Daily on Energy: Trade panel sets stage for solar tariffs

What it means: The vote by the commission does not dictate any action. Rather, the commission will have until November to recommend specific actions to the Trump administration, which would then have two months to issue a potential remedy such as tariffs.

The stakes: Trump’s deliberation comes as the solar industry is booming, providing momentum for the transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.

Industry split: The solar industry lined up against two struggling U.S. companies, Suniva and SolarWorld, who filed a petition in April for the ITC to act. The Solar Energy Industries Association, the main trade group representing the industry, estimates 88,000 U.S jobs could be lost from a tariff, representing one-third of the $19 billion industry’s workforce.

Holding ‘hostage’: “This petition is an attempt to hold an industry, and franky the future of the planet, hostage to try to help out one or two companies,” Ed Fenster, chairman of San Francisco-based Sunrun, which installs solar panels on homeowners’ roofs, told the Washington Examiner.

Test of ‘America first’: But Tim Brightbill, a lawyer representing SolarWorld, urged the Trump administration to impose tariffs, arguing such a move fits squarely into the administration’s agenda.

Survival instinct: “If this administration is looking for ways to address trade issues constructively, solar is an industry that needs support in order to make sure it stays in existence,” Brightbill told the Washington Examiner.

Trump wants climate goals: “This was a forward-looking meeting on strategy and how to prioritize the administration’s climate goals and objectives moving forward,” a White House spokesman told the Washington Examiner.

Who was there? The meeting was held between the White House and officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Energy Department, State Department and the Department of Interior.

Big picture: “This particular meeting was more big picture strategy,” the spokesman said. The purpose was to bring together “a whole group of stakeholders … that are involved in climate issues and looking ahead to what policy initiatives we may put in place.”

Many more meetings: This was the “first meeting of many that will be happening over the course of the year,” the person added.

The meeting follows an intense amount of criticism leveled against the president from environmental groups, states, celebrities, former Obama administration officials, industry moguls and others criticizing Trump’s decision to exit the Paris climate change deal.

Climate critics: That criticism has intensified over the administration’s refusal to discuss the effects of global warming amid a string of strong hurricanes that have battered the Gulf Coast and Florida.

Many climate scientists blame the burning of fossil fuels for increasing the temperature of the Earth with potentially catastrophic effects such as more severe weather.

Although scientists do not blame global warming for creating the storms, they do say that a hotter planet results in stronger storms with record amounts of rainfall and more devastating winds.

Clean slate: “This is like wiping the slate clean for Puerto Rico, which is good because all these problems the island faces are so intractable,” said Cate Long, founder of the Puerto Rico Clearinghouse, an independent research firm focused on the island’s massive debts. “It’s almost like the wind came in and blew the nonsense away.”

Deep problems: The government-owned Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) filed for bankruptcy in July, and the country’s power plants are 44 years old on average. Puerto Rico derives most of its power from Venezuelan crude oil, and PREPA relied on selling bonds to pay for the imported oil it burned at its aging power plants. Sensitive to price shocks in the oil market, PREPA charges the island’s residents high rates, more than any U.S. state but Hawaii.

No surprise: “They were vulnerable,” said Tom Sanzillo, the director of finance at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “So the surprise to me is the electricity is on at all in Puerto Rico, with the storm or no storm. It is that serious and has been that serious.”

Change wanted: Some stakeholders will likely demand reforms to rebuild Puerto Rico’s infrastructure, such as moving the island toward using fracked natural gas from the U.S. as well as renewable energy sources, particularly solar.

RICK PERRY SENDS MONEY FOR CARBON CAPTURE: Energy Secretary Rick Perry issued $36 million Friday to advance carbon capture technologies at coal and other plants.

The ruling: The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the case based on the Trump administration’s move to repeal the Bureau of Land Management regulation.

There’s a caveat: The court also vacated a lower court’s decision that the federal government overstepped its authority by attempting to regulate fracking on public lands.

Environmentalist said that means the Obama-era fracking rule is back in effect after being called overreaching by the lower Wyoming district court.

Wishful thinking: “The 10th Circuit vacated the lower court’s ruling, which means the rule will now take effect. These are long-overdue protections for our public lands, water and public health,” said Michael Freeman, staff attorney for Earthjustice who represented environmentalists in the district court appeal.

But at the same time, the appeals court dismissed their appeal on the merits because the Trump administration began repealing the fracking rule in July.

So, who wins here? Oil groups saw it as a victory. “We’re pleased that after today, … [we] are even closer to finally putting BLM’s ill-conceived fracking rule to bed,” said Kathleen Sgamma, president of the industry-backed Western Energy Alliance.

No new announcements: The cuts could continue beyond March, but sources said the ministers won’t make any announcement on a new plan on Friday.

Living in a state of oversupply: The market has been in a state of oversupply, which has cut most OPEC members’ budgets in half, forcing Saudi Arabia to consider major reforms to diversify its economy.

There’s more where this came from: “By advancing the administration’s offshore energy goals, we will be able to generate more revenue for the [land conservation] fund to improve conservation and recreation opportunities for generations to come,” Zinke said.

The fund: The funding came from the Land and Water Conservation Fund state grant program, which Zinke called “a resounding success” in making “physical investments in our communities.” The program benefits communities by assisting state and local governments in making infrastructure investments in urban, suburban and rural parks.

Everybody wins: All 50 states, territories and the District of Columbia received grant money from the fund Thursday.

California the big winner: The biggest recipient is California with just over $8 million. The second largest recipient is Texas with $5.3 million, with hurricane-ravaged Florida coming in third at just over $4 million. Other big recipients included Pennsylvania and Ohio, which received $2.9 and $2.8 million, respectively.

The blessing: The government deferred from adding the sage grouse to the endangered species list and the development restrictions that come with the listing.

The curse: The elaborate land habitat system the feds put in place in lieu of the striction species designation.

Schedule conflicts: The hearing, called “Empowering State Based Management Solutions for Greater Sage Grouse Recovery,” was scheduled for Wednesday but has been canceled until further notice. Committee spokeswoman Molly Block said the cancelation was due to “scheduling conflicts.”

Immediate challenge: “We are prepared to challenge immediately whatever official action is taken to modify the monument or restructure any aspect of that, such as the Bears Ears Commission,” Ethel Branch, the attorney general of the Navajo Nation told Reuters Thursday.

How we got here: Bears Ears is perhaps the most contentious of 27 monuments reviewed by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who issued a report to Trump last month with recommendations on rolling back some of them.

News reports have said Zinke may call for Trump reduce Bears Ears’ 1.35 million acres by up to 88 percent.

The Navajo Nation has led a coalition of tribal leaders who supported the monument designation, issued by former President Barack Obama just before he left office.

What it means: Trump is undoubtedly going to face legal challenges if he acts on Zinke’s recommendations, so this isn’t surprising.

Trump and Zinke say previous presidents have violated the century-old Antiquities Act, which provides unilateral executive authority to name monuments.

Some presidents have reduced the size of monuments, but only on a limited scale. The concept has never been tested in court, but that is likely to change now.

Not politically charged, yet: “I think the NERC standards that were moved out are generally non-controversial in a political sense and didn’t need to wait for a full five-person commission to act on,” John Hughes, the president and CEO of the Electricity Consumers Resource Council, told the Washington Examiner.

Hughes represents big manufacturers that consume huge amounts of electricity on FERC regulations, and has been involved in the industry for decades.

Risk averse: “FERC is just as, if not more, risk averse than NERC, so acting fast and getting those orders out quickly is imperative and placates the alarmists on the Hill and in the White House.”

A lot of changes: “I might add that some parties in the industry and in government are acting like the sky is about to fall because of all the changes taking place in the electric industry,” Hughes said. “Some — like the coal and nuclear industries — are hoping the sky will fall and wind and solar get blamed.”

Buzzword: “NERC has not panicked and seems to be responding prudently. The new buzz word ‘resilience’ is the tail that is wagging the regulatory dog,” he said, referring to the Energy Department’s push to get FERC to look at creating market incentives for coal and nuclear plants that reward resilience.