With help from Annie Snider, Zack Colman, Ben Lefebvre and Maya Parthasarathy
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— With focus renewed on EPA’s “secret science” proposal, the House Science Committee will hold a hearing today on science in the agency’s rulemaking.
— The House kicks off the public phase of its impeachment proceedings today with testimony from two officials, including one who called the Energy secretary’s role in the Ukraine saga “unusual.”
— The world faces a “relentless” increase in energy sector emissions if governments don’t change course, according to the International Energy Agency.
WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY! I’m your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. Check out the new 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.
The 54th Congress saw the largest freshman class, with 178 traditional first-term members. For today: Who gets the credit for first coining the “White House,” referring to what was called the President’s House or the Executive Mansion? Send your tips, energy gossip and comments to ktamborrino@politico.com.
DOWN TO A SCIENCE: The House Science Committee will hold a hearing this morning on the future of science in EPA rulemaking — a closely watched issue, particularly in light of the agency’s reworking of its science transparency proposal.
The hearing comes on the heels of a New York Times report that the Trump administration is broadening its proposed rule governing scientific transparency to prevent EPA from relying on any study unless all of its underlying data has been made publicly available. EPA on Tuesday said the revamped proposal was recently sent to the White House for review and that it intends to finalize the rule in 2020. The agency however disputed some of the Times report, saying the document the newspaper posted is an outdated version of the rule.
Still, the issue is likely to come up this morning, as lawmakers hear from Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, an EPA science adviser and principal deputy assistant administrator for science in the Office of Research and Development, who records released to the Union of Concerned Scientists show was involved in at least some meetings on the overhaul of the rule. A second panel this morning will feature testimony from current and former public health and environmental officials.
A number of Democrats on the committee have a vested interest in hot-button issues before Orme-Zavaleta’s office, including PFAS chemicals that are turning up in hundreds of communities’ water supplies and ethylene oxide, a carcinogenic chemical emitted from petrochemical plants and medical sterilizing facilities, and which recent EPA data showed concentrations thousands of times higher than levels EPA says is acceptable.
ME will be watching to see if any lawmakers press the research official on implications of the updated science rule on EPA’s ability to deal with areas of major public health concern.
And don’t forget: Science Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson late last month threatened to subpoena EPA over a separate bitter feud with EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler over documents related to a scientific assessment of formaldehyde, another carcinogen, that Orme-Zavaleta’s office dropped under Wheeler’s direction.
DoD IGNORES PFAS GUIDANCE: A new memo from the Defense Department ignores EPA guidance relating to the cleanup of groundwater contaminated with toxic PFAS chemicals and calls for setting a screening level that is 10 times higher than that recommended by EPA earlier this year. The memo, obtained by Pennsylvania newspaper The Intelligencer, sets a screening level of 400 parts per trillion for the chemicals PFOA and PFOS — far lower than the 40 part per trillion screening level recommended by EPA in draft cleanup guidance issued this spring. The memo calls for the lower level at sites where multiple PFAS are found.
Recall: The EPA guidance was stalled for months in interagency review, and was significantly weakened by the Defense Department and White House before it was released. That document has not been finalized and wouldn’t be legally binding even if it was.
The new revelations come as the House and Senate remain locked in battle over PFAS provisions in the annual defense bill, many of which are targeted at prodding the DoD into cleaning up the chemicals more fully and aggressively. House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith said Tuesday that he hasn’t heard back from his Senate counterpart, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) on the latest offer he made 10 days ago.
NOTICE ME: The Bureau of Land Management sent out formal notices to staffers Tuesday about its planned relocation from the D.C. office, kick-starting a 30-day period in which staffers must decide whether to move or potentially exit the agency. A spokesperson confirmed to ME that 159 BLM employees received the so-called management directed geographic reassignments letters Tuesday.
Interior announced in mid-July that it would relocate the majority of BLM leadership out West, with with 27 employees’ jobs set to move from D.C. to Grand Junction, Colo. and others heading to field offices in several western states.
“If anything, it makes the agency dysfunctional,” Robert Abbey, who was BLM director from 2009 to 2012, told ME of the move. “It certainly makes it less efficient in terms of decision-making. I think the ultimate goal is to let all decisions be made in the office of the secretary in D.C.”
WORTH WATCHING: Public hearings begin today as part of the House’s impeachment probe, with two key figures in the Ukraine scandal testifying: William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary of State. Kent, ME readers will recall, told House investigators in closed-door testimony that he viewed Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s role in Ukraine policy as “somewhat unusual.”
Here to help: Read POLITICO’s insider’s guide to the public impeachment hearings.
FLYING IN: Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions kicks off a two-day fly-in today with business advocates pushing for the energy storage tax credit and arguing it benefits business and job growth. The group will target 15 Republicans in both chambers to urge them to pass the Energy Storage Tax Incentive and Deployment Act of 2019, H.R. 2096 (116) and S. 1142 (116), and they have meetings planned with offices including Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).
IEA UNVEILS OUTLOOK: The world is on track to miss global warming targets amid “relentless” increases in energy sector emissions, according to the International Energy Agency. “The overall response is still far from adequate to meet the energy security and environmental threats the world now faces,” the agency said in releasing its annual World Energy Outlook.
POLITICO Europe’s Kalina Oroschakoff reports the assessment comes just weeks before global climate negotiators meet in Madrid for the COP25 climate summit to agree on the final details of the Paris climate agreement. Under the deal, governments are meant to resubmit, and ideally increase, their emissions reduction targets next year to help keep rising temperatures in check. But IEA findings show that current and planned policies won’t be enough to reach the agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius.
The report showed that in the absence of any additional policy changes, energy demand would rise by 1.3 percent a year to 2040. Keeping warming in line with the Paris agreement would require “much deeper cuts” in emissions, as well as increases in energy efficiency and electrification across the economy — especially the transport sector.
The release comes as IEA faces pressure from groups concerned about climate change in the annual report, which crafts expectations on the state of coal, oil and gas. “Critics say [the report] underplays the speed at which the world could switch to renewable sources of energy. The result, they say, is to bolster the case for continued investment in fossil fuel companies, undermining the fight against climate change,” Reuters reported Tuesday.
LIGHTS OUT FOR TRUMP’S EMP PUSH? The issue of guarding against electromagnetic pulse attacks will likely fade away now that advocates who briefly populated President Donald Trump’s National Security Council leave the administration, Pro’s Sarah Cammarata reports. Trump issued an executive order in March intended to aid coordination between federal agencies to address the risk, which most in the scientific community have dismissed. Utilities have resisted addressing EMP attacks due to high costs that some experts predict could be many billions of dollars.
Who’s out? William Happer, a self-declared climate skeptic and proponent of the fight against EMPs, left the White House in September. Trump that month also ousted former national security adviser John Bolton, who backed hardening power plants and the electric grid against EMPs.
AD TOUTS CARBON TAX: Americans for Carbon Dividends launched a six-figure digital advertising campaign promoting a carbon tax-and-dividend proposal that will run on Facebook, Hulu, Twitter and websites for The Washington Post, Fox News and Wall Street Journal. The spot, the first for the Climate Leadership Council’s lobbying arm, touts its plan as a bipartisan solution that will halve greenhouse gas emissions, generate a $2,000 dividend for a family of four and ditch “unnecessary regulations.”
Americans for Carbon Dividends CEO Ted Halstead said his group wants to create political space for a business-backed, bipartisan climate policy. Several major oil and gas companies, along with environmental organizations, have thrown their money behind the carbon dividend, which would put a price on emissions in exchange for shelving regulations, returning revenues to Americans. Halstead said his group’s approach could attract Republicans who have expressed growing interest in tackling rising emissions but aren’t enamored by Green New Deal-style policies or the prospect of continuing past prescriptions of regulating emissions and subsidizing clean energy.
“It’s essential going into the 2020 election that this not be viewed as a partisan issue,” Halstead told ME. “Without that third lane of climate policy, we have a very skewed debate.”
— “FBI eyes how Pennsylvania approved pipeline,” via Associated Press.
— “SRP confirms that last day for Navajo Generating Station just days away,” via Tucson.com.
— “Industry weighs taking ozone pollution case to Supreme Court,” via Bloomberg Environment.
— “How the DACA battle could change environmental law,” via E&E News.
— “After hullabaloo, new proposal would allow some visible solar panels in D.C.’s historic districts,” via DCist.
— “The climate chain reaction that threatens the heart of the Pacific,” via The Washington Post.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
