With help from Alex Guillén and Anthony Adragna
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— President Donald Trump repeatedly took credit for bringing OPEC and Russia to the table to rein in oil production earlier this year. Now, part of those agreed-upon production cuts are expiring and the president has yet to weigh in.
— The Trump administration won’t seek to allow oil and gas drilling off Florida’s coast, Trump told a Florida news station over the weekend.
— The Dakota Access Pipeline can keep shipping oil while an appeals court hears arguments over whether the Trump administration failed to conduct a proper environmental review of the controversial project.
WELCOME TO THURSDAY! I’m your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. Ed Chen from the Natural Resources Defense Council gets another trivia win. I, however, stand corrected: There are actually five father-son pairs of the modern era who have both served as governor: Steve Beshear and Andy Beshear in Kentucky; Mario Cuomo and Andrew Cuomo in New York; Pat Brown and Jerry Brown in California; John Sununu and Chris Sununu of New Hampshire; and Jim Folsom Sr. and Jim Folsom Jr. in Alabama. For today: In what state can you find the longest natural bridge in the U.S.? Send your tips, energy gossip and comments to [email protected].
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: Is the oil price war back?
OVER A BARREL: OPEC nations are ending some of the emergency production cuts implemented in the spring after oil prices hit record lows, even as U.S. oil companies remain awash in red ink, Pro’s Ben Lefebvre reports this morning.
Even though Trump boasted his administration’s role in getting Saudi Arabia and Russia to agree to cut output by 9.7 million barrels per day earlier this year, he’s so far been mum on the 2 million barrels of those cuts that expired at the beginning of August.
“It’s not going to be helpful for U.S. producers, no doubt about it,” Phil Flynn, oil market analyst with Price Futures Group, said of the OPEC production increase. “They’re already struggling to keep the lights on.”
A spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council said the Trump administration was keeping an eye on the increased oil supply coming out of OPEC. “We call on all parties to support market-based solutions to maintain stability in the global energy market,” the NSC spokesman said.
Benchmark WTI oil prices have recently hovered around $40 a barrel — welcome relief for oil producers even if it’s not high enough for many companies to make a profit.
“Prices are stable, albeit low,” said Matt Reed, vice president of Foreign Reports, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm for the oil industry. “Global demand is clawing back as lockdowns ease. And even if we wanted OPEC to do something different, it’s too late. When it comes to OPEC and oil markets I get the sense the White House has moved on.”
ANOTHER ROUND OF GULF: Trump said the administration won’t call for drilling off the Florida coast, the latest reversal from the administration on its plans for offshore drilling near the politically crucial state, Ben reports. Over the weekend, Trump responded to a Florida Spectrum News 1 reporter’s question about the possibility of drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, saying: “We’re not gonna be drilling, and I’ve already put out that order, actually quite a while ago. But we can’t do that. And the people of Florida just don’t want it.”
Trump did not indicate what order he was talking about. “The President’s remarks speak for themselves,” an Interior spokesman said, declining to answer further questions about what order Trump referred to.
Oceana Campaign Director Diane Hoskins called the president’s remarks “encouraging” in a statement, but added they are a “far cry” from any official offshore protections. “It’s not true that any order has been issued removing any federal waters from the president’s offshore drilling plan,” Hoskins said. “Will President Trump give other states that oppose offshore drilling the same assurances? And, will he immediately and formally withdraw his radical plan to expand drilling to nearly all waters?”
TRUMP WILL ‘LISTEN TO BOTH SIDES’ ON PEBBLE: Trump said he will weigh both arguments for and against the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska, one day after his son tweeted opposition to the project, Pro’s Alex Guillén reports. “I don’t know of the argument yet, but I would certainly listen to both sides,” the president said at a press conference Wednesday, adding that his son “has some very strong opinions and he is very much an environmentalist.”
“But I will look at both sides of it,” Trump said. “I had heard about it. I understand they’re going to be doing a briefing sometime over the next 48 hours. It’s going to go very quickly.”
HAPPENING TODAY: Trump will make his 16th trip to Ohio, where he will visit Whirlpool Corp.’s washing machine factory in Clyde. While there, Trump will “deliver remarks on his administration’s successful efforts to revitalize and support America’s resurgent manufacturing industry,” a White House official said.
SENATORS WARN OF ‘CRUSHING’ NORD STREAM 2 SANCTIONS: Three Republican senators threatened Germany’s Mukran Port with “crushing” sanctions if the site doesn’t end its involvement with the companies working to complete the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, your host reports for Pros.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) wrote to Fährhafen Sassnitz GmbH, which operates the port, saying their letter serves “as formal legal notice” that goods, services, support and provisioning provided to the project will expose the company and Mukran Port, as well its board members, corporate officers, shareholders and employees, “to crushing legal and economic sanctions, which our government will be mandated to impose.”
BIPARTISAN PUSH FOR ELECTRIC CO-OPS: A bipartisan group of 22 House members is urging leadership to include legislation, H.R. 7483 (116), that would provide financial relief to rural electric cooperatives during the pandemic. “These savings can be passed on directly to consumers, used to invest in quality rural broadband networks, or upgrade and replace aging electric infrastructure, all of which will help workers and families in rural communities who continue to weather the COVID-19 crisis,” the letter reads.
RECORDS SHOW INTERIOR OFFICIAL’S RELATIVE HIRED AT EPA TERMINATED FOR ‘MISCONDUCT’: A man who got an EPA job in 2018 with help from his father-in-law, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Areas Doug Domenech, was terminated after just five months for unspecific “misconduct,” according to agency employment records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The Interior Department’s inspector general said in a May report that Domenech used his official email to push EPA officials to hire his relative, identified by sources as his son-in-law Eric Frandy.
Frandy was hired as a member of the administrator’s protective detail in February 2018 and was terminated in late July of that year while still in a probationary period, according to the documents released by EPA. They do not detail the misconduct. A professional profile of Frandy released by EPA notes a decade of prior experience at the Defense Department protecting “senior U.S. government officials, senior foreign officials and diplomats, general officers, celebrities and athletes around the world.”
“We don’t comment on personnel matters,” EPA spokesperson James Hewitt said. ME on Wednesday was unable to contact by phone or email Frandy or his wife, Emily Domenech, a senior policy adviser to Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
COURT SAYS DAPL CAN STAY OPEN: A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday the Dakota Access Pipeline can keep shipping oil while the court hears arguments over whether the Trump administration failed to conduct a proper environmental review of the project, Ben reports for Pros. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said it did not think the Army Corps of Engineers made a strong case that the district court had erred in an underlying ruling that it should complete an environmental review of the pipeline’s crossing over the Missouri River.
Next up: The appeals court fast-tracked the hearings by ordering the sides to wrap up briefing by Sept. 30, with oral arguments to follow in October or early November.
McNAMEE SETS LAST DAY: FERC Commissioner Bernard McNamee announced his last day on the job will be Sept. 4. “After I leave, I will take some time off and search for a job,” he said Wednesday. Trump last week announced two new FERC nominees: Virginia Corporation Commission Chair Mark Christie to take McNamee’s seat and former NRDC attorney Allison Clements to fill a vacant Democratic spot.
But it remains to be seen whether the Senate will confirm a replacement before McNamee’s exit. Senate Energy ranking member Joe Manchin of West Virginia said Wednesday the committee “lacks the necessary paperwork” to hold a confirmation hearing for the nominees. Manchin said he is “hopeful” the committee will act quickly once it has the paperwork.
UTAH, EPA REACH GOLD KING SETTLEMENT: EPA and Utah officials reached a settlement to resolve the state’s legal claims related to the Gold King mine disaster that spilled 3 million gallons of wastewater five years ago. As part of the settlement agreement, Utah will dismiss its legal claims against EPA and its contractors, while EPA committed to “meaningful and substantial involvement” from Utah in its work to address contamination at the Bonita Peak Mining District Superfund site that includes the Gold King mine. EPA will also act on Utah’s application for $3 million in Clean Water Act funds for various projects, as well as initiate Superfund assessments of several abandoned mine sites in the state by the end of 2021.
WRITE THIS DOWN: Peabody Energy Corp. said Wednesday it is writing down the value of Wyoming’s North Antelope Rochelle Mine, the world’s largest coal mine, by $1.42 billion. The company cited assumptions in low long-term prices for natural gas, timing of coal plant retirements and renewable generation growth. “These factors have contributed to the company projecting that coal’s share of the U.S. generation mix will continue to be lower than prior year levels,” Peabody said in a release. The company also reported a net income loss of $1.55 billion.
Related: The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Wednesday 121 coal-fired power plants in the U.S. were repurposed to burn other fuels between 2011 and 2019. Of those, 103 were converted or replaced by natural gas-fired plants.
TC ENERGY, LABOR UNIONS REACH KEYSTONE AGREEMENT: The developer of the Keystone XL project announced Wednesday it had reached a project labor agreement with four U.S. labor unions, despite a recent federal court ruling to keep the project frozen. TC Energy said it reached the agreement to complete the pipeline with the Laborers International Union of North America, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the International Union of Operating Engineers, and the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters. The company said the Keystone XL project would support the creation of 42,000 U.S. jobs, including 10,000 construction jobs. It also announced it would contribute $10 million to create a “Green Jobs Training Program” to train union workers in the developing renewable-energy sector.
2020 vision: The announcement could up the pressure in the November election. Trump backs the oil pipeline project, while his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, has said he would rescind the pipeline’s border-crossing permit, effectively killing the project should he be elected president. But Biden has also tried not to alienate blue-collar workers throughout his campaign, pitching his clean energy plan as a union-job creator.
GE TO USE SUPERCOMPUTER TO STUDY OFFSHORE WIND: GE scientists will access IBM’s Summit supercomputer at Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in a bid to improve efficiencies in offshore wind energy production, the company announced. “Working on Oak Ridge National Lab’s Summit System, we hope to learn and make advancements in offshore wind faster than what was previously possible,” GE Research Aerodynamics Engineer Jing Li, who is leading the effort, said in a statement. “At the same time, our project will help drive the DOE’s efforts to build unprecedented exascale capabilities through the ExaWind project.”
— American Energy Innovation Council, a group of leaders of some of the largest corporations in the U.S., added Liz Shuler, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO; Arun Majumdar, co-director of the Jay Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University and founding director of ARPA-E; and Geisha Williams, former president and CEO of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company.
— “Climate hawks urge Biden to shun Obama-era energy moderates,” via Bloomberg.
— “Dakota Access oil pipeline users downplay need for line to investors,” via Reuters.
— “Interior secretary calls Confederate statue protesters ‘bad-doers,’ confirms feds are monitoring their social media feeds,” via Yahoo News.
— “Conservation groups sue government over Alaska mining road,” via The Associated Press.
— “Trump’s political insertion worries former TVA board member,” via Knoxville News Sentinel.
— “Exxon to suspend company match to employee retirement plans in October: sources,” via Reuters.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
