With help from Anthony Adragna and Daniel Lippman
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— The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg leaves the Supreme Court short a member as the remaining justices are about to decide whether to hear some high-profile energy cases.
— The White House threatened to veto House Democrats’ massive clean energy package that is likely to get a vote this week.
— President Donald Trump is expected to add North Carolina to an offshore drilling moratorium after meeting with vulnerable Republican Sen. Thom Tillis.
WELCOME TO TUESDAY! I’m your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. Entergy’s Cory Horton gets the trivia win for knowing that former President Franklin D. Roosevelt is the 20th century president to appoint the most Supreme Court justices with nine. For today, another SCOTUS question: How many justices have been born outside the United States? 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: RBG: Real Big on Green
WHAT SCOTUS WILL DECIDE WITHOUT RBG: The remaining eight justices on the Supreme Court bench will discuss whether to take up several high-profile energy cases next week, including a fight involving three states over coal exports and a bellwether case in the increasing climate change lawsuits brought by cities and states, Pro’s Alex Guillén and Annie Snider report this morning.
Coal exports: The attorneys general of Wyoming and Montana have asked the high court to intervene in their dispute with the state of Washington over the Millennium Bulk Terminals facility along the Columbia River, which Washington state blocked by denying a key Clean Water Act permit in 2017, citing concerns about water quality damage, and other environmental and social impacts.
Wyoming and Montana argue that Washington’s decision violated the commerce clause of the Constitution. A lower court has already rejected similar claims brought by coal company Lighthouse Resources and railroad BNSF, but the states cite original jurisdiction to take the case directly to the Supreme Court.
Climate change damages: The justices will also weigh a lawsuit brought by the city of Baltimore against BP and other fossil fuel companies for public nuisance and product liability claims under state common law, Alex and Annie report. Dozens of similar cases have been filed by cities and states in recent years.
The energy companies have sought to move the disputes out of states and to the federal courts, which would give them an advantage. A 2011 Supreme Court ruling — authored by Ginsburg — said EPA’s authority over greenhouse gases barred federal common law claims against emitters. So far, however, the companies have largely struck out.
WHITE HOUSE THREATENS TO VETO CLEAN ENERGY PACKAGE: The White House has already threatened to veto House Democrats’ sprawling clean energy package, H.R. 4447 (116), ahead of an upcoming vote on the floor, Pro’s Anthony Adragna reports. “This legislation would bypass well-established processes and procedures and would impose substantial, unwarranted costs on Federal, State, and local agencies and other key stakeholders in both public and private sectors,” the statement of administration policy said, adding that White House advisers would recommend Trump veto the measure should it reach his desk.
Democrats announced last week they plan to consider the package — a compilation of dozens of committee-passed measures — with the intention of passing it later this week.
Speaking of: The Rules panel made 98 amendments in order at a Monday hearing. Among the amendments are several related to environmental justice, including one to create a climate justice grants program under EPA for climate mitigation and climate adaptation projects, and another that requires EPA to identify 100 communities overburdened by pollution violations and implement strategies for ending those violations.
Other amendments made in order include an amendment to add emissions reduction and climate change mitigation to the Energy Department’s R&D mission, and an amendment to require the Interior Department to create an online database to annually report the type of energy and emissions produced on federal public lands.
PELOSI: CLIMATE ‘VERY URGENT’ PRIORITY POST-ELECTION: Expressing confidence Democrats would do well in the November elections, Speaker Nancy Pelosi blamed Republicans for the lack of legislative progress on climate change and vowed taking action would be a “very urgent” priority after the election. “So even before [Trump] got there, we could never have the legislation we wanted even in the majority, even with a Democratic president that would address the climate issue,” Pelosi told Kara Swisher on the “Sway” podcast. “We will after this election. But it is very urgent. We don’t have that much time.”
FOR YOUR RADAR: House Democrats introduced a stopgap spending measure Monday to keep the government open through Dec. 11 that also included an extension of the surface transportation authorization for one year, Pro’s Tanya Snyder reports. The House will begin consideration of the measure, H.R. 8319, this morning.
WELL, WELL, WELL: Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet (D) announced two bills Monday to tackle the clean up of abandoned, or “orphaned,” oil and gas wells. Bennet’s Oil and Gas Bonding Reform and Orphaned Well Remediation Act would create a fund to expand orphaned well cleanup on federal, state and tribal lands and would boost individual and statewide bonding requirements to $75,000 and $200,000, respectively, while also removing “inadequate” bonding mechanisms. The multi-billion-dollar fund would be administered by the Interior Department in coordination with the departments of Agriculture and Energy, and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.
The other bill, dubbed the Public Engagement Opportunity on Public Land Exploration Act, would require agencies to directly notify public land user groups — like recreation or grazing groups — surface owners, and local governments of upcoming lease nominations and bids.
NOAA TAPS WHITE HOUSE AIDE: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tapped White House aide Erik Noble as its new chief of staff, Pro’s Zack Colman reports. Noble had been working as a senior policy adviser in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He also served as a data analyst for Trump’s 2016 campaign and was a climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
The move comes amid a shuffle atop NOAA. The agency recently hired David Legates, an academic who has questioned the seriousness of climate change, for a top political role, which riled many in the agency.
Related: The Washington Post also reports that the White House has tapped Ryan Maue, a meteorologist who has challenged connections between extreme weather and climate change, to serve as the new chief scientist at NOAA.
WHEELER BOASTS, FORMER EPA CHIEFS ENDORSE BIDEN: EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler boasted Monday that EPA under Trump is the most environmentally protective in the agency’s 50-year history — hours before four prior EPA administrators endorsed Trump’s opponent, Joe Biden. “We have done more in the first four years of the Trump administration to improve the environment than probably any administration except perhaps during the very first years of EPA,” Wheeler said during remarks at the American Enterprise Institute. The speech was the latest in a charm offensive seemingly intended to soften the administration’s image on environmental issues ahead of the November election, your ME host and Annie Snider report for Pros.
But shortly after Wheeler’s remarks, four of his predecessors offered a fierce critique on a call with reporters hosted by the Biden campaign, where they characterized the Trump EPA as derelict of its duty and backed Biden for president. “There has been nothing like an administration on the environment in the last 50 years to compare with the dereliction that characterizes this administration,” said William Reilly, a former EPA administrator under Republican President George H. W. Bush.
BROUILLETTE TOUTS FOSSIL FUELS AT SHELL FACILITY: Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette praised the Shell ethylene cracker plant in Western Pennsylvania that he visited Monday as a “great thing” for the state and touted the necessity of such facilities to create renewable technology. “It’s a great thing for Pennsylvania. The amount of work that is being generated here in the western part of the state is just phenomenal,” Brouillette told the KDKA Radio Morning Show, when asked whether increases in energy production in the state would help the president’s re-election bid.
Brouillette was in Pittsburgh Monday to visit the Shell cracker plant that began during the Obama presidency and which Trump visited last year. Asked whether the plant was a waste of money given progressives’ push to move away from fossil fuels, Brouillette responded that such facilities are crucial to the development of electric vehicles and renewables. “If you oppose fracking, if you oppose fossil fuels, you oppose then the ability of us to develop ethylene polymers, polyethylenes, the things that make up these renewable technologies,” he said.
TILLIS: TRUMP TO ADD NORTH CAROLINA TO MORATORIUM: Trump will soon extend the offshore drilling moratorium to North Carolina, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said Monday after speaking with the president. Tillis said the state would be included in an offshore drilling moratorium that initially included only Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) had also called on Trump to include his state in the moratorium, pointing to bipartisan opposition in the state.
It remains to be seen whether the administration will add other states to the moratorium. Several states led by Democratic governors, like New Jersey and Virginia, had previously called on the Trump administration to reject drilling off their coasts. Oceana Action campaign director Diane Hoskins called the North Carolina report “welcome news” if true, but cautioned that it was Trump’s plan that put the states at risk of drilling in the first place. “Other East and West Coast states remain vulnerable and deserve at least the same protections,” she said.
To the polls: Trump was virtually tied with Biden in North Carolina as of Friday, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll. Former North Carolina state senator Cal Cunningham led Tillis — who previously supported offshore drilling in the state — by 5 percentage points in the same poll.
BUSINESSES ANNOUNCE RAFT OF CLIMATE COMMITMENTS: Several big-name companies unveiled climate targets on Monday coinciding with the kick-off of both Climate Week NYC and National Clean Energy Week. Microsoft unveiled a new plan to become “water positive” by 2030, meaning the company will replenish more water than it consumes. Morgan Stanley committed to reach net-zero financed emissions by 2050, though the Wall Street giant admitted there is a “lack of standardized tools and methodologies” available for measuring financed emissions. And PepsiCo Inc. also announced it would source 100 percent renewable electricity across all of its company-owned and controlled operations globally by 2030.
GREENS TEE UP NEWSOM SUIT: Environmentalists told California Gov. Gavin Newsom they intend to sue his administration over what they argue is the illegal permitting of fossil fuel wells, Pro’s Colby Bermel reports. A letter sent Monday by the Center for Biological Diversity is a precursor to environmentalists’ first major legal action against the Newsom administration. The group argued that the lawsuit is timely because the governor’s recent climate rhetoric doesn’t square with agencies’ continued approvals of oil and gas operations.
— Russ Girling will retire on Dec. 31 as TC Energy’s president and CEO, as well as from its board of directors, the company announced Monday. François Poirier, currently chief operating officer and president of power and storage and Mexico, will succeed Girling.
— Ben Purser III is now deputy assistant secretary for oceans and fisheries in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs at the State Department. He most recently was senior adviser for competitive strategies to the Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security.
— “An Alaska mine project might be bigger than acknowledged,” via The New York Times.
— “Oil tycoon gives $10 million to pro-Trump super-PAC,” via Forbes.
— “GE is getting out of the coal power business,” via CNN.
— “Musk gets shot to deliver on tantalizing ‘Battery Day’ hints,” via Bloomberg.
— “Federal district court judge denies CEQ’s bid to dismiss NEPA suit,” via InsideEPA.
— “This Oregon forest was supposed to store carbon for 100 years. Now it’s on fire,” via Grist.
— “Arctic sea ice suffers ‘devastating’ loss, shrinks to second lowest on record,” via Reuters.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
