Research Clips: August 24, 2018

TOP HEADLINES

Trump Reshaped U.S. Climate Policy In One Month: August 2018.

Proposed Climate Rule May Help Hamstring Nuisance Claims.

Agency Follows Industry Playbook To Attack Science.

Oil Lobbyists Huddled With EPA On Permitting Overhaul.

Droegemeier Vows To Improve Climate Models As Science Chief.

Collins Talked Chevron Doctrine With Kavanaugh.

Greens Push Border Wall Fight To Supreme Court.

Green Groups, Sanders Supporters Demand DNC End Fossil Fuel Donations.

POLITICAL NEWS

White House and Diplomacy

OSTP

White House Science Pick Gives Climate Skeptic A Pass. According to E&E News, "President Trump’s likely science adviser revealed how he might handle questions about climate change from a boss who has called it a hoax. Kelvin Droegemeier, an extreme weather expert who told lawmakers that politics has no place in science, did not publicly correct a senator who misrepresented scientific conclusions about rising temperatures during his confirmation hearing yesterday. That aside, it was clear that Droegemeier enjoys bipartisan support as Trump’s nominee to oversee the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who has been sharply critical of Trump’s other science picks, said Droegemeier already had his vote. ‘If confirmed, you have a tough task ahead of you, but I think a lot of us on this committee are going to be happy that you’re the White House science adviser,’ he said. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), perhaps the fiercest critic of climate science in the Senate, proudly introduced Droegemeier, who works at the University of Oklahoma. Inhofe noted the nominee’s wide base of support. ‘There is no one in America who is better-qualified for this position than he is; Democrats and Republicans agree with that,’ Inhofe said." [E&E News, 8/24/18 (=)]

Droegemeier Vows To Improve Climate Models As Science Chief. According to Politico, “‘We need improvements in climate models,’ he told the Senate Commerce Committee at his confirmation hearing. ‘There certainly is uncertainty, kind of an ironic way to say it, in climate models. We need to reduce it.’ No senator directly asked Droegemeier, a meteorologist at the University of Oklahoma, whether he acknowledges the scientific consensus that human activity is driving the problem. He did tell Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that he welcomes ‘all points of view’ about the science. ‘Science rarely provides immutable answers about anything,’ Droegemeier said. ‘Science is the loser when we tend to vilify and marginalize other voices. I think we have to have everyone at the table talking about these things and let the science take us where it takes us.’ Ensuring science is conducted without political interference is ‘absolutely, without question, important and, to me, there is no other way to do it,’ Droegemeier said, adding he would ensure work on climate change continued without interference. Droegemeier has won significant praise from Senate Democrats and appears poised to skate to confirmation. ‘If confirmed, you have a tough task ahead of you, but I think a lot of us on this committee are going to be happy that you’re the White House science advisor,’ Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), ranking member of the committee, said in his opening statement.” [Politico, 8/23/18 (=)]

Science Nominee 'Very Excited' To Work On Climate. According to E&E News, “Appearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Kelvin Droegemeier, the president’s choice for director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, was asked about a recent New York Times article looking at the history of climate policy. Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) pressed Droegemeier if he would dedicate himself to the issue. ‘Absolutely. I’m very excited to work on that. I think we need improvements in climate models. We need lots of things going forward, lots of things we can do,’ Droegemeier said, adding he enjoyed reading the article. The nominee pointed to private conversations with a senator before the hearing about how communities do not rebuild for the future after extreme weather. ‘That’s a great example senator of the things we need to be better,’ Droegemeier said. He added that ‘risk and resilience’ were areas he wanted to focus on. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) then asked Droegemeier whether he would protect scientists backing the consensus that humans are the driver of warming temperatures, so they are free from intimidation. ‘Science must be conducted without political influence, and I believe that includes the things you mentioned. Scientists have to be free to explore, that’s what science is about. I absolutely agree that it has to be free from political influence and conducted with the highest integrity,’ he said.” [E&E News, 8/23/18 (=)]

5 Hot Topics Hit White House Science Picks At Hearing. According to E&E News, “The committee welcomed Droegemeier, with both ranking member Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and conservatives like Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) offering praise. Outside the hearing room, Inhofe said, ‘Oh, yes’ when asked if Droegemeier’s role would change compared to the Obama administration, particularly on the climate issue. ‘He’s not going to use the platform for political purposes as happened during the Obama administration,’ said Inhofe, who has called global warming a ‘hoax.’ Yet Democrats who have expressed worries about Trump’s science policies also looked hopefully to Droegemeier, a former University of Oklahoma extreme-weather expert. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) suggested she would like to see Droegemeier shape policies to mitigate the costs of climate change. She referred to a Government Accountability Office report she requested with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) this year that found global warming already is costing taxpayers billions of dollars. ‘So we’d like to see more policies that are going to mitigate that,’ she said. About Droegemier, she said ‘we’re going to submit some questions. We’ll find out, but obviously we need people.’” [E&E News, 8/24/18 (=)]

Trump's Science Adviser Nominee Won't Call Out Climate Denier Bullshit. According to Earther, “The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation welcomed science adviser nominee Kelvin Droegemeier to Capitol Hill on Thursday with open arms. The University of Oklahoma meteorology professor President Donald Trump has picked to head the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is inching closer to securing the position, which has been vacant a record-breaking 578 days. Droegemeier’s nomination in July was met with a sigh of relief by many scientists, who praised his credentials and his acceptance of mainstream climate science (a rarity in the Trump administration). His hearing on Thursday mostly went smoothly, but things did get a bit bumpy when it came to the climate. Droegemeier didn’t mention climate change in his opening remarks, and he only addressed the issue when he was asked about it outright. It didn’t appear to be among his priorities. Instead, expanding the U.S.’s global role in science, increasing science education from K-12, and public-academic-private partnerships were—all of which are important, too.” [Earther, 8/24/18 (+)]

Federal Agencies

EPA

Clean Power Plan (CPP) & Affordable Clean Energy (ACE)

Legal Challenges

ACE Rule's 'Fenceline' GHG Policy Could Limit Future President's Options. According to Inside EPA, “Legal experts say the Trump EPA’s ‘Affordable Clean Energy’ (ACE) proposal targeting greenhouse gases from existing power plants appears designed to block a future administration from pursuing broader GHG controls, because it all but says the Clean Air Act restricts such standards to those ‘within the fenceline’ of the plant. EPA would be expected to rely on the inside-the-fenceline argument to defend a near-certain lawsuit from environmentalists and states if the agency finalizes ACE as proposed. But some sources say the policy position might not be an explicit prohibition on a future president imposing stricter ‘beyond the fence’ standards, instead hoping the rule would set a precedent preventing such tougher approaches. The debate over whether EPA’s Clean Air Act section 111(d) climate rule for existing utilities must consider only GHG limits inside a facility or can weigh controls outside a facility’s boundaries will likely play out in pending written comments on the ACE proposal, released Aug. 21 ahead of its publication in the Federal Register. The comments are also expected to include a fight over whether section 111(d) even allows GHG regulation of existing power plants, though the agency in the ACE plan says it has such authority.” [Inside EPA, 8/23/18 (=)]

Proposed Climate Rule May Help Hamstring Nuisance Claims. According to E&E News, “The Trump administration’s proposal to replace the Clean Power Plan with a scaled-back climate rule may provide energy companies an advantage in future courtroom battles. After EPA unveiled its Affordable Clean Energy rule this week, some industry experts said the measure would help stave off climate change ‘nuisance’ lawsuits alleging harm from greenhouse gas emissions. ‘There is no doubt that the ACE rule will make the argument regarding federal tort pre-emption even stronger,’ said Scott Segal, an energy lobbyist at Bracewell LLP. Federal pre-emption refers to the legal understanding that EPA’s air pollution authority set out in the Clean Air Act displaces federal lawsuits targeting polluters. The Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that the Clean Air Act pre-empted claims from a state-led coalition suing six power companies over climate impacts because the court had previously found that EPA has authority over greenhouse gas emissions. In the past two months, federal courts have tossed nuisance lawsuits from New York City and a group of California municipalities on those grounds.” [E&E News, 8/24/18 (=)]

Proposed Climate Rule May Help Trump Nuisance Claims. According to E&E News, “After EPA unveiled its Affordable Clean Energy rule this week, some industry experts said the measure would help stave off climate change ‘nuisance’ lawsuits alleging harm from greenhouse gas emissions. ‘There is no doubt that the ACE rule will make the argument regarding federal tort pre-emption even stronger,’ said Scott Segal, an energy lobbyist at Bracewell LLP. Federal pre-emption refers to the legal understanding that EPA’s air pollution authority set out in the Clean Air Act displaces federal lawsuits targeting polluters. The Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that the Clean Air Act pre-empted claims from a state-led coalition suing six power companies over climate impacts because the court had previously found that EPA has authority over greenhouse gas emissions. In the past two months, federal courts have tossed nuisance lawsuits from New York City and a group of California municipalities on those grounds. But as President Trump moved to rescind the Clean Power Plan last year, some experts wondered whether the absence of an EPA regulation could change how judges weigh the issue.” [E&E News, 8/24/18 (=)]

General Coverage

Trump Says 'The Coal Industry Is Back.' The Government's Jobs Numbers Say Otherwise. According to CNBC, “President Donald Trump tells a rally in West Virginia his administration is putting coal miners back to work. Government data show the United States added about 2,000 coal mining jobs since Trump took office, but economists say the change is not statistically significant. The export-fueled bump in coal production and coal-mining employment is forecast to fade next year.” [CNBC, 8/23/18 (=)]

Trump's EPA Just Replaced One Of Obama's Biggest Climate Rules. Some Conservatives Say It's Not Enough. According to The New York Times, “Prominent right-leaning voices and institutions that dismiss the consensus among climate researchers that burning fossil fuels warms the planet renewed calls this week for the EPA to challenge its underlying authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the first place. Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), who once brought a snowball to the Senate floor to prove climate change is false and whose former staffers populate EPA headquarters, said in a statement that ‘the best course of action remains to completely overturn’ the scientific underpinning to the EPA’s authority. Myron Ebell, the former head of Trump’s EPA transition team, agreed. ‘We’re with Inhofe on this,’ said Ebell, who directs energy and environmental policy at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute. ‘Once you get started down the road of regulating greenhouse gases,’ he added, ‘there’s no end to it.’” [The New York Times, 8/24/18 (+)]

Trump Put A Low Cost On Carbon Emissions. Here’s Why It Matters.. According to The New York Times, “So how did the Trump administration conclude that global warming will be much less costly than the Obama administration assumed? First, the Environmental Protection Agency focused solely on damages from climate change that would occur within the borders of the United States rather than across the entire globe. Second, they used calculations that put less weight on the harm climate change could inflict on future generations. Trump officials contend that their carbon approach better reflects the way the government has traditionally done cost-benefit analyses. Critics argue that this approach is inappropriate for global, multigenerational problems like climate change, and that newer research suggests the social cost of carbon may be even higher than the Obama administration estimated, not much lower. Ultimately, the courts could decide which view prevails. ‘This will be part of the legal challenges to these regulatory rollbacks,’ said Richard L. Revesz, an expert in environmental law at New York University. ‘The reasons for why the Trump administration picked these numbers for the social cost of carbon are going to be scrutinized.’” [The New York Times, 8/23/18 (+)]

When Trump Tries To Bring Back Coal, These Communities Pay The Price. According to Grist, “Christina Zacny has a rare immunological condition, mast cell activation syndrome. ‘I’m literally allergic to almost everything,’ she says. Her symptoms became more severe four years ago when she began going into anaphylactic shock, at one point going into shock thirty times within 3 months. Zacny grew up down the street from a coal-fired power plant in Wheatfield, Indiana and still lives nearby. She says her doctor suspects that the polluted air and water that has surrounded Zacny for most of her life has exacerbated her disorder. She wears a mask when when the air quality is bad and worries about groundwater contamination from the R.M. Schahfer Generating Station’s coal ash. So when the Trump administration unveiled its plan to deregulate coal emissions earlier this week, Zacny was stunned. She works evenings at the nearby Blue Chip Casino, and was woken up one morning by an urgent phone call from a friend. ‘They said you have to go look at the news rights now, you’re not going to believe what just happened,’ she recalls. ‘I was just sitting there thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this is awful.’” [Grist, 8/23/18 (+)]

Everything Trump Said About The Paris Climate Deal Was A Lie. His Own EPA Just Confirmed It. According to Think Progress, “Everything President Trump has said about President Obama’s climate plan and why he had to pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris Climate Accord turns out to be a lie. That’s the inescapable conclusion from the EPA’s 289-page ‘Regulatory Impact Analysis,’ (RIA) released by the administration on Tuesday along with Trump’s new ‘Affordable Clean Energy Plan.’ This new analysis reports a very low cost of complying with Obama’s much-vilified ‘Clean Power Plan,’ (CPP) which set the rules for cleaning up the dirty U.S. power sector and was the cornerstone of America’s climate pledge at Paris. Trump’s EPA now calculates that achieving the emissions reductions of the CPP would cost just $700 million in 2030 dropping to $400 million in 2035. The Obama EPA’s estimate for the 2030 costs were seven times larger.” [Think Progress, 8/23/18 (+)]

Here’s Donald Trump’s Brilliant Strategy To Sell His Dirty-Coal Plan: Troll The Libs! According to Salon, “Even though Scott Pruitt was finally driven out as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, his replacement, Andrew Wheeler, hasn’t missed a beat. Wheeler is steadfastly pursuing the great white whale Pruitt was hired, above all other things, to destroy: Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan. It’s a painstakingly crafted and thoroughly litigated policy aimed at drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the nation’s power plants, and it was a critical part of the agreement known as the Paris Accords, which, of course, Trump has promised to abandon. That the Clean Power Plan was Moby Dick to Pruitt’s Captain Ahab is not overstating the case. Before Trump tapped Pruitt to be the EPA head, he was Oklahoma attorney general and took the lead in the legal assault by red states on the Clean Power Plan. Pruitt basically argued that the strength of the Obama policy — that it allowed power plants flexibility in how they reduced emissions so long as they met their goals — was what made its enforcement illegal.” [Salon, 8/23/18 (+)]

Six Important Points About The Affordable Clean Energy Rule. According to Phys.org, “On Tuesday, August 21, EPA published a proposed rule to replace the Clean Power Plan. The proposal, entitled the ‘Affordable Clean Energy Rule,’ would establish a framework for controlling CO2 emissions from existing power plants which is significantly less effective and environmentally protective than its predecessor. Here are six important things to know about the proposed rule: 1. The proposal sets a very low bar for emissions reductions. … 2. There are no numerical standards or targets for GHG reductions, and states will have wide latitude to establish their own performance targets. … 3. The proposal would have a net cost to U.S. citizens of billions of dollars. … 4. The proposal includes major changes to permitting rules that could lead to additional increases in air pollution. … 5. The legal fate of the proposal depends on the legal fate of the Clean Power Plan, which is already tied up in litigation. … 6. The proposal will not save the coal industry.” [Phys.org, 8/23/18 (+)]

EPA's New ACE Rule Is A Coal Lifeline 'Disguised As A GHG Regulation,' Critics Say. According to Utility Dive, “Taken together, critics say the new emissions limits and loosened NSR program could allow coal operators to upgrade their facilities and run them longer, even if that means higher emissions than retiring the plants and shifting to less polluting sources, like natural gas or renewables. ‘That’s why NSR exists — to address the almost inevitable increase in emissions that results from investments in power plants,’ said Joe Goffman, a former Obama EPA official who helped craft that administration’s carbon rule, the Clean Power Plan. ‘So there’s an internal contradiction embedded in this proposal.’ The NSR review is one place the ACE plan could be vulnerable to legal challenges, as EPA has seen similar efforts overturned in the past. Even if it survives, analysts and utility executives alike say it remains unclear how many coal owners will opt to keep their coal plants open, rather than investing in less polluting resources. ‘The forward curve for natural gas looks exceedingly attractive,’ said Tom Fanning, CEO of Southern Co., a major coal plant operator. ‘So the dynamic of adding cost to coal while gas remains exceedingly cheap I think weighs in the interest of moving ... from coal to gas and renewables.’” [Utility Dive, 8/22/18 (+)]

What's Actually In President Trump's (Diet) Clean Power Plan? According to Forbes, “A lot less than was in President Obama’s. Trump’s proposal is 236 pages. Obama’s was 1,560 pages. But it’s not just the length that’s different. Obama’s Clean Power Plan was designed to lower carbon dioxide emissions from this nation’s fleet of coal-fired power plants by 32 percent by 2030. Trump’s proposal, on the other hand, would reduce emissions from these same plants by 1 to 2% by 2035. Of course, President Trump has made his disdain for President Obama’s Clean Power Plan widely known since even before he was elected. So, his proposed replacement of the Clean Power Plan should come as no surprise.” [Forbes, 8/22/18 (=)]

Opinion Pieces

Editorial: Goodbye, Clean Power Plan. According to National Review, “The Clean Power Plan is headed for the crematorium. Good riddance. CPP was the textbook example of the Obama administration’s attempt to supplant Congress by interpreting the administrative state’s regulatory scope as effectively unlimited. Prior to CPP, the Environmental Protection Agency had regulated the emissions of electricity-generating plants individually to ensure that they did not exceed pollution limits. The Obama administration ran wild with its regulatory ambitions, using CPP to impose renewable-energy quotas on the states and adopting through administrative fiat limits on carbon dioxide emissions that Congress has repeatedly declined to impose. Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant as traditionally understood — it is what human beings exhale — but it is a greenhouse gas, and global warming is an obsession of contemporary progressives.” [National Review, 8/22/18 (-)]

Editorial: If Renewable Energy Catches Up Faster Than Expected, Is WV Ready To Benefit? According to West Virginia Gazette-Mail, “Clean energy is catching up to natural gas faster than previously predicted, in both price and reliability, David Roberts reported last month in Vox magazine. Will West Virginia be poised to benefit? Power plants have been switching to natural gas for years as the price of gas has fallen, especially compared to coal. Second, gas burns cleaner than coal (if you don’t worry about methane escaping somewhere in the production process). Earlier estimates made natural gas the ‘bridge fuel’ to some distant point in the future when unreliable wind and solar might catch up, someday, maybe. In the meantime, traditional fuels would provide the reliable power source for when the sun doesn’t shine, the wind doesn’t blow or electricity demand outstrips those sources. But Roberts reports: ‘Around 2015, though, just five years into gas’s rise to power, complications for this narrative began to appear. First, wind and solar costs fell so far, so fast that they are now undercutting the cost of new gas in a growing number of regions. And then batteries — which can ‘firm up’ variable renewables, diminishing the need for natural gas’s flexibility — also started getting cheap faster than anyone expected. It happened so fast that, in certain limited circumstances, solar+storage or wind+storage is already cheaper than new natural gas plants and able to play all the same roles (and more).’” [West Virginia Gazette-Mail, 8/22/18 (+)]

Editorial: Not Surprisingly, Trump's New Affordable Clean Energy Plan Is Anything But. According to Finger Lake Times, “The plan falls in line with the administration’s decision to freeze fuel economy standards for cars, light trucks and SUVs, as well as Trump’s retrograde promises to revive the coal and nuclear power industries. The president’s efforts on the latter front include a so-far fruitless proposal to require utilities to buy costlier power from coal and nuclear plants at consumers’ expense. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission wisely rejected that request by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, but the administration is continuing to push the issue by trying to frame increased use of coal and nuclear power as necessary to maintain a stable power grid as a matter of national security. That’s hogwash, and the energy regulators said as much when they expressed doubt that the national security designation was legally defensible. In fact, the commission rejected the proposal unanimously, and four of the five members are Trump appointees. So this idea is too cockamamie for even some of his own people. Beyond the administration’s attempts to put a thumb on the scale of the energy market in favor of big polluters —hypocritical at best given Republicans’ general embrace of free market forces —the president’s policies pose a dire threat to the health of Americans and weaken efforts to try to combat climate change and rid the air of particles damaging to human health. They must be opposed both in the courts and at the ballot box.” [Finger Lake Times, 8/23/18 (+)]

Op-Ed: Trump Administration Pushes States' Rights — As Long As They Are Coal States. According to an op-ed by Evan Halper in Los Angeles Times, “As the Trump administration unveiled its plan Tuesday to gut landmark rules limiting power plant emissions, it made one thing clear: When it comes to environmental regulations, this White House is all about letting states chart their own course. That is, as long as the states in question are coal states, and not those determined to utilize cleaner energy, like California. ‘The era of top-down, one size fits all mandates is over,’ EPA interim chief Andrew Wheeler declared on a call with reporters where he presented Trump’s replacement for the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. The rewrite, which could prolong the lives of heavily polluting coal plants for decades and pump enough additional soot and smog-forming emissions in the air to cause an estimated 1,400 premature deaths each year, is branded by the Trump administration as the Affordable Clean Energy rule. ‘This rule will continue our progress legally and with the proper respect for the states,’ Wheeler said. That respect for states does not always extend nationwide. It was only a few weeks ago that Trump’s EPA was warning that some states — California, in particular — had run wild with their authority and needed to be tethered back to Washington.” [Los Angeles Times, 8/21/18 (+)]

Op-Ed: Fixing Clean Power Plan Is A Sensible First Step For Feds. According to an op-ed by Terry Jarrett in Farmington Daily Times, “The CPP envisioned by President Obama represented a massive overreach of EPA authority under the Clean Air Act. Instead of addressing individual power plants, the Obama administration mandated wholesale changes to America’s power grid. The Supreme Court found this problematic, though, and issued a stay of the rule while a lower court was reviewing it. It wasn’t just the EPA’s intrusion into the way individual states generate electricity, however. There was also the high price tag. A study by Energy Ventures Analysis (EVA) found the CPP would have forced the closure of enough generating capacity to power 24 million homes. This would have meant an estimated $214 billion in additional electricity costs between 2022 and 2030, plus $64 billion for replacement infrastructure. Such a massive expense prompted 27 states to challenge the rule. What the Trump administration is now attempting with its ‘Affordable Clean Energy’ (ACE) rule is to focus on improvements for existing plants. This is a more lawful approach, and it means the EPA will respect both the boundaries established under the Clean Air Act and the ability of individual states to securely generate electricity.” [Farmington Daily Times, 8/23/18 (-)]

Op-Ed: Replacing Clean Power Plan Is A Step In The Right Direction. According to an op-ed by Michelle Bloodwroth in USA Today, “In releasing the proposed replacement rule for the illegal Clean Power Plan, the Environmental Protection Agency should be applauded for proposing a plan that will not only ensure continued environmental protections across the country, but will also provide the necessary flexibility for each state to work in partnership with the EPA to develop emission reduction measures that make sense for its particular situation. Under this new rule, the EPA will establish greenhouse gas guidelines that are consistent with the law, but it is the states that are empowered to establish standards for performance for the coal fleet in their state that are both achievable and realistic for the circumstances and in line with EPA’s emissions guidelines. This is a marked departure from the previous approach, which was halted by the Supreme Court over concerns about its gross overreach, which set a national ‘one size fits all’ energy plan that would have led to higher electricity bills and, according to the EPA’s own analysis, little environmental benefit. Twenty-seven states and more than a hundred national and state policy organizations and labor unions voiced concerns over the impacts of the CPP, and this new proposal clearly has considered those concerns.” [USA Today, 8/21/18 (-)]

Op-Ed: New EPA Rule Unlikely To Stem The Tide Against Coal. According to an op-ed by Joshua Rhodes in Axios, “The big picture: The EPA is claiming to meet its mandate to regulate carbon emissions, while critics say ACE is yet another coal bailout scheme. Yet market forces might ultimately make the new rule moot. Show less The details: It appears that the only power plants ACE might affect are coal plants that are currently profitable but need capital investment to keep operating. Under the current rules, such investment triggers a provision requiring new pollution permits that limit the plant’s carbon emissions, but wouldn’t under ACE. Yes, but: Because coal is seen as a risky investment, few financial institutions are likely to extend credit to invest in coal plants. Instead, the capital would likely have to come from utilities in areas where they can rate-base — i.e., include the costs of upgrades directly into rate-payer’s bills — their investment. But rate-based investment would likely require approval from regulators, who, since they are charged with keeping costs down, might find it hard to justify, given the current low prices of renewables and 5-year natural gas futures. Decisions to pursue life-extending upgrades for existing coal plants will be made on a plant-by-plant basis, but extending the life of plants would also subject them to more regulatory uncertainty. Even regulated, coal-heavy utilities like Southern Company say the rule does not change its plans to retire its coal fleets. The bottom line: ACE might strengthen the hand of a few coal-fired power plants, but won’t fundamentally change where the market is heading. Low-cost natural gas and renewables are already winning on price. For coal, ACE is just too little too late.” [Axios, 8/24/18 (+)]

Op-Ed: People Like Trump Because He Delivers On Coal. According to an op-ed by Daniel Turner in Charleston Gazette-Mail, “Tens of thousands of West Virginians came out to greet President Donald Trump at his rally in Charleston this week, and yet some of his political detractors are still scratching their heads about his appeal. While anti-coal activists may squawk, Trump’s visit marks a fulfillment of one of his top campaign promises. Not only has President Trump delivered on increasing coal jobs, but on Tuesday he continued to do what got him elected by coal country: He remembered the ‘forgotten man’ in West Virginia and coal states like it. Even still, the influential elitists holed up in urban centers could only decry the president’s work using misguided talking points. In a recent article, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) President Rhea Suh decried West Virginia’s coal industry as a relic of the past, claiming green jobs are the future. Typical of the green movement, she made no comments about the thousands of men and women employed by coal. She showed no regard for their communities, their families or their way of life. Instead, she lectured about exaggerated apocalypses caused by climate change, bashed Republicans, and lobbied for her preferred sources of power.” [Charleston Gazette-Mail, 8/23/18 (-)]

Deregulation

Scientists Blast EPA Effort That Would Discredit Health Research In The Name Of 'Transparency.' According to Los Angeles Times, “When the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a proposal this week to give states more latitude in regulating pollution from power plants within their borders, it came with a sobering forecast of its likely impact on Americans’ health. By 2030, adoption of the Affordable Clean Energy Rule could lead to 470 to 1,400 additional premature deaths each year because of an increase in tiny airborne particles. Children with asthma could wind up missing 21,000 extra days of school annually, and up to 48,000 more people could experience ‘exacerbated asthma’ as air quality deteriorates. Those estimates were made possible by decades-old studies that linked the rise and fall of microscopic airborne particulates — smog and other emissions from automobile tailpipes, factories and other industrial sources — to predictable patterns of premature death. It’s the kind of analysis that federal regulators will be barred from considering if the EPA adopts a controversial plan ostensibly designed to enhance the quality of research. The Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science initiative would allow rulemakers to base their decisions only on studies whose raw data is available to the public. That way, anyone who doubts the findings can make their own attempt to validate, or discredit, them.” [Los Angeles Times, 8/24/18 (=)]

Trump Reshaped U.S. Climate Policy In One Month: August 2018. According to E&E News, “August was supposed to be a quiet month for climate politics, a time when Congress went on recess; President Trump played golf in Bedminster, N.J.; and Americans took a break from politics before this November’s midterm elections. Instead, it may go down as a historic turning point in U.S. climate efforts. EPA launched a whirlwind of actions that stand to exacerbate people’s influence on global temperatures. First came the rollback of clean car rules, an aggressive effort to unravel former President Obama’s program to reduce tailpipe pollution. Then came the Clean Power Plan replacement, another muscular move that dismantles Obama’s signature initiative for curbing emissions from the power sector. The twin blows could have an outsized impact on carbon-cutting efforts globally, analysts said, potentially slowing the pace of emission reductions internationally and halting momentum to decarbonize the economy. EPA’s own analysis suggests that replacing the two Obama-era standards with Trump’s proposals would increase carbon emissions by as much as 141 million metric tons in 2030 — the equivalent of running around 35 coal-fired power plants for a year.” [E&E News, 8/24/18 (=)]

Agency Follows Industry Playbook To Attack Science. According to E&E News, “A federal appeals court this month dealt a blow to the Trump administration when it ordered EPA to implement a full prohibition of the bug killer chlorpyrifos. The ban was proposed by the Obama administration but rejected when then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt called for studying the insecticide for another five years (Greenwire, Aug. 9). After the court’s rebuke, EPA took aim at a study from Columbia University’s Center for Children’s Environmental Health that showed the troubling real-world impacts of chlorpyrifos on children that helped prompt the ban. ‘The Columbia Center’s data underlying the Court’s assumptions remains inaccessible and has hindered the Agency’s ongoing process to fully evaluate the pesticide using the best available, transparent science,’ EPA spokesman Michael Abboud said in a statement to E&E News. The comment echoes an argument made by CropLife America, a pesticide industry trade group whose leaders have met several times behind closed doors with Pruitt and his successor, EPA acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler. In a 2016 request, CropLife America asked the Obama EPA to scrap its proposed ban and any other regulations that rely on Columbia’s chlorpyrifos research, which has produced several additional papers published in peer-reviewed journals.” [E&E News, 8/23/18 (=)]

Oil Lobbyists Huddled With EPA On Permitting Overhaul. According to E&E News, “Representatives from the American Petroleum Institute and three major oil companies met with White House and EPA officials this week over planned changes to a central aspect of the New Source Review permitting program, according to a newly released summary. The summary, posted on Reginfo.gov, shows that the oil and gas industry trade group sought the Tuesday meeting related to EPA’s reconsideration of how the agency handles ‘project aggregation’ in deciding whether a New Source Review pre-construction permit is needed. EPA sent a final rule to the Office of Management and Budget for a standard review last month. Representing API at the meeting were federal relations chief Hilary Moffett and senior policy adviser Ted Steichen. Also present were lobbyists for ConocoPhillips and Chevron Corp., as well as an Exxon Mobil Corp. official, the summary indicated. Asked today about the meeting’s purpose, API spokesman Reid Porter said in an email that it was to gain additional information about EPA’s plans.” [E&E News, 8/23/18 (=)]

Trump Team Phasing Out Oil Field Enforcement Initiative. According to E&E News, “Enforcement chief Susan Bodine said she wants to shift the focus away from oil and gas as a sector deserving of extra scrutiny and toward prioritizing broad environmental problems, such as air pollution. ‘This initiative historically focused on one industrial sector, implying that the EPA considers all problems in this sector — large or small — to be a priority,’ Bodine wrote in a letter this week to regional administrators. … But the agency plans to continue initiatives on ‘industrial and chemical facilities,’ along with ‘hazardous waste facilities.’ … Bodine, who is the assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance, laid out the changes in a letter this week to regional administrators and agency enforcement officials formalizing changes to the agency’s National Enforcement Initiatives. She is changing them to ‘National Compliance Initiatives.’ The new name, she said, will ‘better convey the message that increased compliance is the goal, and enforcement actions are not the only tool for achieving this goal.’ The idea, she wrote, was to focus on ensuring compliance with environmental laws, using a ‘full range of compliance assurance tools’ rather than focusing on seeking out and penalizing violators. She had been discussing the idea with state officials and others since at least June.” [E&E News, 8/24/18 (=)]

EPA, Litigants Agree To Oral Arguments In Ozone Battle. According to E&E News, “In a joint motion filed late yesterday, all sides told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that they’re essentially ready to take up where they left off, with almost 90 minutes of verbal sparring to be split among discussions of the adequacy of the primary and secondary standards, the role of background ozone and a grandfathering rule. They asked the court to schedule the arguments and stick to that proposed format. The litigation surrounding the 70-parts-per-billion threshold is now coming up on its three-year anniversary. Arguments in the five consolidated lawsuits had originally been set for April of last year. At the Trump administration’s request, the court called them off to give newly named EPA appointees time to review the Obama-era standards for possible changes (Greenwire, April 12, 2017). In periodic status reports with the court, EPA attorneys offered little information on the course of that review. The agency, constrained by Clean Air Act compliance deadlines, meanwhile proceeded with attainment designations that mark the first nationwide enforcement step. The D.C. Circuit lifted the abeyance last month after a coalition of Republican-leaning states fretted that their right to challenge an ‘unlawful’ standard was effectively ebbing away.” [E&E News, 8/23/18 (=)]

What’s The Risk? According to Politico, “More than 60 House Democrats called on Wheeler to stop the agency’s efforts to finalize a proposed rule repealing several key parts of EPA’s Risk Management Plan amendment, which boosts emergency response coordination and public notification requirements for refineries, chemical plants and other industrial facilities. EPA’s proposed rule, for which comment was due Thursday, includes requirements that audits of facilities be conducted by third parties and that investigators determine the ‘root cause’ of an accident. ‘Most egregiously, the proposed rule would gut all measures intended to prevent chemical disasters at the approximately 12,500 chemical facilities covered by the RMP program,’ the Democrats wrote . Last week, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned EPA’s long-term delay of the Obama-era chemical safety regulation.” [Politico, 8/24/18 (=)]

Andrew Wheeler

Time For The ACE Tour. According to Politico, “Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler heads to Kentucky today, where he’ll meet with the coal state’s GOP Rep. Andy Barr and discuss the agency’s proposed Affordable Clean Energy rule. As ME readers know well, the proposal eases carbon regulations for coal-fired power plants and replaces the stricter requirements pushed by the Obama administration, which would have helped to accelerate the retirement of many coal plants. Since its unveiling, the ACE proposal has been hailed by many fossil fuel and industry groups, as well as Republicans on the Hill. (Although, plenty of others are hoping for more from the Trump administration, especially to help stabilize coal power plants long-term.) Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell said this week he’s ‘grateful’ for the ACE proposal, adding it would ‘pare back’ the Obama-era’s ‘unfair, unworkable, and likely illegal policy.’ Kentucky is the No. 5 coal-producing state, according to the Energy Information Administration, and it’s also ranked fifth in the nation in estimated recoverable coal reserves. For his part, Barr’s a member of the Congressional Coal Caucus. He’s previously touted the role of coal in producing jobs in the state and has hit EPA over its regulation of coal during the previous administration. While the president trumpeted his regulatory rollbacks in West Virginia this week as a job-creating strategy, EPA itself says that the new proposal overall would have a ‘relatively small’ effect on employment thanks to a strong economy, even as local effects may be more pronounced in some regions.” [Politico, 8/24/18 (=)]

Personnel

EPA Workforce Review Appears To Answer Watchdogs' Call For Analysis. According to Inside EPA, “EPA is working on a long-awaited comprehensive review of its workforce needs, the Acting Deputy Administrator Henry Darwin tells Inside EPA in a statement, apparently heeding recommendations for such a review from government watchdogs both within and outside the agency that date back to the Clinton administration. ‘EPA is keenly aware of its workforce levels and the need to manage those levels according to workload in each part of the agency. We are continually assessing those needs and planning our hiring efforts accordingly. The agency is also launching an agency-wide initiative on workforce planning and succession management,’ Darwin, who also serves as EPA’s chief of operations, told Inside EPA in an Aug. 22 email statement. ‘We appreciate the contributions of our current employees and look forward to welcoming a new generation of talented and dedicated environmental professionals to EPA,’ the statement says. An agency spokesperson subsequently confirmed that the ‘agency-wide initiative’ Darwin described is separate from efforts to implement President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 13781 of March 2017, under which EPA and other agencies must craft plans on how to become more efficient. In his role as operations chief Darwin is also leading efforts to implement a ‘Lean’ management system to streamline the agency’s activities, and he did not comment on how that project fits with the workforce and succession initiative.” [Inside EPA, 8/23/18 (=)]

DOE

For Your Radar. According to Politico, “The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee favorably reported two Trump nominees for the Energy Department by voice vote Thursday: William Cooper to be general counsel and Lane Genatowski to be director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.” [Politico, 8/24/18 (=)]

2018 Elections

Blankenship Senate Appeal Set. According to Politico, “The West Virginia Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next week on former coal baron Don Blankenship’s ballot appeal in his third-party bid for the U.S. Senate, WV MetroNews reports. Blankenship, who spent a year in jail after an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine killed 29 of his workers, lost the Republican Party primary earlier this year to Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in the race for Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin ‘s seat. Following his loss, Blankenship announced he would run in the general election as the nominee of the Constitution Party, but was blocked by the secretary of state under West Virginia’s ‘sore loser’ law. Arguments appealing that decision will be heard at 10 a.m. Wednesday.” [Politico, 8/24/18 (=)]

Judiciary And Legal

Supreme Court

Collins Talked Chevron Doctrine With Kavanaugh. According to E&E News, “‘I asked him generally about deference to agency regulations, and we had a brief discussion on the Chevron doctrine,’ she said in a brief interview this morning. Collins — a moderate who supports abortion rights and climate action — is considered a key swing vote for Kavanaugh’s confirmation. She made waves earlier this week when she said Kavanaugh had given her assurances that the landmark abortion rights decision Roe v. Wade is ‘settled law,’ though she has not yet indicated how she will vote on his nomination. Chevron could be another potential point of policy difference. According to the doctrine, courts defer to reasonable agency interpretations when Congress has not weighed in on a topic. Agencies like EPA often win environmental law cases by citing Chevron. During arguments in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit over President Obama’s Clean Power Plan in 2016, Kavanaugh focused some of his questions on whether the regulation should be exempt from Chevron under the Supreme Court’s so-called major questions doctrine. The doctrine says that Chevron doesn't apply to major agency regulations that are economically, politically or socially significant.” [E&E News, 8/23/18 (=)]

Greens Push Border Wall Fight To Supreme Court. According to E&E News, “Environmentalists today made good on their pledge to bring the legal battle over President Trump’s border wall to the Supreme Court. The Animal Legal Defense Fund, Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity today filed a petition asking the high court to overturn a district court’s March decision upholding the administration’s plans for the wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. At issue in the case was the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to waive a variety of laws for border wall projects, including the construction of a 15-mile segment of prototype wall near San Diego. The waivers exempted construction activities from requirements under myriad environmental statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Solid Waste Disposal Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The Trump administration says it has authority to issue the waivers under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which was amended by the 2005 REAL ID Act. In March, Judge Gonzalo Curiel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California agreed with the administration.” [E&E News, 8/23/18 (=)]

CLIMATE ADVOCACY AND OTHER NEWS

Allies and Activism

Green Groups, Sanders Supporters Demand DNC End Fossil Fuel Donations. According to The Hill, “A group of environmentalists, Bernie Sanders supporters and progressives is urging the Democratic National Committee to reverse its decision to allow donations from the fossil fuel industry. In a letter Thursday, 20 groups and 1,000 petition signers told DNC Chairman Tom Perez that they were ‘alarmed and dismayed’ at the committee’s decision to reverse its prior stance that it would not accept donations from fossil fuel corporate PACs. Groups who signed the letter include Greenpeace, 350 Action and People for Bernie. ‘As you can surely understand, we were alarmed and dismayed to see the DNC reverse course after only two months,’ the letter read. ‘Taking a stand against the campaign contributions of fossil fuel executives, lobbyists, front-groups, and political action committees corrupting our democracy is a basic test of progressive leadership.’” [The Hill, 8/23/18 (=)]

Greens Urge DNC To Reject Fossil Fuel Donations. According to E&E News, “In a letter to Democratic National Committee chief Tom Perez, environmental groups and progressives urged the organization to walk back a policy change allowing donations from fossil fuel industries. Twenty groups and 1,000 people signed the document, slamming a recent move by the committee to accept fossil fuel dollars after banning them just months ago. The signees said they are ‘alarmed and dismayed.’ They include 350 Action, Climate Hawks Vote, the Center for American Progress Action and People for Bernie Sanders. ‘Taking a stand against the campaign contributions of fossil fuel executives, lobbyists, front-groups, and political action committees corrupting our democracy is a basic test of progressive leadership,’ the letter states. A measure passed on Aug. 13 reaffirmed party support for labor, including ‘fossil fuel workers,’ and said the DNC will continue to take contributions from ‘employers’ political action committees.’” [E&E News, 8/24/18 (=)]

Protesters Interrupt DNC Meeting After Ban On Fossil Fuel Money Reversed. According to The Hill, “Protesters briefly interrupted a meeting at the Democratic National Committee’s summer gathering after the party decided to allow donations from the fossil fuel industry and related political action committees. ‘We the people are ready to lead because our leaders are making it hard to breath. They care for oil, they care for greed, reject fossil fuel money dare to lead,’ the protestors chanted Thursday. ‘Cuz you can’t ever take away the people of the world standing here today. Cuz you can never take away the people of the world we are here to stay!’ they continued, before being ushered out of the conference hall. … ‘We have been engaging with folks in the labor movement to address their concerns,’ DNC Chairman Tom Perez said regarding the reversal. He continued, ‘At the same time, we remain committed to the Democratic Party platform, which states unequivocally our support for combating climate change.’” [The Hill, 8/23/18 (=)]

Earthjustice Sues Ky. Regulators For Plant Pollution Records. According to E&E News, “Earthjustice sued Kentucky’s environmental agency today to force the release of records related to a coal-fired power plant linked to contamination of a popular recreational lake. The lawsuit, filed in state court, alleges that the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet violated the state’s open records act by withholding more than 180 ‘responsive documents’ related to the E.W. Brown Generating Station ‘while refusing to identify the documents withheld or to explain the reasons for withholding them.’ Among other matters, the records in question pertain to the 749-megawatt plant’s permit to discharge pollutants into Herrington Lake, the facility’s coal ash landfill permit, and groundwater assessment and remediation activities, the complaint says. Following a series of requests from Earthjustice, the Cabinet released some records but held on to others without offering an adequate explanation for those decisions and in some cases failed to detail what was being withheld, the suit alleges. ‘It’s becoming clear that the Cabinet is willing to share only so much information about what’s going on at Herrington Lake and nothing more than that,’ Benjamin Locke, an Earthjustice attorney, said this morning.” [E&E News, 8/23/18 (=)]

A Mormon Elder Spoke About Warming. Is The Church Shifting? According to E&E News, “When Republican Utah state Rep. Becky Edwards was gathering support for her ‘changing climate’ resolution last year, she had unlikely visitors show up to her office: representatives from the Mormon church. They asked to see a draft, recalled Edwards, an active Mormon herself. ‘This is something that the church is really interested in,’ they told her. The resolution recognizes ‘the need for responsible stewardship’ and encourages the use of ‘sound science’ to understand the causes and impacts of local and regional climates. It passed the deeply red, and overwhelmingly Mormon, state Legislature and was signed by Gov. Gary Herbert (R). Some of the language was pulled directly from the church’s website. In the end, the Mormon church, with perhaps the most persuasive voice in Utah, didn’t sign on. Yet the exchange suggests the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints could slowly and quietly be changing its tune on climate change, according to church observers. It is one of the only major religions that has not formally declared that global warming poses problems for human beings. ‘I think the issue of the climate crisis has powerful moral overtones, and it is frustrating to me that the church does not address it or view it in those terms,’ said Dr. Brian Moench, an anesthesiologist and board president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment.” [E&E News, 8/24/18 (=)]

Opposition Groups

Op-Ed: Trump Ends War On American Coal. According to an op-ed by Stephen Moore in The Hill, “Here is the most important point of all. Let us assume for a moment that, God forbid, America were to shut down every coal plant on the continent and every coal miner in America were issued a pink slip. What impact would this have on global carbon emissions? Almost zero. This is because China and India, with their two billion people, are massively increasing their carbon emissions every year. For every coal plant we shutdown, China and India build at least five, and their coal is much dirtier than ours. In 2017 under Trump, the United States reduced our carbon emissions by 0.5 percent (even as our economy grew by 3 percent) while China and India belched out of their factories and cars record amounts of black smoke and added to their carbon footprint. America is already doing more than its part to clean the planet. We all want clean air and a safe environment. But that doesn’t have to come at the cost of destroying jobs and putting our entire economy at risk. Trump is proving is that economic growth, jobs and a cleaner environment are compatible, and he’s producing all three at once.” [The Hill, 8/23/18 (-)]

Industry and Finance

U.S. Wind Power Is ‘Going All Out’ With Bigger Tech, Falling Prices, Reports Show. According to Inside Climate News, “Wind power capacity has tripled across the United States in just the last decade as prices have plunged and the technology has become more muscular, the federal government’s energy labs report. Three new reports released Thursday on the state of U.S. wind power show how the industry is expanding onshore with bigger, more powerful turbines that make wind energy possible even in areas with lower wind speeds. Offshore, the reports describe a wind industry poised for a market breakthrough. … Some of the key findings: The country’s wind energy capacity has tripled since 2008, reaching 88,973 megawatts by the end of 2017. Wind contributed 6.3 percent of the nation’s energy supply last year. The average price of wind power sales agreements is now about 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, down from a high of 9 cents in 2009 and low enough to be competitive with natural gas in some areas. State renewable energy requirements once were the leading contributor to demand for new wind farms, but they were responsible for just 23 percent of new project capacity last year due to rising demand for clean energy from corporate customers, like Google and General Motors, and others. Offshore wind is going from almost nothing, with just five wind turbines and 30 megawatts of capacity off Rhode Island, to 1,906 megawatts” [Inside Climate News, 8/23/18 (+)]

Shell Oil Quietly Urges Lawmakers To Support Carbon Tax. According to E&E News, “Lobbyists for Shell Oil Co. told members of Congress this year that Shell supports a nationwide carbon tax and encouraged lawmakers to price greenhouse gas emissions, E&E News has learned. The company’s in-house lobbyists met with lawmakers in the Senate and the House, including Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), who introduced a carbon tax bill last month. In a lobbying disclosure form dated last month, Shell said its representatives had taken part in ‘discussions in support of a robust, transparent federal carbon price’ in the second quarter of the year. ‘We see carbon pricing as an essential policy tool to tackle climate change and pave the way for a smooth energy transition,’ a Shell spokesman said in a statement. ‘Shell has long supported a strong and stable government-led carbon pricing framework,’ the spokesman said. ‘It’s our view Government-led carbon pricing mechanisms are the lowest cost way to develop low carbon technologies for a low carbon economy.’” [E&E News, 8/24/18 (=)]

Wind Makes Record Strides, But Trouble Lies Ahead. According to E&E News, “Wind energy surged to provide 6.3 percent of electricity last year, but tax shifts and low natural gas prices could put a ‘damper’ on future growth, according to three reports released today by the Department of Energy. The sweeping reports from three national labs assess the status through 2017 of U.S. utility-scale wind, offshore wind and distributed wind. Helped by the production tax credit and declining costs, wind added more than 7,000 megawatts of new capacity last year, with 41 states operating utility-scale projects. Only solar and natural gas added more power. There were record levels of wind seeking connections to transmission lines. In four states, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and South Dakota, wind supplied more than 30 percent of power. Other successes for wind included commercial-scale projects being competitively selected in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.” [E&E News, 8/23/18 (=)]

Verizon Says Throttling Calif. Firefighters' Data Was Wrong. According to E&E News, "Verizon says it was a mistake to throttle a California fire department’s data during the state’s largest wildfire, rather than remove speed restrictions. Santa Clara County Fire Chief Anthony Bowden said Verizon slowed down an emergency vehicle’s connection, impeding its ability to respond to the disaster. Even after the department told Verizon it was fighting the Mendocino Complex Fire, Bowden said, the company did not move quickly to give the department back its wireless access after the firefighters exceeded their data plan. ‘Verizon representatives confirmed the throttling, but, rather than restoring us to an essential data transfer speed, they indicated that County Fire would have to switch to a new data plan at more than twice the cost, and they would only remove throttling after we contacted the Department that handles billing and switched to the new data plan,’ Bowden wrote. Verizon said yesterday that it should have followed its usual practice of removing data speed restrictions in an emergency" [E&E News, 8/23/18 (=)]

Industry Sees Big Opportunity, Challenges With Electrification. According to E&E News, “Electrification 2018 was organized by the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute and builds on the group’s national electrification assessment. It showed that electrifying more of the nation’s economy could, under certain scenarios, reduce total U.S. energy consumption by almost a third by 2050 and cut economywide greenhouse gas emissions by as much as two-thirds. EPRI President Mike Howard kicked off the meeting, noting that the importance of electricity, utilities and the grid would only grow as cars, trucks, space and water heating, and heavy equipment are converted to run on electrons. ‘The value of electricity 10 years from now and what it does to help all of us is going to be profound,’ he said. Perhaps no company has put forward a bolder plan to prove the concept than Southern California Edison, a utility that delivers power to 15 million people.” [E&E News, 8/24/18 (=)]

Research And Analysis

Resurgence Of Crippling Black Lung Disease Seen In U.S. Coal Miners. According to Reuters, “Since the 1990s, annual numbers of U.S. coal miners with new, confirmed cases of an advanced form of so-called black lung disease known as progressive massive fibrosis have been steadily rising, according to a new study. The resurgence is particularly strong among central Appalachian miners in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, the study authors note. ‘It’s an entirely preventable disease, and every case is an important representation of a failure to prevent this disease,’ said lead study author Kirsten Almberg of the University of Illinois at Chicago and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Morgantown, West Virginia. Progressive massive fibrosis is the most severe form of pneumoconiosis, which is also known as black lung disease and is caused by overexposure to coal mine dust. The symptoms are debilitating and can lead to respiratory distress.” [Reuters, 8/23/18 (=)]

For A Climate And Food Reporter In Alaska, A New Unease In The Air. According to The New York Times, “My grandparents came to Anchorage after the war. My parents grew up here and so did I. I never trick-or-treated without a snowsuit on. Now my kids, dressed as superheroes, run door to door on dry pavement. Rain keeps showing up in the wintertime. Snow, real snow, has begun to feel precious. My youngest son was 3 before we had enough at once to make a decent snow angel. Since I started writing about climate and wild food in Alaska four years ago, I must have collected 100 anecdotes about things that might be related to climate change. Small things. Practical inconveniences, mostly, and strange observations. There’s the whale meat stored in ice cellars, old-school refrigeration units cut into the Arctic permafrost generations ago, that tastes off now because the temperature has edged up. There are the people in rural villages, used to traveling by snowmobile on rivers while hunting in winter, who have fallen through the ice. I heard a story from a cabdriver in Fairbanks who lost an uncle that way. He was taking a route that his grandparents used to travel by dog sled. But now the ice won’t hold.” [The New York Times, 8/22/18 (+)]

Fine Particulate Matter Shaves Months Off Lives — Study. According to E&E News, “Air pollution is reducing life expectancies, according to a study published yesterday. Globally, outdoor air pollution cuts the average life expectancy short by one year. In the U.S., the reduction is just over four months, on average, for someone born now. Some countries have it worse. In Egypt, the average life span is cut short by 1.9 years at birth. In India, it’s 1.5 years. Joshua Apte, an engineering professor at the University of Texas, Austin, and lead author of the study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters, said the study used data from past research that calculated how much fine particulate matter was in the air. Fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, comes from truck tailpipes, coal-fired power plants and wildfires, among other sources. It’s ‘the single most important environmental pollutant for ill health and death,’ Apte said, and some major sources of fine particulate matter are also sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions would also improve public health, Apte said.” [E&E News, 8/23/18 (=)]

STATE AND LOCAL NEWS

Arizona

Tucson Electric Proceeding Lays Groundwork For Customer Solar+Storage Rate. According to Utility Dive, “Residential solar and storage advocates are waiting to learn about changes to incentives for new distributed resources customers in Southern Arizona. The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) could vote on ‘Phase 2’ proposals from Tucson Electric Power (TEP) and its sister-utility UniSource Energy Services (UES) for new rooftop solar as soon as their open meeting in September. The commissioners could also incorporate an administrative law judge order from April, which recommended a special rate proposal for solar customers with home battery storage systems. The recommendation, flagged once more by the Arizona Daily Star, was proposed by solar-industry groups and is similar to Arizona Public Service’s (APS) pilot rate plan for behind-the-meter load controllers such as batteries.” [Utility Dive, 8/22/18 (=)]

Illinois

Editorial: States' Rights To Pollute. According to The News-Gazette, “Air pollution doesn’t stop at state lines. Utility companies are turning away from coal-burning power plants — according to the Sierra Club, 270 coal plants have been closed since 1970 and 260 remain open — and turning to cheaper, cleaner energy sources such as natural gas, wind and solar power. Yet the Trump administration wants to turn back the clock and allow states to set their own air pollution regulations. A handful of states, including Illinois, already are meeting aggressive Obama-era guidelines for lower carbon-dioxide emissions and cleaner air by 2030, according to the Chicago Tribune. Others are headed there. The eight remaining privately owned coal-burning power plants in Illinois could easily be closed by 2025 without adversely affecting the Midwestern electricity supply, according to a study by Vibrant Clean Energy. Illinoisans would benefit, the study said, with lower electricity prices and cleaner air.” [The News-Gazette, 8/23/18 (+)]

Kentucky

Kentuckians Respond To Trump Administration Proposal On Coal Regulations. According to WKYT, “The Trump administration is making changes that will directly impact Kentuckians, proposing to roll back some of the Obama-era coal regulations. ‘It’s a way of life,’ Tyler White, president of the Kentucky Coal Association, said. ‘It’s given our state the opportunity to provide for its people.’ The longtime source of energy has also become a source of controversy. ‘We’ve seen coal production in Kentucky drastically decline over the past decade. For instance, we were mining about 121 million tons of coal in 2008 and today we’re around the 41, 42 million ton,’ he said. ‘I think this is something even Kentuckians don’t know, but about 80 percent of the power in Kentucky is produced by coal. And, that really gives us a competitive advantage, economically speaking, when recruiting in businesses because of our low, affordable energy prices. We have some of the lowest rates in the nation.’” [WKYT, 8/21/18 (=)]

Maryland

Officials: Swath Of Flood-Prone Maryland Town Must Be Razed. According to Associated Press, “Moving to safeguard the public after raging floodwaters engulfed a Maryland town’s main street twice in two years, authorities have announced a plan to demolish roughly 5 percent of the buildings in the flood-prone historic district. Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman delivered the broad outlines of a roughly $50 million five-year flood mitigation plan Thursday at a news conference in Ellicott City’s historic center. It calls for tearing down 10 ravaged properties on the hard-hit lower half of the former mill town’s once-picturesque main street. That move will expand the flood plain for the next time waterways burst their banks — a sure thing as more intense rainstorms bear down due to climate change impacts. ‘I wish we weren’t here. But this is a change we need,’ said Kittleman, adding that some residential properties further up the hill will also need to be bulldozed to increase the size of culverts flowing into the district, about 13 miles (20 kilometers) west of Baltimore. … ‘We don’t want to lose another life because of catastrophic flooding here in town. We don’t want Ellicott City’s residents or businesses or visitors to be put at risk or fear every rain storm,’ he said.” [Associated Press, 8/23/18 (=)]

Michigan

Michigan Utilities Moving Forward Despite Rollback Of Clean Power Plan. According to WHMI, “The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it’s loosening rules on emissions from coal-fired power plants, rolling back the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan. The new rules would largely allow states to regulate emissions. In Michigan, it’s unclear whether utilities or the Department of Environmental Quality would seek less stringent air-pollution controls for state’s 15 coal-fired power plants. Regardless, Pete Ternes with D-T-E Energy says his company plans to close all of its coal plants by 2040 and is sticking with its plans to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions significantly. ‘DTE Energy is still on track to reduce its carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, and we’re also setting a goal of reducing our methane emissions from our natural-gas utility operations by 80 percent by 2040.’ The Monroe Power Plant, pictured here, opened in 1974 and is just one such coal-burning facility in Michigan set to close by 2040. Consumers Energy has also announced plans to shutter all of its coal-fired plants by 2040, a decision it has said is primarily driven by the cost of upkeep on aging plants and the rising affordability of natural gas and renewable energy.” [WHMI, 8/23/18 (=)]

Coal Power Plant In Grand Haven Could Close Permanently. According to MLive, “Officials in Grand Haven are considering the permanent closure of the city-owned, coal-fired J.B. Sims power plant by 2020, a move that would require city leaders to find a new way to supply electricity to residents. The cost of general maintenance and plant operations outweighs the benefit of having electricity generated by a municipal plant, the city’s Board of Light and Power has told the Grand Haven City Council. City staff is looking into potential new energy options as the city council weighs whether to shut down and dismantle the plant or keep it open, said City Manager Pat McGinnis. The Sims plant has reached the end of its useful life and would need an investment of $35 million to continue safe and reliable operation, according to a life assessment report drafted by engineering firm Black & Veatch.” [MLive, 8/22/18 (=)]

Montana

Op-Ed: Ignoring Climate Change Puts Public At Risk. According to an op-ed by Karin Kirk in Montana Standard, “As Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke toured California’s largest wildfire on record, he proclaimed that fires have ‘nothing to do with climate change.’ A few days later, Zinke walked the statement backward. When asked if he thought climate change was contributing to the fires, he responded, ‘of course.’ But that same day, Zinke flipped again, this time going so far as to doubt that human activities are affecting the climate. ‘There’s no dispute that the climate is changing…’ he said. ‘Whether man is the direct result, how much that result is, that’s still being disputed.’ I can appreciate that climate change has become a contentious topic, and clearly, Mr. Zinke is attempting to balance scientific reality with party ideology. But let’s be clear: there is no legitimate dispute that humans are affecting the climate. The only place that idea remains ‘in dispute’ is in political circles. Scientists have been in agreement on this subject for decades. As the symptoms of climate change come home to roost, it has become ever more dangerous to ignore. Wildfires offer a clear example of how dismissing the effects of climate change put us all at risk.” [Montana Standard, 8/23/18 (+)]

New Mexico

PNM Looks To Join CAISO Energy Imbalance Market. According to Utility Dive, “Public Service Co. of New Mexico (PNM), the largest utility in its state, has applied to join California’s Western Energy Imbalance Market beginning 2021, the Associated Press reports. If its membership is approved by state regulators, PNM would join several other utilities preparing to enter the market, including Salt River Project, Seattle City Light, and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in 2020. The balancing authority of Northern California and Sacramento Municipal Utility District are set to begin participating in April 2019. The California ISO’s EIM currently has eight participants serving more than 42 million consumers. The grid operator says the market has generated more than $400 million in benefits for members since it launched in 2014.” [Utility Dive, 8/23/18 (=)]

New Jersey

Climate Change Has Already Hit Home Prices, Led By Jersey Shore. According to Bloomberg, “Sea-level rise is already hitting home prices along the Atlantic Coast, new data shows -- and nowhere harder than the tiny New Jersey town of Ocean City. Between 2005 and 2017, increased tidal flooding erased $14.1 billion in relative home values across eight states, according to research by First Street Foundation, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that seeks to quantify the effects of climate change on coastal communities. The group found that 820,000 homes are now worth less than they would have been otherwise, including 75,000 homes in New York State and 15,000 in Connecticut. When First Street broke those impacts down by zip code, the most concentrated losses turned up in small New Jersey towns. Ocean City, New Jersey, with just 11,000 residents, has lost $530 million in potential increases in property value since 2005. The state where climate change has hurt home prices the most is Florida, where rising seas and flooding wiped out $5.4 billion in relative value. First Street reached those conclusions by comparing historical transactions of homes exposed to tidal flooding with like properties in similarly valued areas elsewhere, controlling for lot size and other variables to isolate the difference in price appreciation related to tidal flood risk. The model underlying their findings was published in a peer-reviewed paper in the journal Population Research and Policy Review.” [Bloomberg, 8/23/18 (+)]

New York

Stefanik Opposes Clean Power Plan Rollback. According to The Post Star, “After Environmental Protection Agency Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler signed the Affordable Clean Energy rule, which replaces the Obama-era Clean Power Plan in hopes of jump-starting coal-fired power plants, U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik wrote in a Facebook post that she opposes the regulatory rollback. ‘This rollback will have a detrimental impact on the significant progress we have made in combating the impacts of acid rain in the Adirondacks,’ Stefanik wrote, specifically naming President Donald Trump’s administration. ‘Today’s administrative action highlights why these important issues should be legislated through Congress and not written by regulatory agencies.’ The Clean Power Plan set greenhouse gas emission targets to discourage high carbon-emitting power sources — like coal. The Affordable Clean Energy rule, on the other hand, lets states create their own regulations for power plants. This allows states to essentially bypass the Clean Air Act’s ‘good neighbor’ provision, which requires the EPA to stop smog emitted in one state from causing harm to residents of another state.” [The Post Star, 8/22/18 (+)]

Ohio

While Trump Touts Coal, Cleveland Gathering Tackles Energy Efficiency. According to Midwest Energy News, “On the same day President Trump praised coal at a rally in West Virginia, the three-day Energy Exchange and Better Buildings Summit commenced next door in Ohio. The program brought together nearly 3,000 attendees, including officials from the Department of Energy, working to increase energy efficiency and other clean energy options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Resilience, savings and security were the watchwords at the keynote session on August 22, which featured energy efficiency success stories from DOE’s ongoing Better Buildings Challenge. ‘For me, energy efficiency is like this amazing Swiss army knife of clean energy,’ said Jason Hartke, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, based in Washington, D.C.” [Midwest Energy News, 8/24/18 (=)]

Wisconsin

Oak Creek Residents Self-Fund Power Plant Air Monitors. According to Oak Creek Patch, “The Clean Power Coalition of Southeast Wisconsin says they’re stepping up air quality monitoring outside the WE Energies coal-fire power plant that will provide air quality data real-time. The coalition says that residents and like-minded people raised $2,000 for independent air monitoring through a GoFundMe campaign earlier this summer. The coalition says it used the funds to purchase the monitors and has distributed them to residents with homes in a variety of locations within a three-mile radius of the plants. The Clean Power Coalition says that seven PurpleAir monitors will be deployed in the vicinity of the Oak Creek power plants. Officials say families who live near We Energies’ coal-fired Oak Creek power plants, some of whom have asthma and other respiratory illnesses, have been expressing concerns for years about exposure to coal dust. Residents have continued to find new coal dust on their homes and properties throughout the spring and summer, and We Energies has yet to install the new air monitor they promised to residents back in the spring, officials say.” [Oak Creek Patch, 8/22/18 (=)]