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DEMOCRATS TO USE HOUSE MAJORITY TO PUSH FOR ‘NEW GREEN DEAL’ IN 2020: After winning control of the House of Representatives Tuesday night, Democrats plan to counter the Trump administration on climate change policy, aiming to convince the American public of the seriousness of the problem ahead of the 2020 presidential election and the urgency of addressing it.

“Climate change has to be one of our highest priorities,” Rep. Ro Khanna of California, the newest Democrat to join the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, told Josh. “We should be voting on a bold new green deal to tackle climate change as one of the first three things we do during our first 100 days.”

Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California recently said she would make climate change a major issue with Democrats controlling the lower chamber. She told the New York Times she would resurrect the defunct select committee on climate change, which the GOP killed when it took control in 2011.

Caveats apply: But that doesn’t mean Democrats expect major legislation to combat climate change becoming law during the next two years, such as a carbon tax or cap and trade, in a divided government led by global warming skeptic President Trump.

Democratic leaders say committees with jurisdiction over energy and environmental issues are likely to spend the majority of their time conducting oversight.

Oversight is key: That means to expect plenty of hearings probing the Trump administration’s regulatory rollbacks — and what role energy companies might have played — in decisions such as rejecting the international Paris climate accord, weakening former President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan to limit carbon emissions from coal plants, and expanding oil and gas lease sales on public lands.

“We have serious concerns with how Trump’s EPA has consistently sided with the special interests over people’s health and the environment, and we will look to restore the environmental protections that have been gutted over the last two years,” said Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee who would be slated to take over the panel in the new Congress, told Josh.

Keeping an eye on 2020: Other Democrats, however, are signaling they can have it both ways, working with Republicans on incremental steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while also debating and building public support for bigger comprehensive action.

“We aren’t going to be able to pass a massive new environmental overhaul, but we can certainly set the intellectual groundwork for it and lay down the science-based foundations it, and hopefully voters notice in 2020,” Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., chairman of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, told Josh.

Read more of Josh’s report here.

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.  

TOP GOP CLIMATE HAWK CARLOS CURBELO LOSES RE-ELECTION: Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida, the leading House Republican advocate for a national carbon tax and a persistent critic of Trump, lost his re-election race in one of the country’s most closely-watched swing districts.

Curbelo lost to Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, failing to survive in the bluest of Republican-incumbent districts, where Hillary Clinton’s 16-point margin of victory in 2016 was larger than that in any other district in which an incumbent Republican was running for re-election.

He had hoped to keep control of his district, located on the southern tip of Florida, by contrasting himself with Trump on key issues.

A blow to government intervention on climate change: Curbelo’s loss is a setback for the cause of bipartisan action on combating climate change, which was already a long shot.

He was co-chair of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, a group that had steadily grown its ranks to consist of 90 Republicans and Democrats, equally divided.

But the caucus was decimated in the elections last night, leaving its future in a Democratic-controlled House unclear.

MORE THAN A DOZEN REPUBLICAN CLIMATE CAUCUS MEMBERS ARE DEFEATED: More than a dozen Republicans of the Climate Solutions Caucus lost their seats on Tuesday along with Curbelo.

Democrats defeated 16 GOP members of the caucus, according to ClearView Energy Partners. Eight current GOP members of the caucus, meanwhile, are retiring, including Reps. Ryan Costello, of Pennsylvania, Darrell Issa of California, and Mark Sanford of South Carolina.

It’s not all bad: Some key Republicans managed to keep their seats. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., won one of the swingiest districts in the country, and he seems like a natural heir to Curbelo, considering he co-sponsored his carbon tax bill. Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., won his safe conservative district, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., also held on.

Why the caucus matters: While skeptics of the climate caucus have accused it of ‘greenwashing,’ providing cover for vulnerable Republicans, losing these moderate members could have serious repercussions for the prospects of passing climate-related bills in a divided Congress.

HIGH PROFILE CLIMATE BALLOT INITIATIVES FAIL: A pair of high-profile ballot initiatives designed to curtail the use of fossil fuels failed on Tuesday.

For the second time in two years, Washington state rejected a carbon tax ballot initiative, a bad sign for efforts to impose a carbon tax at the national level. California remains the only U.S. state to have a carbon pricing plan.

Anti-fracking measure fails: Colorado voters defeated a measure that would have blocked drilling in most of one of America’s largest oil- and gas-producing states.

The ballot initiative would have banned new oil and gas drilling within 2,500 feet of homes, schools, and “vulnerable areas,” such as playgrounds, blocking new oil and gas wells on 85 percent of nonfederal land in the state.

California fracking measure poised to fail too: Final votes could take months on Measure G in California’s San Luis Obispo county, but a preliminary count of mail-in votes show it is currently failing.

The ballot initiative seeks to ban fracking and further drilling in the South Coast’s historic oil region. The oil industry has sunk around $8 million into killing the measure, with a “Vote No” campaign in Southern California. Environmentalists like 350.org’s Bill McKibben were urging Californians to vote yes on the measure, joined by activist Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo.

That’s not all: Voters in Arizona beat back a ballot initiative funded by liberal activist Tom Steyer’s NextGen America that would have increased the percentage of renewable electricity mandated in Arizona. However, a similar measure backed by Steyer in Nevada succeeded.

Democrats could also cheer the success of a result in Florida, where voters decided to amend the state’s constitution to ban offshore oil and gas drilling in state waters, and in California, where voters rejected a GOP-backed bid to repeal a hike in the gasoline tax that pays for infrastructure improvements.

Pro-fossil fuel groups, however, celebrated the overall results, saying they reveal public reluctance to tackle climate change if it means raising energy prices.

“What we learned from this election, in states like Colorado, Arizona, and Washington, is that voters reject policies that would make energy more expensive and less reliable to them, their families, and the larger economy,” said American Energy Alliance President Tom Pyle.

UTILITY CLAIMS VICTORY OVER ‘Ill-CONCEIVED’ RENEWABLE BALLOT MEASURE IN ARIZONA: “The ill-conceived proposition was opposed by a large, diverse and bipartisan coalition of Arizona business and community leaders,” said the Arizona Public Service Company, or APS, in a statement after that measure failed last night.

The constitutional amendment would have required that 50 percent of the electricity provided to APS customer would come from renewable sources by 2030. This would have been done “irrespective of the cost to customers,” said the utility’s CEO.  

“We’ve said throughout this campaign there is a better way to create a clean-energy future for Arizona that is also affordable and reliable,” said Don Brandt, head of the company.

SOLAR INDUSTRY LIGHTS UP OVER REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR’S WIN IN MASSACHUSETTS: The solar industry got behind Republican Gov. Charlie Baker’s re-election victory in Massachusetts on Tuesday, praising his helping them push back against Trump’s solar panel tariffs.

“From fighting solar import tariffs to signing various pieces of legislation to encourage renewable energy growth, Gov. Baker understands that solar power is a winner for the economy and the environment,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the national Solar Energy Industries Association.

Baker beat Democratic challenger Jay Gonzalez with over 60 percent of the vote.

PRO-CLEAN ENERGY DEMOCRATIC GOVERNORS SUCCEED: Clean energy advocates were encouraged by success at the gubernatorial level. A number of Democratic candidates for governor won their elections Tuesday after running on platforms to mandate 100 percent clean, zero-emissions electricity in their states by 2050.

Winners who vowed to phase out fossil fuels in their states included Jared Polis of Colorado, Tony Evers in Wisconsin, J.B. Pritzker in Illinois, California’s Gavin Newsom, and Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan.

House candidates thrive as well: First-time federal office-seekers in the House who ran on so-called “100 percent” platforms also won, including progressive sensation Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York and Ilhan Omar in Minnesota, the first woman Muslim elected to Congress.

Democrat Madeleine Dean received warm congratulations from the Natural Resources Defense Council after winning her race for Pennsylvania’s 4th congressional district. Dean “recognizes what clean energy has to offer #PA04, and we can’t wait to see her fight for that potential in Congress,” the large environmental group’s campaign arm tweeted.  

“Climate champions are taking power in some of the most important swing states in the country as the nation looks ahead to the crucial 2020 Presidential and Senate elections,” the Sierra Club noted in a press release.

WOLF WINS RE-ELECTION IN LARGEST FRACKING STATE IN THE EAST WITH HELP FROM STEYER: Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday night won four more years in office presiding over the largest fracking state in the east.

Wolf won against Republican challenger Scott Wagner with the help of Steyer, who backed Wolf as a clean-energy advocate.

The climate opponents: Wolf had faced opposition from green groups who wanted him to do more on climate change, as he presides over a state that is one of the largest natural gas producers in the country due to the shale energy boom.

The clean-energy backers: But Steyer’s group NextGen America sought to emphasize the work Wolf has done in his first four years to rapidly transition the Keystone State toward using more clean energy, while opposing union-busting “right-to-work” laws.

EPA TAKES CONTROVERSIAL NEW STEP TO MAKE THINGS EASIER FOR COAL PLANTS: The Environmental Protection Agency took steps Wednesday morning to clarify federal regulations that have in the past made it harder for coal power plants to make efficiency upgrades without triggering environmental reviews.

The change to the New Source Review permitting program has been “long-delayed” for nearly a decade, EPA said in its announcement.

“Previously, New Source Review regularly discouraged companies from employing the latest energy-efficient equipment,” said EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “Our updates will remove undue regulatory barriers, provide greater certainty to America’s job creators and energy providers, and incentivize upgrades that will improve air quality.”

What the change does: The change seeks to clarify “project aggregation” under the permitting requirements, which has been a sticking point for coal and other fossil power plants in making efficiency upgrades. Aggregation can take individual changes to a plant to count as a new power plant altogether, making it harder for plants to get permits to operate under the Clean Air Act.

Why it’s controversial: This change will likely stoke controversy among the environmental community, which is already outraged over the New Source Review changes included in Trump’s proposed replacement for the Clean Power Plan climate regulations for existing power plants.

EPA says Wednesday’s action “will greatly improve regulatory certainty and remove unnecessary obstacles to projects aiming to improve the reliability, efficiency, and safety of facilities while maintaining air quality standards.”

SOLAR DEAL WITH SAUDIS COMES AMID CONTROVERSY OVER KHASHOGGI’S DEATH: A major solar energy deal in the works between Saudi Arabia and the SoftBank Group could be seen as a brazen move by the large holding company, given the recent scrutiny it has faced in its dealings with the oil-rich nation.

Bloomberg first reported the $1.2 billion solar plant preliminary deal late Thursday night, citing unnamed business insiders.

What the deal calls for: The solar power plant, slated to be built north of the capital city of Riyadh, would generate 1.8 gigawatts of power annually. SoftBank has begun talks with banks and developers to understand how much interest there is in moving forward with the project before it is announced, according to Bloomberg.

Criticism: The SoftBank firm has faced criticism over its close ties to Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund became one of the largest investors in SoftBank after its founder, Masayoshi Son, gained close personal ties with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

RUNDOWN

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