Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion (#39)
January 16, 2020 Congress Rules-- Impeachment and the pending Senate trial are understandably sucking most of the oxygen out of Capital City. Senate committee chairs are still deciding if hearings are feasible once the trial starts. Rules are that Senators must sit in their seats for the entire time. They won’t be allowed their cell phones, or to talk to their neighbors, or read any material not directly asso-ciated with the proceeding. The hearings are expected to go into February. Trump will likely be giving his State of the Union address while the trial is still going on. It should be interesting to see how he will handle facing 230 of his accusers in Speaker Pelosi’s House. It appears that House Republicans are meeting to discuss putting together their own climate crisis package in response to the CLEAN Future Act that was put together by Democratic mem-bers of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. (See here for a detailed discussion) Although they won’t admit it, it does seem they are worried about having no response to the Democrats in an election year.
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Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion
January 8, 2020 Feeding off of a failed UN Summit late in 2019, the almost daily release of reports updating and confirming climate science studies, student strikes, a continent on fire, and the already prominent place of climate in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, 2020 looms as a watershed political year for national climate policy. To state the obvious, the re-election of Trump would be a devastating setback for the environ-mental well-being of the nation and the world. Almost as costly in terms of climate defense would be a divided Congress. Notwithstanding the rising number of Republicans in both the House and Senate who are now at least willing to admit there is a problem, Republicans and Democrats remain very far apart in terms of a willingness to do anything even close to what the scientists say is needed within the time they say it needs to be done. Below is a thumbnail about the new million dollar ad campaign the American Petroleum Institute (API) is launching this year on behalf of oil and gas companies. The tack the Institute is taking is to pitch themselves as part of the solution, without altering their position on most policy matters. API, for example, remains opposed to a carbon tax, the regulation of methane and other greenhouse gases. The campaign is intended to support a heavy lobbying effort by the companies to keep fracking alive. 
Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion
October 27, 2019 Trump appears to have changed his mind about bringing all the troops home from Syria. It’s now anticipated that a contingent of US forces and heavy armor will be tasked with protecting Syrian oil fields. An aide close to Trump told reporters Trump’s a businessman and is even suggesting he like to make Syria’s oil a business opportunity, proposing for a U.S. oil company to partner with America’s Syrian Kurdish allies to develop the oil for export. Trump has been quoted saying in a recent cabinet meeting that if you’re going in, keep the oil, Trump said at a cabinet meeting. We’ll work something out with the Kurds so that they have some money so that they have some cash flow. Maybe we’ll get one of our big oil companies to go in and do it properly. The statements highlight just how little “the leader of the free world” understands the world. If nations around the world were using available supplies of clean energy technologies, including solar, wind, and efficiency, foreign oil fields would need far less protection. Climate policy is another thing Trump seems not to understand. Addressing an energy industry audience focused on fracking, Trump miscast the Paris climate agreement and the timing of the US’s pulling out of it. The US cannot officially withdraw from the accord until November 4, 2020—a day after the election. Trump also ran through his usual series of lies about Obama’s Clean Power Plan—calling it a disaster having a price tag of $40 billion per year. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in 2018 calculated that repeated analyses by the EPA showed that the benefits of the clean power plan usually outweighed the costs, at times by a lot. For instance, fewer illnesses and deaths turned into dollar amounts based on a formula on the value of each life.
Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion
Volume 1 October 4, 2019 Issue 31 The impeachment inquiry is doing a great job of sucking up all the available oxygen on Capitol Hill. Although Speaker Pelosi wants the investigation to move expeditiously through the House, these things generally take on a life of their own. As exciting as this latest Trumpian drama, maybe Congress does have other work to do--not the least of the tasks in need of tending is funding the federal government after November 21, 2019 when the current continuing resolution (CR) lapses. As I'd written previously, Trump is so tightly wound over the prospect of impeachment that anything is possible at this point--including closing down the government. Diversion is a tried and true Trump maneuver, and I would imagine he's not feeling warm and fuzzy when it comes to the Washington bureaucracy. Congressional Republicans, however, will put a lot of pressure on him not to go nuclear on the budget so close to the holidays and the 2020 elections. A shutdown now could last a long time. The cast of characters in the impeachment drama seems to keep growing. Although it seems a stretch, Secretary of Energy Perry is being dragged into the impeachment investigations because of his having spent considerable time in discussions with Ukraine and other Eastern European countries peddling US coal and natural gas. The Trump administration has made breaking the energy hold that Russia and the Middle East have on these countries, as well as Germany and other EU nations. Ordinarily, these types of diplomatic overtures would bear little suspicion of their having dark undercurrents; these are not ordinary times, however. The possibility that Vice President Pence was used by Trump in ways that the Pence didn’t understand certainly contributes to the suspicions over Perry’s activities.  Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion
Volume 1 September 27, 2019 Issue 30 It’s been an exciting week—starting with the UN’s climate summit and ending more or less with the both the House and Senate passing a continuing resolution to keep the doors of government open—at least until midnight on November 21st. The big political news of the week, of course, was the House taking the first step in the impeachment process. The impeachment investigation will have an impact on energy and environmental legislation, as it will in other areas. The otherwise caustic relations between Democrats and Republicans and Democrats and Trump have just been made even more so—meaning any initiative requiring the legislative and executive branches to cooperate is at risk—including the 2020 federal budget. Notwithstanding the Continuing Resolution, I see trouble ahead. Trump is not a happy man. I believe he will at least consider diverting attention from the impeachment investigation by again forcing a shutdown of the federal government. I would imagine that Trump hates the government he rules over and is likely feeling paranoid. I’ve served as a special counsel to several high-level political appointees and seen how confidence in one’s ability to boss the system can turn to fear and loathing. Those I served started with a better sense of political reality than Donald Trump. Trump appears to be wound so tight that should he begin to unwind, he’ll take no prisoners. If I were Rudy Giuliani, I would stay off the streets. I imagine he’ll be the first one thrown under a bus by the president. It’s hard to conceive of anyone on the Trump team better suited to be made into a speed bump than Hiz Hona’ the former mayor of New York. It’s always someone else’s fault in Trumpville.  Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion
Volume 1 September 23, 2019 Issue 29 The new federal fiscal year is a week away. It appears that a continuing resolution (CR) will once again be the answer to Congress’ continued inability to pass spending bills. The CR already passed by the House and now being considered by the Senate will extend government funding through November 21st. Whether Congress giving itself more time will actually result in the passage of the 12 spending bills that makes up the annual appropriation’s package is questionable. Each day that passes seems to bring up new partisan conflicts that make doing the business of government a near impossibility. The border wall and Trump’s having gone around Congress by issuing a national emergency at the Southern Border and moving $3.6 billion out of the Defense Department’s budget is still sticking in the craw of Democrats and many Republicans—at least those who recognize Trump’s actions trash the constitutional separation of powers. Other climate-related issues contributing to the partisan divide include drilling off the shores of the lower continental US and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Contrary to the budget agreement made by the White House and Congress to raise federal spending and the debt ceiling that was made before the August recess, Democrats are still looking to add policy riders to appropriations legislation. The Democrats look to the appropriations bills as their only real chance to push back against the actions of the administration that they otherwise have a problem influencing, e.g., opening the Arctic to oil and gas drilling. CRs keep the government open, but they basically limit agencies to do only what they’ve done the fiscal year before. These days the that can mean only what an agency did five or ten years ago since Congressional gridlock has ruled Capitol Hill for most of the century.  Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion September 19, 2019 Coal countries need not apply. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres drew praise Wednesday for taking what supporters called a "powerful stand" to address the climate crisis. Guterres will reportedly exclude major economies, including the United States, from talking at the upcoming U.N. Climate Action Summit because of their failure to produce appropriately ambitious climate plans and their ongoing support for coal. (Common Dreams) Leslie Hook reported at the Financial Times Tuesday on the exclusions, citing a draft schedule of the summit, set take place Monday. Australia, Japan, South Korea, and South Africa will be snubbed over their continued support for coal. Brazil and Saudi Arabia, both of whom have criticized the Paris climate accord, will also be blocked. The Trump White House, which announced its plans to ditch the deal, will also not be afforded a speaking slot, Hook reported. (CBS News)
Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion
Volume 1 September 9, 2019 Issue 26 The month ahead: Congress is back from its August recess. It appears the break did nothing to cool tensions—either between Congressional Republicans and Democrats or between Hill Democrats and Trump. If anything, inter-party relations are more acrimonious than before. It doesn’t bode well for the rest of the legislative year. Hanging fire on the Senate’s September agenda are appropriations bills. The House has already passed ten of 12 spending bills, while the Senate has yet to introduce even one. The Senate chose to wait until after Trump and Congressional leaders settled on a budget number and agreed to raising the nation’s debt ceiling. Agreements were reached just before the summer’s recess. Senate appropriators, however, are expecting to pick up the pace release three spending bills in the next few days—Energy-Water, Labor-Health-Human Services, and Defense. The appetite for a government shutdown is small. A failure to make the September 30th deadline will likely result in a continuing resolution (CR). House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has already written the Democratic caucus telling members to expect a CR through November 22nd. There’s been no sign-off by Senate Republicans on a Plan “B” CR, however, so a shutdown is not yet off the table. Several extensions of expiring programs could become part of a CR, including a short-term reauthorization for the National Flood Insurance Program. The program is set to expire at the end of the month. It’s hard to imagine that either Trump or Congress would dare cut the program during hurricane season—especially in what is already a record year of flooding. The House will be directing the bulk of its September attentions to conducting committee hearings on issues Trump and company would like to ignore, e.g., gun control, immigration, and climate. Mass shootings, an extraordinary emergency declaration by Trump, and CNN’s seven hours of climate-related townhall meetings have kept these issues in the spotlight. House Democrats are keen to continue their oversight investigations of Trump and his administration. The list of investigations is likely to grow given events like #Sharpiegate, in which Trump refused to admit he made a mistake about the path of Hurricane Dorian. Vice President Pence’s stay at Trump’s Irish golf resort requiring him to commute the 180 miles by car and his Air Force 2 jetliner to his two days of meetings with Irish leaders in Dublin served-up another opportunity for the Democrats to cry “emoluments.” 
Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion
Volume 1 September 4, 2019 Issue 25 Get a move on. Government lawyers today urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to expedite consideration of legal challenges to the EPA regulation, which replaces the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. The move could mean the Trump administration defends the ACE rule in the Supreme Court before the end of the president's term.
For an additional discussion of what a Democratic administration will be facing after four years of Trump check here for my series on Erasing Trump’s Climate Legacy. 
Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion
Volume 1 August 12, 2019 Issue 22 This week’s civil notion-- “V” is for Vitriol, When It Should Be for Victory Dan Levitan argues in the New Republic that Republican deniers of climate change, who are now on the side of the “angels,” don’t deserve redemption by Democrats unless they own-up to the harms they’ve caused by their earlier denials. Prompting Levitan to write his article was the testimony of Republican pollster Frank Luntz before the Senate Democrats’ Special Committee on the Climate Crisis. Luntz’s invitation was issued by the chair of the Committee, Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI). Unlike the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, the group is not a Senate sanctioned organization. It is a group of Democratic senators wanting to examine how climate change is affecting the country and the planet and to mobilize action and support for bold climate solutions. The Committee will convene a series of hearings through 2019 and 2020 to gather expert testimony from a wide variety of witnesses. The July 25th hearing was entitled “The Right Thing to Do: Conservatives for Climate Action.” Joining Luntz as witnesses were Kera O’Brien Vice President, Students for Carbon Dividends and Nick Huey, founder of the Climate Campaign and a member of the Utah Chapter of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby. Both O’Brien and Huey are young conservative Republicans who believe that carbon needs to be priced. |
AuthorJoel Stronberg, MA, JD., of The JBS Group is a veteran clean energy policy analyst with over 30 years’ experience, based in Washington, DC. Archives
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