Overnight Energy: Trump slams California over water, fire management | Trump could formally tap Wheeler to lead EPA | Canada outlines carbon tax plans
TRUMP ATTACKS CALIFORNIA OVER WATER: President Trump on Tuesday lobbed a number of attacks at California over the state’s water practices and fire management, going as far as threatening to withhold future federal aid.
Speaking at an address to the White House State Leadership Day Conference, Trump warned California to “get on the ball” with how it manages its forests and regulates water releases from its dams, insinuating that both practices are responsible for a number of the state’s devastating forest fires.
“They have lousy management,” Trump said.
{mosads}”This is a seriously defective thing there. I thought they had a drought. I didn’t realize. They said ‘no, we have so much water we don’t know what to do with it.’ Then you have all the forest fires. We have so much water they could actually water some of it.”
As of Tuesday, about 48 percent of California’s land — where about 63 percent of the state’s population lives — was experiencing drought, according to the federal government’s National Integrated Drought Information System.
Trump also threatened to withhold federal aid from the state as a result of future fires.
“We’re tired of giving California hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars all the time for their forest fires when you wouldn’t have them if they manage their forests properly,” he said.
What’s behind it: The debate at the heart of Trump’s comments rages over the designation of waters from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California’s Central Valley. The water is pumped to 25 million people in Southern California and the Bay Area a well as 3 million acres of farmland in the San Joaquin Valley.
But an endangered fish species called the Delta smelt also resides in the waters. Environmentalists warn their numbers are getting lower and scientists argue the best way to save the species is by letting the water flow directly to the Pacific Ocean.
Trump’s memorandum was hailed by a number of Republican leaders in California’s farm heavy Central Valley, including Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif), a longtime Trump supporter who first told him of the battle between environmentalists and farmers over the future of water in the state during Trump’s presidential campaign.
“I saw it on the campaign trail and I saw it numerous times when I was out in that area
I look at these incredible, beautiful fields, and they’re dry, like dry as a bone,” Trump said Tuesday of his previous visit to the region.
Will Wheeler drop the ‘acting’?: Trump indicated Tuesday that he might seek to make acting Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Andrew Wheeler the agency’s head on a formal basis.
“He’s acting, but he’s doing well, right? So maybe he won’t be so acting so long,” Trump said when calling Wheeler up to the stage at the State Leadership Day Conference.
“Especially if he gets this done,” he said, going on to explain an issue that a Texas port has had in getting permits to dredge their port facilities.
Wheeler is limited to 210 days as acting EPA administrator. But a legal provision that applies specifically to EPA might give him the ability to stay in the position longer if needed.
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CANADA OUTLINES CARBON TAXES FOR PROVINCES WITHOUT CLIMATE POLICIES: Canada’s federal government announced Tuesday it will impose a carbon tax in provinces that don’t impose their own carbon pricing policies, though taxpayers will get money back.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the plan in Toronto, promising about C$300 ($229 USD) a year for the average household in Ontario, where the conservative government is resisting the plan, CBC News reported.
In rolling out the plan, Trudeau emphasized the predicted consequences of climate change, implicitly accusing opponents of a plan to tax carbon dioxide emissions of denying those consequences.
“The problem exists because your political leaders have done far too little about this. Will we kick this can down the road yet again? Or will we show some courage to do what needs to be done,” he asked, according to CBC.
“Starting next year, it will no longer be free to pollute anywhere in Canada. And we’re also going to help Canadians adjust to this new reality.”
TRUMP PICKS FORMER MONSANTO OFFICIAL TO LEAD WILDLIFE SERVICE: Trump plans to nominate a former Monsanto executive to a top position in the Department of the Interior, the White House announced late Monday.
Trump will nominate Aurelia Skipwith to be the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). She is currently the deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, a position she was appointed to last year. In that role, she is responsible for the protection of lands and water in national parks and the wildlife refuge system.
Skipwith is a biologist and lawyer who spent more than six years at agriculture giant Monsanto. She joined the Department of Agriculture in 2013.
As head of FWS, Skipwith would be responsible for areas like the Trump administration’s policies for importing trophies from elephant hunts, the nation’s more than 560 refuges and the administration’s efforts to make Endangered Species Act enforcement better for industry. The FWS said last week that it plans to finalize those changes in November.
Skipwith said in a statement that she’s honored to be picked.
“During the past 18 months as deputy assistant secretary, I have had the distinction to work with dedicated people of the service to ensure the implementation of this administration’s and Secretary Zinke’s policies to protect our species, increase public access, and ensure science is at forefront of our decisions,” she said in a statement. “If confirmed, I look forward to the opportunity to lead the service in achieving a conservation legacy second only to President Teddy Roosevelt.”
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Skipwith is a “passionate conservationist,” and would be an “incredible” FWS director.
“She has helped lead some of my top priorities for getting more people to enjoy our public lands, like expanding access for hunting and fishing, recognizing National Urban Refuge Day, and designating sites on the African American Civil Rights Network,” he said.
OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY:
HP and Ikea are making new pledges to use ocean plastics in their supply chains, Bloomberg Environment reports.
Christopher Faulkner, known widely as the “Frack Master,” pleaded guilty to securities fraud, tax evasion and money laundering as part of an $80 million oil and gas scam, the Dallas Morning News reports.
Crude oil prices fell to $66.43 per barrel Tuesday, their biggest loss in three months, CNBC reports.
FROM THE HILL’S OPINION SECTION:
Jim Talent, a former Republican senator from Missouri, says the crisis over journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s alleged murder by Saudi Arabia shows how important it is that the United States not be addicted to Middle Eastern oil.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Check out Tuesday’s stories …
– Trump indicates he might formally tap Wheeler to lead EPA
– Trump attacks California over water, fire management
– Court upholds ban on Mexican seafood imports tied to harming endangered porpoise
– Canada to levy carbon tax if provinces don’t
– Judge cuts award in Monsanto weed-killer cancer case to $78M
– Trump to nominate former Monsanto exec to top Interior position
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