Overnight Energy: Senators introduce bipartisan carbon tax bill | House climate panel unlikely to have subpoena power | Trump officials share plan to prevent lead poisoning

by Timothy Cama - 12/19/18 5:17 PM ET

FLAKE, COONS SPONSOR CARBON TAX BILL: Outgoing GOP Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) on Wednesday introduced a carbon tax bill.

The landmark bill aims to charge fossil fuel companies a tax for their carbon dioxide emissions. The bill is a companion to legislation introduced by a bipartisan group in the House in November.

The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act would charge $15 for each ton of carbon emitted into the air and would increase that fee by $10 every year afterward, in an effort to fight climate change. Other than administrative costs, all of the money would be given back to taxpayers in a dividend.

{mosads}In a notable difference from the House bill, the Senate’s bill would aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions quicker, by 40 percent within six years, and 91 percent by 2050, according to a source with familiarity with the bill. The House bill set a timeline of 10 years.

Both are a bigger cut than former President Obama’s Clean Power Plan and the United States’s commitment under the Paris climate agreement — a pact President Trump has promised to exit.

Introduced two weeks before Congress ends for the year, the legislation is unlikely to get serious consideration in this session. Flake is set to retire at the end of the year.

The House bill was the first bipartisan piece of legislation to put a price on carbon in a decade. House sponsors are Reps. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), John Delaney (D-Md.) and Charlie Crist (D-Fla.).

“When we introduced this legislation in the House, we showed our colleagues that bipartisanship is possible to address climate change and significantly reduce carbon emissions. Thanks to Senator Coons and Senator Flake, we’re now showing the American people that our plan to put a price on carbon and return the net revenue back to the American people has earned bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress,” said Deutch, the lead sponsor of this bill in the House, in a statement.”

More on the bill and the carbon tax debate here.

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NO SUBPOENA POWER FOR CLIMATE PANEL: The climate change committee that House Democrats are planning to establish in the next Congress is unlikely to have the subpoena power afforded to most other congressional panels.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the incoming majority leader, said Wednesday that it was his understanding that the committee wouldn’t have the legal authority to demand documents.

“My expectation [is] it will not have subpoena power. It will be a recommendatory committee to the Energy and Commerce Committee and the environmental committees,” Hoyer told reporters.

A Democratic leadership aide later confirmed the lack of subpoena power.

Hoyer said he doesn’t see a need for subpoena authority, given the intended structure and purpose of the climate panel.

“I don’t know that they think they need subpoena power. They’re going to have experts who are … dying to come before them,” he said.

“I think they’re going to want to testify; I think they’ll want to give the best information as it relates to the crisis,” Hoyer said of scientific experts.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hasn’t announced the formal rules and structure for the panel. But progressives, led by Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), want the committee to be charged with formulating a plan for a Green New Deal, which includes transitioning the country to 100 percent renewable energy within 10 years.

A lack of subpoena authority would be a change from the structure of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

That panel, which existed from 2007 to 2011 and was chaired by then-Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), had the power to issue subpoenas. It used that power at least once, in 2008, when it voted to compel the Environmental Protection Agency under former President George W. Bush to disclose its progress on formulating climate change rules for automobiles.

EFFORT AGAINST LEAD POISONING SLIM ON NEW INITIATIVES: Trump administration officials on Wednesday published a plan they said would confront the issue of lead exposure among children “head-on.”

While the federal lead action plan has few new announcements, the administration used its unveiling to highlight efforts across 17 federal agencies, mostly ongoing, to reduce lead poisoning.

“President Trump and this administration are committed to tackling this problem head-on,” acting Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Andrew Wheeler said at an event at the EPA headquarters, alongside Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson and deputy Health and Human Services Secretary Eric Hargan.

The EPA’s contributions to the 24-page action plan center on two regulations that the agency has previously announced and a series of grants that seek to replace lead drinking water infrastructure, including grants to schools and day care centers.

“Here at EPA, we are combating lead exposure on all fronts: in homes, schools, consumer products and drinking water,” Wheeler said. “We are updating the Lead and Copper Rule for the first time in over two decades, we are strengthening the dust-lead hazard standards and we are using our grants and financing problems to help communities test for lead, replace lead pipes and upgrade water infrastructure.”

The Lead and Copper Rule, which was first written in 1991 and has not yet been thoroughly updated, dictates how water utilities must keep lead levels in water low, including which pipes need to be replaced.