With help from Matt Daily, Alex Guillén and Daniel Lippman.
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— House Oversight probes an Oklahoma pipeline today that has local landowners peeved and accusing its operators of disrespecting their properties.
— NOAA altered its baselines for measuring temperatures and precipitation to account for warming average temperatures.
— Companies are helping airlines buy biofuel as a way to offset their own emissions from business travel.
WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY! I’m your host, Matthew Choi. Congrats to Michael Karlovich of PBF Energy for knowing Kalmykia in Southern Russia is the only European region where Buddhism is the predominant religion. For today’s trivia: Who was the last reigning tsar of Bulgaria (who later went on to serve as prime minister more than 50 years later)? Send your tips and trivia answers to [email protected]. Find me on Twitter @matthewchoi2018.
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: Blending ethanol into Biden’s climate plan.
BUSTED PIPES: The House Oversight civil rights subcommittee will be zeroing in on Cheniere’s Midship pipeline today as part of its investigation into pipeline operators’ treatment of landowners. The Oklahoma pipeline has faced numerous complaints of property damage and haphazard clean up efforts, causing local landowners to stew in frustration at the gas giant.
Subcommittee Chair Jamie Raskin pointed his finger at FERC in a December hearing on the issue, saying the commission approved pipeline projects without adequate protections for landowners. He reiterated those criticisms in a video Monday, featuring anecdotes from Oklahoma farmers irritated with land degradation they blame on the pipeline, and plans to repeat them today, according to talking points shared with ME.
FERC Chair Richard Glick voiced his concerns with the reported property damage at the commission’s March 18 meeting, ordering Cheniere to resolve restoration issues on the private property impacted by the pipeline. “FERC must ensure that pipelines follow through on the obligations in their certificates. The conditions we include in certificates protect landowners, communities, & the environment from potential adverse impacts and they must be taken seriously,” Glick said in a statement to ME.
But the subcommittee’s video claims many of the complaints remain unaddressed. Landowners say environmental damage from the pipeline’s construction has eroded their land, posed risks to livestock and accumulated millions of dollars in damages.
Christopher Smith, Cheniere’s senior vice president for policy, government and public affairs, will testify at today’s hearing, countering these criticisms by arguing that the company is doing “everything we can to resolve these remaining issues,” according to excerpts of his testimony shared with ME. Smith says the company has a dedicated team to address landowners’ concerns, and “today we have several members of the team in Oklahoma meeting face-to-face with landowners, as we have been doing throughout the life of the project.”
The project differs from other high-profile pipeline conflicts, with landowners largely sympathetic toward pipes and not sharing the cultural or environmental concerns of other activists, as E&E News broke down in March. “We’ve never had any company so disrespectful for the property,” said Mark Morris, an Oklahoma farmer, in the subcommittee’s video. “You’re going to be here. We’re going to be here. We need to get along.”
THE NEW NORMAL: The average temperature in the U.S. is now one degree Fahrenheit higher than it was 20 years ago. The averages, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration updated on Tuesday, represent “climate normals,” which are used as a baseline by which to gauge individual temperatures.
The South and Southwest saw particularly sharp increases in temperature, while the East Coast and West became “generally warmer,” according to NOAA — all of which shows the “influence of long-term global warming is obvious.” Zack Colman has more for Pros.
WHITE HOUSE STEPS UP INFRASTRUCTURE OUTREACH: The White House has invited Senate EPW ranking member Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) to discuss a path forward on infrastructure overhaul next week, and she plans to pick a group of lawmakers to come with her, Sam Mintz reports for Pros. Capito is a driving force behind Republicans’ infrastructure counter offer and said she had a “constructive” phone call with Biden last week.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will also be doing outreach for the administration this week, meeting with the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a group of committee chairs led by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Buttigieg will also promote Biden’s infrastructure proposal in Pittsburgh on Thursday.
WHAT WE’RE HEARING: With President Joe Biden and his climate crew fanning out across America to sell his infrastructure proposal, there’s no time for a break from energy and environmental issues on the Hill. Here’s a breakdown of what’s happening on the climate front over the next few days.
A House Energy subcommittee is holding a hearing today on the CLEAN Future Act, Democrats’ highest-profile climate legislation, with a focus on decarbonizing the transportation sector. The bill falls in line with Biden’s efforts to bolster electric vehicles in the U.S. by expanding charging infrastructure, encouraging domestic EV production and manufacturing and increasing consumers’ equitable access to EVs.
“EVs present an opportunity to raise awareness about fuel and service savings for consumers, dramatic American competitiveness and job creation potential, and a choice to protect public and environmental health by removing harmful tailpipe emissions from communities,” Zero Emission Transportation Association Executive Director Joseph Britton wrote in his statement to the committee.
Related: “China is erecting factories for electric cars almost as fast as the rest of the world combined,” via The New York Times.
The House Natural Resources Committee will be marking up a spate of environmental legislation targeting oil and gas on public lands that would increase royalty rates for onshore oil and gas leases, increase transparency requirements regarding greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas wells on federal land and more.
DON’T PARK IN THE BUS LANE: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Banking Chair Sherrod Brown want to replace the country’s current public bus fleet with zero-emission alternatives. Their $73 billion plan, dubbed Clean Transit for America, would implement manufacturing requirements to ensure the vehicles are made in the U.S. and prioritize areas with poor air quality for replacements. Anthony Adragna has more for Pros.
CORPORATE JETTING ON BIOFUELS: Some of the world’s biggest companies are joining forces to help offset the prohibitively high cost of sustainable jet fuel — a way for the aviation industry to directly cut down its carbon footprint.
Though airlines have expressed interest in pivoting to sustainable fuels, like cooking oil or other waste, these alternatives can cost two to four times more than conventional fuels. Less than 1 percent of jet fuel burned annually is currently made from sustainable ingredients.
Major brands, including Microsoft and Deloitte, are signing on to help the airlines purchase alternative fuels — in part to help offset their own carbon footprints, as business travel, which has been a leading source of emissions in the sector, begins to rebound after the pandemic. But environmental groups fear the effort could be corporate greenwashing. And it isn’t always clear where the ingredients in supposedly sustainable aviation fuels come from, meaning they may contribute to deforestation or other environmental damage. Catherine Boudreau and Stephanie Beasley have more for Pros.
LES FRANÇAIS VEULENT FAIRE QUOI ? The French National Assembly (parliament’s lower house) advanced a sweeping climate bill to the Senate that, if implemented, would impact numerous aspects of everyday life. The bill bans many short-haul domestic flights, imposes stiff fines on “greenwashed” advertising, establishes clean air zones in cities and more. While French environmentalists and opposition lawmakers complain that it doesn’t go nearly far enough, the measure is full of provisions that would be absolute nonstarters to conservatives and even many moderates here in the States. Our colleagues in Paris break it down for Pros.
PRICEY LUMPS OF COAL: Eight in 10 coal plants now running are either more expensive than their wind and solar counterparts or on their way to retirement, according to a new study released today by Energy Innovation.
The research follows up on another EI study using 2018 data, which found 62 percent of coal energy production was uneconomical compared to renewables, and predicted that percentage would shoot up to 77 percent by 2025. But today’s study shows an even steeper increase in the number of coal plants that can no longer compete with renewables, with the pace nearly met in 2020.
BAD ENERGY SWAPS: The shift away from coal has helped reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, but the replacement of coal capacity with other combustible fuels has not brought similar relief for the health threat posed by particulate pollution, according to a Harvard study published in Environmental Research Letters on Wednesday.
The study, done with support from the Rocky Mountain Institute and the Login5 Foundation, compared emissions data between 2008 and 2017 and found that now, in many states, gas or wood and biomass have higher health impacts than coal. The three fuels now account for up to 77 percent of premature deaths from stationary source fine particulate pollution, when coal was the leading factor just a decade earlier.
The bottom line: The U.S. needs to jump past new gas and biomass capacity and prioritize building out non-polluting sources like renewables, according to lead author Jonathan Buonocore. “Swapping one polluting fuel source for another is not a pathway to a healthy energy system,” he said.
The study comes as EPA faces pressure from lawmakers and industry to classify sustainably sourced biomass as carbon neutral, which would expand wood’s growth as a fuel source domestically and abroad. EPA has also launched a review of its wood stove emissions certification process following complaints of “systemic failure” by some states.
BUT: A transition to renewables and electric vehicles will prompt a spike in demand of critical minerals, which remain vulnerable to market volatility, according to new research by the International Energy Agency — and such volatility could hinder the adoption of clean technology overall.
Though the situation is different for each mineral, overall demand for the minerals required for batteries and other tech could go up sixfold by 2040, depending on how quickly renewables replace fossil fuels, according to the study. Production of key minerals is concentrated in a handful of countries, and a convoluted supply chain could further risk disrupting mineral markets.
IEA recommends policymakers take steps to secure the supply chain, including outlining long-term commitments for emissions reductions, promoting technological advances and scaling up recycling to relieve pressure on primary supplies. Read the rest of the report and recommendations here.
TEMPERING HOPES: There’s lot of models circulating showing how the Biden administration can meet its 2030 target to cut greenhouse gases by 50 percent, but Michael Cembalest, chairman of market and investment strategy for J.P. Morgan Asset Management, warns that “fourth great energy transition” may take longer than many people are hoping.
In his latest annual energy paper, Cembalest knocks “energy futurists,” noting that their predictions dating back decades for renewable energy market penetration have been overly optimistic. And even with the dramatic decreases in wind and solar prices over the past decade, clean energy still contributes only a small piece of the total energy pie.
He also looks skeptically at claims that fossil fuel use may have peaked in 2019 before the pandemic: Yes, coal consumption may decline by 2025, but that is being more than offset by growth in gas (by nearly a factor of 3), and many forecasters expect global liquid fuels to rebound to pre-pandemic levels next year.
— Nick Anderson is now a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative. Andersen, the chief information security officer for public sector at Lumen Technologies, is a Trump administration alum.
— Faegre Drinker is bringing on Doug Benevento as counsel in the environment and energy practice team in Denver. He is the former acting deputy EPA administrator.
— Melissa Burnison is now VP for federal legislative affairs at Berkshire Hathaway Energy. She most recently was assistant secretary of Energy. (H/t: Playbook)
— The Coalition for Green Capital is bringing on Meghan Conklin as policy director. Conklin previously served as a policy adviser to Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and as a senior staff member in the Obama administration.
— “Why Exxon hates the Rockefellers, its founding family,” via E&E News.
— “Deluge of Debt Is Tied to Carbon Emissions and Diversity,” via The Wall Street Journal.
— “Biden’s Road to Clean Energy Runs Through West Virginia Coal Country,” via Bloomberg.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
