TRUMP’S SUPREME COURT PICK IN ENVIRONMENTAL CROSSHAIRS: Democrats and environmental groups re-upped their attack on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Friday, pressing for new scrutiny over the judge’s environmental record as reason enough to block his confirmation.

“A cursory review of Judge Kavanaugh’s legal writing reveals a jurist who has consistently read statutory and regulatory language in the manner most adverse to environmental protections,” a group of Democrats led by Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware wrote in a letter sent to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley on Friday morning.

In the letter, they state that Kavanaugh’s record as judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals shows he is hostile to renewable energy, questions the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and wants to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Dems want access to all documents: Carper, the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, and the other committee Democrats on the letter, want Grassley to hand over all documents pertaining to Kavanaugh’s environmental record, especially those related to his time at the White House when George W. Bush was president.

A special focus paid to his formative years: The Democrats say his formative years in Washington could be the most revealing on how he would rule as court justice.

“As you know, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is tasked with overseeing environmental issues ranging from clean air and clean water to toxic chemicals and climate change,” the letter explained. “It is therefore essential that this Committee be provided with complete access to Judge Kavanaugh’s records on matters related to our environment, particularly records from his time as the White House Staff Secretary and as White House Counsel.”

Dems threaten to block nominee if documents withheld: The letter included a thinly-veiled threat that without the information provided on Kavanaugh’s past, the Democrats would deem the confirmation process a sham and block the nominee.

Confirmation hearings to begin Sept. 4: The hearing for Judge Kavanaugh to serve as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court are set to begin September 4, according to the Judiciary Committee. The GOP leadership has indicated they would like him confirmed by the Senate before the end of October.

Liberal groups ready nationwide protest this weekend: Environmental and liberal groups also upped their game to show nationwide displeasure with the nominee. On Sunday, Moveon.org is staging a nationwide day of protest against Kavanaugh nomination.

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STATES PUSH BACK AGAINST COURT’S REINSTATING OBAMA-ERA WATER RULE: A group of state attorneys general are pushing back against a federal court decision last week reinstating the controversial Obama-era Waters of the U.S. rule.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, joined by the attorneys general from Louisiana and Mississippi, announced Thursday that they filed a motion in the District Court for the Southern District of Texas, asking for a nationwide injunction against enforcement of the WOTUS rule, as it is known.

The motion framed the rule as an illegal overreach by the Obama administration's Environmental Protection Agency.

Last week’s court defeat: The district court of South Carolina ordered the Trump EPA last week to reverse its effort to delay the water rule while the agency works on a replacement.

“The WOTUS rule infringes on the states’ ability to regulate their own natural resources, including ponds, puddles and streams on private property, and poses a substantial burden to property owners whose land would be subject to new EPA regulations,” Paxton said in a statement. “We’re asking the district court to take immediate action to prevent enforcement of the unlawful rule.”

SENATE DEMOCRATS WARN TRUMP’S COAL RULE WILL KILL PEOPLE: Senate Democrats rallied Thursday against the Trump administration’s plan to gut President Barack Obama’s signature climate change initiative, predicting the move would harm the economy, create more pollution, and even kill people.

“This decision kills people,” Jeff Merkley of Oregon said as part of a series of planned speeches on the Senate floor. “Let's do right for Americans and reject this dirty power plan that will hurt us in every way possible.”

They have a point: The EPA’s proposal to weaken the Clean Power Plan regulating carbon emissions from coal plants could lead to between 470 and 1,400 premature deaths each year by 2030 compared to the Obama plan, the agency’s own findings say.

That’s because the weaker rule, announced Tuesday, would lead to a potential rise in soot and other particulate matter that contribute to health issues like asthma and lung disease.

The rewritten regulation proposed by the EPA does not set a specific target to reduce carbon emissions, as Obama’s Clean Power Plan did, and gives states the authority to write rules to make coal plants more efficient.

It’s not just pollution: Senate Democrats said the U.S is ceding leadership on climate change to countries such as China, which has ambitious renewable energy and electrification targets.

“The American economy will take a whack by our failure to win a transition to a low carbon economy,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. “We are all in this together, and are all made losers by this ridiculous rule."

But Democrats are powerless: The senators are helpless to stop Trump’s EPA from implementing the rule, but predicted the rule would be struck down in court, because they said the administration did not provide a compelling reason to weaken Obama’s plan.

EPA CHIEF TO VISIT COAL COUNTRY TO CELEBRATE RULE: Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is visiting coal-friendly Kentucky on Friday to sell his replacement coal regulation.

Wheeler will conduct a media briefing with Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky, from 1:45 to 2 p.m. ET. Kentucky, home to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is the nation’s fifth most coal producing state. Barr, who is facing re-election, belongs to the Congressional Coal Caucus.

CLIMATE ACTIVISTS DISRUPT DNC MEETING OVER PARTY’S BACKTRACK ON BAN OF FOSSIL FUEL DONATIONS: Twenty or so activists disrupted the Democratic National Committee's meeting in Chicago Thursday, protesting the party's recent reversal on a measure that would have banned donations from fossil fuel companies.

The protesters interrupted the Resolutions Committee, which is responsible for striking down the original ban.

Setting the scene: The demonstration, organized by the Sunrise Movement, a climate organization dedicated to engaging young voters, comes after the DNC passed a resolution earlier this month saying it “support[s] fossil fuel workers” and will accept donations from their employers' PACs.

Protesters' chants accused party leaders of "making it hard to breathe" and they held up banners telling the DNC to "stand with people, not corporate PACs."

Pressure to ban it back: Ahead of the DNC's three-day meeting in Chicago, 21 climate groups signed a letter to Chairman Tom Perez, urging the the committee to reinstate the ban.

The DNC argues that the resolution adopted two weeks ago did not reverse the ban, but reaffirms the party's "unwavering and unconditional commitment to the workers, unions and forward-looking employers that power the American economy."

SIERRA CLUB HOPEFUL NEW JERSEY WILL GREENLIGHT STATEWIDE PLASTIC BAN: New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy vetoed a bill Thursday imposing a 5 cent fee on plastic bags, which environmental groups say could be a step toward a total ban on all major plastic items such as straws and bags in the Garden State.

The Democratic governor rejected the bill establishing a fee on single-use carryout bags used in certain stores. The fee revenue would have gone to support a program to remove lead from schools.

Green groups say it’s a sign of tighter restrictions to come: The group Sierra Club and large coalition Environment America said the veto signals that Murphy is open to move a much more stringent bill that the environmental group prefers, which enacts a full ban on plastic bags, single-use straws, and polystyrene.

Murphy’s veto was followed by the California state assembly passing the “straw bill,” which is ready to be signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

The plastic bag ban is a trend that continues to grow: In addition, Kroger, the largest U.S. grocery-store chain, announced Thursday it will be phasing out single-use plastic bags and transition to reusable bags by 2025 in all its stores, starting with Seattle-based subsidiary QFC in 2019. In the Washington, D.C. region, the Kroger subsidiary is the ubiquitous Harris Teeter grocery chain.

The plastic bag phase out follows Kroger’s decision to divert 90 percent of its waste from landfills by 2020.

ENVIROS RAISE CONSTITUTIONAL CLAIMS WITH SUPREME COURT TO STOP TRUMP’S WALL: Conservation groups asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to block Trump’s proposed border wall, arguing that the administration’s use of an immigration law to waive environmental protections is unconstitutional.

The groups argue that the Department of Homeland Security’s use of authority under immigration law to waive endangered species and environmental protections violates several sections of the U.S. Constitution.

Lower court disagreed: The constitutional claims were rejected by a lower district court in a previous lawsuit aimed at blocking the border wall due to its environmental impacts. The did not agree that the Department of Homeland Security’s environmental waivers violated the law or Constitution.

The Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Animal Legal Defense Fund filed the petition with the high court.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS URGE WHEELER TO SCRAP ROLL BACK OF CHEMICAL SAFETY RULE: More than 60 House Democrats urged Wheeler on Thursday to suspend efforts to finalize a rule that would roll back safety standards at chemical facilities.

The pressure campaign comes after a federal appeals court last week threw out the EPA’s attempt to delay by 20 months Obama-era chemical facility safety rules, the latest judicial rebuke of the agency’s deregulatory agenda. Former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt moved to delay the rule while he considered whether to weaken it.

The next step after court blow: “While the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned this delay, you now have an opportunity to protect those who work and live in and around these facilities by withdrawing the agency’s proposed rule,” the 66 House Democrats wrote in a letter to Wheeler.

The Obama administration rule would require companies to better prepare for accidents at chemical plants and expand the EPA's investigative authority over them. It issued the regulation in response to a 2013 explosion at a chemical plant in Texas that killed 15 people.

ENERGY DEPARTMENT REPORT HIGHLIGHTS GROWTH OF WIND POWER: Breaking from the fossil fuel beat, the Energy Department released a report Thursday highlighting the growth of wind power, which now produces more than 30 percent of electricity in four different states.

Wind power last year provided more than 6 percent of nationwide electricity and over 30 percent in the states of Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.

Bigger turbines produce exploding growth: The U.S. added more than 7,000 megawatts of wind power capacity in 2017, equaling 25 percent of all U.S. power capacity that was added. Trump may predict a future of exploding windmills -- with no basis -- but his Energy Department says bigger turbines produced at lower prices are responsible for improving performance.

The job benefits are strong too: The businessman in Trump can appreciate the strong job prospects in the wind sector, which saw employment reach a new high of more than 105,000 full-time workers at the end of 2017.

OIL AND GAS GROUP OPPOSES RUSSIA SANCTIONS BILL: American Petroleum Institute, the main U.S. oil and gas trade group, came out Thursday against a proposed Russia sanctions bill in the Senate that would punish Moscow’s economy, including its energy sector, if it interferes in elections.

Legislation introduced by by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., would impose “severe consequences” if the director of national intelligence detects Kremlin interference, targeting not just at any implicated “senior Russian political figure or oligarch” but at business sectors including “finance, energy, defense, and metals and mining.”

Stay from out our business: API warns the bill would harm its business interests in Russia.

“Some of the provisions are so broadly drawn that U.S. companies – including natural gas and oil companies – could get caught in the crossfire and sustain unintended damage,” said Kyle Isakower, API’s vice president for regulatory and economic policy, in an op-ed for The Hill.

Isakower says that while previous sanctions on Russia have prevented American companies from working on future projects in Moscow, the proposed Senate bill would restrict current business. He adds that U.S. energy companies could be prevented from working on projects in neighboring countries that use pipelines or railways that cross into Russian territory to ship equipment, petroleum products, and byproducts.

CHINESE REFINER TO START BUYING US OIL AGAIN AFTER TARIFFS ARE DROPPED: The Chinese refiner Unipec plans to continue purchasing U.S. crude oil in October after China earlier this month abruptly changed course and removed oil from a list of American products it is subjecting to tariffs.

Unipec had stopped buying U.S. oil for two months anticipating tariffs, but will buy some American crude with that threat removed, Reuters reported Friday.

Why China changed course: The move shows how the energy-hungry country has limits on the trade war losses it can absorb.

China is the largest U.S. market for crude exports. U.S. crude oil exports to China went from nothing before 2016 to a record 15 million barrels in June.

Experts say China spared U.S. oil from tariffs because it may struggle to get it elsewhere due to disruptions from other major suppliers.

SENATE COMMITTEE ADVANCES ENERGY DEPARTMENT NOMINEES: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday advanced by voice vote two key Energy Department nominees, including Trump’s pick to be the top lawyer for the agency.

The committee had announced it was delaying the vote because of a lack of present members, but it quietly approved William Cooper to be DOE’s general counsel.

Cooper, if confirmed, would be keep in defending the Energy Department’s potential use of emergency powers to subsidize coal and nuclear plants.

The panel also approved Lane Genatowski, Trump’s nominee to lead the Energy Department’s innovation and science research program. The nominations now go to the Senate floor for a full vote to be confirmed.

SENATE’S PASSAGE OF MINIBUS SPENDING BILL WILL HELP COMBAT ALGAL BLOOMS: The Senate on Thursday approved an amendment to a “minibus” government spending bill that would help combat toxic algal blooms in Florida.

The amendment, sponsored by Rubio, provides $1 million to support research of algal blooms, which are killing wildlife and harming beaches in Florida, the senator’s home state. The minibus combines funding for the departments of Defense, Labor, Education and Health and Human Services.

The toll: An outbreak of toxic algal blooms, known as red tide, has lasted for nine months in waters off Florida’s southwestern coast. Almost 300 sea turtles have been found dead since January, the New York Times reported, and dead fish have washed ashore on beaches.

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