Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine and get Washington Briefing: politics and policy stories that will keep you up to date with what’s going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue!
SOME SIGNS TRUMP IS SENSITIVE TO ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS: President Trump’s fiscal year 2021 budget request cuts funding for the key energy and environmental agencies, but not as severely as previous proposals.
The president is also flip-flopping on storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, by not including money to license the project as it did with past budgets.
The changes may reflect Trump is sensitive to voter perceptions of his handling of environmental issues ahead of the 2020 election (see bad polling for him below). Congress, by bipartisan margins, has blocked Trump’s earlier attempts at funding cuts for environmental and energy agencies, a reflection of their popularity.
But that doesn’t mean the administration is suddenly changing its deregulatory approach or losing its apathy regarding clean energy and climate change programs.
Trump’s new budget calls for $6.7 billion in total funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, a cut of 27% from current funding (Trump proposed a 31% funding cut for EPA in fiscal year 2020, the most of any agency).
The Energy Department would get $35.4 billion, a 8% cut, compared Trump’s call for a 11% decrease in fiscal year 2020.
The Interior Department would also get less money with $12.7 billion in funding, a 13% reduction from current funding.
We’ll know more about the details of the proposed cuts when agencies host press briefings on their budgets this afternoon.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Josh Siegel (@SiegelScribe) and Abby Smith (@AbbySmithDC). Email [email protected] or [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
YOUNG VOTERS WANT REPUBLICANS TO ADDRESS CLIMATE: Whether GOP lawmakers do could affect how much youth support they attract this election cycle.
More than half of young right-leaning voters said climate change would sway their vote in 2020, according to new polling released Monday by the American Conservation Coalition, a group of young conservative climate advocates. Even more, 77%, of right-leaning young voters say climate change is important to them.
The numbers are an opportunity to win over young voters, but they also raise the stakes: “Republicans are losing independent voters and young people on this issue. They already knew that,” Benji Backer, the American Conservation Coalition’s president, told Abby. “This polling showcases they are losing the base on this issue, too.”
More on the new survey in Abby’s story published this morning.
TRUMP NOT TRUSTED ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: A new poll commissioned by the liberal Center for American Progress found a majority of voters disapprove of how Trump is handling environmental issues.
The poll of 1,000 voters, split evenly between supporters of Trump and Hillary Clinton in the last election, revealed that 63% disapprove of how the president handles climate change.
The poll was focused mostly on Trump’s proposed streamlining of the National Environmental Policy Act to build infrastructure faster.
Most of those polled (80%) have never heard of NEPA. However, a majority of them opposed some of the proposed changes, such as narrowing consideration of projects’ effects on greenhouse gas emissions and allowing companies or contractors to assume a greater role in preparing their own environmental reviews, rather than relying on the government.
BROUILLETTE: USMCA COULD BOOST COAL EXPORTS: The new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade could enable more cooperation in exporting coal to Asia, said Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette.
We couldn’t get to everything from Brouillette’s address to the Atlantic Council in Friday’s newsletter, but this also caught our eye.
Brouillette said he expects Mexico and Canada to help the U.S. send coal to Asia to get around the blocking of export facilities by Western states like California, Washington, and Oregon.
“That’s why the USMCA was so important,” Brouillette said. “We hope to work more collaboratively with both Mexico and Canada to find export facilities to get the coal [mined] from Wyoming.”
Brouillette later told reporters that he respects the right of Democratic governors to block permits for coal ports, but that “it’s not going to prevent the administration from working with our colleagues in Canada or Mexico to look for those types of opportunities.”
GREEN LIGHT FOR SOLAR DESPITE FERC’S PRO-FOSSIL FUEL ORDER: Competitive Power Ventures confirmed Monday it is proceeding with a 150-megawatt solar project, dubbed Maple Hill, in western Pennsylvania.
If you remember, Josh spotlighted Competitive Power Ventures in a recent newsletter, in which the Maryland-based power company described how FERC’s proposed “MOPR” order won’t derail its plans to develop more renewables.
Competitive Power Ventures mostly has natural gas in its portfolio, but the company has plans for “several hundred” megawatts of wind and solar in the coming months, including some in the PJM power market, where FERC is looking raise payments to fossil fuel plants to combat state policies that subsidize renewables and nuclear.
“CPV’s mission of modernizing U.S. power generation means we are making significant investments in renewables and highly efficient, flexible natural gas generation to create the electric grid of the future,” said Sean Finnerty, executive vice president of Competitive Power Ventures.
TEMPERATURE’S RISING…EVEN IN ANTARCTICA: Antarctica just clocked a record-high temperature of 65 degrees.
The measurement was taken last week at the Esperanza Base along the continent’s Trinity Peninsula, according to the Washington Post. The measurement shattered the previous record of 63.5 degrees, which was taken in March 2015, although it still needs to be officially reviewed and certified.
The Antarctic Peninsula is warming faster than many places in the world. In the past 50 years, temperatures there have risen 5 degrees, which scientists attribute to climate change. During that same period, 87% of the glaciers on the peninsula’s west coast have retreated.
DEMOCRATS DEBATE USMCA AND CLIMATE…AGAIN: If you were expecting fresh, new questions on the Democratic candidates’ climate policy positions, Friday night’s debate in New Hampshire didn’t deliver.
The only climate question moderators asked was a rehash of why Bernie Sanders voted against the new North American trade deal while his colleagues — including fellow progressive Elizabeth Warren — supported it.
Sanders has said repeatedly he opposed the trade deal because it wasn’t strong enough on climate. Warren and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar defended their votes for the deal, saying it made improvements on the environment and they’d work to negotiate something better.
Not much new there, but one more interesting tidbit: Joe Biden, in defending his record against newcomer former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, said he was the reason the Chinese came to the table on the Paris climate agreement.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT — TRUMP BACKS OFF PROBE OF CALIFORNIA AUTO DEAL: Democrats had said the antitrust investigation was political retaliation against the four automakers siding with California on fuel economy — and a threat to keep other carmakers from joining.
The Justice Department closed its probe into whether those companies had violated federal competition laws, Abby and Josh confirmed Friday.
The White House could have been more confident other carmakers weren’t going to join with California, though. Since that deal was struck in July, several other auto companies, including General Motors, Toyota, and Fiat Chrysler, joined with the Trump administration to defend its move to eliminate California’s ability to set its own, stricter tailpipe greenhouse gas limits.
The Rundown
Bloomberg Energy markets need winter, and climate change is taking it away
Axios There’s more oil and gas than ever — and the industry is tanking
New York Times To Survive, Venezuela’s leader gives up decades of control over oil
Wall Street Journal How a utility’s counterintuitive strategy might fuel a greener future
Bloomberg BlackRock stake in U.S. coal giant shrinks amid climate vow
Politico ‘This is the wild West out here’
Calendar
TUESDAY | FEB. 11
11 a.m. 366 Dirksen. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a business meeting to consider the nominations of Katharine MacGregor to be deputy Interior secretary and Lanny Erdos to be director of the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.
WEDNESDAY | FEB. 12
10:30 a.m. 2322 Rayburn. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Energy Subcommittee holds a legislative hearing on six bills to improve energy efficiency and storage.
