With help from Anthony Adragna
Editor’s Note: This edition of Morning Energy is published weekdays at 10 a.m. POLITICO Pro Energy subscribers hold exclusive early access to the newsletter each morning at 6 a.m. Learn more about POLITICO Pro’s comprehensive policy intelligence coverage, policy tools and services at politicopro.com.
— A National Security Council official’s testimony in the impeachment inquiry appears to contradict Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s contention that he never heard former Vice President Joe Biden’s or his son’s name linked to investigations the Trump administration wanted in Ukraine.
— The bankruptcy of Murray Energy, led by Trump ally Bob Murray, lays bare the White House’s struggle to support the domestic coal sector.
— The House will take up three public lands bills in the next two days, including one to prohibit uranium mining near the Grand Canyon and two limiting drilling and mining.
Welcome to Tuesday! I’m your substitute host, Gavin Bade, standing in one last time for Kelsey. Check out the new 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.
Congrats to trivia winner Anne Larimer Hart, of the Glover Park Group, who knew that the terrifying economic event on Oct. 29 is Black Tuesday in 1929. For today: Three players in this World Series once played together in a World Series on the same team, but not the Nats or Astros. Who are they, and where and when did they play?
SAY IT AIN’T JOE: The latest witness in House Democrats’ impeachment probe on Tuesday offered testimony that put in doubt Perry’s adamant denials he never heard Trump nor any administration official mention Biden or his son during their conversations on Ukraine. In his opening statement, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council official overseeing Ukraine policy, told House impeachment investigators that he objected to EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s comments in a July 10 White House briefing requesting that Ukrainian officials investigate the 2016 U.S. election, the Bidens and the Ukrainian energy company Burisma that had employed Hunter Biden.
“I stated to Amb. Sondland that his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigate Biden and his son had nothing to do with national security, and that such investigations were not something the [National Security Council] was going to get involved in or push,” Vindman’s statement said.
According to an NBC News report confirmed by POLITICO, Perry attended that meeting. Fiona Hill, who was a Trump adviser on Russia at the time, Hill had testified the Perry was exiting the meeting as she entered.
Perry, in an interview with CBN News earlier this month, said: “Not once, as God is my witness, not once was a Biden name — not the former vice president, not his son — ever mentioned. … I’m extremely comfortable that not once did the president of the United States, or any of his administration or his team ever talk about with the intent there was some quid pro quo.”
A DOE spokesperson said Perry stands by his earlier statement but did not comment on the July 10 meeting. Perry, who plans to step down as secretary on Dec. 1, refused earlier this month to comply with congressional subpoenas seeking information on meetings and phone calls he took part in involving Ukraine officials.
Democratic lawmakers also want to review allegations that Perry pressured Ukraine officials to fire a former Biden aide, Amos Hochstein, from Burisma’s advisory board. Perry pushed for two Houston oil and gas executives to take Hochstein’s place, sources said earlier, although Perry has said he only offered the two men as potential advisers to the company.
TRUMP CAN’T SAVE ALLY MURRAY: Coal miner Murray Energy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, becoming the eighth coal company to do so in the past year.
Headed by staunch Trump ally Murray, the bankruptcy casts doubt on the president’s promise to save the ailing U.S. coal industry and his attempts to blame its decline on former President Barack Obama, Eric and your ME host report.
Though the Trump administration has loosened environmental regulations around coal — many after urging from Murray himself — it has failed to take emergency action to keep plants from retiring. Analysts say the administration has few other options to slow the retirement of coal-fired plants that’s driving miners into bankruptcy.
“Outside of an outright bailout, not a lot you can do to meaningfully preserve the demand in the United States for thermal coal,” said Ben Nelson, a Moody’s coal analyst.
The Murray bankruptcy also threatens the $3 billion United Mine Workers pension program, which the union says will need to start reducing payments to recipients about six months after Murray completes its bankruptcy proceeding, which is expected next spring, Pro Employment and Immigration’s Rebecca Rainey reports.
Congress has several bills that would change the funding of the pension, but lawmakers have been unable to agree on a long-term fix. “There are 82,000 retirees who are out there waiting for somebody to save their pension plan, and if that doesn’t happen by the time the election rolls around, there will be consequences for parties who could have done that,” said Phil Smith, director of communications and government affairs at the United Mine Workers.
ON THE FLOOR: The House is considering a trio of lands bills on the floor over the next two days. One measure, H.R. 1373 (116), a personal priority for Natural Resources Chairman Raul Grijalva, would prohibit new uranium mining near the Grand Canyon. Another, H.R. 2181 (116), would withdraw 316,076 acres surrounding New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon from potential leasing for oil, natural gas, coal and other minerals. The third, H.R. 823 (116), seeks to protect 400,000 acres in Colorado and place some areas in the state off-limits to oil and gas drilling.
Grijalva told reporters Tuesday the Grand Canyon and Chaco Canyon bills will get votes today, while the Colorado measure will wait until Thursday.
DEMS PUSH LEADERSHIP ON TAX EXTENDERS: More than 70 percent of House Democrats ranging from political centrists to progressives are urging leadership to include “as many clean energy tax policies as possible” in must-pass legislation this year, including credits for energy storage, zero-emission vehicles, offshore wind, energy efficiency and an extension of the solar investment tax credit.
The letter, spearheaded by the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition and signed by 166 lawmakers, is an effort to identify areas of common ground on climate change policy to unite the caucus this year. The lawmakers called on Democratic leadership to include the incentives in any tax extenders package — or any legislative vehicle — moving this year.
“For the sake of American security and future generations, we must take every opportunity we can to pass important climate policies immediately,” the lawmakers wrote to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). “Tax incentives have been an important and powerful policy tool in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing use of clean energy technology.”
WALDEN UPBEAT ON CLIMATE: House Energy and Commerce ranking member Greg Walden (Ore.) told reporters Tuesday he thinks Republicans will continue to actively engage on climate change, even after he departs Congress at the end of his term. “I think it’s the right place to be for all kinds of reasons, but it also opens the door to really have the discussion we should have as policymakers about what’s the solution?” Walden said.
Side note: Walden said he’s counted and has made 621 roundtrips to the Hill during his time in Congress. That’s a lot of coast-to-coast flying!
SHIMKUS BACKTRACKING ON RETIREMENT? Illinois GOP Rep. John Shimkus said Tuesday he is reconsidering his decision to retire, which he announced in August. Shimkus said a key factor was this week’s news that Walden would not run for reelection, opening the top Republican slot on that committee.
BIG DAM SETTLEMENT: Exelon and the state of Maryland on Tuesday reached a settlement under which the company, owner of the Conowingo Dam, will pay $200 million to clean up the Susquehanna River, the Baltimore Sun reports. Exelon and the state had been at odds over Maryland’s earlier demand that the company pay $7 billion to reduce pollution flowing through its dam into the Chesapeake Bay.
STATES SUE OVER AIR POLLUTION: New York, New Jersey and Connecticut on Tuesday sued EPA to bolster enforcement of “good neighbor” policies that limit air pollution crossing state lines.
In one lawsuit, New Jersey and New York challenged an administrative decision by EPA on Oct. 18 to dismiss an effort to curtail pollution from more than 350 power plants in upwind states. The EPA decided that the parties did not prove the plants were emitting in violation of the “good neighbor” provision.
New Jersey and Connecticut filed another lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to force EPA to make a finding that Pennsylvania and Virginia failed to submit pollution plans to address their zone contributions to New Jersey — as required under the Clean Air Act — and then for EPA to issue pollution plans for those states.
These lawsuits follow a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling earlier this month that rejected the Trump administration’s efforts to forgo further “good neighbor” requirements, meaning that Midwestern and southern emitters must find new ways to limit emissions of ozone-forming pollutants that adversely affect air quality in the north and Mid-Atlantic.
REX TO TAKE THE STAND: In New York, former Exxon Mobil CEO and Chairman and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is scheduled to take the stand in the trial over the New York attorney general’s accusations that the oil giant misled investors about the risks of climate change.
Rising sea levels will erase more cities, new research shows, The New York Times
The problem with chocolate, The Washington Post
Details emerge about DOE ‘super‑grid’ renewable study, E&E News
