Trump dangles greatness in front of coal industry Presented by National Clean Energy Week

With help from Esther Whieldon and Annie Snider

COAL INDUSTRY WANTS TO BE MADE GREAT AGAIN: The coal industry, a business in free fall due to a one-two punch from cheap natural gas and federal health and environment rules, is making tiny, hopeful noises about a potential Donald Trump administration. As Pro's Alex Guillén reports, the Donald has occasionally mentioned coal in his speeches, and in a Louisville rally promised coal would "make a very big comeback, okay?" But he's offered scant details on how he'll make that happen. “I’m willing to take that risk,” said Mike Duncan, head of the industry-backed American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity and a former Republican National Committee chairman.

Ambivalence abounds: Robert Murray, who runs Murray Energy and serves on the host committee for the Republican National Convention this year, wants to know more about Trump's plans. "Donald Trump has made some comments that he supports energy and coal, but they haven’t been strong enough to catch anybody’s attention in the coal industry that I can see," he said. Murray is splitting his bets, hosting a fundraiser for Trump's nearest competitor, Sen. Ted Cruz, but stopping short of an endorsement. Bill Bissett, president of the Kentucky Coal Association is waiting to see who Trump chooses as an adviser. "It’s more [about] waiting to see who’s around him, what he says, and what his position moving forward is. If he’s going to get support in Appalachia ... it would be through embracing fossil fuels.”

Speaking of coal, former President Bill Clinton gave coal miners a shout-out while stumping for his wife in Cheyenne, Wyo., yesterday, according to the Casper Star Tribune. “In the end, we’re going to be phasing into a new energy future,” he said. “It’s going to be a long time, and Wyoming has the most efficient and lowest sulfur (coal) in the world.”

WELCOME TO TUESDAY! I'm your host Eric Wolff, and I am not one of the 276,000 people with reservations for a Tesla Model 3, because I've chosen to be a smug cyclist instead of a smug electric car owner. Are you one of the 276,000? If so, tell me why when you send your tips, quips, and comments to [email protected], or follow us on Twitter @ericwolff, @Morning_Energy, and @POLITICOPro.

KERRY WANTS MOSTLY CLEAN POWER BY 2050: In his first major climate change speech since the Paris agreement was struck in December, Secretary of State John Kerry will call for an acceleration of the transition toward clean energy. “If we’re going to stave off the worst impacts of climate change, we have to accelerate the transition to renewable energy," Kerry plans to tell the audience at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance's Future of Energy Summit in New York, according to his prepared remarks. "We need to get to a point where clean sources are generating most of the world’s energy, and we need to get there quickly — by the middle of this century.” Kerry is expected to praise the way the private sector is already changing world energy use. "Double down on what you’re already doing," he plans to tell them. Investors and entrepreneurs should "be confident that in the United States and governments around the world, you will have partners in this effort."

DESPITE FOSSIL MONEY SPAT, BOTH DEMS GREEN ENOUGH FOR GREENS: Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders have been sparring the last few days over the significance of the fossil fuel money Clinton took, much to Republicans delight. But as Pro's Elana Schor reports, whichever candidate becomes the Democratic nominee will almost certainly still get the backing of the green army — even if it's less than full-throated from the left flank. "It makes me uncomfortable when I see lobbyists from ExxonMobil donating to her campaign," Eva Resnick-Day, a Greenpeace organizer who drew a growl from Clinton after pressing the candidate on a rope line Thursday about her fossil-fuel money. "That being said, having Donald Trump ... that would be a horrible travesty."

Enviros pressure Clinton because it works: Newer, more aggressive green groups filled with young volunteers have been in Clinton's face over climate and environmental the whole campaign, and it seems to be working: Clinton has shifted away from positions she held as Secretary of State, backing away from her previous support for fracking and opposing the Keystone XL pipeline. "She has moved a ton during this election," said Yong Jung Cho, 25, an organizer with 350 Action. But "there's a lot more that she can do."

INHOFE SKEPTICAL ABOUT USING WRDA TO HELP FLINT: Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe threw some cold water on hopes to attach aid for Flint, Mich., to the Water Resources Development Act. "That's a possibility, not a probability," Inhofe told Pro's Andrew Restuccia. The bill, which is usually filled with Army Corps of Engineers projects, had been seen as an alternative way to get aid to Flint and other cities with lead water pipes if the logjam on an independent bill never breaks up.

FAA BILL MAY GET SOME RENEWABLE CARGO: Sens. Harry Reid and Ron Wyden are still hoping to attach a quartet of renewable tax breaks to an FAA bill that they say were mistakenly left off the big tax extender bill passed in December. As Tax Pro's Brian Faler writes, the FAA bill may be one of the last opportunities to save the tax breaks before they expire at the end of the year. The only other vehicle available may be a bill to deal with Puerto Rico's debt crisis.

CALIF. COMMISSIONER PROPOSES TO UNDO UTILITY BUSINESS MODEL: A member of the California Public Utilities Commission yesterday floated a plan to shake up the utility business model in the state. Commissioner Mike Florio's proposal would have the state’s three largest utilities identify locations where the benefit of adding new distributed generation, such as rooftop solar, would exceed the cost and, with the CPUC’s approval, arrange for those projects to be built. Local customers could propose to have their projects included in the plan. Although the exact formula has to be worked out, Florio envisions utilities would receive an incentive payment of 3.5 percent above what the distributed generators are paid. Florio is seeking comment on his proposal by May 2.

A message from National Clean Energy Week: All next week National Clean Energy Week Policy Makers Symposium brings together the country’s top renewable energy innovators with members of Congress, federal agency leadership, and clean energy champions from the private and nonprofit sectors. Be part of the #NCEW20 virtual experience: https://nationalcleanenergyweek.org/.

THE PADDLE

BP settlement is final, but the fighting’s not over: A judge signed off on a $20 billion settlement between BP and the federal government Monday over the 2010 oil spill, but a new fight arises: How all that cash will be spent. Environmental groups have been raising concerns about the governance structure for $8 billion in natural resources damage money, and the RESTORE Council, which oversees 30 percent of $5.5 billion tagged for Gulf-wide restoration, has been the scene of heated, back-room deal-making over the relatively small fraction of funding it received from the Transocean settlement in 2012. National Wildlife Federation President Collin O’Mara sent a shot across the council’s bow in a statement yesterday: “As a nation, we can’t stop paying attention now that the settlement is final — we must strive to see that the money is spent wisely and efficiently to achieve real and lasting restoration and the renewal of one of America’s greatest ecosystems.”

Florida may go to the limit over Georgia water claim: Florida isn't backing down on its U.S. Supreme Court case against Georgia over the Peach State's plans to withdraw more water from a key river system to feed Atlanta’s booming suburbs even as Florida’s oyster population remains on life support. A court-appointed mediator has been pressing both sides to resolve the dispute through negotiations. But Florida says it's not giving up its right to the courts, and the mediator isn’t sending hopeful signals either, reports POLITICO Florida’s Bruce Ritchie.

Shooting the Rapids:

— Drought-Stricken California Misses Conservation Target. AP: http://abcn.ws/1Tx1WNu

— Was the Flint water crisis just politics as usual for Clinton and Sanders? MLive: http://bit.ly/1MOZ11h

— NASA is facing a climate change countdown. NYT: http://nyti.ms/227Qx76

LCV GETS IN THE SENATE GAME IN NEVADA: The League of Conservation Voters launched its first field operation Monday in support of a Senator in 2016, backing Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, to replace retiring Sen. Harry Reid. “We are hitting the ground early to get the message out to Nevada voters that they have a clear choice between Catherine Cortez Masto, an environmental champion, and Joe Heck, an ally of big polluters,” LCV National Campaigns Director Clay Schroers said in a statement.

Elsewhere in the Silver State, The Environmental Defense Fund on Monday joined an effort by the Bring Back Solar Alliance to overturn a decision by Nevada regulators to cut net-metering payments for rooftop solar customers. The group is asking the state legislature to reverse the regulators decision after having a proposed ballot measure blocked in court.

EMILY'S LIST PRAISES MCGINTY FOR GREEN JOBS: EMILY's List's Super PAC is up with an ad supporting Katie McGinty in the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania senate. As Campaign Pro Kevin Robillard reports, the ad highlights McGinty's creating clean-energy jobs while working for former Gov. Ed Rendell, among other aspects of her record.

FLORIDA MAN ALARMED BY CLIMATE CHANGE AS FLOOD WATER SWIRLS AROUND ANKLES: A survey released Monday found that 81.3 percent of Floridians are concerned about climate change, an increase of 14.3 percentage points from a year ago. The results of the St. Leo University survey become less surprising given an additional report from POLITICO Florida's Bruce Ritchie on a University of Miami study finding that flooding in Miami Beach related to extreme high tides called "king tides" has risen significantly since 2006.

POLITICAL THEATER AT ANCHORAGE LEASE PROTEST: The Center for Biological Diversity is throwing a protest at an Anchorage, Alaska public hearing on BOEM's leasing sale for 2017-2022 in the hopes of getting the administration to pull the arctic out of the lease sale. As Pros know, this is the same lease sale that dropped Atlantic drilling when it was announced last month, but it left open the possibility of drilling in Alaska — pending public comment. The protest sounds like a heck of an event: CBD says it will include political theater, "visuals" and an appearance by Frostpaw, CBD's grim-visaged protest bear.

BLANKENSHIP OWES ALPHA NATURAL RESOURCES NOTHING: A federal judge ruled Monday that Don Blankenship, the convicted former CEO of Massey Energy who ran the company during a deadly mine disaster, does not owe $28 million to Alpha Natural Resources, the company that bought Massey after the explosion. The company bought Massey well after the end of the conspiracy for which Blankenship was convicted, and the purchase "represented an independent, intervening act severing any imaginable causal link to" Blankenship's actions, she concluded.

MAIL CALL!

— Yucca it up: Rep. Jeff Duncan and 13 of his House colleagues want to make sure nothing bad happens to plans for a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. As POLITICO's Budget & Appropriations brief reports, the legislators sent a letter to appropriators asking to ensure that no funds would make Yucca unusable in the future. The group knows that this will be the last appropriations hurrah for staunch Yucca opponent, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid.

— Murkowski objects to FWS' non-subsistence rule: Sen. Lisa Murkowski, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, would like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to withdraw a proposed rule regulating the non-subsistence take of predators on Alaska refuges and update of rules for the closure of the refuges. In a letter Service chief Dan Ashe, she writes, "With this Proposed Rule, the Service seems to be headed in exactly the wrong direction."

MOVER, SHAKER: NEW PHMSA COUNSEL: Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx appointed on Monday Teresa Gonsalves, a former lawyer at the Office of Personnel Management and the U.S. Postal Service, as chief counsel for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

QUICK HITS

— Judge: Climate change imperils wolverines and feds must act, AP: http://bit.ly/1XdKlZP

— India's Iran oil imports set to surge to seven-year high in 2016/17: sources, Reuters: http://reut.rs/1q26PC8

— Why Your Utility Bill's Still Rising Even When Power's So Cheap, Bloomberg: http://bloom.bg/227Z3CT

— What Will California Do With Too Much Solar?, KQED: http://bit.ly/1YbZTxo

THAT'S ALL FOR ME!

Follow us on Twitter Matt Daily @dailym1



Kelsey Tamborrino @kelseytam



Anthony Adragna @anthonyadragna



Gavin Bade @gavinbade



Zack Colman @zcolman



Alex Guillen @alexcguillen



Ben Lefebvre @bjlefebvre



Annie Snider @annelizabeth18



Eric Wolff @ericwolff

Follow Us