Overnight Energy: Senate panel approves EPA spending, rules bill

SENATE PANEL APPROVES SPENDING BILL: The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bill cutting spending and blocking environmental rules on Thursday, but Democrats say that’s as far as the bill is going to go.

The bill would provide $32 billion to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Interior Department programs, about $1 billion less than President Obama requested in his budget and slightly below House Republicans’ target.

{mosads}Democrats oppose the lower spending levels, but particularly the policy changes within the measure: it blocks the EPA’s Clean Water Rule — also known as the “waters of the United States” rule  — and some mining and endangered species regulations.

“These poison pill riders and some of these deep cuts to the environment mean I cannot support” the bill, ranking member Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said.

Republicans said the riders are meant to block Obama rules they consider as overreach. But Democrats said that won’t stop them from blocking the bill should Republicans try bringing it to the floor.

“I believe you have reached a tipping point with these riders,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said. “I believe it is quite likely this bill will never be considered on the floor.”

Read more here.

CHAIRMAN LOOKS TO HOLD OBAMA OFFICIAL IN CONTEMPT: The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee wants to hold a top Obama administration official in contempt of Congress over his response to an investigation into a contentious water pollution rule.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) is accusing Howard Shelanski, head of the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), of withholding documents related to OIRA’s involvement in the EPA’s Clean Water Rule.

Chaffetz subpoenaed Shelanski in July 2015 for a wide range of documents regarding the rule.

While Shelanski has produced thousands of pages of requested documents, he still hasn’t handed over everything Chaffetz has sought.

In a resolution, Chaffetz said Shelanski’s “unwillingness and inability to work in good faith to comply with the subpoena interfered with the committee’s investigation” into the regulation, and that he and his staff “are withholding key documents from the committee — the volume of which is unknown except to OIRA, because Mr. Shelanski and his staff refused to provide basic information about the universe of responsive documents.”

If the House approves the Shelanski resolution, it would trigger a request to the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Channing Phillips, that Shelanski be prosecuted.

Read more here.

EPA KEEPS WORKING ON CLEAN POWER PLAN: The EPA is moving ahead with an incentive program for its contentious power plant climate change rule, despite the Supreme Court’s action halting the regulation.

Under the program, known as the Clean Energy Incentive Program, the EPA would give states compliance credits for renewable energy and efficiency projects that are undertaken earlier than the Clean Power Plan would require them.

The basic details of the incentive program were outlined when the climate rule was made final last August, but Thursday’s announcement formally proposes more details about it.

The climate rule is on hold under a February order from the Supreme Court.

But the EPA believes that actions like the incentive program and helping states voluntarily comply with the regulation are permissible under the court stay — an opinion Republicans and the rule’s opponents disagree with.

“EPA’s continued work on the Clean Energy Incentive Program is inconsistent with the stay and part of EPA’s last-ditch effort to save the president’s legacy carbon mandates,” Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said Thursday.

“The agency has no respect for the rule of law or decisions from the Supreme Court of the United States and would rather progress a political priority at the expense of American taxpayers.”

Read more here.

TOMORROW IN THE HILL: Members of the DNC platform committee meet in Phoenix on Friday, where they will hear from a group of environmentalists about how to address climate change.

The meetings may reveal what is set to be a contentious point in the committee’s work: deciding the extent of fracking and fossil fuel development in the United States.

After a campaign marked by fights over the future of fracking and American fossil fuel production, committee representatives from Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders’ campaigns are likely to wage one more battle now: what to do about energy policy within the Democrats’ official platform.

Read more tomorrow, in The Hill.   

AROUND THE WEB:

Following a derailment two weeks ago, Oregon officials want an open-ended ban on oil trains traveling through the state, the Oregonian reports.

British voters favoring exiting the European Union are twice as likely to doubt the science behind human-caused climate change, The Guardian reports.

North Carolina, citing the need to keep its skies clear for military training operations, is getting closer to cracking down on wind farms, the Associated Press reports.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Thursday’s stories…

-Volkswagen to ramp up electric cars after emissions scandal
-May was hottest on record
-EPA proposes climate rule incentives despite court hold
-Powerful GOP chairman has no plans to endorse Trump
-Kerry visits Arctic Circle to see climate impacts
-Senate panel clears EPA spending bill, blocking rules
-Dems seek to tighten coal mine cleanup finance rules
-Chaffetz seeks to hold Obama official in contempt over water rule
–Catfish resolution makes splash in Congress

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