White House

 

Two Years In, Biden Touts Climate Work — “President Joe Biden touted his administration’s climate policies at the White House on Friday as he marked the midway point of his presidential term. Speaking to a gathering of mayors, the president highlighted policies he’s championed during his first two years in office, including the Inflation Reduction Act. That massive law, passed last year along party lines, includes nearly $370 billion for climate and clean energy investments. The United States is ‘making the biggest investment ever, ever, ever in climate,’ Biden told the mayors visiting Washington. He stressed that the law will have local impacts by ‘investing in fence-line communities that have suffered the most as a consequence of being smothered by pollution,’ such as the Louisiana region known as ‘Cancer Alley’ and the Route 9 corridor in Delaware that’s home to industrial facilities. … He’s hired several ex-mayors to serve in his Cabinet, Biden noted, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge.” [E&E News, 1/20/23 (=)]

 

Biden, Harris Link Climate Inaction To Western Disasters — “President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both traveled out West on Thursday as Biden toured storm damage in California and Harris celebrated a new power transmission line in Arizona. They offered a similar message: Leaders have ignored climate science for too long, and it’s time to take urgent action. It’s a familiar theme for the president and vice president, who have made climate policy a top priority during their first two years in office. The Biden administration helped finalize historic climate legislation last year, including nearly $370 billion for climate and clean energy spending. Biden used his visit to California to warn of the perils of extreme weather fueled by climate change. Harris, meanwhile, touted the administration’s policies to clamp down on emissions by transitioning away from fossil fuels toward renewable sources. The president joined California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and other government officials Thursday for a tour of areas devastated by recent storms. Those storms had caused 21 known deaths as of Thursday, Newsom said during an appearance with Biden at Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, Calif.” [E&E News, 1/20/23 (=)]

 

 

Congress

 

What To Know About House Republican Committee Assignments — “Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) will return to a spot he held more than a decade ago — chair of the Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee — after spending years as top Republican on the Energy-Water Subcommittee, where he has championed the national labs and nuclear energy research and development. Simpson holds traditional Republican views regarding public land access, energy project permitting and opposition to the Biden administration’s rule governing the scope of the Clean Water Act. However, he has also broken with prominent Republicans — including E&C Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) — in attempting to broker a deal in the Pacific Northwest to remove some dams in order to promote the recovery of salmon populations. ‘In returning to this role, I look forward to continuing to work to ensure that our public lands agencies have the funding they need to carry out important projects that proactively improve forest health and remove roadblocks to completing important forest management projects,’ Simpson said in a statement, noting his previous stint focused on ‘grazing on public lands, forest management and the Endangered Species Act,’ in addition to playing ‘a significant role in combating regulatory overreach by the EPA.’” [E&E News, 1/23/23 (=)]

 

GOP’s IRA Balancing Act — “Republicans may have voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, but that doesn’t mean they won’t benefit as money from the legislation flows into clean energy projects — the majority of which are being built in their districts, Pro’s Kelsey Tamborrino and Josh Siegel report in a new analysis this morning. Out of 33 projects benefiting from the IRA examined in the analysis, 21 are set to be in built in Republican-held congressional districts. That means billions of dollars of investment and thousands of jobs going to the districts of Republican lawmakers who opposed the IRA and, in some cases, dismiss the science behind climate change, Kelsey and Josh write. Still, Republicans aren’t being shy about touting the benefits to their districts — conservative hardliner Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told POLITICO that she’s excited for the jobs coming from a solar panel manufacturing plant recently announced in her district. The companies behind the projects aren’t looking at who represents the district when they choose where to site their projects, said Scott Paul, president of Alliance for American Manufacturing — it’s more about the tax benefits, labor laws and supply chains available in the area. Still, it creates an awkward situation for the GOP’s messaging going forward.” [E&E News, 1/23/23 (=)]

 

What Democrats Are Saying: — “‘It’s hard not to point out the hypocrisy for people who fought tooth and nail against the bill, those very incentives that are now creating opportunities in their [Republican] districts they are now leading,’ said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.). ‘We just have to point out, thanks for your kind words, but this didn’t just happen. It happened despite your best efforts.’” [E&E News, 1/23/23 (=)]

 

The GOP’s Response — “‘Just because you vote against a bill doesn’t mean the entire bill is a bad bill,’ said Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), the ranking member of the Select Climate Crisis Committee last Congress. ‘I go out there and advocate for our district to try and get transportation funds, to try and get energy funds. That’s my job. I am not embarrassed about it. I don’t think it’s inconsistent with my vote.’” [E&E News, 1/23/23 (=)]

 

These 6 GOP Leaders Will Shift Congress On Climate [Kevin McCarthy] — According to The Washington Post, “In a September interview with Breitbart News, McCarthy called Biden’s energy agenda ‘just wrong’ and pledged to increase oil and gas production. He’s since continued to criticize Biden for high fuel prices. ‘We’ve watched what the Democrats and Biden have done to our gasoline costs,’ McCarthy said. ‘We will bring that cost down.’ McCarthy’s stance on oil and gas development reflects his district, a conservative swath of the southern San Joaquin Valley that includes parts of Kern, Fresno, Tulare and Kings counties. … McCarthy, who said in 2019 that Republicans ‘should be a little nervous’ about where their party will be in 20 years if it does not recognize global warming, helped prepare the party’s climate plan in the months leading up to the midterm elections. It gave hope to younger Republican lawmakers and conservative environmental groups, who’ve pressed the party to abandon its previous stances rejecting the scientific consensus on climate change. The plan backed carbon-free hydropower and streamlined permitting that could bolster both renewable energy and fossil fuel projects, but it didn’t include targets for cutting planet-warming pollution.” [The Washington Post, 1/23/23 (=)]

 

These 6 GOP Leaders Will Shift Congress On Climate [Cathy McMorris Rodgers] — “For nearly two decades, McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), the new chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has represented this region. Her powerful panel will be at the forefront of House Republicans’ plans to pass energy legislation and conduct oversight of President Biden’s climate policies. McMorris Rodgers, who won a 10th term in November’s midterm elections, has shifted her stance on the scientific consensus on climate change since coming to Congress in 2005, moving from denial to acceptance. Despite acknowledging now that ‘global industrial activity’ is helping to warm the climate, McMorris Rodgers has sponsored legislation that would deepen the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels. This month, she introduced a bill that would bar Biden from tapping the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve unless he opens up more federal lands to oil and gas leasing.” [The Washington Post, 1/23/23 (=)]

 

These 6 GOP Leaders Will Shift Congress On Climate [Bruce Westerman] — “During an interview last year with The Washington Post, Westerman said that while he agrees with the scientific consensus that humans have put more planet-warming emissions into the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution, he does not a support a full-scale transition away from oil and gas to counter climate change. … Along with his support for widespread tree planting, Westerman has other priorities. He told The Post in October he plans to focus on oversight and a bipartisan push to overhaul the nation’s permitting process for energy projects. Westerman said Republicans would broadly support legislation to speed up mining and procurement of critical minerals, needed for electric vehicles and other green technologies. ‘Especially if my colleagues on the left think we need to electrify everything, you’ve got to have copper and rare earth minerals to do that,’ he said. Westerman represents a 20,950 square-mile district that, like much of Arkansas — otherwise known as the Natural State for its rivers, forests, plains and mountains — faces severe impacts from human-caused climate change.” [The Washington Post, 1/23/23 (=)]

 

Federal Agencies

 

Haaland To Promote Florida Everglades Restoration Work — “Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will visit Florida next week to tout the Biden administration’s investments in restoring the Everglades. Haaland will travel to Coral Springs, Fla., just northwest of Fort Lauderdale, on Jan. 28 along with Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Shannon Estenoz. The visit will spotlight investments in ecosystem and watershed restoration in the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure deal, including $1.1 billion designated for the Everglades via the Army Corps of Engineers. Haaland will also serve as the keynote speaker at the Everglades Coalition Conference. The coalition includes 56 local, state and national conservation and environmental groups. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) recently renewed an executive order directing the state’s Department of Environmental Protection to prioritize clean water projects, including red and green algae blooms and Everglades restoration (Greenwire, Jan. 11). The Everglades also received $447 million in the recent omnibus spending bill, including Florida Republican Rep. Brian Mast’s $40 million earmark (E&E Daily, Dec. 23, 2022).” [E&E News, 1/20/23 (=)]

 

Coral Springs Visit By U.S. Interior Secretary To Highlight Everglades Restoration — “U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland is coming to South Florida next week to highlight her Department’s efforts to collaborate with state and local partners on Everglades protections and restoration. On Jan. 28, Haaland will present keynote remarks at the 38th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference in Coral Springs. Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Shannon Estenoz, a Key West native with decades of experience working on conservation issues — including Everglades restoration under three Florida Governors — will join her. Central to their speeches will be the American the Beautiful initiative, an effort the Department of Interior is undertaking with the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, White House Council on Environmental Quality, and state Agriculture and Commerce Departments. Their goal: to conserve, connect and restore 30% of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030.” [Florida Politics, 1/20/23 (=)]

 

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland Hears From Indian Boarding School Survivors In Arizona — “Clutching neatly typed sheets, April Hiosik Ignacio talked about her family’s five generations dealing with Indian boarding schools. In the late 19th century, she said, O’odham children were rounded up by ‘boots’ — U. S. Army soldiers — who swept them to faraway boarding schools established by the federal government to ‘civilize’ Native kids. Ignacio told of her great-grandfather, who was orphaned and eventually sent off to Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. The young man, whose name had been changed to Jose Ignacio, wrote letters to the rancher he worked for, and was finally able to come home to the Southwest. Later, he sent his children to the Tucson Indian School, where children would later describe abuse at the hands of the people in charge. ‘My grandmother’s sister got her tongue split for speaking the O’odham language,’ April Ignacio said. ‘She had to sit at her desk for hours with blood-soaked saliva overflowing across her hands and her dress.’” [Arizona Republic, 1/20/23 (=)]

 

Interior Sec. Haaland Brings "The Road To Healing" Tour To Arizona And Navajo Nation —“Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland will be in Phoenix and on the Navajo Nation this weekend on the latest stop of ‘The Road to Healing Tour.’ It’s a year-long cross-country initiative to give Indigenous survivors and descendants of the federal Indian boarding school system an opportunity to tell their stories. Haaland will be accompanied by the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Bryan Newland. Secretary Haaland launched the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative to shed light on the historical trauma of government-run schools and policies and their legacy on First Nations Peoples. In May of 2022, the Interior Department released the first volume of an investigative report which calls for the collection of a permanent oral history as well as trauma-support for survivors and descendants.” [KNAU-Radio, 1/20/23 (=)]

 

 

Courts & Legal

 

Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan Can’t Be Targeted In Lawsuit – Appeals Court — “An environmental group cannot sue the U.S. Interior Department for refusing to amend the 1993 Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan, a federal appeals court held. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling Thursday against the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed suit after the department’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) denied its petition to add several new areas in the western U.S. as potential recovery-zone habitats for the threatened grizzly. In a 2-1 split, the majority said the agency’s action did not ‘give rise to binding legal obligations,’ and therefore was not a ‘final agency action’ subject to judicial review. Although the Endangered Species Act requires the FWS to prepare recovery plans, the 9th Circuit and other courts have long held that the plans are non-binding statements of methods and goals, Circuit Judge Andrew Hurwitz wrote.” [Reuters, 1/20/23 (=)]

 

 

States & Local

 

Nevada

 

Lithium Mining Company Trespasses On Federally-Protected Tiehm's Buckwheat Habitat — “Ioneer’s central Nevada operations have trespassed into areas federally protecting Tiehm’s buckwheat. A lithium mining company’s central Nevada operations have trespassed into an area federally set aside to protect an endangered plant. On Wednesday, the Bureau of Land Management issued a trespass notice to Ioneer Rhyolite Ridge LLC for the unauthorized use of Tiehm’s buckwheat habitat. The areas were being used as a laydown area for drilling operations. The buckwheat is listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The BLM’s November approval of Ioneer’s application for drilling operations in central Nevada directed that all proposed disturbance areas related to drilling be conducted outside of areas identified as critical habitat for Tiehm’s buckwheat. But on Jan. 12, the BLM received notice from a third party of a disturbance within the Tiehm’s buckwheat habitat. Following a site visit, the BLM determined Ioneer had trespassed. Most of the equipment has since been removed. No Tiehm’s buckwheat was harmed, according to Ioneer.” [Reno Gazette Journal, 1/20/23 (=)]

 

New Mexico

 

Pro-Oil Candidates Lost Out In New Mexico's 2022 Election, As Environment Took Center Stage — “Pro-oil candidates struggled to take office in New Mexico in the 2022 election, as Democrats espousing environmental policy targeting reductions of pollution largely won their respective elections at state and federal levels. Conservation and environment issues played a big role in the state’s elections last year, according to a study published by the Center for Western Priorities, giving candidates a ‘competitive edge’ in close and hotly contested races. The study published in January looked at several western states, including New Mexico, citing elections for U.S. Congress and state officials heavily influence, the report read, by conservation-related topics. The Center cited a poll it conducted of 2,011 likely voters in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. Thirty-seven percent of those polled registered as Democrats, with 30 percent Republicans and 33 percent independent. In New Mexico, 89 percent of voters said conservation issues were important, and 79 percent said they would directly influence who they voted for, the report read. About 60 percent of New Mexico voters polled by the Center said political leaders should do more to regulate oil and gas operations on public land.” [Carlsbad Current-Argus, 1/22/23 (+)]

 

Ohio

 

Op-Ed: Fracking In Ohio's State Parks Is A Recipe For Disaster — “The new state law requiring Ohio state parks to allow fracking on public lands is a recipe for ecological and economic disaster in Ohio. If there is just one methane leak poisoning groundwater with toxins and waste products from fracking fluid, there will be a mass exodus of talented people and good jobs fleeing Ohio. And those people and jobs may not return. We have only to look as far as Flint, Michigan to see the lasting effect a ‘Frackgate’ could have, not only on Ohioans’ health and welfare, but in the public’s trust in government. Is Ohio prepared to become the next poster child for ecological disaster? House Bill 507 is bad law passed in a lame-duck session without public comment. With this law, our legislators pandered to Ohio’s oil and gas industry and have risked our clean air, clean drinking water and the growth of sustainable jobs of the future in exchange for dirty energy and dark money.” [Cincinnati Enquirer, 1/22/23 (+)]

 

 

Research & Analysis

 

The Offshore Oil Business Is Gushing Again — “Of roughly 600 rigs worldwide that were available to lease for offshore projects in December 2022, about 90% were working or under contract to do so, according to research firm Westwood Global Energy Group. That was up from roughly 63% five years earlier. Some beneficiaries of the new offshore drilling boom are companies such as Transocean Ltd., Valaris Ltd. and Noble Corp. that own and staff the rigs, the most coveted of which are massive drillships such as Titan that are prized for their ability to work deftly in deep waters. These contractors are now charging the oil companies that lease drillships more than $400,000 a day, up from around $300,000 early last year and less than $200,000 two years ago. Analysts are forecasting rates will exceed $500,000 next year. … A dearth of drillships is buoying the prices oil companies pay to lease them. Of the 82 drillships that survived the culling of the last decade and are being marketed now, only four aren’t drilling or in contract for later this year, according to Westwood. Even though crude prices have fallen recently, they are still higher than prepandemic levels and are well above what companies say they need to turn a profit on offshore wells.” [The Wall Street Journal, 1/21/23 (=)]

 

 

Opinion Pieces

 

'It’s Armageddon': Media Silent On Biden Admin Plan To Snatch Public Land For Solar Farms — “The media have been largely silent on a Biden administration energy project that one conservationist said would be ‘armageddon’ for public lands. It’s a far cry from how reporters covered similar proposals under former president Donald Trump. In December 2022, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced that her department would expedite plans to build solar energy farms across tens of thousands of untouched public land in 11 Western states. The announcement has garnered little to no national attention, save for the occasional report that the Biden administration is expanding renewable energy production. National outlets took a far more critical approach to Trump-era land use proposals. ‘Where Will Trump’s War on Public Lands End?’ the New Yorker wondered in 2017. The following year, a New York Times headline lamented that a ‘Trump Drilling Plan Threatens 9 Million Acres of Sage Grouse Habitat.’ The coverage gap indicates a media bias, not just against Trump, but also for green energy.” [Washington Free Beacon, 1/21/23 (-)]

 

 

 

Responses to this email are not monitored.

 

Please contact Mitch Dunn (mitch@beehivedc.com) with clips related questions and comments  

 

Please contact Kimberly Gerbert (kgerbert@partnershipproject.org) with distribution related questions