SIGN UP! If you’d like to continue receiving Washington Examiner’s Daily on Energy newsletter, SUBSCRIBE HERE: http://newsletters.washingtonexaminer.com/newsletter/daily-on-energy/

GREENS GO ON THE OFFENSIVE AGAINST TRUMP’S WALL AS SHUTDOWN LOOMS: Environmentalists joined the government shutdown fight on Friday, calling the border wall President Trump wants funded a “humanitarian crisis” in the making.

“It’s time for Congress to put an end to Trump’s circus and vote down any budget that includes funding for a border wall, fencing, and other militarization tactics that further a humanitarian crisis of his own making,” the Sierra Club said in a letter to members of Congress sent Thursday night.

It’s getting very ‘political’ around here: The group called Trump’s threat to shut down the government a “political stunt” that will harm hundreds of thousands of government workers during the holidays, citing figures from Bloomberg that showed over 400,000 workers will be required to report for duty without pay.

“Trump’s demand that the government be shut down if he doesn’t get his border wall boondoggle will bring uncertainty to our country, to federal workers and their families, and to communities nationwide right before the holidays — all in service of a transparent political stunt,” the group continued.

EPA has enough to go around: Meanwhile, Environmental Protection Agency acting chief Andrew Wheeler said the agency would go on working as usual next week, stating in an email to staff that EPA has enough carryover funds to keep the doors open with pay.

Wheeler said employees should enjoy the holidays and report back to work as usual on Dec. 26.

What to expect from the Senate on a Friday: The Senate is expected to convene at noon to take up the House budget bill that it approved last night after Trump rejected a previous version that did not contain enough funding for the border wall. The House went back to the drawing board and passed a bill with $5 billion for Trump’s wall. But it is expected to face stiff opposition in the Senate.

When in doubt — crowdsource: At the same time, a group of veterans started a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds to build Trump’s wall. The crowdfunding campaign is attempting to raise $1 billion.

Environmental groups were also using the drama on Capitol Hill to gin up funds to continue its legal resistance against the Trump administration’s regulation rollback agenda. The Natural Resources Defense Council’s senior counsel sent a message to donors on Friday to send money supporting the “resistance.”

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.  

Holiday message to readers: Daily on Energy will take a short seasonal break next week, but will be back in your inboxes on January 2. Thanks for reading and have a great holiday and Happy New Year.

TRUMP ENACTS NEW $25M CLIMATE PROGRAM IN SIGNING FARM BILL: Trump signed the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill on Thursday to the cheers of environmentalists, who praised its creation of a new multi-million dollar climate change program.

Trump signed the long-awaited agriculture measure, saying it was a “great bill” that was difficult to pass — but had to be passed to support ranchers and farmers.

The $867 billion farm bill provides billions of dollars in aid to farmers while avoiding cuts to the federal food stamp program that some members of the GOP sought to slash.

The climate change angle: The environmental community praised the bill’s passage for slightly different reasons, pointing to the inclusion of a new climate change pilot program to help farmers deal with the effects of climate change.

The bill provides $25 million per year to begin “conservation innovation” trials for a soil rotation pilot project to help farmers improve soil health while lowering greenhouse gases that are blamed for global warming.

Enacting such soil-based climate change programs was a key focus at last week’s United Nations conference on implementing the Paris climate accord signed by former President Barack Obama.

“The farm bill is the largest source of funding for conservation on private lands in the U.S.,” said Fred Krupp, the president of the Environmental Defense Fund.

“The bipartisan bill rewards farmers for fighting climate change, preparing for extreme weather and protecting water quality,” Krupp continued.

EPA BEGINS COUNTDOWN ON NEW COAL RULE: The EPA published its revised version of the Obama administration’s de facto ban on new coal power plants on Thursday, officially kicking off the public comment period for the rule.

Both proponents and detractors will have a chance to make their views known to the agency through Feb. 19.

The libertarian think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute put out a statement last night that gave a flavor of what they may file during the comment period.

“Consumers are best served when economic competition, rather than bureaucrats’ political choices, determine winners and losers in the marketplace,” said CEI senior fellow Marlo Lewis.

The reality of new coal: The Obama-era New Source Rule effectively required all new coal plants built in the U.S. to have some level of carbon capture technology approved in the design. Since carbon capture is costly, the industry argued that it enforced a defacto ban on building new coal plants.

But even with the Trump rule eventually in place, no utilities are either planning or building new coal plants.

An official with American Electric Power, one of the largest coal utilities in the country, told John recently that the company agrees in principle with the New Source replacement rule, but the company is not planning on building new coal plants.

It is actually investing in new transmission lines to connect wind energy to where it’s needed, the official said.  

OIL INDUSTRY UTTERS THE DIRTY WORD ‘NAFTA’ IN SUPPORT OF TRUMP’S USMCA: The American Petroleum Institute had a hard time distinguishing between Trump’s much-touted U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and what was formally known as the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“API supported many of the provisions in the NAFTA and took the position of a ‘do no harm’ approach to negotiations of the USMCA,” it said in comments delivered Thursday to the International Trade Commission, which is investigating the impacts of the new version of the trade agreement.

It’s still mostly NAFTA: “API member companies believe that, overall, the USMCA retains most of the critical provisions in the NAFTA that underpin energy benefits to the US economy,” it said, asking for the measures that ensure free trade of energy commodities remain in place and that USMCA be approved.

Trump had made a big deal out of renaming NAFTA the USMCA trade agreement, which he signed during the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires last month.

New provisions under USMCA: API did note some of the new provisions in USMCA, which “should enhance energy benefits in the future.” First, Mexico is allowed to retain at least the current level of openness to U.S. energy investment in its market. Second, customs authorities will be flexible in accepting “alternative documentation” to certify that imports of natural gas and oil have originated from USMCA countries.

TRUMP TAKES BIG STEP TOWARD DRILLING IN ALASKA’S ARCTIC REFUGE: The Trump administration on Thursday moved closer to its goal of oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by releasing an environmental analysis that lays out a plan to begin selling drilling rights.

Under the plan, rights could be sold in a small portion of the long-contested refuge as soon as next year.

The first lease sale would be held after Interior produces a final environmental impact statement, likely next year.

Critics see a rush job: Environmental groups accused the Trump administration of rushing the leasing process faster than the timeline Congress outlined when it voted last year to allowing drilling in a 1.5 million-acre section of the 19 million-acre refuge.

“There is simply no precedent for such a rushed, inadequate review of the impacts of oil and gas development in Arctic wilderness,” said Adam Kolton, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League.

Seven House Republicans, including Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania, wrote a letter Thursday to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke urging him to slow down.

The real time frame: Actual drilling in ANWR, however, could be years away, due to expected court challenges and additional studies and approvals required for energy development.

“Confirming areas for energy exploration is a good first step toward responsible natural gas and oil development,” said Erik Milito, director of upstream and industry operations at the American Petroleum Institute.

ATTORNEYS GENERAL JOIN SUIT AGAINST TRUMP OVER SEISMIC TESTING: A coalition of nine Democratic state attorneys general led by Maryland’s Brian Frosh on Thursday joined a lawsuit filed by environmental groups against the Trump administration to stop it from allowing seismic testing in the Atlantic Ocean.

In a motion filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, the attorneys general argue the Trump administration violated several federal laws in permitting five companies to do seismic surveys to explore for oil, including the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act.

What’s the harm: The coalition also said the Trump administration failed to follow the best science in making its decision, and underestimated the economic costs associated with potentially harming marine mammals.

They say the use of air jet blasts and other methods to create a map of the sea floor’s fossil fuel deposits would harm sea life, including those that support local economies along the Atlantic Coast.

In addition to Maryland, attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Virginia joined the complaint to the court.

SENATE PASSES BIPARTISAN BILL TO BOOST ADVANCED NUCLEAR ENERGY: The Senate on Thursday passed a bipartisan bill to boost nuclear energy, which would modernize the federal government’s approval process for advanced reactors.

The bill, approved by voice vote, directs the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to create a licensing process for advanced reactors that is less prescriptive, allowing for faster approvals.

Key to climate change: Advanced reactors are seen as key to improving the fortunes of nuclear energy, which emits no carbon, giving it a level of bipartisan support for its potential to help combat climate change.

The smaller advanced reactors, still in the development phase, are supposed to be cheaper to operate and safer because they produce less waste.

“I am proud to have worked with this bipartisan group on this bill, which will give our nuclear regulator the flexibility it needs to bring new, safe reactors online to produce carbon-free energy,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., a co-sponsor of the bill.

Other co-sponsors include Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., Cory Booker, D-N.Y., Tom Carper, D-Del., and others.

DEMOCRATIC LEADERS CHOOSE KATHY CASTOR AS HEAD OF CLIMATE COMMITTEE: Democratic leaders have asked Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., to lead a climate change select committee that House Democrats plan to revive next Congress.

Castor, who represents a state and district experiencing sea level rise, told E&E News Thursday that Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi asked her to lead the committee. But she said the news isn’t “official quite yet,” as lawmakers work out details on how the panel would function.

The selection did not calm intraparty tension: Progressive groups that worry the climate panel will have little real power criticized the selection of Castor, nothing she is non-commital about rejecting fossil-fuel donations.

“Without a mandate to create a plan and a requirement that its members don’t take fossil fuel money, we are deeply concerned that this committee will be just another of the many committees we’ve seen failing our generation our entire lives,” said Varshini Prakash, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, an activist group of young progressives who want the committee to craft a “Green New Deal” climate change bill by 2020.

Castor took to Twitter Thursday to defend her credentials.

“I’ve devoted my life in public service to standing up to corporate polluters, climate deniers & special interests,” she said. “America must act w urgency to reduce carbon pollution & end the costly Trump/GOP policies that put our communities & way of life at risk. Together, we must do this!”

RUNDOWN

ProPublica What it looks and sounds like when a gas driller overruns your land

Houston Chronicle Energy recovery would stall if oil prices stay below $50

Wall Street Journal Saudis to cut more oil than planned as OPEC drums up pact

New York Times Climate team, and its boss, just got harder to find at top health agency

Bloomberg As floods push homes higher, the disabled risk being pushed out

SPONSOR MESSAGE: In 2018 the United States continued to drill its way toward energy independence. With the country now producing record-setting amounts of oil and natural gas, the need for infrastructure to transport those resources – from the Bakken, Marcellus, and Permian shale formations all the way to New England – is more important than ever. Fortunately, midstream projects such as the now-complete Rover Pipeline and expanding Dakota Access Pipeline are setting the stage for safe and efficient energy transportation across the U.S. GAIN is hopeful that 2019 will be another momentous year for American energy. To learn more head to www.gainnow.org or follow us @GAINNowAmerica.