With help from Anthony Adragna, Alex Guillén, Eric Wolff and Daniel Lippman
Editor’s Note: This edition of Morning Energy is published weekdays at 10 a.m. POLITICO Pro Energy subscribers hold exclusive early access to the newsletter each morning at 6 a.m. Learn more about POLITICO Pro’s comprehensive policy intelligence coverage, policy tools and services at politicopro.com.
— Electric vehicle charging infrastructure should see additional investments from a Senate transportation bill expected to be marked up next week, according to lawmakers drafting the bill.
— The White House and congressional leaders reached a deal Monday to lift the nation’s debt limit and dramatically raise federal spending levels.
— EPA’s FOIA update faced bipartisan criticism Monday from the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but the agency said it would not veer from the proposed changes.
HELLO, IT‘S TUESDAY! I’m your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. Stuart Ross of Clean Air Task Force recognized that Leslie Lynch King Jr. was the original name given to former President Gerald Ford. For today: What was the first national monument established under the Antiquities Act? Send your tips, energy gossip and comments to ktamborrino@politico.com.
OH SAY CAN YOU EV? The top Republican and Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee are still barreling toward a markup of surface transportation legislation Aug. 1 in committee and both indicated Monday they expect significant investment in electric vehicle charging infrastructure would be part of the package. Chairman John Barrasso, who has called for ending tax breaks for electric vehicles, said that he favored more funding for charging infrastructure. “If you have an established market, you need infrastructure so it can be used but it doesn’t need more tax subsidies to subsidize the purchase of those vehicles,” Barrasso told reporters, while also calling for “some sort of user’s fee for the wear and tear that are produced by those vehicles.” He said the EV investments would be greater than Congress had dedicated “previously” to the evolving market.
Barrasso said he and ranking member Tom Carper communicated over the weekend on the bill, which he said also “contains some of the streamlining of regulations to make it easier so you can do projects better and faster and cheaper and smarter.” Carper told reporters he expected the measure to be unveiled July 29 ahead of an Aug. 1 markup. “We have not locked down every single item but huge progress has been made,” the Delaware Democrat said.
Other climate measures? It’s possible, Carper said, naming additional funds for EV charging as a top priority. “If you compared where we started off to where we’ve come, we’ve come a long ways,” Carper said of climate-related provisions. “We aren’t quite where we want to be but good progress has been made.”
YOU’VE GOT A DEAL: Congressional leaders and Trump administration officials last night locked down a two-year compromise to avert a debt default and billions of dollars in forced budget cuts, Pro’s Jennifer Scholtes, Sarah Ferris and Caitlin Emma report. As part of the deal, negotiators agreed to avoid bundling the 12 funding bills into one massive “omnibus,” instead endeavoring to pass them individually or in smaller packages in the coming weeks.
CRAFT BREWING: President Donald Trump’s pick for ambassador to the U.N., Kelly Craft, is facing new criticism for frequent absences from the embassy in Ottawa when she was ambassador to Canada, Pro Canada’s Lauren Gardner reports. Craft, who hails from Kentucky and is married to Oklahoma coal magnate Joe Craft, spent all or part of 210 days in one of those two states, according a report that committee Democrats released Monday. Republicans disputed that figure, saying they counted only 194 days in those locations.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee moved a vote on Craft’s nomination, originally scheduled for today, until Thursday. Senators are slated to consider a bill, S. 1441 (116), at the same business meeting Thursday, which would sanction companies that provide the ships used to lay the undersea pipe necessary for the Gazprom-backed Nord Stream II pipeline to cross the Baltic Sea, Pro’s Ben Lefebvre reports.
WHAT’S THE PLAN? Democratic leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee today will unveil what they’re calling a “bold new plan that will guide the Committee’s approach to tackling the climate crisis.” Chairman Frank Pallone and Reps. Paul Tonko, chairman of the Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee, and Bobby Rush, chairman of the Energy Subcommittee, will hold a 2 p.m. news conference to announce the plan.
WHY LUNTZ: Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who leads Democrats’ ad-hoc climate panel, told reporters he invited GOP pollster Frank Luntz for his Thursday hearing in hopes he may offer “the path forward” for Republican lawmakers in addressing climate change. “A lot of them understand that they’re in deep trouble with the electorate, even their own voters, on the climate issue and he’s considered a guru to them,” Schatz said. Asked about Luntz’s work in the 2000s encouraging Republicans to cast doubt on climate science, Schatz replied: “I think he’s coming around.”
MAIL CALL: CONGRESS TO IRS, LET’S GET THAT 45Q GUIDANCE GOING! Republican Rep. Mike Conaway and 30 other members of Congress from both parties are calling on the IRS to speed up its process of giving guidance for accessing the 45Q tax credit for carbon capture. Industry faces a ticking clock to commence construction on projects and needs guidance and rules from the IRS on what qualifies for the program, the lawmakers argue. Projects require long lead times, and “it is imperative” that the IRS provide guidance quickly, the letter says.
SENATORS PUT EPA FOIA RULE IN FOCUS: A bipartisan group of four senators from the Judiciary Committee — Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) — raised “significant concerns” about EPA’s recent rule updating the agency’s regulations for complying with the Freedom of Information Act, Pro’s Alex Guillén reports. The senators in a Monday letter ask Administrator Andrew Wheeler to reconsider the rule slated to take effect on Friday, arguing it appears to give political appointees the power to decide what to withhold and release to the public instead of career FOIA experts.
The criticism is significant because two of the senators — Cornyn and Leahy — authored the three most recent updates to the FOIA law. But EPA is not backing down, Alex also reports. “After many years of delay, EPA’s FOIA regulations are now in line with the congressionally mandated changes to the statute and EPA has no plans to withdraw the finalized rule,” EPA spokesman Michael Abboud said in a statement. Two career officials who run EPA’s FOIA program briefed Senate Judiciary Committee staff last week, Abboud added.
EPA, DEMS FIGHT OVER WEHRUM-INDUSTRY TIES: EPA and two Senate Democrats are trading barbs over the lawmakers’ Monday report on former air chief Bill Wehrum’s industry ties. In an accompanying letter, Sens. Carper and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) urged EPA’s inspector general to continue probes related to Wehrum despite his recent resignation. In a statement last night, Abboud called the Carper-Whitehouse report “a replay of old allegations that have repeatedly been answered by the Agency and Mr. Wehrum.”
Abboud also refuted to the senators’ complaints about Wehrum’s meeting with several auto industry groups, saying they are criticizing Wehrum “simply because Senators Carper and Whitehouse do not like the policy direction of this Administration and their preferred strategy is to smear individuals working on policy implementation.”
Carper and Whitehouse said in their own statements that their report highlights examples of industry influence and should be investigated further by the IG. “This is yet another example where the Trump Administration has done just the opposite of ‘draining the swamp,’ by empowering polluting industries and installing those industries’ lobbyists and lawyers at the highest levels of our federal government,” said Carper. “As we looked into Trump EPA conflicts of interest, we found Hunton to be a Frankenstein’s laboratory for schemes to help polluter clients weaken EPA protections,” said Whitehouse.
COMPANIES COMMIT TO 1.5 DEGREES: Twenty-seven companies with a total market capitalization of $1.2 trillion announced this morning a commitment to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and reaching net-zero emissions by no later than 2050, ahead of September’s U.N. Climate Action Summit. Spanning Levi Strauss to AstraZeneca, the companies represent more than 1 million employees across more than 15 countries.
— Robyn Shepherd is the new communications director for advocacy for the National Audubon Society. She previously was director of media relations for Amnesty International USA.
— “Judge rules against oil companies to keep climate liability case in Rhode Island,” via The Hill.
— “State plane sent to Chicago to pick up lawmaker(s) for nuclear bailout bill,” via The Columbus Dispatch.
— “Asian refiners, shipowners hedge Strait of Hormuz transit risks,” via S&P Global Platts.
— “California, wary of more wildfires, is paying for them already,” via The New York Times.
— “Philadelphia Energy Solutions files for bankruptcy after refinery fire,” via Reuters.
— “As drillers struggle, shale investors seek safety in mineral rights,” via The Wall Street Journal.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
