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STATES ON TRACK TO MEET PARIS DEAL WITHOUT TRUMP: In about an hour, former Secretary of State John Kerry will lead governors in announcing that 14 states and Puerto Rico are on track to meet their Paris climate agreement goals, even as the Trump administration exits the pact.

The update comes as world leaders are in the city this week for the annual U.N. General Assembly.

It’s no surprise that the announcement will be made from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Manhattan office. Cuomo is one of the leaders of the states’ U.S. Climate Alliance alongside the likes of California Gov. Jerry Brown and Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington. They came together after Trump’s June 1 decision to withdraw from the 2015 climate deal, which Kerry helped engineer as a part of the Obama administration.

They plan to announce that the states remain “on track to meet their share of the U.S. commitment under the Paris Agreement.” They will issue a report “tracking the states’ emissions across all economic sectors, and detail new avenues for further bipartisan, interstate cooperation on climate change.”

The states emphasize that they represent 33 percent of the nation’s population, 1.3 million clean energy jobs and more than $7 trillion of the economy, in arguing why their pledge to meet the Paris Agreement is significant.

GRAHAM ENDORSES CARBON TAX: Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina announced Tuesday night at Kerry’s two-day climate conference at Yale University that he endorsed a carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and would be working with Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island to push legislation. Many scientists blame greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels for driving manmade climate change.

"I'm a Republican. I believe that the greenhouse effect is real, that CO2 emissions generated by man is creating our greenhouse gas effect that traps heat, and the planet is warming," said the South Carolina senator in a transcript of his pre-recorded message to the conference. "A price on carbon — that's the way to go in my view."

Republicans under wraps: Yale appeared to have kept Graham’s comments under wraps by not livestreaming them. The university said it would release a recording later in the day, which never came. Time Magazine obtained a transcript, which is how Graham’s comments got out, but it contained nothing on what Sen. John McCain said. Like Graham, the Arizona Republican was scheduled to deliver a pre-recorded message to the Kerry Initiative conference. Kerry thanked both Republican senators in a tweet for pledging to work in a bipartisan way on climate change.

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TRUMP: ‘NEVER SEEN WINDS LIKE THESE’: Commenting on Hurricane Maria’s strike on Puerto Rico, President Trump voiced astonishment Wednesday morning at the storm’s power. “We have a big one going right now — I've never seen winds like this — in Puerto Rico,” he said. “You take a look at what's happening there, and it's just one after another. But I think we are doing a good job.”

But still no word on global warming having a role to play in the string of record-breaking storms battering the region. The administration is focused solely on its response to the damage and loss of life. Trying to tie climate change into the devastation right now is “insensitive” to the suffering, according to the administration. Scientists don’t blame global warming for the storms, but say the storms’ ferocity and strength is a result of a hotter planet.

MEANWHILE, OSCAR WINNER BLAMES STORMS ON TRUMP’S INACTION: Leonardo DiCaprio brought a close to the Yale climate conference on Tuesday night with a strong indictment of public leaders for ignoring climate change.

Hurricanes are self inflicted: The actor and United Nations climate envoy said the recent hurricanes in the United States are primarily self-inflicted because of the U.S.’s inability to take the issue seriously. The facts have been presented "time and time again, year after year, for decades" and "quite simply, we are knowingly doing this to ourselves, to our entire planet, and we're risking our very future," DiCaprio said in giving the closing address at the two-day conference hosted by former Secretary of State John Kerry.

SOLAR INDUSTRY BRACES FOR TARIFF DECISION: The International Trade Commission will decide by Friday if the U.S. solar industry is being hurt by cheap solar imports, mostly from Asian countries, setting up the opportunity for President Trump to impose tariffs.

As decision day nears, companies across the solar energy industry, one of the rising sectors in the U.S. economy, tell the Washington Examiner that a ruling in support of tariffs would harm the industry's progress by increasing their costs and would force them to raise prices for consumers.

‘Exceedingly harmful’: "It's the 88,000 job question," said Abigail Ross Hopper, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, the main trade group for the U.S. solar industry, which estimates 88,000 U.S, jobs could be lost from a tariff. "The solar industry is booming, creating one out of 50 new jobs in the entire U.S. economy," Ross Hopper told the Washington Examiner. "Tariffs would put all of that at risk in a really fundamental way."

How we got here: While the wider U.S. solar energy opposes tariffs, two bankrupt U.S. companies are asking the Trump administration to act. In April, solar panel manufacturer Suniva, later joined by SolarWorld, petitioned the ITC for tariffs on solar cells and a price floor on modules for imports coming from anywhere in the world, arguing that cheap foreign products are harming the domestic panel industry. Striving for American made: The petitioning companies says although lower prices have allowed more Americans to go solar, U.S. producers are struggling to compete as foreign companies make solar panels at a lower cost. "The demand for solar is strong and growing," Tim Brightbill, an attorney representing SolarWorld, told us. "Unfortunately, imports have taken away almost all of that growth. We are saying, this is a strong market, we should be manufacturing these products here." ‘No problem’: But other players say the market is ripe to make it in America, and they blame the petitioning companies for bad business practices. "There's no problem making solar in the U.S.," said Dan Shugar, the CEO of NEXTracker, a solar power tracking company. "It's doable if you are a well-capitalized company that has a product that's differentiated. You can totally do it." What’s at stake: Solar costs have fallen by about 70 percent since 2010, and the domestic industry now employs more than 260,000 people. A decision by the ITC that the U.S. solar panel industry has been harmed by foreign companies could upset that progress. If the trade commission agrees to grant the petition, it will have until November to recommend specific actions to the Trump administration, which would then have two months to issue a potential remedy, such as tariffs.

TRUMP’S EPA NOMINEES FACE DELAY: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee postponed a confirmation hearing scheduled for Wednesday on four of Trump’s EPA nominees, as the Senate decided Tuesday to adjourn for the week.

The nominees are: Michael Dourson to run the agency's chemical office; Matt Leopold to be general counsel; David Ross to run the water office; and William Wehrum's contentious bid to be the EPA's top air official. The committee also will consider Jeffery Baran's renomination to another five-year NRC term. Nominees face scrutiny: The delay comes as critics are probing the EPA nominees’ records. The New York Times published a story Tuesday highlighting Dourson’s ties to the chemical industry, which he would be expected to regulate if confirmed. The Times says Dourson founded a consulting group that represented companies that produced chemicals now under EPA review for their public health risks. Also under fire… Democrats, meanwhile, have targeted Wehrum, an energy industry lawyer and former EPA official who would oversee a portfolio dealing with climate change regulations. It’s widely considered the second most important EPA job, and Democrats say Wehrum’s industry ties would complicate his ability to re-evaluate carbon emissions regulations that Pruitt has tabbed for review.

Who’s who of clients: Wehrum’s clients have included the American Petroleum Institute, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, the American Chemistry Council and the National Association of Manufacturers.

ZINKE INSTALLS DEER SHOOTER GAME: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke installed the video game “Big Buck Hunter” in the department’s cafeteria Tuesday to make a point about conservation.

He tweeted: “To highlight #sportsmen contributions 2 conservation I installed Big Buck Hunter in the employee cafeteria. Get excited for #hunting season!” He is referring to an executive order he signed last week to open up national parks and monument areas to more hunting and fishing. Zinke posted the tweet with a photo of him standing by the 17-year-old arcade-style video game with a grin on his face. See for yourself if the game lives up to his intended expectations. Blast from the past: “Big Buck Hunter” was a popular deer hunting video game that came out in 2000. The game’s popularity spurred the creation of several other variants.

New versions were released until 2012.

NO DOUBT ON PARIS CLIMATE DEAL: In case there were lingering questions, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt reiterated Tuesday there is "no confusion" about Trump's decision to leave the Paris international climate change agreement.

Out, no doubt: “As far as the exit is concerned, there is no confusion there," Pruitt said at the Concordia Annual Summit in New York. "The exit is occurring." Sound familiar? The Trump administration has tried to clarify to other nations at the U.N. General Assembly its position on the climate change pact, after European officials last weekend suggested the U.S. could reconsider its position on the Paris Agreement.

Reminder: All of this “will he or won’t he” discussion is more political theater than anything. It takes three years to formally withdraw from the climate deal under U.N. rules, which means the exit will occur during the 2020 presidential election.

NO DOUBT VS. NO NEGOTIATION: French President Emmanuel Macron said negotiating a new deal under the Paris climate agreement will not happen.

President Trump was seeking to re-negotiate the deal if it were possible, but it looks like that idea is not going anywhere.

Macron made the comments in his address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York Tuesday.

SENATE DEMS TAKE ANOTHER STAB AT MINING REFORM: The Democratic senators used the 2015 Gold King Mine disaster to make their case on why the bill is necessary after failing to pass it two years ago.

The disaster, which was caused by an Environmental Protection Agency contractor, sent toxic metals pouring into tributaries and caused the Animas River in Colorado to turn bright orange, sullying the waterways of three states.

What the bill does: The bill requires companies that mine gold, silver, copper, and other hard rock minerals to pay royalties "for the first time" for the right to dig up the resources on public lands. The Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2017 ensures companies pay for cleanup activities to avoid another Gold King spill. The supporters: Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Michael Bennet of Colorado, Ron Wyden of Oregon, and Ed Markey of Massachusetts introduced the bill. It is supported in the House by Democratic Rep. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico.

RUNDOWN

New York Times Caribbean nations seek permanent U.N. funding source to help them deal with climate change

Wall Street Journal The North Sea is suddenly an oil hot spot

Reuters Diesel cars are no better for the environment than petroleum vehicles, German Transport Ministry

Bloomberg Renewable energy will reap 86 percent of the $10.2 trillion likely to be invested in power generation by 2040, report says

Axios Ex-Obama, Clinton aides launch group to promote renewable energy jobs in red states

Reuters Germany to miss EU renewable energy goal

Bloomberg China considers opening up market to foreign electric carmakers

Calendar

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 20

12:30, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Office, New York. Govs. Jerry Brown, Andrew Cuomo and Jay Inslee will hold a press conference to announce that the states in the U.S. Climate Alliance are on track to meet their share of the U.S. commitment under the Paris Agreement. Live stream

4 p.m., 1521 16th St. NW. The Institute of World Politics hosts lecture called "Energy Security: New Market Realities" with Sara Vakhshouri of SVB Energy International. The lecture will discuss how the rise of North America's shale oil and gas production has changed market dynamics, energy trade flow and energy security. iwp.edu/events/detail/energy-security-new-market-realities

THURSDAY, SEPT. 21

3:30 p.m., Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The GAIN Coalition holds a conference called “Energy for All: Examining America’s Diverse Infrastructure. Moderated by former Rep. Albert R. Wynn of Maryland. Panelists include Paula Glover, president and CEO of American Association of Blacks in Energy; P. Anthony Thomas, director of Government Affairs at California Independent Petroleum Association; Ryan Boyer, Business manager of the Laborers' District Council of Philadelphia. gainnow.org

FRIDAY, SEPT. 22

International Trade Commission to make Solar Trade Petition Injury Determination.

usitc.gov/

10 a.m.,1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts Bjorn Otto Sverdrup, senior vice president for Sustainability at Statoil, to present Statoil's Climate Roadmap. csis.org/events/statoils-climate-roadmap