With help from Gavin Bade
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— The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases a major report this morning on the climate impacts for oceans and the world’s ice sheets, which lays out in detail the threat from rising sea levels.
— Environmental advocates and state officials dismissed the Trump administration’s threat as a political attack to pull billions of dollars in transportation funding from California over pollution.
— As the chairman of the Senate Energy Committee eyes a broader energy package, her committee will mark up some 20 bills today on everything from grid storage to energy efficiency.
GOOD MORNING. IT’S WEDNESDAY. I’m your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. Pebble Partnership’s Peter Robertson knew former President Jimmy Carter holds the all-time record for amount of movies (480!) watched in the White House movie theater during the four years of his presidency — beginning with “All the President’s Men.” For today: Of all the secretaries of State in U.S. history, how many held the position more than once? Send your tips, energy gossip and comments to ktamborrino@politico.com.
OF ICE AND OCEAN: Fresh off a largely lackluster U.N. climate summit where world leaders failed to make the kind of sweeping declarations called for by climate activists, the world’s top climate scientists will up the ante with a new special report today on the ocean and cryosphere in a changing climate. POLITICO Europe’s Kalina Oroschakoff has the details.
Ocean warming has more than doubled since 1993, according to this morning’s report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “The world’s ocean and cryosphere have been ‘taking the heat’ from climate change for decades, and consequences for nature and humanity are sweeping and severe,” Ko Barrett, vice-chair of the IPCC, said in a statement.
Sea levels will “continue to rise for centuries,” even if countries step up emissions cuts, in turn leading to a higher frequency of extreme sea-level events. While sea levels rose by around 15 centimeters during the 20th century, “it is currently rising more than twice as fast — 3.6 mm per year — and accelerating,” according to the report.
The report follows a separate assessment on land use from the IPCC in August that issued a warning that continued damage to land and forests will further undermine efforts to hit the goals of the Paris climate deal. Taken together, the reports will only heighten calls from climate advocates for strong action in the face of a warming climate.
Already the report is making waves on the Hill. Democratic Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (Ore.), the co-chair of the House Oceans Caucus, will introduce a resolution today accepting the findings of the IPCC report, committing Congress to support “ocean-centric solutions to the climate crisis” and affirming immediate action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to the resolution shared with ME.
UTILITIES STORM THE HILL FOR EV PUSH: Electric utilities and their allies will descend on Capitol Hill today to pressure lawmakers to expand electric vehicle tax credits, which currently phase out after manufacturers sell 200,000 qualifying vehicles. EV proponents led by the Edison Electric Institute will deliver a letter to congressional leadership signed my more than 60 utility, automaker and environmental groups backing legislation to lift the cap for an additional 400,000 vehicles per manufacturer, S. 1094 (116)/H.R. 2256 (116). “Expanding the EV tax credit … is needed to support the increased investments automakers are making in EVs, while ultimately reducing costs for consumers,” the groups wrote. The lobbying push comes amid a growing battle between electric utilities and the oil industry over who will fuel American transport in the decades to come.
CONFIRMED: The Senate approved the nomination of Daniel Jorjani to serve as solicitor of the Interior Department by a 51-43 vote on Tuesday, Pro’s Anthony Adragna reports. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was the only senator to break ranks and voted against the nominee.
EPW TO VOTE ON CHEMICAL, FWS NOMS: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will vote on two nominations this morning: Aurelia Skipwith to be Fish and Wildlife Service director and Katherine Andrea Lemos to be chair of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. Both nominees testified before the panel earlier this month, where Skipwith was met with criticism from panel Democrats.
BILLS, BILLS, BILLS: The Senate Energy Committee will mark up 21 energy bills this morning spanning topics like energy efficiency and grid security. The slate of bills includes one from Collins, S. 1602 (116), that would allocate $300 million over five years to help drive research into energy storage, and a bill, S. 607 (116), from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) to raise salaries for FERC employees in an effort to speed up the review of energy infrastructure projects.
Chairman Lisa Murkowski told POLITICO she hopes to eventually combine some of the measures with other bills to be considered at a lands-related markup in October, Anthony reports.
RUBIO DECIDES AGAINST DRILLING AMENDMENT: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will not try to extend a moratorium on drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico as part of amendment to this year’s spending bills, Anthony reports. At a markup Tuesday, Rubio said he had drafted an amendment that would extend the moratorium for five years after it expires in 2022, but has since decided not to offer it. “There’s a lot of good things in that appropriations bill for Florida, and I didn’t want to endanger it this year,” Rubio explained.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a subcommittee markup Thursday on 15 bills dealing with asbestos, PFAS and spent nuclear fuel. The markup includes several bills that are being considered as amendments to the annual defense reauthorization bill currently in conference — most notably H.R. 535 (116), from Michigan Reps. Debbie Dingell (D) and Fred Upton (R), which would require EPA to designate PFAS chemicals as hazardous under Superfund, a key sticking point for negotiators.
CALIFORNIA VS. EPA GOES ANOTHER ROUND: Environmental advocates and state officials say EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s threat to withhold California highway money over air quality compliance on Tuesday is a political attack, not a sincere effort to clean up the state’s air, Pro’s Alex Guillén reports. “It’s obviously not sincere. It’s obviously an effort to persecute California,” said Bill Magavern, policy director for the California green group Coalition for Clean Air. EPA’s threat comes a week after it revoked the state’s waiver to enforce stricter auto emissions standards.
On Tuesday, a senior EPA official defended the agency’s threat, arguing it’s not targeting the state. But California regulators said EPA failed to approve the state’s pollution plans and is upset by “paperwork issues of its own creation.”
California tends to submit more SIPs than other states because its regulatory oversight is divided into dozens of air quality management districts. That has also strained EPA’s ability to process SIPs, said Janet McCabe, a former EPA air chief, but she criticized the administration’s response. “EPA is supposed to be helping the states work through these things. This seems like a pretty clearly political move,” she said.
401 ERROR: California filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging EPA’s March determination that 1,365 acres of salt ponds in Redwood City are not “waters of the United States” — a move that would clear the way for development in the San Francisco Bay, Pro’s Annie Snider reports. That determination shields the property, which has been eyed for development since 2009, from the Clean Water Act permitting process and prevents California from exercising its authority to approve or disapprove the permit under Section 401 of the law.
WAIVED IN FULL: EPA granted full biofuels waivers to refineries for the 2018 compliance year under the Renewable Fuel Standard, despite recommendations for only partial exemptions from the Energy Department, Reuters reports, citing an Aug. 9 EPA memo. That memo, Reuters writes, showed EPA granted “full exemptions for those 2018 small refinery petitions where DOE recommended 50% relief.” The memo, signed by acting EPA air chief Anne Idsal, did not specify how many refineries were involved.
BSEE: NO GUIDANCE ISSUED ON WAIVERS: Interior told POLITICO it did not provide guidance to staff on how to judge whether oil and gas companies should receive waivers to Obama-era offshore drilling safety rules as it prepared rollbacks to those regulations, Pro’s Ben Lefebvre reports. The response followed Ben’s report this week that Interior considered using a regulatory loophole to free oil and gas companies from those safety standards.
“The decision was made to not further delay the implementation date set by the previous administration,” a BSEE spokesperson said. “Consequently as a result of this decision, BSEE did not issue any guidance regarding the granting of departures or specifying conditions under which to approve such requests.”
— Kristina Baum, communications director for Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee, will begin Monday as communications director for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
— Stephen Kaminski is president and chief executive officer of the National Propane Gas Association. Kaminski was previously CEO of the American Association of Poison Control Centers.
— “EPA’s Wheeler on dangers of climate change: ‘I don’t know what the tipping point is,'” via McClatchy.
— “Maine governor meets with EU officials on climate goals,” via the Associated Press.
— “GAO still waiting on Pruitt phone booth report,” via E&E News.
— “Trump administration begins internal review of grants to wildlife organizations accused of abuse,” via The Hill.
— “EPA administrator to speak at energy conference in Bismarck,” via Bismarck Tribune.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
