Daily on Energy: France’s Total skips Shell, BP carbon tax rally

Pouyanne has been in Washington over the last few days, making public remarks about how a carbon tax will give Total an edge in displacing coal in favor of natural gas. The company is advocating for a tax-and-dividend approach supported by the Republican-led Climate Leadership Council.

BP and Shell joined a coalition of nearly 100 companies lobbying on Capitol Hill Tuesday and Wednesday to demonstrate their support for a carbon tax. On Monday, the companies each gave $1 million to the advocacy arm of the Climate Leadership Council that Total helped found.

The tax-and-dividend plan that the oil company backs would first place a per-ton fee on company emissions. After the tax is collected, it is then redistributed back to taxpayers.

“This idea has a very broad support amongst the community of U.S. economists,” said Pierre Germain, who serves as vice president of Total’s Washington office.

“Total strongly believes that a Carbon Pricing is an efficient financial tool that provides the incentive for a large scale transition to a low carbon economy,” he added.

The meetings on the Hill this week will focus on a more generic carbon tax, and not a carbon dividend, or any specific scheme.

“Generic talks are probably a good first step,” Germain added. Total supports “all initiatives” that emphasize placing a price on carbon.

Pouyanne said last week that a carbon tax would help Total transition to become primarily a natural gas company over the next two decades, where oil sales become secondary to displacing coal with cleaner gas-fired power plants.

The CEO alluded to the fact that trade concerns and other areas of U.S. policy could dominate his time in Washington. Company officials say that timing constraints were the only reason for his not participating in the carbon tax talks.

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BIPARTISAN NUCLEAR ENERGY COALITION LAUNCHES: A new bipartisan coalition on nuclear energy is set to be launched Tuesday to promote nuclear power as a matter of national security.

The Nuclear Energy and National Security Coalition will bring together more than 100 national security and regulatory leaders — both Republicans and Democrats — from several past administrations, who see nuclear energy as essential to the nation’s national security.

The coalition was created in response to growing hurdles for the U.S. to compete globally in this arena, says industry sources. The coalition believes the U.S. must overcome challenges at home or risk ceding leadership on nuclear power to China and Russia.

The announcement will coincide with the release of a new report at the nonpartisan Atlantic Council think tank in Washington. The report was chaired by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho.

The report concludes that the U.S. market must reward the carbon-free nature of nuclear power, while creating new inroads for more advanced reactors and next-generation technologies.

DEMOCRATS CRITICIZE EPA FOR DECLINING TO TESTIFY ABOUT WEAKENING OF COAL PLANT POLLUTION RULES: House Democrats criticized the Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday for declining a request to testify on a controversial proposal to re-evaluate Obama-era regulations meant to reduce the amount of air pollution emitted by coal power plants.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations panel hosted a hearing on EPA’s proposal Tuesday morning, with Democrats arguing revisiting the Obama administration’s 2011 mercury and air toxics rule, or MATS, would harm public health. Mercury is a toxic metal emitted by coal plants that has been linked to brain damage in children.

Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Col., the chairwoman of the oversight panel, said EPA refused to send a witness to defend the proposed changes to the rule.

“The EPA is supposed to be working for the American people,” DeGette said ahead of the hearing. “If it’s going to ignore how a new rule would benefit public health going forward, then our committee — which is charged with overseeing the EPA — has serious questions as to whether it would still be acting in the public’s best interest.”

Michael Abboud, an EPA spokesman, told Josh the panel did ask the agency to testify but received notice two weeks from the date of the hearing. EPA’s potential witness had scheduling conflicts and could not attend the hearing, Abboud said. He said EPA has offered to brief the committee on the proposed rule changes at a future date.

What EPA is really trying to do: The Trump EPA is not seeking to roll back the mercury rules themselves, since utilities have already complied with the regulations by either spending billions to upgrade their coal plants or shutting them down.

Rather, EPA is trying to reverse the cost-benefit analysis used to justify the regulation, proposing to only count the direct health benefits of reducing mercury pollution, not the other “co-benefits” resulting from the rule also limiting other pollutants.

Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, defended the Trump administration’s approach Tuesday, arguing the Clean Air Act does not say whether or how the EPA should consider co-benefits in rulemaking.

“If Congress remains silent then I strongly suspect that this issue will ultimately be determined by the Supreme Court,” he said.

But critics say altering the cost-benefit analysis that provided the legal justification for the mercury rule could make it more difficult for the government to rationalize environmental regulations in other cases.

INTERIOR NOMINEES MAKE THEIR WAY TO SENATE FLOOR: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee cleared the way on Tuesday for two of Trump’s Interior Department nominees to be voted on the floor.

Trump’s pick for Interior Department Solicitor Daniel Jorjani was approved by the committee in a slim 11-9 vote along party lines.

Jorjani faces intense opposition from the Democratic Party, with Sen. Joe Manchin, the top Democrat on the committee, expressing concerns about Jorjani’s record of going against congressional intent in his interpretation of the law.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called his confirmation a “category 5 ethical hurricane.”

Interior Department Inspector General nominee Mark Lee Greenblatt was advanced by a unanimous voice vote, with both Democrats and Republicans expressing favor in him to do the job honorably.

SENATORS SEEK PROGRESS ON RENEWABLE INNOVATION, ENERGY EFFICIENCY: Senators on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee touted gains in renewables and efficiency on Tuesday, but said more federal investments and policies are needed to help reach decarbonization goals.

“We have seen the costs of wind and solar decline significantly,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, the committee’s chairwoman who led a hearing on the subject, noting renewables are cost competitive “without subsidies.”

But, she said, “we have plenty of areas we can continue to improve.”

Manchin emphasized the importance of energy efficiency, which he called the “low hanging fruit” of policy to combat climate change.

He cited a determination from the International Energy Agency last year that energy efficiency policies alone could potentially achieve more than 40% of the emissions cuts needed to reach global targets. Forty percent of the nation’s energy is consumed in buildings.

“We have an extraordinary opportunity to lead with our federal buildings,” Murkowski said. “We are lousy in this category.”

Questions about DOE’s priorities: The call from senators for boosting renewables and efficiency come as the Trump administration has proposed an 86% cut for fiscal 2020 in the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Daniel Simmons, the DOE official who leads that office, defended the agency’s work on renewables and efficiency in testimony to the committee Tuesday, touting its research and development into technologies such as solar, wind, batteries, LED lights, and efficiency improvements.

Simmons said the department hopes to accelerate early-stage R&D for energy storage technologies, to improve energy security, reliability, and grid resilience.

Energy storage can both help make renewable energy more reliable, while also helping to stabilize the grid during a disruption.

BIPARTISAN SENATORS PRESSURE TREASURY TO IMPLEMENT CARBON CAPTURE TAX CREDIT: A bipartisan group of senators pushed the Treasury Department on Monday to move faster to implement an expanded tax credit for carbon capture projects signed into law more than a year ago.

Sens. Whitehouse, John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., spearheaded a letter to Treasury requesting the agency commit additional staff to the development of a final rule to implement the 45Q tax credits. The senators, who were the lead sponsors of the bill expanding the tax credits, also urged Treasury to issue an interim rule to allow carbon capture projects to use the tax break immediately.

“Implementation of this legislation is critical for establishing a domestic market for carbon to reduce emissions, create and preserve jobs, and drive further commercial deployment of carbon capture projects,” the senators wrote in the letter.

Project developers have been unable to claim the credit without an implementing rule from Treasury.

VENEZUELA’S OIL PRODUCTION FALLS TO LOWEST LEVEL SINCE 2003, EIA SAYS: Venezuela’s production of crude oil fell last month to its lowest level since 2003, the Energy Information Administration said Monday.

Production averaged 830,000 barrels per day in April, compared to 1.2 million barrels per day at the beginning of the year.

EIA blames the declines on widespread power outages, government mismanagement of the oil industry, and U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s state-run oil company, PdVSA.

The decline in Venezuelan oil production will have limited impact on the U.S., EIA said. U.S. imports of Venezuela’s oil have decreased over the last several years, averaging 505,000 barrels per day in 2018, the lowest since 1989.

The Rundown

New York Times EPA plans to get thousands of deaths off the books by changing its math

Reuters Sanctions bill on Nord Stream 2 coming soon, Rick Perry says

Financial Times BP shareholders vote in favor of greater climate disclosure

Greentech Media Xcel Energy fast-forwards Minnesota coal plant closures but extends nuclear window

Bloomberg Oil giant Chevron offering EV charging at gas stations

Calendar

TUESDAY | May 21

2 p.m., 1324 Longworth. The House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife holds an oversight hearing on “Examining the President’s Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Proposal for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”

WEDNESDAY | May 22

10 a.m., 1324 Longworth. The House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife holds an oversight hearing entitled “Responding to the Global Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.”

10 a.m., 2123 Rayburn. The House Energy and Commerce Committee holds a hearing on “LIFT America” infrastructure and climate legislation.