Overnight Energy: GOP leaves Flint out of spending bill

by Timothy Cama and Devin Henry - 09/22/16 5:50 PM ET

FLINT NEW FRONT IN SPENDING BATTLE: House and Senate Republicans left an aid package for Flint, Mich. out of a must-pass stopgap spending bill they introduced on Thursday, sparking Democratic anger and adding more drama to the annual September spending fight.

Senate Republican leadership has scheduled a vote on a “clean” continuing resolution to fund the government beyond the election at current levels. But members had hoped to add other policies and spending items, including measures to fight the Zika virus and provide relief for flood victims in Louisiana and the lead water crisis in Flint.

{mosads}Zika and Louisiana got funding in the bill, but Flint did not, and Democrats have threatened to vote down the legislation because of the snub.

“We Democrats cannot vote … for that substitute and urge others to vote against it,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Democrats’ top appropriator, said in a Thursday floor speech.

“We believe that the people of Flint, Mich. … who have been waiting for more than one year, should be included in this continuing resolution.”

Water bill — without Flint — due in the House next week: The Senate passed a water infrastructure bill last week with $220 million included for Flint improvements and those in other cities around the country.

House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday said that bill is a better vehicle for Flint aid than the spending bill, which Congress must approve by Sept. 30.

The House will take up its version of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) next week, but members note that bill doesn’t include the $220 million in Flint relief.

“It’s difficult to accept logic that says this belongs in WRDA, but by the way, we’re not going to put this in WRDA,” said Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), Flint’s representative in the House.

Senate Republicans have said they will work to insert the aid package into a compromise water resources bill before the end of the year. But that’s not quick enough for Democrats, whose opposition to a Flint-free spending bill now threatens its path forward.

Read more about the spending deal here; Democrats’ opposition to it here; Ryan’s statement on Flint here; and next week’s WRDA debate in the House here.

TRUMP BRINGS ENERGY PITCH TO PITTSBURGH: Donald Trump brought his energy pitch to natural gas country in Pittsburgh on Thursday, accusing Hillary Clinton of seeking a “war on energy.”

Trump’s speech mostly followed what he has previously said on energy, economic policy and taxes. But he also pledged to approve dozens of energy infrastructure projects that he says the Obama administration has delayed unnecessarily.

He said Clinton’s energy policies would cost the country $5 trillion, and she wants “to put the coal miners out of work, ban hydraulic fracking in almost all places and extensively restrict and ban energy production on public lands and in most offshore areas.”

As president, Trump promised to unleash the full potential of fossil fuels, repeal major Obama administration rules and improve infrastructure permitting, among other pledges.

Trump didn’t mention the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline by name, but he said $33 billion of energy infrastructure projects have been blocked by Obama or withdrawn due to his delays.

“Billions of dollars in private infrastructure investment have been lost to the Obama-Clinton restriction agenda, and many, many billions more to follow,” he said.

“If I’m president, they will happen quickly, I can tell you that … you’ll be amazed how quickly they’ll happen.”

Read more here, and read Trump’s full speech here.

DEMS SAY NO ON DAKOTA PIPELINE: House Democrats on Thursday asked federal agencies to rescind the permits they have issued for the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“We are calling on the Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw the existing permits for the Dakota Access Pipeline and initiate a transparent permitting process that includes, above all, public notice, public participation, formal and robust private consultation and adequate environmental review of the pipeline,” Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said at a Democratic event on the pipeline Thursday.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has sued over the 1,170-mile, $3.8 billion project because it says it threatens cultural sites near its land in North Dakota and the tribe’s drinking water supply.

The pipeline’s developers say those fears are overblown and that it has taken pains to reroute the project around cultural sites and near existing pipelines to minimize pollution risk.

The Obama administration has launched a review of the project and its permitting, something the tribe hopes yields a decision against the pipeline.

“I don’t want this to just say, ‘OK this is going to happen, no matter what, and the next pipeline we’ll make a change’ ” to permitting procedures, Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault said Thursday.

“We have to make a change with this pipeline.”

Read more here.

GREENS ENDORSE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE SENATE RACE: Friends of the Earth Action endorsed Democrat Maggie Hassan for Senate in New Hampshire, where both candidates have sought to cast themselves as a friend of the environment.

“Hassan has shown incredible leadership through her sponsorship of New Hampshire’s original Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and her work to pass the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard,” FOE Action President Erich Pica said in a statement.

“As a state senator and governor, Hassan has fought the same fights as Friends of the Earth Action. Gov. Hassan will be a leader on climate & environmental issues.”

Hassan’s opponent, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R), released an ad earlier this year touting her green credentials, including her support for the Obama’s administration’s climate rule for power plants.

CHAMBER REPORT ASKS: WHAT IF?: The Chamber of Commerce put out a report Thursday painting a dire picture of the United States in an alternative reality in which the energy boom of recent years never happened.

“Once deeply dependent on foreign and often more expensive sources of energy to power its economy and employ its workforce, the United States recently surpassed Russia as the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world, extending benefits to nearly every segment of the U.S. economy in the process,” the report says.

“This dramatic reversal of fortunes could not have been accomplished absent game-changing advances in the way producers find, produce and deliver energy resources.”

Among the effects of no energy boom: 4.3 million jobs wouldn’t have been created, $548 billion in GDP wouldn’t have been produced and residential natural gas prices would be 28 percent higher.

The report is part of the Chamber’s ongoing election-year series of reports about energy policy, looking to shame politicians who ascribe to the “keep it in the ground” movement, or otherwise endorse energy policies that the Chamber doesn’t like.

Read the report here.

ON TAP FRIDAY: Former Environmental Protection Agency head Carol Browner will be one of the main speakers at a Bloomberg BNA event on nuclear power.

AROUND THE WEB:

Most of Puerto Rico is still without power due to a generating station fire Wednesday, the Associated Press reports.

Chesapeake Bay pollution levels fell dramatically last year, but it could be due solely to the weather, the Baltimore Sun reports.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Thursday’s stories …

-Countries back ‘ambitious’ phaseout of globe-warming refrigerant
-Democrats blast GOP for ‘sabotaging’ House waterways bill
-Democrats take aim at ND pipeline project
-Full speech: Trump addresses Charlotte violence in energy speech
-Top Senate Dem: Dems won’t vote for funding bill over Flint
-McConnell sets vote on ‘clean’ funding bill to avoid shutdown
-Trump: Clinton wants a ‘war on energy’
-Ryan: Flint aid shouldn’t be in short-term spending bill
-Obama judge added to climate rule case
-House Dems look to update drinking water laws