With help from Alex Guillén, Eric Wolff and Anthony Adragna
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— U.S. climate envoy John Kerry will talk carbon dioxide at the CERAWeek conference this morning, just as new data show global emissions are on the rise after a historic drop last year.
— A new version of the CLEAN Future Act is shooting for 100 percent clean energy by 2035. The draft legislation, building off a proposal from House Energy and Commerce Democrats last year, will be unveiled this afternoon.
— The Supreme Court won’t hear a challenge to a 2012 Minnesota law giving transmission companies in the state a “right of first refusal” to build electric lines in their service areas.
MORNING ENERGY ANNOUNCEMENT! Good morning! It’s Tuesday and we’re your co-hosts, Kelsey Tamborrino and Matthew Choi. After three years helming Morning Energy, Kelsey will soon be moving to a new beat at POLITICO covering renewable energy. She’s passing the ME baton to Matthew, whose byline you might recognize from his time covering breaking news at POLITICO (and who, rest assured, promises to keep up the trivia questions.). Say hi, and send your tips and trivia answers to us at [email protected] and [email protected].
Now, on to trivia: Sadly, no one knew the average age in the Senate is a young 63 years old, though it’s a bit older than the average in the House, which is 58. For today: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his brother, Alexandre, were both born on what holiday?
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: Inside the energy world’s big confab
KERRY TAKES CERA: John Kerry, President Joe Biden’s special envoy for climate, is expected to discuss global greenhouse gas emissions this morning at the annual (but virtual) CERAWeek conference — one of a spate of speakers who will devote their remarks to the topic at this year’s gathering.
Perfect timing: His remarks come as new data this morning from the International Energy Agency show that 2020 marked the largest decline in global CO2 emissions in history. As the world grappled with a pandemic that drove down fossil fuel consumption, primary energy demand dropped nearly 4 percent last year and global energy-related CO2 emissions fell by 5.8 percent — the largest annual percentage decline since World War II, according to IEA. Demand for fossil fuels was hit the hardest: Oil demand dropped 8.6 percent in 2020, while coal fell by 4 percent.
But as the pandemic started to be brought under control and economic activity increased, emissions did as well. In December 2020, global emissions were 2 percent higher than they were in the same month a year prior, IEA data show. “[O]ur numbers show we are returning to carbon-intensive business-as-usual,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol in a statement. “This year is pivotal for international climate action — and it began with high hopes — but these latest numbers are a sharp reminder of the immense challenge we face in rapidly transforming the global energy system.”
Kerry will address how the U.S. plans to lead international efforts to cut those emissions, and he’ll be joined by former Obama-era Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, now president and CEO of the Energy Futures Initiative. Other panels today include a discussion on carbon pricing with the acting chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and another on downstream strategies “beyond crude and oil products.”
That will keep the focus on the energy transition after oil executives heard a raft a speakers on Monday assert that clean energy sources are attracting a growing share of global investments — and fossil fuel producers who don’t adapt face a risk of being left behind, as Pro’s Ben Lefebvre reports. Companies that do not follow that financial shift will be “fighting gravity,” said Andy Jassy, chief executive of Amazon Web Services. “If something is going to happen, whether it’s good for you or not, if it’s good for customers, it is going to happen,” Jassy said.
Related: The American Petroleum Institute is poised to endorse a price on carbon emissions, The Wall Street Journal reports. “API supports economy-wide carbon pricing as the primary government climate policy instrument to reduce CO2 emissions while helping keep energy affordable, instead of mandates or prescriptive regulatory action,” a draft statement seen by the WSJ said.
SEC CHAIR WANTS STANDARDS IN CLIMATE RISK DISCLOSURES: Acting SEC Chair Allison Herren Lee proposed standardized climate risk disclosure guidelines that would allow companies to be more consistent in their reporting across borders. With different governments establishing their own disclosure rules, Lee said firms and investors face a “staggering complexity” in assessing companies’ preparedness for climate shocks. Pro‘s Zack Colman has more.
GATES TOUTS GREEN HYDROGEN: Green hydrogen offers the oil and gas industry ample opportunity to play a role in the energy transition, philanthropist Bill Gates suggested Monday. “Green hydrogen may need to play a very gigantic role and a lot of the skill sets involved there are from the oil and gas industry — sequestering carbon, taking nuclear waste and burying it ridiculously deep,” he said. “There are skill sets that those companies can bring. Can they help us with biofuels? Can they help us with electric fuels?” Gates added that getting to “super cheap” green hydrogen would be “a huge deal” for cleaning industrial processes like making fertilizer or producing steel.
NEW YEAR, NEW CLEAN FUTURE ACT: House Democrats are unveiling the latest iteration of the CLEAN Future Act today. It will contain a federal clean electricity standard with targets of 80 percent clean energy by 2030 and 100 percent by 2035, a source familiar with the legislation tells ME. The bill lines up with Biden’s “Build Back Better” goals, which aim to eliminate carbon on the power grid by 2035 and reach economy-wide net-zero emissions by 2050. Energy and Commerce Chair Frank Pallone (N.J.), Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee Chair Paul Tonko (N.Y.) and Energy Subcommittee Chair Bobby Rush (Ill.) will unveil the legislation at a news conference at 1:15 p.m.
TAX TALK: Senate Energy Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) want to spend $8 billion to help regions whose economies depend on producing fossil fuels transition to clean energy, Eric Wolff reports for Pros. The two Democrats introduced a bipartisan bill Monday, co-sponsored by Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), that would expand tax credits to attract clean energy manufacturing and recycling companies to areas with high unemployment. It also includes $4 billion to incentivize companies to operate in areas with recently closed coal mines and coal power plants.
The politics: Eric points out that the bill likely needs Republican support to go through, and Daines’ support could give them a necessary boost. Stabenow also said Biden — who has promised that the transition to a greener economy won’t leave fossil fuel workers behind — backs the bill. But they aren’t totally clear of GOP skepticism.
“I haven’t seen pigs fly,” Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) told Eric on Friday, ahead of the bill announcement. “If manufacturing wanted to go to McGowan County or to Clay County or other areas of West Virginia … those manufacturers would already be there.”
HAALAND VOTE SET FOR THURSDAY: The Senate Energy Committee will vote Thursday on Rep. Deb Haaland‘s nomination for Interior secretary, according to a committee notice. The panel will also approve its subcommittee assignments for the new Congress. Haaland’s chances of confirmation increased significantly last week after she secured Manchin’s backing.
FORMER EPA DEPUTIES BACK McCABE NOMINATION: A bipartisan group of nine former deputy EPA administrators threw their backing behind Janet McCabe as she heads to a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday. In a letter to Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Tom Carper (D-Del.) and ranking member Shelley Moore Capito (R. W.Va.), the group praised McCabe for her lengthy experience in both Indiana and EPA, as well as her “integrity, her strong work ethic, her empathy, and her interest in diverse points of view.” They also cited her long-standing relationship with Biden’s nominee for EPA administrator, Michael Regan.
The signatories include: Stan Meiburg, Bob Perciasepe, Marcus Peacock, Linda Fisher, W. Michael McCabe (no relation), Robert Sussman, F. Henry Habicht, A. James Barnes and Barbara Blum.
WHAT’S UP WITH THOSE USPS TRUCKS: Three Ohio Democrats want a probe into whether Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was politically motivated when granting a Wisconsin company contracts to build USPS’ next generation of delivery trucks. DeJoy told the House Oversight Committee that he predicted the new fleet would be only about 10 percent electric — a number the Democrats say falls short of Biden’s climate executive order and frequent calls for zero-emission federal vehicles. Workhorse Group, an electric vehicle manufacturer in their home state of Ohio, was passed up for the contracts.
Sen. Sherrod Brown and Reps. Tim Ryan and Marcy Kaptur voiced their displeasure in a Monday letter to Biden. It was only the latest Democratic swipe against DeJoy, whose leadership of USPS has been mired in controversy and has been repeatedly cast by Democrats as a partisan Trump appointee.
SCOTUS WON’T REVIEW MINNESOTA ROFR LAW: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear LS Power’s challenge to a 2012 Minnesota law giving transmission companies with a presence in the state a “right of first refusal” to build electric lines in their service areas, a law passed in the wake of FERC’s Order 1000 to facilitate new transmission to link regions across the U.S. LSP argued that the law shielded incumbent companies “from competition with out-of-state developers for regionally approved transmission projects for the interstate grid.” But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit last year upheld the Minnesota law after concluding that it didn’t discriminate against out-of-state entities. The Supreme Court on Monday declined to second-guess that ruling. The case was LSP Transmission Holdings v. Katie Sieben, 20-641.
U.S. TRADE REP CONSIDERING CARBON TARIFFS: The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will consider carbon border adjustments — tariffs on carbon-intensive goods from nations without their own climate regulation — to tackle climate change, according to this year’s Trade Policy Agenda. The agenda emphasized collaborating with trade partners to maintain environmental protection standards and penalizing partners who fail to uphold environmental agreements. Pro’s Gavin Bade points out the tariffs could require Congress to enact and could run into issues at the World Trade Organization.
GROUP ARGUES BIDEN CAN FREEZE, REVISIT SOME REGS: The Trump administration failed to comply with a key part of the Congressional Review Act when it finalized more than two dozen last-minute regulations at EPA and other agencies, Public Citizen alleges in a report. “Since many last-minute regulatory rollbacks were never technically on the books when President Biden came into office, they ought to be easier to wipe off the books,” the report said. The CRA, the law by which Congress can quickly nullify regulations, also states that major rules don’t take effect until they have been published in the Federal Register and formally submitted to both the House and Senate.
Public Citizen says at least 25 late-term Trump rules never took legal effect, including 15 environmental rules, such as EPA’s ozone standard, the airplane greenhouse gas rule and the science transparency rule, which has already been struck down by a judge. Public Citizen also flagged several Energy Department efficiency standards, Interior’s critical habitat definitional rule and the Labor Department’s ESG investing rule.
TEXAS PUC CHAIR RESIGNS: DeAnn Walker, chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Texas, resigned Monday amid pressure after the Texas power crisis in the middle of February. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called on Walker and ERCOT CEO Bill Magness to resign for failing to protect the grid. Four members of the board of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid operator for most of the state, resigned last week after they were heckled as out-of-staters with no stake in Texas’ energy needs.
— The Nature Conservancy added climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe as its new chief scientist, beginning June 1. Hayhoe is currently a professor and endowed chair in public policy and public law at Texas Tech University and co-director at the University Climate Center.
— Kevin Bruce joined Arena Energy as senior counsel and director of government affairs. Bruce is the co-founder and executive director of the Gulf Energy Alliance and previously was senior counsel and director of government and public affairs at Fieldwood Energy.
— Susan Bodine, John Irving and John Sheehan joined Earth & Water Law LLP as its newest partners. Bodine comes from EPA where she served as assistant administrator in the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. Irving served as deputy assistant administrator at OECA under Bodine. Sheehan joins from the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
— “Citi pledges to stop financing greenhouse gas emissions,” via POLITICO Pro.
— “Wall Street titan joins Kerry’s climate shop,” via Axios.
— “A Texas city had a bold new climate plan — until a gas company got involved,” via Floodlight, Texas Observer and San Antonio Report.
— “Texas electricity firm files for bankruptcy citing $1.8 billion in claims from grid operator,” via Reuters.
— “Biden administration wades into major fight over green building codes,” via The Huffington Post.
— “When it comes to influencing the impacts of climate change, corporations, governments outstrip individuals, public says,” via Morning Consult.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
