Energy approps returns to Senate floor Presented by National Clean Energy Week

With help from Esther Whieldon, Alex Guillén, Darius Dixon, Elana Schor and Nick Juliano

ENERGY AND WATER APPROPS IN THE CURRENT: The energy and water spending bill returns to the Senate floor today, with a controversial rider vote on tap early. Critics of the Obama administration’s Waters of the U.S. rule will get another crack at it just before noon today, but as Pro’s Annie Snider reports, Sen. John Hoeven’s amendment to block funding for the rule is unlikely to find the 60 votes it needs to make its way onto the $37.5 billion spending bill. The Senate last year voted on a similar measure to block WOTUS, also known as the Clean Water Rule, but that bill came up two votes short and there’s no indication anyone has changed his or her mind since. It remains to be seen whether other amendments see votes today. Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander asked his colleagues to have amendments in by 1 p.m. today to put the chamber on a path to finish the bill early next week.

ARPA-E gets a boost: Sen. Brian Schatz became the first to amend the spending bill Wednesday, bumping funding for the popular ARPA-E program up to $325 million, from $293 million when the bill came out of committee, Pro’s Darius Dixon reports. The amendment, which passed 70-26, was cosponsored by Alexander and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the subcommittee. Aside from that, the debate over how to fund the Department of Energy, Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation got off to a relatively slow start Wednesday, when the spending bill came up following overwhelming passage of a standalone energy bill. The only other amendment to see a vote yesterday was Sen. Joni Ernst’s effort to defund the Appalachian Regional Commission, Delta Regional Authority, Denali Commission and Northern Border Regional Commission. It failed 25-71.

HAPPY THURSDAY! I'm your host Eric Wolff, and props to Treasury for the Tubman-on-the-$20 decision, even if it did take a popular musical to get them there. Send your tips, quips, and comments to [email protected], or follow us on Twitter @ericwolff, @Morning_Energy, and @POLITICOPro.

THREE CHARGED IN FLINT FIASCO, 'MORE TO COME': Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette charged two state environmental officials and a city staffer over the lead-contaminated water in Flint, Mich. As Pro's Annie Snider reports, Schuette said at a press conference Wednesday that his office is sorting through millions of emails and other documents, and he expects additional charges. "These charges are only the beginning, and there'll be more to come. That I can guarantee you," he said.

Senate Dems introduced Flint aid legislation: Stymied thus far in their attempts to bring aid to Flint and other cities facing similar problems, over two dozen Senate Democrats introduced a bill that would provide additional federal funding for water infrastructure, tax credits for homeowners to remove lead and grants to schools to help children deal with the effects of lead poisoning.

NORTHEAST ENERGY DIRECT TO NOWHERE: Kinder Morgan pulled the ripcord on the Northeast Energy Direct project, bailing on constructing a natural gas pipe through New England, Pro's Elana Schor reports. The company said in a statement it couldn't get enough commitments to use the pipe, nor does it have "a reasonable expectation of securing them." The project had been hammered by some New England's most prominent legislators, including presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, and Massachusetts Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren.

HOUSE PANEL MULLS MILITARY ENERGY IN NDAA: A House Armed Services subcommittee will examine the Navy’s green energy programs when it marks up its portion of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act this morning. The readiness panel’s bill (starting on page 179) includes instructions for the Defense Department’s Defense Logistics Agency to brief the committee on how it determines whether alternatives are cost-competitive with conventional petroleum fuels. The Navy, under Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, has been pushing hard to incentivize development of homegrown biofuels, but it has come under criticism over the cost. The bill also orders DOD to report on the feasibility of using commercial small modular nuclear reactors to power installations within a decade. And it asks the Government Accountability Office to investigate whether DOD is effectively repaying developers for “alternatively financed” energy projects (such as energy savings performance contracts). The markup is at 9:30 in Rayburn 2212.

THE NUCLEAR SHIP IS SAILING QUICKLY: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today will convene a hearing on legislation aimed at restructuring how the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is funded and laying anew path for advanced reactors. Chairman Jim Inhofe floated the bill just eight days ago, along with Republican Sen. Mike Crapo and Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Sheldon Whitehouse as original cosponsors. Witnesses include Victor McCree, NRC’s executive director of operations, and several nongovernmental experts. Ninety percent of the NRC's budget is covered by fees on its licensees, and as plants have shut down the commission has had to collect more money from each remaining operator to cover its budget. The bill, S. 2795, seeks to remake the fee-collection system before too many more plants go offline. The hearing starts 9:45 a.m. in Dirksen 406.

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/.

FERC-IN' MAN : This month’s FERC agenda is long and doesn’t setup action on any rulemakings, but it certainly seems like the meeting will be a chatty affair. Agency leaders have scheduled some discussion about what role electricity storage might play in regional markets. In letters sent to each of the market operators last week, FERC said that it was examining what barriers might exist for storage technology participating in the wholesale markets. Regulators gave the market operators three weeks to fork over data related to their rules and how they treat storage. The commissioners are also slated to hear about a range of grid modernization efforts from a panel of Energy Department and national lab officials, including Patricia Hoffman, the DOE assistant secretary leading the agency’s work on the issue.

While most of the agenda seemed fairly straightforward, one electric item caught our attention: FERC is poised to weigh in on a demand-response dispute that apparently had been on hold while courts determined whether the commission has authority over such programs. The Supreme Court said FERC can write DR rules in January. Today, FERC will weigh in on the dispute between PJM and its market monitor, Monitoring Analytics. Back in 2014, the firm argued that PJM needed more rules around demand response resources, such as a cap on the prices they can offer, in order to correct a “design flaw” in the market. The meeting starts at 10 a.m. at FERC’s 888 First St. N.E. headquarters.

PIPELINE SAFETY BILL HEADS DOWN THE AISLE: The House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee unanimously passed its version of pipeline safety reauthorization legislation yesterday, setting up a marriage of sorts with the work product from the Energy and Commerce Committee, which shares jurisdiction over the issue. The committee defeated two amendments from Democratic Rep. Rick Nolan promoting the use of U.S. steel before moving on to approve the bill by voice vote.

VIRGIN ISLANDS AG DEMANDS DOCS FROM ANOTHER GROUP: As part of his investigation into ExxonMobil's climate activities, Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker subpoenaed documents from a DCI Group, a public relations firm that represents numerous conservative and free market groups, Pro's Andrew Restuccia reports. The subpoena went out around the same time he subpoenaed documents from the free market think tank the Competitive Enterprise Institute. CEI issued its formal opposition to the document demand in federal court on Wednesday.

FAHRVERG-NEWS-EN: VW AND U.S. HAVE A DEAL: Volkswagen will pay more than $1 billion to compensate owners of cars with the company's cheat devices, and it will buy back some of the 600,000 vehicles affected, the AP reports. The deal, which does not include final details yet, will be announced in district court in California tomorrow to meet a deadline imposed by Judge Charles Breyer.

COURT PUTS FLORIDA NUKE EXPANSION IN JEOPARDY: An appeals court in Florida struck down a state decision that permitted the expansion of Florida Power & Light Co.'s Turkey Point nuclear plant near Miami. As POLITICO FLORIDA's Bruce Ritchie reports, the decision rejected permission granted FP&L by the state to build large-scale power lines through Miami-Dade and nearby wetlands. The court found that an administrative law judge had incorrectly disregarded local rules that limit such permitting. The decision remanded the case back to the Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet, which handles siting decisions.

ARTISANAL, SMALL-BATCH SOLAR FROM ETSY: Etsy, an online marketplace for DIY and vintage knick-knacks and crafts, will allow its vendors to install solar panels at a discount. The company is today announcing it is partnering in a solar pilot program with Geostellar — a firm that calculates possible electricity bill savings, connects customers with installers, and helps them figure out financing. Etsy sellers in Florida, New York, West Virginia, and Utah can receive an average discount of about $2,000 on their solar installations in exchange for letting Etsy claim it has offset the carbon emissions from shipping products.

GREENS SUE WEST VIRGINIA OVER MINE DISCHARGE: West Virginia has failed to clean up coal mines that forfeited their bonds and were left to the state to clean up, three environmental groups argue in two new Clean Water Act lawsuits against the state's Department of Environmental Protection. Five sites in three counties are discharging pollutants above the levels allowed under their permits, and West Virginia should have to clean up the sites post haste, argue West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, West Virginia Rivers Coalition, and Sierra Club. The state “needs to do everything in its power to prevent them from threatening our communities and our clean water,” said Liz Wiles, chair of the state Sierra Club chapter. Click for the lawsuits filed in U.S. district courts for Southern and Northern West Virginia.

THE DUST (RULE) HAS SETTLED: The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will not revisit its January ruling that broadly upheld the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s coal dust rule. In a short order issued Wednesday, the court said that the original panel would not rehear the case, and that the full circuit is also uninterested. It’s unclear whether the challengers will make a play for a Supreme Court appeal. Murray Energy said it will not go to the high court, and the National Mining Association says it has not yet made a decision.

SOMEONE CALL TEMPERANCE BRENNAN ! Human remains in the form of a skull and another bone were found in a drainage ditch on the property of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on April 18, the lab said on Wednesday. The Alameda County Coroner searched the property and located two more bones later in the week. The coroner is trying to identify the bones. Foul play is not suspected, pending the investigation.

MAIL CALL:



— Greens to Senate: No riders! In a letter sent to the Senate Wednesday, 10 green groups, including the League of Conservation Voters, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Sierra Club, called on the Senate to pass the Energy and Water Appropriation bill with no anti-environmental riders especially EPA's Waters of the U.S. rule. "The appropriations process should not be used to roll back fundamental health and environmental safeguards," the groups said.

— Republicans to EPA: Naughty agency! A group of 144 Republican House members and one Democrat, Rep. Brad Ashford, sent a letter to the EPA chastising it for spending federal dollars on a website and billboards in Washington State. "The whatsupstream.com campaign appears to be part of an alarming trend where EPA engages in funding advocacy efforts against the very entities it is seeking to regulate," the letter said.

QUICK HITS

— Blankenship’s prison report date is May 12, Charleston Gazette-Mail: http://bit.ly/1Vlk0vE

— Dutch Court Overturns $50 Billion Ruling Against Russia in Yukos Case, NYT: http://nyti.ms/1Qoz57k

— U.N. members fear U.S. 'sabotage' of Obama's climate commitments, Reuters: http://reut.rs/1XJor11

— Russia and Norway Use Saudi Oil Strategy in Europe's Gas Market, Bloomberg: http://bloom.bg/1U6VGfx

THAT'S ALL FOR ME!

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