Daily on Energy: Climate change fleet shrinking, National Academies of Sciences says

Drones won’t be enough: “While new technologies such as autonomous ocean-going vehicles hold promise … for access to the ocean, a capable fleet of research vessels, including those with global reach, is essential to sustaining the U.S. contribution to ocean observing,” according to one of the study’s main conclusions.

The climate fleet is shrinking: “The decreasing number of global and ocean class research vessels is creating a shortfall in the infrastructure required for sampling the global ocean and expanding collection into poorly sampled regions such as the polar seas,” the study said.

“Ships require long-term planning and investment, and maintenance of a capable fleet of research vessels is an essential component of the U.S. effort to sustain ocean observing.”

10-year plan: The study suggests the U.S. create a long-term plan, perhaps for 10 years, saying that not having strong leadership presents a major challenge in keeping up U.S. contributions to ocean research.

Need for climate research organization: The report also concluded that forming an organization “to enhance partnerships across sectors with an interest in ocean-observing, particularly nonprofits, philanthropic organizations, academia, U.S. federal agencies, and the commercial sector, would be an effective mechanism to increase engagement and coordination.”

Self-serving?: The primary agency that tracks climate change from the oceans, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was one of the sponsors of the National Academies of Sciences study.

The study was sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences’ Arthur L. Day Fund and NOAA.

The Trump administration, not surprisingly, has targeted major cuts for climate research at the agencies that do the heavy-lifting on climate change, atmospheric research and weather trends, including NOAA and NASA.

Pressure pays off: The assurances come amid a major pressure campaign by both Republicans and Democrats on President Trump and Pruitt to scrap the EPA proposal to significantly curtail the program’s biofuel targets while allowing ethanol exports to qualify as part of the annual production goals.

Letter’s assurances: Pruitt said he would not pursue regulations on the ethanol export idea suggested by refiners. The ethanol industry sees the idea as detrimental to the integrity of the program and to the goal of including more renewable fuels in the nation’s fuel supply.

“EPA has not taken any formal action to propose this idea, nor will EPA pursue regulations,” Pruitt wrote in a letter sent to a group of GOP senators Thursday.

Greater than or equal to is the goal: On the issue of lowering next year’s annual requirements for blending renewable fuel in the nation’s gasoline and diesel supply, Pruitt assured the senators that the numbers would be set at levels “equal to or greater than the proposed amounts.”

No reductions: That means the numbers won’t drop below what has been allocated in the proposed rule, while leaving room to even raise them. A separate measure that EPA is considering would reduce the biomass-based diesel standard, with the blending goals for more advanced biofuels.

Pruitt suggested that proposal isn’t going anywhere, saying at least 2.1 billion gallons of the renewable diesel fuel will be included in the annual goals for 2018 and 2019.

Make E15 great again: Pruitt also offered to work with the senators on providing a Reid Vapor Pressure waiver for 15-percent ethanol fuel blends after legislation to do so has stalled.

He said he has directed EPA staff to examine if the agency has the authority to waive the fuel volatility standards for E15 and invited senators to work on the issue, including developing a definitive analysis of the EPA’s authority to issue a waiver.

Pruitt also offered to work with the senators on providing a Reid Vapor Pressure waiver for 15-percent ethanol fuel blends after legislation to do so has stalled.

The waiver would allow more ethanol to be blended in the gasoline supply, opening up a bigger market for ethanol.

Litigation threat: “We see absolutely no legal or statutory basis for EPA to exercise its general waiver authority in any of the ways contemplated in the notice to further reduce the 2018 [biofuel volumes],” RFA wrote in its comments.

The comments were in response to EPA’s annual biofuel goals for 2018 that have to be finalized by Nov. 30. They also took comment on proposed addendums where EPA is looking for feedback on curtailing the RFS biofuel goals significantly in the next two years and if it has the legal authority to do so.

A new generation of power plants: “Existing nuclear power plants … face comparatively high operational and maintenance costs. Today, there is a compelling opportunity to leverage design, new manufacturing processes, and technologies to increase the competitiveness of nuclear power,” the agency said.

Transformative tech: “The MEITNER program seeks transformative technologies to allow advanced reactor designs that achieve lower construction cost and autonomous operations while also improving safety.”

Fear of spreading toxins: Pruitt said the dioxin waste was vulnerable to future hurricanes after Hurricane Harvey, which could spread the toxic, cancer-causing material.

‘Every tool’: “So many issues that compound this site that we need permanence, certainty, confidence that there is not going to be a release in the future. I can assure you from the EPA perspective that we are going to use every bit of jurisdiction, every tool under the statute to get this area remediated,” Pruitt said.

Rains from Hurricane Harvey washed away 6,700 square feet of the dioxin waste.

Democratic opposition fails: The Senate rejected a Democrat-authored amendment to its 2018 budget resolution that would have removed language allowing oil and natural gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Democratic amendment, part of a marathon series of votes, failed by a 52-48 vote.

What the budget calls for: That means the budget resolution, which passed soon after, contains instructions for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to recommend policies to save $1 billion over the next decade, to be served by drilling in the refuge.

Closer than ever: Republicans in Congress have long pushed to allow energy exploration in a 1.5 million-acre section of the Alaskan refuge, known as the “1002 Area,” where billions of barrels of oil lie beneath the refuge’s coastal plain. But Democrats have been effective in teaming with environmentalists to block it. Now, Republicans are closer than ever to achieving their goal, with the Trump administration also supporting drilling. Last month, the Interior Department lifted restrictions on seismic studies to probe how much oil is under the refuge.

What happens next: The budget is nonbinding and does not have the force of law. But Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski of Alaska suggested Thursday night that she plans to use the budget’s $1 billion reconciliation instruction to immediately craft legislation that permits drilling in the refuge.

Middle ground: Five Western senators announced a bill that is intended to be a compromise between competing factions in Congress who are weighing how to help fund wildfire response while imposing forest management changes that can prevent fires from starting.

‘New tools’: “It’s time to create new tools to reduce fire risk and help better protect our communities‎,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who sponsored the legislation with Sens. James E. Risch, R-Idaho, Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Michael Crapo, R-Idaho, and Patty Murray, D-Wash.

What the bill does: The bill would create a pilot program to stop wildfires in the ponderosa pines, which are a vulnerable species of tree prevalent in the West. It would streamline the environmental review process to allow for forest managers to more quickly thin the pine trees. The process removes trees to reduce the density of forests, shrinking the fuel load for wildfires.

Broad backing: The bill was quickly endorsed by the timber industry, firefighting, and conservation groups, including the American Forest Resource Council, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and the National Wildlife Federation.

The key question: But the big test will come in the House, where Republicans have called for a more comprehensive forest management response. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, is pushing for passage of a bill sponsored by Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., that would allow the Forest Service to thin trees in forests that are 10,000 acres or less using a shorter environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act.

House willing to talk: Katie Schoettler, a Natural Resources Committee spokesman, told the Washington Examiner that Bishop is open to the more narrow Senate approach introduced Thursday. “We are glad to see the Senate finally embracing the streamlining of environmental reviews to get our forests back on track,” Schoettler said. “The bill includes some concepts in the Westerman bill to address our forest crisis. We look forward to working with the Senate to consider robust forest management legislation to prevent future wildfires and protect communities.”

Urgency to act: The new approach, and the potential for consensus, comes after catastrophic wildfires hit Northern California over the last week and a half, killing more than 40 people and burning in excess of 200,000 acres. The urgency to act is greater than ever.

Change in leasing process: Grijalva, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, says the Trump administration recently moved to a “Gulf-wide” leasing approach for the years 2017-2022, which could limit competition for individual lease parcels, reducing government revenue.

Concerning precedent: In 1985, the Interior Department moved from a parcel nomination system – in which a company informs federal officials about each parcel it wishes to lease, driving up bids – to an “area-wide” leasing system, in which large swaths of territory are made available during each lease sale. Grijalva cites a GAO report that shows the change resulted in decreased competition and less government revenue.

‘Taxpayer ripoff’: He worries the Interior Department change will have a “similar effect” and represent “the Trump administration’s latest taxpayer ripoff.”