Overnight Energy: White House sees ‘momentum’ toward climate deal

PARIS DEAL IN THE WORKS: The Obama administration struck an optimistic tone Wednesday about the Paris climate change talks.

Press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that the White House sees growing evidence that negotiators will reach a deal that Obama supports.

“There is still a lot of work to be done but momentum is moving in the right direction,” Earnest said.

{mosads}But to meet the self-imposed Friday deadline for the deal, Earnest predicted many “sleepless nights” in the coming days.

Earlier Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry announced a plan to double climate aide to poor countries from the United States.

“We will not leave the most vulnerable nations among us to, quite literally, weather the storm alone,” Kerry said in Paris.

Under the plan, the United States will spend about $860 million a year toward climate grants for developing countries by 2020.

His speech came the same day that negotiators released their latest working draft of the agreement, which leaders believe can be made final by Friday.

But House Democrats and Republicans decided to scuttle plans Wednesday to drop into the talks later this week, citing the ongoing negotiations for a government spending bill and the prospect for congressional work over the weekend, though that has now faded.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had been planning to bring some Democrats to Paris, and Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) would have brought Republicans.

But Congress isn’t being left completely out of the Paris talks, since 10 Senate Democrats visited last weekend.

Read more here, here and here.

JEWELL IN THE HOT SEAT: Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on Wednesday defended her agency’s investigation into an Environmental Protection Agency mine waste spill earlier this year.

Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee peppered Jewell with questions about the integrity of the study and the unbiased nature of the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), which both conducted the investigation and helped the EPA undertake a clean-up mission at Colorado’s Gold King Mine.

“BOR went from being a technical consultant back to an investigator then back to a technical consultant in a matter of days,” Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) said during a committee hearing on Wednesday.

“How can you say this report is even remotely independent when the lead author is working with EPA and has been doing so for some time before he started his investigation?”

But Jewell said the team which conducted the survey was made up of technical experts and did very little work for the EPA before the spill.

“I know EPA wanted to get to the bottom of what happened, technically, at Gold King Mine and they looked for people of that expertise,” she said.

Republicans held the hearing Wednesday to continue probing the Obama administration’s response to the August toxic waste spill in Colorado’s Animas River.

Read more here.

ON TAP THURSDAY I: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will host a hearing on the effects of terrorism on global oil markets. Four experts on the matter will testify.

ON TAP THURSDAY II: The Environmental Law Institute and Environmental Protection Agency are hosting a seminar on the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or Superfund law, to celebrate 35 years since its enactment. Mathy Stanislaus and Larry Starfield, who lead the EPA’s solid waste office, will speak, along with other experts on Superfund.

Rest of Thursday’s agenda …

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member Tony Clark will speak at an IFC International event on the agency’s priorities.

AROUND THE WEB:

California is falling short of its goals regarding clean vehicles, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane sued natural gas driller Chesapeake Energy Wednesday, charging that the company is deceptive in its leases with landowners, StateImpact reports.

Growing tensions between Russia and Turkey have already hurt energy sector projects for the two countries, Foreign Policy reports.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Wednesday’s stories …

-GOP senators take aim at potential climate deal
-WH sees ‘momentum’ for climate change deal
-Lawmakers cancel trips to Paris climate talks
-Volkswagen says carbon emissions issue smaller than thought
-Interior chief defends agency’s investigation into mine spill
-EPA allies blast ‘speculative’ arguments against climate rule
-US pledges to double climate funding for poor countries

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