Capitol Light/Climate Politics

Today's ten

Congress has just days before it goes on its summer recess. The House is again dominating the political news. Speaker McCarthy continues to yield to the demands of the House Freedom Caucus, whose members refuse to stand by the deal McCarthy made with President Biden on the debt ceiling and budget resolution.

Most of the legislation coming out of House committees reflects the larger culture war going on in the nation. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has become ground-zero in the culture wars. Freedom Caucus members and other far-right House conservatives put provisions in the bill that restricts the Pentagon policies on abortion access, medical care for transgender troops and diversity.

The NDAA is generally a bipartisan affair. This year Democrats and even moderate Republicans are concerned that the bill has become a MAGA affair.

The bill has no chance of passing the Senate. The Senate will pass a much more moderate—likely less MAGA—version after which it will go to a conference committee. Members of the House conference committee include Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

There’s a battle going on within Republican ranks on Capitol Hill as well as between the parties. There are real concerns that far-right Republicans are willing to risk shutting the government down until their demands are met.

Other major battles include the farm bill, which again looks like it will contain MAGA provisions that have no chance of passing either Congress or the White House.

There is likely to come a time when establishment Republican conservatives and moderates say enough is enough. Whether this will mark a move to the middle or just away from the far-right is anyone’s guess at this point.

In the meantime, look for more gridlock and drama on Capitol Hill for the days remaining before they all go back to their districts.

A whale of a tale. Energy industry uses whale activists to aid anti-wind farm strategy, experts say experts. Unwitting whale advocates and rightwing thinktanks create the impression that offshore wind energy projects endanger cetaceans. (The Guardian)

Say it ain’t so. The White House’s grand vision of a thriving domestic semiconductor industry could be undermined by environmental permitting rules, according to Senate lawmakers and regulatory specialists.

No need to defend against climate change. House Republicans on Friday muscled through the annual defense policy bill, including one provision that would block the Defense Department from implementing President Joe Biden’s climate orders.

Numerous Democratic proposals to make the Pentagon go even further on climate programs did not make the cut. Such was the case for most Republican amendments to limit the department’s environmental actions.

The exception was the amendment from Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) that would prevent the Pentagon from using funds to implement seven of Biden’s executive orders on climate. That amendment was adopted narrowly, 217-216.  (E&E News)

What a gas. Language blocking a ban on gas stoves has been incorporated into a bipartisan Senate appropriations bill, giving it a significant chance to ultimately become law. 

The bill would prevent the Consumer Product Safety Commission from banning the products was incorporated into a funding bill for “Financial Services and General Government”

However, provisions blocking a gas stove ban would likely not face significant opposition in the House, which has already passed a bill to do so as a standalone measure. 

Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who sponsored the gas stove amendment, celebrated its inclusion in the bill in a written statement. 

“It’s past time for Washington bureaucrats to stop overreaching and telling American families how to cook their dinner,” he said. (The Hill)

Pipe dreams. The developer of the Mountain Valley Pipeline filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court, calling on the court to reverse a lower court’s orders to freeze construction on the project. The developer is asking the Supreme Court to decide whether the lower court, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, had the authority to take action against the project after Congress’ debt ceiling deal took away judicial jurisdiction over permits required for the project to move forward. (E&E News) 

Just an excuse. Technologies to capture CO2 emissions are no substitute for a drastic cut in fossil fuels and their use should be limited, a group of countries warned on Friday, as tensions grow over the role of climate technologies ahead of this year's COP28 summit.

The European Union and 17 nations including Germany, France, Chile, New Zealand and climate-vulnerable island states the Marshall Islands and Micronesia, said the focus should be on phasing out fossil fuels. (Reuters)

Down on the farm. House Democrats are considering how firmly to dig in on farm bill issues they care about as they anticipate partisan fights over food stamps, climate change and other matters as lawmakers approach the expiration of the current law.

Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS) the chairman of the House Agriculture and Nutrition Task Force that held its final forum July 13, said there are limits to how far the Democrats are willing to compromise as they seek to influence the bill that sets farm policy for about five years. The current law expires Sept. 30.

"If we're going to get a farm bill, it has to be inclusive. At some point, we're going to have to work together," he said.

“I think now is the time for Democrats to look seriously at what our values are as Democrats,” he said, adding that there is particular concern “for those individuals who don’t have the lobbyists or other things but they are Americans. They deserve just and fair consideration. There are a lot of Democrats who are not going to support a farm bill that is punitive.”

Representative Jim McGovern, (D-MA), a task force member and a longtime advocate for policies to deal with hunger, was blunter about a clash between Democrats and Republicans over policy and priorities. "Democrats, he said, “need to be on the offensive and drawing lines in the sand now. We can’t settle for the lesser of two evils," he said Thursday.

The task force plans to deliver recommendations to other Democrats by the August recess as they prepare for an expected Republican push to chip away at a major nutrition program and to reverse efforts to mitigate climate change. (Roll Call)

What a gas. While the Biden administration touts the success of the Inflation Reduction Act and its other clean energy accomplishments, a contradictory trend is quietly unfolding: The U.S. is exporting record-breaking amounts of liquefied natural gas. In April, the country sent more LNG abroad than in any other month, ever — a milestone that contrasts sharply with the global need to stop burning planet-warming fossil fuels. (Canary Media)

Who knows best? The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a bid to block construction of the Thacker Pass lithium mine along the Nevada-Oregon border, despite conservationists saying that the operation will lead to polluted groundwater and destroy wildlife habitats. The judges generally deferred to the expertise of the Bureau of Land Management, which granted Lithium Nevada approval for the mine in 2021. (The Associated Press)

Terminating global warming. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger met top Republicans, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and pushed them to do a better job of talking about climate-change policy amid a summer of record-breaking heat waves and wildfires, according to people familiar with the matter. (Bloomberg)