Energy

PFAS pressure


With help from Eric Wolff

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.

Story Continued Below

As House lawmakers arrive back home for August recess, some expect to face questions on PFAS chemicals, especially in places like Michigan, which is pressing forward with its own strict regulations.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is in the Philadelphia area today to tour an oil refinery.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is expected to unveil its part of the five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill today.

WELCOME TO MONDAY! I’m your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. Bracewell’s Scott Segal gets the trivia win for identifying George and Barbara Bush, who hold the record for longest marriage of any presidential couple — 73 years and 111 days. For today: What was the name of the first U.S. union to go on strike in 1776? Send your tips, energy gossip and comments to ktamborrino@politico.com.

PFAS ON THE MIND: Political pressure over toxic PFAS contamination in their districts back home is driving some lawmakers to press for an aggressive drinking water limit as part of a broader legislative package they hope will influence negotiations this fall over the annual defense bill, Pro’s Annie Snider reports this morning.

The situation: The PFAS package included in the House’s recently passed National Defense Authorization Act does not have any Safe Drinking Water Act provisions for jurisdictional reasons and instead focused on issues more directly related to the Defense Department, like ending the military’s use of firefighting foam containing PFAS. Now, members of the Energy and Commerce Committee are seeking to strike a deal on broader legislation that could include drinking water limits, public reporting and other issues under their jurisdiction, Annie reports.

Back home: But whether the House can reach agreement on a bipartisan approach to the drinking water issue that goes beyond the Senate’s own compromise defense bill remains an open question. And while that’s playing out, some advocates are quietly worrying that a federal limit, done wrong, could end up causing more harm than good.

Some states — like Michigan, Vermont, New Hampshire and New Jersey — have their own ongoing efforts to set drinking water limits that are far lower than EPA’s recommended limit. And in some states, laws are on the books that prevent or restrict their agencies from issuing regulations that are more stringent than the federal standards.

“Selfishly, I would say I wouldn’t want the feds to move forward with a drinking water standard because I think we would get a much better outcome in Michigan from our process,” said Charlotte Jameson with the Michigan Environmental Council, an advocacy group. “That said, I know there are a number of states across the country that have PFAS issues that are not looking to promulgate a state rule and I don’t want to leave them in the lurch.”

WHEELER VISITS PHILLY REFINERY: Andrew Wheeler heads to the Philadelphia area today, alongside Republican Sen. Pat Toomey. Toomey and the EPA chief will visit the Monroe Energy refinery, where they will speak to workers and talk to the press — and where the Renewable Fuel Standard is likely to be a focus.

Toomey, for one, has long decried the federal mandate under the RFS requiring ethanol to be added into gasoline, citing the high costs it imposes on refiners like Monroe. On Friday, Toomey and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) announced the Restore Environmental Sustainability to Our Renewable Energy Act to repeal the corn ethanol mandate under the RFS.

Keep in mind, Philadelphia’s other large refinery — Philadelphia Energy Solutions — announced last month it would permanently close in the wake of a massive explosion, and has since filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11.

ON THE SURFACE: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is expected to unveil today its five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill, which will likely include investment in electric vehicle-charging infrastructure. A markup on the bill, originally scheduled for Thursday, is now set for this Tuesday — the result of a “scheduling adjustment,” a Republican committee aide confirmed to Pro’s Tanya Snyder last week.

What we know: The bill would authorize $287 billion in highway spending over five years — a 28 percent increase over the current authorization law, Republican and Democratic aides on the committee told Tanya. The bill is also set to address climate change both by authorizing new “formula-based and discretionary grant programs to begin to reduce transportation-related emissions” and establishing a program “to support projects that will improve the resiliency of roads and bridges to natural disasters and extreme weather events.”

ME readers will recall that EPW Chairman John Barrasso said he favored more funding for EV charging infrastructure, and has called for “some sort of user’s fee for the wear and tear that are produced by those vehicles.” He said that the bill “contains some of the streamlining of regulations to make it easier so you can do projects better and faster and cheaper and smarter.”

BISHOP TO MAKE REELECTION ANNOUNCEMENT: House Natural Resources ranking member Rob Bishop is tentatively scheduled to make his announcement today from Utah on whether he will still retire after this current term ends, as previously announced. The Utah Republican is term-limited from leading Natural Resources Republicans after this term, but he told reporters earlier this month he had been asked to run for reelection by a number of people, including state legislators and potential candidates to replace him who wanted more time to get ready.

BUDGET FIGHTS STILL AHEAD: The Senate is on course to pass a two-year budget agreement, H.R. 3877 (116), this week that would squash the threat of default and avoid blunt spending cuts, POLITICO’s Burgess Everett and Melanie Zanona report. But separate legislation to fund individual government agencies must still be passed by the end of September, and the bipartisan deal does little to spell out how Congress and the president will handle the issue that fueled the longest government shutdown in U.S. history — President Donald Trump’s border wall.

The pair reports Republicans readily acknowledge they don’t know how the fall funding fight will play out and are reluctant to predict what Trump will do. They don’t know how hard Trump will push for a border wall, as well as other controversial immigration provisions. “If he won’t compromise with the Democrats who control the House, a shutdown fight could ensue — exactly what GOP leaders are eager to avoid heading into an election year,” Burgess and Melanie write.

NUKE BAILOUT BAILS OUT NUKES: A pair of Ohio nuclear plants owned by FirstEnergy Solutions will continue operating following a bail out of nuclear and coal power plants signed by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine last week. FirstEnergy Solutions on Friday withdrew the retirement plans of the 908 MW Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station and the 1,268 MW Perry Nuclear plant. The Ohio bill, signed on Tuesday, adds a surcharge onto state power customer’s bill that, according to ClearView Energy Partners, will shovel $150 million a year to FirstEnergy for the two plants.

IN JAY INSLEE’S BACK POCKET: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has run for president with a focus on climate change. But, POLITICO’s Dan Goldberg writes, the Democratic candidate “can credibly claim to have accomplished more than most of his peers on health care, a key issue in the 2020 campaign.”

In fact, his campaign said, in another time, Inslee would be running on his health care record. But not now — Inslee told POLITICO he doesn’t have any second thoughts about staking his long-shot bid on tackling climate change, even if that overshadows his health policy accomplishments. “Those things … become relatively moot if the entire ecosystem collapses on which human life depends,” Inslee said earlier this month. “This is a unique issue. It is unique because our survival literally depends upon it.”

By the way: The 2020 Democratic candidates will convene for their next round of debates from Detroit this week on Tuesday and Wednesday.

James Slevin and Pat Dillion were elected as national president and executive vice president of the Utility Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO, respectively. Slevin and Dillon succeed D. Michael Langford and Steven VanSlooten, who are retiring.

— “Under Brazil’s far right leader, Amazon protections slashed and forests fall,” via The New York Times.

— “Environmentalists, tribes blast Utah national monument plan,” via Associated Press.

— “A Louisiana Republican reckons with climate change,” via New Yorker.

— “California’s biggest oil spill in decades brings more defiance than anger from locals,” via Los Angeles Times.

— “Ethanol vs. environment: Democratic hopefuls campaign on clashing agendas,” via Reuters.

THAT’S ALL FOR ME!



READ NEWS SOURCE

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.