KICKSTARTING ANWR OF WORDS: Senate Energy Chairman Lisa Murkowskilaunches the latest push to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling today with a mega three-panel hearing on the topic. Tasked with raising $1 billion over the next decade through budgetary instructions, Murkowski’s panel is expected to move forward quickly with legislation that would remove restrictions on drilling in ANWR or other currently off-limits areas.
What will opponents say? Led by ranking member Maria Cantwell, critics of ANWR drilling are likely to argue the low price of oil makes raising $1 billion from opening the area unlikely and that the industry has been lukewarm about Arctic exploration. “They’re in a hurry for something that the industry hasn’t been excited about,” she told reporters. “In 50 years, she and I — even though we’ve worked together as good colleagues — are going to be dead and the only thing that’s going to matter is whether we’ve preserved a place as unique as this.” Sullivan, for his part, scoffs at the idea there isn’t interest in drilling: “There’s plenty of interest. I know that.” Cantwell asked Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke in a letter Wednesday to clarify his position on ANWR drilling. She said a markup of legislation is expected next week.
What about the House? The House Natural Resources Committee, which faces the same $1 billion revenue instructions as its Senate counterpart, is also likely to look at ANWR, Chairman Rob Bishop told ME. “ANWR by itself could give us the revenue numbers that we need,” he said. “Whether we do anything more than that, I don’t know.” As a side note, ME saw Bishop and Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady energetically chatting at length on the floor during votes Wednesday.
WE’RE LEAPING INTO THURSDAY! I'm your host Anthony Adragna, and Strategies 360’s Matt Gall identified Sens. Debbie Stabenow and James Lankford, as well as Rep. Joe Kennedy, as Congress’ red heads. For today (a stretch question): There are eight current senators who served as attorneys general in their states. Name them. Send your tips, energy gossip and comments to aadragna@politico.com, or follow us on Twitter @AnthonyAdragna, @Morning_Energy, and @POLITICOPro.
HE’S GOT THE… POWELSON: Rob Powelson, who joined FERC this summer, said the country’s at an “inflection point” for the future of the electricity markets, and called for patience as his agency works through Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s controversial grid proposal on top of other tough discussions about state energy policies. “There are a lot of moving parts to this conversation. I don’t mind that there’s a little bit of impatience,” he tells Pro’s Darius Dixon in an interview. “This is an issue that has been elevated in the conversation of energy policy. I’ve been very direct in my position in support for markets.”
States' rights guy? Powelson said it’s not his job to stand in the way of states seeking to address carbon through mechanisms like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and California’s cap and trade model. “If states want to want to value carbon, they should be able to do it,” he said. “States have said, ‘Look, in lieu of a hard price on carbon on the national level, there are mechanisms for valuing it.’ And it’s not my job to tell those states you can’t do that.”
Blame for ‘polar vortex’: He chaired the Pennsylvania utility commission during Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and the 2014 “polar vortex,” but Powelson isn’t buying DOE’s line questioning the reliability of natural gas during that cold snap. “There were enough sins in there that everybody had some responsibility,” he said.
Oh, and hey Congress: Powelson called for people to be patient as he and Chairman Neil Chatterjee learn the ins and outs of their new roles, but he subtly jabbed Congress for its inaction on two other FERC nominations. “If I could stress one thing, I need everybody in this town to remain calm, understand that the FERC is working hard around these issues,” he told Darius. “[But] it’d be nice to have two other colleagues to be part of this conversation.”
TWO MORE GET EPW HEARING: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee plans to hold a hearing Nov. 8 on the nominations of Kathleen Hartnett White to run the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Andrew Wheeler’s bid to be EPA deputy administrator, your ME host reports. That comes as Pro’s Alex Guillén got his hands on White’s financial disclosure form which shows she owns four oil leases but appears to give away most of the income from them.
TWO HURRICANE HEARINGS ON TAP TODAY: The House Transportation Committee gets top billing for hurricane-related hearings today as it convenes top officials from FEMA, the Coast Guard, the Army Corp of Engineers and EPA to discuss “initial lessons learned from the 2017 hurricanes, and identify key challenges and obstacles that may remain in the way of recovery.” Lawmakers from affected communities in Florida, Texas, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico will also appear.
Meanwhile, the House Energy and Commerce Energy Subcommittee meets at the same time with Army Corps, Energy, GAO, state and industry officials to discuss energy infrastructure response and recovery efforts. Look for questions about the $300 million Whitefish Energy contract, the slow Puerto Rico recovery and ongoing disaster relief funding requests to dominate the discussion. ME would also look for lawmakers from both parties to discuss the need for increased consideration of infrastructure resiliency when building (without mention of climate change among Republicans).
More questions for FEMA: Bipartisan House Energy and Commerce leaders sent a letter to FEMA Director Brock Long seeking information about what role his agency has played in repairing the Puerto Rican grid to date. “It would appear that the Agency, until now, was not involved in one of the most significant decisions in the effort to rebuild Puerto Rico’s electrical grid,” they write. “Efforts by the governor of Puerto Rico and PREPA to cancel the contract with Whitefish underscored the need for federal leadership and strategic coordination of the effort to restore Puerto Rico’s electric system.”
Today: Senior House Democrats, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, hold an event "in solidarity with the people of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands" on the House East Front Steps at 10 a.m.
Key meetings: Gov. Ricardo Rosselló’s rather eclectic set of meetings in Washington on Wednesday included Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, Sens. Roger Wicker, Orrin Hatch and Tom Carper, Bishop and acting Homeland Security Chief Elaine Duke.
PICTURE THIS SCENE: While riding in a bus up a mountainside over the weekend in Puerto Rico, Bishop took a “very positive” call from Trump about national monuments. Though he said Trump provided few specific details, Bishop said the president vowed to announce his final decision on whether to shrink a host of national monuments “very soon” and spoke positively about Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s recommendations. And, Bishop said, Trump “basically agreed with us that [the Antiquities Act] has been abused and needs modification.”
Oregonians fault report: Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley sent White House Chief of Staff John Kelly a letter expressing concern about “numerous factual errors” in Zinke’s report that they worry contributed to recommended diminished protections for the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.
Won’t prejudge Whitefish cancellation: It’s too soon to know whether Puerto Rico’s decision to pull the plug on Whitefish Energy’s $300 million contract to rebuild the island’s grid was the right call or not, Bishop told ME. “There’s still strange things about it, but there has to be some reasons they did it in the first place,” he said. “Procedure is obviously pretty bad because there were so many questions and transparency was not there. But whether ultimately, I don’t have enough information [yet].” Natural Resources intends to continue looking into the matter.
ME TOO! Sen. Jeff Flake has also placed a hold on Bill Northey's nomination for a USDA undersecretary post in an effort to land a White House meeting over the Renewable Fuel Standard, his office says.
FOREST MANAGEMENT EFFORT PASSES: House lawmakers cleared legislation on Wednesday that backers say will address fire-borrowing, streamline environmental review processes and minimize litigation related to the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. The vote was 232 to 188. Critics say the measure, H.R. 2936 (115), would undermine endangered species protections and impede the ability of agencies to respond to wildfires.
Meanwhile, ten Senate Democrats asked Trump and Senate leaders to include funding for wildfire disaster response in the next disaster aid package.
CRAMER: TRUMP URGED SENATE RUN: North Dakota Rep. Kevin Cramertold a radio host Wednesday that Trump called him during dinner on Halloween and “strongly, strongly encouraged” him to run against Sen. Heidi Heitkamp next year. Cramer said he’d make a decision “after we get tax reform done.” Clip, flagged by American Bridge, here.
MAIL CALL! HOUSE LAWMAKERS HIT BACK ON RFS: Sixty-four House lawmakers, led by Republican Bob Goodlatte and Democrat Peter Welch, slammed the RFS in a letter to Pruitt as “a well-intentioned but deeply flawed policy that has negatively impacted families and businesses” around the country. They urged EPA to factor in its “significant pitfalls and costs” in future regulatory actions.
UPTON: ENBRIDGE’S RESPONSE ‘ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE’: Rep. Fred Upton sent a letter to Enbridge Wednesday seeking documents and a meeting with a top official concerning when the company knew of damage to Line 5 pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac. “Although Enbridge has stated that the safety of the pipeline was not compromised by the loss in coating, it is absolutely unacceptable that the people of Michigan were kept in the dark about this issue for three years,” he wrote.
WHATCHA GONNA DO? Nine Senate Democrats wrote Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Wednesday asking for information on what the administration plans to do with two major climate change reports — the Climate Science Special Report and the final National Climate Assessment — expected to be released in the coming days.
TAKE A GLANCE! LET’S GET RESILIENT: Joint Economic Committee Democrats released a report Wednesday arguing the federal government must adapt how it rebuilds following natural disasters to be more resilient and that every dollar spent on disaster preparedness provides almost $4 in future benefits. Take a glance here.
NOT RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER: Southern Co. CEO Tom Fanning said Wednesday increased federal loan guarantees for the Vogtle nuclear power project in Georgia won’t be finalized before next spring, Pro’s Darius Dixon reports. “Final issuance of the additional loan guarantee is subject to the satisfaction of a number of conditions and is not expected to occur prior to the end of the first quarter of 2018," Fanning said on the company's quarterly earnings call.
FORMER EPA OFFICIAL: PRUITT POSES ‘DIRE AND FUNDAMENTAL’ THREAT: Former EPA Deputy Administrator Bob Sussman argues in the latest issue of Environmental Law Reporter that Pruitt poses an existential threat to the agency. “EPA’s ability to maintain core protections and respond to new threats—the bread and butter of EPA’s mission—is rapidly eroding and may suffer irretrievable damage if Pruitt’s policies continue,” he wrote.
FERC HIT BY CYBERSECURITY ATTACK: The inspector general of FERC said that a “recent security incident involving [FERC’s] unclassified cybersecurity program” pointed to the need to better implement certain cyber defenses, without providing specifics about the incident. “We are concerned that certain controls may not have been in place that could have potentially prevented the incident,” the IG’s office said. Read the report here.
NOT PLEASED: Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer’s $10 million campaign to impeach Trump isn’t sitting well with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi who reached out to tell him the effort is a distraction, POLITICO’s Heather Caygle reports. Other Democrats agree with her view that the party should focus on showing it can govern. “I certainly don’t think that that’s a helpful effort,” Rep. Ro Khanna said of Steyer’s campaign.
TAKE A GLANCE: The U.S. Chamber’s Global Energy Institute released a series of videos showcasing the energy industry’s response to the recent string of hurricanes.
QUICK HITS
— First coal bankruptcy of Trump era. CNN Money.
— New testimony alleges Gov. Snyder lied under oath about lead in Flint water. WXYZ Detroit.
— Trump pick Sam Clovis blasted schools for 'indoctrinating' students with ideas like 'environmentalism' and 'racism.' CNN.
— Sweden Pays for Trump Whistle-Blower to Attend UN Climate Talks. Bloomberg.
— East Chicago residents file lawsuit over contamination. Chicago Tribune.
— West Virginia again approves Mountain Valley Pipeline. AP.
— Top Chamber of Commerce regulatory official to retire. Axios.
THAT'S ALL FOR ME!
Find the article here.
