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HOUSE PASSES BUDGET, PAVING WAY FOR DRILLING IN ARCTIC REFUGE: Republicans are one step closer to fulfilling a long-time goal of allowing oil and natural gas drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge after the House approved a budget resolution Thursday paving the way for it to happen.
Senate in sync: The Senate last week passed its budget resolution, which also allows for drilling there.
Why it matters: Congressional Republicans have long pushed to allow energy exploration in a 1.5 million-acre section of the Alaskan refuge, where billions of barrels of oil lie beneath the refuge’s coastal plain. But Democrats have blocked those efforts, because they consider the refuge one of the wildest places left in the U.S. and worry about harming native habitat.
Republicans unite: This year, the path for Republicans to permit drilling is easier than ever, with the party united by the idea and supported by President Trump.
Last month, the Interior Department lifted restrictions on seismic studies to probe how much oil is under the refuge.
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SENATE ENERGY COMMITTEE LOOKING INTO NATIONAL PARK FEE HIKES: Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski said Thursday morning that she is concerned about the Interior Department’s proposed doubling of entrance fees for 17 of the most popular national parks.
The Interior Department announced this week that fees to visit many of the nation’s most popular parks, including the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Acadia and Zion, will more than double in the next year to make up for budget shortfalls.
The committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state, raised the issue at Thursday’s hearing on protecting the electric grid from cyber attack.
Murkowski agreed with Cantwell and said she would look into the increased costs.
The National Park Service’s proposed fee changes would raise fees from $30 to $70 during the busiest times of the years for about half the parks and from $25 to $70 for the others. The increased revenue would be used to tackle the maintenance backlog for many of the nation’s national parks.
CYBER ATTACKS KEEP CANTWELL UP AT NIGHT. Cantwell said the threat of cyber attack on the electric grid is the “one issue that keeps me up at night.”
At Thursday’s hearing on cyber attacks, she said the threat is much greater than Cold War concerns about submarines or air attacks. But the Trump administration does not appear to be as concerned, she noted. She has sent two letters to the administration, prodding the Energy Department and the White House to develop a more focused plan on how to defend against a major attack that could be just around the corner.
She noted that the Russians are targeting nuclear power plants, which the Department of Homeland Security outlined in a report this week on how bad actors are targeting nuclear plants and water utilities. “We need to take action,” Cantwell said.
She said she also hopes Energy Secretary Rick Perry and President Donald Trump will reconsider the budget cuts they proposed for the electricity and reliability office at the Energy Department, which deals with the threats posed to the grid.
TRUMP NOMINATES STEVEN GARDNER FOR INTERIOR MINING POST: Trump on Thursday morning announced the nomination of Steven Gardner to be the director of the office of surface mining, reclamation and enforcement at the Interior Department.
Gardner, a licensed engineer, is the president and CEO of ECSI LLC, a Kentucky consulting practice where he focused on natural resources, mining, reclamation, energy, environmental, health and safety issues.
COMMISSION CREATED WITH PITTSBURGH MAYOR TO BOOST EFFICIENCY: The Alliance to Save Energy started an industry-government commission on Thursday as part of a national effort to curb energy use in the transportation sector by 50 percent by 2050 while meeting future mobility needs.
The commission will be headed by Audi of America President Scott Keogh and National Grid President Dean Seavers, while including Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto, a Democrat, and Fort Worth, Texas, Mayor Betsy Price, a Republican, with leaders representing vehicle manufacturers, utilities, federal agencies, environmental and consumer groups, infrastructure providers and public transit, the alliance said.
PELOSI DEMANDS PROBE INTO ‘HIGHLY SUSPECT’ PUERTO RICO CONTRACT: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday demanded an investigation into how a small Montana firm from the same small town as Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke struck a $300 million deal to repair Puerto Rico’s shattered electricity grid.
Whitefish Energy signed a $300 million contract with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, to rebuild 100 miles of power infrastructure across the island.
Congressional scrutiny intensifies: Pelosi is the highest-ranking lawmaker to express concern about the size of the contract and scale of the job awarded to Whitefish, a company that had two full-time employees the day Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico.
Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, asked the Government Accountability Office on Tuesday to investigate.
Republicans concerned, too: On Wednesday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, the chairwoman of that committee, called for an investigation and promised to examine efforts in Puerto Rico to rebuild the grid at an upcoming hearing.
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, also will be looking into the contract, his office said. The lawmaker is visiting Puerto Rico now to learn more about it.
DEMOCRATS WANT INTERIOR DEPARTMENT TO INVESTIGATE ZINKE’S ROLE IN CONTRACT: Eight House Democrats requested for the Interior Department’s inspector general to investigate the role Zinke played in securing the Whitefish contract.
Whitefish is based in Zinke’s hometown.
“We urge you to investigate any potential impropriety in the awarding of the contract,” the lawmakers wrote to Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall.
Zinke and Whitefish have both denied he was involved in arranging the contract.
WHITEFISH DARES SAN JUAN MAYOR TO REMOVE WORKERS: Whitefish Energy sparred with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz as scrutiny over the energy contract intensified.
Whitefish retaliates with threat: “We’ve got 44 linemen rebuilding power lines in your city & 40 more men just arrived. Do you want us to send them back or keep working?” Whitefish wrote in a tweet to Cruz.
Earlier, Whitefish fired off another tweet to Cruz: “We share frustration with Mayor Cruz on the situation in Puerto Rico, but her comments are misplaced,” the company said.
Apology tour: Late Wednesday, Whitefish apologized for escalating the fight.
In a tweet, Whitefish Energy wrote to Cruz and “everyone in Puerto Rico” that the comments “did not represent who we are and how important this work is to Puerto Rico’s recovery.”
EMERGENCY MANAGER APPOINTED TO OVERSEE ISLAND’S POWER UTILITY: Puerto Rico’s financial oversight board said Wednesday it will install an emergency manager to oversee the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.
What the manager can do: The oversight board has the authority to reject contracts such as the $300 million contract PREPA struck with Whitefish. An emergency manager can play a larger role in vetting contracts and manage the daily operations of the utility. The Wall Street Journal reports the decision could lead to PREPA’s privatization.
What’s in a board: Puerto Rico’s federal oversight board was created by Congress during the Obama administration to oversee the restructuring process of the island’s $70 billion debt load.
Power play: The bipartisan oversight board made the decision to appoint an emergency manager, and the Trump administration reportedly supported the move. Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló opposes the plan, viewing it as a power grab.
PUERTO RICO’S GOVERNOR REQUESTS AUDIT OF WHITEFISH CONTRACT: Rosselló is concerned enough about the Whitefish contract that he requested an audit late Wednesday from the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general about how the deal was completed.
THE SEARCH FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY IN A FOSSIL FUEL TAX CODE: A bipartisan group of senators wants renewables to get the same treatment in the tax code as the oil and gas industry.
Master limited partnerships were created decades ago to help spur development of refineries and pipelines in the United States by giving limiting tax exposure if several companies come together to invest in the construction and management of a facility. But the Internal Revenue Service limits the partnerships to primarily oil ventures.
Clean expansion: The senators want the same structure available for building wind farms, solar power plants, biofuel and other renewable or cleaner resources.
Biofuels: “This legislation can help U.S. producers capture their fair share of that economic growth, revitalize the domestic manufacturing sector, and create new jobs and economic opportunities,” said Brent Erickson, executive vice president of Biotechnology Industry Organization’s industrial and environmental section.
Wind farms and the grid: The American Council on Renewable Energy, a large renewable industry umbrella group, praised the bill’s introduction, focusing on the wind and solar benefits, as well as grid improvements.
Gregory Wetstone, president and CEO of ACORE, said the bill would “level the playing field and promote greater private investment in our nation’s renewable energy resources.
“Enabling master limited partnership investment in renewable energy can help lower project costs, leading to more economic investment in grid modernization and energy infrastructure.”
DEMOCRATS SAY EPA NOMINEE VOTE COULD HINDER COMMITTEE’S WORK: Democrats fumed Wednesday after Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee advanced the nominations of key EPA officials on a party-line vote.
Democrats opposed both and said their ties to industry will prevent them from being effective and faithful enforcers of environmental law.
Imperling comity of committee: Some Democrats even suggested Republicans had imperiled the ability of the committee to work in a bipartisan fashion by voting for Dourson. Dourson, a professor and toxicologist, founded a consulting group that represented companies that produced chemicals now under EPA review for their public health risks.
Science for sale: “His record is clear,” Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the committee’s top Democrat, said of Dourson, who is already working at the EPA in an advisory role. “He has sold science to the highest bidder and recommended [safety] standards that are tens, hundreds, even thousands less protective than EPA’s own standards.”
Committee’s landmark achievement at risk: Last year, Congress passed a bipartisan bill that updated the Toxic Substances Control Act, a 1976 law that had made it difficult for regulators to ban or regulate chemicals by requiring the EPA to meet a high burden of proof before taking action.
The new law streamlined the regulatory process, and directed the EPA to review at least 20 high priority chemicals and emphasize the riskiest ones.
Democrats say they doubt Dourson will enforce the law as its written.
Breaching ‘faith’: “On our side, we have become accustomed to nominees [from Republicans] who have massive conflicts of interest, having them overlooked and rammed through on partisan votes,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. “With Dourson, it’s a little different because we just worked together in a bipartisan fashion to do something about toxic chemicals. We came to a reasonable, fair and productive result. Today’s vote breaches the faith of that result.”
BARRASSO DEMANDS DEMOCRATS BREAK ‘LOGJAM’ ON NOMINATIONS: Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., chairman of the committee, urged Democrats to relent as they threatened to impose procedural hurdles before Wehrum and Dourson get a vote on the Senate floor.
‘Outrageous’ tactics: “President Trump has been in office now for more than nine months. For the entire time, Senate Democrats have been trying to obstruct him from doing the very job that he was elected by the American people to do,” Barrasso said. “These are people who got through the nomination process in June, who are still waiting and being blocked by Democrats in the Senate. It’s outrageous. Do Democrats really think these aren’t important jobs? I believe we should confirm as many of these as possible today.”
Not letting up: Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., promised to slow walk Dourson’s nomination. “We’re going to move it as slowly as we can at this point,” said Udall, who authored the bill overhauling the nation’s chemicals law. “We’ll use all the time. It’s a devastating departure from the bipartisanship that we had in passing TSCA reform.”
RUNDOWN
New York Times Saudi Arabia’s grand plan to move beyond oil
NPR Tesla uses solar, batteries to turn power back on at children’s hospital in Puerto Rico
Wall Street Journal Judge rules Peabody Energy is protected by its bankruptcy status from climate change lawsuits
Houston Chronicle Exxon gets approval for 35-year Argentina shale venture
Washington Post Climate change could lead to sea level rises that are larger, and happen more rapidly, than previously thought
Associated Press Study: More evidence links earthquakes to energy waste wells
Calendar
THURSDAY, OCT. 26
All day, 14th and F streets NW. The group ecoAmerica holds its American Climate Leadership Summit, at the National Press Club.
10 a.m., 366 Dirksen. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing on “Examine Cyber Technology and Energy Infrastructure.”
All day, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. The Group of Earth Observations holds its GEO Week conference.
earthobservations.org/index2.php
MONDAY, Oct. 30
9 a.m., Arizona. The 2017 American Council on an Energy Efficient Economy holds its National Conference on Energy Efficiency as a Resource Wigwam Arizona in Litchfield Park, Ariz. Oct. 30-Nov. 1.
aceee.org/sites/default/files/pdf/conferences/ssi/2017/Draft%20Schedule%208-29.pdf
