OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Drought hits Colorado River — but the politics won’t stay there

TGIF! Welcome to Overnight Energy  — your source for the day’s energy and environment news. 

Please send tips and comments to Rachel Frazin at rfrazin@digital-stage.thehill.com. Follow her on Twitter: @RachelFrazin. Reach Zack Budryk at zbudryk@digital-stage.thehill.com or follow him at @BudrykZack. 

Today we’re looking at a crisis point for the Colorado River, a move by the EPA to blunt a Trump-era water rule and sanctions in connection with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

LET THE RIVER RUN: Colorado River cutbacks set stage for decade of drought politics

A prolonged and worsening drought has created an alarming shortage of water across the parched West, setting off what is likely to be a years-long crisis that could threaten the future of some of the fastest-growing cities and economies in the United States.

The Bureau of Reclamation on Monday declared the first-ever water shortage on the Colorado River, forcing cutbacks to water allocations to Western states that will begin in the next several months. Water officials and experts who keep careful tabs on lake and river levels from the Rocky Mountains to Baja California say they expect further cuts unless the heavens open up once again.

In the American West, “whiskey’s for drinking and water’s for fighting,” said Kirk Adams, a former Arizona state legislator who served as chief of staff to Gov. Doug Ducey (R) during negotiations over Colorado River water use.

The story so far: A quarter of the territory in Western states is experiencing exceptional drought, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center, including broad swaths of California’s Central Valley, Eastern Washington and Oregon and large portions of Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Montana. More than 98 percent of Western lands are abnormally dry.

The dry conditions are a major cause of the massive wildfires that have become a common feature of Western summers, when smoke settles over the landscape. But the longer-term problem is now showing up in the reservoirs where those states store their water.

Across the West, water in those reservoirs, lakes and rivers is near or below record-low levels. Some of the largest reservoirs in the Upper Snake River Basin in Idaho are between 14 percent and 42 percent full. In Southern Oregon, reservoirs near Ashland are at less than 5 percent capacity.

Lake Powell, a reservoir that helps generate power for Southwestern states, is only 31 percent full. The amount of water that has flowed into the lake totals just 35 percent of the average it has historically received.

Lake Mead, which serves residents of Arizona, California, Nevada and northern Mexico, stands just 1,067 feet above sea level, its lowest point since the Hoover Dam was constructed in the 1930s. Cuts are triggered when the water level there falls below 1,075 feet.

Read more about the ongoing situation here.

PIPING UP: Biden EPA loosens Trump rule limiting states’ ability to reject pipelines

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday issued a joint memo with the Department of the Army allowing states and tribes to extend the finalization process for water-crossing permits after a Trump-era rule imposed a one-year window.

The memo directs the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to wait the maximum amount of time to finalize 41 Nationwide Permits proposed under the act in September. 

Refresh my memory… While the Clean Water Act allows states and tribes to weigh in on projects that run through their waterways, the 2020 rule reduced the approvals required at the state and tribal level.

It reduced states’ ability to veto permits for these projects — which can include pipelines and other energy infrastructure — by limiting the scope of state-required approvals to only those that will impact water quality, and specifically excluding considerations such as “energy policy.”

It also lifted requirements for states to certify projects if the states don’t act within a year. 

And it followed high-profile blue-state rejections of fossil fuel infrastructure. 

So what’s new? The new memo outlines scenarios under which state or tribal governments may take longer than a year to approve or deny projects, such as cases where “they identify factors and circumstances that warrant extending the reasonable period of time.”

Read more about today’s memo here.

NOT A FAN OF STREAMING? State Department sanctions more Russians over Nord Stream 2

The Biden administration on Friday said it was sanctioning a Russian vessel and two Russian individuals involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the administration has submitted a report to Congress listing one Russian vessel and two Russians who will be sanctioned under the Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act (PEESA) of 2019.

“Today’s report is in line with the United States’ continuing opposition to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and the U.S. Government’s continued compliance with PEESA, as amended,” Blinken said.

With the latest announcement, the Biden administration has now identified seven people and 16 entities to be subject to sanctions for their involvement in the pipeline. The names of the individuals and vessel newly sanctioned were not made public.

However, the Biden administration has waived sanctions on the company overseeing the construction of the pipeline, Nord Stream 2 AG, and its chief operating officer in what has been widely interpreted as a concession to Germany, spurring some bipartisan backlash. 

Read more about the new sanctions here.

A CLEAR WARNING: UNICEF says nearly half of world’s children at ‘extremely high risk’ of climate change impacts

Nearly half of the world’s 2.2 billion children are at an “extremely high-risk” of experiencing the effects of climate change, including exposure to harmful greenhouse gases, flooding and heatwaves, according to a new report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). 

The report, which was shared with The Hill on Thursday, marks the first of its kind to measure the effects of climate change specifically from the perspective of children, a population that UNICEF says is disproportionately more likely to experience detrimental health outcomes from global warming. 

UNICEF found that about 1 billion of the global child population lives in one of the 33 countries labeled at the highest level of risk in terms of vulnerability to climate change. 

The international humanitarian aid agency made its determination based on the Children’s Climate Risk Index, which measured children’s vulnerability to climate shocks, including heat waves, cyclones, droughts and floods. 

Like where? UNICEF said that the countries where children are most vulnerable include the Central African Republic, Chad, Nigeria, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. 

The report also found that nearly every child on the planet is exposed to at lease one climate and environmental hazard, shock or stress, including air pollution and water scarcity. 

The foreword portion of the report, written by Greta Thunberg and other youth climate activists, said that children across the world “face a deadly combination of exposure to multiple climate and environmental shocks with a high vulnerability due to inadequate essential services,” like water, sanitation and healthcare. 

Read more about the report here.

FERCKING OUT: GOP’s Chatterjee to depart energy commission, leaving it evenly divided

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Commissioner Neil Chatterjee, a Republican, will exit the commission at the end of this month, leaving Democrats and Republicans with two seats apiece on the regulatory board.

Chatterjee announced in a Friday tweet that his last day on the commission will be Aug. 30. 

“I will continue to carry out my responsibilities until that date. Serving on the Commission has been the honor of a lifetime,” he wrote. 

Chatterjee’s term expired earlier this year, but he was continuing to serve under a grace period that can extend until his replacement is sworn in. 

President Biden has yet to nominate anyone to replace Chatterjee at FERC. According to commission spokesperson Craig Cano, projects can only be approved or rejected with a majority, so any with split votes would stay pending. 

Read more about Chatterjee’s departure here.

WHAT WE’RE READING:

Emerging oil nations reject climate curbs on exploration, pursue rapid development, Reuters reports

Calif. recall hopefuls push promises on drought, wildfires, E&E News reports

U.S. Energy Secretary Meets With Navajo Nation Leaders To Discuss Renewable Energy Initiatives, KNAU reports

Brazil’s new environment minister faces huge Amazon challenge, The Financial Times reports

Here’s why Louisiana faces a special challenge from climate change, WWNO reports

ICYMI: Extra stories from Friday…

Barrett rejects bid to stop Obama library construction

Greta Thunberg, youth climate activists slam adults over climate crisis

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