| | | | | |  | | By Kelsey Tamborrino | Presented by The American Institute of Architects | With help from Eric Wolff and Anthony Adragna PROGRAMMING NOTE: Morning Energy will not publish on Thursday, Nov. 26, and Friday, Nov. 27. We'll be back on our normal schedule on Monday, Nov. 30. 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. | | | | | | | — Sen. John Barrasso has opted for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee gavel. The decision could have major implications for the Biden administration's climate priorities. — FERC will hold its first open meeting today since James Danly was named chairman. — New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland is actively being vetted by the Biden transition team for potential Interior secretary, sources told POLITICO. WELCOME TO THURSDAY! I'm your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. Rachel Jones of the National Association of Manufacturers gets the (admittedly tricky) trivia win. Massachusetts is now the state with the longest official name — a title it only received recently after voters decided to rename what had officially been Rhode Island and Providence Plantations to just Rhode Island. For today: Which former president's dog was the offspring of one of the first Russian dogs in space? Send your tips and trivia answers to ktamborrino@politico.com. 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: Biden's diversity focus, and climate change | | A message from The American Institute of Architects: This is a pivotal moment for our nation's infrastructure, and one group of experts can help us rebuild to succeed: Architects. In the wake of the election, updating the infrastructure of the United States is vital for the country—and the world. The global built environment accounts for about 40% of annual fossil-fuel carbon-dioxide emissions (CO₂). Simultaneously, the economy and infrastructure (schools, civic buildings, hospitals) need to be rebuilt. Here's how architects can help. | | | | | | BARRASSO GRABS THE GAVEL: The Wyoming senator announced his intent Wednesday to become the top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, leaving behind his post as the chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Provided Republicans maintain their majority, Barrasso will chair the committee in the next Congress, replacing Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who is term-limited. "Wyoming has been represented on the Senate Energy Committee continuously since 1899. Former Wyoming Senators Wallop, Hansen, O'Mahoney and Kendrick all led the committee at some time over the last century," Barrasso said in a statement. "It will be an honor to continue this tradition of Wyoming leadership." | 
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell listens as Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) speaks during a news conference after the weekly Senate Republican policy luncheon. | Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images | As Pro's Anthony Adragna reports, the move will put lawmakers from the two leading coal-producing states atop the powerful Energy panel, presenting a potential barrier for any aggressive legislation to enact President-elect Joe Biden's climate change policies. Ranking Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin's state of West Virginia is second only to Barrasso's in coal production, and both lawmakers have defended the fuel that has seen its demand slump sharply over the past decade as the power sector moved to cleaner, cheaper energy sources. Barrasso has been a strong supporter of nuclear power and uranium mining, as well as carbon capture and sequestration technology, and observers don't expect the committee's agenda to be wildly different than under Murkowski. "The whole space of energy innovation is so bipartisan," said Rich Powell, executive director of ClearPath, a group that advocates for conservative clean energy policies. "It's hard for me to imagine a whole different set of outcomes from that committee. I don't expect a revolutionary change there." Keep in mind: Barrasso will remain in Senate Republican leadership next Congress as conference chair. That could put him in prime position to secure floor time for any legislation the committee produces. "There are opportunities for Sen. Barrasso to be a partner on important parts of the clean energy agenda in 2021," said Josh Freed, senior vice president for climate and energy at think tank Third Way. "We're going to have to see how creative and open-minded he is." What's happening at EPW? Barrasso's move opens up the top slot for Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who is next in line. In addition to advancing what's expected to be a hefty infrastructure package, several people said they expected Capito would work on legislation addressing PFAS contamination, a major issue in her state, and providing funding to clean up former mines. | | | |   | | | | | | THE YOUNG FERCS: The commission's open meeting today will delve into rehearing the Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act rules it revised over the summer and dig into pipelines. Danly, the newly elevated chair, will not hold the traditional press availability after the meeting, breaking with over 20 years of tradition. Giving life PURPA: FERC revised the rules under PURPA back in July, changing how it calculates how much utilities have to pay for power from renewable projects and ending the requirement that utilities purchase power from facilities that operate inside organized markets. Several power players, most notably the Solar Energy Industries Association, opposed the changes, calling them "anticompetitive," and asked for rehearing. The same commissioners who issued the final rule are still at FERC, so the rehearing request today is likely to be rejected, which will allow the affected industries to challenge the changes in court. Pipeline permits on rehearing, too: FERC issued a rule in June that limited the number of construction permits it would issue to pipelines while rehearing orders are still pending. The rule is opposed by the natural gas pipeline companies that requested a rehearing of the order. Here again, the composition of the commission is the same and so is the expected result. GLICK UNBOUND: Commissioner Rich Glick believes FERC needs to reassess capacity markets, especially on the East Coast, where recent rulings by the commission have put new renewables at a disadvantage to incumbent fossil fuel power plants. Speaking at the annual ACORE conference, Glick was careful not to make any presumptions about who President-elect Joe Biden would select as chair after he takes office, but as the only Democrat currently on the commission, his words carried extra weight. Glick suggested that FERC should be more deferential to state policies and avoid creating rules that aim to counter them, most notably the Minimum Offer Price Rule, an action he has often called illegal and likely to be overturned in court. Glick also suggested that FERC would need to find ways to incentivize new long transmission lines to carry renewable power from the Midwest into population centers on the coasts. He proposed re-examining Order 1000 , which created competition for long power lines, and adding direct incentives for transmission lines that help carry out state policy objectives like increased renewable energy. "We are going to need to build out the grid much more significantly," he said. "Incoming President Biden has goals, states have goals, and a lot of those goals are not going to be met unless we can access significant amount of renewable resources and we need to build out the grid more significantly than we have been." | | | | TRACK THE TRANSITION, SUBSCRIBE TO TRANSITION PLAYBOOK: As states certify their election results, President-elect Biden is building an administration. The staffing decisions made in the coming days, weeks, and months will send clear-cut signals about his administration's agenda and priorities. Transition Playbook is the definitive guide to what could be one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. Written for political insiders, it tracks the appointments, people, and the emerging power centers of the new administration. Stay in the know, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | SENATE PANEL ADVANCES FERC NOMS: The Senate Energy Committee sent FERC nominees Allison Clements and Mark Christie to the full Senate on Wednesday, Pro's Eric Wolff reports. While both were advanced by voice vote, several senators were recorded opposing one or the other nominee. All eyes on the Senate floor: If the Senate can squeeze in a confirmation vote before the end of the year, approval of the two commissioners would bring FERC back to full strength for the first time since 2018. DEMS PRESS TRUMP ON CLIMATE REPORT: House Democrats, led by Select Committee on the Climate Crisis Chair Kathy Castor (Fla.), Natural Resources Chair Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.), and Reps. Don Beyer (Va.) and Suzanne Bonamici (Ore.), made clear their opposition to any attempts by the Trump administration to derail the fifth National Climate Assessment, amid several staffing moves in recent weeks atop the U.S. Global Change Research Program. In a copy of a letter to the president shared with ME, the Democratic lawmakers urge President Donald Trump to increase transparency and "make sure that the NCA process is driven by high quality, evidence-based, peer-reviewed science." MARINE DEBRIS BILL PASSES: The House passed bipartisan legislation, H.R. 4636 (116), from Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) that would boost U.S. efforts to curb plastic waste and other marine debris in international waters. The bill, which passed by voice vote, would authorize the State Department and USAID to prioritize those efforts. SAGE ADVICE: More than 100 green groups signed onto a letter Wednesday urging top appropriators on the Hill to remove a provision in the Senate's latest Interior-Environment spending bill that would prohibit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from considering listing the greater sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act. "It is long past time for Congress to allow the FWS to do its job and to finally stop denying protections to this iconic keystone species," the groups write. | | A message from The American Institute of Architects: Architects are key to helping the federal government make infrastructure investments that benefit our economy and the climate. To meet 2050 emissions targets set by the United States, at least 75% of commercial and public buildings must be renovated and retrofitted with new design strategies and technologies. To tackle a problem of that size, the federal government needs to do two things immediately. First, it needs to renovate public buildings to be carbon neutral by 2050. Second, it needs to incentivize private building owners to implement energy-efficient retrofits. This can be achieved by expanding existing tax incentives (like the Energy Efficient Commercial Buildings Deduction, 179D, and the Nonbusiness Energy Property Tax Credit, 25C) and creating new ones. Learn more about how architects can improve America's infrastructure. | | | | | | HAALAND VETTED FOR INTERIOR: Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) is being vetted by Biden's transition team to possibly serve as Interior secretary, two sources said Wednesday. The vetting, which began Tuesday, comes after speculation that Haaland, a clean energy advocate and member of the Pueblo of Laguna, would be a leading candidate to helm a department that oversees the government's relations with Native tribes and could play a big role in Biden's efforts to push renewable energy development, Pro's Ben Lefebvre and Megan Cassella report. | 
Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) at the Back the Thrive Agenda press conference at the Longworth Office Building on Sept. 10, 2020 in Washington, D.C. | Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Green New Deal Network | Sen. Tom Udall, another New Mexico Democrat , has also been mentioned as a possible candidate to lead Interior. A second source close to the transition team told POLITICO that Udall "wanted the appointment but is being gracious because he recognizes the historic significance of Deb's appointment." Udall did not comment on whether he was being vetted, but is still interested in the job. FORMER OFFICIALS CALL ON BIDEN TO WIDEN CLIMATE NET: A bipartisan coalition of former Cabinet officials across multiple administrations and agencies is urging the Biden transition team to include the Education Department in its cross-agency plans to tackle climate change. "Climate change has already impacted schools across the country," said a letter sent Wednesday to the Biden team. The letter notes that after Hurricanes Maria and Irma, students in Puerto Rico missed an average of 78 days of school, and more than 1 million students in California were affected by school closures during wildfire season in the 2018-19 school year. The letter also notes the education sector provides a "critical opportunity" to work on climate solutions, as it "can help prepare children and youth to advance a more sustainable world." The letter was signed by former Education Secretaries John B. King, Jr. and Arne Duncan, former EPA Administrators Christine Todd Whitman and Gina McCarthy and former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, as well as representatives from environmental and education groups like the American Federation of Teachers and Aspen Institute. The Biden transition has already signaled a cross-government approach to addressing climate change, naming several experts on the issue to its review teams across agencies. | | | OCEANS REPORT EXAMINES PLASTIC CRISIS: Oceana is out with a new report this morning examining documented plastic ingestion and entanglement in sea turtles and marine mammals in U.S. waters. The report found evidence of nearly 1,800 animals from 40 different species swallowing or becoming entangled in plastic since 2009 — though the report makes clear there is likely far more animals harmed in ways never documented. Of those documented, however, 88 percent were species listed as endangered or threatened with extinction under the Endangered Species Act. The report noted that in some of the cases where plastic ingestion was the likely cause of or contributor to death, it involved just one piece of plastic. That's particularly notable as plastic production is expected to almost quadruple between 2014 and 2050, and if nothing changes, the amount of plastic entering the ocean is projected to triple by 2040. "The way we need to solve this problem is to reduce the manufacture and production of single-use plastic, and to do that we need strong local, national and federal laws," one of the study's authors and senior scientist at Oceana, Kimberly Warner, told ME. Warner pointed to the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act introduced by Udall and Rep. Alan Lowenthal of California this year as an example of legislation aimed at tackling the issue. | | | | DON'T MISS NEW EPISODES OF GLOBAL TRANSLATIONS PODCAST: The world has long been beset by big problems that defy political boundaries, and these issues have exploded in 2020 amid a global pandemic. Global Translations podcast, presented by Citi, unpacks the roadblocks to smart policy decisions and examines the long-term costs of the short-term thinking that drives many political and business decisions. Subscribe for Season Two, available now. | | | | | | | | — Pacific Gas & Electric named Patti Poppe as its new CEO, an announcement that came four months after the departure of the previous leader who steered the company through bankruptcy, Pro's Colby Bermel reports . PG&E framed the appointment of Poppe, the CEO of Michigan utility CMS Energy, as a step toward improving PG&E's corporate culture and operational safety. — Katherine Gensler is now vice president of government affairs at Arevon, a Capital Dynamics affiliate that owns and operates renewable energy assets. She most recently was VP of regulatory affairs for SEIA, and is a FERC alum. | | | — "Appeals court declines latest request to stop work on the Mountain Valley Pipeline," via The Roanoke Times. — "Flint water lawsuit settlement now totals about $641 million," via Associated Press. — "Utah lawmakers push to block cities from banning natural gas," via The Salt Lake Tribune. — "Forest Service finalizes rule weakening environmental review of its projects," via The Hill. — " How climate change is complicating a Thanksgiving staple," via The Washington Post. — "Rape, abuses in palm oil fields linked to top beauty brands," via Associated Press. THAT'S ALL FOR ME! | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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