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TRUMP’S MOON-TO-MARS MISSION WILL USE ‘STAR WARS’ TECH TO POWER SPACESHIPS: President Trump’s plan to put a permanent base on the moon and then on Mars will likely depend far more on solar energy than previous space missions, NASA revealed Monday, basically by duplicating technology from “Star Wars.”

In its list of 2018 achievements, the space agency highlighted its Solar Electric Propulsion project: A plan to eliminate the need for the chemical propellants used in rocket motors in order to travel through deep space and make the moon-to-Mars mission a reality.

Solar is a superior fuel: “Advanced propulsion technologies such as SEP deliver the right mix of cost savings, safety and superior propulsive power to support a variety of next-generation journeys to destinations in deep space,” NASA said in its list of achievements under NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

Deep space probes and satellites have used solar arrays for decades to keep their electronics functioning as they travel through the solar system. But none have made use of solar energy to generate thrust and propel them through space.

Cutting out the chemicals: The new solar rocket motors will be energized by the electric power from on-board solar arrays, using 10 times less chemical propellants than conventional systems like those used to propel the space shuttle to orbit, said NASA.

Basically, it’s a ‘Star Wars’ TIE fighter: The spacecraft will use solar electricity to create plasma through an electromagnetic field. To put it simply, plasma is the stuff that is supposedly driving everything from X-wing and TIE fighters, to Star Destroyers and even Death Stars, throughout the “Star Wars” franchise.

“The thruster generates and traps electrons in a magnetic field, using them to ionize the onboard propellant — in this case, the inert gas xenon — into an exhaust plume of plasma that accelerates the spacecraft forward,” NASA explains. This is a form of ion propulsion. The “TIE” in “TIE fighter” stands for twin ion engine, according to the “Star Wars” wiki page. And yes, the things on the sides of the TIE fighters are supposed to be solar arrays.

NASA is preparing a system-level flight demonstration within the next decade for the solar propulsion system.

Vice President Mike Pence toured the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday morning, saying the facility has made the U.S. the “dominant power” in space.

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DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN VOWS TO INVESTIGATE ZINKE EVEN AFTER RESIGNATION: House Democrats will investigate outgoing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke next year, regardless of the secretary’s resignation and departure on Jan. 1.

“We will continue to do oversight of Secretary Zinke’s major policy decisions, including the destruction of the national monuments in Utah, the decisions to lease public lands to fossil fuel industries,” and other areas of his regulatory record, said Adam Sarvana, spokesman for the House Natural Resources Committee and its top Democrat Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, who is slated to lead the panel’s agenda next year as chairman and oversee Interior.

Who Zinke spoke to: Sarvana told John the committee will want to ask who Zinke spoke with in advancing deregulatory measures, and whether he followed proper procedure.

Policy landscape: Zinke outraged environmentalists by advancing a plan to reverse the Obama-era expansion of the Bears Ears and the Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah in order to open the land up to development. Zinke has also looked to reverse the Obama administration’s plan to protect the chicken-sized sage grouse in order to open lands in the western part of the U.S. to drilling and mining.

ZINKE’S POTENTIAL REPLACEMENT HAS EXTENSIVE OIL LOBBYING CONFLICTS: David Bernhardt, the Interior Department deputy and Washington insider who will likely fill Zinke’s shoes as acting secretary at the end of the month, has a lobbying history that makes him unqualified for the role, opponents say.

He’s a Washington insider with industry ties: Since Bernhardt became Zinke’s No. 2 in August 2017, an analysis by the Center for Western Priorities released Monday found, the agency has completed or moved forward with at least 19 policy actions that have been requested or supported by at least 16 of his former clients.

If Trump did pick Bernhardt to fill the role, Bernhardt would follow the path of Environmental Protection Agency Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler, a fellow technocrat, former energy lobbyist, and career government employee who took over when Scott Pruitt resigned in July over ethics charges.

The man behind the curtain: Interior Department observers say Bernhardt has already been leading the day-to-day policymaking process at the agency.

But critics say Bernhardt’s hands-on work is riven with conflicts.

His resume, and former clients: Bernhardt, 49, is a former Interior Department official in the George W. Bush administration. He eventually became the agency’s top lawyer in 2006.

Prior to his new role at Interior, he directed the natural resources division of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, a law firm that provides lobbying and legal services.

His former clients include offshore oil and gas drillers like Statoil Gulf Services (which has since been renamed Equinor) and Eni Petroleum; onshore drillers like Noble Energy and Halliburton; and industry trade associations, particularly the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the National Ocean Industries Association.

Read more of Josh’s report here.

CHAMBER BLASTS ANTI-FOSSIL FUEL ACTIVISTS FOR COSTING ECONOMY OVER $91 BILLION IN LOSSES: The Chamber of Commerce and trade unions took aim at anti-fossil fuel activists in a scathing report that concluded that the form of environmentalism slowed economic activity by over $91 billion in the U.S. in 2018.

“Taken together, anti-energy activism has helped prevent at least $91.9 billion of economic activity in the United States, which is larger than the entire economies of 12 states,” according to the report, “Infrastructure Lost: Why America Cannot Afford To ‘Keep It In the Ground.’”

The report was issued by the Chamber’s Global Energy Institute and the Laborers’ International Union of North America.

‘Anti-energy’ campaign: The Keep It In the Ground movement began in the latter years of the Obama administration, with the aim of ending all fossil fuel production through blocking pipelines and things like coal export terminals.

Dakota Access and beyond: The most well-known campaigns were the massive protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline in North Dakota, which garnered national attention during the 2016 presidential races. Both protests and legal action have been used to block pipelines like Keystone XL and numerous other natural gas pipelines.

Job losses: The labor union’s interest in the study is obvious, based on the report’s purported job losses calculated as a result of the Keep It In The Ground activist campaigns.

The study showed that an estimated 728,000 job opportunities were “destroyed” as a result of the movement’s activities, which equated to $57.9 billion in lost project investment costs.

Lost tax revenue: “To top it all off, we estimate that these cancelled or delayed projects have cost us $20.3 billion in lost tax revenue,” the report stated.

The costs and job loss estimates in the report were based on the examination of 15 separate energy infrastructure projects that were “blocked, cancelled, or delayed” to some degree by the Keep it in the Ground movement.

The projects included Keystone XL and a variety of other natural gas and oil pipelines, as well as coal export terminals, power plants, and other projects, which were either delayed a number of years or cancelled due to the activist movement.

The cost of New York’s fracking ban: The report also included the cost of New York’s ban on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, separate from the 15 projects.

It calculates that the fracking ban cost the state over $4 billion in lost tax revenue, and over $20 billion in lost investment.

GLOBAL COAL DEMAND TO KEEP GROWING, IEA SAYS: The International Energy Agency projected Tuesday that global demand for coal grew slightly last year, after two years of decline, and is expected to increase again this year.

The slight uptick is driven mostly by strong coal power generation in China and India. Global coal power generation rose 3 percent this year, and coal represented 40 percent of new power generation added to the grid.

Demand is rising in Asia, falling elsewhere: But IEA projects global coal demand to be stable over the next five years, with declines in the U.S. and Europe offsetting the gains in Asian countries.

Coal plants in the U.S. are retiring at a rapid pace, and the ones that exist are being used less because of lower cost natural gas and renewables.

Showing the need to capture carbon: The IEA said coal’s stubborn existence shows that policymakers must do more to boost carbon capture and storage technologies that can trap carbon emissions from power plants and industries.

MORE ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDED TO AVOID WORST CASE OF COAL AND NUCLEAR CLOSURES, WATCHDOG SAYS: The nation’s grid watchdog released a report Tuesday warning grid operators to prepare for aggressive retirements of coal and nuclear plants by ensuring sufficient natural gas pipelines and transmission lines to transport wind and solar energy.

How the grid would fare: NERC found that, in an extreme (and unlikely) scenario of coal and nuclear plant closures, six of 10 regions that depend on coal and nuclear would have enough generation — between natural gas and renewables — to meet peak demand.

For those regions that could be stressed, NERC said they must build out more energy infrastructure to deliver natural gas, and renewables. It said regulators and policymakers should expedite regulatory and permitting processes to allow for pipeline and infrastructure upgrades, and suggests that it might be appropriate to delay retirement decisions until such improvements are made.

But NERC also said the transitioning grid makes the grid reliable in other ways, because less reliance on large centralized power plants, and use of small distributed resources, allows for more operational flexibility.

Policy takeaways: John Moura, NERC’s Director of Reliability Assessment and System Analysis, said NERC’s report is not meant to provide evidence for or against potential action to subsidize coal and nuclear plants, as the Trump administration has tried unsuccessfully to do.

But it does say that “out-of-market solutions” should be considered to “control the pace” of retirements.

The report from NERC comes a month after PJM, the nation’s largest grid operator, released its own report finding that its electricity supply would hold up against a range of threats, providing evidence against the Trump administration case for preserving coal and nuclear plants.

SENATE LOSING KEY ENERGY PLAYER WITH LAMAR ALEXANDER’S RETIREMENT: Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., announced Monday that he will not run for re-election to the Senate in 2020, foregoing a likely fourth term in office, and leaving behind a large imprint on energy policy.

In a statement, Alexander, 78, said it is time for “someone else” to be able to represent Tennessee in the Senate. Alexander added that he intends to serve the final two years of his term.

Alexander chairs the appropriations subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, where he is known to advocate for nuclear power. He is also a skeptic of wind energy.

He helped create the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, and has rebuffed efforts by the Trump administration to eliminate it. ARPA-E is an Energy Department program with bipartisan support that funds innovations in energy technology, such as battery storage.

RUNDOWN

NPR An epidemic is killing thousands of coal miners. Regulators could have stopped it

Reuters Go West: Pacific Coast LNG plans get fresh look as market shifts

Seattle Times Amazon feels heat from employees on climate change and disclosing its efforts

Bloomberg Climate change is messing with your dinner

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.