Overnight Energy: Trump to visit Flint water plant Wednesday

TRUMP TO FLINT: Donald Trump is planning Wednesday to visit Flint, Mich., and its water plant, as the city struggles to recover from a devastating drinking water crisis.

Campaign officials told news outlets such as the Detroit News and AP about the planned trip, but did not go into many details about the Republican presidential candidate’s schedule.

{mosads}Trump has been working in recent weeks to reach out more to black communities, including a recent visit to Detroit and to a majority-black church there.

Democrats have been more vocal than Republicans about Flint, a majority-black city whose water has been tainted with lead since a Gov. Rick Snyder (R) appointee switched Flint’s water source in April 2014.

Hillary Clinton visited the city twice during the primary season, and participated in a Democratic presidential primary debate there with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Trump told the Detroit News earlier this month that the Flint crisis “is a situation that would have never happened if I were president.”

Read more here.

PIPELINE DEVELOPER WILL ‘TRUST THE PROCESS’: The company behind the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline project says it will “obey the rules and trust the process” as the Obama administration considers whether new assessments of the pipeline are necessary.

“I am confident that as long as the government ultimately decides the fate of the project based on science and engineering, the Dakota Access Pipeline will become operational, bringing a safer means of transportation to a much needed supply of oil to communities across the country,” Energy Transfer Partners Chairman and CEO Kelcy Warren wrote in a memo to staff.

“So we will continue to obey the rules and trust the process.”

The memo is a vote of confidence for the $3.8 billion project. It comes days after the Obama administration said it would halt construction on the 1,200-mile long pipeline while it considers whether new environmental tests for its route are necessary.

Warren’s memo, sent Tuesday, reiterated the company’s position that it did everything it could to consider objections from North Dakota tribes while routing the pipeline. He also dismissed concerns about the pipeline’s threat to drinking water supplies, and noted a judge’s Friday decision approving of federal permitting of the project.

Read more here.

The tribe responds: The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which is suing over the pipeline project, dismissed Warren’s memo on Tuesday.

“It is unfortunate that the corporate world chooses to ignore the millions of people and hundreds of tribal nations who stand in opposition to the destruction of our lands, resources, waters and sacred sites,” tribe chairman Dave Archambault II said.

“Energy Transfer Partners has proven time and time again that the bottom line for them is money. The bottom line for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is and will always be protecting our lands, people, water and sacred sites from the devastation of this pipeline. Our fight isn’t over until there is permanent protection of our people and resources from the pipeline.”

HOUSE GOP SOUNDS ALARM ON EPA REG: Republicans in two House committees pressed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Tuesday to justify a proposed regulation on hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used in air conditioning and refrigeration.

The leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s energy and power subcommittee and the House Small Business Committee warned in their letter that the April proposal is expensive and potentially illegal.

“We have serious concerns about this rule’s impact on American businesses and consumers, and we also believe that it exceeds the agency’s statutory authority by establishing a new and expansive global warming program never intended by Congress,” they wrote to the EPA.

The EPA is aiming to phase down HFCs, a potent greenhouse gas, and to allow the use of replacement substances.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY I: The Hill hosts an event at the Newseum called “Preparing for the Next Disaster: A Policy Discussion on Community Resilience,” featuring Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.), and Timothy W. Manning, Deputy Administrator for Protection and National Preparedness at FEMA. Topics of discussion include preparedness efforts to increase community resilience and the role of federal, state & local government in pre-disaster mitigation. RSVP and watch live here.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY II: The House Science Committee will hold a hearing on its subpoena power over state attorneys general investigating Exxon Mobil Corp.

The hearing is likely to solidify divisions between Republicans and Democrats over the subpoena process. Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) says his committee has the power to subpoena Eric Schneiderman (N.Y.) and Maura Healey (Mass.), two Democrats investigating allegations that Exxon lied about the extent of its climate science research. Democrats reject Smith’s contention and say state attorneys general shouldn’t have the federal government interfering in their investigations.

It’s one of the many subplots in the fight over Exxon’s climate science, and it will take center stage on Wednesday.

Rest of Wednesday’s agenda …

A Senate Appropriations Committee panel will hold a hearing on nuclear energy. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz will testify.

A federal judge will hear from the Standing Rock Sioux, which is appealing a ruling allowing the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

AROUND THE WEB:

In opening statements Tuesday in the federal trial of the accused occupiers of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, attorneys presented contrasting views of the protest as an armed, military-style occupation and as a political protest, the Oregonian reports.

Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital city, set a goal to be carbon-neutral by 2040, Voice of America reports.

Residents of Fresno, Calif., say a switch in water supplies has caused elevated lead levels in their drinking water, Reuters reports.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Tuesday’s stories…

-Utility reaches $4 million settlement in California gas leak
-Green Republican sees party ‘evolving’ on clean energy
-Trump plans to visit Flint
-Feds move to protect Joshua tree
-Chevy’s electric car to have 238 mile range
-Trump: Climate change science still needs to be ‘investigated’
-ND pipeline company will ‘trust the process’ after project halted

Please send tips and comments to Timothy Cama, tcama@digital-release.thehill.com; and Devin Henry, dhenry@digital-release.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @Timothy_Cama, @dhenry, @thehill