Energy Update: Week of July 6th

Friends,

I hope you all enjoyed the July 4^th holiday and were able to spend some good family time. It is a slow week this week but a couple of important items following up to last week’s SCOTUS case on EPA climate regulation (WV v. EPA).  I will leave the details to the experts in this note, but just wanted to mention that I was a little surprised at how much advocates feel Congressional action can never occur.  For a long-time, many have said that climate change issues have always belonged in Congress regardless.  This is a view of agreement between even folks like former Clinton/Obama Climate advisor and Progressive Policy Institute expert Paul Bledsoe and myself (and my other colleagues Jeff Holmstead and Scott Segal).

Bledsoe told POLITICO’s Arianna Skibell:  

“Climate change needs congressional attention, not half-baked attempts at de facto regulation on the sly. Nothing is as powerful as legislation in terms of its lasting effect on policy.”

And despite what some claim, Congress has many options that it has discussed (and even passed in past years) and has considered previously. 

With that as a lead in, today in its Columbia Energy Exchange podcast, the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia has a breakdown of the decision and its implications for climate regulations moving forward.  Host Bill Loveless spoke with legal experts Michael Gerrard and Jeff Holmstead. Gerrard is founder and director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University and has pioneered innovative legal strategies and teaches courses on environmental law, climate change law and energy regulation. Of course, Holmstead heads the Environmental Strategies Group at Bracewell and served as assistant administrator for air and radiation at the EPA under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. The pair discussed precisely how the rule curbs the EPA’s power, where it stops short, and the kind of legal precedence it sets for future cases.

Secondly, tomorrow Thursday, July 7^th at 11:00 a.m., Resources for the Future (RFF) convenes a panel of distinguished legal experts to help interpret what this decision means for the future of environmental regulation and climate change policy in the United States. This webinar is a follow-up to RFF’s March 2022 RFF Live event, “Climate Change and the Supreme Court.” 

Panelists include:

•             Lisa Heinzerling, Georgetown University Law Center

•             Jeffrey Holmstead, Resources for the Future, Bracewell LLC

•             Nathan Richardson, Resources for the Future, University of South Carolina Law School

•             Susan Tierney, Resources for the Future, Analysis Group (Moderator)

To attend this webinar, please RSVP and follow the instructions in the Zoom confirmation email. Visit the event webpage for more information.

And lastly on SCOTUS, The Atlantic’s Robinson Meyers spoke with Stanford Law’s Michael Wara about what the Court’s climate ruling in WV v. EPA does—and doesn’t—mean for decarbonization.  It is a great read and is very well-reasoned. 

One last thing.  You may have missed the Friday at 5:00 p.m. oil & gas announcement from the Department of Interior on its 5-year Plan, which our current one actually expired on Thursday (for the first time ever).  It was the third time DOI has done this with oil/gas announcements: Thanksgiving Friday 2021 and Memorial Day 2022 other two. This one seems to look to be all things to all stakeholders, kicking the decision can down the road until after the comment period (and out of the summer driving season). 

The Proposed Program includes no more than ten potential sales in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and one potential lease sale in the northern portion of the Cook Inlet Planning Area offshore Alaska, which is the same as in the Five-Year Program finalized in 2016. These potential lease sales, including in the GOM, could be further refined and targeted, based on public input and analysis, prior to program approval. The Final Program also may include fewer potential lease sales, including no lease sales.

Release of the Proposed Program follows the 2018 publication of the Draft Proposed Program (DPP) and is the second of three required steps before the Secretary of the Interior can approve the Final Program. Interior will seek public comment on the Proposed Program and the accompanying Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS).

All materials – including the Proposed Program, a map of the program areas, directions for commenting on the Proposed Program and Draft PEIS and information on how to register for the upcoming virtual meetings, can be found on BOEM’s website.

Here are a few statements from API, the Chamber’s Global Energy Institute and NOIA:

Marty Durbin, President of the U.S. Chamber’s Global Energy Institute:

“Today’s announcement sends more mixed signals from the Administration and is another punch in the gut to consumers and businesses suffering from high energy prices and inflation. Reliable, affordable energy requires long term planning, a government-wide approach and clear signals to the market.  This proposal provides none of that.  It defies common sense to allow the 5-Year plan to lapse for the first time ever and propose restricting oil and natural gas development at home while asking OPEC nations to produce more.” 

Frank Macchiarola, API Senior Vice President of Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs:

“At a time when Americans are facing record high energy costs and the world is seeking American energy leadership, tonight’s announcement leaves open the possibility of no new offshore lease sales, the continuation of a policy that has gone on for far too long. Because of their failure to act, the U.S. is now in the unprecedented position of having a substantial gap between programs for the first time since this process began in the early 1980s, leaving U.S. producers at a significant disadvantage on the global stage and putting our economic and national security at risk.”

NOIA President Erik Milito:

“Now more than never we need the Administration to deliver energy policy that will promote affordability of energy for Americans and advance our national security interests. This proposed leasing plan is just one step in the process, and it is imperative that the Administration act swiftly to finalize and implement the program as proposed, without reduced acreage.

“The U.S. offshore Gulf of Mexico region is one of the top oil producing basins in the world. It is world class, high-tech, and is characterized by low carbon emissions. We should all work together to advance energy policies that are grounded in reality by securing affordable, reliable, and environmentally responsible energy here at home, while also widening the pathway for deployment of low and zero carbon technologies and energy sources. We need to look no further than the U.S. Gulf of Mexico to achieve our energy policy goals, and this requires the prompt finalization of the program resumption of robust domestic offshore oil and gas leasing.”

See you back on Monday July 11^th for our regularly scheduled programming…

Frank Maisano

(202) 997-5932