TGIF! Welcome to Overnight Energy, The Hill's roundup of the latest energy and environment news. Please send tips and comments to Timothy Cama, tcama@thehill.com, and Miranda Green, mgreen@thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @Timothy_Cama, @mirandacgreen, @thehill. INTERIOR ENDS OBAMA POLICY THAT CHARGED INDUSTRY FOR SPECIES HARM: The Trump administration is ending an Obama-era practice of mandating that industry alleviate the destruction of key habitats for endangered species by paying the government. The Fish and Wildlife Service announced Friday the withdrawal of the December 27,2016 compensatory mitigation policy for the Endangered Species Act, which directed the agency to set a "net-benefit" goal or a no-net-loss goal for natural resources extraction on public lands. The reversal announcement says that the species and habitat destruction offset policy is no longer consistent with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's secretarial order to focus on promotion of energy independence. The order titled American Energy Independence on March 29, 2017 "directed Department of the Interior bureaus to reexamine mitigation policies and practices to better balance conservation strategies and policies with job creation for American families," the rule reads. The administration argues that tying a monetary fine with endangered species habitat destruction could lead to abuse of the policy against industry. "Because by definition compensatory mitigation does not directly avoid or minimize the anticipated harm, its application is particularly ripe for abuse," the decision reads. Read more here. Read more about recent proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act. EPA ETHICS OFFICE DEFENDS WHEELER: A top EPA ethics official is defending Wheeler over a series of meetings he held with former clients. Justina Fugh, the No. 2 ethics official for the EPA, said the meetings described in an E&E News story Thursday are well within the bounds of the ethical standards Wheeler is subject to as a senior Trump administration official. "All four of these meetings so squarely meet the bounds of his articulated recusal statement," Fugh told The Hill on Friday. E&E reported that between Wheeler's April arrival at the EPA as deputy administrator and his ascension to acting head earlier this month after former chief Scott Pruitt's resignation over ethics and spending scandals, Wheeler held meetings with three former lobbying clients and gave a speech at an event led by an executive at another company he used to represent. Fugh said Darling Ingredients, Archer Daniels Midland Co. and the South Coast Air Quality Management District don't count as "former clients" under President Trump's ethics pledge for political appointees and nominees because Wheeler didn't work for them within two years before his arrival at the EPA. "A former client is defined as anybody for whom the appointee provided services -- legal service, consulting services, whatever -- within the prior two years," Fugh said. Read more. NEXT WEEK: WHEELER TO THE SENATE: Wheeler is heading to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee next week for his first hearing since last year's confirmation hearing. A lot has happened since then. He took charge as deputy administrator in April and ascended to acting administrator earlier this month, not to mention all of Pruitt's scandals. The committee hasn't indicated yet if there are any specific areas of focus for Wheeler's grilling, beyond the EPA's agenda. But senators are likely to push him on many of the same policy questions as Pruitt, like his aggressive deregulatory agenda, biofuels policy and what his plans on various hot-button issues. Wheeler also indicated in a recent USA Today interview that the Trump administration's proposal to roll back car efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions standards will come out publicly next week. In it, officials are expected to present numerous options for weakening the Obama administration's aggressive standards through 2026, including the idea of freezing them in 2020 and canceling the planning increases in stringency. "We're proposing a list of options. We have a preferred option but I don't want to get ahead of the actual proposal before it goes out," Wheeler told the newspaper. |
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