Daily on Energy: Industry rolls out Clean Energy Week

Trump Cabinet heads: Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will address a Capitol Hill gathering Tuesday to open up the week on the administration and congressional side at an all-day event.

GOP carbon tax backers: South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who came out last week in support of a carbon tax, is scheduled to attend the Capitol Hill event Tuesday. Graham said last week at a Yale University climate change conference that he supports placing a tax on greenhouse gas emissions to address global warming and is working on legislation with Democrats, as well as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.  

Tech buy-in: Google will hold an invitation-only gathering at its Washington offices Monday. The technology sector has made cleaner energy targets a greater part of its goals to power its ever-growing fleet of data centers — the acres and acres of computer servers that fuel the digital economy.

Clean energy polls: GOP and independent voters in states that will be key to the 2018 congressional midterm election “show strong support for Republican candidates who take action on clean energy,” according to a poll released Monday by the conservative clean energy advocacy group ClearPath.

Poll gains: In the eight states surveyed, “Republicans gained a 25 percent swing on average over the generic ballot after focused messaging on clean energy.” And 77 percent of those who voted for President Trump said they support speeding up the development of clean energy, with 39 percent strongly supporting the effort, according to the poll. Among independents, nearly 90 percent said they support accelerating clean energy, with 60 percent showing strong support.

The poll surveyed 3,200 voters in the eight states from June 1-8, with a margin of error of +/- 1.73 percent.

Norquist’s fight: “A carbon tax is a long-term goal of the big government Left,” he told the Washington Examiner. “The Left will do whatever it takes to achieve this goal. The use of marketing slogans/consultant-speak terms like ‘carbon pricing’ and ‘dividend’ and ‘revenue neutrality’ is just one tactic.”

Right to Left: Conservative groups supporting a carbon tax, such as the Niskanen Center and the R Street Institute, say they are “no liberals.”

“There is a disagreement on the right on this issue,” said Jerry Taylor, president of the libertarian Niskanen Center. “And it’s an honest disagreement. But I don’t think it’s very accurate to say that conservatives and libertarians are on one space on climate issues and anyone not in that space no longer has ideological ID rights.”

Suspicion from greens: Environmentalists said the action looks good on paper, but that may be as far as it goes when it comes to curbing the effects of climate change by the oil company.

“On paper, it’s good that Exxon has announced they’re going to cut methane pollution from some of their oil and gas operations. In reality, the promise of this oil and gas company, without verification supported by the threat of government sanction for breaking that promise, is highly suspect,” the group Earthworks said.

If you missed it…The International Trade Commission unanimously ruled Friday that the solar industry is being hurt by cheap solar panel imports, setting the stage for Trump to issue tariffs or another trade remedy.

Slowdown for solar: Moody’s predicts tariffs would harm the solar industry, which is creating one out of 50 new jobs in the U.S. economy.

“The U.S. International Trade Commission’s ruling that an influx of low-cost foreign solar panels caused injury to the domestic panel manufacturing industry will have negative consequences on the U.S. solar industry as a whole,” said Lesley Ritter, an assistant vice president at Moody’s.

Climate change impact: The financial company also forecasts that tariffs may slow efforts to reduce emissions. “Tariffs or import quotas would have a negative impact on the economics of solar generation, and could dampen the pace of decarbonization,” Ritter said.

The solar market: Solar is a renewable energy source that produces no greenhouse gas emissions. Solar power still makes up only 1 percent f electricity generation in the U.S. But solar costs have fallen by about 70 percent since 2010.

What now: By Nov. 13, the ITC will recommend specific trade restrictions for the Trump administration to impose. Briefs with the ITC are due this week and a public hearing is scheduled for Oct. 3. The Trump administration will have two months from when the ITC issues its recommendations to act on them.

EPA gains a foothold: The agency issued orders and conducted oversight to help restore power in the U.S. territories.

In Puerto Rico, it issued a waiver allowing the use of portable power generators on the island, even if the generators were not registered for use in the United States.

Generation: Companies are moving generators onto the island, but many of the models have not been certified for use in the U.S. or its territories under the Clean Air Act.

Clean water: EPA also took action to make sure the U.S. Virgin Islands had access to safe drinking water, authorizing the Defense Department and the Federal Emergency Management Administration to construct temporary water treatment facilities.

What the AP found: The agency has begun recovering waste from the sites, according to reports Monday. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt had said he was looking at the possibility of moving stored dioxin from some Superfund sites that had been submerged during Hurricane Harvey last month. But no decision had been made.

AP teased the details out of a FEMA report released Friday night on the government’s response efforts. AP had done its own survey of the Superfund sites around Houston in a report that stoked EPA’s ire for suggesting the administration was not monitoring the sites. Pruitt has since taken tours of the sites, with EPA divers surveying possible damage to waste dumps.

Not reporting: EPA, however, is not disclosing the specifics of what toxic waste it has recovered from the sites. The EPA said it has recovered 517 containers of “unidentified, potentially hazardous material” from contaminated toxic waste sites in Texas.

The agency also has not disclosed any details about which Superfund sites the toxic waste came from, why the contaminants have not been identified, or whether there is an imminent health threat.

Trump administration acts after hurricanes: The Trump administration this month extended a temporary waiver to the Jones Act in response to fuel shortages caused by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, to allow foreign-flagged vessels to meet demand. While previous administrations have waived the Jones Act before after emergencies, opponents to the law say now is the time to revisit it.

McCain leads effort: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., introduced legislation in July to repeal the Jones Act, and his office told the Washington Examiner he intends to push for a vote in the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. “Sen. McCain will never give up his long fight to repeal the archaic Jones Act and promote free trade to the benefit of the American economy, worker, and consumer,” said Julie Tarallo, McCain’s communications director.

Slow down: But Frederick Hill, a spokesman for the committee, said he has “no announcements to share” on the bill, meaning it’s unlikely to vote on it anytime soon. The Jones Act enjoys strong support in Congress, especially among representative of states with ports and strong shipping industries.