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TRUMP’S KAVANAUGH REPLACEMENT LACKS ENERGY EXPERIENCE: President Trump marked the Hindu festival of lights on Tuesday by naming Neomi Rao to serve on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, replacing Brett Kavanaugh who now serves on the Supreme Court.

Who is Rao, and where does she stand on environmental and energy policy concerns? That’s an especially pointed question given the role of the D.C. Circuit as the last stop for challenging climate and energy regulation before the Supreme Court.

People with a close ear to the administration say she doesn’t have much in the way of energy and environment experience, at all.

“Her knowledge base is not as extensive as one would hope,” Mike McKenna, a conservative adviser on environmental policy with ties to the administration, tells John.

Rao is currently administrator of the White House Office of Management and Budget’s regulatory review office. She has plenty of budget experience — About three decades’ worth. But she has no real legal experience, and not much experience parsing whether the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, or Interior may have went too far on regulating, or in the Trump administration’s case, deregulating.  

Jeff Holmstead, former EPA air chief and partner at the Bracewell law firm, said he never met Rao, but “[a]s far as I know, she hasn’t been very active in energy or environmental issues,” he tells John in an email.

Holmstead points out that she would be the second administrator from OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs to be appointed to the D.C. Circuit, going back to the Reagan administration.  

“The first was Judge Douglas Ginsburg, who was head of OIRA for several years in the Reagan Administration before being appointed to the court,” he said.

Welcome to Daily on Energy, compiled by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers John Siciliano (@JohnDSiciliano) and 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.  

ENVIRONMENTALIST ACTIVISTS ARE TURNING TO COURTS TO STOP PIPELINES: Environmental activists are successfully using the courts to stymie the Trump administration’s “energy dominance” agenda, especially oil and natural gas pipelines, with the latest example being a federal judge last week blocking the long-disputed Keystone XL pipeline.

“This is emblematic of the very orchestrated effort being made to stop energy infrastructure of all kinds,” Don Santa, the president and CEO of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, told Josh.

But opponents say courts should be giving greater scrutiny to pipeline approvals because such projects lock in a dependence on fossil fuels, due to their long lifespan.

“The real element that is changing is not the legal issue around abiding by review processes, but the increasing burden of proof these projects face to show they are environmentally sound,” Anthony Swift, the director of the National Resources Defense Council’s Canada program, told Josh.

Judge seeks more thorough Keystone review: Environmental activists scored a win last week when U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris blocked the construction of the $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline, which Trump had approved in one of his first actions as president. Morris, an Obama appointee to the District Court of Montana, ruled late Thursday night that the administration’s environmental analysis was insufficient.

There’s an emerging trend: Morris’ decision blocking the pipeline, which Trump called “political” and a “disgrace,” follows a common theme that has haunted his quest to roll back Obama-era environmental regulations and more quickly build energy infrastructure projects.

Judges have frequently found the Trump administration has not always followed proper legal procedures and laws to unwind regulations, and has failed to justify its actions with science-based facts, as required by the Administrative Procedures Act. On the energy infrastructure front, federal judges have delayed the building of two major natural gas pipeline projects this year in response to legal challenges, rejecting permits for the Atlantic Coast and and Mountain Valley Pipelines.

Read more of Josh’s report here.

WITH THE YEAR COMING TO A CLOSE, IT’S TIME TO EXTEND ENERGY SUBSIDIES: Energy tech superstars Johnson Controls teamed up with environmentalists on Wednesday to begin prodding Congress to re-up federal subsidies for its energy efficiency products in the lame duck session of Congress.

The ask: They sent a letter to congressional leadership asking them to update lapsed energy efficiency tax credits for homeowners, consumers, and businesses by enacting “multi-year, forward-looking extensions as quickly as possible” — and, ultimately, to make the incentives permanent.

Unlike permanent subsidies for wind and solar, energy efficiency incentives have had support from Republicans.

Electric cars need love too: Genevieve Cullen, president of the Electric Drive Transportation Association, also sent a message to the Hill on making sure electric vehicles aren’t left out of the tax extenders debate.   

PELOSI ALREADY GETTING FLAK FOR HER CLIMATE PLANS: Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, the likely House speaker in the new Congress, is already drawing scrutiny from both progressives and establishment leaders about her plans to combat climate change.

Youth activists conducted a sit-in Tuesday morning in Pelosi’s office, demanding aggressive action. Members of Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats led the protests, and they were joined by congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a star progressive who campaigned on a platform of eliminating the use of fossil fuels for electricity.

Pelosi welcomed the protests and reiterated her promise to resurrect a select climate committee, which Republicans disbanded upon taking power of the House in 2011. She also said she aims to include climate provisions in potential infrastructure investment legislation, which could be an area where Trump would cooperate.

That’s not enough for progressives: Backed by the Sunrise Movement, Ocasio-Cortez is promoting a resolution that would give the select climate committee the new power to draft a “green new deal” climate bill by 2020, which would require 100 percent of electricity to come from renewable sources.

Democratic leaders have other concerns: Pelosi, however, is also receiving pushback from establishment Democrats who are calling for a more considered approach.

Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the likely incoming chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said the issue can be dealt with through normal channels.

“I don’t think it’s necessary to have a select committee because there are already four committees that have jurisdiction over climate change, and we have climate change champions leading all these committees,” he said, according to Politico.

Pallone, in a statement to Josh last week, said he would prefer to emphasize oversight of the Trump administration in the new Congress, aiming to hold it “accountable for dangerous policies that make climate change worse.”

Hearings coming: Pallone and the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committees, Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, announced Wednesday that they plan to conduct two days of hearings early next year to assess the need for congressional action to combat climate change.

ZINKE TO VISIT CALIFORNIA AS WILDFIRE DEATH TOLL GROWS: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is visiting the site of the deadliest wildfire in California history on Wednesday.

The Camp Fire in northern California has killed 48 people as of Tuesday night, burning through about 130,000 acres, and is only 35 percent contained. Zinke will visit affected communities there before heading south on Thursday to Ventura and Los Angeles Counties, where the 97,000-acre Woolsey Fire has killed two people and is 40 percent contained.

What to watch for: It will be interesting to see if Zinke keeps up the Trump administration’s penchant for arguing about the causes of California’s increasingly destructive wildfires.

Zinke drew criticism during his visit to the site of California’s Carr Fire in August, when he blamed the massive blaze on inadequate forest management and downplayed the role of climate change. Trump has ventured similar arguments about the latest fires, prompting criticisms that his administration is politicizing disaster response.

WHEELER’S CLEAN TRUCK RULE SEEMS A LITTLE RANDOM: The EPA administrator’s Cleaner Truck Initiative sets the agency back on track to reduce emissions from big-rig trucks, a bit of a departure from its last two years of deregulatory actions.

But why now? States and environmental regulators want EPA to regulate NOx pollution from diesel engines, so Wheeler’s actions may be to reduce legal scrutiny and litigation in the future without doing much, right now.

It’s a signal: “EPA’s Cleaner Trucks Initiative is an important signal to all interested stakeholders that we will work hard on reducing emissions while producing a more effective and efficient program,” said EPA Office of Air and Radiation Assistant Administrator Bill Wehrum.

The new program requires the EPA to update the 2001 nitrogen oxide standard for curbing diesel emissions, and that is not going to happen this year or next year.

The proposal — not a final decision — won’t be issued until sometime in 2020, an election year, according to the EPA.

The bottom line is that the rule is not a near-term rule.

REGIONAL EPA ADMINISTRATOR INDICTED ON ETHICS CHARGES: Trey Glenn, the EPA’s southeast regional administrator, was indicted Tuesday on charges of violating state ethics laws in Alabama.

A grand jury in Alabama’s Jefferson County indicted Glenn for allegedly violating the state’s Ethics Act, including soliciting something of value from a principal, lobbyist or subordinate, and receiving money outside his official capacity, according to a report by Alabama.com.

The Alabama Ethics Commission, which led the case, said the charges are related to Glenn’s actions with in a previous job with the law firm Balch & Bingham, in which he fought potential EPA actions to clean contaminated sites in Alabama communities on behalf of Drummond Co., which could be responsible for the cleanups.

Wheeler, the acting EPA administrator declined to comment Tuesday about Glenn, a Trump appointee.

“I just learned about it this afternoon. I haven’t had a chance to look into the matter or talk to him personally yet,” Wheeler told reporters at an EPA event.

RUNDOWN

Wall Street Journal Natural gas is getting more expensive, and so could heating bills

Bloomberg California’s wildfire epidemic is blamed on bad building decisions

Washington Post Scientists acknowledge key errors in study of how fast the oceans are warming

Delaware Online Want to build or buy a Delaware beach house? Expect regular floodwaters in 30 years