Energy

Murkowski draws Trump fight


With help from Alex Guillén

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The president attacked Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski in a tweet last night, promising to back whomever is up against her in 2022.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to speed up the permitting process for infrastructure projects.

The bipartisan public lands package is teed up for a procedural vote next week in the Senate, although it remains to be seen if the chamber will consider amendments to the measure.

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MURKY WATERS AHEAD: President Donald Trump aimed his Twitter feed at Sen. Lisa Murkowski Thursday night and declared he would endorse any challenger with “a pulse” who would try to unseat the chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in her reelection that’s still two years away. What appears to have triggered Trump was Murkowski’s comments to reporters Thursday that former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ extraordinary critique of the president this week was “true, and honest, and necessary, and overdue.”

“Few people know where they’ll be in two years from now, but I do, in the Great State of Alaska (which I love) campaigning against Senator Lisa Murkowski,” Trump tweeted last night, citing the various occasions the Alaskan senator has defied Trump, including her vote against a skinny repeal of the Affordable Care Act and against the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“I gave Alaska ANWR, major highways, and more,” Trump added, referring to opening up drilling in the ecologically sensitive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. “Get any candidate ready, good or bad, I don’t care, I’m endorsing. If you have a pulse, I’m with you!”

Murkowski did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the tweet. Her comments on Thursday are of course not the first time she’s gone against Trump. But with many of her colleagues refusing to discuss Trump’s controversial photo op this week, her comments struck a chord among those who took pains not to criticize either Mattis or the president.

Trump’s promise to support her eventual Senate challenger comes as Republicans currently maintain a three-seat majority in the Senate, and Murkowski’s GOP colleagues have in the past been known to defend her. After Murkowski opposed Kavanaugh’s nomination, Republicans pushed back against Trump’s vow to make her pay a political price. In fact, her comments could give fellow members of the party cover to rebuke Trump, as well.

ME readers might also recall, not much ever came out of former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s reported threat that public land and energy projects in Alaska could suffer over Murkowski’s opposition to the health care vote.

But Murkowski — who kept her Senate seat in 2010 on a write-in campaign and who voted to acquit Trump during his impeachment trial — has a host of remaining priorities before she relinquishes her Energy Committee gavel at the end of this Congress, including passing the lingering long-sought energy bill, which typically struggles to get attention. It remains to be seen if this could threaten any chance for a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, which Murkowski has long supported. The Trump administration has been dealt dual blows on land swaps to build the road, one as recently as Monday. ME wonders if this might mean Interior doesn’t try again.

TRUMP SPEEDS UP PERMITTING WITH EXECUTIVE ORDER: Trump unveiled an executive order Thursday afternoon using his emergency powers in an effort to waive environmental laws and speed permitting of highways and energy infrastructure projects, arguing the order will help stimulate the U.S. economy that has been ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic.

The order is the latest in a series of recent moves by the Trump administration to aid the struggling energy sector. Earlier this week, Trump’s EPA finalized a regulation to significantly rein in states’ power to veto pipelines, coal export terminals and other infrastructure projects over their impact to water quality, as Pro’s Gavin Bade, Annie Snider, Ben Lefebvre and Zack Colman report.

“The cumulative effect of this executive order and other orders and reforms the president has and will continue to issue, continue to greatly assist the Permitting council accelerate investment in our national infrastructure and provide immediate and lasting economic benefits for states, local communities and small businesses,” said Alex Herrgott, who heads the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council.

The move is almost certainly headed for a legal fight, James Coleman, an energy law professor at Southern Methodist University, said in an email. “As on most NEPA questions, the reality is that this question will be resolved in the courts, which means the administration may get a little flexibility but doesn’t have any easy fixes without new clear legislation,” he said.

Democrats drew a straight line from the president’s executive order to the fight for environmental justice. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement the order undercuts environmental reviews, which are “critical to the protection of public health and one of the last lines of defense to give communities of color, indigenous people and the poor a voice in major infrastructure projects that happen in their backyards.” By signing the executive order, Schumer said Trump “is muzzling the voice of environmental justice communities.”

FRIENDS WITH CO-BENEFITS: EPA is out with a new proposed rule to set standards for how the agency calculates costs and benefits for rules under the Clean Air Act, Pro’s Alex Guillén reports. Among the changes, the new rule would bar the use of “co-benefits” that are not part of the explicit target of a regulation but have long been cited by EPA to justify rulemakings — and which Administrator Andrew Wheeler said have been abused by previous administrations and advocacy groups to push their political priorities.

Environmentalists quickly derided the proposal as another gift from the Trump administration to the fossil fuel industry. Miles Keogh, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, said dropping co-benefits will undercut consideration of public health, which is what EPA is meant to safeguard.

“It’s like trying to decide whether to quit smoking based only on the price of a pack of cigarettes,” he said.

GROUPS PUSH FOR CLEAN ENERGY JOBS FUND: A broad array of clean energy, trade and environmental groups are pressuring congressional leaders to provide $35 billion for a nonprofit clean energy jobs fund, Pro’s Anthony Adragna reports. Nearly 100 groups sent a letter to lawmakers today urging them to build on legislation S. 2057 (116)/H.R. 5416 (116) from Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.).

“Each public dollar invested will be repaid and preserved by the Fund, which means dollars can be recycled to cause even more private investment in the future,” reads the letter, spearheaded by the Coalition for Green Capital. The group projects it would put 5 million people back to work and spur $1 trillion in total investments over 30 years.

Under the House and Senate bills, public sector funds would be paired with multiple private sector funds for investments in areas like renewable power, building efficiency, electric grid infrastructure, industrial decarbonization, clean transportation, reforestation and more climate resilient infrastructure.

In addition, 20 percent of the fund would go to “frontline, low-income and climate-impacted communities” building on the lead of existing green banks in states like Michigan, Florida, Connecticut and Hawaii.

ON THE MOVE: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell teed up the first procedural vote next week on the measure, S. 3422 (116), to permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund and address the backlog of deferred maintenance on the nation’s public lands. The package, championed by Sens. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), will get a cloture vote on Monday, even though it’s unclear whether the chamber will consider amendments to the measure, Anthony reports.

McConnell’s move comes as a bipartisan group of 12 House lawmakers, led by Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-S.C.), introduced companion legislation in the House.

BILL OPENS UP CARBON MARKETS TO AGRICULTURE: Bipartisan senators introduced a bill Thursday to create a new certification program at USDA to help carbon markets function better, Pro’s Helena Bottemiller Evich reports. The Growing Climate Solutions Act, introduced by Sens. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), would make it easier for farmers and other landowners to participate in carbon markets, and could position agriculture as a more prominent player in the battle against climate change.

JUDGE CANCELS HEARING IN CAP-AND-TRADE FIGHT: The judge hearing the Trump administration’s legal challenge to California’s cap-and-trade link with Quebec says he can settle the remaining disputes in the case without the hearing that was planned for June 29. Judge William Shubb of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California on Thursday said he can decide the case solely based on the briefs, which are all due by June 22. Shubb already rejected the government’s argument that the linked program violated the Constitution’s treaty and compact clauses. All that remains is the administration’s claim that it tramples on foreign affairs that are the purview of the federal government.

Dept. of tea leaf reading: It’s hard to make much of a brief procedural order, but Shubb’s decision not to hold a hearing could bode well for California. If Shubb did plan to upend a linked program the state has been running for years, it seems reasonable he would give it one last chance to defend it in person. If he sides with California, Shubb may keep this case on a rocket docket; he ruled on the previous fight over the treaty and compact clause dispute just three days after holding a hearing.

STATE AG QUESTIONS THE FUTURE OF GAS UTILITIES: Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey filed a petition with the Department of Public Utilities on Thursday asking it to investigate the future of natural gas “in light of the Commonwealth’s legally binding statewide limit of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,” which will cause reductions in the heating sector’s fossil fuel use. “This will require the [local gas distribution companies] to make significant changes to their planning processes and business model. It will also require the Department to develop new policies and structures to protect ratepayers and ensure a safe, reliable, and fair transition away from reliance on natural gas and other fossil fuels,” the petition said.

Healey calls for a two-phased investigation, the first of which would have gas companies submit detailed economic analyses and business plans on future gas demand in a carbon-constrained economy. The second phase, the AG said, should focus on how to enact necessary changes to protect gas consumers.

MAY MARKS HIGHEST EVER ATMOSPHERIC CO2 READING: Scientists announced Thursday they measured the highest monthly reading ever recorded of atmospheric carbon dioxide in May. According to the scientists from NOAA and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, atmospheric carbon dioxide measured at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory reached a seasonal peak of 417.1 parts per million for 2020 in May — 2.4 parts per million higher than the 2019 peak of 414.7 ppm recorded in May 2019.

The scientists said the rate of increase during 2020 came despite the reduction in pollution emissions due to the coronavirus pandemic, since the emissions drop has not been wide enough to stand out from natural CO2 variability. “People may be surprised to hear that the response to the coronavirus outbreak hasn’t done more to influence CO2 levels,” said Scripps geochemist Ralph Keeling in a statement.

“But the buildup of CO2 is a bit like trash in a landfill,” he added. “As we keep emitting, it keeps piling up. The crisis has slowed emissions, but not enough to show up perceptibly at Mauna Loa. What will matter much more is the trajectory we take coming out of this situation.”

GREENS BACK MOVEMENT FOR BLACK LIVES DEMANDS: A wide range of more than 200 environmental organizations — including the Sunrise Movement, Sierra Club, Oil Change International, Center for Biological Diversity and Greenpeace USA — signed onto a letter Thursday in solidarity with demands from the Movement for Black Lives. The letter endorses protections for protesters, divestment from the police and a call for the federal government to provide “direct cash payments, rent cancellation, mortgage cancellation, a moratorium on utility and water shutoffs, and a cancellation of student, medical, and other forms of debt.”

— “Pandemic exposes cracks in oil majors’ bet on plastic,” via Reuters.

— “Russia declares emergency after Arctic oil spill,” via The New York Times.

— “Chesapeake Energy: Rise and fall of a U.S. shale star,” via Financial Times.

— “Inside Microsoft’s mission to go carbon negative,” via Bloomberg.

THAT’S ALL FOR ME!

CORRECTION: Morning Energy has been updated to reflect Donald Trump’s stance towards Lisa Murkowski’s eventual Senate opponent. He has promised to support a challenger.





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