Overnight Energy: Warren defends Exxon probe | Pipeline firm reaches $177M oil spill settlement

FEDS SETTLE ENBRIDGE CASE: Federal officials reached a $177 million settlement agreement with pipeline company Enbridge Inc. over a pair of oil spills in 2010.

The main piece of the settlement covers charges that Enbridge violated various federal laws related to the July 2010 rupture of a pipeline that sent more than 850,000 gallons of heavy crude into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.

{mosads}It was the worst onshore oil spill in the country’s history, and the deal is the second-largest federal settlement for an oil spill.

“It is a strong statement of deterrent for others, but it’s also holding them accountable for the actions that they did here on site,” John Cruden, the Justice Department’s top attorney for environment and natural resources cases, said at a news conference on the banks of the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.

The agreement includes a $62 million fine, $5 million to reimburse the federal government’s cleanup costs, and implementation of a program to prevent future spills worth at least $110 million.

The disaster spurred significant new attention toward the safety of oil pipelines and federal opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, which President Obama rejected last year.

Enbridge said in a statement that it took responsibility for the spill, and it has dramatically improved its operations in the six years since.

But environmentalists were displeased, seeing the fine as a slap on the wrist.

“A $62 million penalty and promises to maintain pipelines as a penalty for the worst inland oil disaster in U.S. history is woefully insufficient and shows that Congress and the Obama administration must work together to strengthen penalties,” Collin O’Mara, president of the National Wildlife Federation, said in a statement.

Read more here.

WARREN DEFENDS STATE’S EXXON INVESTIGATION: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) published a tweetstorm Wednesday to defend her state’s investigation of Exxon Mobil Corp. and hammer the House chairman who has opposed it.

Warren challenged House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith’s (R-Texas) decision to subpoena communications between state attorneys general investigating Exxon’s claims.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey is one of the leaders in that effort, and one of the officials whom Smith’s committee subpoenaed last week. Warren tweeted that Smith’s push is “how giant corporations rig the system” by trying to “intimidate” Healy.

“Now @exxonmobil got the Chair of the @HouseScience Committee — a TX Republican who has taken $675k from oil & gas — to subpoena @MassAGO,” she tweeted.

“Yup, that’s right: House Republicans are interfering with a state AG’s ongoing investigation of a company violating state law.”

Healey is one of two attorneys general Smith has subpoenaed in his probe of the Exxon investigations, which center on allegations the company mislead the public about the extent of its climate change knowledge. She defended the effort in a Tuesday press conference as “simply asking questions based on that concern, and we will go where the facts lead.”

“We intend to continue aggressively with our investigation,” Healey added.

Warren called Smith’s subpoena “an outrageous abuse of Congressional subpoena power.”

She tweeted: “Let me offer you a word of advice, @LamarSmithTX21 & your @exxonmobil buddies: you picked a fight with the wrong state & the wrong AG.”

Read more here.

ON TAP THURSDAY: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy will arrive in Vienna for an international conference on reducing hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Follow TheHill.com for more information.

AROUND THE WEB:

Disney is being criticized for its potential plans to buy an uninhabited Bahamas island and turn it into a cruise ship destination, the Miami Herald reports.

Researchers found lead levels 100 times higher than the California health standard in some Los Angeles yards near an Exide Technologies plant, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Travis Cox, the youngest of the occupiers in the Oregon refuge standoff from earlier this year, pleaded guilty to conspiracy as part of a deal for a six-month home detention sentence, the Oregonian reports.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Wednesday’s stories…

-Feds propose land management plan for southern Utah
-Trump ally: His coal priority would be ‘stop the bleeding’
-Warren: House GOP trying to ‘intimidate’ state AG over Exxon probe
-Pipeline company agrees to $177M settlement for 2010 oil spill
-Greens say oil industry taught tobacco ‘playbook’
-Coal country lawmaker takes bite out of Clinton

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