With help from Eric Wolff and Anthony Adragna
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— A footnote in a FERC document on how to implement a price floor for state-subsidized sources like wind and solar has sparked concern about whether the regulator’s rules will apply to state-level auctions.
— House Democrats will unveil oceans-based legislation today to tackle climate change.
— The Trump reelection campaign is objecting to the list of topics selected for this week’s debate, which includes climate change, arguing the showdown should focus specifically on foreign policy.
WELCOME TO TUESDAY! I’m your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. Tim Peckinpaugh of K&L Gates LLP gets the trivia win for correctly identifying the two states that allocate Electoral College votes by congressional district: Nebraska and Maine. For today: Patented in 1894, the Electrobat was one of the first what in the United States? Send your tips, energy gossip and comments to [email protected].
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THE FERC FOOTNOTES: FERC’s Minimum Offer Price Rule compliance ruling issued last week says explicitly that a price floor — which is intended to counter state subsidies for renewables in the PJM Interconnection’s capacity market — would not apply to Default Pricing Service auctions so long as they are “fuel neutral.” Those auctions are conducted by states to ensure their utilities have adequate capacity to supply customers who have not opted to switch retail power providers.
But Democratic Commissioner Rich Glick, who dissented on the order, honed in on a footnote in which the Republican FERC majority cited New Jersey’s price auction as an example that could be subject to the MOPR because generators must meet the state’s renewable portfolio standard. That set off alarm bells among environmental groups, which worry FERC is laying the groundwork for a future determination that the DPS auctions in any state with a renewable portfolio standard might be subject to the MOPR, Pro’s Eric Wolff reports this morning.
“It appears FERC hasn’t bothered to think through how disruptive it will be,” said Casey Roberts, a senior attorney with Sierra Club. “We’re concerned this will play out as higher prices on customers.”
FERC Chair Neil Chatterjee sought to emphasize that “fuel neutral” and “non-discriminatory” state default markets would not require price floor mitigation. “The big takeaway on that issue is that we grant rehearing and agree with PJM and stakeholders — who supported the proposal — that certain state default auctions, if they meet criteria of being fuel neutral, do not meet the definition of state subsidies and thus do not trigger mitigation,” Chatterjee said last week.
HOUSE DEMOCRATS TO UNVEIL OCEAN-CLIMATE BILL: House Democrats will unveil their Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act today — wide-ranging legislation aimed at promoting offshore renewable energy and protecting so-called blue carbon, while also expanding marine protected areas and improving ocean health. The bill, sponsored by House Natural Resources Chair Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), would take a comprehensive approach to leveraging the world’s oceans in fighting climate change.
According to a summary of the bill shared with ME, the legislation would set a national goal for offshore wind energy production of 12.5 gigawatts by 2025 and 25 gigawatts by 2030, and would increase funding for research and development and for the protection of wildlife.
The 300-plus-page bill would also prohibit new oil and gas leasing in all areas of the Outer Continental Shelf and require shipping vessels to report CO2 emissions annually. The bill would lean into the carbon storage potential provided by “blue carbon” ecosystems that can absorb carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, and would also set a goal to protect at least 30 percent of the ocean by 2030. Elsewhere, the legislation would make algal blooms eligible for federal disaster relief and emergency assistance, allow for the creation of an Advanced Research Projects Agency-Oceans, and call on the Interior secretary to undertake restoration of coastal wetlands on department lands in order to halt greenhouse gas emission and sequester carbon. Read the bill text.
U.S. TO AID POLAND IN REPLACING COAL FLEET: The Energy Department signed an agreement with the government of Poland on Monday to cooperate on a Polish civil nuclear program that could help build as many as six reactors in the Eastern European nation, Eric reports. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said Poland expects to spend $40 billion, including purchases of $18 billion worth of nuclear technology from U.S. companies, primarily Westinghouse, Bechtel and Southern Company. Westinghouse, which is the only U.S. company with the technology to build the plants, has a letter of intent with the Export-Import Bank for $6 billion worth of financing, Brouillette added.
RESILIENCE DOCKET ON BACKBURNER? The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a coal power trade association, sent FERC a gentle reminder that the resilience docket recently had its 34-month birthday, but hasn’t seen much action lately. The docket was created in 2018 after FERC unanimously rejected a proposal from DOE to subsidize coal and nuclear power in the markets. In a letter to the commission, ACCCE asks FERC to define resilience, figure what attributes are needed to ensure the grid is resilient, and then decide if the grid is presently resilient.
TRUMP PROTESTS DEBATE TOPICS: The Trump reelection campaign protested climate change’s inclusion on a list of six topics for the last presidential debate on Thursday. In a Monday letter, the campaign claimed the issues diverted from the central theme previously agreed on by the two campaigns: foreign policy.
The letter, addressed to the Commission on Presidential Debates and signed by Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien, acknowledged that the topics were “worthy of discussion” but said they were already covered during the first presidential debate last month, POLITICO’s Matthew Choi reports. That debate, which was marred with crosstalk and personal insults, prompted the commission to change the format of future debates so the public could better understand the candidates’ positions (expect muted mics this week). Stepien also accused the commission of shielding Joe Biden from having to speak about his foreign policy record.
Biden’s campaign retorted that the campaigns and the commission “agreed months ago that the debate moderator would choose the topics.” Biden campaign spokesperson TJ Ducklo said: “The Trump campaign is lying about that now because Donald Trump is afraid to face more questions about his disastrous COVID response.”
The debate commission announced last week that the event will focus on six topics: climate change, the coronavirus pandemic, race and national security, as well as abstract ideas such as “leadership” and “American families.” Biden’s climate plan specifically calls for integrating climate change into his administration’s foreign policy and national security strategies. The former vice president has said he would rejoin the Paris climate agreement, which Trump has promised to formally exit after Election Day, as well as use foreign policy to increase the climate ambitions of the rest of the world.
SPEAKING OF: China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry released a fact sheet and report Monday that laid into the United States’ climate policies under Trump, calling it a “consensus-breaker and a troublemaker.” Beijing derided the Trump administration’s inaction on the Paris agreement and failure to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, and pointed out that its cumulative emissions dwarf China’s own. “It has not only backpedaled on its domestic environmental protection policies but also seriously undermined the fairness, efficiency and effectiveness of global environmental governance,” the fact sheet said. It follows a September fact sheet from the U.S. State Department on China’s environmental abuses.
MORE HELP FOR PETERS: LCV Victory Fund and BlackPAC are spending $900,000 on a mail campaign seeking to boost Michigan Sen. Gary Peters in his competitive reelection bid against Republican business owner John James. The first of two pieces of mail is available here.
The group is also spending $300,000 on digital ads aimed at Latinx voters in Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. A sample of one of those ads is here.
CARBON SWITCH: BIDEN CLIMATE PLAN IS NO GREEN NEW DEAL: Energy efficiency analyst and advocate Carbon Switch finds that Biden’s building efficiency plan would avoid far fewer carbon emissions than the ambitious Green New Deal. In a report released today, the group says Biden’s plan would reduce annual CO2 emissions by 6.6 million metric tons by 2025 through upgrading 500,000 homes per year at the cost of $7,000 per house. In contrast, the Green New Deal, which seeks to make energy efficiency upgrades to all U.S. homes, would upgrade 8 million homes per year at a cost of $40,000 per home, according to Carbon Switch. It would reduce emissions by 263 million metric tons per year by 2025.
“There’s no doubt that the difference between a Biden administration and Trump administration would be stark,” the group says, but adds later that “Trump will likely continue to frame Biden’s climate plan as ‘radical.’ But there’s no doubt: Biden’s Climate Plan is no Green New Deal.”
TRUMP BRAGS ON HYPOTHETICAL EXXON FUNDRAISING: Trump invoked Exxon Mobil in a hypothetical example on Monday while discussing his fundraising prowess — though he also made the point that he would be “totally compromised” if he did. “I would be the greatest fundraiser in history,” Trump said at a rally in Arizona, after deriding Biden’s own fundraising. Trump added that all he would have to do is call up top executives on Wall Street and at major companies, like Exxon. Biden’s campaign and affiliated committees raised $383 million in September, the campaign announced last week, breaking a record he had just set the prior month.
“So I’ll call some guy, the head of Exxon. I call the head of Exxon. I don’t know. I’ll use a company,” he said. “‘How, how are you doing, how’s energy coming? When are doing the exploration? Oh, you need a couple of permits, huh? OK.’ But I call the head of Exxon, I say, ‘you know, I’d love you to send me $25 million for the campaign.’ ‘Absolutely sir, why didn’t you ask? Would you like some more?’
“And if I make the call — now if people make the call, it’s different. But if I made the call, I will hit a home run every single call. I would raise a billion dollars in one day, if I wanted to. I don’t want to do that.”
— Casey Norton, a spokesperson for Exxon Mobil, dismissed Trump’s hypothetical in a statement to ME. “No such conversation occurred,” he said. “ExxonMobil complies with all applicable laws and regulations and our political contributions are publicly available and filed with the appropriate regulatory agencies and authorities.” ExxonMobil PAC has raised and spent more than $1.4 million this cycle, according to FEC filings.
In actual fact, even though oil majors Exxon and Chevron still give the majority of their contributions to Republicans, they seem to be hedging their bets and increasing their contributions to Democratic candidates this election cycle. Reuters reported last week: “Exxon sent 41% of its contributions to Democratic candidates and parties, up from 32.6% in the last presidential election, the data showed.”
BOB MURRAY RETIRES FROM ACNR BOARD: The coal magnate and Trump ally is stepping down as chairman of the board of directors of ACNR Holdings — the new name for Murray Energy Holdings after it emerged from federal bankruptcy protection. “As the acquirer of substantially all of Murray Energy’s assets, ACNR is the best positioned thermal and metallurgical coal company in the world to confront the current threats to reliable, low-cost, fossil-fueled electricity,” Murray said in a statement Monday. Eugene Davis will serve as the new chairman.
Murray, who started Murray Energy Corporation in 1988, has been a staunch ally of Trump. He has repeatedly pressed the Trump administration to support coal, although Trump’s promise to save the industry has failed to stem its demise. Murray was diagnosed in 2016 with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
— Puneet Verma is now vice president of federal government affairs at Avangrid. Before joining Avangrid, Verma was manager for federal government affairs for Chevron.
— “Democrats prepare sweeping budget plans if they win in November,” via POLITICO.
— “Pioneer Natural Resources is in talks to buy Parsley Energy,” via The Wall Street Journal.
— “GM to plan third electric-vehicle plant in big plug-in bet,” via Bloomberg.
— “Halliburton losses slow in 3rd quarter,” via Houston Chronicle.
— “Biden win could be net positive for metals and mining, observers say,” via S&P Global Market Intelligence.
— “ConocoPhillips to buy shale rival Concho for $9.7 billion,” via The Wall Street Journal.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
