Overnight Energy: House votes to limit pesticide restrictions | Senate Dems push Trump to stay in Paris deal | Feds consider tariffs on solar panels

HOUSE PASSES PESTICIDE BILL: The House passed legislation on Wednesday to loosen federal regulations on pesticides in a 256-165 vote.

Rep. Bob Gibbs’ (R-Ohio) bill would reverse a 2009 court decision that requires pesticides secure two separate Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approvals before hitting the market.

“This adds compliance costs, it adds permitting costs and it adds time and it hurts productivity and efficiency, and it does not add any new environmental protections,” Gibbs said during floor debate on his bill on Wednesday. He called the court ruling a “bad decision.”

Under the bill, a pesticide that the EPA has already approved under the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) would no longer need a Clean Water Act permit before going public.

Twenty-five Democrats voted in favor of the bill. Most Democrats, though, opposed the bill on public health grounds, saying the legislation would fast track permitting decisions for potentially-dangerous pesticides, putting water quality at risk. House Republicans have approved bills similar to this one every session since the 2009 court decision.

Read more here.

TRUMP STILL DECIDING ON PARIS: President Trump still hasn’t come to a decision on what to do about the Paris agreement.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters aboard Air Force One that the topic of the Paris pact came up in Trump’s and Tillerson’s Wednesday meeting with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, following the president’s meeting with Pope Francis.

“The president indicated we’re still thinking about that, that he hasn’t made a final decision. He, I think, told both Cardinal Parolin and also told [Italian] Prime Minister [Paolo] Gentiloni that this is something that he would be taking up for a decision when we return from this trip,” Tillerson told reporters en route to Brussels.

“It’s an opportunity to hear from people. We’re developing our own recommendation on that. So it’ll be something that will probably be decided after we get home.”

Tillerson said he, Trump and Parolin had a “good exchange” on climate change, and Parolin pushed Trump to remain in the agreement.

At the meeting earlier in the day, Francis gave Trump a copy of Laudato Si, his 2015 encyclical on climate change that pushes all people of faiths across the world to take action to slow global warming.

Read more here.

Senate Dems push Trump on Paris: In Washington, Senate Democrats on Wednesday pushed Trump to stay in the Paris agreement.

Forty members sent Trump a letter warning him that leaving the deal would hurt U.S. businesses and undermine American diplomacy, arguments long pushed by the pact’s supporters.

“Withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement would be a historic misstep that would massively disadvantage both American businesses and diplomats and our environment,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Read more here.

FEDS TO CONSIDER SOLAR TARIFFS: Federal officials have launched an investigation into whether the government should impose tariffs on certain imported solar panel technology.

The investigation, announced Tuesday by the International Trade Commission (ITC), responds to a petition filed last month by bankrupt solar manufacturer Suniva Inc.

The company accused China and other Asian nations of “flooding” the United States with solar cells and modules and called for emergency tariffs and price floors for four years, the maximum allowable time.

The ITC said that it would formally investigate and consider whether to recommend that President Trump impose such trade “safeguards.”

Read more here.

ON TAP THURSDAY I: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hear from Trump administration nominees for the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to start considering confirming them.

Daniel Brouillette has been tapped to be the DOE’s deputy secretary. He was previously a DOE official under President George W. Bush.

Neil Chatterjee and Robert Powelson have been nominated for FERC. Chatterjee is currently an adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Powelson is a utility regulator in Pennsylvania.

Read more about the FERC nominees here.

ON TAP THURSDAY II: A House Appropriations Committee panel will hold a hearing on the U.S. Forest Service’s budget. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell will testify.

Rest of Thursday’s agenda …

Montanans vote in a special election to fill the U.S. House seat vacated by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Follow The Hill for more.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will meet in Vienna, Austria where they’re expected to finalize a production cut for at least the next nine months.  

AROUND THE WEB:

The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania has been shut out of another power auction, and its owner is considering closing it, Lancaster Online reports.

A bill in the Ohio Legislature would permanently subsidize two coal-fired power plants, the Columbus Dispatch reports.

The federal government has paid more than $1 million to defend the men accused in the Nevada standoff at Cliven Bundy’s ranch, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Wednesday’s stories…

-House votes to roll back pesticide restrictions
-Trump still deciding on Paris climate agreement
-Senate Democrats push Trump to stay in Paris climate deal
-Federal officials consider tariffs on imported solar panels
-Trump adviser Icahn saves $60M from expected rule change: report
-Pope Francis gave Trump 2015 encyclical on climate change

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

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