| | | | |  | | By Matthew Choi | Presented by the Edison Electric Institute | With help from Jordan Wolman, Ben Lefebvre, Alex Guillén and Catherine Morehouse 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.
| | | — FERC commissioners could get a fresh boost in their arguments toward strengthening gas pipeline permitting following the Supreme Court's rejection of an appeal by the Spire STL pipeline. — Pennsylvania's membership in the Northeast regional carbon market is getting closer to being a done deal despite lawmaker objections. — DOI announced the site of its first onshore oil and gas lease sale of the Biden administration: Wyoming. HAPPY TUESDAY! I'm your host, Matthew Choi. Did everyone see the teaser for the new season of "Russian Doll " coming out tomorrow? A long subway ride that hurdles you through new dimensions and deeply disturbs your sense of reality? Sounds like my commute to Rosslyn. Congrats to the ACC's Andrew Fasoli for knowing Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther. For today's trivia: What was Simone Biles' first named floor skill, known as the Biles I, which she debuted before the triple double? 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: Can Biden learn from New Mexico's energy playbook?
| | | A message from the Edison Electric Institute: Delivering America's Resilient Clean Energy. America's investor-owned electric companies are committed to getting the energy we provide as clean as we can as fast as we can , while maintaining the reliability and affordability that customers value. Today, carbon emissions from the U.S. power sector are as low as they were in 1984, while electricity use is up 72% since then. For us, the path forward is clear—the path forward is clean. We are #Committed2Clean.® | | | | | | SCOTUS SETS THE TABLE FOR FERC: FERC still has a long way to go to reach consensus on how to consider the climate impacts of a pipeline. But a decision by the Supreme Court not to take a case could give the commission fresh fodder to strengthen how it assesses whether a new pipeline is needed in the first place. The high court dealt a blow to the controversial Spire pipeline in Missouri on Monday, declining its operator's request to make moves to ensure its continued operation. The company hoped the high court would reverse a lower court order vacating its FERC permit, but the Supreme Court declined without comment Monday. That move strengthens the lower court's ruling, which vacated the permit after finding FERC failed to follow its own guidelines on determining that the project served a real market need beyond Spire's own interests. "The long term implication for this case is FERC — in evaluating that first crucial step, whether there's a need for the pipeline — will have to do a lot more work to justify permitting the pipeline based on a need," Jim Noe, a government attorney at law firm Holland & Knight, who frequently represents the oil and gas industry, told Catherine. Reaction from industry has been, as you can expect, less than chipper. AGA President and CEO Karen Harbert said in a statement that "the lower court did not fully consider the disruptive consequences of its action on families and businesses in this community that rely on natural gas for affordable and reliable energy for warm meals, hot showers and comfortable homes." FERC is still considering the long-term fate of the Spire pipeline servicing the St. Louis area. Scott Smith, president of the Spire STL Pipeline, said in a statement that "We are confident that when people have an opportunity to review the proven benefits of the STL Pipeline, they will agree that there is a critical need to keep this infrastructure fully operational to ensure continued access to reliable, affordable energy for families and businesses in the greater St. Louis region." Read more from Catherine.
| | | PUT IT IN THE BOOKS: Pennsylvania will be publishing the regulation entering the state into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative this Saturday, according to a court document published Monday . That would put the state on track to start levying a price on carbon for power sector polluters starting July 1, though further legal challenges to the state's participation are widely expected. Pennsylvania would be the first major energy-producing state to join the initiative. An injunction that had temporarily blocked Gov. Tom Wolf's administration from joining RGGI was lifted April 11, clearing the way for the state's Legislative Reference Bureau to publish the regulation. That injunction came a day after legislative Republicans and a handful of Democrats failed to override the governor's veto on a resolution that would have killed RGGI. Republicans argue Wolf has usurped the Legislature's authority by joining the program, which charges power sector polluters for the carbon they emit, via executive action. Wolf says the administration has the power to levy a fee on polluters to regulate air quality in the state.
| | | | DON'T MISS ANYTHING FROM THE 2022 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO is excited to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider" newsletter featuring exclusive coverage and insights from the 25th annual Global Conference. This year's event, May 1-4, brings together more than 3,000 of the world's most influential leaders, including 700+ speakers representing more than 80 countries. "Celebrating the Power of Connection" is this year's theme, setting the stage to connect influencers with the resources to change the world with leading experts and thinkers whose insight and creativity can implement that change. Whether you're attending in person or following along from somewhere else in the world, keep up with this year's conference with POLITICO's special edition "Global Insider" so you don't miss a beat. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | | INTERIOR PLANS WYOMING LEASE SALE: Interior's Bureau of Land Management will hold an oil and gas lease sale in Wyoming on June 21-22, the department announced Monday. It will be the Biden administration's first onshore lease sale and the first to use the updated lease sale provisions Interior suggested in November. The auction will be for 129 parcels containing 131,771 acres of federal land in the state, just over a quarter of the more than 455 parcels that companies originally expressed interest in — a winnowing in line with Interior's stated goal of limiting new offers to parcels that are in areas already producing oil and gas. The department will also start charging the statutory maximum royalty rate of 18.75 percent, up from the previous norm of 12.75 percent. The public has 30 days to comment on the sale. Environmentalists weren't keen on the announcement, which comes just two days before the 12th anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. "We must not forget the day when black smoke filled the sky and death filled the Gulf," Brady Bradshaw, senior oceans campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. "After 11 workers were killed in BP's explosion, responders were truly helpless for 87 chaotic days as oil spewed into the marine environment. President Biden needs to remember this terrible event and not open our oceans to new fossil fuel leasing. If he keeps breaking his promise to voters, he'll guarantee decades of future oil disasters." White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stressed Monday that the administration was fulfilling a court injunction in going through with the lease sale and said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland's "hands were tied." DOI BACKS FERC ON DAM REMOVAL: The Interior Department is siding with FERC on its recommendation to remove four hydroelectric dams from the Klamath River in California and Oregon, the agency wrote in comments filed Monday . DOI has long supported the removal of those dams, and in its comments praised FERC's proposed environmental impact statement as a "thorough and robust" examination of the benefits of restoring the river back to its natural free-flowing state. FERC received a flood of comments over the weekend on either side of the debate to keep or remove the dams. Many individuals living near the site are concerned about the project's high price tag and the loss of local reservoirs if the dams were to be removed, while experts have found removing the infrastructure and allowing the river to flow freely could cool the Klamath's waters, improving water quality and fish populations. The agency has said it will weigh all comments in making a final decision on the project, and on Monday extended the comment deadline to April 25. FORMER INTERIOR IG EARL DEVANEY DEAD: Former Interior Department inspector general Earl Devaney has died, the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency announced on Monday. After a couple of decades in the Secret Service, he ran criminal enforcement at EPA and in 1999 became Interior's watchdog, a role he held for 10 years. His highest-profile investigation there was the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal that led to the conviction of a top Interior official, a congressman and around 20 other government employees and lobbyists. Then-Secretary Gale Norton got "a little frosty" after Devaney's investigation led to the conviction of her deputy, Steven Griles, he told Pro's Alex Guillén in 2016. Sex, drugs and offshore permitting: Devaney's 2008 probe of the troubled Minerals Management Service — where employees rigged bids, took bribes and had sex and did drugs with energy company executives — led to a wholesale reorganization. MMS was broken up into three agencies designed to tamp out corruption and reduce conflicts of interest: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which handles leasing; Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which oversees permitting and enforcement; and Office of Natural Resources Revenue, which collects revenue. Devaney ended his career by spending a couple of years leading Barack Obama's stimulus oversight board. Flushed with cash: Devaney also investigated the George W. Bush administration's spending of over $200,000 renovating Secretary Dirk Kempthorne's bathroom.
| | | | INTRODUCING DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED: Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT IT: Just checking in on that Build Back Better reincarnation or "whatever you call it," as Psaki described it on Monday. Psaki told reporters that the White House is chatting with "Democrats across the board" on a package including a historic investment in climate, lowering child and elder care costs and health care. Psaki wouldn't name names (shocker!) and a spokesperson for Sen. Joe Manchin didn't get back to ME. Psaki said the White House has been talking with everyone "who wants to get this done" for "the past several months." Sen. Elizabeth Warren took to the pages of The New York Times on Monday to push for a climate and social spending reconciliation bill, warning Democrats face a brutal reckoning come November. "Republicans are betting that a stalled Biden agenda won't give Democrats enough to run on in the midterm elections — and they might be right," Warren wrote. "Despite pandemic relief, infrastructure investments and the historic Supreme Court confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson, we promised more — and voters remember those promises." WOTUS IN SCOTUS: Hundreds of Hill Republicans urged the Supreme Court to rein in the Biden administration's authority under the Clean Water Act as the high court considers a case on what waters qualify for federal protection. Led by Senate Environment and Public Works ranking member Shelley Moore Capito and House Transportation ranking member Sam Graves, 45 senators and 154 House members filed an amicus brief arguing that the federal government should take a much narrower approach to determining what waters count under CWA to ensure "that States retain their traditional role as the primary regulators of land and water resources, and that farmers, manufacturers, small business owners, and property owners like the Petitioners in this case can develop and use their land free of over-burdensome, job-killing federal regulations." The case centers around Michael and Chantell Sackett, an Idaho couple who has spent years fighting the federal government over whether they need a Clean Water Act permit to fill in wetlands on their property. Oral arguments will take place this fall. Here's a refresher from POLITICO's Annie Snider and Alex Guillén.
| | | | A message from the Edison Electric Institute:   | | | | | | A NEW PHASE IN THE WAR: Russia escalated a mass invasion into Eastern Ukraine on Monday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announcing that a "significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive." Zelenskyy told CNN this week that Kyiv would not abandon the eastern regions for the sake of a quick end to the war, portending no end to the conflict on the immediate horizon. Zelenskyy also made moves bringing Ukraine one step closer to applying for EU membership, further thrusting the country toward the West (read more from the AP). POWERED BY INDONESIA: Indonesia's second biggest coal miner PT Adaro Energy Indonesia announced it got some orders from Europe on the spot market as the European Union looks for alternatives to Russian energy. Adaro mostly sells to customers closer to home, such as South Korea and Japan, but the EU announced earlier this month that it would ban Russian coal by late summer. President Joe Biden is hosting leaders from ASEAN, whose most populous member is Indonesia (this could make a good ME trivia question some day so don't forget), next month. Reuters has more. Some related reads: "China's daily coal output in March hits record high" and "China refinery output slips to 5-month low as crude price, lockdown hit demand," via Reuters. AN EYE ON THE MIDTERMS: The fate of Biden's agenda, leadership in state capitals across the country and a potential 2024 comeback by former President Donald Trump are all in play in the 2022 midterm elections. In the House, Democrats' five-seat majority is highly endangered. In the Senate, their control of the 50-50 chamber hinges on Vice President Kamala Harris' tie breaking vote. Use our Election Forecast to see which races you need to watch this year — and who we think will win each one .
| | | — "Mexican Congress Rejects More State Control Over Energy Industry," via The Wall Street Journal. — "The Renewable-Energy Revolution Will Need Renewable Storage," via The New Yorker. — " Youngkin administration sets stricter runoff rules for solar farms," via The Virginia Mercury. — "The Next Hurdle in Europe's Energy Transition: Being More Enticing Than NFTs," via The New York Times. THAT'S ALL FOR ME!
| | A message from the Edison Electric Institute: Accelerating the Clean Energy Transformation. Passage of a robust clean energy tax package will be a key driver for the deployment of clean energy and carbon-free technologies over the next decade and can help us reach a clean energy future faster.
The tax package now being considered by Congress will provide significant long-term benefits to electricity customers by spurring innovation and helping to keep electricity costs affordable, while also creating new jobs. It will also help to preserve the existing nuclear fleet, which is critical to ensuring that electric companies' new clean energy deployments deliver additional emissions reductions.
We have an extraordinary opportunity before us as a nation to tackle climate change. America's investor-owned electric companies are well-positioned to be part of the climate solution, and we are committed to working with Congress to advance the policies that we need to meet this challenge. We are #Committed2Clean.® | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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