OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Dems press Trump consumer safety nominee on chemical issues | Lawmakers weigh how to help struggling energy industry | 180 Democrats ask House leadership for clean energy assistance

by Rachel Frazin - 06/16/20 6:11 PM ET

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TOUGH QUESTIONS: Democrats on Tuesday scrutinized President Trump’s pick to lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) over actions she has taken on chemical issues during her work in the Trump administration.

Several Democratic senators questioned and criticized Nancy Beck, who has served in a top role at the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, on decisions she made at the agency and during a subsequent White House detail.

Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) focused on the agency’s regulation of methylene chloride, a chemical used in areas such as paint stripping and pharmaceutical manufacturing that has been linked to cancer.

Udall questioned why senators should trust Beck, and referenced the story of a woman named Wendy Hartley, whose 21-year-old son died after using the chemical.

“Wendy’s son Kevin lost his life using a dangerous chemical in paint strippers, methylene chloride, while you stalled the effort to remove this chemical from store shelves,” he said.

Beck said her “heart goes out” to the families and noted that there is currently a ban on consumer sales of the substance, saying she is “confident” the ban will prevent “acute fatalities.”

“It is unacceptable that it took two years and a lawsuit for you to finalize this regulation and you still managed to put out a less protective rule which allows the use of methylene chloride in paint strippers for commercial use by workers,” Udall said, later adding, “had you and the EPA not delayed banning methylene chloride, Kevin would still be alive today.”

“Your entire career has been less like a toxicologist conducting rigorous, unbiased science and more like a defense attorney zealously defending guilty chemical clients,” the senator added.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) asked Beck whether she was involved in a White House decision to direct the EPA to remove information about cardiac birth defects from risks listed for a chemical called TCE, which has been used as a grease remover.

Beck responded that the lead agency, in this case the EPA, “[had] the pen,” meaning it made the ultimate decision. She declined to answer Cantwell’s question about her involvement or whether she advocated for removing the information about the birth defects.

“What you’re asking for is deliberative information,” Beck said, giving that as her reason for not responding to the questions.

Cantwell and other senators, including Republican Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) also questioned Beck on her role in regulating a class of cancer-linked chemicals called PFAS, which can be found in a variety of household products as well as firefighting foam.

Beck has a background in the chemical industry, having worked at the American Chemistry Council, which represents many chemical companies, before joining the Trump administration in 2017.

Read more about her nomination hearing here.

ENERGIZED ABOUT ENERGY: Lawmakers in both chambers are looking for ways to assist the energy industry as the economic fallout hits fossil fuels and renewables alike.

Oil demand has plunged amid stay-at-home orders and concerns over travel. The renewable energy industry has lost about 600,000 jobs as the economy falters.

A suite of high-ranking officials and major industry groups appeared before committees in both the House and Senate Tuesday to discuss the issue.

“Put simply, the COVID-19 pandemic has created the biggest shock to global energy systems since at least World War II,” David Turk, acting deputy executive director at the International Energy Agency (IEA), told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

IEA estimates global energy demand will fall 6 percent this year — the equivalent of losing all of the demand from India. In the U.S. the organization predicts a 9 percent drop in energy demand.

That drop is being felt different across the industry. Oil demand is expected to drop 8 percent globally while electricity demand is forecast to fall 5 percent.

“Renewables have been the most resilient of all the fuels so far, and the only energy source that we expect to grow in 2020. Although I should say at much lower levels than we forecast before the crisis,” Turk said.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are looking to future stimulus bills as a way to boost the industry, even though earlier efforts for measures preferred by each party were not included.

Democrats failed to get tax credits for renewables included in any of the bills, and Republicans didn’t secure funding requested by President Trump to buy oil to fill the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

But as future packages consider a broader array of impacts of the virus, more specific assistance for industries could fare better.

Industry groups and officials have conflicting ideas, however, about how to move forward.

“The energy sector has stuffed acutely and uniquely,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), adding that her energy bill, which would spur investment in research and development across the sector, was “ready made for action.”

In the absence of a federal bill, agencies have taken their own measures to offer relief to industries, most notably an Environmental Protection Agency memo lifting mandates for businesses to monitor their pollution and a move from the Federal Reserve Board changing its requirements to open financing to the oil and gas industry.

Some have called for Congress to pursue additional similar efforts.

“I think more temporary relief, both regulatory and royalty relief, for energy producers is needed,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said, suggesting cutting government rates companies pay to extract oil on public lands.

Democrats, however, have pitched a bigger-picture remake of the industry, gearing more towards renewables.

“We will need millions of new jobs in order to climb out of the COVID-19-induced economic hole and most likely additional, extraordinary actions by the federal government,” former Obama administration Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

“Given the demonstrated track record of the energy sector in having considerable leverage for job creation, major investments now in the clean energy transition, and any further stimulus and appropriations, should have a high priority,” Moniz said.

YOU’VE GOT MAIL:

Keeping Clean… A group of 180 Democratic lawmakers penned a letter to House leadership asking for congressional action to help the “decimated” clean energy sector, which has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic.

A vast majority of the chamber’s Democratic delegation wrote to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) asking specifically for tax credits to be received as direct payments and a delay to a phase-down of renewable energy tax incentives.

“The current crisis has decimated the clean energy industry,” they wrote, citing analysis from last month that found nearly 600,000 clean energy jobs had been lost since the pandemic began. “Clean energy jobs are being lost at a rate faster than the national average, revealing COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on this vulnerable industry.”

“Investments in clean energy pay back dividends because of the breadth and geography that are impacted – either job losses will devastate the communities we represent, or economic relief for this sector will help them weather this crisis,” continued the letter, which was led by Reps. Reps. Mike Levin (D-Calif.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), and Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.).

The letter follows the House passage last month of a coronavirus stimulus package that did not include specific assistance for the sector, something that was criticized by environmentalists.