Overnight Energy: Probe of Colorado mine spill blames EPA

SPILL WAS PREVENTABLE: Federal experts concluded in a Thursday report that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could have prevented the August mine waste spill in Colorado.

The report, by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation, focuses on the engineering and technical aspects behind the spill at the Gold King Mine.

It found that the EPA and its partners decided against drilling a key borehole into the mine that could have indicated the volume and pressure of the wastewater.

{mosads}”This error resulted in development of a plan to open the mine in a manner that appeared to guard against blowout, but instead led directly to the failure,” the report said.

It contrasts with the EPA’s report that found that the spill was “likely inevitable.”

But nonetheless, Interior concluded that based on the engineering of the plug holding back the wastewater, “eventually, even if no action had been taken, it may have failed on its own.”

Read more here. 

FRIDAY IS CLEAN POWER PLAN ZERO HOUR: The Obama administration will formally publish the EPA’s climate rule for power plants in the Federal Register on Friday, a move that will spark litigation over the new regulation.

Since the Obama administration finalized the Clean Power Plan in August, states, utilities and commodity groups have been prepping their lawsuits over the rule. A group of state attorneys general sued the Obama administration over the rule in August, but a federal judge rebuffed their efforts to block it early.

The states, led by Patrick Morrisey of coal-producing West Virginia, have often challenged the EPA’s authority to issue the rule under the Clean Air Act, an effort that goes back nearly as far as the release of the proposed rule last year.

“With this rule, the EPA is attempting to transform itself from an environmental regulator to a central planning agency for states’ energy economies,” Morrisey said after the August unveiling of the final rule.

“The Clean Air Act was never intended to be used to create this type of regulatory regime, and it flies in the face of the powers granted to states under the U.S. Constitution.”

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said Thursday that the agency “has, frankly, never had a better relationship, and more open, with the states.” That theory will be tested once the Clean Power Plan hits the Federal Register on Friday.

Read more here. 

NEWS BITE: 

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates met with a group of Republican senators Thursday to discuss clean energy innovation. 

Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) office sent out a picture of the meeting, during which Gates, Murkowski and four other Republicans talked about ways to bring down energy costs and make it more reliable.

“I’m proud of the measures the energy committee has already reported to support energy innovation — and as I told Mr. Gates today, this will remain a focal point of my efforts to modernize our nation’s energy policies,” Murkowski said in a statement. 

Gates said in July he would invest $1 billion in clean energy systems over the next five years. 

“By creating the right environment for clean energy innovation, we can accelerate the pace of progress, develop and deploy new solutions, and eventually provide everyone with reliable, affordable energy that is carbon free,” he said in a Thursday statement.

AROUND THE WEB:

Federal regulators approved an operating license for the Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor in Tennessee, setting it up to be the first new American nuclear reactor in two decades, Power Magazine reports. 

Chinese environmental officials are accusing Coca-Cola of fabricating pollution data at a bottling plant, the Economic Times reports.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) is concerned about the safety of routing oil trains through downtown Minneapolis, the Star Tribune reports. 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 

Check out Thursday’s stories …

-House approves bill to speed up mineral mining 
-Federal probe: EPA mine spill was preventable 
-Popcorn company phasing out bee-killing pesticides 
-Lumber Liquidators pleads guilty to illegal imports 
-EPA: Climate rule on ‘sound legal and technical foundation’ 
-Dem compares climate deniers to tobacco execs 
-EPA head: Relationship with states never better 
-Sanders: GOP thinks climate change isn’t real because of Kochs 
-Obama to publish climate change rule, sparking legal fight

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