Overnight Energy: Senate blocks GOP bill targeting water rule

YOU HAVE TO PURIFY YOURSELF IN THE WATERS OF LAKE MINNETONKA: Senate Democrats beat back Thursday a Republican measure to block a major Obama administration water rule.

Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) proposed an amendment to the chamber’s energy and water spending bill designed to block funding for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Water Rule, or “waters of the United States.” The measure fell four votes short of the 60 required to overcome a Democratic filibuster.

{mosads}Though a federal court has already put the rule on hold, Republicans say ending it legislatively is important as well. Opponents of the rule — Republicans, rural interests and the agriculture industry — have long argued the rule is executive overreach.

“The EPA wants to now define ‘navigable waters’ as all the water basically in the country, because they want to say it’s any water that can run into any water that can run into any water. I don’t know how many reiterations of that there could be,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said. “It could run into any water that eventually runs into navigable water.”

Most Democrats have defended the rule, which establishes federal control over small waterways. On Wednesday, the White House said Obama would veto any spending bill that included measures blocking the water rule.

Read more here.

I SHOULD’VE KNOWN BY THE WAY YOU PARKED YOUR CAR: German automaker Volkswagen has reached a deal with federal regulators on a penalty relating to its emissions test workaround.

A federal judge in San Francisco said Thursday that Volkswagen has agreed to the broad outlines of a deal with the EPA, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Details weren’t immediately made public, but Bloomberg reported it would cost VW $10 billion. The Journal reported it would involve buybacks, “substantial” compensation and vehicle modifications for vehicle owners.

Federal regulators have accused Volkswagen of selling nearly 600,000 diesel-fueled vehicles with defeat devices designed to skirt emissions tests. Such devices violate the Clean Air Act.

The Justice Department and EPA sued the company in January.

Read more here.

AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY: Representatives from more than 150 countries are due to sign the Paris climate change agreement in New York Friday, the first step toward entering it into force.

Friday marks the first day the agreement is available for signatures at the United Nations headquarters, and it also happens to be Earth Day.

The UN says the signing ceremony will set a record for the most signatures for an international pact on its first day.

Signing the deal indicates countries’ intentions to follow the terms within it. Assuming at least 55 countries representing 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions join the deal, it will immediately take effect, well before the scheduled 2020 date.

But since the emissions cuts aren’t binding under international law, taking effect means very little in terms of countries’ obligations.

Secretary of State John Kerry is going to New York to represent the United States at the event, and he plans to sign it.

DON’T YOU BLOW UP MY WORLD: In the lead-up to the signing ceremony, Republicans are looking to throw cold water on the Paris deal, warning it’s doomed to fail.

In a 30-page study on the agreement, Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said the deal is no more likely to result in major greenhouse gas emissions cuts than the Kyoto Protocol from 1997.

“If the past is any indication, countries will or will not reduce emissions based on what is politically and economically feasible regardless of their non-binding [individual contribution] promises because of the immense damage draconian cuts in GHG emissions would have on each individual states’ population,” the GOP’s white paper says.

The report said Americans should be leery about the potential success of the deal.

“The American people must understand the dynamics and the hollow promises of Paris Agreement supporters, lest they allow these meaningless agreements to gain credibility and cause further damage to the American economy and sovereignty,” they wrote.

The white paper is the latest effort by Republicans, led by EPW chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), to diminish the impacts and public support of an international climate deal.

Read more here.

AROUND THE WEB:

A South Dakota test meant to evaluate burying nuclear waste deep underground will not actually use real nuclear waste, the Department of Energy is assuring locals, according to the Associated Press.

South Africa has decided against pushing for repeal of the global ban on rhino horn trade, Reuters reports.

Two Illinois state parks are closing due to a state budget impasse, the Chicago Tribune reports.

“Prince’s was the music of my life,” former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson tweeted Thursday. The pop superstar died Thursday in Minnesota at the age of 57.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Thursday’s stories…

-House Dems eye Zika funding bill as chance for Flint
-GOP senator tries to tie ‘No budget, no pay’ to funding bill
-Senate GOP tries to throw cold water on Paris climate deal
-Senate measure to stop Obama water rule fails
-VW, EPA reach deal on rigged emissions tests
-Major northeast gas pipeline canceled

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