Overnight Energy & Environment — Senate panel backs drilling fee hike

Welcome to Wednesday’s Overnight Energy & Environment, your source for the latest news focused on energy, the environment and beyond. Subscribe here: digital-staging.thehill.com/newsletter-signup.

Today we’re looking at a Senate panel backing increased oil and gas drilling fees, a possible breakdown in talks between key Senate Democrats and environmental groups seeking more aggressive EPA action on reports of misconduct.

For The Hill, we’re Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk. Write to us with tips: rfrazin@digital-staging.thehill.com and zbudryk@digital-staging.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @RachelFrazin and @BudrykZack.

Let’s jump in.

 

Manchin-led panel backs higher drilling fees 

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, led by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), is proposing an increase in the fees paid for oil and gas drilling on federally owned lands and waters. 

The fee increase is one of several environmental provisions passed by House Democrats as part of the massive social spending and climate legislation now being considered by the Senate.

The drilling fee hike appears likely to be retained by Manchin and the upper chamber’s Energy and Natural Resources panel, which is considering its portion of the bill.

There are some differences between what the House proposed and what the Senate is considering.

The Senate panel is proposing an increase in the rate of royalties paid for onshore oil and gas production to more than 16.5 percent, from the current rate of 12.5 percent. This number is below the House version’s rate of 18.75 percent.

What made it in? The Senate proposal also retains a House proposal to repeal drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, home to animals like grizzly bears and polar bears and land that is sacred to the Gwich’in people. 

Drilling in the area was approved by a 2017 Republican reconciliation bill and has met much ire from Democrats. 

NEGOTIATIONS MAY BE IN TROUBLE

Democratic negotiations with centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) over President Biden’s sweeping climate and social spending bill are close to melting down as Manchin appears to be backing out of an earlier deal with the White House to extend the child tax credit for one year.

Manchin is now floating the idea of extending the child tax credit for multiple years so that the cost of a proposal that is likely to be extended by Congress in the future is fully reflected in the Build Back Better bill, which is now officially projected to cost roughly $2 trillion over 10 years.

What’s the issue? “Manchin is trying to back out of a deal with the White House,” said one Democratic source familiar with the negotiations between Manchin and Biden. “Manchin earlier agreed to a one-year extension of the child tax credit. They shook on it.”

Extending the expanded child tax credit a full 10 years would cost $1.6 trillion over a 10-year budget window, according to the Tax Foundation, which would nearly equal the entire cost of Build Back Better as it was drafted by the House.

That would force Democrats to either find new tax increases to offset the cost or jettison other popular proposals such as long-term home health care or expanded subsidies for child care to keep the total cost of the proposal close to the $1.5 trillion top line set out by Manchin in September.

Read more about the negotiations from The Hill’s Alexander Bolton here and more about the committee text here.

 

Groups push EPA over chemical reviews 

Six environmental organizations on Tuesday called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take more aggressive action in response to reports that an agency office manipulated assessments of chemical safety.

The allegations, first reported in July by The Intercept, originated from four whistleblowers in the EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT). The scientists alleged managers have rubber-stamped industry’s submissions for new chemicals, called pre-manufacture notices (PMNs), despite internal warnings of high toxicity for many of the submissions.

Since then, the EPA has announced two internal advisory councils and new senior-level advisory position in the office, but the organizations warned this would not properly address the issue. 

Signers of the letter called on the EPA to take further actions, including public condemnation of the alleged conduct, allowing public airing of scientific disputes without reprisals and an end to the practice of exclusively sharing draft assessments with submitters.

What are they asking for? Signers of the letter called on the EPA to take further actions, including public condemnation of the alleged conduct, allowing public airing of scientific disputes without reprisals and an end to the practice of exclusively sharing draft assessments with submitters.

“We urge that EPA staff be sent a clear message that the alleged actions will no longer be tolerated, that scientific misconduct in the PMN program will no longer be rewarded and that the overriding goal of PMN reviews will be public health and environmental protection, not rapid approval of new chemicals in order to placate industry submitters,” they wrote.

Signers of the letter include the Environmental Defense Fund, the Center for Environmental Health and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Read more about the letter here.

 

SCHUMER, LATINO LEADERS TOUT GREEN PROVISIONS

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) teamed up with a broad array of Hispanic leaders on Wednesday to tout the Democratic spending bill’s environmental credentials.

The effort, dubbed the “Climate Day of Action,” was part of an effort to capitalize on the popularity of environmental action among many Hispanic communities in support of the Build Back Better (BBB) Act.

Joining Schumer on Wednesday: Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) as well as some of the top groups in Hispanic political mobilization, civil rights and environmental advocacy, including GreenLatinos, the Hispanic Federation, UnidosUS, Mi Familia Vota, Corazon Latino, PoderLatinx and Farmworker Justice.

“Protecting the health of our planet also means investing in the wellbeing of the Latino community,” said Schumer in a statement.

“Senate Democrats are working hard to deliver legislation that will safeguard our environment while providing jobs and economic opportunity to Latinos and communities of color in this country, including our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico,” he added.

The focus is to add pressure for passage of BBB — Schumer’s top task as the year winds down — by energizing a Hispanic base that’s motivated by environmental issues.

Read more about the strategy here.

 

WHAT WE’RE READING

• Survey finds high rates of methane spewing from U.S. Permian oilfield operations, Reuters reports
• Cold, heat, fires, hurricanes and tornadoes: The year in weather disasters, The Washington Post reports
• DOJ Environment Boss to Target Corporate Employees for Jail Time, Bloomberg Law reports
• Democrats request probe of White House EJ actions, E&E News reports
• Is your Christmas tree good for the environment? Depends on how you use it, The Columbia Daily Tribune reports

ICYMI

• Greenpeace warns of threat to whales from deep-sea oil, gas exploration off Greece
• Environmental group says Amazon’s use of plastic skyrocketed last year
• ‘Forever chemicals’ can ‘boomerang’ from ocean waves to shore: study
• Heavy rain hits drought-stricken California, triggering evacuations, rescues

And finally, something offbeat and off-beat: Crab doesn’t pay

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s energy & environment page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow.