Overnight Energy: Court won’t stop kids’ climate lawsuit | GOP blocks Dem attempt to make Pruitt fly coach | House delays pollution rules for brickmakers

COURT LETS KIDS’ CLIMATE SUIT CONTINUE: A federal appeals court Wednesday rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a group of kids who want to force the government to do more to fight climate change.

The San Francisco-based Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that it would be premature to dismiss the case based on how burdensome the Trump administration believes the process of searching for documents and questioning people, known as discovery, will be.

“The defendants’ argument fails because the district court has not issued a single discovery order, nor have the plaintiffs filed a single motion seeking to compel discovery. Rather, the parties have employed the usual meet-and-confer process of resolving discovery disputes,” the three-judge panel wrote in their Wednesday decision.

“The defendants rely on informal communications as to the scope of discovery — in particular, the plaintiffs’ litigation hold and demand letter — but the plaintiffs have clarified that these communications were not discovery requests.”

Filed in 2015 in Oregon federal court by 21 youths and an environmental group against numerous federal agencies, the lawsuit argues that since the federal government knows reasonably well about the consequences of climate change, it has a constitutional duty to take stronger actions to protect the children’s futures.

Read more here.

 

DEMS TRY TO BLOCK PRUITT’S FIRST-CLASS FLIGHTS: House Republicans blocked an attempt by Democrats Wednesday to force Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt to fly economy class.

Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) forced a vote on the matter as a “motion to recommit” on a GOP-backed bill to delay air pollution standards for brick kilns and wood-fired heaters.

The action was destined to fail. But it nonetheless forced Republicans to go on the record on the issue, which has attracted widespread scorn from environmentalists, Democrats and even some Republicans.

Pruitt in recent weeks has been found to have flown first- or business-class frequently on the taxpayer’s dime, costing thousands of dollars.

“There’s no adequate justification for this wasteful spending and abuse of power by Scott Pruitt,” Castor said on the House floor. “And if he enjoys flying first-class and staying in luxury hotels, then he should pay for it himself and not ask taxpayers to foot the bill.”

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on environment, criticized the move as a distraction from the policy at hand.

“I don’t think we build and use bricks to make our airplanes, and I don’t think we power our planes with wood heaters,” he responded on the floor. “It’s just purely politics, and it’s not surprising. Why? Democrats want to distort us from the economic success of the Republican agenda.”

Read more here.

 

House votes to delay emissions rules: The underlying bill to Castor’s proposal passed 234-180, mainly along party lines.

The Blocking Regulatory Interference from Closing Kilns (BRICK) Act would push off compliance with the 2015 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule for brick and tile kilns until ongoing litigation from the industry is resolved.

House leaders also attached provisions to push off emissions standards for residential wood-fired heaters by three years to 2023.

The GOP said the delays are justified. Brick kilns should not have to comply with a rule that might be overturned in court, while wood heater makers and users need more time to meet stringent new rules, Republicans argued.

Democrats said the regulations at issue are reasonable, and delaying them would unnecessarily contribute to increases in pollutants like mercury and particulate matter.

Read more here.

 

More news on Pruitt’s first class travel:

Pruitt flew first class on only a small handful of occasions while serving as attorney general of Oklahoma, according to documents obtained by The Oklahoman Wednesday.

Between 2012 and 2017, when he was serving as the state’s attorney general, Pruitt flew first class on four out of 80 trips, the newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The number is notably smaller than the number of times he has flown first class as the head of EPA. The Washington Post first reported in February that Pruitt had racked up tens of thousands of dollars in travel costs while serving in the Trump administration.

Following the Post’s report, Pruitt defended his first-class travel, citing security concerns in the current “toxic” political environment.

Read more here.

 

GREEN GROUPS LIKE DEM INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN FOR NATIONAL PARKS: Environmental groups are hailing Senate Democrats’ newly released infrastructure plan for how it proposes to fix a multibillion-dollar backlog of projects on national park land.

The plan proposed by Democrats on Wednesday would undo some of the tax cuts in the law President Trump signed in December in order to pay for a $1 trillion infrastructure plan, which would invest $5 billion in repairs at national park sites.  

The National Park Service is currently sitting on an $11.6 billion repair backlog.

“Today’s Senate blueprint demonstrates we can fix our parks without compromising what makes them great. It’s proof that taking care of America’s parks doesn’t have to mean rolling back environmental protections or encouraging damaging drilling on public lands,” said Theresa Pierno, president of National Parks Conservation Association, in a statement Wednesday.

The Democrats’ plan varies from one proposed in February’s White House 2019 budget and praised by Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke, which would instead completely fund the backlogged projects by drilling leases on public lands. The infrastructure needs range from building new park roads to repairing ranger stations.

The Democratic proposal came as another group of senators announced bipartisan legislation that would essentially codify Zinke’s proposal into law. The National Park Restoration Act would take half of the money that the federal government gets from energy production that is above 2018 forecasts and not dedicated for another use.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the bill’s lead sponsor, said tackling a maintenance backlog would bring visitors and create jobs for people in his state. “We must continue to work together to find solutions to the many challenges facing our public lands, and this legislation takes an important step toward doing that.”

Read more here.

 

AROUND THE WEB:

Pennsylvania regulators are moving to possibly shut down a natural gas liquids pipeline after sinkholes appeared at a construction site for a parallel pipeline, StateImpact Pennsylvania reports.

Exxon Mobil Corp.’s XTO Energy capped a methane leak in Ohio that had been leaking since mid-February, the Wheeling News-Intelligencer reports.

Mexico is working to upgrade its sewage system to cut down on cross-border leaks into California, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

 

FROM THE HILL’S OPINION SECTION:

-Rauf Mammadov, a resident scholar on energy policy at The Middle East Institute, says that a dispute over Lebanon’s offshore drilling plan could also mean a calming of the waters in the region.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Wednesday’s stories …

-Pruitt rarely flew first class as Oklahoma attorney general: report

-GOP rejects Dems’ attempt to stop Pruitt’s first-class travel

-House votes to delay EPA air pollution rules for brickmakers, wood heaters

-Perry ‘not sure’ Trump has made up mind on tariffs

-Court denies Trump admin’s plea to stop kids’ climate lawsuit

-Green groups: Dem infrastructure plan better for our national parks

-Lawmakers propose boosting park funding with oil money

-Biofuel groups send letter to Trump defending ethanol credits

-EPA floats plan for reducing animal testing

-Wildlife groups fear what comes next on elephant trophies