With help from Alex Guillén, Eric Wolff and Annie Snider
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— The Trump administration is expected to announce today its finalized repeal of Obama-era limits on methane pollution from new oil and gas wells.
— A new proposal from the Energy Department would redefine showerheads to boost the flow of water.
— DOE is close to officially reopening an Arctic Energy Office in Alaska that will expand the agency’s research into the region’s changing climate and how to adapt oil and gas production to it.
GOOD MORNING! IT’S THURSDAY. I’m your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. Mike Mower gets the trivia win. Sen. Kamala Harris is the third woman to be named a running mate on a major party presidential ticket — behind Geraldine Ferraro, who was the VP candidate to Democrat Walter Mondale, and Sarah Palin, a Republican who was on the ticket with John McCain. For today: How many previous vice presidents also served as attorney general? 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 podcast: How old EPA chiefs envision the future EPA
WHO’S THE KID SPITTIN’ FLAMES, CHANGIN’ THE GAME: EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is in Pittsburgh today to unveil a rollback of methane emissions rules for new oil and gas wells, which in turn will end the agency’s legal mandate to regulate existing ones as well.
ICYMI, Alex Guillén, Zack Colman and Ben Lefebvre previewed the rulemaking on Monday, including the climate impacts and the policy split between the small producers and the majors. Also attending today’s announcement in Steel City: freshly minted Deputy Energy Secretary Mark Menezes and Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.).
FORMER EPA OFFICIALS CALL FOR ‘RESET‘: Six former EPA administrators spanning both Democratic and Republican administrations called for a “reset” at the agency Wednesday to steer it in “a new, forward-looking direction” and address issues such as climate change and environmental justice, Alex reports.
The former officials — Lee M. Thomas, William K. Reilly, Carol M. Browner, Christine Todd Whitman, Lisa P. Jackson and Gina McCarthy — issued an open letter that cited a new report from the Environmental Protection Network offering a litany of recommendations to update EPA’s mission. They specifically cited the far-reaching impacts of climate change and environmental injustices that concentrated exposure and risk on low-income communities, communities of color and indigenous people.
DOE TO ADD ARCTIC ENERGY OFFICE: The Energy Department is planning to soon reopen its Arctic Energy Office in Alaska, Pro’s Sarah Cammarata reports. The effort has been helped by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and comes as the Trump administration seeks to increase U.S. influence in the Arctic.
The new DOE office will be located on the University of Alaska’s Fairbanks campus and its three priorities — energy, environment and security — were developed in conversations with the university, DOE, as well as four national labs over the past two years, said Gwen Holdmann, director at the Alaska Center for Energy and Power research program, who has worked closely with DOE on the project.
Murkowski secured language in the 2020 Energy-Water Appropriations bill that said the office is intended to promote research on electric power technology and the development of crude oil extraction, “reinjection of carbon, and extended drilling technologies.”
The office will look at climate “writ large,” according to Holdmann, including climate forecasts and assessments of communities that are expected to be displaced because of melting sea ice.
SHOWER THE PEOPLE: DOE is making good on a talking point from President Donald Trump: It’s publishing a proposed rule to boost the flow of water in your shower. The regulation would redefine showerheads so that each appliance can include multiple nozzles. That will allow manufacturers to skirt a water conservation rule that limits water flow to 2.5 gallons per minute by putting several heads into a single fixture.
Trump has often railed against the flow rate of showerheads and faucets, including last month at an appearance on the South Lawn in which he lamented, “You take a shower, the water doesn’t come out.” DOE’s rule says it is aligning its definition of showerhead with one put in place by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2018.
A showerhead is a showerhead is a showerhead: Efficiency advocates are appalled. “It would allow for really big showerheads that have multiple nozzles,” Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, told ME before the rule had been published. “DOE says the standard applies to the nozzle, which seems at odds with the statute. The term showerhead includes any showerhead. It’s a self-referential definition — a showerhead is a showerhead.”
Washers and dryers, too: DOE will also publish a proposal to allow faster-cycle, less efficient washers and dryers. This rule aligns with the agency’s earlier proposal to allow a new category of dishwashers that would also be less efficient but faster. Critics of the moves can’t figure out why the agency feels the need for this rule, as consumers can buy top-loading washers with fast-wash options. “No one wants it, no one asked for it,” deLaski said.
TELL US MORE ABOUT SEWAGE: Republican leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are asking EPA and the CDC for more information about the agencies’ work to monitor wastewater for the coronavirus. “Wastewater surveillance can serve as a surveillance tool which does not require additional Covid-19 diagnostic testing to be performed, and therefore helps to preserve much needed diagnostic testing supplies,” ranking member Greg Walden of Oregon wrote in letters sent Wednesday that were also signed by the top Republicans on the subcommittees on health, environment and oversight.
The lawmakers argued that sewage monitoring can help provide an early warning sign of spikes in communities and potential hot spots like nursing homes, prisons and schools — an especially valuable tool as the CDC has said roughly 40 percent of people who contract the virus show no symptoms or only mild ones.
JUDGES SKEPTICAL OF PEBBLE APPEAL: Two federal judges on Wednesday appeared skeptical that the Trump administration does not have to explain in court its decision to gut EPA’s Obama-era proposal that would have preemptively blocked the Pebble Mine in Alaska, but was never finalized. Alex reports more for Pros.
COURT DENIES OIL, TRUMP REQUESTS IN CLIMATE BATTLE: The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will not revisit its May ruling sending a climate change lawsuit brought against oil companies by San Francisco and Oakland back to state courts. The companies requested a rehearing, and the Trump administration last week filed a brief in the suit urging the court to reconsider and allow the oil companies to remove the suit to federal courts, where it likely would be blocked. But the court on Wednesday denied the request, and said none of the circuit’s judges asked to vote on an en banc rehearing.
— The only remaining appeal option is the Supreme Court, where the companies have until January to seek review. However, the high court will decide this fall whether to take a similar climate change lawsuit jurisdiction case out of Baltimore that will be a bellwether for cases like this one.
WEAK CLEAN ENERGY JOBS REPORT: The clean energy sector added just 3,195 jobs in July, leaving a total of 511,075 clean energy workers out of work since the coronavirus pandemic began, BW Research said in analysis Wednesday. The small gains in July suggest a slowing rebound coming on the heels of June’s robust 106,000 jump, which marked the first gain in the sector after months of decline. In fact, at the current pace, BW Research said it would take nearly 15 years to recover all clean energy jobs lost since the pandemic began in February, I report for Pros.
The research also showed equity issues in both job losses and recovery, Phil Jordan, vice president of BW Research, told ME. The data showed Latino workers in the clean energy sector have been hit much harder than other demographics, and generally speaking, the unemployment rate has not improved for Black workers despite improvements in the economy.
Overall, recovery in the clean energy sector “seems to be on pretty uneven footing,” Jordan said, adding that he isn’t expecting another boost of 100,000 jobs in the next month.
“We’re expecting a lot of volatility,” he said. “The things that we can’t predict are what Congress and the president will do and what the virus will do. At this point, we don’t see a lot of optimism for a very strong rebound happening on its own in the near-term.”
Adding on: Sixty-four bipartisan mayors from 25 states urged lawmakers in a letter today to boost the clean energy sector in their recovery efforts by extending solar and wind energy tax credits; expanding incentives for electric vehicles and energy efficiency; and creating new tax credits for energy storage projects.
ZEROING IN: It is now “conceivable” Venezuela could produce close to zero barrels of oil, according to a new analysis by IHS Markit. Crude oil production in the country, which has some of the biggest reserves in the world and was once one of the largest oil producers, is currently between 100,000 and 200,000 barrels a day and falling. The country is now the third-smallest producer among OPEC’s 13 members.
Venezuela’s production fall has been exacerbated by the oil price collapse spurred this year by the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. sanctions and limited domestic oil storage, IHS said, though it notes the decline is also the “product of decades of decline and decay.”
“In terms of market impact, if you had to choose a time for the fall of a major global oil producer — a founding member of OPEC, no less — this would be it,” said Jim Burkhard, vice president and head of oil markets at IHS Markit. “There is ample production capacity around the world to satisfy the recovery in world oil demand that has been underway since May.”
IEA: DON’T LET COVID CRISIS GO TO WASTE: An emphasis on bioenergy and biofuels leads the list of five principles the International Energy Agency released Wednesday to help the world recover from the COVID pandemic. The organization sees biofuels as a high-labor, low-carbon means to rebuild the energy economy. “In the short term you are doing the sustainable thing, and you are creating more jobs, which is the priority,” said Paolo Frankl, the head of the IEA’s renewables division. IEA’s principles include providing short-term financial support for biofuel producers, reassessing fossil fuel subsidies while prices are low, and rebuilding the economy with bioenergy in mind.
DNC DETAILS: The DNC Council on the Environment and Climate Crisis is planning to hold a virtual event on Tuesday as part of the official Democratic National Convention program. The two-hour event will include panel discussions on “Why and How Democrats Should Run On Climate,” and “Democratic Climate Leaders: What We’re Doing On Climate and Why We Need Joe Biden.” Michelle Deatrick, founder and chair of the DNC Council on the Environment and Climate Crisis; Washington Gov. Jay Inslee; Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison; and environmentalist and donor Tom Steyer are among the speakers.
“The climate crisis touches every aspect of our lives, and it’s getting worse at a faster rate than was thought even a year ago. Addressing the climate crisis must be front and center in Democrats’ policy agenda,” Deatrick said in a statement to ME.
Catch up: A draft of the DNC platform contains four pages on combating climate change and environmental justice, and calls for achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by no later than 2050.
TALE OF TWO CAMPAIGNS: Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris gave their first joint remarks Wednesday since Harris joined the presidential ticket, and Biden used the opportunity to tout a focus on tackling climate change. “When [Trump] thinks about climate change, all we hear is the word ‘hoax,'” Biden said. “The Biden-Harris administration is going to meet the climate crisis, protect the health of the American public and along the way, we’re going to deliver one word: jobs.”
Shortly after, Trump assailed Harris during his briefing for her previous comments on a fracking ban. “How do you think no fracking in Pennsylvania is going to play? That’s a big fracking state, if you didn’t have energy produced that way, you would have taxes that were triple, and you’d have unemployment that you wouldn’t believe,” he said. A CBS News poll this week has Biden leading Trump by 6 points in the Keystone State. In the same poll, 52 percent of respondents said they opposed the process of fracking in the state.
— “AOC will have just 60 seconds to deliver her remarks next week at the Democratic National Convention,” via Business Insider.
— “BLM defers controversial oil and gas leases near Utah national parks,” via Deseret News.
— “Boris Johnson poised to stop U.K. funding overseas fossil fuel projects,” via The Guardian.
— “Xcel Energy unveils $100 million plan to drive more electric transportation,” via The Denver Post.
— “U.S. oil refiners accelerate shift to renewables in downturn,” via The Wall Street Journal.
— “Global warming could unlock carbon from tropical soil,” via The New York Times.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
