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DEMOCRATS PREPARE TO FIGHT TRUMP EPA’S EFFORT TO FORCE PIPELINES ON STATES: Democrats led by Tom Carper are clamoring for a fight over President Trump’s most recent executive order hobbling states’ powers to block natural gas pipelines and other energy infrastructure using Clean Water Act permits.
The Environmental Protection Agency stoked Carper’s rage on Friday by issuing guidance to federal agencies on implementing Trump’s April order to rein in states’ authority to block permit approvals.
Carper, the top Democrat from Delaware on the Environmental and Public Works Committee, said in a statement Friday evening that he is convinced EPA and the president are violating “congressional intent.”
“The president’s executive order and EPA’s new guidance are indefensible and defy the clear intention of Congress,” Carper stated.
Carper’s office would not say if the senator is suggesting a court battle over the Trump order or if the senator might initiate legal action or join one brewing among the states.
An aide explained that Carper will most likely raise his concerns first through the public comment process that EPA will be initiating, while simultaneously scrutinizing the genesis of the order.
Carper explained that being a former governor himself, he “shudder[s]” at the prospect of states having “no real authority” to challenge permits on federal energy projects. He added that states went through that “nightmare” in the 1960s. Congress established section 401 state powers under the Clean Water Act to give states a say over how their water resources were being used and potentially threatened.
Earlier last week, before EPA issued the guidance, Carper led a group of Democrats in sending a letter to EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler, asking him for all documents related to how the agency will seek to fulfill the Trump order.
The senators said that in the decades since the passage of laws bolstering states’ authority to issue water permits, Congress has not seen fit to oppose or revise that authority.
They point out that a Supreme Court decision 25 years ago affirmed states’ authority under section 401 and that the Congress finds the authority wholly adequate and not in need of revision.
Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, and Cory Booker, D-N.J., joined Carper on the letter.
GOP ready to rein in state abuses: Nevertheless, Republicans see EPA’s guidance as blocking states from abusing their authority under the law.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the EPA guidance balances states’ authority over water resources while promoting responsible development of energy resources.
The guidance will also “reduce abuse” of Clean Water Act permits to block infrastructure needed to provide reliable and affordable energy, Murkowski added.
Murkowski’s office explained that the guidance is a preliminary action, and that EPA will soon issue new regulations updating how section 401 is implemented, noting that the law governing the permit authority has not been revised since 1971.
Trump’s order directs EPA to issue the new rules 120 days after the guidance is published.
The Republican chairman of Carper’s committee, Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, said the EPA reforms are needed now more than ever.
“We need reform, and we need it fast,” he said, accusing states like Washington, New York, and New Jersey of preventing the U.S. from exporting natural gas and other energy resources.
Oil and natural gas groups welcomed the EPA guidance on Friday, while environmental groups rebuked it as a step in the wrong direction for states’ rights and climate change.
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Josh is in Philadelphia Monday to cover the Edison Electric Institute’s annual convention. He covered some early happenings below. Stay tuned for his interviews with utility company CEOs, Energy Department Assistant Secretary Bruce Walker, Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., and more.
PAUL RYAN SAYS ‘WE SHOULD NEVER GIVE UP NUCLEAR’: Former House Speaker Paul Ryan told utility industry leaders at the convention Monday that “we should never give up on nuclear.”
Ryan barely spoke about energy policy in his question-and-answer dialogue with EEI President Thomas Kuhn, mostly reflecting instead on his career and speakership.
But in a brief mention toward the end of the conversation, Ryan emphasized the importance of nuclear power in decarbonizing the power sector, while also touting U.S. emissions reductions due to the switch from coal to natural gas.
“The carbon footprint is clearly dropping far better than anyone else in the Paris [Agreement],” Ryan said. “Gas is a great bridge. Coal is cleaner.”
“We should never give up on nuclear,” Ryan added. “We need to keep investing in the research of nuclear.”
Seemingly alluding to advanced nuclear reactors, Ryan said he is “convinced” nuclear technology will progress to where waste is “nothing or insignificant.”
DOMINION CEO THOMAS FARRELL SAYS UTILITIES HAVE ‘DONE A LOT’ TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE: Also at the EEI conference, Thomas Farrell, CEO of the large utility Dominion, touted the electric industry’s role in reducing carbon emissions Monday, saying “our industry has done a lot to combat climate change.”
Farrell, leading a panel event focused on the “Green New Deal,” noted the power sector has fallen behind transportation as the largest emitter of carbon.
Coal has fallen from 55% of power produced by Dominion to 11%, he said, helping the company be on a path to achieve its goal of reducing emissions 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2050.
But he expressed regret that the closure of nuclear plants is “causing an increase in emissions.”
Farrell urged Congress to implement a comprehensive policy to fight climate change, such as a carbon tax, so the industry would have to follow “one set of rules.”
Dominion is a member of the CEO Climate Dialogue, a new coalition of businesses and environmental groups calling for an economy-wide federal carbon tax. Farrell, however, said climate policy must be “realistic” and suggested renewables alone cannot decarbonize the power sector within a decade, a reference to progressive calls for setting a pathway to reach net-zero emissions by 2030.
TONKO WARNS DEMS AGAINST GETTING ‘TRAPPED IN RHETORIC’ ON “GREEN NEW DEAL”: Tonko, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on climate change, warned his fellow Democrats Monday to avoid “getting trapped in rhetoric” on the “Green New Deal” instead of developing a comprehensive plan to address it.
Tonko, speaking on the “Green New Deal” panel at the EEI conference with Farrell, said Democrats should not follow the GOP playbook on its failed effort at repealing the Affordable Care Act, where the party had “no replacement mechanism.”
He said Democrats should “develop a plan of attack” so when the political climate is more climate-friendly they’re “ready to go.”
Tonko repeated his call for an “economy-wide carbon price” as the best policy to address climate change, but he acknowledged it would take “a while to develop” given Republican opposition. In the meantime, he said Congress could achieve bipartisan policy on energy efficiency, boosting tax incentives for electric vehicles and renewable energy, expanding EV charging infrastructure, and grid modernization.
Tonko has not endorsed the “Green New Deal,” instead introducing his own framework to address climate change that includes many of the initiatives mentioned above.
TREASURY TARGETS IRAN’S MOST PROFITABLE OIL REFINERS WITH NEW SANCTIONS: The Treasury Department imposed broad sanctions Friday on Iran’s petrochemical and refinery industry for contributing funds to the financial arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which the State Department recently named a terrorist organization.
The sanctions target Iran’s largest and most profitable petrochemical holding group, called the Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company, which maintains dozens of companies and subsidiaries.
BORDER PATROL FACILITY IN EL PASO SECRETLY DUMPING DIRTY WATER INTO CITY’S DRINKING SUPPLY: The Border Patrol’s largest migrant holding facility in El Paso, Texas, has been illegally disposing contaminated water into a drain that funnels water back to the city to use as drinking water for the county’s 840,000 residents.
The activity has been taking place since at least April, according to the National Border Patrol Council.
Its local chapter told the Washington Examiner agents had reported witnessing several instances of workers at the El Paso Station dumping large amounts of “gray water” into an outdoor drain that sits under an awning where agents used to wash their vehicles.
“Gray water is used water. It’s not port-a-potty water, but it’s soiled water from showers and laundry facilities,” a union official said during a visit to the station this week.
The union also said stations in El Paso continue to see outbreaks of scabies, measles, active tuberculosis cases, and other infectious and communicable diseases among detainees who use the showers and laundry services.
GROVER NORQUIST LAUNCHES LETTER CAMPAIGN TO OPPOSE A CARBON TAX: Americans for Tax Reform’s Grover Norquist organized a letter with 75 other conservative and free-market groups on Monday in a renewed effort to oppose a carbon tax.
“A carbon tax raises the cost of heating your home in the winter and cooling your home in the summer. It raises the cost of filling your car,” the short letter read. “A carbon tax increases the power, cost, and intrusiveness of the government in our lives.”
The Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a nonpartisan grassroots organization, will be on the Hill lobbying on Tuesday for Congress to enact a carbon tax and dividend plan.
The Rundown
Washington Post White House blocked intelligence agency’s written testimony calling climate change ‘possibly catastrophic’
New York Times Even as floods worsen with climate change fewer people insure against disaster
Wall Street Journal Venezuelans’ latest woe: gas lines that last for days
Axios Natural gas is helping combat climate change — but not enough
Calendar
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.
THURSDAY | June 13
10 a.m., 366 Dirksen. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing to examine the outlook for wildland fire and management programs for 2019.
