“If you raise the bar on our national ambition, we will raise our own ambition to move the U.S. forward on this journey,” the businesses and investors wrote in an open letter sent today to the administration. “While an effective national climate strategy will require all of us, you alone can set the course by swiftly establishing a bold U.S. 2030 target.”

Signatories on the letter, which was organized by Ceres and We Mean Business, include major companies across various industry sectors, such as tech giants Google and Facebook, retailers such as Walmart and Target, and electric utilities such as National Grid and Exelon. Investor signatories on the letter represent more than $1 trillion in assets.

In a separate letter, investor groups Ceres, CDP, and Principles for Responsible Investment also called on the Biden administration to set a 50% reduction target, as well as launch a large-scale clean energy infrastructure program, require climate disclosures of public companies, and implement “robust carbon pricing, backstopped by a Federal Clean Energy Standard and the removal of fossil fuel subsidies.”

SPEAKING OF DISCLOSURE…APPLE BACKS MANDATORY RULES: The tech giant this morning called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to require companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, including their direct operational emissions, their indirect emissions (or scope 3), and emissions across their supply chain.

“[W]hen keyed to thoughtful metrics, disclosure can serve to create a baseline of comparable, consistent and reliable information, help establish best practices, and promote competition — all critical steps to combating climate change,” said Arvin Ganesan, Apple’s head of global energy and environmental policy. He noted that Apple, which has a goal to be carbon neutral by 2030, has voluntarily reported its emissions each year for a decade.

The SEC has already taken initial steps toward requiring climate disclosures from public companies, announcing last month it is seeking input for 90 days on what such a disclosure framework should look like. And just last week, special climate envoy John Kerry said Biden is readying an executive that would require climate disclosures.

BROAD COALITION PETITIONS EPA TO QUICKLY CURB HFCS: Appliance industry groups and environmentalists are asking the EPA to move quickly to issue regulations limiting potent greenhouse gas refrigerants known as HFCs, consistent with bipartisan legislation passed in last year’s spending bill that puts the U.S. on track to meet targets set in a global HFC deal.

In total, the EPA received five separate petitions today from industry and environmental groups, including the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute, the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Environmental Investigation Agency.

While the petitions are all slightly different, their main asks for the EPA are similar: to prohibit the use of the most potent HFCs (similar to actions taken during the Obama administration) and to apply California regulations limiting HFCs nationwide. NRDC notes, in a blog post, the targets suggested by the petitions could “enable an even faster ramp down of HFC production” than required by the legislation.

The petitions come as the EPA’s proposal to comply with the HFC legislation is under interagency review at the White House budget office. The industry and environmental groups hope to show the EPA there is already broad consensus around where the HFC targets should be set, allowing the agency to issue the regulations more quickly. Under the HFC legislation, the EPA has six months to decide whether to grant or deny today’s petitions.

STAFFING UP: The Interior Department announced new members of its leadership team yesterday: Heather Barmore will be director of digital strategy, Liz Klein will be senior counselor to the secretary, Giovanni Rocco will be deputy press secretary, Felicia Salazar will be speechwriter, and Raina Thiele will be senior adviser for Alaska affairs and strategic priorities.

Interestingly, the Biden administration found a role for Klein, whose nomination the White House reportedly withdrew to be Interior deputy secretary due to opposition from centrist senators Joe Manchin and Lisa Murkowski.

Klein was deputy director of New York University’s State Impact Center, a group that has organized the efforts of state attorneys general challenging the Trump administration’s weakening of environmental rules.

The Rundown

Reuters How computer mapping could help Biden find and fix polluted neighborhoods

Bloomberg How to think about negative emissions in the climate fight

New York Times Fukushima wastewater will be released into the ocean, Japan says

Calendar

WEDNESDAY | APRIL 14

10 a.m. SD-106 Dirksen. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing entitled, “Long-term Solvency of the Highway Trust Fund: Lessons Learned from the Surface Transportation System Funding Alternatives Program and Other User-based Revenue Solutions, and How Funding Uncertainty Affects the Highway Programs.”

11 a.m. Green 2.0, US Climate Action Network, Climate Nexus, and the National Black Environmental Justice Network will hold a virtual event called, “The First 100 Days: The People’s Town Hall for Justice.” Speakers include Rep. Donald McEachin, D-Va. and Shalanda Baker, deputy director for energy justice at the Department of Energy.

THURSDAY | APRIL 15

10 a.m. 366 Dirksen. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing to examine the “role of the Department of Energy in energy innovation and how its research, development, demonstration, and deployment programs may be enhanced.”

10:30 a.m. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change will hold a remote legislative hearing on The CLEAN Future Act and environmental justice.

11 a.m. Room SH-216. The Senate Budget Committee will hold a hearing on “The Cost of Inaction on Climate Change.”

12 p.m. The House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis will hold a remote hearing titled, “Making the Case for Climate Action: The Growing Risks and Costs of Inaction.

TUESDAY | APRIL 20

12:30 p.m. The National Capital Area Chapter of the United States Association for Energy Economics’ will hold its annual Energy Policy Conference. The virtual event runs over two days.

WEDNESDAY | APRIL 21

6 p.m. Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s D.C. chapter will hold a virtual town hall meeting with Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton.