With help from Annie Snider, Anthony Adragna and Sam Mintz
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— A House subcommittee will take a first look today at a spate of bills targeting financial disclosures of climate-related risks.
— The House Rules Committee set up votes on amendments to the House’s annual defense policy bill, including several revisions related to toxic PFAS contamination.
— The White House has already threatened to veto the House’s National Defense Authorization Act, citing, in part, two provisions related to PFAS.
WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY! I’m your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. American Chemistry Council’s Andrew Fasoli knew President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Hatch Act into law on Aug. 2, 1939. For today: Which national park is home to the highest continuous paved road in the United States? Send your tips, energy gossip and comments to ktamborrino@politico.com.
WHAT’S THE (CLIMATE) RISK? A subcommittee hearing today will mark the latest move from House Democrats to address climate change and press corporate America on its role in tackling social and environmental issues.
A House Financial Services subcommittee will examine a set of bills this afternoon, including one that would require public companies to disclose details of their climate change risks. In a memo released before the hearing, committee Democrats said there’s “growing evidence” that environmental, social and governance information is vital to investors, as Pro’s Zachary Warmbrodt reports. “Many investors view ESG information as important not just for evaluating reputational risks, but for evaluating companies’ financial performance as well,” the memo said.
— Witnesses today include Mindy Lubber, the president and CEO of Ceres, a sustainable investing nonprofit, and James Andrus, an investment manager for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System Investment Office.
The hearing comes amid larger calls within the Democratic party to force companies to disclose the risks they face from a warming atmosphere, including several leading 2020 presidential hopefuls who have released plans to strengthen climate-related disclosure requirements. And they’re not alone — Commodity Futures Trading Commission member Rostin Behnam, a Democrat, called for the agency last month to form a subcommittee focused on climate-related financial market risks, warning that global warming could spark a financial meltdown.
PFAS PROVISIONS GET A VOTE: A series of PFAS amendments will get a vote as the House considers its defense authorization bill this week. Late Tuesday night, the House Rules Committee ruled nine PFAS-related amendments in order and teed them up for votes. Among those are:
-
An amendment from Rep.
Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) to require EPA to list PFAS as toxic pollutants under the Clean Water Act, a means of requiring effluent limits and pretreatment standards for the chemicals. -
An amendment from Rep.
Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) to prohibit the military from procuring food packaging containing PFAS for MREs. - A bipartisan amendment to require DoD to enter into cooperative agreements with states for contamination cleanups.
Didn’t make the cut: A closely watched amendment from Michigan Democratic Reps. Debbie Dingell and Dan Kildee to require EPA to designate all PFAS as hazardous substances for the purposes of Superfund — a key element in forcing the Pentagon and other responsible parties to foot the bill for cleanups — wasn’t ruled in order. Nor were amendments pertaining to key issues in the Senate-passed PFAS package including requiring EPA to set an enforceable drinking water limit and require public reporting of PFAS emissions under the Toxic Releases Inventory.
House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders aren’t thrilled about moving the provisions on the defense authorization bill as they attempt to craft their own deal on a broader bill, Pro’s Anthony Adragna and Annie Snider report. But the inclusion of some provisions in the defense bill could give Democrats leverage.
The White House has already threatened to veto the defense package, in part due to a pair of provisions in the bill relating to PFAS. One of those provisions would require the Defense Department to phase out use of firefighting foam containing PFAS by 2025, Annie reports. The other would authorize DoD to treat water contaminated by the chemicals that is used for agricultural purposes or else provide replacement water. Others elements that drew the administration’s ire were the top-line spending levels, which are $17 billion less than the president’s budget request, and a provision limiting funding from being used to construct President Donald Trump’s border wall.
IN THE WORKS: Ahead of a hearing today on surface transportation reauthorization, EPW Chairman John Barrasso said the committee will vote on a reauthorization bill on Aug. 1, Pro’s Tanya Snyder reports. “We have a scheduled markup for the first of August” and the hope is to add the surface bill to the agenda of that markup, the Wyoming Republican said. Barrasso would not say whether the bill includes a climate title but said ranking member Tom Carper (D-Del.) “has some things he would like to have included.”
FIRST IN ME: Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Carper will introduce a bill that would set a national goal for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the federal highway program, as well as help states adapt to climate change. The senators will introduce the Generating Resilient, Environmentally Exceptional National Streets Act before today’s EPW hearing.
MANCHIN’S ALASKA VOYAGE: ME caught up with top Senate Energy Democrat Joe Manchin following his visit to Alaska over the July Fourth break. He and Murkowski toured everything from the western North Slope to the village of Kaktovik within Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
— He said he was impressed by safety precautions surrounding the exploration. “I did not see what people were concerned about” within the ANWR site, he said. On the North Slope, “they’re doing everything humanly possible [safety-wise] that I saw and the people there are very supportive that live closest and are affected by the drilling right there,” he added.
— He saw real life impacts from climate change. “If you really want to see climate change, go to the Arctic and if you really want to see it in the United States of America, go to Alaska,” Manchin said, adding he “couldn’t believe” the heat — it was 85 degrees in Anchorage.
Democrats ‘should’ tour coal mines: Manchin said Democratic presidential candidates “should” accept an invitation from the United Mine Workers of America to tour coal mines and interact with miners, but he cast doubt on whether they could win back the voters who’ve abandoned the party in recent years. “If there’s a transition [away from fossil fuels], fine, we understand that, but don’t accelerate it,” he told ME. “And that’s what seemed to happen with the last administration. They seemed to jump on and accelerate it.”
WHERE’S PERRY? Energy Secretary Rick Perry will speak this morning at the Energy Department’s annual Better Buildings, Better Plants Summit in Arlington, Va. The conference gathers DOE partners to “advance greater energy efficiency of commercial buildings and manufacturing plants.” Perry will deliver a keynote address that is expected to detail the department’s strategic initiatives, including “R&D technology transfer and enhancing U.S. manufacturing productivity.”
INTERIOR REPORT EXAMINES DRONE TESTING: The Interior Department released a report last week on its use and testing of drones, including “Government Edition” software created by Chinese dronemaker DJI to address concerns about security and data sharing. The agency found that the software, which DJI created custom for DOI, is “a reasonable mitigation for known data management assurance vulnerabilities” of stock drones. The manufacturer said DOI’s report “validates DJI’s effort to build software and hardware solutions that meet the evolving data security needs of its customers.” The announcement comes a few months after DHS issued an alert saying that Chinese-manufactured drones pose a security risk.
— Linda Birnbaum, a top federal scientist who has been vocal about the health effects of PFAS, will retire later this year, announced NIH Director Francis Collins on Tuesday. Birnbaum, a toxicologist and former federal scientist at EPA, will retire Oct. 3 as director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program.
“I intend to maintain some of my advisory and reviewing roles in various U.S. and international institutions, and I intend to do some writing,” Birnbaum said in a statement to colleagues shared with ME. “I also hope to have a voice on current issues concerning environmental health, and maybe even get involved in politics as well.”
— “Young activists are planning national protests to push Democrats on the climate crisis,” via BuzzFeed News.
— “White House won’t review climate science before election,” via E&E News.
— “Coal left Appalachia devastated. Now it’s doing the same to Wyoming,” via Vox.
— “Whistleblower says he was pressured by Trump administration to reverse environmental decision,” via CNN.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
