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GREEN NEW DEAL NOT A PRIORITY AS STATE REGULATORS DESCEND ON WASHINGTON: State energy regulators descend on Washington this week for a major winter policy conference, and to take up policy resolutions that set their lobbying agenda for 2019.

Not one of the new resolutions slated to be voted on by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ board has anything to do with the progressive Green New Deal agenda, or climate change. At least not directly.

The national association, the lead trade group representing utility regulators from all states and territories, is focused instead on the nitty-gritty of making the grid work more efficiently, which in turn will make it cleaner.

One of the resolutions up for consideration by the group’s board this week is from the Nevada utility commission and would make it easier for distributed energy resources, which can include both renewables and fossil resources, to be included in states’ energy mix.

Using energy more efficiently: The resolution specifically looks to promote a type of highly-efficient energy used by manufacturers and steelworks that recycles the waste gases and heat from industrial processes to generate electricity for both the plants and the grid.

Some states’ rate structures make it harder for those resources to compete. The resolution seeks to eliminate these rate structures. It points out that federal law recognizes the benefits of these resources, as the White House established a national goal in 2012 of increasing these resources by 50 percent by 2020. It’s one of the Obama-era executive orders that President Trump hasn’t wiped out.

Combined Heat and Power is the form of electricity generation that the resolution addresses specifically, and is something the states and the federal government have been trying to promote for decades. But it isn’t something that was discussed last week when progressive Democrats Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey rolled out their resolution for the Green New Deal, which they called the first step toward what they hope will become a comprehensive climate bill.

Where do the states’ utility commissioners fit in? In the past, the state utility regulators were considered essential to have in one’s corner in making climate policy. The utility commissioners’ trade group had formed an alliance with state air regulators and the governors’ energy offices in 2015 to coordinate on pushing the Obama administration on both problems and opportunities it saw in climate regulations.

It is unclear if the Green New Deal has risen to the level where state regulators feel they have to pull their resources to address it. The resolution that was released is very short on details, and doesn’t provide much in the way of items that regulators can really sink their teeth into, so to speak.

The commissioners’ policy summit will be held all week in Washington.

Welcome to Daily on Energy, written 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.  

REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS FACE PRESSURE TO PROPOSE GREEN NEW DEAL ALTERNATIVE: Republicans who want to combat climate change say their party should avoid the temptation of rejecting the Green New Deal without proposing an alternative.

“If the Green New Deal goes down in flames and gets totally discredited, the climate issue is still out there,” Josiah Neeley, energy policy director at the R Street Institute, told Josh. “You still have to come up with ways to deal with it.”

The Green New Deal resolution contains several nonbinding goals for transforming the U.S. economy to fight climate change, with the goal of reaching 100 percent clean, renewable, and zero-emission electricity — and achieve net-zero emissions — by 2030.

But because it contains no actual policies to get there, leaving that work for later, Republicans should fill in the gap with their own prescriptions, party leaders say.

Where there is opportunity: Even Trump’s former international energy adviser, George David Banks, sees areas of cooperation with the Green New Deal

“If you are looking at developing a national climate policy, the majority of their climate policy reflects a centrist position,” he told Josh.

For example, Banks and other Republicans said members could use a potential infrastructure bill to implement some of the proposal’s goals.

Possible measures could include: Improving energy efficiency in publicly funded projects, modernizing the electricity grid to accommodate the use of more wind and solar, rebuilding transmission and distribution lines to make them more resilient to severe weather events and wildfires, and accelerating the deployment of electric vehicle charging stations.

Republicans also generally support spending on research and development, and could do more there.

Read more of Josh’s report here:

TRUMP MOCKS ‘BRILLIANT’ GREEN NEW DEAL: Indeed, most leading Republicans, including the president, aren’t listening to the advice to tread softly on the Green New Deal.

“I think it is very important for the Democrats to press forward with their Green New Deal,” Trump said in a Twitter post Saturday. “It would be great for the so-called ‘Carbon Footprint’ to permanently eliminate all Planes, Cars, Cows, Oil, Gas & the Military — even if no other country would do the same. Brilliant!”

Trump was referring to a “frequently asked questions” fact sheet on the Green New Deal released by Ocasio-Cortez’ office that included proposed policies that contradicted the text of the actual resolution and that later was removed and disavowed.

The fact sheet said fully eliminating emissions cannot happen in 10 years because “we aren’t sure we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast.” It also called for expanding high-speed rail to “a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary.”

Here’s more details on the fact sheet kerfuffle.

HOW A TOP REPUBLICAN AIMS TO RESIST THE DEMOCRATIC CLIMATE CHANGE AGENDA: Rep. Rob Bishop has a plan for resisting the Democratic push for climate legislation at the House Natural Resources Committee.

Bishop, the panel’s top Republican from Utah, argues his panel does not have jurisdiction over climate change and thus cannot move major climate legislation and that the panel would be better suited for narrower legislation.

“The jurisdiction issue is that the Natural Resources Committee has ZERO jurisdiction over any climate legislation including Clean Air rules, Clean Water Act, etc.,” said Kristina Baum, spokeswoman for Bishop’s side of the committee, in an email to John.

Out of jurisdiction: She explained that all air emissions issues are handled by the Energy and Commerce and Science, Space and Technology Committees. “There is legitimately no reason why we’re discussing climate change in the House Natural Resources Committee,” she added.

Bishop, instead, says that he wants to focus on issues like wildfire management, which can have a significant impact on air quality, along with a serious parks maintenance backlog — which are squarely under the panel’s jurisdiction.

Read more about Bishop’s strategy from John’s coverage here.

GROUP URGES SPECIAL COUNSEL TO PROBE EPA FOR BREAKING THE LAW: An environmental group formally petitioned the federal special counsel’s office on Monday to probe whether the Environmental Protection Agency broke the law by promoting Trump’s 2020 re-election bid.

The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility claim that the fault rests with EPA’s Office of Public Affairs. It did so by making the resignation letter of Mandy Gunasekara, a former air office official, available to reporters.

Gunasekara resigned on Thursday to immediately announce the creation of a non-profit group aimed at promoting Trump’s energy agenda in the run-up to the 2020 election.

The group argues that EPA’s decision to release her resignation letter, which discusses the need for Trump to be re-elected, violates the Hatch Act, which forbids partisan activity by executive branch employees.

Gunasekara’s resignation letter reads: “Ensuring eight years of your leadership is of utmost importance.”

AMY KLOBUCHAR OUTLINES CLIMATE AGENDA IN RUN FOR PRESIDENT: Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., outlined her climate change agenda in her Sunday 2020 presidential campaign announcement.

She said the U.S. would rejoin the Paris climate agreement that Trump rejected on her first day in office.

Klobuchar also promised to reinstate Obama-era climate regulations that Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency has moved to weaken, namely its Clean Power Plan limiting emissions from power plants, and fuel economy standards targeting pollution from transportation. And she vowed to promote green jobs in a potential infrastructure bill.

“The people are on our side when it comes to climate change,” she said. “Why? Because like you and I, they believe in science.”

Klobuchar did not mention the Green New Deal resolution, which she has co-sponsored along with fellow Democratic senators running for president in 2020.

Trump and Klobuchar jab over climate: The president commented on Klobuchar’s announcement via Twitter on Sunday, making fun of her for outlining a climate change agenda while it was snowing outside during her speech in Minnesota.

“Amy Klobuchar announced that she is running for President, talking proudly of fighting global warming while standing in a virtual blizzard of snow, ice and freezing temperatures,” he tweeted. “Bad timing. By the end of her speech she looked like a Snowman(woman)!”

In response, Klobuchar tweeted: “Science is on my side, @realDonaldTrump. Looking forward to debating you about climate change (and many other issues). And I wonder how your hair would fare in a blizzard?”

EIA PROJECTS US POWER SECTOR EMISSIONS TO STAY FLAT THROUGH 2050: U.S. emissions from the power sector will remain mostly flat through 2050, after decades of declines, the Energy Information Administration projected Monday.

Assuming U.S. laws and regulations remain the same, EIA says power sector carbon emissions will remain relatively unchanged, decreasing just 0.1 billion metric tons from 2018 through 2050.

The agency expects a 23 percent increase in electricity generation during that time frame, mostly to come from renewables, followed by natural gas, which emits half the carbon as coal.

The stagnation in emissions declines would come after carbon emissions in the U.S. power sector had been declining since their 2007 peak of 2.4 billion metric tons.

LONE REPUBLICAN BRIAN FITZPATRICK REBUKES TRUMP FOR REJECTING PARIS DEAL: Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania joined with more than 50 House Democrats Friday to introduce a bill affirming Congress’ support for the Paris climate agreement that Trump rejected.

“I continue to urge the administration not to leave the Paris Climate Accord — but in the meantime, Congress should send a message to the world: the people of the United States remain committed to pursuing bipartisan solutions to address climate change and protect our environment,” Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent, is a leader of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus. He is also the co-sponsor of a carbon tax bill that would return the proceeds to American households as a dividend check. He won re-election in November for his purple district in the middle-class suburbs of northeastern Pennsylvania.

HE’S ALSO INTRODUCING A BILL TO BAN OIL AND GAS DRILLING IN ANWR: Fitzpatrick and Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., are planning to introduce legislation Monday overturning Republicans’ successful effort in 2017 to allow oil and gas drilling in a portion of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

ANWR, as the refuge is known, was created under President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960. In 1980, Congress provided additional protections to the 19 million-acre refuge but set aside a 1.5 million-acre section known as the “1002 area,” where billions of barrels of crude oil are believed to lie beneath the coastal plain. Republicans in 2017 were successful in achieving their goal to allow energy exploration in the area as part of their tax overhaul legislation.

The new bill would ban drilling in the entire refuge.

RUNDOWN

New York Times Iraq rebuffs US demands to stop buying energy from Iran

Reuters With Iran squeezed out, US oil takes on new rivals in Europe

Bloomberg Alberta’s would-be leader vows to drop gloves in fights over oil

Wall Street Journal Tesla is cranking out Model 3s—now it has to service them

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