Overnight Energy: Trump visits Flint | GOP chairman defends subpoenas in climate probe

SUBPOENA FIGHT LIGHTS UP HOUSE: Congress has a “constitutional obligation” to subpoena state attorneys general in its investigation into their climate change-related probes, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said on Wednesday.

Smith, chairman of the House Science Committee, said at a hearing that as head of the House’s lead panel overseeing federal science programs, he is well within his rights and responsibilities.

{mosads}”The committee has a constitutional obligation to conduct oversight any time the United States’s scientific enterprise is potentially impacted,” he said.

Smith, a climate change skeptic, wants to learn more about the investigations of two Democratic attorneys general into whether Exxon Mobil Corp. committed fraud by allegedly denying global warming publicly while knowing internally that emissions from fossil fuels warm the climate.

He subpoenaed the attorneys general over the summer, looking for documents related to their investigation. The two attorneys general have refused to comply, and Democrats have supported their opposition.

Smith convened his Wednesday hearing to assert that his panel has power over the state officials and can enforce his wide-ranging subpoenas demanding numerous documents related to their work.

Democrats, led by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (Texas), shot back at Smith on Wednesday, saying his actions are little more than political stunts and comparing them to the House Un-American Activities Committee’s hunt for communist sympathizers.

“In my own mind, I have to go back to the Red Scares of the ’50s to recall a similar effort,” Johnson said.

Read more here.

TRUMP TALKS FLINT: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump toured a water treatment facility in Flint, Mich. on Wednesday, pledging to “fix the problem” plaguing the city’s drinking water supply if he’s elected in November.

“The damage can be corrected, and it can be corrected by people who know what they’re doing,” Trump said at an area church after touring the water facility.

“Unfortunately, the people that caused this tremendous problem had no clue. They had absolutely no clue.”

Michigan officials have been roundly criticized for switching Flint’s drinking water supply to a local river, which then corroded pipes and caused lead problems with the city’s water.

The state eventually moved Flint’s water supply back to a Detroit municipal source. But recovery efforts in the city are ongoing.

“It’s amazing the damage that’s been done,” Trump said. “But we’ll get it fixed, and it’s going to get fixed quickly, if I’m elected. But it will be fixed quickly and effectively and Flint will come back. Most importantly, we’ll bring jobs back to Flint.”

Democrats dismissed Trump’s visit to Flint.

“We all know why he’s doing it: belated photo-op,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) told reporters in Washington. “We’re here solving the problem. The people of Flint don’t need politics; they need solutions.”

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver (D) also waved off Trump’s visit and discouraged him from coming to the city.

“Flint is focused on fixing the problems caused by lead contamination of our drinking water, not photo ops,” she said in a statement, adding that Flint “seeks real action and real help to recover from the lead crisis.”

Read more here.

AGENCY OPPOSES NEW PIPELINE LAWSUIT, BACKS REVIEW: The Army Corps of Engineers opposes a tribe’s court appeal to block construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, but it supports an Obama administration review of the project.

The Army Corps told a federal court Wednesday that it shouldn’t grant the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s request for an injunction against a North Dakota stretch of the project, noting a lower court’s Friday decision approving of the way the agency permitted the pipeline project.

Even so, the Corps wrote in a filing, the agency said it supports a temporary halt of construction on the route while federal officials consider whether there needs to be a more rigorous round of assessments on the 1,170-mile, $3.8 billion pipeline.

“While the Corps opposes the Tribe’s current motion and believes that it should be denied, the Departments believe that the pipeline company should implement the relief that the Tribe is seeking voluntarily,” the agency’s lawyer wrote in its filing.

House Democrats asked President Obama to “maintain [the administration’s] hold on further permitting” for the project until it can fully vet the tribe’s concerns about the pipeline’s impact on cultural and environmental areas in North Dakota.

“We stand with tribal leaders in asking you to uphold our federal trust responsibility and protect tribal interests in this and future permitting decisions by the [Army Corps],” said a letter to Obama, signed by 19 House Democrats and led by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.).

Read more here.

TOMORROW IN THE HILL: The Louisiana congressional delegation wants Congress to spend billions of dollars to help assist recovery efforts following severe flooding there in August.

The only problem: many of the state’s lawmakers voted against similar aid for Superstorm Sandy relief, raising questions about tensions between lawmakers seeking emergency funding for their constituents.

Tomorrow in The Hill, we preview the politics of the aid request, as Louisiana increasingly emerges as an issue on lawmakers’ plates this month.

ON TAP THURSDAY I: The Senate could finish up work on its Water Resources Development Act, legislation to inject more than $9 billion into water infrastructure projects around the country. The bill also contains aid for Flint.

The Senate voted 94-3 to end debate on the bill Thursday, setting up a potential final passage vote on Thursday.

Check The Hill for more.

ON TAP THURSDAY II: President Obama will speak at the State Department’s Our Ocean Conference.

Rest of Thursday’s agenda …

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz will testify at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on energy security.

A House Science Committee panel will hold a hearing on Environmental Protection Agency methane regulations.

AROUND THE WEB:

A county sheriff testified in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge takeover trial, the Oregonian reports.

Americans are willing to pay more on their electric bills — but only a little more — to help fight climate change, the AP reports, citing a new poll.

The Wall Street Journal dives into oil giants’ big bets on the future of natural gas.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Wednesday’s stories…

-Feds roll out conservation, energy plan for California Desert
-Feds argue against pipeline injunction, support new review
-Senate nears finish line on Flint aid bill
-Michigan senator: Trump’s Flint visit is a ‘belated photo-op’
-GOP rep: Flood insurance bill coming this month
-GOP chairman cites ‘constitutional obligation’ in climate subpoenas
-Obama requests $2.6B in aid for Louisiana floods

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