Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine and get Washington Briefing: politics and policy stories that will keep you up to date with what’s going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue!
THE ROAD FOR CLIMATE MEASURES GETS TOUGHER: President Joe Biden‘s climate change agenda suffered another major setback with the Supreme Court’s ruling in West Virginia v. EPA, which limited the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants under the Clean Air Act.
Democrats are saying that the ruling will force them to lean more on their fragile majorities in Congress, which have yet to deliver green policy victory.
What it means: The Biden administration wants to decarbonize the power sector by 2035, which will require the continued phaseout of coal-fired power plants.
Coal interests that brought this petition before the high court want to keep the administration from being especially aggressive with regulations to achieve that.
The EPA will have to try leaning on other statutory authority, or Biden will have to turn to Congress, as Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) said will be necessary.
“The Republicans on the Supreme Court are not going to allow any meaningful administration efforts to combat climate change,” Wyden said in response to the court’s ruling. “The only way to tackle this problem is through congressional action, which is why it’s so important that Congress pass our clean energy tax credit package.”
The problem: Biden and Democratic leadership in Congress have been unable to find consensus to write legislation to pursue Biden’s goals of having half of all new vehicle sales to be electric models beginning in 2030 and achieving 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035.
This morning’s decision makes it all the more significant that leadership has so far failed to gain support for legislation from Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Reaction: Environmental groups took the ruling as a blow to their campaign to end use of fossil fuels.
Collin Rees, U.S. program manager at Oil Change International, said Biden must now declare a climate emergency and “wield his powers” under the Defense Production Act to move the country off of oil and natural gas.
Biden has already used the DPA on multiple occasions in favor of green energy technologies.
Evergreen Action executive director Jamal Raad said EPA still has other authorities which it can use to reduce pollution from power plants.
He also said the ruling makes it more incumbent on states to help oversee a shift away from fossil fuels.
Heather Zichal, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, said the Supreme Court left EPA “hamstrung.”
“This decision constrains EPA’s ability to put meaningful limits on carbon from power plants—the nation’s largest industrial source of such pollution,” Zichal said.
Republicans and coal interests cheered the ruling this morning.
Michelle Bloodworth, president and CEO of America’s power, said the group is “pleased the Court agreed with us that EPA does not have unlimited authority to do anything it wants to do.”
She further urged EPA “to avoid issuing a replacement rule that causes more premature coal retirements,” with reference to tight electricity supplies and threat of blackouts predicted through the summer — a set of circumstances driven in part by the closure of coal-fired power plants.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Jeremy Beaman (@jeremywbeaman) and Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep). Email [email protected] or [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.
BIDEN TELLS DRIVERS TO GET USED TO HIGH GAS PRICES TO COUNTER PUTIN: Biden said today that U.S. drivers will continue to pay premiums for gas for the foreseeable future, telling reporters that such costs are likely to continue for as “long as it takes” to stop Russia’s war in Ukraine.
His remarks are the latest acknowledgement that drivers are unlikely to find relief at the pump anytime soon. Asked how long drivers should expect to pay gas premiums due to Vladimir Putin’s war, Biden responded, “As long as it takes, so that Russia cannot in fact defeat Ukraine and move beyond Ukraine.”
“This is a critical, critical position for the world,” he added. His comments come as the national average for a gallon of regular gas is $4.86, according to AAA, up from $3.12 a year ago.
Oil price cap remarks: Biden did express optimism about a new Russian oil price cap plan proposed by G-7 nations earlier this week, which would seek to minimize Moscow’s oil export revenue by imposing restrictions on the insurance and shipping of the country’s seaborne crude.
“We’ve delegated a commission, a group of our national security people to sit down and work out that mechanism,” Biden said of the price cap effort. “We think it can be done. We think it can be done to drive down the price of oil, and would drive down the price of gasoline as well.”
Another key takeaway: Biden told reporters that he will call on U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf to increase their oil production during his Middle East trip this month, but stressed that asking them to do so is not the “main focus” of his trip.
“I have indicated to them that I thought they should be increasing production,” Biden said. “I hope we see them in their own interest concluding that [it] makes sense to do. And they have real concerns about what’s going on in Iran and other places in terms of their security.” Read more from Breanne on Biden’s remarks here.
MAJORITY OF VOTERS SUPPORT GAS TAX HOLIDAY: More than 70% of U.S. voters support temporarily suspending the federal and state gas tax, as proposed by Biden, a new Politico/Morning Consult survey found. Widespread support for the proposal comes as consumers continue to suffer decades-high inflation and record-high gas prices, which climbed to a national average of more than $5 per gallon for the first time ever earlier this month.
A wide 72% majority of voters said they support halting the federal gas tax—which currently stands at 18 cents per gallon—for 90 days, according to the poll, while a slightly higher 74% majority said they support a statewide gas tax holiday. See the full results here.
DOI SLATED TO ISSUE OFFSHORE LEASE PROPOSAL: The Interior Department is expected to publish its five-year offshore drilling lease proposal today, a long-anticipated document that will chart the course for the administration’s production efforts for years to come.
The clock is ticking: In May, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland testified that the agency is prepared to issue a new proposal to replace the current one, which expires today. So far, however, the document has not been made public, nor has DOI said when it plans to release the new draft proposal.
Pressure from all sides: Issuing a new proposal will force the administration to pick sides, choosing between liberal Democrats and environmental groups, who are quick to note that Biden campaigned on the promise to halt offshore drilling, and a growing coalition of industry groups, Republicans, and centrist Democrats, who have insisted that more leasing is imperative to stabilize prices and increase domestic production amid a global energy crisis.
The Biden administration “needs to be strategic about how they think about energy,” one senior industry official told Breanne. “And they can’t look for easy, quick fixes and one-day solutions, they need to have a long-term vision about what they’re trying to do. And if that [vision] doesn’t include oil and natural gas, then they are frankly setting up the U.S. up for crisis after crisis after crisis.”
“The experts tell us that we’re going to be using oil and gas for decades to come,” this person added. “And so, if we don’t invest in it, others will, and they will take our energy security from us.” Read more from Jeremy and Breanne here.
RELATED– GREEN GROUPS SUE OVER BIDEN WYOMING LEASE SALE: Environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over a drilling lease sale in Wyoming, seeking to stop action on the largest onshore oil and gas lease sale since Biden took office.
In the suit, filed by Friends of the Earth and the Wilderness Society, plaintiffs accused the Biden administration of violating the president’s campaign trail commitments to help abate climate change, and accused the Bureau of Land Management of failing its environmental review obligations in approving the large lease sale. The Wyoming sale spans 120,000 acres, and is the largest lease sale of the eight scheduled by the bureau earlier this year. Bids began yesterday on the available Wyoming parcels, and are slated to close today.
In their lawsuit, the groups asked the court to “set aside” the bureau’s record of decision approving the sale and all leases sold.
“The [environmental assessment] that [the bureau] prepared for the lease sale fails to analyze the groundwater impacts of oil and gas development on the leases being offered, instead offering only boilerplate text with generic statements about water resource impacts from oil and gas development,” plaintiffs said in the complaint. Read more from Jeremy here.
GRANHOLM VIOLATED HATCH ACT: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm violated the Hatch Act when she said in an October Marie Claire interview that it was good that Democrats were in office, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel has said in response to a complaint from the Foundation for Accountability & Civic Trust.
Asked about passing legislation, Granholm said: “The good news is that that [sic] marching and that voting gave Democrats a bare majority, but a majority, in the House in the Senate” and “So, continue to be out there, continue to elect people.”
Erica Hamrick, Deputy Chief of the Hatch Act Unit, concluded: “Because Secretary Granholm engaged in activity directed at the success of the Democratic Party during an interview she gave in her official capacity—she violated the Hatch Act’s use of official authority prohibition.”
Hamrick said Granholm had been sent a warning.
The Rundown
Bloomberg US farmers battle floods, heat in bid to replenish food supplies
Washington Post Yellowstone visitor gored in second bison attack in a month, park says
Wall Street Journal Ford’s talk of new EV-selling rules rattles some dealers
Associated Press Big cats in urban jungle: LA mountain lions, Mumbai leopards
Calendar
THURSDAY | JUNE 30
11:30 a.m. The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change will convene for a hearing on the state of the U.S. recycling efforts and proposed solutions to help repair it.
