Overnight Energy: Senate confirms Zinke for Interior post

ZINKE TO INTERIOR: Ryan Zinke sailed through Senate confirmation Wednesday with bipartisan support.

The final vote tally was 68-31, with 16 Democrats joining all Republicans to support Zinke. He needed a simple majority to be approved.

Zinke resigned from his seat as Montana’s sole House representative shortly after the Senate vote, and is due to be sworn into his new post later Wednesday.

The former Navy SEAL will now lead the 70,000-employee department with a wide range of responsibilities, from overseeing wide swaths of federal land to supervising offshore drilling, and managing the government’s relationships with American Indian tribes.

Zinke will also be responsible for implementing President Trump’s policies at Interior, like a dramatic increase in fossil fuel development on federal land and a rollback of many of former President Obama’s climate change policies.

{mosads}The incoming secretary had an easy confirmation process relative to some of Trump’s other cabinet nominees, owing in part to his moderate stance on many policy questions at Interior.

At his confirmation hearing, Zinke endorsed long-held Republican policies like allowing more oil and natural gas drilling. But he also came out strongly in favor of conservation priorities that Democrats hold dear, and promised to oppose large-scale transfers of federal land to state or private interests.

That earned him the support of some major conservation groups that usually align with Democrats, like the National Wildlife Federation and Backcountry Hunters and Anglers.

Still, major environmental groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace opposed him, citing in large part his goals to increase drilling and mining.

Zinke told senators that he believes climate change is happening and humans contribute, but he isn’t sure of the extent of the human impact.

Read more here.

MORE DETAILS EMERGE ON TRUMP’S EPA PLANS: President Trump is planning to sign an executive order undoing the Clean Power Plan and other Obama-era climate policies next week, according to a Wednesday report.

The order will start the process of dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) climate rule for power plants and lift an Obama-mandated freeze on coal leasing on public lands, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing a White House official.

“Rescinding [the] federal coal leasing moratorium is part of that executive order, which has lots of different components, including the Clean Power Plan,” the official told Reuters Wednesday.

Trump has long opposed the Clean Power Plan and promised throughout his campaign to undo it as president. His order — like the one he issued this week on a water rule — will likely instruct the EPA to nix the regulation, which was the centerpiece of Obama’s climate change agenda.

Meanwhile, Trump’s budget proposal for the EPA is likely to cut key —  and politically-popular — programs, raising questions about its viability on Capitol Hill.

Programs on the White House’s chopping block include grants for clean-up work at brownfield industrial waste sites, the Energy Star energy efficiency program, climate change efforts and funding for Alaskan native villages, according to a Washington Post report.

Trying to cut some of those programs raises political problems for Trump. Business groups like Energy Star, which identifies energy efficient home and industrial appliances, would oppose the cuts. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) chairs the Senate EPA appropriations panel and will likely oppose cuts to Alaska natives, and EPA administrator Scott Pruitt himself has spoken in favor of grants for clean-up work.

Trump is due to release top-line budget numbers later this month and could release his full budget proposal in early May.

Read more about the rules work here, and the budget plan here.  

HOUSE PANEL EYES ETHANOL, PIPELINE LEGISLATION: Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are putting ethanol reform and pipelines at the top of their priority lists.

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), chairman of the environment subcommittee, told reporters Wednesday that he’s optimistic that some overhaul of the federal ethanol mandate can be passed into law this year, “really with the ultimate goal of just freeing up the market, getting rid of the mandate and letting competition fill the void.”  

“That’s going to be a lot. That’s going to be a heavy lift,” Shimkus said. “So I hope we’ll be successful.”

The federal Renewable Fuel Standard, enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), requires gasoline and diesel companies to blend biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel into their diesel fuels. The EPA determines the mandated volumes every year.

President Trump has said he supports the mandate, and his EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, has committed to enforcing it. But Pruitt has also expressed concern in the past about the impact of a high-volume mandate.

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the chairman of the energy subcommittee and previous chairman of the full panel, said he hopes that policies to build out energy infrastructure including pipelines can become part of the infrastructure package that the House plans to debate later this year.

“Pipelines, we know, are the safest way of transporting oil and gas. And there’s a huge need for these,” he said.

Read more here.

QUAKES: Half as many Americans as last year live in areas threatened by man-made earthquakes, a federal agency reported on Wednesday.

According to a United States Geological Survey (USGS) report, 3.5 million people live or work in parts of the country where there is “significant potential for damaging shaking” from earthquakes induced by human activity.

Last year, the USGS determined that 7 million Americans live in areas threatened by induced seismic activity, a phenomenon that has exploded due to increased injections of wastewater from oil and gas drilling operations into the ground.

Despite the shrinking threat area this year, officials still warned about the possibility of earthquakes.

“The forecast for induced and natural earthquakes in 2017 is hundreds of times higher than before induced seismicity rates rapidly increased around 2008,” said Mark Petersen, the chief of the USGS National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project.

Read more here.

ON TAP THURSDAY I: The Senate will vote on cloture for Rick Perry’s nomination to lead the Energy Department. Like Zinke, a Senate committee cleared Perry relatively easily in January, meaning he will likely be confirmed this week.  

ON TAP THURSDAY II: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt will address the U.S. Conference of Mayors Leadership meeting.

AROUND THE WEB:

A permafrost thaw in Canada could lead to a massive release of carbon dioxide, Inside Climate News reports.

Officials in Antarctica observed a high temperature of 63.5 degrees fahrenheit on Wednesday, a record high, Reuters reports.

Parts of Hawaii — yes, Hawaii — are under a blizzard warning, USA Today reports.    

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Wednesday’s stories …

-Number of Americans at risk of man-made earthquakes falls

-House GOP to prioritize ethanol, pipeline legislation

-Trump to sign order next week on Obama’s coal moratorium, climate rules

-Trump’s EPA budget plan taking aim at climate, clean-up accounts: report

-Senate confirms Zinke to lead Interior

-Trump takes hatchet to EPA

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