Overnight Energy & Environment — Biden Fed pick out after climate stance fight

by Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk - 03/15/22 7:23 PM ET

Welcome to Tuesday’s Overnight Energy & Environment, your source for the latest news focused on energy, the environment and beyond. Subscribe here: digital-stage.thehill.com/newsletter-signup.

Today we’re looking at Sarah Bloom Raskin withdrawing from consideration and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s nomination of Trump EPA chief Andrew Wheeler as an adviser.

For The Hill, we’re Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk. Write to us with tips: rfrazin@digital-stage.thehill.com and zbudryk@digital-stage.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @RachelFrazin and @BudrykZack.

Let’s jump in.

Raskin withdraws Fed vice chair nomination

Sarah Bloom Raskin, whom President Biden nominated to serve as Federal Reserve vice chair of supervision, withdrew from consideration Tuesday after three moderate senators effectively blocked her path to confirmation.

Raskin sent a letter to Biden on Tuesday asking him to withdraw her nomination amid “relentless attacks by special interests,” The New Yorker first reported Tuesday. Her withdrawal comes one day after Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) announced their opposition to her nomination.

“Despite her readiness—and despite having been confirmed by the Senate with broad, bipartisan support twice in the past — Sarah was subject to baseless attacks from industry and conservative interest groups,” Biden said in a Tuesday statement.

“Unfortunately, Senate Republicans are more focused on amplifying these false claims and protecting special interests than taking important steps toward addressing inflation and lowering costs for the American people.”

It all comes back to energy: While Raskin had broad support from former Fed officials and little resistance from the banking industry, advocates for oil and gas companies rallied against her nomination over her views on climate-related financial risks.

Raskin in 2020 urged the Fed not to offer emergency loans to fossil fuel companies struggling to stay afloat amid the pandemic and criticized investing in oil and gas companies. She has also urged regulators and banks to pay closer attention to ways climate change can upend the financial system, drawing fierce opposition from the fossil fuel industry.

Raskin’s views on climate drew immediate opposition from Senate Republicans. GOP lawmakers have fiercely criticized the Fed and other financial regulators for paying special attention to the ways climate change poses financial stability risks, and claimed Raskin would use the Fed to defund the industry.

“Many in and outside the Senate are unwilling to acknowledge the economic complications of climate change and the toll it has placed, and will continue to place, on Americans,” Raskin wrote to Biden

“Addressing the transition of the economy as it grapples with the effects of climate change is critical to the future of American prosperity. I stand with the vast majority of financial regulators and central banks in the United States and abroad recognizing these facts.”

Wheeler named adviser to Virginia governor

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has named former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler as a special adviser after Democrats in the state Senate voted down his appointment for a Cabinet post.

Macaulay Porter, a spokesperson for Youngkin’s office, confirmed the move to The Hill Tuesday morning. The position, which does not require General Assembly confirmation, will concentrate on issues relating to natural resources.

Wheeler, who served as head of the EPA under then-President Trump from 2019 to 2021, was Youngkin’s nominee for state secretary of natural resources. The nomination was immediately controversial among environmental groups, who are longtime critics of Wheeler due to both his history as a coal lobbyist and the numerous environmental regulations he rolled back at the EPA.

In particular, Democrats, green groups and former EPA employees excoriated Wheeler for his support for a rule, introduced under his predecessor Scott Pruitt, that barred the use of scientific studies that did not make the entirety of their data public.

Wheeler has not falsely claimed human-caused climate change is a hoax, but has called the threat exaggerated and said he does not believe it to be an existential threat.

Democrats retained a slim majority in the Virginia Senate after the GOP swept statewide offices in the 2021 election, but after a largely convivial committee hearing in January, it was unclear whether any would cross the aisle to vote for Wheeler. State Sen. Joe Morrissey (D) in particular suggested Wheeler had “acquitted himself well” under questioning and was considering backing him.

Read more here.

VIRTUAL EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

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SAUDIS REPORTEDLY CONSIDER ACCEPTING YUAN FOR OIL

Saudi and Chinese officials are in talks to price some of the Gulf nation’s oil sales in yuan rather than dollars or euros, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The two nations have intermittently discussed the matter for six years, but talks have reportedly stepped up in 2022, with Riyadh disgruntled over the United States’ nuclear negotiations with Iran and its lack of backing for Saudi Arabia’s military operation in neighboring Yemen.

Nearly 80 percent of global oil sales are priced in dollars, and since the mid-1970s the Saudis have exclusively used the dollar for oil trading as part of a security agreement with the U.S. government, according to the Journal.

The talks are the latest in an ongoing effort by Beijing both to make its currency tradable in international oil markets and strengthen its relationship with the Saudis specifically. China previously aided Riyadh in construction of ballistic missiles and consultation on nuclear power.

Conversely, the Saudi-U.S. relationship has been increasingly frayed in recent years. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman initially put forth a public image as a reformer, liberalizing the country’s policies on women’s rights and criminal justice.

Read more here.

ON TAP TOMORROW

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold an oversight hearing related to the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund
The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the health impacts of toxic fumes from burn pits and other airborne hazards
The House Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing on the role of Agriculture Department programs in tackling climate change
The House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing on the role of forest management in fighting wildfires. Forest Service chief Randy Moore and singer Carole King are slated to appear.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a hearing on proposals for a Water Resources Development Act of 2022
The House Science, Space and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on bioenergy

WHAT WE’RE READING

Shell directors may face lawsuit over climate transition plans (Reuters)
Mountain Valley Pipeline compensation dispute goes to trial in Virginia (8News)
Gravity could solve renewable energy’s biggest problem (CNN)
Climatologists warn Granite State about future climate trends in 2022 climate assessment (WMUR)