Waiting on Senator Cantwell – Energy Committee Will She Stay, or Will She Go (Politico, Morning Energy)

(Washington, DC) – Sen. Maria Cantwell told reporters Monday she's undecided on whether she'll leave her spot as top Democrat on the Energy Committee for the Commerce Committee. "Both committees have lots of great things to work on," Cantwell said. "We're still talking to the leadership about everything."

Manchin interested: Manchin, who has a plausible path to the ranking member spot on the Energy Committee depending on how things shake out, didn't deny his interest. "I'm ready, willing and able. I can tell you that," he said. "There's got to be a balanced approach about how we maintain energy independence." Remember ME told you last week that Sen. Debbie Stabenow will face pressure to switch to the Energy slot as Manchin would likely face vocal opposition from environmental groups.

Study Shows Proposed Methanol Plant Would Drive Down Greenhouse Gas Emissions (KELA Radio, Centralia, WA)

(KALAMA, WA) -- A draft study of a proposed $2 billion methanol refining project in Kalama says the plant would drive down global greenhouse gas emissions by displacing coal-based methanol sources.

The Longview Daily News says the review released Tuesday by the Port of Kalama and Cowlitz County concludes the plant, which would produce methanol from natural gas, would displace dirtier coal-based methanol sources in China and result in net reductions in carbon emissions. Environmentalists called the report flawed. They say it underestimates methane associated with the project from hydraulic fracturing and makes speculative assumptions about global markets.

Ribbon Cutting for Chehalis’ New Interstate 5 Chamber Way Overpass (KELA Radio, Centralia, WA)

(CHEHALIS, WA) – The Washington State Department of Transportation, local leaders, and members of the business community will celebrate the completion of the new Interstate 5 Chamber Way overpass in Chehalis with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting Thursday afternoon. The ceremony will be at 2 PM in the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce parking lot and the public is invited to attend. Tamara Greenwell with the Department of Transportation says the new overpass is wider and taller with more highway clearance than the overpass it replaces and has improved sidewalks.

Franklin, Benton PUDs Note Deadlines Set for Washington State Solar Incentive Program (Franklin & Benton PUDs, Tri-Cities, WA)

(Tri-Cities, WA) Deadlines have been set for a popular Washington renewable-energy incentive program that is nearing the maximum funding level and is expected to meet the incentive limit by June 2019.   Although funds may be exhausted at any time, Washington State University has notified utilities that customers installing residential scale solar projects have until February 14, 2019 to apply for the State Incentive Program.  After that date, customers will be put on a waitlist and applications will only be processed if funds are available.  This is due to the overall program nearing the state funding limit of $110 million, not each utility’s specific funding limit.  As of Oct. 17, 2018, around $95 million of the funds had been reserved either through application reviews already underway, existing contracts, or project certification or precertification.  However, there is a strong possibility that funds will be exhausted before the Washington State February 14th deadline.

Smaller projects, with capacities up to 12 kW (residential scale) or greater than 12 kW (commercial scale), must be installed and pass a final electrical inspection by Jan. 31, 2019, and then apply for incentive payments by Feb. 14, 2019. Application submittals or inspections after these dates will be placed on a waitlist and processed only if funds are available.

The two separate procedures and deadlines were established by Washington State University’s Energy Program, which administers the incentive program, to fairly allocate the remaining funding among the project categories.

Carbon Fee Initiative: High Stakes, High Spending in Washington State (Politico)

(Olympia, WA) – One week from today voters in Washington state will decide on a ballot measure that could make their state the first in the nation to require polluters to pay a fee on carbon pollution. But before voters head to the polls, a showdown is unfolding between grass-root environmental activists — who have the backing of billionaires like Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg — and the oil and gas industry that has raised about twice as much to defeat the ballot initiative known as I-1631.

The fee would start at $15 per ton of carbon dioxide in 2020 and increase by $2 per year — plus inflation — until 2035. Seventy percent of the funds raised under the fee would go to pay for "clean air and clean energy" projects, 25 percent for "clean water and forest" projects and 5 percent would help communities adapt to climate change impacts, Pro's Anthony Adragna reports, with estimates suggesting I-1631 could generate $2.3 billion over the first five fiscal years.

Backers of the ballot measure have raised $15.2 million with the help of big-name donors like Gates and Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs, Anthony reports. But they are facing an opposition campaign that has raised nearly $30 million almost entirely from oil and gas companies, including BP America, Phillips 66 and Koch Industries. Opponents say they worry the funds raised by the carbon fee would not be spent effectively but could increase costs for low-income consumers.

One statewide poll from this month put the ballot initiative on course to pass with support of 50 percent of voters versus 36 percent opposed. "We believe strongly that the policy is built to reduce emissions and be effective and that it covers the economy-wide emissions in a reasonable and effective approach," Mike Stevens, state director for the Nature Conservancy, said in an interview. "This is a carefully constructed policy that very carefully evaluated the issues of exemptions and public oversight."

Scientists Declare Annual ‘Dead Zone’ Season Off Pacific Coast (Politico, Morning Energy)

(Washington, DC) – State ecologists on the West Coast say there is a new ‘season,’ akin to wildfire season: The time of year in which falling oxygen levels on the seafloor kill off commercial fishermen’s catches.

"We can now say that Oregon has a hypoxia season much like the wildfire season," Francis Chan, co-chair of a California task force tracking the growing problem known as hypoxia, told NPR on Sunday.

It’s become a regular danger: "Every summer we live on the knife's edge and during many years we cross the threshold into danger – including the past two years," Chan said. "When oxygen levels get low enough, many marine organisms who are place-bound, or cannot move away rapidly enough, die of oxygen starvation."

The presence of warmer water off the U.S. Pacific Coast, attributable to global warming, is causing oxygen levels on the seafloor to disappear, killing off the crabs and other sea creatures that commercial fishermen rely on.

Feds still plugging away on climate under Trump: The Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is funding research to help policymakers understand the problem amid rising global temperatures, according to its website.

“Changes in both global and regional climates have the potential to make coastal and marine ecosystems even more vulnerable to hypoxic conditions,” says the agency. NOAA's coastal climate change program is conducting interdisciplinary research to understand the relationship between ecosystem function and climate change, it says.

FERC Nominee Will Have to Wait on His Senate Hearings (Politico, Morning Energy)

(WASHINGTON, DC) – The U-S Senate skipped town Thursday until after the election — leaving FERC nominee Bernard McNamee to wait for his turn before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. McNamee, the Energy Department's policy chief, had been scheduled to testify at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, less than two weeks after President Donald Trump tapped him for the fifth FERC seat. Democrats and consumer watchdogs balked at the speedy timeline for McNamee, a controversial pick thanks to his involvement in the administration's efforts to prop up lagging coal and nuclear power plants. But that hearing is likely to be rescheduled for some time in November now that senators are back to the campaign trail.

McNamee had been scheduled to share the witness table with Rita Baranwal, Trump's pick to lead DOE's nuclear energy office, and National Park Service director nominee Raymond David Vela. Committee aides did not respond to requests for comment Thursday night. It remains to be seen whether this delay prevents McNamee from being confirmed this year, as Republicans would like to see.