Overnight Energy: Zinke makes case to be Interior chief | Dems prep for battle with EPA nominee

by Timothy Cama and Devin Henry - 01/17/17 6:03 PM ET

ZINKE MAKES HIS CASE: Ryan Zinke, the nominee to be the next secretary of Interior, used his confirmation hearing Tuesday to repeatedly highlight his record on conservation, while walking a fine line on issues like climate change.

Zinke, a Republican and currently Montana’s sole congressman, sought to compare himself to President Teddy Roosevelt and his strong conservation agenda, while ensuring that uses like fossil fuel production on federal land still have a place.

“Without question, our public lands are America’s treasure and are rich in diversity,” said Zinke, a Republican who currently serves as Montana’s at-large representative in the House.

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Zinke sought to contrast his positions against the GOP on key questions, specifically the transfer of federal land to state or private control.

“I want to be clear on this point: I am absolutely against transfer or sale of public land. I can’t be any more clear,” he said.

Democrats tussled with Zinke on climate change, an issue that has cropped up in several confirmation hearings so far this month.

Under questioning from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Zinke insisted that he believes man-made climate change is “not a hoax,” notably breaking with Trump.

Sanders replied, “”The scientific community is almost virtually unanimous that climate change is real and causing devastating problems. There is a debate on this committee, but not within the scientific community.”

Later, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) asked Zinke whether he believed that human activity is causing climate change effects like rising sea levels.

“I’m not an expert on this field,” Zinke responded.

“That to me is a cop-out,” Franken shot back. “I’m not a doctor but I have to make healthcare decisions.”

Overall, the hearing had few fireworks, with Republicans broadly pleased with Zinke and Democrats even joking with him about the existence of anti-firefighting mascot Smokey the Bear.

Read more here.

PRUITT TAKES CENTER STAGE: Expect a less-smooth hearing on Wednesday morning, when Democrats plan an all-out assault on Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Trump’s EPA nominee, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, is one of his most controversial. Environmentalists detest the nomination, and have poured time and money into highlighting his political ties to the fossil fuel industry, his tepid position on the science behind climate change and his litigious history against the very department he is now nominated to lead.

Both sides expect a bitter, partisan hearing when Pruitt testifies before the Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday.

Democrats have developed a line of attack likely to mirror that from Pruitt’s opponents in the environmental movement. Last week, they telegraphed questions for Pruitt designed to probe conflict of interest concerns and his belief in the science behind climate change.

But Republicans and energy industry officials are bullish on Pruitt’s chances: even though they predict an eventual party-line committee vote to get his nomination to the floor, Pruitt backers are aiming to peel off some Democratic votes when an eventual confirmation vote takes place.

Greens take aim: The lobbying fight over the Pruitt pick has ramped up on both sides.

Several environmental groups have launched advertising campaigns against his nomination.

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) released a $50,000 digital advertising campaign opposing his nomination on Tuesday.

NextGen Climate announced a seven-state ad buy against Pruitt over the weekend, and the Sierra Club, which has an ad of its own out, said Tuesday it would deliver “Pruitt survival kits” containing bottled water and face masks to senators this week.

“We all know that it’s very difficult to prevent confirmation, but we feel as if this is an extreme nomination and it’s very important to frame this in terms of what the president-elect is trying to get done here,” NextGen Climate President Tom Steyer said on a call with reporters Tuesday.

Pruitt’s proponents, though, say greens, in Congress and out of it, are distorting his record.

AR2, an arm of conservative research firm America Rising, will be out with a memo Wednesday morning hitting back at greens’ criticisms.

“Democrats and liberal groups have smeared Attorney General Pruitt’s record since day-one in a shameless attempt to appeal to the radical environmentalists who fund their campaigns,” the group writes.

“Attorney General Pruitt will make clear at today’s hearing just how unfounded these partisan charges truly are, revealing a nominee who is extremely prepared to lead the EPA and govern it effectively in the best interests of all Americans.”

The two-page memo says Pruitt will outline how he views “cooperative federalism” and says Democrats are certain to distort his plans as trying to roll back environmental protections.

“Hopefully Democrats, who are supposedly trying to avoid alienating middle America even further that they already have in recent years, recognize Pruitt’s qualifications and overwhelmingly confirm him in line with historical precedent,” it writes.

Read more about greens’ aggression to Pruitt here. And read AR2’s memo here.

IF YOU WATCH: The hearing starts at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday. Follow along at The Hill.

CLIMATE FUND GETS $500 MILLION: The Obama administration on Tuesday injected a fresh $500 million payment into the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

The GCF is a key international initiative, backed by the United Nations, to spend $100 billion to help poor nations adapt to climate change and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Funding the program has been a key Obama foreign policy goal: in 2014, he pledged $3 billion in American contributions by 2020.

But congressional Republicans have never supported that push, and did not appropriate funding for the GCF. Instead, the State Department has twice had to move money around within the agency’s budget to come up with payments to the program, first last year and then again on Tuesday.

The future of American payments to the GCF is in doubt given Trump’s opposition to the program. During the campaign, he said he would “stop all payments of the United States tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs,” and he’s likely to find supporters of that cause in Congress.