Overnight Energy: GOP mulls changes to monuments law

GOP CONSIDERS CHANGING ANTIQUITIES ACT: A House Republican hinted at potential reforms to the Antiquities Act on Tuesday.

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) proposed amending the law — which allows the president to unilaterally protect land or water owned by the federal government — to set acreage limits on monuments or require more input from local and state governments before allowing for such designations.

The proposal, floated at a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing Tuesday, comes as the Trump administration begins considering potential ways to overhaul the act.

The Interior Department is reviewing all large monument declarations made since 1996, and it’s set to propose legislative changes for the Antiquities Act along the way. Key Republicans, including Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) support reforming the law.

{mosads}”As is often the case with small grants of power to the executive, those grants can often expand to absurd overreaches,” McClintock said.

But Democrats have resisted the push, and Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii) predicted there would be “significant opposition from the American people” if Trump or his administration tried to roll back any of the Obama-era monument designations.

“I actually think a review, if done in good faith, might actually teach us something about the broad base of support for national monuments and the Antiquities Act,” she said.

Read more here.

COAL MINER PLANS TO CHALLENGE MANCHIN: A former coal worker in West Virginia is preparing to challenge Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in next fall’s elections.

Bo Copley announced his intentions Tuesday, exactly one year after gaining attention for confronting Hillary Clinton over her past remarks about shrinking the coal industry.

“It’s what God’s telling me to do,” he said about his Senate bid to Yahoo News.

“With everything that has happened over the past year, with all of the attention we have received, with all of the people saying, ‘We really appreciate you representing us,’ we thought maybe people want someone to represent them who understands what they’re going through.”

Copley challenged Clinton for comments she made about coal mining when she visited the state last May.

“I just want you to know: How can you say you’re going to put a lot of coal miners out of jobs and then come in here and tell us you’re going to be our friend?” he asked Clinton at an event.

Clinton said she had “misspoke” when she talked about shutting down coal companies.

President Trump has worked to strip federal rules as part of an effort to help the coal industry, though Copley said of Trump, “there are some hits and there are some misses.”

Manchin is a top target for the GOP next year, given the strong conservative lean of his state.

Read more here.

RENEWABLE POLICY CRITIC TO LEAD ENERGY DEPT. OFFICE: Dan Simmons, an outspoken critic of pro-renewable energy policies, has been tapped to head the Department of Energy’s renewable office.

Simmons formerly worked at the Institute for Energy Research, a self-styled, free-market energy think tank that is funded largely by fossil fuel interests.

An Energy official announced Simmons’s appointment to lead the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) in a recent email to employees, which noted that Simmons started at the department during the Trump administration’s transition period.

His appointment was first reported by E&E News.

As vice president at the Institute for Energy Research, Simmons was largely responsible for pushing against pro-renewable policies such as subsidies and tax breaks for the use of wind and solar power.

“I think that everything should be treated equally across the board,” he said last year at an event hosted by Politico. “We have to look at the track record of the oil and gas industry, producing low-cost, reliable energy, particularly when the alternative is much, much higher prices.”

Read more here.

NEW PETITION ON EPA: The Texas Public Policy Foundation is joining the fray against the EPA’s endangerment finding for greenhouse gases.

The conservative, pro-fossil fuels group said Tuesday that it officially petitioned the EPA to repeal the 2009 finding that serves as a lynchpin for climate change policies, saying the EPA violated the law by not submitting the finding to its Scientific Advisory Board.

“The EPA endangerment finding represents abuse of the EPA regulatory process under the Obama administration, rather than objective, science-based action,” Robert Henneke, director for TPPF’s Center for the American Future, said in a statement.

“The foundation’s petition to rescind the endangerment finding seeks to respect the rule of law by undoing this past unlawful act by the EPA.”

The Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Concerned Household Electricity Consumers Council have asked EPA to review the finding in recent months.

BARRASSO STILL BULLISH ON METHANE RULE REPEAL: Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) is still bullish about his legislation to overturn the Bureau of Land Management’s methane venting and flaring rule.

He told reporters Tuesday after meeting with the GOP caucus that he expects it to pass next week, though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hasn’t announced any scheduling plans for it.

“I expect it will pass and it will come up next week, and President Trump will sign it,” Barrasso said about the Congressional Review Act resolution.

The resolution only needs 51 Senate votes. But Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) oppose it, and a handful of others are unsure.

Lawmakers only have until May 11 to pass the legislation, given the terms of the Congressional Review Act. With a spending bill due on the floor this week, and the Senate working through Trump administration nominations, supporters of the legislation say they don’t expect it to come up for a vote before next week at the earliest.

“I think we’ve got the votes,” Sen. John Hoeven said. “It’s a matter of getting it scheduled.” 

ON TAP WEDNESDAY I: It’s hydropower day in the House. The Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on ways to modernize pipelines and hydropower, and a Natural Resources Committee panel will meet to consider “the challenges of keeping hydropower affordable and opportunities for new development.”

ON TAP WEDNESDAY II: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing on ways to find “faster, better and cheaper results” in the infrastructure approval process.

Rest of Wednesday’s agenda …

The House Appropriations Committee’s Energy and Water panel will hold a public hearing on the 2018 appropriations process.

The House Science Committee’s energy panel will hold a hearing on oil and gas technologies.

AROUND THE WEB:

A house explosion earlier this year in Colorado was caused by natural gas that seeped into the house through an old, cut-off pipeline, the Longmont Times Call reports.

California President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon (D) unveiled a proposal Tuesday to shift the state to 100 percent renewable electricity, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Dominion Virginia Power hopes to increase its number of solar power facilities eightfold by 2032, the Daily Press reports.   

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Tuesday’s stories …

-Trump donation could pay for Civil War battlefield repair projects
-Trump picks renewable energy policy skeptic to lead DOE office
-Coal worker takes aim at Manchin’s Senate seat
-House Republicans begin probe of monuments law
-Pentagon wants offshore drilling ban maintained in eastern Gulf
-House GOP’s new challengers: Scientists mulling campaigns
-Leading the charge to ‘keep it public’

Please send tips and comments to Timothy Cama, tcama@digital-staging.thehill.com; and Devin Henry, dhenry@digital-staging.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @Timothy_Cama, @dhenry, @thehill