Overnight Energy: Senate spending bill takes aim at EPA rules

REPUBLICANS AREN’T DONE WITH THE EPA: Senate Republicans are looking to block Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules through the spending process.

The Senate’s 2017 Interior and environment spending bill provides $32 billion to the EPA and Interior Department programs — about $1 billion less than President Obama requested in his budget and slightly less than what House Republicans are aiming for.

{mosads}It also includes a handful of policy riders designed to block environmental regulations, and it cuts funding for enforcing those rules currently on hold in the courts system, the “areas where the EPA has clearly overstepped its bounds,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said during a subcommittee hearing on Tuesday.

The bill blocks the EPA’s Clean Water Rule — also known as the “Waters of the United States” rule — as well as some mining regulations. It trims the EPA’s $8.1 billion budget by $31.2 million, but Republicans noted it maintains or increases spending for agency clean drinking water programs.

Democrats indicated Tuesday they will oppose the bill.

“In many ways I feel like it’s deja vu all over again and it’s very frustrating,” Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) said.

“Democrats have been clear — the White House has been clear — we are not prepared to gut environmental laws to get spending bills passed.”

Read more here.

TOP SENATOR SLAMS OBAMA ENERGY TAX POLICY: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on Tuesday blasted the Obama administration’s stance on energy policy, saying the White House is focused on punishing the production and use of fossil fuels.

“Whether it’s an increased per-barrel tax on oil production or higher per-gallon taxes charged on gasoline at the pump, the Obama Administration seems intent on raising the cost of producing or consuming energy from fossil fuels, even if it means increased hardships on middle-class and lower income families,” Hatch said at a Finance Committee hearing on energy tax policy.

Hatch said he supports an “all-of-the-above approach” to energy policy and supports promoting alternative energy sources. However, he does not think the cost of existing energy sources should be raised to increase the appeal of alternative energy sources.

The committee chairman said that the $10 per barrel oil tax that Obama proposed in his fiscal 2017 budget has been criticized by economists because it would lead to higher energy prices for families and hurt manufacturers.

Hatch also criticized Democrats’ carbon tax proposals, saying they would provide Americans with “higher taxes in the form of increased energy costs and reduced wages, relative to the cost of living.”

Read more here.

FIRST NEW U.S. NUCLEAR REACTOR IN 20 YEARS: The Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Tuesday highlighted the opening of the Watts Bar 2 reactor in Tennessee, which became the first new nuclear reactor to connect to the power grid in the U.S. since 1996 when it went online on June 3.

The new reactor will eventually add 1,150 megawatts of electricity generation capacity at the power plant. It is the first new reactor to meet Nuclear Regulatory Commission standards approved after the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011.

Construction on the reactor began in 1973 but was put on hold in 1985. Work restarted in 2007, and the reactor was completed last year at a cost of $4.7 billion.

Four other nuclear reactors are under construction and could join the fleet within the next four years.

Read more here.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY I: The House Appropriations Committee will mark up its 2017 Interior and EPA spending bill. The $32.1 billion bill would cut $64 million from current spending levels for the Interior Department, EPA and other programs, and includes a handful of controversial policy riders .

ON TAP WEDNESDAY II: The House Natural Resources Committee will continue considering 19 bills. A list can be found here.

Rest of Wednesday’s agenda …

A Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee panel will meet to discuss several National Parks bills.

A House Science Committee panel will hold a hearing on “innovation in solar fuels, electricity storage, and advanced materials.”

AROUND THE WEB:

Climate change has claimed its first mammal victim: the Bramble Cay melomys, a rodent that lived on an island off the coast of Australia, has gone extinct, National Geographic reports.

More coal layoffs in Wyoming: the state’s Buckskin Mine will shed 45 jobs, the Casper Star-Tribune reports.

Activists are pressuring the UK government to release a major — and so far secret — report on the impacts of hydraulic fracturing, The Guardian reports.  

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Tuesday’s stories…

-UN climate agency: 2016 weather records a ’cause for alarm’
-Hatch blasts Obama on energy tax policy
-Senate spending bill trims EPA spending, blocks regs
-Forest Service ‘deeply concerned’ about Minnesota mining project

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