Daily on Energy: Confusion reigns over Trump leaving the climate deal

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PARIS CLIMATE DEAL: WILL HE OR WON’T HE WITHDRAW? Energy news this weekend was dominated by questions over whether President Trump would fulfill his pledge to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement.

The news began to trickle out Saturday with the Wall Street Journal citing a European Union official who said Trump would meet with E.U. officials to discuss the terms of the deal, implying the U.S. was considering remaining a party to the accord.

That forced H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, to come out with a statement slamming any suggestion of Trump not pulling out of the climate deal as a “false report.”

Later Saturday, the newspaper reported that the United States would try to review the terms of remaining engaged in the deal without being a party to it, a senior EU official said.

“The U.S. has stated that they will not renegotiate the Paris accord, but they will try to review the terms on which they could be engaged under this agreement,” European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete said.

That would mean exiting the deal while still having influence over the parties’ decisions on issues such as clean coal technology and natural gas exports, which the administration has said are a priority.

Trump willing to work on deal: “We are willing to work with partners in the Paris climate accord, if we can construct a set of terms that we believe is fair and balanced from the American people and recognizes our economy and our economic interest,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told Face the Nation Sunday. That was merely restating the position Trump has taken since June 1, when he announced his decision to exit the agreement.

The president said he is open to renegotiating the terms of the agreement, but that not reaching a new deal would not be game changer for him. He would simply stay the course of withdrawing from the pact.

The right conditions: “The president said he’s open to finding those conditions where we can remain engaged with others in what we all agree is a challenging issue,” Tillerson said.

Doesn’t mean what they think: Tillerson’s statement does not mean what reports suggest it means. It means they want a foothold because the deal eventually will affect energy commodities and trade. It will take three years for the U.S. to exit from the deal under the U.N.’s rules. So, to some degree, it has to live with the previous administration’s decisions until the next presidential election.

Tillerson’s past position: Tillerson had been against the U.S. leaving the deal. So his statements seem to gravitate toward keeping some semblance of the deal intact even as the country moves toward withdrawal.

MORE ENERGY, LESS CLIMATE: Trump’s senior economic adviser, Gary Cohn, is meeting with officials from the European Union this morning in New York to talk about the administration’s position on energy and climate change.

This weekend we may have gotten a glimpse of those talks, which are meant to be informal. But a lobbyist who met with senior White House energy advisers Friday to discuss the Cohn meeting suggested something different.

The administration is emphasizing that the talks would not be dominated by climate change, but rather by energy policy, the lobbyist, who shares close ties with Trump’s energy advisers, told the Washington Examiner.

More coal, less Paris: U.S. energy policy likely would support U.S. natural gas exports, clean coal technology and coal exports.

United Nations: The meeting comes ahead of the weeklong U.N. General Assembly in New York. Environmentalist and proponents of the Paris Agreement will be holding an event called Climate Week to emphasize private-sector and local and state government support for the agreement, despite Trump’s June 1 decision to exit.

PRUITT’S PLAN FOR CLEAN POWER: Meanwhile, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency is redoing Obama-era climate change rules for power plants.

EPA chief Scott Pruitt told the Washington Examiner his staff is reviewing the legality of President Obama’s Clean Power Plan to understand where the EPA’s responsibility lies if it chooses to redo the rule.

“What we are doing right now with the Clean Power Plan is determining what is our authority to fill the space beyond the withdrawal of the Clean Power Plan,” Pruitt said, implying that the agency could draw up a Trump administration version of the plan.

The Clean Power Plan was one of the main ways the former President Barack Obama planned to meet its obligations under the Paris agreement.

Pruitt wouldn’t say if the EPA would propose a new version of the Clean Power Plan or if the agency will seek to fully repeal the Obama plan.

Never go outside the fence: Pruitt said if a new plan is drawn up it will focus on just power plants, not regulating states’ emissions as the Obama plan sought to do. It’s an idea that is known as staying “inside the fence,” as opposed to “outside the fenceline,” where the Obama EPA was focused.

Pruitt and many others argued in court last year that the Obama administration erred in its design of the climate plan by going outside the fenceline and, hence, outside of EPA’s authority under section 111 of the Clean Air Act.

“I think what I’m asking my folks is legally, as we evaluate section 111 [of the Clean Air Act], as we evaluate the rulemaking of the past, what have we always done, it’s always been inside the fence,” Pruitt said.

Woe unto WOTUS: Pruitt also discussed the EPA’s progress in withdrawing what he considers the second most onerous rule under the Obama administration, the Waters of the U.S. rule.

He anticipates the EPA issuing a new definition of waterways under the rule early next year, which in turn would roll back the Obama EPA’s expanded jurisdiction over everything from rivers to field ditches under the Clean Water Act.

“Because can you imagine an ephemeral drainage ditch outside of a subdivision that Congress ever intended that to be a water of the United States? Well, there is no way, right? That’s what we mean by fixing it,” he said.

Getting it right: Pruitt says the EPA is fixing regulations that the Obama administration reimagined under the law, rather than paring back regulations.

Welcome to Daily on Energy, compiled by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers John Siciliano (@JohnDSiciliano) and Josh Siegel @SiegelScribe). Email [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list.

ZINKE’S MONUMENTAL ROLLBACK: A memo emerged on the digital news stand late Sunday night that revealed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s draft recommendations to the president to scale back 10 national monuments.

The White House had not revealed the recommendations, which Zinke made public last month when he sent them to the president.

The Bear’s Ears monument in Utah, established by Obama, would be reduced in size with three other monuments. The other six — including two Obama-era monuments on the Atlantic and Pacific — would be scaled back in terms of their use and the restrictions to industry.

Straight to court: The Wilderness Society, a conservation group, immediately threatened litigation if the president moves ahead with Zinke’s recommendations.

“We urge the president to ignore these illegal and dangerous recommendations and instead act to preserve our natural wonders that are at the core of a great nation,” said group President Jamie Williams.

Three new monuments: Zinke recommends the administration explore the creation of three new national monuments recognizing African American and Native American history, according to the Washington Post.

The new three monuments include Kentucky’s Camp Nelson, a Union outpost in the Civil War where African-American regiments trained, the home of civil rights icon Medgar Evers in Jackson, Miss, and one in Zinke’s home state of Montana, referred to as the Badger-Two Medicine area, a sacred area for the Blackfeet Nation.

FERC OVERRULES NEW YORK ON PIPELINE: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission flexed its muscles Friday by overruling New York state regulators who had blocked construction of a 7.8-mile natural gas pipeline.

Procedural play: FERC said the New York Department of Environmental Conservation waived its right to review the Valley Lateral Project by failing to act within a year of receiving Millennium Pipeline Co.’s application for a water-quality permit.

Bigger picture: But the ruling took on added significance, because of why New York regulators had tried to block the pipeline in the first place. New York last month said FERC “failed to consider or quantify the indirect effects” of carbon emissions produced when the fuel shipped through the pipeline is eventually burned, called “downstream” emissions.

If you remember…This is the same reasoning the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals gave in a ruling last month when it rejected an approval by FERC of another pipeline in Florida. In that case, the appeals court said FERC did not properly evaluate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions from the natural gas shipped by the pipeline. As we have written, energy industry officials and legal experts predict that ruling could have a chilling effect, providing a precedent for regulators to block pipelines based on improper climate change analysis.

Keep on, keeping on: While FERC did not mention the emissions issue in its ruling Friday, the decision shows the commission isn’t afraid to approve pipelines. Indeed, FERC approves $500 billion in infrastructure projects each year.

GREENS MARK THREE YEARS OF FIGHTING FERC: The Sierra Club and other environmental groups marked the three-year anniversary of fighting the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over the 120-mile long PennEast natural gas pipeline.

The $1 billion pipeline would link the fracking fields of Pennsylvania to the Northeast via New Jersey, and has come to symbolize activist opposition to FERC’s pipeline permitting process to extend needed supply of natural gas to the historically constrained Northeast.

‘Call to arms’: Groups gathered at a bridge near the the pipeline route in Stockton, N.J. “We will link hands across the bridge to tell FERC to stay out of our valley. Even without a rejection from FERC, we can beat PennEast. This is a celebration for the family of PennEast fighters and a call to arms for us to continue our efforts to stop the damaging and unnecessary pipeline,” said Josh Tittel, director of Sierra Club’s New Jersey chapter.

The environmental groups have experienced some success in the courts, but mostly it has only prolonged the inevitability of FERC approving the project especially now that a Republican-led quorum exists at the commission.

Feds take action: “Despite our victories, the battle is heating up. This week the Army Corps opened a comment period for PennEast’s wetlands permits,” Tittel said. “This is the first time that a government agency is going forward with an application that affects New Jersey. We also expect FERC to grant PennEast a certificate of need soon since it has once again regained a Republican quorum.”

The pipeline decision would have come sooner if the commission’s membership had not shrunk to the point that it had to shut down for six months. The commission reopened last month.

Three pipelines, but no PennEast: FERC will hold its first public meeting this week since its quorum was restored.

Three pipeline decisions are on the docket for the Wednesday meeting, but none of those are PennEast, according to the agenda. There were supposed to be four projects on the agenda, which said item” G-1” has been omitted without saying what it was.

The three projects are slated for Texas-based companies Black Marlin Pipeline, Texas Eastern Transmission and Western Refining Pipeline.

PRUITT PONDERS FATE OF DIOXIN PITS: As Pruitt oversaw EPA’s post-hurricane inspections on Friday at toxic cleanup sites in Texas, he told local news crews that he would consider a permanent solution to remove the waste.

The dumps that hold tons of toxic dioxins on the banks of the San Jacinto were submerged after Hurricane Harvey.

Citizen groups have wanted the sites closed for years. And after meeting with Pruitt, he said he would move forward with removal of the waste. But Pruitt did not mention a timeline for removal.

A permanent fix: He said a permanent solution must be found for the waste, especially in the wake of such a record-breaking storm.

“Our team at Region 6, the EPA has really each year had to come in here and provide some kind of remedial effort to the site — that’s not good,” Pruitt said. “You don’t want that and that’s absent a hurricane.

“So as we look to answers here, they need to be permanent, they need to provide confidence with the people of this area that it’s going to be for the long haul and we fix this situation, so that anxiety goes away.”

RUNDOWN

Axios Businesses are urging Trump to keep an Obama-era climate change policy to limit emissions from refrigerants in air conditioners

Washington Post The Trump administration is looking to allow oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

New York Times North Korea’s missiles are powered by a rare, potent fuel believed to have been supplied by China and Russia

Wall Street Journal After hurricanes, U.S. fuel prices are poised to remain higher for the rest of the year, while refining companies see larger profits

Bloomberg Garbage from Hurricane Irma fuels Florida’s power grid

Arizona Republic An Arizona company selected to build prototypes of Trump’s border wall has been cited for numerous environmental violations

Calendar

TUESDAY, SEPT. 19

7 a.m., New York. The Energy Marketing Conference for Retailers holds its Eighth Semi-Annual Energy Marketing Conference. energymarketingconferences.com/september-2017/

9:30 a.m., 366 Dirksen. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds markup to vote on the nominations of Richard Glick to be a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; David Jonas to be Energy Department general counsel; Kevin McIntyre to be a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; Joseph Balash to be assistant Interior secretary for land and minerals management; and Ryan Douglas Nelson to be Interior Department solicitor. energy.senate.gov

10 a.m., 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW, The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts Laszlo Varro, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, to discuss the IEA’s World Energy Investment 2017 report.

csis.org/events/ieas-world-energy-investment-2017

10 a.m., 366 Dirksen. The Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing to examine the vegetation management requirements for electricity assets located on federal lands and to receive testimony on Section 2310 of the Energy and Natural Resources Act of 2017 and the Electricity Reliability and Forest Protection Act.

energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2017/9/full-committee-hearing-to

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 20

10 a.m., 406 Dirksen. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on the nomination of Michael Dourson to be assistant EPA administrator; Matthew Leopold to be assistant EPA administrator; David Ross to be assistant EPA administrator; William Wehrum to be assistant EPA administrator; and Jeffery Baran to be a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. epw.senate.gov

4 p.m., 1521 16th St. NW. The Institute of World Politics hosts lecture called “Energy Security: New Market Realities” with Sara Vakhshouri of SVB Energy International. The lecture will discuss how the rise of North America’s shale oil and gas production has changed market dynamics, energy trade flow and energy security. iwp.edu/events/detail/energy-security-new-market-realities

THURSDAY, SEPT. 21

3:30 p.m., Walter E. Washington Convention Center,. The GAIN Coalition holds a conference called “Energy for All: Examining America’s Diverse Infrastructure. Moderated by former Rep. Albert R. Wynn of Maryland. Panelists include Paula Glover, president and CEO of American Association of Blacks in Energy; P. Anthony Thomas, director of Government Affairs at California Independent Petroleum Association; Ryan Boyer, Business manager of the Laborers’ District Council of Philadelphia. gainnow.org

FRIDAY, SEPT. 22

International Trade Commission to make Solar Trade Petition Injury Determination.

usitc.gov/

10 a.m.,1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts Bjorn Otto Sverdrup, senior vice president for Sustainability at Statoil, to present Statoil’s Climate Roadmap. csis.org/events/statoils-climate-roadmap

Daily on Energy: Confusion reigns over Trump leaving the climate deal

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