With help from Alex Guillén
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— Joe Biden’s campaign has launched new ads this week spotlighting the need to fight climate change as part of its closing pitch to voters.
— The head of the U.S. Geological Survey retaliated against an employee who filed a whistleblower complaint against him, according to Interior’s internal watchdog.
— An appeals court ruled that Rhode Island can pursue its climate lawsuit against several fossil fuel companies in state court.
FINALLY FRIDAY! I’m your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. No one correctly guessed Thursday’s trivia question. John Breckinridge in 1860, Richard Nixon in 1960, Hubert Humphrey in 1968, and Al Gore in 2000 were all sitting vice presidents who lost their own bids for the presidency. For today, a two-part question: What is the fewest number of Electoral College votes a state can have? And, how many states have that number? Send your tips, energy gossip and comments to [email protected].
Check out the POLITICO Energy podcast — all the energy and environmental politics and policy news you need to start your day, in just five minutes. Listen and subscribe for free at politico.com/energy-podcast. On today’s episode: EPA’s Wheeler blitzes through swing states
ACROSS THE AIRWAVES: Four days remain until Election Day and former Vice President Joe Biden’s closing argument to voters in a string of ads is heavily focused on climate change, while his opponent, President Donald Trump, continues to paint a Biden administration as a threat to the oil and gas industry.
The Biden campaign released two ads this week related to climate change that will air across national airwaves between now and Election Day. A 30-second, animated ad airing on Comedy Central and Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” targets young voters. It features audio of Trump calling global warming a hoax and calls for voters to “silence” him by voting for Biden.
Another 90-second ad airing on MSNBC links the ongoing wildfires in the West to climate change by telling the story of “Melanie” a hotshot firefighter in Phoenix. “You keep fighting a battle that doesn’t have an end,” she says in the spot, before noting that “we have the science, we have the technology” to fight climate change, but lack the leadership to take it on. Both ads follow an agriculture-focused climate ad launched in Michigan earlier this month.
Running on climate change in 2020 became a “rocket ride to real power,” said Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, during a virtual rally Thursday hosted by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). “And we can tell that because look what Joe Biden is closing his campaign with: One ad after another about climate change.” Biden spokesperson Matt Hill also noted in an email the ads show “the historic role the issue is playing in the election and how the VP and our campaign has made significant investment in it.”
The Trump campaign’s latest ads meanwhile stick to claims that Biden would be a disaster for the oil and gas sector, an argument particularly aimed at winning Pennsylvania. Late last week, the Trump campaign launched an ad in the Keystone State featuring a fracking technician who declares that if Biden’s elected, he’d end fracking. “That would be the end of my job and thousands of others,” she says in the spot. The Biden campaign has taken pains to express its opposition to a fracking ban, including at debates and campaign stops.
Trump has made his support of fossil fuels and fracking key to his closing message in Pennsylvania, a critical swing state where fracking supports from 20,000 to 50,000 jobs, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.
A daily look at what POLITICO Energy reporters are watching this cycle. Today, Pro’s Anthony Adragna and Annie Snider on Senate races to watch.
SENATE SHOWDOWN: The pandemic, health care and the economy have dominated Senate races across the country, but environmental issues have emerged as significant factors in several contests — driven in part by big green group spending.
The League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund has poured more than $23 million into eight competitive contests in support of Democratic candidates (and an independent in Alaska). That includes $1.7 million in Arizona; $1.7 million in Maine; $1.8 million in Michigan; $5.5 million in Montana; and $3.1 million in North Carolina, as well as late investments of $900,000 in Alaska; $6.2 million in Iowa; and $2 million in South Carolina.
Colorado: Though incumbent Republican Sen. Cory Gardner has sought to soften his environmental record by touting his work on major conservation issues, climate change has emerged a crucial wedge in his battle against former Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper. Recent ads from Hickenlooper implore voters to not “be fooled” by Gardner’s record and vow to end fossil fuel subsidies. Progressives view Hickenlooper warily over his past pro-fracking positions, but the Democrat’s campaign site now notes he supports a “100% renewable energy economy with net-zero emissions by 2050.”
Alaska: This previously sleepy contest sprang to life in September when secret tapes emerged showing the CEO of the proposed Pebble Mine project in the state bragging that Sen. Dan Sullivan didn’t actually oppose the project and hoped to “ride out the election.” Sullivan’s opponent, independent Al Gross, jumped on the comments in a TV ad, as did the Lincoln Project. The fallout led Sullivan to clarify his outright opposition and state in a debate: “The Pebble Mine is dead, and I’m going to keep it that way.”
Michigan: Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is hoping his ardent work on drinking water issues will resonate with voters as he faces off against Republican John James. The state has the largest number of known PFAS contaminations — since, in the wake of the Flint lead crisis, it set out on an aggressive testing campaign — and some of the worst are in heavily conservative regions like Oscoda, which went for Trump in 2016. A trio of environmental groups spent $1 million on an ad buy this spring touting Peters’ work on the issue.
Iowa: Sen. Joni Ernst and Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield have sparred over their support for the state’s biofuels industry. Greenfield slammed Ernst over her vote to confirm Wheeler, who biofuel advocates allege has undermined the Renewable Fuel Standard program, and has repeatedly called for his removal. Ernst has vowed to continue defending the program and said during a late September debate: “I have gone toe-to-toe with even members of my own party to make sure we’re upholding those Renewable Fuel Standards.”
Coastal races: Republican senators who previously enthusiastically backed offshore drilling — Lindsey Graham and Thom Tillis — are now praising Trump’s election-year move to protect much of the Atlantic Coast from the practice as they try to hold their seats in South Carolina and North Carolina, respectively. Graham’s taking flak for the flip from an outside PAC and Tillis’ challenger, Democrat Cal Cunningham, charged at a recent debate “the world didn’t change, but the polling changed.”
TREASURY SECRETARY WARREN? Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wants to be Biden’s Treasury secretary and will make her case for it if he wins next week, three Democratic officials who have spoken with her inner circle told POLITICO’s Alex Thompson and Megan Cassella. “She wants it,” two of them said matter-of-factly.
The position would give Warren control of a key lever for tackling climate change and financing a transition to a green economy. Warren has pressed the current Treasury secretary to keep the oil and gas industry out of any financial bailout and has called on financial regulators to ensure the financial system can hold up against climate change risks. During her run for president, Warren also released a plan that included appointing a Treasury secretary who “believes in the power of markets to help defeat the climate crisis.”
GREENS’ GREEN: EDF Action, EDF Action Votes and EDF Action PAC collectively spent nearly $19 million this election cycle — amounting to more than double the $9 million in spending from the 2018 cycle, EDF Action President Joe Bonfiglio said in a memo this morning. Of that, EDF Action and EDF Action Votes put $3.2 million into research and independent expenditure ads to defeat Trump.
Another $3.2 million was spent on Senate races, $3.6 million on House races and $3.5 million in state and local races, according to the memo. Meanwhile, $8 million went to ad campaigns and $4 million to mail programs, as well as $3 million in voter-mobilization efforts.
IG: USGS CHIEF RETALIATED AGAINST WHISTLEBLOWER: U.S. Geological Survey Director James Reilly retaliated against an employee who filed a complaint with the Office of Inspector General about Reilly’s conduct, the internal watchdog concluded Thursday. The IG determined Reilly was behind the employee’s reassignment to a position with different responsibilities, even though they did not request the change and it was not discussed with them. “Although the position was the same series, grade, and pay as the previous position, we concluded that this reassignment qualified as a personnel action under the [Whistleblower Protection Act],” the report said.
Reilly offered “various reasons” for the reassignment, including that there was an “inability to get along with another staff member.” But the IG said “the evidence provided did not meet the clear and convincing evidence standard.”
The IG also found Reilly sought information about other employee complaints. “USGS personnel also confirmed that Reilly asked whether employees had filed complaints against him with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Office of Special Counsel, our office, or Congress,” the report said. “The USGS personnel said Reilly wanted to know of anyone filing such complaints so that he could ‘move them.'”
House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney, chair of the Government Operations subcommittee Rep. Gerry Connolly, and Natural Resources Chair Raúl Grijalva swiftly called for Reilly’s removal. “Whistleblower retaliation does not get more clear cut than this,” they said in a statement.
But the Interior Department disputed the report, with spokesperson Nicholas Goodwin saying in a statement the report “attempts to turn the USGS human resources department’s reassignment of an administrative employee into a prohibited personnel practice, which is fundamentally inaccurate given the employee requested to be reassigned multiple times before a complaint was issued, was moved with no reduction in pay or grade level and still reported to a senior GS-15 supervisor.”
HAPPY HALLOWHEELER: EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is undoubtedly one of Washington’s highest-ranking Halloween enthusiasts. Sadly, the agency tells ME that he won’t dress up this year as the pandemic has quashed EPA’s annual party at which he traditionally hands out candy to trick-or-treating children of agency employees. However, ME gives high scores to Wheeler’s last two costumes, a spiffy pumpkin-themed outfit in 2018 and a full-on Jack Skellington costume in 2019.
CLIMATE SUIT (AGAIN) SENT TO STATE COURT: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit in Boston said a climate change lawsuit brought by the state of Rhode Island against multiple oil companies does belong in state court instead of federal court, Pro’s Alex Guillén reports. The decision is the fourth such ruling by an appellate panel.
Fossil fuel companies named in similar suits have sought to bump the lawsuits up to federal courts in part because they likely would be blocked under Supreme Court precedent that gives EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gases. The companies in the Rhode Island suit argued that two contracts to produce oil for the U.S. Navy and leases issued to extract oil and natural gas from the outer continental shelf meant they were helping the government produce an item and thus the case should be moved into federal court. But the two-judge panel concluded that argument was a “mirage” because those activities aren’t related to the climate change damages Rhode Island cited in its suit.
FIRSTENERGY SACKS CEO CHUCK JONES: FirstEnergy fired CEO Chuck Jones Thursday as a federal probe digs into the bribery scandal related to a coal and nuclear bailout in the state. Jones, along with recently deceased coal magnate Bob Murray, had pressed the Trump administration for a federal bailout of coal and nuclear power plants that never came to fruition.
FirstEnergy said last night it also fired Dennis Chack, senior vice president of product development, marketing, and branding, and Michael Dowling, senior vice president of external affairs, effective immediately. The firings follow a “previously disclosed internal review related to the government investigations,” in which the Independent Review Committee of the Board determined the executives violated “certain FirstEnergy policies and its code of conduct,” although it did not specify which policies.
Recall: Federal officials charged Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and several lobbyists and advisers for a years-long bribery scheme aimed at securing a bailout for coal and nuclear power plants that were struggling to stay afloat. Prosecutors said a nonprofit controlled by Householder received $60 million from an unnamed company, which Ohio media identified as FirstEnergy Solutions, a spinoff from FirstEnergy. That money was allegedly then used to elect lawmakers who largely voted to pass House Bill 6, which provided the $1.3 billion to prevent the shutdown of FirstEnergy Solutions’ two nuclear power plants. A FirstEnergy spokeswoman confirmed to The Wall Street Journal last night the firings stemmed from the company’s internal review in connection with the bribery probe.
Cleveland.com reports: “FirstEnergy officials have not been charged or officially named in the probe, but charging documents make clear the company is central to the alleged bribery scheme. … Documents filed earlier this month involving a shareholder’s lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Akron show that Jones and other top executives at FirstEnergy sold off millions of dollars of company stock from March 1, 2017, to March 1, 2020.”
— “How Exxon silences staff alarmed by the climate crisis, according to a former employee,” via VICE.
— “Three states — Maryland, Virginia, N. Carolina — to collaborate on offshore wind projects,” via The Washington Post.
— “New Pebble tapes: ‘You aren’t held to your promises’ in election season, mine exec says,” via Alaska Public Media.
— “Make Science Great Again: U.S. researchers dream of life after Trump,” via Reuters.
— “Zeta causes 2 million power outages, speeds its way into Virginia,” via NPR.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
