 | | Maxine Joselow | | Some lawmakers want to pair a Russian oil embargo with climate action. Will it work? |  Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) speaks during a State of the Union watch event March 1 on Capitol Hill. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Green New Deal Network) | | | A chorus of bipartisan support emerged on Capitol Hill on Monday for fast-tracking legislation to halt U.S. imports of Russian oil following the Kremlin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. But some lawmakers made a legislative push yesterday to not only ban shipments of Russian oil, but also to boost U.S. deployment of clean energy — an effort that faces long odds amid soaring gas prices for American consumers. What happened: A quartet of tax- and trade-focused lawmakers yesterday announced a new bipartisan agreement to limit Russian energy imports, suspend normal trade relations between the United States and the Kremlin, and direct the Biden administration to seek Russia's suspension from the World Trade Association, The Washington Post's Tony Romm reports. "As Russia continues its unprovoked attack on the Ukrainian people, we have agreed on a legislative path forward to ban the import of energy products from Russia and to suspend normal trade relations with both Russia and Belarus," they said in a joint statement. Signing the statement were Reps. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) and Kevin Brady (R-Tex.), the top lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee, and Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who oversee the Senate Finance Committee. Brady told reporters on Monday that the agreement — for which text is not yet available — is "very similar" to the bipartisan legislation introduced last week by Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). The Texas Republican added that he thinks there is enough support in both chambers of Congress to fast-track the measure. | | "I think this will certainly have a veto-proof majority in the House, and I would assume in the Senate as well," he said. "But I have to defer to Democrats. They're doing the negotiations with the White House, as I understand it. But we're hopeful we can move tomorrow [Tuesday]." | | However, a separate group of lawmakers coalesced around a different proposal yesterday to prohibit the importation of Russian oil and petroleum products into the United States, and to mandate a plan to replace those imports with clean energy. Sen. Edward J. Markey introduced the "Severing Putin's Immense Gains from Oil Transfers (SPIGOT) Act" last week. On Monday, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) co-sponsored the measure, giving it bipartisan bona fides. The bill states that "the United States Government must … develop a comprehensive strategy to replace oil imported from the Russian Federation with domestic carbon-free energy sources." Markey told reporters yesterday that "a clean energy revolution has to be at the center of our long-term response to this atrocity that is being perpetrated" in Ukraine. Asked whether he could support the competing measure that lacks the clean energy language, Markey said: "I think it's important for us to have a clean energy message this year, right now. We're saying we're going to break our dependence on foreign oil, and we can't do that unless we have an all-electric vehicle revolution. … Just remember, we put 70 percent of the oil that we consume into gasoline tanks." Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) told reporters yesterday that the Markey measure is a "good idea" because Russian President Vladimir Putin is a "petro-fascist" who has relied on international fossil fuel demand to prop up Russia's economy. "The long-term strategy has to be to disempower the petro-fascist," Schatz said. "So that means transforming to a clean energy economy." | | The Markey bill faces long odds, however, given soaring gas prices that have hit Americans where it hurts, raising fears among climate advocates about a diminished political appetite for action to tackle global warming. | | The average national price at the pump exceeded $4 per gallon on Monday, according to AAA. The tracking service GasBuddy, meanwhile, estimated that these prices broke the existing U.S. record set during the 2008 financial crisis. (Seeking to counter these price spikes, the White House inched closer on Monday to reinstating a relationship with oil-rich Venezuela, a bitter foe because of the oppressive policies of President Nicolás Maduro.) But Khanna, who is co-sponsoring the Markey bill in the House, told The Climate 202 that he thinks President Biden can make a compelling case to the American people that countering Putin while boosting clean energy is worth paying 10 cents more at the pump. "Look, I don't want to give [Biden] advice," Khanna said. "But he may want to get ahead of it and give a speech to the American people about why he's doing it, what the vision is." The president, he added, can connect "the renewable energy agenda to the national security agenda and to the cause of standing up for democracy and freedom." However, the bipartisan agreement appears to have the most momentum and could move as a stand-alone bill, rather than as part of the deal to fund the federal government, which is expected to be released today. Lawmakers face a tight timeline, meanwhile, for passing the Russian oil embargo before House Democrats leave town on Wednesday for their annual legislative retreat in Philadelphia. | | |  | Pressure points | | Shell to withdraw from Russian oil and gas, apologizes for buying Russian crude |  Shell's logo is pictured at a Shell gas station in Manchester, England, on March 8. (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images) | | | Oil major Shell apologized on Tuesday for buying heavily discounted crude oil from Russia and pledged to stop doing business with Russia's oil and gas sector, CNBC's Matt Clinch reports. | | "As an immediate first step, the company will stop all spot purchases of Russian crude oil. It will also shut its service stations, aviation fuels and lubricants operations in Russia," the company said in a statement. On Friday, Shell purchased 100,000 metric tons of flagship Urals crude from Russia at a steep discount, as many other firms shun Russian oil because of Moscow's invasion of its neighbor. While the purchase did not violate any Western sanctions on the Kremlin, Shell came under intense criticism, even after the company vowed to donate the profits to a fund for humanitarian aid in Ukraine. | Shareholder advocacy group seeks to oust Chevron's chairman over climate concerns |  Chevron CEO Michael Wirth is interviewed while visiting the New York Stock Exchange on March 1. (Justin Lane/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock) | | | A shareholder advocacy group is expected to file papers Tuesday urging investors in Chevron to oust Chairman Michael Wirth and another board member because of the company's failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, The Washington Post's Peter Whoriskey reports. Majority Action, the shareholder advocacy group, argues that Chevron is only planning to cut as little as 5 percent of the emissions intensity from its petroleum products, even though a majority of shareholders last year asked the company to "substantially" cut emissions. The group is seeking to remove Wirth from the board, not to fire him. Majority Action also wants to remove board member Ronald Sugar, the retired chairman and chief executive of Northrop Grumman, the aerospace and defense company. | ConocoPhillips reports gas leak at drilling site in Alaska |  An aerial view of Nuiqsut, Alaska, on May 28, 2019. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post) | | | ConocoPhillips has reported a natural gas leak at a drilling site in Alaska's North Slope near the village of Nuiqsut, Megan Pacer reports for Alaska's News Source. The leak was first detected on Friday morning. Rebecca Boys, a spokeswoman for ConocoPhillips, said the cause is being investigated and emergency response personnel are "working to stop the leak and minimize potential impact to the environment." The oil company has also proposed the massive Willow project on the North Slope, which could negate the emissions avoided by meeting Biden's goals for deploying more renewable energy on public lands, according to a recent analysis. | | |  | Agency alert | | Biden administration moves to cut smog-forming pollution from heavy trucks |  Truck traffic in Maryland. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) | | | The Biden administration on Monday proposed curbing pollution from the tailpipes of new heavy-duty vehicles that spew smog and greenhouse gases, The Post's Dino Grandoni reports. The Environmental Protection Agency's proposal will cut the emission of nitrogen oxides — poisonous and reactive gases that can cause asthma attacks — from the engines of big vehicles including 18-wheelers, school buses, delivery vans and moving trucks. The fumes from diesel-powered trucks disproportionately affect low-income communities, which are more likely to be near highways, ports, warehouses and other traffic-heavy sites. It would apply to heavy-duty vehicles made in model year 2027, and within another four years would slash average carbon emissions by 90 percent below today's federal standards, putting the country in line with standards adopted by California for heavy-duty vehicles. The new regulation marks the first update to heavy-duty tailpipe standards in two decades and comes as Biden is seeking ways to push his environmental agenda outside Congress. But some environmentalists are criticizing the Biden administration for not taking more aggressive steps to spur the sale of electric trucks that emit no air pollution. The transportation sector is the nation's largest contributor to climate change, and heavy-duty trucks make up nearly a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. | | |  | Extreme events | | Satellite images show the Amazon rainforest is heading toward a 'tipping point' |  The Amazon rainforest. (Dado Galdieri/Bloomberg News) | | | More than half of the Amazon rainforest could turn into savanna in a matter of decades — threatening wildlife, shifting regional weather patterns and fueling climate change, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, The Post's Sarah Kaplan reports. The study used satellite images taken over recent decades to show that the rainforest is losing resilience, with dried vegetation struggling to bounce back — an early warning sign that the Amazon is nearing its "tipping point." Amid rising temperatures, an extended dry season and human pressures such as deforestation, the ecosystem could suffer abrupt and irreversible dieback — probably without any warning. The Amazon has been one of Earth's most important "carbon sinks," pulling tons of emissions from the air and storing it in vegetation. Researchers fear that if the tipping point is exceeded, the sudden release of carbon would dramatically derail global climate targets. Studies show that some areas of the Amazon are producing about 300 million tons more carbon than they pull out of the air — an amount roughly equal to annual emissions from Japan. | | |  | Viral | | |
