With help from Zack Colman, Annie Snider, Alex Guillén and Eric Wolff
Editor’s Note: Morning Energy is a free version of POLITICO Pro Energy’s morning newsletter, which is delivered to our subscribers each morning at 6 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day’s biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro.
— The Business Roundtable, comprised of leading CEOs, is endorsing a “market-based mechanism” for greenhouse gas emissions, sources tell POLITICO.
— The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will consider two new nominations to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this morning.
— EPA postponed an internal speaker series on environmental justice this week after the White House issued a directive for agencies to stop certain “un-American” race-related training.
GOOD MORNING! IT’S WEDNESDAY. I’m your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. Christopher Guith at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute gets the trivia win for correctly naming former President Jimmy Carter, who is said to have watched 480 movies in the White House movie theater — far more than any other president. Some geography for today’s question: How many continents have no glaciers? 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: A new wave of climate change lawsuits
BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE BACKS MECHANISM FOR GHG EMISSIONS: The Business Roundtable, a major trade association that claims some of the largest and most influential firms in the U.S. as members, will endorse a “market-based mechanism” to curb greenhouse gas emissions, three people with knowledge of the plans told POLITICO’s Zack Colman.
The impending move, which is expected today, throws the lobbying voice of corporate America behind efforts to combat climate change, reflecting division between the business community and the Trump administration. A “market-based mechanism” is a broad term, and it’s unclear whether the Business Roundtable will recommend any one particular design.
A person with knowledge of the organization’s plans said the Business Roundtable will frame its position as the “best way to address climate change while also delivering long-term economic, environmental and social benefits” through policies that begin with “a well-designed market-based mechanism, which includes a price on carbon across most of the U.S. economy.”
FERC NOMS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will host its regular get-to-know-you hearing for two FERC nominees this morning.
The Trump administration has returned to the tradition of pairing nominees, and has tapped former Natural Resources Defense Council attorney Allison Clements and Virginia Corporation Commission Chair Mark Christie to fill open seats at the agency. Should both Clements and Christie be confirmed, FERC will return to its full complement.
Reminder: Clements waited months to be nominated to the open Democratic seat after the Trump administration broke with long-standing tradition by refusing to pair her with the nomination for Republican Commissioner James Danly. Christie was a bit of a sleeper pick for the Republican FERC seat, but has served a long career in Virginia energy regulation and regional electricity organizations.
— Stick around: The Energy Committee will also hold a subcommittee hearing this afternoon on 15 bills spanning public lands to the wildfires raging across the West Coast. The subpanel will consider a timely, bipartisan wildfire mitigation measure, S. 4431 (116), from California Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.). In a statement Tuesday, Feinstein called the bill “a necessary step in adapting to our new reality.”
The subcommittee will also consider a closely watched public lands bill, S. 1765 (116), from Montana Sen. Jon Tester (D), to protect thousands of acres of public land and boost outdoor recreation. Among the other bills on tap today is a measure, S. 180 (116), to streamline the oil and gas permitting process, and a bill, S. 3485 (116), to expand revenue sharing for offshore wind under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
EPA POSTPONES ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE SERIES FOLLOWING DIRECTIVE: EPA postponed an environmental justice speaker series this week because of a Sept. 4 memo from the Office of Management and Budget that cited a Trump directive for agencies to halt any “divisive, un-American propaganda training session,” POLITICO’s Alex Guillén reports.
The hourlong EPA event, which would have been held virtually on Tuesday, was part of a speaker series open to all EPA staff aimed to highlight “how addressing structural racism is indeed highly relevant to EPA’s mission and key to advancing the integration of EJ.”
WHEELER RE-APPOINTS TWO TO CASAC: EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has re-appointed the chairman and another member of the influential Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee whose terms were to expire at the end of the month. Getting new three-year terms are Chairman Tony Cox, a Denver-based independent consultant, and James Boylan, an official at the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Cox, along with the majority of CASAC’s other members, supported no change to two major air standards this year. Meanwhile, Boylan agreed that the ozone limit could remain the same but advocated for strengthening the particulate matter standard, advice EPA ultimately did not follow.
GETTING SCARY: New projections from the Bureau of Reclamation show there is as much as a 32 percent chance the Lower Colorado River Basin will be facing a shortage by 2022, and as much as a 77 percent chance that it will be in that case by 2025. Even more sobering: The modeling gives it nearly 20 percent odds that the lower basin states of Arizona, Nevada and California will be in the most severe level of shortage in 2025 — the level at which levels in the V-shaped reservoir will fall precipitously and draconian cuts kick in. The projections are based on a “stress test” scenario that essentially estimates what would happen if the current, 21-year drought conditions continue.
R&D SPENDING AS STIMULUS: The Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy organization argued in a new report that funding research and development would provide an immediate economic and jobs stimulus while setting up a more sustainable long-term economy that reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Federal research spending led to 2.7 indirect jobs for every direct job it creates across the energy, defense and health sectors for a total of 1.6 million jobs, pumping $200 billion into the economy in 2018, the report found. Those figures are for current federal research and development spending, which is at a level of 0.6 percent of GDP, below the historical average of 1 percent of GDP. Investments at the 1 percent level through the next decade would support 2.7 million jobs annually, according to an analysis performed by PwC.
But the federal government needs to better fund and focus its research to solve climate change, Jonah Goldman, Breakthrough’s managing director, told POLITICO. “What we’re basically talking about is replacing the entire physical economy with new technologies.” Industries like cement and steel-making have few ready-to-commercialize solutions for decarbonizing. “We don’t have time to allow truly blue-sky thinking to mature into technological development that will lead to the kinds of outcomes that we’re looking for,” Goldman added, noting goals for achieving net-zero economy-wide emissions by 2050 doesn’t appear possible across all sectors with current technology. Sectors responsible for a bulk of future emissions, like transportation, don’t get enough attention given that the Energy Department’s research operations are geared largely toward electricity, noted Robin Millican, Breakthrough’s director.
Breakthrough will push its research-as-jobs message on Capitol Hill. The report comes at a time when congressional Democrats and White House nominee Joe Biden are pitching huge spending plans to address rising greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change. Republicans, meanwhile, have tailored their climate approach to backing innovation, including by supporting research spending for technologies like carbon capture, storage and utilization technology and next-generation nuclear power facilities. Millican noted DOE research spending, which the study said totaled $9.5 billion in 2018 and supported 112,000 jobs across the country, has drawn bipartisan appetite for new funding.
ENERGY, FINANCIAL COMPANIES PLOT NET-ZERO PLAN: A new report from a coalition of companies that includes top officials from BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Credit Suisse, HSBC, National Grid and other firms argues that reaching net-zero emissions is technically and economically feasible. The Energy Transitions Commission report said full decarbonization would cost less than 0.5 percent of global GDP, suggesting nations should begin rapid deployment of clean energy, use green hydrogen when electrification is not possible and boost efficiency by reducing materials inputs and improving supply chains, among other steps. It identified key “breakthrough” innovations needed to achieve such goals, such as synthetic fuels for transportation like aviation, materials to replace plastics and processes to reduce the carbon intensity of cement and steel production.
COMING TO A HOUSE FLOOR NEAR YOU: House Democrats unveiled a nearly 900-page clean energy package on Tuesday, teeing up floor consideration for the measure next week. The Clean Economy Jobs and Innovation Act, H.R. 4447 (116), “fulfills House Democrats’ promise to invest in the creation of high-paying jobs by making America a global leader in clean energy,” Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said in a statement. In her own statement, Speaker Nancy Pelosi touted the measure’s focus on research and development to “unleash a clean energy revolution.”
What’s in it? The wide-ranging legislation combines several green energy bills and includes boosts to energy efficiency in buildings and energy retrofitting for schools and homes, as well as workforce training, investments in renewable technologies and boosts to electric vehicle infrastructure. Amendments to the measure are due to the Rules Committee by Friday.
DEMOCRATS KEEP UP PENDLEY PRESSURE: Several Democratic senators took to the Senate floor Tuesday to press for the removal of William Perry Pendley as deputy director of policy and programs, exercising the authority of director, at the Bureau of Land Management. In their floor speeches, Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) called on the Trump administration to remove Pendley from his role after his nomination was withdrawn, citing his “anti-public lands” views, as well as his comments on race and climate change. “What would Teddy Roosevelt think?” Heinrich posed in his remarks, after detailing how President Donald Trump recently called himself a “great environmentalist,” second only to Roosevelt.
“This is a purely political and lowly attack on a dedicated public servant and veteran Marine,” Interior spokesperson Conner Swanson said in response.
— By the way: Pendley’s de facto leadership role at BLM is the subject of two lawsuits, one brought by two environmental groups and another by Gov. Steve Bullock in Montana. On Monday, the Justice Department called on the court to throw out the lawsuit from greens, filing a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
DEMS REQUEST INFO ON NOAA HIRING: House Natural Resources Chair Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Water, Oceans and Wildlife Subcommittee Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) are seeking more information on the controversial installation of David Legates in a top position at NOAA. Legates, a professor who has spent most of his career questioning climate science, was named the new deputy assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation and prediction at the agency, where he will report directly to NOAA acting Administrator Neil Jacobs, NPR reported this week.
In a letter to Jacobs, the two Democrats oppose the hiring, writing that Legates’ appointment is “an extreme risk to the American public and an insult to the quality science and scientists at NOAA.” They request information on whether Legates was hired as a political appointee, if NOAA hired him through a “typical” government hiring process, or if another hiring process was used.
— Tristan Abbey is leaving the Republican staff on the Senate Energy Committee to launch Comarus Analytics LLC, which will “offer strategic counseling and insightful analysis to companies interested in the underpinnings of economic statecraft” in the energy, critical minerals and trade sectors. Prior to rejoining Chair Lisa Murkowski‘s (R-Alaska) staff, where he had previously led staff efforts to end the 40-year crude oil export ban, Abbey served as the Trump White House National Security Council’s director for energy and environment and as director for strategic planning.
— Lobbying and public affairs firm Signal Group launched Signal Water on Tuesday — a fully integrated public affairs practice dedicated to the water sector. The firm will be headed by Mae Stevens, executive vice president of Signal Group.
— Maureen Sullivan, the Defense Department’s top environmental official who has spearheaded its work on PFAS, is retiring, Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) announced during a hearing Tuesday.
— Terry Fulp, the Bureau of Reclamation’s regional director for the Lower Colorado River Basin, is also retiring. Fulp oversees hydropower operations and maintenance of regional facilities including Hoover Dam, as well as played a key role in a number of major water-sharing negotiations.
— Brett Doyle is now senior adviser for Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on the Covid-19 Congressional Oversight Commission. He previously was associate EPA administrator for public engagement and environmental education. (H/t Playbook)
— “Biden rips Trump’s record on ethanol,” via Reuters.
— “Federal charges brought against former head of company that hopes to begin search for oil in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,” via Anchorage Daily News.
— “Scientific American backs Biden in first-ever endorsement,” via POLITICO.
— “‘Nothing to do with climate change’: Conservative media and Trump align on fires,” via The New York Times.
— “U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission launches investigation into FirstEnergy Corp.,” via Cleveland.com.
— “Trump’s fossil fuel agenda gets pushback from federal judges,” via Associated Press.
— “The Trump team has a plan to not fight climate change,” via Type Investigations and Wired.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
