Overnight Energy: Groups sue to force EPA to regulate pesticide

EPA SUED OVER PESTICIDE DECISION: Two groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday over its decision not to ban a pesticide last week.

The Pesticide Action Network and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) on Wednesday asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to force the EPA to regulate chlorpyrifos, a pesticide used to kill insects on crops, including some meant for human consumption.

The pesticide has been linked to nervous system and brain disorders. Under pressure from groups, the Obama administration in 2015 proposed banning it for use on food crops.

{mosads}But agriculture groups and chemical companies opposed that decision, and Trump’s EPA agreed. Last week, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said his agency would not ban the pesticide in order to “provide regulatory certainty to the thousands of American farms that rely on chlorpyrifos, while still protecting human health and the environment.”

The Pesticide Action Network and NRDC said that decision puts public health at risk and want the court to force regulators to crack down on the chlorpyrifos.

Read more here.

GAS STATIONS UNITE ON ETHANOL: A group of gasoline station companies are teaming up to fight a potential change to the federal ethanol mandate.

More than two-dozen companies and associations launched the Main Street Energy Alliance Wednesday to fight a change to the ethanol point of obligation being considered by the EPA.

It would shift the burden of complying with the federal ethanol blending mandate away from refining companies and put it on companies in the coalition, like Cumberland Farms, Sheetz Inc., QuikTrip, BP, 7 Eleven Inc.

The idea has a key backer: Carl Icahn, the billionaire investor, Trump adviser and owner of CVR Energy Inc., a refiner that stands to gain hundreds of millions of dollars in the change.

“A small group of refiners and their investors are trying to push through changes to the RFS to line their pockets at the expense of consumers and small businesses,” Michael Steel, a managing director at Hamilton Place Strategies who is serving as the group’s spokesman, said in a statement.

“Shifting the point of obligation would add complexity for businesses, decrease the use of biofuels and potentially increase costs for consumers,” he said. “Many energy businesses and consumers on Main Streets across this country could be negatively impacted by this effort to reward just a small few.”

Read more here.

SENATORS PUSH CARBON CAPTURE BILL: Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) on Wednesday introduced a bill to support carbon capture infrastructure.

Their bill would allow companies to use tax-exempt bonds issued by states and local governments to fund carbon capture energy projects.

It’s the latest effort by senators to incentivize carbon capture, an effort that has not yielded any success in Congress.

But in a statement, both senators said the bill could help expand the use of carbon capture technology, reduce carbon emissions and support the construction sector.

Portman called the bill a “win-win for jobs and the environment,” and Bennet said it was “proof that Democrats, Republicans, labor unions, industry, and environmentalists can come together to advance policies that will protect our planet and create good-paying jobs.”

Read more here.

POLL: VOTERS CONCERNED OVER CLIMATE: A new poll out Wednesday from Quinnipiac University says that voters are standing against Trump on many environmental issues.

Nearly two-thirds of the voters in the poll said that they believe climate change will personally affect them or a family member.

Seventy-six percent of voters are concerned about climate change, and 62 percent don’t want Trump to roll back climate regulations.

“It’s personal,” Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement. “Climate change is an existential threat, many voters feel. They are concerned, and some are very concerned, about the looming menace of climate change.”

The poll came just over a week after Trump signed an order to begin unraveling nearly all of former President Obama’s climate agenda.

Trump has said climate change is a hoax — which the poll found voters disagree with — and he has not indicated a willingness to fight global warming through policy.

TOMORROW IN THE HILL: A House Committee on Wednesday considered the RECLAIM Act, a bill to pump revitalization money into economically distressed areas of Appalachia.

The bill is one of several measures coal worker advocates say is necessary to help out-of-work miners.

President Trump and his administration have so far looked to put workers back on the job in coal mines, something analysts say is unlikely. Tomorrow in The Hill, at look at what advocates say Trump and lawmakers can do next to their promises to help coal country.

AROUND THE WEB:

A new survey suggests up to 9,600 species of trees are threatened with extinction, AFP reports.

The owner of the shuttered Hatfield’s Ferry coal-fired power plant in southwest Pennsylvania is selling part of the plant to another company that plans to put in a natural gas-fired plant, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

A small village in Alaska is celebrating a coal company’s decision not to develop a mine there, Alaska Public Media reports.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Wednesday’s stories …

-Senators push bill to fund carbon capture projects
-Perry, Haley added to National Security Council principals committee
-Groups sue EPA for not banning pesticide
-Gasoline stations team up to fight ethanol mandate change

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