| | | | |  | | By Matthew Choi | With help from Ben Lefebvre, Josh Siegel, Jonathan Custodio and Catherine Morehouse. Due to a production error, an incorrect version of Morning Energy was sent earlier today. We apologize for any inconvenience. Editor's Note: Morning Energy is a free version of POLITICO Pro Energy's morning newsletter, which is delivered to our subscribers each morning at 6 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro.
| | | — Climate change is a serious concern around the world and citizens aren't too impressed with how their governments are handling it, according to new international POLITICO/Morning Consult polling data. — Germany is more in line with the U.S. on Russia sanctions than it initially appeared, though following natural gas disruptions are sure to hurt Europe in the short term. — The American Petroleum Institute is challenging the court order that gutted last year's offshore oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico. WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY! I'm your host, Matthew Choi. Felicidades to IBEW's Sergio Espinosa for knowing the Casa de Nariño is the official residence of the president of Colombia. For today's trivia: What is the first name of the geneticist who created the Punnett square? Send your tips and trivia answers to mchoi@politico.com. Find me on Twitter @matthewchoi2018. 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: Where should climate lawsuits be heard?
| | | | HOW DOES THE WORLD FEEL: Governments around the world may have issued lofty promises about combating climate change at COP26 last year, but their citizens don't seem to be too impressed. A new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll surveyed respondents in 13 countries around the world on a host of climate-related subjects, and a few major themes emerged. Majorities in all countries are pretty unnerved about climate change, but the United States had the largest ideological divide on climate action. While 97 percent of left-leaning voters showed concerns about climate change, only 51 percent of right-leaning voters felt the same. U.S. voters' responses to President Joe Biden's handling of climate change are also divided on ideological lines. Biden's base is largely unimpressed with his performance on climate change, with 80 percent of left-leaning respondents saying he isn't doing enough and only 10 percent saying he is doing the right amount. Meanwhile, 26 percent of right-leaning U.S. respondents offered a positive assessment of Biden on climate change. Respondents around the world also aren't buying China's argument that it's a developing country and should be given some slack on cutting emissions. At least 60 percent of respondents in all countries surveyed other than China thought the country should set the same targets and timelines as the developed world. POLITICO's Ryan Heath has more. As for who should pay up to combat climate change, majorities in every country surveyed except India said the burden should lie on private companies. Nearly 70 percent of respondents said the private sector should pay "a lot" or "some," far outpacing taxpayers, the government and consumers. Only 5 percent of U.S. respondents felt corporations were stepping up to address climate change and only 4 percent said Wall Street was doing all it could. Pro's Lorraine Woellert has more.
| | | | HAPPENING THURSDAY – A LONG GAME CONVERSATION ON THE CLIMATE CRISIS : Join POLITICO for back-to-back conversations on climate and sustainability action, starting with a panel led by Global Insider author Ryan Heath focused on insights gleaned from our POLITICO/Morning Consult Global Sustainability Poll of citizens from 13 countries on five continents about how their governments should respond to climate change. Following the panel, join a discussion with POLITICO White House Correspondent Laura Barrón-López and Gina McCarthy, White House national climate advisor, about the Biden administration's climate and sustainability agenda. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | UNIFIED WITH GERMANY? German Chancellor Olaf Scholz caused quite a stir Monday by declining to publicly support Biden's vow to block the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if Russia invades Ukraine. But senators who met with the new German leader later came away assured that Scholz is as resolute as Biden on the gas project, POLITICO's Andrew Desiderio reports. The lawmakers also said that Scholz was not looking to make Germany some kind of Cold War-esque intermediary between Russia and the West. "He said, 'No, we do not seek that and we do not want to play that role.' So as far as I'm concerned, he was very strong," Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez told Andrew. Both Menendez and his Republican counterpart, Jim Risch, said Scholz' comments comforted them as they work out a path forward on a bipartisan sanctions agreement. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) offered up that the nature of German politics made it difficult for Scholz to make statements outside of agreements made inside his governing coalition. "German politics are funny. They can't say things out loud and on the fly like we can," Murphy said. Some Democrats are questioning what they see as excessive focus on Nord Stream 2 compared to other security threats addressed in the Russia sanctions package. Pro's Josh Siegel also caught up with Murphy, who suggested that Europe's dependence on Russia for natural gas is somewhat baked in based on existing infrastructure connections, including the TurkStream pipeline running from Moscow to Turkey. "We need to take a step back and understand that Nord Stream 2 is an important piece of this equation, but it doesn't deserve the attention it gets," Murphy said. "This place is a little overly obsessed with Nord Stream 2. Russia would delight in us spending all of our efforts focused on Nord Stream 2 while they engage in information and cyber warfare throughout Europe." NOT RELIANT FOREVER: European Union officials also told reporters Tuesday that the bloc is hoping to use renewables to eat away at its dependence on Russian natural gas over time. That imperative was highlighted when European gas prices skyrocketed to $60 per mmBtu in December as Russia throttled back its deliveries amid a cold snap. "We know that in the long run our answer to this kind of crisis — and we can call this winter's crisis a natural gas crisis — is more renewables," EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson told reporters. But in the short term? That's where the EU officials' talk became a bit more vague. Simson said the region hoped to be able to source enough gas supply from outside Russia, such as from Norway, Azerbaijan, Qatar and the United States. Individual EU member states could also ship gas from their own inventories to any country that found itself with dwindling Russian supplies. "Regional cooperation is a key here," Simson told reporters. "Even if some member states will face the consequences of disruption, then others using diverse flows can support them." Having said all that, one thing not in the picture was more investment in LNG import terminals, Simson added. Color ME a little skeptical. The EU depends on imports for 90 percent of its natural gas demand. Russia supplied the EU with 41 percent of its natural gas imports in 2019, more than the next three single-country sources combined , according to Eurostat. The region will have to compete with Asia for any supply in the market. Whether the European Commission, even with the best of intentions from the Biden administration, can muster enough supply if it's number-one source of natural gas turns hostile is still an open question. Simson indicated that some pain is expected: "I'm not saying that it doesn't mean that partial or full disruption of gas flows from all four major pipelines [connecting Russia to Europe] will not have an impact," Simson told reporters. "But we are prepared."
| | | API OBJECTS: The American Petroleum Institute isn't letting last year's Gulf of Mexico lease sale go down without a fight. The trade association appealed a court decision that last month nullified DOI's November offshore lease sale after finding a Trump-era environmental review to be flawed. "At a time of rising energy costs and heightened geopolitical tensions, the misguided decision to cancel the only lease sale held last year is contributing to significant uncertainty for U.S. natural gas and oil producers and limiting access to the affordable, reliable energy that's needed here in the U.S. and around the world," API Senior Vice President for Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs Frank Macchiarola said in a statement. Pro's Ben Lefebvre has more.
| | | EPW GOES NUCLEAR: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will meet today on two pieces of nuclear legislation: ranking member Shelley Moore Capito's American Nuclear Infrastructure Act, S. 2373 (117), which includes programs to help both maintain the current nuclear fleet and ease permitting costs for advanced nuclear projects; and Sen. Tammy Duckworth's STRANDED Act, S. 1290 (117), which would help communities manage nuclear waste. The legislation comes as GOP lawmakers push new measures in traditionally coal-dominated states to lower barriers to advanced nuclear reactors. West Virginia legislators this week passed a bill that would repeal the state's decades-long ban on nuclear power, opening the door to reactor development. And Indiana and Colorado are both considering legislation that could make room for advanced reactors to join their states' resource mixes. Nuclear has strong support from Democrats as well, which Chair Tom Carper hopes to highlight, pushing for adequate resources for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and discouraging changing NRC's regulatory process in ways that could risk safety, according to talking points shared with ME. The Senate Energy National Parks Subcommittee will meet today for a legislative hearing on the Great American Outdoors Act. WOTUS WITH MOSTESS: Reps. Peter DeFazio, Grace Napolitano, Don Beyer, Raul Grijalva and 113 other Democrats are pressing EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Michael Connor, head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to finalize expanded protections under the Clean Water Act that they say are crucial for ensuring clean water access, environmental conservation and environmental justice. EPA's latest WOTUS proposal is facing stiff challenges from Republicans and the agriculture sector , who say it would add undue burdens on landowners, and they've urged the administration to hold off on finalizing a new rule until the Supreme Court rules on a case related to WOTUS implementation. But the House Democrats are pushing back on those criticisms in their letter, retorting that "most ordinary agricultural activities do not require permits under the Clean Water Act, which expressly excludes agricultural stormwater discharges and irrigation return flows." Read the letter here. INDUSTRY FOR BBB: More than 20 companies across the oil and gas, power, auto, steel, technology, and manufacturing sectors are lobbying Democratic leaders to pass the clean energy and climate components of the Build Back Better Act that hit the wall in December. "The climate and clean energy provisions in Build Back Better, including tax credits for innovation as well as grants and other funding to support communities in transition, would harness market forces and help spur private sector investment at the scale needed to meet our long-term climate goals," wrote the companies in a letter today to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shared exclusively with Pro's Josh Siegel. Companies on the letter, organized by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, include oil and gas giant BP, utilities Southern Company, PG&E, Entergy, Constellation, CMS Energy, and Edison International, along with ArcelorMittal, Ford, General Electric, and more. Utility industry CEOs will meet with Biden today to advocate for Democrats to pass the clean energy tax credits in BBB. OVERSIGHT GETS TESTY ON OIL: What was initially planned to be a major reckoning with Big Oil executives devolved into a testy display of the yawning gap between House Democrats and Republicans over the fossil fuel industry. Speaking at a House Oversight hearing Tuesday focused on oil major's climate pledges, Democrats accused firms like Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, and Shell of corporate greenwashing, while their GOP counterparts thrashed Democrats for their attacks on the fossil fuel industry while drivers are paying $1 more per gallon than a year ago at the pump. Penn State's Michael Mann, an outspoken advocate for climate action and witness at Tuesday's hearing, called oil companies' promises to decrease the carbon intensity of their operations a "bait and switch" since they were still selling oil and gas, and he compared it to eating reduced fat potato chips. "We're not talking about carbon intensity. We're talking about decreasing carbon emissions," Mann said. The committee's Democrats initially requested to hear from board members of several of the nation's largest oil firms, but they declined. The lawmakers re-sent invitations for a makeup hearing next month.
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | CLIMATE CASE GETS ITS PREFERRED VENUE: A federal appeals court gave Colorado municipalities a boost in their climate lawsuit by ordering the case be heard in state court — a venue that could be friendlier to their cause. The lawsuit goes after Suncor Energy and Exxon Mobil for selling fossil fuels without disclosure of their impacts on climate change. The energy firms had hoped to move the case to federal court, and SCOTUS ordered the appellate courts to hear out the companies' full arguments in decided which court should hear the case. Other circuit courts face similar cases, which have been tied up in jurisdiction disputes for years. Pro's Alex Guillén has more. WHEELER DERAILED: The Virginia Senate's Democrats blocked former EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler's nomination to be Gov. Glenn Youngkin's natural resources chief. The nomination drew a lot of attention outside of the commonwealth, with environmental groups and Marie Owens Powell, the president of a union representing 7,500 EPA employees, decrying his nomination. Pro's Jordan Wolman has more.
| | | — " House passes shutdown patch to buy more time for 'close' spending deal," via POLITICO. — " France's Macron to detail nuclear energy roadmap this week," via Reuters. — " 22 California lawmakers back proposal to cut rooftop solar benefits," via POLITICO. — "Aramco Revives Talks on Multi-Billion Dollar Refinery in China," via Bloomberg. THAT'S ALL FOR ME! | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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