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‘TOTALLY AWOL’: JAY INSLEE SAYS RICK PERRY’S ‘FREEDOM GAS’ DOOMS THE NATION: Democratic presidential hopeful Jay Inslee is in a sparring match with Energy Secretary Rick Perry over the administration’s latest campaign to label natural gas exports “freedom gas.”
“What we need is freedom from carbon pollution, freedom from the climate crisis, and freedom from Donald Trump, not some rebranded Orwellian attempt to call gas, which is so dangerous to our country, and associate it with the word ‘freedom,’” Inslee told John in an interview from Iowa.
The Washington governor was responding to Perry calling him “hypocritical” in yesterday’s Daily on Energy for undermining the potential for natural gas to be an environmental solution, and blasting Inslee’s home state of Washington for blocking a natural gas export terminal near Puget Sound.
“If he spent one-tenth of the time attacking climate change, instead of attacking me, the nation might have a chance against the climate crisis,” Inslee added. “But he and the entire administration have gone totally AWOL on the national obligation to protect the American people.”
Inslee added that natural gas is a “fatal diagnosis” for how to face down the threat of global warming.
“The Trump-Perry plan is to doom us to economic damages probably twice what the last recession did,” he said, citing the conclusions of last November’s federal climate assessment.
The White House is now in the process of vetting a special committee of climate skeptics meant to refute the findings of similar federal studies in the future.
Inslee says the White House panel is like trying to refute 10,000 doctors who are all telling the president that smoking causes lung cancer.
Trump’s alternative to what the oncologists are telling him is to hire tobacco industry experts to come up with a skeptical opinion.
“Donald Trump can try, but he can’t repeal the law of gravity, he can’t repeal the law of thermal dynamics, and the laws of physics and chemistry,” Inslee said. “I don’t care how many panels he has.”
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Meanwhile, the hopefuls start lining up their climate plans …
WARREN SAYS THE ‘GREEN NEW DEAL’ NEEDS A $2T BOOST: Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren floated a $2 trillion climate innovation plan Tuesday, parts of which sound a lot like Republican talking points.
The Massachusetts senator said the ambitious targets of the progressive Green New Deal won’t be reached without a concerted effort that focuses on energy innovation, green research, manufacturing, and exports “linking American innovation directly to American jobs.”
The plan sounds a lot like some of the plans coming from more conservative quarters — including the Trump administration — that innovation, not regulation, should be the way to address climate change.
Warren said the “Green New Deal” won’t work without a concerted effort — similar to the Apollo project of the 1960s — to push technology ahead faster in order to meet the plan’s ambitious targets.
Get all the details in John’s story here.
BIDEN RELEASES $5T CLIMATE CHANGE PLAN THAT GOES ‘WELL BEYOND’ OBAMA: Joe Biden released a $5 trillion “clean energy revolution” plan Tuesday to combat climate change, which he said is the greatest challenge facing the U.S. and world.
Biden responded aggressively to critics and rival Democratic candidates who predicted he’d be too moderate on climate change, given his pro-union background, with a proposal that he says goes “well beyond” the agenda he undertook in the Obama administration.
The big agenda items: He vowed to re-enter the Paris Climate Accord that the Obama administration negotiated, and President Trump rejected, on the first day of his presidency, and to commit the U.S. to an even more ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction goal.
Biden nods to the “Green New Deal” with his plan, calling it a “crucial framework” that demonstrates the “environment and our economy are completely and totally connected.”
He would spend $1.7 trillion in federal money over 10 years on clean energy, leveraging additional private sector and state and local investments to total to more than $5 trillion in funding.
His underlying goal is to have the U.S. obtain 100% of its energy from clean sources, and achieve net-zero emissions, no later than 2050 — a target timeline consistent with goals targeted by the United Nations as necessary to avoid the worst harms of climate change. Biden wants Congress to pass legislation within his first year to enforce a 100% clean energy mandate.
Josh has all of the details here.
REPUBLICANS RESIST PUSH FOR CLEAN ELECTRICITY MANDATE: Biden’s call for Congress to pass a clean energy mandate will confront a political reality check on Capitol Hill, as Republicans are resisting entreaties from Democrats to support a federal clean electricity standard.
Supporters view so-called clean electricity standards as more likely to attract bipartisan support than carbon taxes, which the GOP also resists, because the resulting higher energy costs would not be as obvious to people.
But Republicans aren’t biting, expressing little desire to expand the federal government’s role beyond their preferred formula of funding clean energy research and development.
“If we have the greatest [emissions] reductions in the world and are doing it under our current strategy that is working, why do the feds need to come in and have Big Brother telling the states what they can and can’t do?” Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana, the top Republican of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, told Josh.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, offered a similar argument. “I would rather not be in the place where it’s a forcing mechanism and a mandate,” she told Josh. “We have made considerable headway without a mandate.”
Read more of Josh’s report in this week’s Washington Examiner magazine.
MURKOWSKI SEES ‘STARS STARTING TO ALIGN’ ON NUCLEAR POWER: Murkowski projected optimism about the future of nuclear energy during a keynote address Tuesday morning at the Nuclear Energy Institute’s annual industry conference.
“As the country that brought the world nuclear energy we must remain competitive and lead,” Murkwowski said. “The stars out there are starting to align. We are seeing new momentum for nuclear energy as the world realizes they need not just more energy, but cleaner energy.”
Nuclear power is the U.S.’ largest zero-emission energy source, but old plants are closing due to competition from natural gas and renewables.
But Murkowski said she’s “inspired” to see an emerging bipartisan consensus in Congress that the U.S. must invest in small modular reactors.
“The implications of losing our status as a world leader in nuclear has far reaching effects for our economic and national security,” Murkowski said, warning about China and Russia’s growing market share in nuclear energy.
SENATORS, UTILITIES, GRID OPERATORS BULLISH ON ENERGY STORAGE: A leading utility plus the nation’s largest grid operator agreed with senators Tuesday morning that energy storage technology is key to cleaning the electricity sector and making it more flexible.
“Storage does create a tremendous opportunity to use alternative technology to displace traditional resources and clean up the grid,” said Andrew Ott, the CEO of grid operator PJM, in testimony before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Ott said PJM has more batteries installed on its system than any other electricity market.
Ben Fowke, CEO of utility Xcel Energy, agreed that storage will play an “important role” in helping the company achieve its goal to generate 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050.
But Fowe and Ott cautioned that storage cannot solve wind and solar’s variability problem. A fully renewable grid requires development of long-duration energy storage that can carry large amounts of excess energy for months at a time, but such technologies are expensive and not widespread.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, recently introduced a bipartisan bill directing the Energy Department to establish a research, development, and demonstration program for grid-scale energy storage.
“It’s clear we recognize the benefits storage can bring,” Murkowski said. “There is no silver bullet out there. But this is clearly a component piece that gives us some room to run here.”
ANDREW WHEELER INSISTS EPA TAKES ‘CLIMATE CHANGE SERIOUSLY’ AS HE FINALIZES NEW RULES: EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler asserted Monday that his agency takes “climate change seriously” and fought critics who say he is disregarding the issue with “environmental rollbacks.”
“We are addressing climate change,” Wheeler said during an address and question and answer session at the National Press Club. “We take climate change seriously and we are implementing the laws that Congress has given us.”
Wheeler reiterated his assertion that EPA is meeting its legal mandate to address greenhouse gas emissions by finalizing weaker replacement rules to the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan that limited carbon pollution from power plants and its fuel-efficiency standards designed to combat transportation emissions. He confirmed EPA expects to release its “ACE” rule for power plant emissions and “SAFE Vehicles” fuel-efficiency rule this month.
KIDS FACE KEY HEARING IN CLIMATE LAWSUIT AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT: The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments Tuesday in Portland, Oregon to determine whether a landmark climate change lawsuit filed by children should go to trial.
The suit, Juliana v. United States, involves 21 children who aim to force the federal government to take action against climate change, alleging that inaction from government policymakers has worsened the problem, robbing future generations of their constitutional right to a healthy environment.
The Trump administration has tried repeatedly — and unsuccessfully — to have the courts dismiss the suit filed in 2015.
Asked about the court hearing on Monday, EPA’s Wheeler said he doubts the kids have standing to sue over a complex issue like climate change.
“It’s a very interesting lawsuit,” Wheeler said. “I don’t think it is going much further, as far as standing.”
But, he noted, “there’s a lot of free-thinking judges out there that like to give standing to new groups all the time, so I’m not going to pre-judge where that case may end up.”
You can watch the hearing live here at 5 p.m. ET.
PROPANE GAS INDUSTRY PLANS FLY-IN DAY ON CAPITOL HILL: The National Propane Gas Association is conducting its annual fly-in beginning Tuesday on Capitol Hill.
Kevin Boland, a spokesman for the group, says it plans to meet with 260 offices across the House and Senate, including those of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oreg., plus House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La.
The association, which boasts that 7 to 8 million American homes are heated with propane gas, aims to discuss topics with members including Alternative Fuel Tax Credits, the DRIVE-Safe Act, the Clean Corridors Act, and reforming the Jones Act.
CARBON CAPTURE COALITION SEEKS CONGRESS’ HELP TO PRESSURE TREASURY ON TAX CREDIT: A coalition of environmental groups, businesses, and unions pushed lawmakers Tuesday to request the Treasury Department move faster on implementing an expanded tax credit for carbon capture projects signed into law more than a year ago.
The Carbon Capture Coalition wants leaders of the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee to request that Treasury commit additional staff to the development of a final rule to implement the 45Q tax credits.
Project developers have been unable to claim the credit without an implementing rule from Treasury, the coalition says, meaning “hundreds of millions and perhaps billions of dollars in private capital remain on the sidelines.”
“Given delays to date, it could be another year until the necessary guidelines are in place for commercial projects that are critical to the future of carbon capture technology innovation and deployment in multiple industries,” the coalition said in letters to Grassley and Wyden, and Reps. Richard Neal, D-Mass., and Kevin Brady, R-Texas.
The Rundown
Politico Trump administration seeks criminal crackdown on pipeline protests
Wall Street Journal Fast food embraces meatless burgers, but there aren’t enough to go around
New York Times Companies see climate change hitting their bottom lines in the next 5 years
Calendar
TUESDAY | June 4
9 a.m., Omni Shoreham Hotel. The Nuclear Energy Institute holds the Nuclear Energy Assembly in Washington through June 5.
WEDNESDAY | June 5
10 a.m., 366 Dirksen. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing to consider the nomination of Robert Wallace to be Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks at the Department of the Interior.
MONDAY | June 10
9 a.m., Philadelphia. The Edison Electric Institute, representing the investor-owned utility industry, holds its 2019 annual convention in Philadelphia, June 10-11.
TUESDAY | June 11
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee holds a hearing with former EPA administrators Lee Thomas, William Reilly, Christine Todd Whitman, and Gina McCarthy testifying.
