The Energy 202: Top Democrats try to show unity on climate change ahead of election
clock with Alexandra Ellerbeck Democrats took another step toward a single agenda for tackling climate change with the release of a Senate report on Tuesday. The 260-page blueprint for comprehensive climate legislation from Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) outlines what Senate Democrats plan to pass should they take back the Senate in the 2020 election. With less than 10 weeks to Election Day, top party leaders are taking pains to make sure they are on the same page. The Senate climate package is largely in line with those from both Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Even if the election turns out in their favor, Democrats may still have only a short legislative window to pass a bill tackling a crisis U.N. scientists say the world has precious little time to solve to stop dangerous levels of warming. Democratic leaders are coalescing behind an approach, said Maggie Thomas, political director of the environmental group Evergreen. The federal government must commit to using every tool at its disposal at a much greater scale than before, he told reporters Tuesday. There's no way around it. The climate plans from both Biden and House Democrats also include a mid-century deadline for eliminating the nation's contributions to climate change. The Senate Special Committee's new report shows how united Democrats are in our commitment to solve the climate crisis," said Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), chair of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis who led writing the House climate package. And like the Biden plan , Senate Democrats want to funnel 40 percent of clean energy spending to minority or disadvantaged communities that usually bear the brunt of pollution. The Senate plan, also like Biden's, does not call for a ban on fracking. During the presidential primary, environmentalists clamored for such a commitment to end the extract process that can impact air and water quality, but Biden has resisted those calls so as not to alienate voters in Pennsylvania. The Senate report calls for spending 2 percent of gross domestic product per year or about $435 billion in 2019 on transitioning to a cleaner economy. That is about the same price tag in the climate plan from Biden, who wants to spend $2 trillion over four years. The way to look at this plan and Vice President Biden's plan, and even what the House is proposing, is that they're not the same, but they rhyme, said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who chaired a special Democrat-only panel that put together the report. The caucus would have to net a total of four seats to win a majority and win back the White House to get a shot at passing any big climate bill. Incumbent Republicans Cory Gardner (Colo.), Martha McSally (Ariz.), and Susan Collins (Maine) are seen as vulnerable, but Democrats would also have to score another flip if Sen. Doug Jones (D) loses ruby-red Alabama. Yet if Democrats end up with only a narrow majority, they won't be able to overcome a procedural rule requiring 60 votes to end a filibuster unless they get rid of that decades-old requirement. When asked about dropping the 60-vote rule, Schumer said Tuesday: As to how we get that done, I'm not taking anything off the table. Most notably, former president Barack Obama called for ending the filibuster, which he said was a Jim Crow relic, to expand voting rights at Rep. John Lewiss funeral last month. During Obama's first year in office, a major cap-and-trade bill passed the House only to die in Senate when it became clear Democrats couldn't conjure up 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. By drafting bills now, Democrats are trying to avoid butting heads later. You have all three bodies that have to pass legislation and then sign it, aligned; that this is a fairly high priority, Schumer said. Democrats don't want to be caught flatfooted on climate legislation in 2021 like Republicans were on health care in 2017. Before President Trump's election, Republicans campaigned heavily on repealing the Affordable Care Act but couldn't agree on what to replace it with when the party got control of all levers of government after Trump took office. But given just how many details would still need to be filled in, there are sure to be tensions within the Democratic caucus between moderates and liberals. Karen Orenstein, a climate and energy program director at Friends of the Earth, said her left-leaning green group is deeply disappointed in this report" for not doing more to curb fossil fuel use. In his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention last week, he called it one of the four historic crises facing the nation, along with racial injustice, the economic recession and the coronavirus pandemic. Biden spokesman Matt Hill said that the nominee applauds Senate Democrats for their proposal and that as president he would work with Congress to implement a bold agenda that addresses the climate emergency. In some areas, Biden's plan is more detailed than either of the congressional proposals. For example, the former vice president is calling for utilities to be legally required to get all of their power from emissions-free sources by 2035. Senate Democrats list such a mandate as one of several ways to rein in climate-warming emissions from power plants. The plan also contemplates putting a price on releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and other market-based mechanisms. The House plan also is noncommittal on exactly how to make polluters pay for releasing carbon. A Maine lobsterman, a mining town mayor, and a rancher warned of Democrats green agenda on Day 2 of the Republican National Convention. On a night touting Trump's efforts to boost the economy, Jason Joyce, an eighth-generation lobster fisherman, praised the president for renegotiating tariffs on lobsters with the European Union and criticized Barack Obama for creating a national marine monument off the New England coast. As long as Trump is president fishing families like mine will have a voice, Joyce said. But if Biden wins hell be controlled by the environmental extremists who want to circumvent longstanding rules and impose radical changes that hurt our coastal communities. While the states lobstermen didnt fish in the area that was marked off limits, he said the move ignored the input of the fishing industry more broadly, Joyce said. Trump lifted limits on commercial fishing at ocean sanctuary in June. Meanwhile, Robert Vlaisavljevich, the mayor of Eveleth, a small town in Minnesotas iron-mining region, said he is a lifelong Democrat now voting Trump. Joe Biden has allowed radicals like [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)] to craft his environmental policy. Their so-called Green New Deal is a job killing disgrace dreamt up by people who dont live in the real world. Vlaisavljevich said. Trump lost Minnesota by only 45,000 votes in the 2016 election, but former pro-labor Democratic strongholds in iron mining region have shown a growing affinity for Trump who has loosened up mining regulations and promised new jobs, Politico reported earlier this year . Finally, during a segment featuring Trump-supporting small business owners, a rancher his family stopped ranching after regulations became overbearing" but he had new hope under Trump. Fire crews were assisted by improving weather conditions Sunday and Monday, including lower temperatures and calmer winds, the Sacramento Bee reports . A system of thunderstorms with lighting activity, which could have exacerbated the fires, missed some of the largest blazes near the North Bay and east of San Jose. But more than 14,000 firefighters continue to battle blazes across the state. The governor's Office of Emergency Services released a map of wildfires on Tuesday: Statewide fire map for Tuesday, August 25. We are grateful for the tireless work being done throughout California to try to suppress these fires. pic.twitter.com/x6fHmLXZyz California wildfires have burned more than 1 million acres and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate. At least seven people have died in the blazes, but more could face secondary effects from increased spread of the coronavirus, as the fires make social distancing more difficult. The fires have also brought unhealthy air pollution as far as the Midwest, potentially exacerbating health problems, such as lung disease and asthma. A serious hurricane situation is unfolding for the Gulf Coast as Hurricane Laura barrels toward the shores of Texas and Louisiana, intensifying as it traverses unusually warm waters, my colleagues Jason Samenow, Andrew Freedman and Kim Bellware report . The strengthening storm is predicted to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday at major Category 3 intensity. The National Hurricane Center has expanded hurricane watches or warnings to cover Galveston, Houston and Port Arthur in Texas and Lake Charles in Louisiana. Californias cap-and-trade system has created a market for preserving trees, and now companies are betting that model could spread to other states. Lately, big energy companies, betting that the idea will spread, are looking to preserve vast tracts of forest beyond what they need for California, as part of a burgeoning, speculative market in so-called voluntary offsets, the Wall Street Journal reports . Companies that pay landowners not to cut down trees get to burnish their public image, court environmentally conscious investors, and count the carbon credits against their pollution tab. BP has already bet big in the market, spending hundreds of millions to buy more than 40 million California offset credits since 2016. The energy giant has also invested in Finite Carbon, a Pennsylvania company that helps landowners track carbon offsets. But the market is not without its skeptics, some of whom argue that many of the forests protected under these programs were unlikely to be clear cut anyway.