Overnight Energy: Trump’s EPA pick faces Congress | 2016 is hottest year on record

PRUITT IN THE HOT SEAT: Scott Pruitt, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), faced more than six hours of questioning Wednesday at a confirmation hearing that often turned tense.

Pruitt, a Republican and Oklahoma’s current attorney general, sought to frame his vision for the EPA as one that lets states take the front seat more often, and works more cooperatively with states than it has under President Obama.

“Cooperative federalism is at the heart of many environmental statutes passed by this body,” Pruitt said to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “The reason for that is it’s the states that have the resources, the expertise and the understanding of the unique challenges facing the environment.”

{mosads}Democrats focused their objections to Pruitt on a number of areas, like what he believes regarding climate change and his ties to the oil and natural gas industry.

Pruitt said early on that he does not believe climate change is a hoax, a contrast with President-elect Donald Trump.

“Science tells us that the climate is changing, and that human activity, in some manner, impacts that change,” Pruitt said.

“The ability to measure with precision the degree and extent of that impact, and what to do about it, are subject to continuing debate and dialogue, and well it should be,” Pruitt said.

But some Democrats, like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), didn’t like that answer, saying that the overwhelming scientific consensus says humans are the primary cause and the country must take bold action to stop greenhouse gas emissions.

Pruitt’s industry ties were another frequent topic of conversation.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) brought up a letter he sent to the EPA that came from an oil company.

“How can you present that as representing the people of Oklahoma when you only consulted with an oil company,” he asked.

Read more about Pruitt’s hearing here, and Sanders’ questioning of him here.

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The federal government made it official Wednesday: 2016 was the hottest year on record.

It’s the third year in a row of new records, the first time that has happened since the 1930s, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said.

The release came late Wednesday morning, right in the middle of Scott Pruitt’s EPA confirmation hearing.

“This was the warmest year of NASA records by about 1.2 degrees Celsius, compared to the last year, which was 2015, which was the record warmest year then, and then 2014, which was the record warmest year then,” Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told reporters in a conference call Wednesday.

But federal officials emphasized that a decades-long trend of rising temperatures is the important take-away from the data.

“The main take-home result here is that the trends that we’ve been seeing since the 1970s are continuing and have not paused in any way,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt and Deke Arndt, the top climate monitor at NOAA, said there’s little doubt that human activity is almost completely responsible for the warming trend.

Read more here.

DAKOTA ACCESS REVIEW MOVING FORWARD: A federal judge on Wednesday allowed a potentially lengthy environmental impact assessment of the Dakota Access Pipeline to move forward.

Energy Transfer Partners had urged the judge to block an Environmental Impact Statement review of the pipeline while its lawsuit over the pipeline moves forward.

The judge denied the request after a hearing on Wednesday morning.

The Army Corps of Engineers began the process of assessing the pipeline’s impact on the environment in North Dakota this week, a study that could take years to finish.  

When Obama administration officials in December said they would not issue an easement to construct a crucial stretch of the project, they said they would instead conduct an assessment of the pipeline’s impact on North Dakota’s Lake Oahe.

Dakota Access supporters slammed that decision and instead said the government should issue the easement allowing construction, one of the last steps needed to complete the $3.8 billion project.

Read more here.

ON TAP THURSDAY: Rick Perry takes his turn in the spotlight.

Perry, the former Texas governor who is Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Energy, will testify at his confirmation hearing before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday morning.

Perry’s nomination is not considered to be too controversial. Even so, he’s likely to face questions about how he will oversee the nation’s nuclear arsenal, the Energy Department’s biggest responsibility. And he will face Democratic inquires about the science behind climate change, DOE’s clean energy research and a Trump team questionnaire seeking names of agency employees involved in climate work.

He will likely face some ribbing — potentially both light-hearted and probing — about his infamous 2011 gaffe in which he forgot to name the Energy Department as the third of three federal agencies he would abolish as president.

Follow along with the proceedings at The Hill.  

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Wednesday’s stories…

-Judge rules Dakota Access study can move forward
-Sanders slams Pruitt’s call for ‘more debate’ on climate science
-States sue to block last-minute Obama environmental rule
-Earth sets temperature record for third straight year
-Pruitt: Human role in climate change ‘subject to continuing debate‘
-Pruitt says his EPA will work with the states
-Senators introduce dueling miners bills

Please send tips and comments to Timothy Cama, tcama@digital-staging.thehill.com; and Devin Henry, dhenry@digital-staging.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @Timothy_Cama, @dhenry, @thehill