Overnight Energy: Warmest winter for Lower 48

YES, WINTER WAS HOT: The abnormally hot December last year made this winter the hottest on record for the contiguous United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The winter, which NOAA defines as December through February, averaged 36.8 degrees Fahrenheit on the surfaces of the lower 48 states.

That’s 0.3 degrees above the previous record, set in the winter of 1999-2000, and 4.6 degrees above the 20th-century average for that period. Records began 122 years ago.

It’s just the latest temperature record for the United States or the world. Most of the months last year set a new worldwide record, as did the year itself.

Read more here.

THIS ‘MIGHT TAKE SOME TIME’: A Republican entrepreneur and philanthropist is looking to push Republicans toward embracing clean energy.

{mosads}ClearPath, a foundation set up by millionaire conservative Jay Faison, has launched a super-PAC, is establishing a DC office and will drop $1 million on a digital ad campaign to encourage Republican lawmakers to take up the mantle of clean energy.

“Our mission is to make conservative clean energy a priority for the GOP,” he said at a National Press Club event Tuesday. “I think we can do it. It might take some time, but I think we can do it.”

Faison’s mission, he said, is two fold: get Republicans on board with a clean energy market, and convince voters Republicans have the right ideas needed to clean up the American energy sector.

His super-PAC has raised $2 million, he said, and will look to spend up to $5 million on this fall’s elections, especially down-ballot races.

“I don’t think I’m a big enough dog in that fight to have that kind of an outcome,” Faison said of the GOP presidential primary.

Faison said Republicans can win over important groups of voters if they’re willing to focus more on clean energy efforts.

“We are in a situation where we do have two different parties with different ideas,” he said. “I’m a pragmatist in that there has to be compromise. But you can’t have one side with all the other ideas and the other side not coming into the debate.”

Read more here.

FLINT UPDATE: VITTER LIFTS HOLD: The Senate’s aid bill for Flint, Mich., and other cities with drinking water contamination is a big step closer to passage.

An aide to Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said Tuesday that he’s lifted his hold on the measure, which he had due to an objection to a related energy bill.

Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-Utah) hold remains, but Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said he’d meet with Lee Tuesday to work something out, and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said she had a possible solution.

Read more here.

State, city want lawsuit dismissed: Attorneys for Michigan and Flint asked a federal court late Monday to dismiss a lawsuit that environmental and civil rights groups filed charging them with violating the Safe Drinking Water Act, according to Michigan Radio.

The state argued that since it’s about a past violation of the law, it’s immune under the Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity, and the state didn’t even own or operate Flint’s water system.

The city says the federal court hearing the case doesn’t have jurisdiction over it, and if it did, there’s no matter for which the court could provide relief.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the main plaintiffs, said it’s reviewing the responses and plans to keep fighting.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY I: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing on the role of states in working with the Environmental Protection Agency on regulations. Regulators from South Dakota, Arkansas, West Virginia, Vermont and Delaware will testify.  

ON TAP WEDNESDAY II: Ernest Moniz will testify at a Senate Appropriations Committee subpanel hearing on the department’s 2017 budget request.  

Rest of Wednesday’s agenda…

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will testify before a separate Senate Appropriations subpanel on Obama’s budget request for the Department of Agriculture.

David Friedman, the deputy assistant secretary for the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, will speak at an Environmental and Energy Study Institute event on energy efficiency and renewable energy in President Obama’s 2017 budget. The group is putting on the event with the House and Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucuses.

AROUND THE WEB:

Coal companies in Wyoming have cut fewer jobs than elsewhere in the United States, but officials are concerned about future lay-offs, the Casper Star Tribune reports.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) is calling a proposed copper-nickel mine a threat to a federal wilderness in the state, the Duluth News Tribune reports (The matter made its way to Congress early last year).  Finland is experiencing a “highly exceptional” spike in radiation, and officials don’t yet know why, AFP reports.

Bonus Around the Web: Here’s a Lego figurine likeness of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, apparently made by his former employer MIT.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Tuesday’s stories…

-Greens push Obama on coastal funding plans in 2017 budget
-FBI agents investigated for shooting at Oregon militia member
-Senator lifts hold on Flint aid bill
-Republican entrepreneur launches clean energy push
-Contiguous US sees warmest winter on record
-Obama pays $500M to UN climate change fund

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