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TRUMP CREDITS SAUDIS FOR LOWER OIL PRICES, PRODS ‘LET’S GO LOWER:’ President Trump on Wednesday credited Saudi Arabia for bringing down oil prices, while standing by the country’s regime after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“Oil prices getting lower. Great! Like a big Tax Cut for America and the World. Enjoy! $54, was just $82. Thank you to Saudi Arabia, but let’s go lower!” Trump said in a Twitter post.

Trump values oil alliance: The tweet came after a White House statement Tuesday asserting the importance of the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia despite the Khashoggi killing. Critics blasted Trump for a strictly transactional foreign policy approach, without regard to human rights and American traditions.

In the Tuesday statement, Trump indicated that Saudi Arabia was critical to oil prices falling for the last six weeks, after breaching $85 in October.

“After the United States, Saudi Arabia is the largest oil producing nation in the world,” Trump said. “They have worked closely with us and have been very responsive to my requests to keeping oil prices at reasonable levels – so important for the world.”

Dan Eberhart, CEO of the oil services firm Canary and a Trump donor, says the president views oil prices as a crucial marker of his public support.

“He understands that the price of gasoline is the primary way American consumers react to foreign policy and he believes that if he can keep gasoline prices low, it will benefit his popularity,” Eberhart told Josh.

The pressure campaign worked: Trump had pressured Saudi Arabia in the lead-up to the midterm elections to to keep production high — so gasoline prices did not spike — before his oil sanctions kicked in on Iran, which is also a major producer of crude.

Saudi Arabia and Russia, the top two oil producers outside the U.S., began boosting output a few months ago, partially in response to Trump,

But other factors contributed to the oil price drop: The Trump administration granted temporary exemptions to some of Iran’s biggest customers, allowing them to continue importing Iranian oil, which has also helped ease prices, along with prolific output from U.S. shale producers. In addition, analysts have said the oil price fall can be partially attributed to fears of sluggish global economic growth due to Trump’s trade wars.

What to watch for: The Saudis and Russia are now looking to cut production to increase prices and balance their budgets, and could make a formal decision next month when the oil cartel OPEC meets in Vienna. Trump appears to be trying to influence Saudi Arabia to prevent that outcome. But too much emphasis on lower prices could harm another important Trump constituency: the energy industry.

“Prices are likely to be volatile for the next two weeks as we head toward the OPEC meeting in Vienna,” Frank Verrastro, senior vice president of the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Josh. “And while I appreciate the optics of talking prices down for consumers, Trump should remember too that substantially lower oil prices also impact U.S. production.”

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.  

Publishing note: Daily on Energy will not publish Thursday, Nov. 22, or Friday, Nov. 23, in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. We will resume our regular schedule on Monday Nov. 26.

MEANWHILE… SAUDI ARABIA REACHES RECORD OIL PRODUCTION: Saudi Arabia produced a record amount of oil — nearly 11 million barrels per day — this month.

The Saudis have been pumping about 10.8 to 10.9 million barrels a day in November, Bloomberg reported, due to strong demand from consumers who are preparing to be cut off from Iran’s crude because of Trump’s sanctions.

Saudi Arabia recently reported to OPEC that it produced about 10.65 million barrels a day in October.

FERC NOMINEE UNDER FIRE FOR VIDEO SHOWING HIM CRITICIZING RENEWABLES: Bernard McNamee, Trump’s nominee to join the Federal Energy and Regulatory Commission, is facing new scrutiny because of an unearthed video from earlier this year that shows him criticizing renewable energy, and supporting fossil fuels.

McNamee, who was working for the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, delivered a speech in February to Texas lawmakers in which he said fossil fuels are “key to our way of life,” but renewable energy “screws up the whole physics of the grid.”

The news outlet Utility Dive obtained a video of the speech on Tuesday.

Why this could be a problem: McNamee’s comments are likely to undermine his effort to portray himself as unbiased and able to separate his political views from decisions he would make at FERC, an independent agency that oversees wholesale power markets.

“The statements in this video are impossible to square with McNamee’s assertions of impartiality before the Senate and must disqualify him from appointment to FERC,” Alison Silverstein, an energy consultant and a former advisor to Republican FERC Chairman Pat Wood III, told Josh. “The video shows that McNamee the private citizen is strongly biased in favor of coal and nuclear power and against renewables, in total disregard of actual facts, regulation or laws.”

During his confirmation hearing last week, McNamee vowed to be impartial when considering potential Trump administration attempts to subsidize struggling coal and nuclear plants, and said he would consider decisions from a “fuel-neutral” perspective.

Critics have feared that McNamee could be biased in favor of Trump because he formerly worked as head of the Energy Department’s Office of Policy, which has spearheaded consideration of potential action to save coal and nuclear plants.

McNamee plays defense: McNamee, in his confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he “will be a fair, objective, and impartial arbiter” and that his “decisions will be based on the law and the facts; not politics.”

After the hearing, committee chairwoman Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who had asked pointed questions of McNamee, said she was satisfied with his promises that he could separate the work he did on behalf of the administration from the independent role he would have at FERC.

McNamee, in a statement to Utility Dive, continued to defend his impartiality.

“I recognize the significant role that renewables play in our energy mix, and I stand by my statement that if confirmed as a commissioner, I would be an independent arbiter basing my decisions on the law and the facts, not politics,” he said.

Allies also stand by McNamee: “I remain confident that Bernie is very capable of applying the law in an objective way,” Kenny Stein, director of policy and federal affairs for the American Energy Alliance, told Josh.

Stein worked with McNamee when they were both policy advisers for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, from 2013 to 2014.

Pro-fossil fuel trend: But McNamee, during his time working for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, also wrote an Earth Day op-ed supporting fossil fuels as good for health and the environment.

The pro-fossil fuels commentary, coupled with the newly leaked video, strikes some observers as awkward because Texas, where McNamee has spent part of his career, is known for its competitive, deregulated power system that has allowed wind energy to thrive because of its abundance.

“His comments in the video certainly give us pause regarding his commitment to technology-neutral markets,” Dylan Reed, head of congressional affairs at Advanced Energy Economy, told Josh. “The Texas audience he’s speaking to should certainly know that wind, solar, demand response, and distributed energy resources have increased reliability while driving down costs for consumers in that state. That isn’t administrative tyranny; that is the market working.”

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION URGES CONGRESS TO ACT ON FOREST MANAGEMENT: Two Trump administration Cabinet members on Tuesday called on Congress to give them authority to expand the pace and scale of forest management projects without having to go through strict environmental reviews, in order to help stop disasters like the wildfires that are still raging in California.

“These are disasters we can do some things about,” Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told reporters in a press call. “But we need the authority to do that.”

House and Senate have different approaches: Perdue and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said provisions could still be added to the farm bill this year that would help mitigate these disasters. The Trump administration favors the House-passed version of the farm bill, passed with only Republican votes, that would make it easier for forest officials to remove overgrowth and dead trees and conduct prescribed burns, in which officials intentionally set fires to take away ignitable material like brush off the forest floor.

The Senate-passed farm bill does not contain forest management provisions, and it passed by a bipartisan margin. The two chambers must reconcile their differences to reach a final agreement that Trump would sign.

Trump’s climate change denial hurts his case: Democrats and conservationists say the House measures go too far in removing environmental reviews. They argue that Republican solutions to combat worsening wildfires cannot be taken seriously if GOP lawmakers and the Trump administration don’t also appreciate the role of hotter and drier weather caused by climate change for making fire seasons longer and fires more destructive.

Democrats also say the farm bill’s forest management provisions are unnecessary because Congress recently passed a bill making those projects easier.

GOP senators increase pressure: But Republican senators are pushing for the Senate to follow the House’s lead.

“The farm bill is a perfect vehicle to enact strong forest management reforms that will help reduce the risk of severe wildfire and minimize tragedies from happening again. I applaud President Trump and the administration for working to press these needed reforms, and I urge negotiators to include them in the final bill,” Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., told Josh.

MIA LOVE’S RE-ELECTION LOSS IS A BLOW TO GOP CLIMATE CAUCUS: Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, lost her re-election bid on Tuesday against Democratic opponent Ben McAdams by 694 votes, in what could be a setback for Republicans who want to act to combat climate change.

McAdams ended up with 134,964 votes to Love’s 134,270. His 50.13 percent to 49.87 percent advantage was .01 percent outside of the 0.25 percent margin in which Love could request a recount.

Love, who was the first black Republican woman elected to the House in 2014, had been trailing in the race until the weekend, when she overtook McAdams.

Love was boosting her climate credentials: She is one of 45 House Republicans in the Climate Solutions Caucus, which suffered huge losses in the midterms.

Her colleagues and supporters viewed her as a key potential future leader of the climate caucus, because of her charisma and status as the only member from the conservative state of Utah.

“It is a blow to the Republican party’s attempt to have a little bit of a bigger tent,” Mark Reynolds, executive director of Citizens Climate Lobby, which helped organized the caucus, told Josh.

Love told Josh in a recent interview that she was inspired to join the climate caucus because of concerns from Olympic athletes who worry the warming climate could damage Utah’s prospects for hosting the Winter Games in 2030.

A blow to GOP carbon tax push: She had expressed openness to supporting a carbon tax bill introduced by Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., the climate caucus co-chairman who also lost re-election.

“Of course he [Curbelo] is trying to get me on that bill, and I am looking at it and considering it,” Love told Josh. “There are some great things in that bill.”

CLIMATE ACTIVISTS FLOOD MORE CONGRESSIONAL OFFICES, GAIN SUPPORT: Young activists staged protests on Tuesday in the congressional offices of more than 50 House Democrats, demanding stronger action to combat climate change.

The Sunrise Movement said more than 75 of its members rallied in the California offices of Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Barbara Lee, among others.

The group has important allies: The Sunrise Movement has allied itself with Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a star progressive who campaigned on a platform of eliminating the use of fossil fuels for electricity.

Backed by the Sunrise Movement, Ocasio-Cortez is promoting a resolution that would give a select climate committee, that Pelosi wants to revive, new power to draft a climate bill by 2020, which would require 100 percent of electricity to come from renewable sources. The previous iteration of the climate committee, which Republicans disbanded upon taking power of the House in 2011, did not have the power to draft legislation.

‘Green New Deal’ gains support: The Sunrise Movement said in a press release Tuesday that Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., became the latest of 12 House Democrats who agreed to back Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal, which she is calling the “Green New Deal”, after protestors flooded his Los Angeles office.

COAST GUARD ORDERS CLEANUP OF 14-YEAR OIL SPILL: The U.S. Coast Guard has told Taylor Energy to cleanup a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which has leaked more than a million barrels of oil since 2004.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the Coast Guard issued an order for Taylor Energy to “institute a… system to capture, contain, or remove oil” from the company’s former production site or face a $40,000 per day fine for failing to comply.

Up to 700 barrels of oil per day have leaked from Taylor Energy’s former site 12 miles off the coast of Louisiana since a production platform was destroyed during Hurricane Ivan in 2004, the Post said.

The total spill could be nearly as large as what occurred during the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, which spewed almost 4 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers.

Taylor Energy has disputed that its wells were responsible for the 2004 spill.

RUNDOWN

Washington Post Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke remains defiant amid ethics probes

Bloomberg Texas is about to create OPEC’s worst nightmare

Wall Street Journal Lower prices could limit US oil growth

New York Times UN environment envoy quits after audit of expenses

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