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Energy Secretary Rick Perry is not slowing down his trademark energy diplomacy this week as he faces questions about his role on issues relevant to the impeachment inquiry into President Trump focused on Ukraine.
Perry’s trip to Europe — which includes a meeting with officials from Ukraine — comes after reporting this weekend that he pressed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to curb corruption at its state-run gas firm Naftogaz and install new American members on the company’s board (see more details below).
Perry is planning to resign in the coming months before the 2020 election campaign heats up, sources confirmed to Josh last week, but it’s unclear how much the Ukraine probe is playing into his thinking.
One of his top priorities has been to push Eastern European countries dependent on energy from Russia to increase imports of American liquified natural gas, touting gas’s role in reducing emissions in the U.S. as an alternative to coal.
His trip appears to be an effort to finish that work before he leaves.
“One of the priorities of [the Trump administration] was building an energy security strategy focused on central and eastern Europe, and Ukraine was a major focus of it,” a former Trump administration official told Josh. “The objective is consistent going back to the Reagan administration in reducing Europe’s energy dependence on Russia. It’s designed to give Ukraine another option.”
Of Perry’s trip, the former official said: “If he’s going to leave, I’m assuming he wants to clear the decks and get it completed.”
Perry tweeted Monday that he participated in a trilateral meeting in Lithuania with Ukrainian Energy Minister Oleksii Orzhel and Polish Deputy Energy Minister Tomasz Dąbrowski.
“The United States strongly supports Ukraine and Poland’s effort to enhance regional energy security,” Perry said.
The Energy Department said Perry was seeking to follow up on a recent Memorandum of Cooperation signed in Warsaw last month to develop “enhanced interconnections” between Poland and Ukraine to develop natural gas infrastructure.
In a tweet Sunday, Perry said he would also discuss “regional energy cooperation” in nuclear and renewables.
On Tuesday, Perry plans to continue his travels to Latvia where he will deliver the keynote address at the EuroGas Central and Eastern Europe Conference to discuss “energy security through energy diversity.”
He’ll finish his trip Thursday in Iceland to give the keynote address at the Arctic Circle Assembly where he will discuss the “economic and energy potential” of the Arctic.
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TRUMP AND GIULIANI ASSOCIATES PRESSURED UKRAINE OVER GAS COMPANY TO BENEFIT ALLIES: Associates of Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani urged Ukraine to install new leadership at state-run gas firm Naftogaz in order to benefit some of their allies, according to the Associated Press.
The associates included businessmen and Republican donors linked to both Trump and Giuliani, connections they touted as they pressured the country. Their plan reportedly was to steer lucrative contracts to companies controlled by Trump allies.
However, the plan hit a snag when then-President Petro Poroshenko lost the 2019 election to Zelensky.
Perry then took up efforts to install new management at the firm with Zelensky, but it’s unclear if his attempt was in coordination with the Trump and Giuliani allies.
“What he did not do is advocate for the business interests of any one individual or company,” DOE spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes told AP. “That is fiction being pushed by those who are disingenuously seeking to advance a nefarious narrative that does not exist.”
TRUMP BLAMES UKRAINE CALL ON PERRY: The news comes amid reports that Trump told congressional Republicans that Perry pressed him to make the the July 25 phone call in which he urged Zelensky to investigate his political rivals.
“Not a lot of people know this, but I didn’t even want to make the call. The only reason I made the call was because Rick asked me to. Something about an LNG [liquified natural gas] plant,” Trump reportedly told House Republicans on Friday.
DOE’s Hynes confirmed Perry urged Trump to speak with Zelensky “to discuss matters related to their energy security and economic development.”
According to notes released by the White House, Zelensky talked to Trump about buying U.S. oil and “cooperating on energy independence” with the U.S. but did not mention Perry or LNG.
INTERIOR ENDS MORATORIUM ON DRILLING IN CENTRAL CALIFORNIA: The Interior Department approved a plan Friday to open more than 700,000 acres of land in Northern and Central California to oil and gas drilling.
The agency still must approve permits from companies for drilling to occur, but the move lifts a more than five-year-old moratorium on leasing of federal lands across California’s Central Coast and Bay Area. Interior’s Bureau of Land Management has not held a lease sale in California since 2013.
Environmental groups protested the decision to allow drilling in Fresno, Monterey, San Benito, and other counties, and vowed to challenge it.
“This reckless move is the toxic convergence of Trump’s climate denial, loyalty to the oil industry and grudge against California,” said Clare Lakewood, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.
MORE REPUBLICANS BALK AT EPA METHANE ROLLBACK: Maine Senator Susan Collins and Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz are the latest to speak out against the Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to eliminate direct regulation of methane from the oil and gas sector. The two Republican lawmakers joined their Democratic colleagues — Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy and California Congressman Scott Peters — on a letter Friday urging the EPA to reverse course.
Methane, the main component of natural gas, warms the atmosphere around two dozen times faster than carbon dioxide, according to EPA scientists. The EPA proposed in August to remove direct regulation of methane from new oil and gas drilling operations. But the move split the oil and gas industry — as major producers like BP and Shell called on the EPA to continue regulating methane.
In their letter, the bipartisan lawmakers say they’re skeptical EPA’s removal of methane regulation would lead to significant cost savings. And they question whether the EPA’s plan is within the bounds of the Clean Air Act.
Republican congressmen Francis Rooney of Florida and Garret Graves of Louisiana have also publicly opposed the EPA’s methane move.
TRUMP FINALLY TAPS NOMINEE FOR EPA WATCHDOG: And that nominee doesn’t appear to be controversial. The White House announced Friday it is nominating Sean O’Donnell to lead the EPA’s Office of Inspector General, tasked with investigating any fraud, misconduct, or inefficiency within the agency.
O’Donnell is a career civil servant. Most recently, he’s been serving at the Department of Justice as a trial attorney in its criminal division. In that position, he’s worked with several inspector general offices, according to the White House.
The EPA’s inspector general post has been vacant for a year. The EPA’s prior inspector general, Arthur Elkins, retired in October 2018 after eight years on the job — and a tumultuous, busy final year probing former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s ethical controversies. Deputy Inspector General Charles Sheehan has been filling in as acting head since then.
DISCUSSIONS FLOWING ON WOTUS: EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is in North Dakota today as part of a victory lap on the agency’s repeal of the Obama administration’s clean water rule. The EPA formally repealed the Obama-era rule — known as Waters of the United States, or WOTUS — in September.
The repeal is a major win for Republican lawmakers, particularly those in states with a lot of energy development or agriculture. North Dakota Senators Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven are joining Wheeler at the roundtable discussion.
Next up: The EPA must finish its replacement of WOTUS, which defined what bodies of water are covered under federal protections. Environmental groups and Democratic-led states have already blasted the EPA’s proposal, which would sharply reduce the number of water bodies covered. Wheeler said in September the EPA hopes to finish its replacement rule this winter.
The Rundown
Wall Street Journal Coal baron Robert Murray’s companies edge closer to the brink
New York Times New York City wants to put a climate change ‘laboratory’ on Governors Island
Los Angeles Times California is feuding with this SoCal city over ‘planned retreat’ from sea level rise
New York Times: Oil companies ponder climate change, but profits still rule
Bloomberg: Volvo and Geely to merge engine units in electric car push
Calendar
MONDAY | OCTOBER 7
House and Senate are out
