With help from Annie Snider, Alex Guillén and 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.
— Senate Democrats are looking for other avenues to pass sweeping PFAS provisions that were left out of the annual defense bill.
— The defense bill would impose sanctions on Russian pipelines — though some say it may be too late.
— EPA’s internal watchdog closed its probe into chief of staff Ryan Jackson, at the same time warning his refusal to cooperate with investigators threatens to “virtually void” its authority.
WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY! I’m your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. 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.
Neste U.S., Inc.’s Alex Menotti gets the win for correctly naming Michigan as the state that has the longest freshwater shoreline in the U.S. For today: How many states have more than 10 representatives in the House? Send your tips, energy gossip and comments to ktamborrino@politico.com.
SENATE DEMS AREN’T DONE WITH PFAS: Lawmakers looking to pass key PFAS provisions into law aren’t ready to throw in the towel, even though they were excluded from the National Defense Authorization Act, S. 1790 (116). “I’m going to make sure we use every hour between now and the end of the session to do the right thing,” Environment and Public Works ranking member Tom Carper told reporters Tuesday, saying “there are other opportunities” for advancing language to regulate the chemicals in drinking water and force cleanups under Superfund.
The EPA spending bill would be the most likely vehicle for action before the end of the year — but advocates privately acknowledge that is a long shot. Appropriations leaders are looking to narrow the list of unresolved spending issues by Thursday, with the goal of clearing a dozen fiscal 2020 bills by the Dec. 20 deadline, Pro’s Caitlin Emma and Jennifer Scholtes report. Adding PFAS provisions to the mix doesn’t seem likely to make that process easier, although Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico, the top Democrat on the Interior-EPA spending panel, kept the door open, telling reporters he’d like to see additional progress on the chemicals. “It looks like the time is closing but there may be a little bit of time,” he said.
Without congressional action, pressure will be on the Trump administration to follow through on its promises to deal with the toxic chemicals, including to make a decision by the end of the year about whether the two best-studied ones, PFOA and PFOS, should be regulated in drinking water, and designating the pair as hazardous for the purposes of Superfund. EPA had said it expected to propose that designation in November, but as Pro’s Annie Snider reported last month, the agency has been slow-walking the proposal and still hasn’t sent it for interagency review. An industry source close to the administration told Annie the PFAS regulations would likely remain bottled up through next year. “The view from the high-level politicals within the administration is nothing is happening on this before the election,” the source said.
Don’t forget the political context: Communities with major PFAS contamination, from Colorado to North Carolina to Pennsylvania to Michigan, are among those with the most competitive House and Senate elections coming in 2020.
WHAT ABOUT THE PIPELINE SANCTIONS? The House is expected to vote soon on the annual defense bill — one of the final steps for the compromise defense package that the White House has signaled it will sign. The bill would put sanctions on a pair of Russian pipelines that will deliver natural gas to Europe.
Too late? Lawmakers and energy analysts question whether the sanctions will actually block the two gas projects, Pro’s Ben Lefebvre, Eric Wolff and Anthony Adragna report. Both the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany and Turk Stream pipeline to southern Europe are already in the final stages of development, experts say, meaning any penalties on the companies building them may come too late. “It has more to do with politics in Washington than pipelines in Europe,” said Kevin Book, the head of research at ClearView Energy Partners.
Worth noting: The language in the NDAA differs from a pipeline bill from GOP Sen. Ted Cruz that would sanction individuals and companies involved. Instead, the defense bill includes a provision saying the Treasury and State departments must agree to deploy sanctions, giving Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin a possible veto, sources told POLITICO. That’s noteworthy, as Treasury previously advised President Donald Trump to use diplomacy to convince Germany to steer clear of Nord Stream 2, Cruz said.
COAST TO COAST: The House last night passed a package of measures, H.R. 729 (116), aimed at boosting the resiliency of the nation’s coasts and Great Lakes to the impacts of climate change, Anthony reports. The legislation cleared the chamber on a 262-151 vote and includes 10 separate bills passed by the Natural Resources Committee, some of which were bipartisan.
NEW YOUNG GOP CLIMATE GROUP FORMED: A group of young college Republicans today announced the formation of a new organization that will lobby their party in congressional districts and Capitol Hill to adopt the Baker-Shultz carbon dividend plan, which would return all revenues from a steadily increasing carbon price to U.S. citizens. “There definitely is a vacuum,” said Kiera O’Brien, one of the leaders of the Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends. “If we [Republicans] don’t offer our own solutions, what is the American public left to choose from?” The group has begun to hire some regional directors and plans a robust presence at CPAC in 2020. They’ll also eventually lobby directly on Capitol Hill.
WE’RE STILL IN: The coalition of U.S. states, cities, counties, institutions and businesses still determined to meet the goals of the Paris agreement represents 51 percent of U.S. emissions, 65 percent of the U.S. population and 68 percent of the national GDP, according to the America’s Pledge on Climate Change. POLITICO Pro DataPoint’s Patterson Clark breaks it down in a DataPoint graphic.
IT’S OFFICIAL: Dan Brouillette will be sworn-in as Energy secretary today. Trump will participate in the ceremonial swearing-in at 3:30 p.m. in the Oval Office, according to the president’s schedule.
OIG: EPA NONCOOPERATION THREATENS RELATIONSHIP: EPA’s internal watchdog on Tuesday closed its probe into chief of staff Ryan Jackson after he refused to reveal where he obtained a scientist’s congressional testimony, Pro’s Alex Guillén reports. The Office of Inspector General warned in a report that if that becomes precedent for future oversight, EPA leadership will “convert the IG Act into a no man’s land whereby agency staff — under the borderless banner of ‘constitutional concerns’ — may create wholesale exemptions from providing information to the OIG.” In a statement, EPA dismissed the acting IG’s findings as overwrought and said the OIG’s actions threaten the relationship between EPA and its watchdog.
It’s not clear whether this is the end of this matter. Assistant Inspector General for Audit and Evaluation Kevin Christensen told ME he has fielded questions about the audit from committees on both sides of the Capitol, though he declined to specify which ones. Christensen also said he’s game to meet with Jackson in his role as chief of staff for future unrelated audits on other EPA business if necessary, though he said that need hasn’t arisen since this fight exploded into public. “We did what we had to and we move forward,” Christensen said.
Still to come: The OIG confirmed to ME that a separate investigation into Jackson remains ongoing but declined to confirm the topic. POLITICO reported last month that investigators are looking into allegations of document destruction against Jackson. EPA has denied any such wrongdoing. It remains unclear how long that investigation might take.
DOI OIG: DOMENECH VIOLATED ETHICS RULES: Assistant Interior Secretary for Insular and International Affairs Doug Domenech violated ethics rules by meeting with his former employer soon after joining the Trump administration, the department’s internal watchdog said in a report Tuesday. The report states that Domenech should not have met with the Texas Public Policy Foundation without considering the appearance issue, and while the two meetings violated government ethics rules, it did not counter the administration’s ethics pledge because he had not signed it at the time, Pro’s Ben Lefebvre reports.
In response, an Interior spokesperson said that while Domenech “did not do anything partial in meeting with a former employer,” the department concurs with the report that he should have considered the appearance of meeting. The spokesperson added that Domenech “self-reported this appearance issue in 2018 to Department ethics officials and has subsequently received additional guidance and ethics training.”
In the clear: The Interior watchdog also released a report clearing Interior Secretary David Bernhardt of allegations that he interfered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s scientific process during an assessment of the effects of pesticides on endangered species while he was deputy secretary.
ME FIRST — THE PORTFOLIO STANDARD SHIFT: Third Way is out with an interactive dashboard today showing the growth of state and local-level energy standards over the past 36 years. The dashboard tracked both renewable standards — as defined by the particular state or utility — and technology-inclusive standards — a broader category that includes any zero-carbon technology. The dashboard shows that 58 percent of clean energy commitments were adopted after 2016. Prior to 2016, 90 percent of commitments were exclusive to renewable energy, but since then 65 percent of states, utilities and major cities have set broader standards that include nuclear energy or carbon capture.
“Are we reaching a tipping point where at some point relatively soon most of the country is going to have some clean energy standard at the state, local utility level?” Josh Freed, senior vice president for climate and energy, told ME. “If you asked me in 2016, I would have said there is no way. But we are headed there now.”
Third Way is also hosting a briefing today with Sen. Tina Smith and Rep. Ben Ray Luján, who introduced legislation to set a national clean energy standard requiring the U.S. power sector to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
— “Chevron, facing fossil fuels glut, takes $10 billion charge,” via The Wall Street Journal.
— “Trump may appoint former chemical industry executive to lead Consumer Product Safety Commission,” via The Washington Post.
— “Emails: Trump aide had blueprint to unravel climate science,” via E&E News.
— “Amid climate change concern, GM rolls out big new Chevy SUVs,” via Associated Press.
— “D.C. sues Greyhound over buses idling at Union Station,” via The Washington Post.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
