Overnight Energy: EPA to keep biofuel mandate steady | Ex-coal exec Blankenship cuts first Senate ad | House passes bill to clean up contaminated sites

BIOFUEL LEVELS TO STAY STEADY IN 2018: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has backed off its proposal to slightly cut the federal biofuels mandate.

The agency finalized a rule Thursday that would instead hold blending quotas under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) flat for 2018.

The rule will require refiners to mix 19.29 billion gallons of renewable fuels into the gasoline supply in 2018. That’s about 25 percent lower than the target Congress established in a 2007 law, but the EPA has routinely finalized RFS blending quotas below the statutory requirements.

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EPA regulators will require refiners to blend 15 billion gallons of conventional corn-based ethanol into the fuel supply, as well as 4.29 billion gallons of advanced biofuels. The agency will also mandate 2.1 billion gallons of biodiesel to be blended into the diesel fuel supply.

In July, the EPA proposed an overall 19.25 billion-gallon blending target, a level that included cuts to the biodiesel target.

Midwestern GOP lawmakers had threatened to hold up the nomination of William Wehrum to lead the EPA’s air and radiation office if they didn’t receive assurances on the biofuels mandate.

Once EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt committed to not change the program, the Republicans dropped their objections and confirmed Wehrum to the post.

Read more here.

 

BLANKENSHIP OUT WITH FIRST SENATE AD: Don Blankenship released the first advertisement Thursday in his campaign for West Virginia’s Senate seat.

The convicted former coal mining executive’s ad, posted online Wednesday night, alleges that the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, for which he has been blamed, was actually “Obama’s deadliest coverup,” and specifically implicates Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

It’s the first formal volley from Blankenship in the race for Manchin’s Senate seat, for which the Republican former Massey Energy Corp. head is expected to file formal paperwork Thursday.

“Obama’s deadliest coverup has been uncovered by MSHA’s own documents. Documents which say the MSHA Upper Big Branch internal report was fixed,” the voiceover in the ad says.

“Government corruption is pandemic,” it concludes after making more allegations about the MSHA investigation.

Since the 2010 disaster, Blankenship has been working tirelessly to clear his name.

Read more here.

 

HOUSE VOTES TO OVERTURN OBAMA MINING BAN IN MINNESOTA.: The House voted Thursday to overturn the Obama administration’s decision to temporarily ban mining in an area of northern Minnesota’s Superior National Forest.

The Minnesota’s Economic Rights in the Superior National Forest, or MINER, Act, passed 216-204, with nearly all Republicans in support and nearly all Democrats opposed.

The Obama administration’s decision, made the day before former President Barack Obama left office, blocked mining for two years in an area of the forest near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, in an effort to protect those waters from potential mine waste output.

The bill would also require the Forest Service to renew two-decades-old mining leases for sulfide ore in the forest that had gone unused before Obama declined to renew them in 2016.

“This is about more than 10,000 jobs which are now at risk because of the lame-duck actions by the Obama administration,” said Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the bill’s sponsor. His district includes parts of northern Minnesota, but not the area that could be mined.

Read more here.

 

Brownfields bill passes easily: The House passed a bill Thursday authorizing an EPA toxic site clean-up program.

The bill extends the EPA’s brownfields program through 2022 and authorizes new funding for it. The Brownfields program provides grants to cities and states to help them clean up and redevelop contaminated industrial sites.

EPA’s program, and the House bill, are both popular: the House voted 409-8 to reauthorize the program.

The House bill reauthorizes the program until 2022 at a $200 million level annually. It authorizes $50 million in annual grants for states and Native American Tribes and it tweaks several aspects of the program, including multi-purpose grants and funding caps under the law.

“The EPA brownfields program is critical to states and local communities as they address contaminated industrial and commercial properties and return them to productive use,” Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) said.

Read more here.

 

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FROM THE HILL’S OPINION PAGE:

Lois Epstein, the Arctic program director for The Wilderness Society, pens an op-ed against the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling provisions in the Senate’s tax reform bill.

 

AROUND THE WEB:

Natural gas tycoon T. Boone Pickens is selling his Texas ranch for $250 million, CNBC reports.

Citgo Petroleum announced that its new CEO will be Asdrúbal Chávez, cousin of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the Houston Chronicle reports.

The Washington Post analyses the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, which formally ends on Thursday.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Thursday’s stories…

-House passes EPA contaminated site clean-up bill

-House votes to overturn Obama mining ban in Minnesota

-Dem pushes for oversight on Trump officials using private jets

-Convicted ex-coal exec releases first ad in Senate campaign

-EPA to hold biofuels quota steady in 2018

-Nominee breaks with Trump: Humans are main cause of climate change

 

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