With help from Anthony Adragna, Alex Guillén, Gavin Bade and Eric Wolff
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— The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will examine six bills this morning targeting PFAS contamination, and marking a clear departure from the House’s approach to the chemicals.
— House Republicans are expected to try to restore some legacy provisions removed by Democrats in this year’s Interior-EPA spending bill.
— EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler launched an effort made known Tuesday to re-do cost-benefit analyses at EPA, which critics fear will make it harder to regulate pollution in the future.
GOOD MORNING! IT’S WEDNESDAY. I’m your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. NYISO’s Benjamin Cohen knew that former President John Tyler had the most failed Supreme Court nominations: eight. For today: Which first lady never held a press conference or gave an interview to a newspaper or magazine? Send your tips, energy gossip and comments to ktamborrino@politico.com.
PFAS TALKING: Six bills focused on contamination from toxic PFAS chemicals are up today before the Senate EPW Committee.
The panel is taking a different tack than lawmakers in the House. Senators are focusing on the chemical compounds that research has shown to be harmful to humans rather than tackling all of the roughly 5,000 members of the chemical class, Pro’s Annie Snider and Anthony Adragna report. That includes, S. 1507 (116), on tap today from ranking member Tom Carper (Del.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) that would require public reporting of emissions of a subset of PFAS under the Toxic Release Inventory.
The House-Senate divide on the issue echoes the overhaul of the Toxic Substances Control Act three years ago, when the Senate’s compromise bill prevailed over the House’s. That defeat still hangs over House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders as they take on PFAS. “I think they are coming into this like Rocky II: Somehow they’re going to come back and recapture their glory,” said a chemicals industry lobbyist who speaks regularly with Democrats. Read more.
— Senators will hear from witnesses today spanning Kim White of the American Chemistry Council to Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group, an organization in favor of aggressive PFAS regulation by handling the thousands of chemicals as a class. But ACC, which represents companies that manufacture, formulate or process PFAS, has supported EPA’s PFAS Action Plan and efforts to regulate the two most well known PFAS — PFOA and PFOS — but has fiercely opposed efforts to regulate the whole class.
G. Tracy Mehan III of American Water Works Association will also testify. During last week’s House hearing, AWWA was skeptical of overly broad regulation, particularly over concerns that utilities will be hit with the costs of treating water to remove PFAS.
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER MARKUP: House appropriators Tuesday advanced the Energy-Water spending bill for fiscal 2020 by a 31-21 vote. This morning, appropriators will gather to mark up the Interior-Environment spending bill, a $37.3 billion package.
Republicans will attempt to revive a host of provisions that Democrats stripped from the bill as part of their push to leave out controversial riders. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), chairwoman of the Interior-EPA subcommittee, took out provisions backed by Republicans that had been considered legacy issues, including language preventing the sage grouse from being listed as endangered and a provision that stopped the Army Corps of Engineers from changing the definition of “fill material.”
FOR YOUR RADAR: ME is told Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine will introduce the Better Energy Storage Technology Act today, part of the GOP effort to advance measures that drive technology to help solve climate change. The bill, as Pro’s Eric Wolff reported, aims to improve short-term electricity storage technology.
BIG CARBON ADVOCACY DAY: Senior officials from 75 companies representing $2.5 trillion in 2018 revenues and 750,000 U.S. employees are descending on the Hill today for more than 70 bipartisan meetings in hopes of educating lawmakers on carbon pricing. “Congressmen and women who are ready to lead on carbon pricing will have the support of the business community,” said Anne Kelly, vice president of government relations for Ceres at a forum Monday. Participants include big names like Johnson & Johnson, BP, eBay, CapitalOne, PepsiCo, Tesla, PG&E and Microsoft, among many others. More here.
ME FIRST — MARKEY’S GREEN VISION: Sen. Ed Markey, co-sponsor of the Green New Deal resolution, will today unveil a white paper on a green infrastructure package. It addresses factoring climate change into transportation spending while strengthening fuel economy and vehicle greenhouse gas emissions standards, in part by providing funding for more research and development into batteries. Read it.
SLEEPLESS IN SUBCOMMITTEE: Interior Secretary David Bernhardt will testify today before the Senate Appropriations Interior-Environment Subcommittee on his department’s FY 2020 budget. Ranking member Tom Udall will press Bernhardt on his comment last week that he’s “not losing sleep” over a recent finding that carbon dioxide measurements in the atmosphere have reached 415 ppm. “Let me tell you: along with many Americans, I am losing sleep over climate change and over this administration’s stubborn refusal to address its threat,” Udall will say.
MANCHIN: RENEWABLE TAX EXTENDERS SHOULD HELP COAL COMMUNITIES: If Congress wants to extend solar and wind tax credits, as some Democrats want it to, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) wants to make sure coal communities get a piece of the action. Manchin hopes that areas that depended on now-shuttered coal mines and power plants for jobs get support to promote renewable energy manufacturing. “We’re having a shift in our energy portfolio if you will, in our energy program,” Manchin told POLITICO. “The money should be basically so you don’t leave nobody behind.”
MURKOWSKI STILL WORRIED OVER FERC NOMS: Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Lisa Murkowski said Tuesday she remains “very concerned” about FERC vacancies. Murkowski told reporters she hasn’t heard from the White House about a nominee to fill the seat of the late Kevin McIntyre or how it will handle the nomination of former environmental activist Allison Clements — Senate Democrats’ pick to replace Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur, who will step down this year.
If her committee receives nominees soon, Murkowski said they could likely still be confirmed by the end of the year. “The challenge is the length of the vetting time and we have no control over that. The White House doesn’t really even have any control over that, so as soon as you can get started, the better off we’re going to be because we’ll have no time to do that,” Murkowski said. “So yes, I’m worried, but we should have time to do that.”
AT WHAT COST-BENEFIT? Wheeler directed four key offices, in a May 13 memo released Tuesday, to change how they calculate costs and benefits in rulemakings, Pro’s Alex Guillén reports. The memo formalizes an effort that has been more subtly included as part of many of the Trump administration’s rulemakings.
Wheeler’s memo comes not long after the Science Advisory Board revealed it is planning a project examining scientific issues around how EPA calculates co-benefits in air regulations. In a recently posted document, the panel called co-benefits “non-controversial” from a “decision-science perspective.” But it said precision in quantifying co-benefits in regulations, including foregone co-benefits in deregulatory actions, has become a concern and requires some “careful scientific guidance.”
The document also notes that there are legal and policy issues regarding co-benefits that are beyond the scope of the project. SAB’s proposal would have a working group start up later this year, with a draft report coming in fall 2020 and a final report in spring 2021. The board is expected to discuss it further at next month’s SAB meeting.
ANOTHER INHOFE ALUM LANDS AT EPA: A former aide to Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) who later became a Dow Chemical lobbyist has joined EPA to help handle responses to congressional requests. Katherine English is serving as an oversight and legislative counsel in the agency’s Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations. English previously held counsel positions on the Senate Homeland Security Committee and then Inhofe’s EPW Committee, and later spent several years as a lobbyist for the Fertilizer Institute and Dow Chemical. English joins the club of former Inhofe aides now at EPA, including chief of staff Ryan Jackson and enforcement chief Susan Bodine.
Emails obtained by the Sierra Club last year and reported at the time showed that English had sought a position at EPA in 2017. She told ME that she instead returned home to Oklahoma to care for a sick relative. She also ran a family trust that leased land to oil and gas drillers, though English told ME she did not personally benefit from that leasing as the revenue went toward the relative’s care.
— “Saudi Arabia strikes deal to buy U.S. natural gas,” The Wall Street Journal.
— “DOE secretary urges Piketon officials to move quickly on testing as protesters appear at info event,” The Columbus Dispatch.
— “Tillerson talks Russia with members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee,” POLITICO.
— “Interior can treat lawmakers, officials to free concert tickets under new guidelines,” The Hill.
— “Research on children’s health risks in doubt over EPA funds,” Associated Press.
— “Texas pipeline activists face 10-year sentence under Texas plan,” Bloomberg.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
