Overnight Energy: EPA wants higher ethanol mandate

EPA DROPS NEW RENEWABLE FUEL STANDARD: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Wednesday rolled out its proposed blending mandates for ethanol and other biofuels, and both sides in the debate are displeased.

Under the Wednesday plan, 18.8 billion gallons of biofuels would have to be blended into the nation’s gasoline and diesel, and 14.8 billion gallons could be ethanol.

{mosads}And while the total volume is 700 million gallons above this year and the ethanol volume is up 300 million gallons, the totals aren’t what Congress wrote into the law in 2007.

Instead, the EPA is proposing to use a waiver authority written into the law, citing factors like a lower than expected demand for gasoline and diesel.

“This administration is committed to keeping the [renewable fuels standard] program on track, spurring continued growth in biofuel production and use, and achieving the climate and energy independence benefits that Congress envisioned from this program,” Janet McCabe, head of the EPA’s air pollution office, said in a statement.

The ethanol industry said it’s completely unacceptable that the EPA still isn’t setting the levels in the statute, and its use of the waiver is improper.

“For months, EPA has been saying it plans to put the program ‘back on track.’ Today’s proposal fails to do that,” Bob Dinneen, president of the renewable fuels association, said in a statement.

“The agency continues to cater to the oil industry by relying upon an illegal interpretation of its waiver authority and concern over a blend wall that the oil industry itself is creating.”

The oil industry also isn’t happy, as it hopes to dramatically reduce volumes or remove the mandate altogether.

“Consumers’ interest should come ahead of ethanol interests,” Frank Macchiarola, downstream group director for API, said in a statement. “EPA is pushing consumers to use high ethanol blends they don’t want and that are not compatible with most cars on the road today. The administration is potentially putting the safety of American consumers, their vehicles and our economy at risk.”

Read more here.

HOUSE PANEL MOVES OZONE BILL ALONG: The House Commerce Committee passed the GOP’s bill to delay the EPA’s new ozone rule Wednesday, moving it along to the House floor.

The bill, which passed along party lines, would push back compliance for the new ozone rule by up to eight years. For future rules on ozone and other air pollutants, the EPA would be allowed to consider costs for the first time, and reviews of the standards would happen only every 10 years, double the current interval.

“No one opposes clear air and clean water,” Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio), one of the sponsors of the bill, said.

“This legislation provides states more time to implement the new standard, which was key for ensuring that we do not stifle the incredible investments made in the energy, manufacturing and chemical sectors,” he said.

Democrats said the bill was nothing more than an attempt to gut the Clean Air Act and remove its principal provisions, including the idea that air pollution standards must be set solely on the basis of health and the environment.

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) said the bill “eliminates the core Clean Air Act principle that air pollution should be capped at a level that is protective of human health. Instead, the bill injects economic and technological considerations into what’s always been a strictly science-based product.”

Read more here.

MONIZ TAKES ON TRUMP ON CLIMATE: Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz doesn’t think a future president — even Donald Trump — will be unable to undo President Obama’s work on an international climate pact.

Speaking Wednesday, the day after Trump said he wanted to renegotiate the landmark Paris climate deal, Moniz said he wouldn’t comment on specific policy proposals from presidential candidates.

But broadly, he noted the climate deal has built-in reassessments over the next few decades. He said, though, that countries should use those to ramp up the greenhouse gas reduction commitments they enshrined last year in the Paris deal.  

“I remind you that there is, within the agreement, a mechanism for revisiting, in the sense of five-year revisits, with the idea that countries, hopefully, as costs go down for technologies, will be having greater ambition going forward as we meet increasingly stringent targets for the years and decades ahead.”

Trump told Reuters on Tuesday that the Paris deal treats the U.S. unfairly because other economies can continue to grow their emissions even as the Obama administration pledged to reduce American greenhouse gases.  

Moniz said he expects the U.S. to implement that work, regardless of who is president.

“The innovation agenda is going to make this clean energy future much more attractive, both for climate reasons and for things like energy security,” he said of the U.S. following through on its climate commitments.

“I believe that Mother Nature is speaking to us with a louder and louder voice about the need to address these issues.”

Read more here.

Sierra Club slams Trump’s plan: Among the critics of Trump’s climate agreement plan was, unsurprisingly, the Sierra Club.

The group held a press call on Wednesday to slam Trump’s renegotiation proposal, saying it shows “that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about” when it comes to international climate work

“The Paris agreement is an excellent deal for the United States,” said John Coequyt, the group’s director of International Climate Campaigns, noting that it requires all counties to institute carbon reduction plans.

A Trump push to renegotiate the deal — which the United Nations opened to signatures last month — wouldn’t work, for both legal and philosophical reasons.

“The agreement is already heading into force and the U.S. will not be able to withdraw for four years after ratification,” Coequyt said.

“How exactly a climate denier would renegotiate this is a complete mystery to us.”

Trump has said he doesn’t believe humans are causing the climate to change.

TOMORROW IN THE HILL: This week saw the opening act of the public debate over the future of coal mining on federal lands.

Western Republicans and miners are girding for a fight over coal mining royalty rates and a moratorium on public land lease sales. Environmentalists, meanwhile, say the Obama administration’s review of the mining program is decades overdue, and is set to recognize, financially, the impact of burning coal on climate change.

The presidential election is providing the backdrop to the fight: Donald Trump wants to institute policies to help coal mining, while Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders fight over who has the strongest record on the climate.

Read more about the high stakes in this burgeoning new front in the fight over coal, tomorrow in The Hill.    

ON TAP THURSDAY I: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on the Obama administration’s five-year Outer Continental Shelf drilling plan. Bureau of Ocean Management Director Abigail Ross Hopper will testify.

ON TAP THURSDAY II: A House Natural Resources Committee panel will hold a hearing on “deficiencies in transparency at the Department of the Interior.”

The rest of Thursday’s agenda …

The Global America Business Group will host an event on nuclear energy innovation. Latta will speak.

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute will hold a briefing on the EPA’s environmental justice screening tool. Kevin Olp, the Director of Communications at the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice, will attend.

AROUND THE WEB:

North Carolina has told Duke Energy to clean up coal ash pits in the state, WRAL reports.

The premier of British Columbia says climate change is increasing the need for a Canadian forest fire strategy, the Canadian Press reports.

Wind, solar and hydropower fueled all of Portugal’s electricity generation for 107 straight hours last week, The Guardian reports.  

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Wednesday’s stories…

-Senators push EPA to pay mine waste spill claims
-EPA seeks to boost ethanol in fuel supply
-House committee votes to delay ozone rule
-GOP lawmakers: EPA employee misconduct isn’t getting better
-Moniz dismisses Trump’s call to change climate deal
-House, Senate leaders ‘finalizing’ chemical bill compromise

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