WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Wednesday, readers! In today’s Daily on Energy, Callie and Maydeen cover the wildfires that ignited yesterday evening and continue to spread throughout Los Angeles County.
We also look at an oil and gas lease sale in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which failed to receive bids this week. Lastly, the newsletter covers New Mexico Democrat Martin Heinrich accusing Utah Republican Mike Lee of breaking protocol regarding the nomination hearing for Interior secretary.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner energy and environment writers Callie Patteson (@CalliePatteson) and Maydeen Merino (@MaydeenMerino). Email cpatteson@washingtonexaminer dot com or mmerino@washingtonexaminer dot com for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
LATEST ON THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES: Thousands have been evacuated as fires rage throughout Los Angeles County, driven by strong winds and dry conditions.
The Palisades Fire, which started yesterday, has burned more than 5,000 acres in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood north of Santa Monica. During a press conference this morning, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said an estimated 1,000 structures have been destroyed.
Last night, the Eaton Fire began in the Pasadena and Altadena area and has exploded to 10,600 acres. The Los Angeles County Fire Department said the fire has caused two civilian deaths and several injuries. As of this morning, there were over 100 structures destroyed. In addition, the Hurst Fire started yesterday evening in the neighborhood of Sylmar and has burned over 500 acres.
California has deployed over 1,400 firefighting personnel to battle the fires. Marrone said he requested resources from out-of-state and Northern California. First responders from Nevada, Oregon, and Washington will be assisting Los Angeles County.
As of this morning, each fire has zero containment.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this morning announced the state has secured federal assistance to respond to all three fires. “Firefighters are working through the night to save lives & battle these aggressive fires,” he said on X.
President-elect Donald Trump took to Truth Social to blame Newsom for the fires and limiting water from Northern California to flow throughout the state.
“He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California,” Trump wrote. “Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!”
The fires are being fueled by a windstorm in Southern California that began yesterday and will continue into tomorrow. The National Weather Service said the highest wind gusts for the past two days include 100mph at the Mt Lukens Truck Trail, 90mph at the Magic Mountain Truck Trail to 84mph at Hollywood-Burbank Airport.
OIL AND GAS LEASE SALE FAILS AFTER ALASKA SUES BIDEN OVER AUCTION: An oil and gas lease sale in the Coast Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge failed to receive any bids this week as the state of Alaska sued the Biden administration over what it described as a restrictive auction.
The details: The Department of Interior revealed on Wednesday that the Bureau of Land Management received zero bids for its lease sale of 400,000 acres in the refuge that was scheduled to take place on Friday. The department’s deadline to submit bids in the auction was Monday. The failed sale results in there being no existing leases in the coastal plain, which has long been at the center of the battle for increased drilling in recent years.
It comes just days after the state of Alaska filed a lawsuit against the administration over the lease sale, claiming the administration violated a congressional directive allowing oil and gas development. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. district court in Alaska, challenges restrictions set on the oil and gas lease, claiming the restrictions prevent “actual oil and gas development” within the region.
The lease sale was set to be the second held by the Biden administration in the refuge. Around 400,000 acres (of the 1.6 million acres available) were set to be auctioned – the minimum requirement set by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
The lawsuit claimed that current restrictions on surface use, construction, and occupancy make it “impossible or impracticable” to develop on. As a result, the state has argued the administration is hurting the local economy.
“The United States’ conduct harms the State by depriving it of significant revenue that was to be generated directly from oil and gas leasing and development of the Coastal Plain and otherwise depriving the State and its citizens of the broader economic benefits that would result from such development,” the lawsuit reads.
Anticipated bids: Given the concerns regarding the lease sale restrictions, people familiar with the local oil industry told the Anchorage Daily News they expected “modest bidding.”
Geologist Bill Armstrong told the outlet he believed there would be limited competition over the available acreage, calling the auction a “‘non-sale’ sale.”
“The sale results will in no way reflect the industry’s interest in, or the potential of ANWR,” he said.
Brad Keithley, a former oil and gas attorney in Alaska, also told the outlet he even expects many companies will wait to make a bid on leases in the refuge until Trump is back in office.
Read more from Callie here.
EUROPEAN WIND STOCKS FALL AFTER TRUMP BASHES THE OFFSHORE WIND INDUSTRY: European wind stocks dropped today after Trump protested the offshore wind industry and vowed to halt the construction of wind farms.
Shares for offshore wind farm developers Denmark’s Orsted, Germany’s RWE and turbine makers like Siemens Energy, Nordex, and Vestas closed 2.4%-7.4% lower, Reuters reports.
Yesterday, during a press conference at Mar-A-Lago, Trump said wind turbines litter the landscape in the U.S., calling it a “garbage in a field.” He said offshore wind is the most expensive energy source and promised there would be no more construction of wind turbines while he is in the White House.
“We’re gonna try and have a policy where no windmills are being built,” Trump said.
ICYMI – EXXON HITS BACK AT CALIFORNIA, ALLEGING DEFAMATION: Exxon Mobil is suing California’s attorney general and several environmental groups, accusing them of defamation, months after the oil and gas giant was sued over misleading recycling practices.
A reminder: In September, California filed a lawsuit against Exxon following a two-year investigation. The lawsuit claimed the company had been deceiving consumers for at least 50 years in a campaign the state claimed “caused and exacerbated the global plastics pollution crisis.” California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office accused the company of making unachievable promises about the amount of plastic waste the company produces.
At the time, Exxon told the Washington Examiner, “For decades, California officials have known their recycling system isn’t effective. They failed to act, and now they seek to blame others. Instead of suing us, they could have worked with us to fix the problem and keep plastic out of landfills.”
The details: Exxon filed a lawsuit on Monday in Texas’s Eastern District against Bonta, the Sierra Club, San Francisco Baykeeper, Heal the Bay and the Surfrider Foundation. The suit claims the state and activist organizations conspired together to defame Exxon over its plastic recycling program known as advanced recycling.
Exxon insisted in its suit that it has “not engaged in a decades-long secret mission to brainwash or deceive the public,” instead claiming Bonta himself made false statements about the recycling tech, according to the New York Times.
The oil and gas company is seeing unspecified monetary damages and statement retractions from the California attorney general and environmentalists.
The defendants have since criticized Exxon’s lawsuit, with the California Department of Justice telling the New York Times that the suit is “another attempt from Exxon Mobil to deflect attention from its own unlawful deception.”
HEINRICH ACCUSES GOP OF BREAKING PROTOCOL FOR BURGUM HEARING: New Mexico Democrat Martin Heinrich, the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee, has accused committee chair and Utah Republican Mike Lee of breaking protocol regarding the hearing for Interior secretary nominee Doug Burgum.
The details: Early today, Heinrich claimed Lee was attempting to hold the confirmation hearing for the North Dakota governor without the committee having received certain paperwork, such as a financial disclosure form.
Burgum is reportedly set to appear before the committee on Jan. 14, according to Politico.
“I am extremely disappointed that Chairman Lee has scheduled the first Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee confirmation hearing over my objection and before basic information has been given to the Committee,” Heinrich said in a statement. “This is a breach of protocol and precedent, established over decades by Chairs of both parties.”
“The Senate has a constitutional duty to advise and, if it determines, consent to the President’s nominees. This requires careful consideration of each nominee,” the New Mexico Democrat continued.
He pointed out that typically nominees provide the committees with responses to a questionnaire submitted to the committee, a financial disclosure form, approvals from the relevant department’s ethics office as well as an FBI background check.
“Until these steps have been completed, I will not consent to notice of nomination hearings,” Heinrich said.
Lee later told Politico that he had spoken to Heinrich about his concern regarding the confirmation hearing, insisting that Burgum “has done everything he needs to do.” The Utah Republican told the outlet that he did not believe an FBI background check was a part of the necessary process for a confirmation from the Energy and Natural Resources committee. However, Lee indicated he was open to delaying the hearing if necessary.
In a separate statement, Lee criticized Heinrich’s efforts to delay Burgum’s hearing, claiming his Democratic colleague was failing to focus “on delivering what voters demanded in November’s election: restoring American energy dominance after years of high energy prices and policy failures.”
“I, as chairman, have made every effort to work with our Democratic colleagues, but we won’t give in to delays that undermine the American people’s mandate,” Lee said. “It’s time to move forward and focus on solutions that will unleash America’s full energy potential, and I hope Democrats will work with us to deliver results for the American people.”
UNITED STATES PARIS WITHDRAWAL WOULD BE MAJOR ‘BLOW,’ EU WARNS: With Trump’s inauguration less than two weeks away, the European Union is warning of unintended consequences at the global level if the Republican opts to withdraw from the Paris Agreement once again.
The details: EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra made the warning in a recent interview with Reuters, saying a withdrawal from the U.S. “would be a serious blow for international climate diplomacy.”
The commissioner indicated that it would force other countries within the Paris Agreement “to double down on climate diplomacy.”
“There’s no alternative to make sure that, in the end, everyone chips in, because climate change is indiscriminate,” Hoekstra said. “This truly is a problem that the world needs to solve together.”
While Trump is expected to leave the climate agreement, and put pressure on the EU to increase imports of U.S. oil, Hoekstra said he is hoping to engage further with the incoming administration on a number of issues like climate change.
“Making sure that our American friends, as much as is possible, are actually staying on board and are working on this together with us, is clearly something I will strive for,” the commissioner said.
Pressure to stay: Since winning the presidential election, Trump has been facing increasing pressure from allies, and the oil and gas industry, to stay in the Paris Agreement. Israel’s special envoy for climate change and sustainability, Gideon Behar, insisted in November that curbing greenhouse gas emissions is “an international effort.”
“The more people that will remain…is better,” he said at the time.
Exxon Mobil chairman and CEO Darren Woods has also pushed for Trump to stay in the agreement. “I don’t think the challenge or the need to address global emissions is going to go away,” Woods said in the fall. “Anything that happens in the short term would just make the longer term that much more challenging.”
A reminder: The Paris climate agreement was adopted in 2015 and signed in 2016 by nearly every country. It was a landmark agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale. By being a part of the agreement, countries agree to substantially reduce emissions in order to keep global warming below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
RUNDOWN
Washington Post Photos: Pacific Palisades fire spreads amid high winds
Inside Climate News A Nickel Rush Threatens Indonesia’s Last Nomadic Tribes and Its Forests, Fishermen and Farmers
New York Times ‘Make Greenland Great Again’? Not Like That, Greenlanders Say.