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PRUITT CAUSES CARPER TO STUMBLE IN FIGHT FOR ‘YES’ OR ‘NO’ ANSWERS: “These are not yes or no questions,” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said during a rapid-fire question-and-answer session that started a much-anticipated hearing Tuesday morning.

Pruitt can’t be pinned down: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, tried to pin him down with a series of pointed questions demanding yes or no answers. Pruitt and Carper sparred in the opening round of questioning, with Pruitt refusing to answer him with a simple yes or no answer. Dem gets frustrated: Carper, frustrated, stopped and stammered throughout the painful-to-watch session. No answer on climate endangerment finding: Pruitt refused to give him a definitive answer on whether the Trump EPA will attempt to repeal or replace the “endangerment finding” that gives the agency the authority to regulate climate change-causing greenhouse gas emissions. “For as long as you are administrator, do you commit to not take any steps to repeal or replace the endangerment finding, yes or no?” Carper asked, pointing out that the finding gave the Obama EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gases from vehicles in its fuel efficiency regulations. “No decision or determination on that,” Pruitt said after trying to explain that the agency is working through the revision of the Obama-era vehicle regulations. Pruitt received warm praise from Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., who applauded his push to reconsider the Waters of the United States Rule and the Clean Power Plan.

PRUITT: ‘THIS IS NOT DEREGULATION,’ IT’S ABOUT CERTAINTY: But Pruitt clarified that those moves were not deregulation but a way of creating regulatory certainty.

“This is not deregulation when it comes to WOTUS and the Clean Power Plan,” because “there are steps being taken to provide a replacement” for both regulations, Pruitt said.

On WOTUS, Pruitt said he anticipated the proposed substitute for the water rule coming out in the April-May timeframe, and finalizing it by the end of the year.

The water rule increased EPA’s jurisdiction over waterways to including everything from rivers to drainage ditches. States argued in court that the rule represented tremendous overreach. The rule Pruitt is working on would redefine a waterway under the rule.

Welcome to Daily on Energy, compiled by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers John Siciliano (@JohnDSiciliano) and Josh Siegel (@SiegelScribe). Email dailyonenergy@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.

TRUMP’S STATE OF THE UNION VS. ANTI-FOSSIL FUEL RESISTANCE: President Trump in his State of the Union address Tuesday night will lay out his infrastructure and energy priorities, while discussing his environmental deregulation achievements over the last 12 months. But the “resistance” led by environmentalists, Sen. Bernie Sanders and others will be preparing their chance to respond with the start of an anti-fossil fuel campaign.

Trump’s achievements: Trump in his speech likely will tout his recently proposed five-year offshore drilling plan, elimination of moratorium on coal mining, and the rollback of Obama-era climate regulations on existing and new power plants, just to name a few. Going fossil-free: Those policies will be targets of the new nationwide climate campaign that Sanders, Sanders, the former presidential hopeful from Vermont, and anti-fossil fuel champion Bill McKibben, founder of the group 350.org, are starting Wednesday. The effort is called Fossil Free U.S. and is aimed at opposing Trump’s pro-fossil fuel and pro-polluter agenda, according to Sanders and McKibben. Trump an ‘embarrassment:’ “President Trump’s position on climate change is pathetic and an embarrassment,” Sanders said ahead of the campaign launch. “The debate is over. Climate change is real. It is caused by human activity, and if we do not act aggressively to move away from fossil fuels, the impacts will get much worse,” he added. Sanders said the massive hurricanes of 2017 is proof of the kind of extreme weather that will become much more common as climate change continues unabated. “Now more than ever, millions of people must get engaged in the political process to demand that we finally put people before polluters,” he said. Environmental groups are coming out with their own repudiation of the Trump administration’s last 12 months of actions to promote coal, drilling, and curbing environmental protections on public lands. It’s not his words that matter: “Trump’s words at the State of the Union don’t matter, what matters are his actions,” said Erich Pica, president of the group Friends of the Earth, the first environmental group to endorse Sanders during the 2016 presidential elections. ‘Hellbent’ on destruction: “This administration is hellbent on destroying essential protections that safeguard our public health and protect our planet for future generations,” Pica added. “Coal companies are now free to pilfer our public lands, power plants can release countless toxins into the air, and Big Oil is giddy at the thought of drilling in the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico.”

ENDANGERED SPECIES LAW IN TRUMP’S CROSSHAIRS: The Trump administration has set its crosshairs on endangered species as it marches steadily toward removing federal protections for birds, reptiles, fish, mammals, and even plants.

Led by the Interior Department, the administration is dialing back Endangered Species Act protections to make it easier to build infrastructure and open public lands to more oil and natural gas drilling, a goal Trump stressed early in his first year in office.

Canadian lynx off the list: Most recently, Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to remove the Canadian lynx from the list of threatened species. A number of other species are set to be downgraded from endangered to threatened, according to the administration's regulatory agenda. Who is the walrus? The department early in the Trump administration took some high-profile actions on endangered species, such as not giving the Pacific walrus and more than a dozen other animals protections under the Endangered Species Act. Dark days: Environmental groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity have lashed out, calling the department’s decision on the walrus a “truly dark day” for wildlife. The group pointed out that not protecting the walrus in the Arctic was a precursor to Trump’s plan to make it easier for drillers to explore and produce there. Trump’s take on species recovery: The Interior Department says it has been focused on recovering species from the brink of extinction and its decisions to delist species reflect that effort. The administration says the point of listing a species as endangered is to see them recover. It argues that conservation and environmental groups don’t want species to recover, but want to use the listing to prohibit development by placing restrictions on land use.

DEMOCRATS UP ATTACK ON EPA AND PRUITT: The Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee issued a report Monday on the ways the Trump EPA is undermining environmental protections.

The report is called “Basically backward: How the Trump administration is erasing decades of air, water and land protections and jeopardizing public health.”

“In just one year, this administration has begun to systematically dismantle the environmental and public health protections Americans have relied on for a generation to protect their families from some of the most toxic, harmful pollutants known to man,” said Sen. Tom Carper, the top Democrat on the committee.

“Thanks in large part to the actions highlighted in this report that undermine the core mission of the EPA, ‘the state of our environment’ is not nearly as strong as it should be,” he said.

The report came out ahead of Pruitt’s testimony before the EPW committee.

Pruitt gets a scolding: Carper scolded Pruitt in his opening remarks, saying he can “do better” in coming before the Senate panel for oversight. Carper noted that his predecessor, Gina McCarthy, came before the committee six times, while Tuesday’s visit by Pruitt was his first visit since being confirmed early last year. Carper blasted Pruitt for scrubbing climate change information from the agency’s website. Carper said the enforcement actions Pruitt has taken were initiated during the Obama administration. ‘Stop doing it!’ Carper shouted at Pruitt for distorting the facts about the Obama administration. ‘It’s been too long:’ Pruitt opened with prepared remarks unphased by Carper’s bashing, saying “it’s been too long” since his last visit to the committee.

DEMOCRATS PRESSURE ZINKE TO BAN MINING, DRILLING IN BEARS EARS: House Democrats are challenging their Republican counterparts to press Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to ban mining and drilling in the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.

President Trump on Dec. 4 signed a proclamation cutting Bears Ears by more than 1.1 million acres, or 85 percent, and creating two smaller monuments instead.

Mine games: Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, planned to ask the panel at a hearing Tuesday to sign a letter urging Zinke to prohibit mining and drilling in the new monument area as well as in the land that was protected before Trump altered the boundaries. Bill me later: Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, introduced a bill last month that explicitly bars mining and drilling in the new monuments and the larger space protected by Obama, and enshrines Trump’s action into law. But Democrats have roundly opposed Curtis’ bill, arguing the ban on mining is disingenuous. They say Trump should have explicitly banned mining and drilling in his executive order if he was serious about not wanting it there. The new boundaries take effect Feb. 2 without the withdrawal of new oil, natural gas, and mining claims.

TRIBES BLAST TRUMP’S ‘UNLAWFUL’ ACTION, OPPOSE GOP BILL: Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, a former chairwoman of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and a member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, testified Tuesday morning that she and her fellow members were not consulted on Curtis’ bill and oppose it.

‘Deprive Indian nations’: She noted the co-management structure for tribes outlined by Utah Republicans in the bill would give representation to federal and local politicians and does not allow for full representation of all five tribes in the coalition. “Contrary to statements by Rep. Curtis that this bill empowers tribes, it does the opposite,” Lopez-Whiteskunk said. “It would effectively deprive Indian nations of that opportunity by vesting that authority with a management council that specifically lacks involvement of tribal officials appointed by their sovereign tribal governments. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe cannot support a bill that would legislatively confirm the president’s unlawful action.” Tribal ‘in name only’: Russell Begaye, the president of Navajo Nation, accused Utah Republicans of promoting tribal management of Bears Ears “in name only.” “The miniature monuments created by this bill would be managed by appointees of President Trump made in consultation with the Utah congressional delegation, and would be composed of only a fraction of tribal members. This bill’s ‘tribal management’ is tribal in name only,” Begaye testified Tuesday morning. ‘Opportunity’: But Rebecca Benally, the Republican vice chairwoman of the San Juan County Commissioners, representing the area where Bears Ears is located, said the Curtis’ bill provides tribes fair authority. “No group of people has more to lose or gain, than the local tribes,” said Benally, who is Navajo. “We use the land for hunting, wood cutting, gathering medicinal herbs and for sacred ceremonies. By creating the tribal management council, you are giving the Native American people the opportunity to manage the land of their ancestors and maintain access.”

HALF OF US MILITARY BASES REPORT CLIMATE EXTREMES, PENTAGON STUDY SAYS: About half of U.S. military facilities around the world have experienced climate extremes and threatening weather, according to a new Pentagon survey obtained and published Monday by a climate security think tank.

The survey, which was the first of its kind and was shared with Congress, said about half of the 3,500 sites it contacted reported effects from six key categories of extreme weather, such as storm surge, wildfires and droughts. The study was requested by Congress in 2015 and completed this month.

Climate change, now and then: The nonpartisan Center for Climate and Security posted the full report on its website Monday. It provides a wealth of data and begins to paint a preliminary “picture of assets currently affected by severe weather events ... as well as an indication of assets that may be affected by sea level rise in the future.” The report was conducted by the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. Not like Trump: The survey is at odds with the Trump administration’s recently released national security strategy, which dropped references to climate change in exchange for a focus on energy independence and American business.

EPA: COAL, OIL BIG WINNERS IN CLEANING UP ENVIRONMENT: Fewer toxic chemicals were released in 2016, according to a new report from the Environmental Protection Agency, with coal and oil-fueled power plants showing the greatest success.

EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory showed that 87 percent of the nearly 28 billion pounds of chemical waste was not released into the environment because of recycling, energy recovery and treatment.

Success: The biggest success story came from coal- and oil-powered electric utilities and paper manufacturing facilities, according to the report. The facilities “reported the greatest reductions, but nearly every sector reduced its air releases,” the EPA said. “Since 2006, air releases of TRI-listed chemicals fell 58 percent at industrial facilities submitting data to the program. The data was compiled when the Obama administration was still in power, and implementation of pollution controls on coal and oil power plants was a top priority. Coal promotion continues: Promoting coal use has been a priority for the Trump administration, and Tuesday’s EPA data could be used to demonstrate how coal is becoming cleaner. Trump often comments on his affinity for “clean, beautiful coal.” There will likely be a special place for clean coal in Tuesday night’s presidential address.

EXXON MOBIL TO SPEND $50 BILLION IN US, CITING TAX REFORM: Energy giant ExxonMobil announced plans Monday to spend $50 billion to expand its domestic business operations, citing the recently passed tax cut legislation.

"At Exxon Mobil, we plan to invest more than $50 billion over the next five years to expand our business in the United States. These investments are underpinned by the unique strengths of our company and enhanced by the historic tax reform recently signed into law," CEO Darren Woods said in a posting Monday on the company's website.

Game plan: Woods said the company plans to invest to to increase oil production in the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico, expand existing operations, improve infrastructure and build new manufacturing sites. “This will create thousands of jobs, strengthen the U.S. economy and enhance energy security," Woods said. He added Exxon is evaluating the impact of the lower corporate tax rate, reduced from 35 percent to 21 percent, as it considers expanding its facilities along the Gulf Coast. Company you keep: Exxon Mobil follows a slew of companies, including major employers such as Walmart, Bank of America, AT&T, American Airlines, and Comcast, that have said the tax reform legislation has made it possible for them to expand operations and reward employees. Unlike those companies, Exxon Mobil did not commit to raising employee wages or paying bonuses.

NEW JERSEY REJOINS GREENHOUSE GAS INITIATIVE: Newly elected New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, issued an executive order Monday for his state to rejoin a regional carbon trading program that his predecessor, Chris Christie, a Republican, had left.

Carbon pricing club: The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, established in 2007, requires power plants in participating states to buy permits for the carbon dioxide they emit. Nine other Northeast states belong to the program: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. Slowed progress: Christie pulled New Jersey out of the partnership nearly seven years ago. “Pulling out of RGGI slowed down progress on lowering emissions and has cost New Jerseyans millions of dollars that could have been used to increase energy efficiency and improve air quality in our communities,” Murphy said Monday. “We will grow the clean energy economy so New Jersey is once again a leader in technology, innovation and economic growth.”

TRUMP’S PICK TO LEAD NASA FACES LIKELY REJECTION IN SENATE: The Senate is likely to reject or indefinitely delay the nomination of conservative Oklahoma Rep. Jim Bridenstine to be administrator of NASA.

Space out: The Wall Street Journal reported Monday night that Bridenstine faces “insurmountable obstacles” to win confirmation, because of the likely opposition of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and potentially Sen. John McCain. Republicans hold only a two-seat advantage in the divided Senate. Rubio has said Bridenstine’s confirmation would lead to “the politicization of NASA” at “this critical stage of its history.” Climate crux: NASA sends astronauts into space, but it’s also one of the top agencies for studying the climate. Bridenstine has been dismissive of climate change. He is the first politician to be nominated as NASA administrator.

CHINESE COMPANY ANNOUNCES US SOLAR PANEL PLANT AFTER TRUMP TARIFFS: A Chinese solar panel manufacturer said Monday it intends to open a plant in the U.S., a week after Trump imposed tariffs on imported panels, which come mostly from China and Southeast Asia.

JinkoSolar said Monday that its board has authorized the company “to finalize planning for the construction of an advanced solar manufacturing facility in the U.S.”

Considering Trump: The company suggested the tariffs factored into its decision. “JinkoSolar continues to closely monitor treatment of imports of solar cells and modules under the U.S. trade laws,” the company said. Sunshine State link? The company would not provide further details of its plan. But the Wall Street Journal reported records filed in Jacksonville, Fla., show that company code-named Project Volt, billed as a “leading international manufacturer of solar panels and modules,” wants to open what would be “the company’s first manufacturing and assembly operation in the U.S.”

TRUMP STOKES GOP ENVIRONMENT CHIEF’S IRE BY FAILING TO PROVIDE FBI PLAN: Sen. John Barrasso, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, wants the Trump administration to explain why it failed to meet a key deadline on the General Services Administration’s construction plan for the FBI’s new headquarters in the Washington suburbs.

Unacceptable: “It is unacceptable that the GSA has failed to meet the deadline that they committed to,” the Wyoming Republican said Monday. “Just last week, the head of the agency assured me that I would receive a specific plan for the FBI headquarters project on time. The men and women of the FBI, who keep America safe, require an office building that meets their needs. It’s past time for the GSA to provide the committee with some real answers.” Pledge broken: The FBI pledged to Barrasso in August to deliver a new plan by the end of the year on how it will construct a new headquarters after its last plan was abruptly scuttled in July. FBI headquarters crumbling: Barrasso managed to secure the commitment during an oversight hearing he headed on why the project was canceled without first informing Congress. Barrasso said the alternative plan of retrofitting the crumbling Hoover Building in downtown Washington is unacceptable and a waste of resources. The FBI and the Government Services Administration unexpectedly canceled the project to build a new headquarters in July because of what it called a "funding gap" in the government's fiscal 2017 budget. Maryland and Virginia officials spent years working on their bids to win the highly prized relocation of the FBI. The three locations that were being considered were Greenbelt and Landover in Maryland and Springfield, Va.

RUNDOWN

Reuters Coal firms plead to courts, Trump for West Coast export terminals

Newsday New York offshore wind energy plan envisions $6 billion industry by 2028

Houston Chronicle Natural gas production expected to surpass consumption

Seattle Times Washington governor rejects permit for oil-by-rail terminal

New York Times Americans are staying home more. That’s saving energy

Miami Herald Don’t be distracted by the beauty. Florida’s national parks are falling apart

Wall Street Journal Want the scoop on Tesla’s Model 3? That will cost you $500,000

Bloomberg Europe’s natural gas market is heading south

Calendar

TUESDAY, JAN. 30

10 a.m., 406 Dirksen. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee holds an oversight hearing to receive testimony from EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.

epw.senate.gov

10 a.m., 366 Dirksen. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds votes on Trump Energy and Interior nominees, including: Melissa Burnison to be assistant secretary of Energy for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs; Susan Combs to be assistant secretary of the Interior for Policy, Management, and Budget; Ryan Nelson to be solicitor for the Department of the Interior; and Anne White to be assistant secretary of Energy for Environmental Management.

energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hearings-and-business-meetings?ID=05B5DB7D-B596-4B49-9A22-B1FB7CAE9A72

10 a.m., 2318 Rayburn. The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee will hold a hearing titled “Department of Energy: Management and Priorities.” science.house.gov/legislation/hearings/full-committee-hearing-department-energy-management-and-priorities

All day, Altoona, Iowa. Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit kicks off at the Meadows Conference Center.

iowarfa.org/summit/

2 p.m., 1324 Longworth. The House Natural Resources Committee’s subcommittee on federal lands holds a legislative hearing on a bill to create the first tribally managed national monument — the Shash Jáa National Monument and Indian Creek National Monument, formerly part of Bears Ears National Monument.

naturalresources.house.gov

9 p.m., President Trump gives the State of the Union address