Overnight Energy: Senate takes aim at Obama-era land rule

SENATE TARGETS ANOTHER OBAMA RULE: Republicans’ deregulatory push resumes this week when the Senate considers another Congressional Review Act (CRA) challenge to an Obama-era rule.

The Senate on Monday night will kick off the process for repealing a Bureau of Land Management planning rule, which the Obama administration hoped would reform and update public land strategies.

Conservatives, though, say the rule — called “Planning 2.0” — gives federal regulators too much power over public land and moves state and local input to the backburner. The House in February approved a CRA resolution repealing the rule, and it appears likely to pass in the Senate.

{mosads}Once passed and signed into law, the resolution would be the third CRA measure Republicans and President Trump have used against energy or environmental rules from the Obama administration.

So far, CRA resolutions have scuttled a coal mining pollution rule and a regulation calling for more financial disclosure information from drilling and mining firms. The Planning 2.0 role is next on the chopping block, and members could soon pass a resolution against a methane pollution rule as well.

Read more here.    

TRUMP HAILS NEW EXXON INITIATIVE: Trump praised oil giant ExxonMobil Corp. on Monday for a manufacturing expansion on the Gulf Coast.

Exxon said it has kicked off a $20 billion investment in Texas and Louisiana, with its CEO saying the shale oil and gas boom is driving spending in the United States.

In a statement, Trump said that is “is exactly the kind of investment, economic development and job creation that will help put Americans back to work.

“Many of the products that will be manufactured here in the United States by American workers will be exported to other countries, improving our balance of trade,” Trump added of Exxon, which until December was led by now-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

“This is a true American success story.”

Exxon’s expansion work — which began in 2013 and could last through 2022 — will take place at 11 new or existing chemical, refining, lubricant and liquefied natural gas projects in Louisiana and Texas.

Read more here.

REPUBLICAN LOOKS TO EASE LAND TRANSFERS: Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) is asking House budget writers to make a change that would ease transfers of federal land to state or local governments.

Bishop, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, asked the House Budget Committee to put $50 million in the budget to account for costs associated with land transfers.

In his request, Bishop argued that “poorly managed federal lands create a burden for surrounding states and communities.”

He reasoned that divesting the federal government of its land would be good for the federal budget. It would reduce the costs of maintaining that land, he said, as well as the payments the federal government makes to local and state governments for tax dollars they can’t collect.

“To allow for these conveyances to start immediately, we ask that you build in $50 million into the budget to cover possible impacts on offsetting receipts,” Bishop wrote.

“The vitality of these lands, after being conveyed from the federal government, will reduce the need for other taxpayer-funded federal support, either through Payments in Lieu of Taxes or other programs such as Secure Rural Schools.”

The budget request does not mention any specific land transfers Bishop or others might propose.

Read more here.

HOUSE GOP TARGETS EPA ‘SECRET SCIENCE’: House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) is once again going after what he see as the use of “secret science” in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rulemaking.

Smith introduced the Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment Act (HONEST Act) Monday, the latest iteration of his proposal to reform how the EPA uses science.

“The HONEST Act of 2017 is about ensuring public access to the very science that underpins rules and regulations by EPA,” he said in a statement. “This bill would prohibit any future regulations from taking effect unless the underlying scientific data is public.”

Democrats, environmentalists and others have fought the GOP’s “secret science” legislation in the past, arguing that the agency is already transparent with its research and the proposals would put up significant new regulatory barriers.

Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), the panel’s vice chairman, introduced a bill Monday to change how the EPA’s Science Advisory Board is constituted.

ON TAP TUESDAY: The Senate will debate the legislation to block the Bureau of Land Management’s planning regulation, and could vote on its as soon as Tuesday.

AROUND THE WEB:

Carbon emissions in the United Kingdom dropped nearly 6 percent last year amid a record decrease in coal consumption, Carbon Brief reports.

Mormon leader Dallin H. Oaks says climate change and President Trump are among his new “big worries,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

BNSF Railway is paying to settle claims that it allowed coal and coke ash to fall off trains in the Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Times reports.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out stories from Monday and this weekend …

-Trump hails new Exxon jobs plan
-GOP chairman seeks $50M to transfer federal land
-Senate to consider resolution rolling back Obama-era land rule
-Week ahead: White House readies climate orders
-The one Trump pick leaving greens hopeful
-Trump looking to cut climate science agency’s budget: report  

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