Overnight Energy: Dakota pipeline standoff heats up

REID URGES NEW DAKOTA ACCESS ROUTE: The dispute over the Dakota Access pipeline is escalating and attracting new attention from administration officials and members of Congress.

The Army Corps of Engineers sent shockwaves through opposition groups organized against the project this weekend when it said protesters needed to vacate a camp near federal land next month.

Army Corps officials, in a Friday letter to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, said it would not allow protesters on federal land near the pipeline’s proposed route starting on Dec. 5. The Corps clarified on Sunday night, saying it has “no plans for forcible removal” of protesters there, but that it wants a “peaceful and orderly transition” of activists to “a safer location.”

{mosads}

The decision came after a particularly tense week in North Dakota, where law enforcement used water cannons on protesters they accused of starting fires at demonstrations. Elected officials have begun weighing in, as well: three North Dakota Republicans last week asked President Obama to supplement law enforcement activities there, and both North Dakota Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D) and John Hoeven (R) this weekend urged protesters to move from the protest camp.  

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) entered the fray on Monday, using a floor speech to ask President-elect Donald Trump’s administration to help reroute the pipeline and descalate the situation in North Dakota.

“The Standing Rock Sioux protest of the Dakota Access pipeline has everything to do with the history of broken promises and institutionalized disregard for the rights of their own land as well as the trusteeship between the Indian tribe and the federal government of the United States,” he said.

“The violence at Standing Rock must end. I’m confident that President Obama’s administration are taking the necessary steps to address the situation,” he said.

More on Dakota Access:

• -Reid speaks;
• -Army Corps tells protesters to leave, but won’t move them;
• -North Dakota senators urge activists to relocate;
• -Dem senator says DOJ needs to monitor protests.

FLINT MAYOR’S PLEA FOR FUNDING: Congress returned to Washington on Monday with a long list of things to finish this year.

An issue that should be chief among them: funding for the Flint, Mich. water crisis, the city’s mayor said on Monday.

More than 100 groups have signed a letter urging Congress to provide funding for the city, which is suffering from contaminated water supplies caused by corroded pipes.

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said Monday the city needs an aid package like those put together separately by both the House and Senate earlier this year.

“However we can get the money, it needs to happen, and Flint needs to be the priority,” she said on a call with reporters.

Members are still looking for a way forward on Flint, hoping to include funding for the city in a negotiated version of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) before Congress leaves town. Flint could also find its way into a year-end spending deal to fund the government through early next year.

Members also have to decide how much they want to spend on Flint and other cities dealing with water contamination problems: The House has proposed spending $170 million on infrastructure fixes for those cities, while the Senate put together a $220 million package.

“However we can get the funds, they need to be gotten here in the city of Flint,” Weaver said.

“What we have right now is [a] start… [but] we have nowhere near as much funding to be able to do what needs to be done.”

Read more here.

WHAT’S UP WITH THE ENERGY BILL? Aside from Flint, the water resources bill and funding the government, lawmakers are also working to forge the first energy reform bill in a decade.

In a weekend statement, Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) acknowledged a back-and-forth between House and Senate negotiators hashing out the details of a compromise energy package.

Senators offered the House a bill, Murkowski and Cantwell said in a joint statement, that includes provisions on liquefied natural gas exports, pipelines and a major federal conservation fund that “the House was prepared to drop.”

Lawmakers have tried for two years to craft an energy reform package that can pass both chambers and become law. With just days left before the 114th Congress adjourns, Murkowski and Cantwell said now is the time to compromise.

“We encourage our House colleagues to seize this opportunity to complete a good bill that we can send to the president’s desk before Congress adjourns,” the pair said.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) is bringing in Neal Cohen to lead all of its external affairs efforts, the group said.

Cohen will start in January after three decades at APCO Worldwide.

His hiring comes as part of a leadership shakeup at the nuclear group. NEI decided in August to combine the executive positions leading its lobbying and communications offices into one position, which is the one Cohen is filling.

Cohen will start at the same time that Maria Korsnick becomes NEI’s president.

“Neal is a highly accomplished strategic advocacy leader who knows how to transform policy goals into policy successes,” Korsnick said in a statement. “He joins the Nuclear Energy Institute in the midst of a vastly changing energy industry, and he has a deep grasp of the implications of these changes and how the industry must change the policy discussion to recognize the critical need for this important energy source.”

AROUND THE WEB:

An OPEC summit on oil supplies kicked off Monday with a dispute over the key issue of cutting oil production levels, Bloomberg reports.

Stat looks into what repealing ObamaCare would mean for miners’ black lung disease benefits.

Contractors at the Department of Energy’s Hanford nuclear site in Washington state agreed to pay $125 million to settle claims that they provided materials and services that did not meet contract standards, the Tri-City Herald reports.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out stories from Monday and the weekend…

-GAO: Ethanol mandate unlikely to hit climate target
-Reid to Trump: Reroute Dakota pipeline
-Flint mayor pushes Congress for emergency aid deal
-Supreme Court asks DOJ to weigh in on mine spill lawsuit
-Government won’t forcibly remove Dakota pipeline protesters
-Green groups urge Obama to act before Trump takes office
-ND senators tell pipeline protesters to vacate camp
-Trump’s new Paris comments confound greens
-Army Corps to close Dakota pipeline protesters’ camp
-Dem senator urges Justice Dept. to intervene at Standing Rock protests
-Greens gear up for long court fight against Trump

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