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I WATCHED THE 7-HOUR DEMOCRATIC TOWN HALL AND WROTE THIS DIARY: I kept a running diary of CNN’s unprecedented 7-hour climate change town hall. Here are the key highlights from the 40-minute segments with 10 candidates, including personal observations about what it was like to cover.

Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writer Josh Siegel (@SiegelScribe). Email jsiegel@washingtonexaminer.com for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.

5 to 5:40 p.m.: The event kicks off on time with Julián Castro batting leadoff. Wolf Blitzer, CNN’s first in a cycle of moderators, leads into his questioning giving the first of many Hurricane Dorian updates.

*This got me thinking: Was it an appropriate and useful tactic by CNN to interrupt its town hall with Dorian forecast updates, making the link to climate change? Is that at odds with the consensus not to tie the act of one storm to climate change, on the understanding that it generally makes storms more frequent and extreme?

I took a Twitter poll of climate activists and scientists. The most thoughtful response came from Rod Schoonover, a former State Department intelligence analyst who you might remember for resigning in July after the White House blocked him from submitting portions of his written testimony to a congressional committee describing climate change as a threat to national security.

“The paradigm of binarily classifying storms as either climate-linked or not climate-linked has been increasingly displaced by one where certain aspects of a given storm (damage, trajectory, etc.) are rendered more or less probable due to climate change,” Schoonover said.

*Castro gives the first of many shoutouts to Jay Inslee, the former candidate and climate change plan ghostwriter.

*The highlight of Castro’s appearance comes when an informed audience member asks a thoughtful question (which becomes a theme of the event) about his record of embracing fracking as San Antonio’s mayor, and he responds with a middle-ground answer.

“I support local communities and states that want to ban fracking. I have not called for an immediate ban on fracking,” he said. “What I am doing is moving us away from fracking and natural gas and investing in … renewables to get us to net zero [carbon emissions] by 2045.”

5:40 to 6:20 p.m.: Andrew Yang is up, and he’s immediately standing, adopting the more informal posture conducive to a town hall.

*Blitzer begins a series of questions about personal responsibility and choices, and Yang gives funny and relatable answers.

Asked if “everybody is going to have to drive electric vehicles,” Yang responds that EVs are “not something you have to do,” but “it’s awesome” to drive them.

“There will still be a legacy of gas guzzlers on the road for quite some time,” Yang continues. “This is not the country where we take clunkers away,” but he says the government would pay people to exchange them for EVs.

Asked if Americans should eat less beef (which becomes an obsession of CNN moderators), Yang notes “you can't force peoples’ choices on them.”

Yang is later asked about personal sacrifices he is making to combat climate change. He lightly jokes that non-plastic straws are “irritating,” while making the point that government policy is more significant than anything he or any one person can do.

6:20 to 7 p.m.: A personal dilemma is resolved when I peek at the ESPN livestream on my computer to witness the last points of an epic U.S. Open quarterfinal men’s tennis match with Matteo Berrettini defeating Gael Monfils 7-6 in the deciding fifth set. This gets me wondering how the town hall ratings will fare with such compelling counterprogramming.

*Back to my other passion, climate reporting (I was previously an undersized, poor serving junior tennis player). Kamala Harris sits and then stands dodging a question on whether she’d declare a national emergency over climate change. Erin Burnett has relieved Blitzer.

*In the first truly “wow” moment, Harris takes strong positions on the delicate questions of fracking and the filibuster, after previous wobbling on both. “There is no question,” she would ban fracking , and she supports the Senate ending the filibuster to “pass a Green New Deal.”

*We are informed Harris loves cheeseburgers.

7 to 7:40 p.m.: We get one of many instances of CNN moderators misusing the "12 years" warning in the United Nations' IPCC report. The report said for the world to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, we would need to cut emissions by about 45% by 2030 (12 years from the report’s release). That doesn't mean no carbon emissions or fossil fuels use by then. Oh well.

*Amy Klobuchar gives some carbon tax love. For Democrats, a carbon tax is like a boy band song from the 90s. You know you need it in the music shuffle mix but are loathe to admit it.

She says a carbon price is "really, really important."

*Klobuchar also provides a direct answer about fracking for natural gas, which will “still exist for awhile. She opposes ending fracking , saying she is "being honest" that gas is a "transitional fuel.”

7:40 to 8 p.m.: Not anticipating CNN granting us a 20-minute breather, I multitasked and scarfed a leftover poke bowl during Klobuchar's segment. Gotta do my homework better.

8 to 8:40 p.m.: Anderson Cooper is here with front-runner Joe Biden. Climate activists in the crowd are murmuring, unsure if Biden’s climate plan for net-zero emissions by 2050 is genuine, given his history.

*Cooper gets right to it, asking Biden if his plan is “aggressive enough.” (Reminder, all of these plans are more ambitious than anything proposed in the Obama administration).

“It is aggressive enough,” Biden says. OK, then.

*Biden is on the defense over a fundraiser he may or may not attend involving (see more below) and the durability (fragility?) of the Obama administration’s record.

*Cautious and non-specific to begin, Biden finally draws a contrast with some rivals, saying he wouldn’t move to ban fracking because “I don't think we would get it done” in Congress.

Biden, however, has proposed banning new oil and gas drilling leases on federal lands, a position held by every other Democratic candidate.

8:40 to 9:20 p.m.: Bernie Sanders is revved up. He says his $16 trillion climate plan is the “largest” ever proposed (which it is by $$$$, but is that really the best way to measure effectiveness?).

*Sanders defends his defense of the filibuster, which makes sense because he rarely backs down from positions. But I am confused.

He said he could accomplish his goals of reaching 100% renewable energy for electricity and transportation by 2030 through the parliamentary procedure of budget reconciliation, which allows for passing legislation with only a simple majority in the Senate.

Reconciliation provides for passing fiscal measures, and could be a good fit for passing something such as a carbon tax. It wouldn't be well-suited, though, for approving mandates or regulations favored by Sanders. Sanders does not endorse carbon pricing in his climate change plan.

*The Sanders session ends early at 9:14, giving me a brief window to flip to the U.S. Open. The Rafael Nadal match is luckily delayed (filibustered?) so I haven’t missed anything.

9:20 to 10 p.m.: Elizabeth Warren seems relaxed, which I guess is natural when you have a plan for that, as her saying goes. Chris Cuomo relieves Cooper. CNN has a deep bullpen.

*Normally careful to follow her script, Warren is clarifying positions, and offering new ones.

She supports a carbon tax, but more surprisingly, opposes nuclear power — a detail left out of her many climate plans — joining Sanders as the only candidates with such an explicit position.

"In my administration, we won't be building new nuclear plants," Warren said. "We will start weaning ourselves off nuclear and replace it with renewables.”

To be fair, it's unclear if Warren's opposition to nuclear power includes smaller advanced reactors that are being developed, but not yet commercialized, for greater safety and easier construction than today’s massive plants.

*Warren splits with Sanders by opposing more public ownership of utilities to speed renewables generation. "I am not sure if that's what gets you to the solution," she says.

*I determine grapes to be an easy access snack during the town hall. I can just keep popping them in, with little worry of over consumption or mess.

10 to 10:40 p.m.: We get some real talk from Pete Buttigieg. He observes, as he has before, that Democrats are “basically using the same language” on the threat of climate change and it’s probably fruitless to compete over “which one of our targets is more accurate.”

“The fundamental question is how do we get it done?”

*Mayor Pete tells us how he’d get it done. A carbon tax and dividend. On carbon pricing, he is clearer than everyone else.

"I know we are not supposed to use the 't' word, but we might as well call it what it is,” he said. “We are going to have to tax carbon."

*Buttigieg also has a relatable way of fending off questions about personal responsibility and anticipating attacks from Republicans.

He is interested in decarbonizing the fuel used in air travel, but “I also don't believe we are going to abolish air travel.”

“We aren't going to solve the question of getting around the world without air travel,” he said. “The right likes to sink its teeth into anything we say. I took the subway today. Sometimes I fly. This is a very big country and I am running to be president.”

*He later tells us he owns a hybrid, but not a Tesla, because he can’t afford one.

But government policy could make it more affordable.

“The climate crisis is why we — and by we I mean the human species — invented government: to solve problems that individuals can’t solve on their own,” he said.

10:40 to 11:20 p.m.: I solve another riddle and decide to take a 10-minute break to walk my two dogs, whose headcount should qualify for viewership of the town hall. I return to find Beto O’Rourke telling us an interesting factoid that his home city of El Paso is the second-fastest warming city in the U.S.

*Twitter, which is quieting at this hour, tells me I missed O’Rourke endorsing cap-and-trade over a carbon tax, favoring an approach that had seemed to go out of style with the failed Waxman-Markey bill.

*CNN’s climate correspondent Bill Weir asks again about beef, bringing to mind the Notorious B.I.G. song “ What’s Beef? ” What’s the beef with beef? This is why I’m here.

*O’Rourke, who represented a border district in Texas, talks about climate change shaping immigration patterns. He says he supports creating a special category for climate refugees like Castro has also proposed.

11:20 p.m. to midnight: Isn’t it a school night? Yes, but Cory Booker notes the “historic” nature of the climate town hall and quickly draws my attention with a passionate defense of nuclear power as key to meeting net-zero emission goals.

"People who think we can get there without nuclear being part of the blend aren't looking at the facts,” Booker says. Booker, whose home state of New Jersey is heavily reliant on nuclear, has historically been a leader on supporting R&D for advanced reactors.

*I am comforted to learn the U.S. Open is still ongoing as fellow diminutive 5-foot-7 player Diego Schwartzman is giving Nadal a battle. I supposed I would have stayed awake anyway.

*Booker makes a Star Trek reference in relation to geoengineering, which tells us we are out of useful material. Good night.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS SAY DEMOCRATS CLIMATE PLANS ARE UNSERIOUS: Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, the top Republican of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Wednesday that Democrats’ climate change proposals are unserious and unrealistic.

“The gap between rhetoric and reality among Democrats has gotten out of hand,” Walden said in a statement at the conclusion of the town hall event.

Walden criticized Democrats who dismissed nuclear energy as a zero-carbon solution to climate change.

BIDEN PLEDGES TO RETHINK FUNDRAISER HOSTED BY FOSSIL FUEL COMPANY FOUNDER: Biden said he would reconsider attending a high-dollar fundraiser hosted by a businessman in the fossil fuel industry after being challenged about the event during CNN's climate town hall.

Biden was asked by an audience member Wednesday night about a finance event, scheduled to take place Thursday, which is being organized by Andrew Goldman, a co-founder of Houston-based natural gas producer Western LNG.

Biden first said he "didn't realize" Goldman was involved in the industry. When pressed by host Anderson Cooper, he said he would rethink his attendance "if true."

"I think it's pretty true," Cooper said.

The Biden campaign, however, pushed back on the claim.

"What @andersoncooper just said about VP Biden's fundraiser is factually incorrect. Andrew Goldman isn't a fossil fuel executive. He's not involved in the day to day operation. He's not on the board of the company, nor the board of the portfolio company," Biden senior adviser Symone Sanders tweeted.

HURRICANE DORIAN JUICES BACK TO ‘MAJOR’ CATEGORY 3 STATUS: Hurricane Dorian strengthened back up to Category 3 status late Wednesday as it approached the Carolinas, the Washington Examiner’s Daniel Chaitin reports .

The storm began to re-intensify on Wednesday after diminishing to a Category 2 thanks to an "environment of light to moderate vertical wind shear and warm sea surface temperatures," the National Hurricane Center said.

In Wilmington, North Carolina, several tornado warnings popped up over the area Thursday morning. There were reports of multiple tornadoes in the area touching down.

Nearly 200,000 power outages have been reported across South Carolina and there have been reports of flooding in the streets of Charleston.

All this was happening even as the center of Dorian was roughly 70 miles south-southeast of Charleston and roughly 160 miles south-southwest of the city of Wilmington as of 8 a.m.

Dorian peaked as a high-end Category 5 hurricane over Labor Day weekend, when it made landfall over the Bahamas.

At least 20 people have been reported killed by Dorian, but that figure is expected to rise as rescue crews get a better idea of the scope of the damage.

Heavy rain, strong winds, and dangerous storm surge remain possibilities in the forecast from Florida to southern Virginia, where states of emergency have been declared and mandatory evacuations have been issued, but also in some areas farther inland.

U.S. WARNS CHINA TO QUIT BUYING IRANIAN OIL, OFFERING $15M REWARD FOR INFO ON SANCTIONS-BUSTING: The Trump administration has stepped up its sanctions on Iran and is offering a $15 million reward for information on its embargo-busting, the Washington Examiner’s Joel Gehrke reports . It sent a special message to China during the announcement, warning it not to aid Iran by buying its oil.

“We will sanction any sanctionable activity,” Brian Hook, the State Department’s special representative for Iran, told reporters Wednesday. “We've already done that once with China. So that is our policy. We have demonstrated that many times since we left the deal.”

Hook was responding to China’s reported decision this week to invest $280 billion in Iran’s oil industry in defiance of the sanctions that Trump’s team hopes will force Iran to agree to new curbs on its nuclear program and regional aggression. The pledge came as the administration unveiled sanctions on a major Iranian “oil-for-terror” network that generates funding for the elite Quds Force in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps — in part from customers in China.

Chinese oil trader Zhuhai Zhenrong and its chief executive were recently sanctioned for importing Iranian fuel.

LEADING GOP CLIMATE SKEPTIC JIM SENSENBRENNER IS RETIRING: Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, a leading Republican skeptic of climate change, announced Wednesday he would not run for reelection next year after holding his seat since 1979, making him the second-longest serving member of the House.

Sensenbrenner was the ranking member of a previous iteration of the Select Climate Change Committee created by House Democrats in 2007, where he took an adversarial approach to the job as Democrats were considering a cap-and-trade bill.

"People might call me a climate change denier — my position on climate change is yes, I do believe there is human impact on climate change, but there is no consensus whatsoever on how much impact there is," Sensenbrenner told me in an interview early this year.

He angled to lead the new version of the select climate committee revived by Speaker Nancy Pelosi last year, but was denied the post by GOP leadership in favor of Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana, who subscribes to mainstream climate science.

Sensenbrenner is the latest House Republican to call it quits after 2020, a reflection in part of the GOP's minority status after the 2018 Democratic wave. Including Sensenbrenner, 13 House Republicans have announced their retirements, compared to three House Democrats.

DEMOCRATIC ATTORNEYS GENERAL THREATEN TO SUE OVER TRUMP’S ‘WAR’ ON LIGHTBULB EFFICIENCY: California’s Xavier Becerra led a coalition of Democratic state attorneys general vowing to sue the Trump administration over its “war” on lightbulb efficiency.

The Energy Department finalized a rollback of rules requiring more energy-efficient specialty light bulbs on Wednesday, a topic which got a surprising amount of coverage at CNN’s climate change town hall, where Democrats universally condemned the move.

A coalition of 16 Democratic attorneys general wrote comments opposing the Trump administration’s action, saying it was arbitrary and capricious and unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act.

“This is but another dim-witted move that will waste energy at the expense of our people and planet,” Becerra said.

The Rundown

New York Times Democrats say their climate plans will create jobs. It’s not so simple.

Axios The decline of American coal is taking a toll on the railroad industry

Politico Democrats split from Obama playbook with aggressive climate plans

Calendar

THURSDAY | SEPTEMBER 5

House and Senate are out of session.