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THE LATEST: Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he intends to hold votes today to advance legislation limiting the government’s ability to regulate natural gas stoves, though he is still working through issues with those members who voted “no” yesterday.
A dozen Republicans and Freedom Caucus members defected during yesterday’s rule vote on the House floor, which tanked the party’s effort to pass legislation blocking the Department of Energy and Consumer Products Safety Commission from issuing new regulations for natural gas stoves.
In other news, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum entered the Republican presidential primary pushing a very pro-domestic energy message, and Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan returned from a trip advertising U.S. energy in Asia. Read on for the latest.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Jeremy Beaman (@jeremywbeaman) and Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep). Email [email protected] or [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.
KAKHOVA DAM EXPLOSION THREATENS DISASTER FOR UKRAINE’S SOUTH: Ukraine’s chief prosecutor announced an investigation into the explosion of the Kakhova dam, which flooded the country’s south and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents. But it is also expected to take a massive environmental toll — one that could last for decades.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that the explosion was the “largest man-made environmental disaster in Europe in decades.” “Russia has detonated a bomb of mass environmental destruction,” he added. Russia, for its part, has denied responsibility for the breach and pointed the finger at Ukraine.
Environmental cost: At least 150 tons of machine oil stored inside the dam’s hydroelectric power plant leaked yesterday into the Dnipro River as a result of the explosion, according to Ukrainian officials. An additional 300 tons of oil are also at risk of being spilled in the event of further infrastructure collapses—adding even more pollutants into the river that could be swept onward to the Black Sea, depending on how the water behaves.
Experts said it will take weeks for experts to begin determining the extent of the damage caused by yesterday’s explosion, as well as the damage and extent of pollutants released into the waterways. But experts said they expect devastating consequences—at least in the short-term—for southern Ukraine’s rich agricultural region, which relied heavily on water from the reservoir.
“We can assume all ecosystems and human settlements downstream the Dnipro River will be affected,” Anna Ackerman, a board member with Ukraine’s environmental nonprofit group Ecoaction, told Bloomberg.
NUCLEAR FEARS: Ukraine’s state energy company, Energoatom, warned that the dam’s destruction could have negative consequences for Zaporizhzhia, the country’s largest nuclear power plant, which relied on the reservoir’s water for cooling purposes.
So far, however, the situation appears to be under control, and the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said yesterday that it will continue to carefully monitor the situation.
SULLIVAN BACK AFTER MARKETING ALASKA LNG TO TOP ASIAN ALLIES: Sullivan returned to Washington yesterday following a short weekend trip to South Korea and Japan, where he met up with Ambassador Rahm Emanuel to shop U.S. LNG, and the Alaska LNG project in particular, to the United States’s top allies in the region.
The two met with high ranking officials in both countries, including their respective national security advisers and foreign ministers, and urged them to “make this project a priority,” a spokesperson for Sullivan said.
Emanuel has emerged as a preeminent proponent of boosting U.S. LNG exports and talks up the strategic advantage that Alaska LNG, whose export authorization the Department of Energy reaffirmed in April, would provide if developers ink sufficient supply and purchase agreements and it gets built.
SPAs are outstanding: The project, which is authorized to export 2.55 billion cubic feet of gas per day, has all major permits and authorizations but still needs buyers.
Negotiations with potential buyers involving traditional Asian utility buyers, LNG traders, and oil and gas companies are “fairly advanced,” developer Alaska Pipeline Development Corporation said last month in a presentation before the Alaska House of Representatives’ Finance Committee.
BURGUM ENTERS GOP RACE WITH DRILL-AT-HOME MESSAGE: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has entered the GOP presidential mix pushing for an increase of domestic energy production.
“We need to stop buying energy from our enemies and start selling it to our friends and allies,” Burgum wrote on the Wall Street Journal editorial page this morning, explaining why he’s running for president. “America produces the cleanest and safest energy in the world. Anyone who cares about the environment should want all energy produced here.”
It’s a message that fits Burgum’s current rank: North Dakota is home to the high-producing Bakken shale formation. The state was no. 3 in oil production in 2021, falling behind only Texas and New Mexico.
REPUBLICAN STATES TAKE ON CALIFORNIA HEAVY TRUCK WAIVER: Iowa and 18 other states filed a legal petition in hopes of blocking the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act waivers allowing California to gradually phase out diesel trucks and other heavy duty vehicles in favor of zero-emissions vehicles.
Petitioning states include Alabama, West Virginia, Missouri, and more than a dozen others with Republican attorneys general. It’s the same core collection of state AGs to challenge multiple other Biden administration actions, including EPA’s Waters of the United States rule.
The petition for review asks the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to look at EPA’s waivers for California, which the agency approved in March.
California’s rules apply to box trucks, semitrucks, and even large pickups and will mandate that zero-emissions vehicles make up 40% to 75% of sales by 2035, depending on the class.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird alleged the rules run afoul of the Clean Air Act and other federal laws and made note of the fact that several other states have conformed their own heavy duty vehicles regulations to align with California’s.
“That makes California a major decision-maker for the future of the national trucking industry,” said an announcement from Bird’s office detailing the legal action.
KERRY CALLS 10 BILLION PEOPLE ON EARTH ‘UNSUSTAINABLE’: Climate envoy John Kerry said it would be unsustainable for the global population to reach 10 billion people by 2050, pursuant to some estimates.
“I’m not recommending the population go down,” Kerry told AFP. “I think we have the life we have on the planet. And we have to respect life and we could do it in so many better ways than we’re doing now.”
He also suggested African countries should slow their birth rate or risk worsening food and other crises.
“I’ve been to a number of African countries where they’re very proud of their increased birth rate but the fact is, it’s unsustainable for life today, let alone when you add the future numbers,” Kerry said.
The Rundown
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