| And in other WOTUS news…. INTERNAL EPA DOCUMENT CONTRADICTS AGENCY ON WATER DATA: An internal EPA document is contradicting agency officials who said Tuesday that there is no data on how many waterways will lose protections under the administration's latest rule rollback. The document, released through a Freedom of Information Act request to E&E News Tuesday, shows that officials in 2017 estimated that 13 percent of streams and 51 percent of wetlands across the U.S. would lose protections under EPA's latest rollback, announced today. When announcing the details of the proposal to reporters at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., agency officials said the data on how many waterways would lose environmental protections didn't exist. "Nobody has, in the history of the agency, a detailed mapping of all the wetlands in the country," said Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler. "The numbers that have been thrown around over the last 24 hours, 60 percent, 80 percent, are not accurate." Breaking down the controversy: EPA's Office of Water chief Dave Ross explicitly told reporters the data didn't exist, despite environmentalists' estimations to the contrary. "No one has that data," he said. "If you see percentages of water features that claim to be in and reductions, there really isn't the data to support those statistics," An EPA spokesperson said officials ultimately decided the data discussed in the 2017 slideshow was not accurate enough to include in the final report. "After a thorough review of the data and information available on the nation's waters, including the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD), the agencies determined that the datasets are not robust enough to accurately or precisely depict federally regulated waters. So the statement that Assistant Administrator Ross' made is accurate." More on the water data here. Happy Tuesday! 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. CLICK HERE to subscribe to our newsletter. COAL SUPPORTER JOE MANCHIN NAMED TOP DEM ON SENATE ENERGY COMMITTEE: Senate Democrats named Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) as the ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, despite objections by progressive groups. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced the appointment Tuesday, along with the ranking members of other panels. While Senate Democrats decide committee leadership roles by seniority, the Democratic caucus ratified the lineup. "I am excited for the opportunity to continue to serve West Virginians in this new role as the lead Democrat on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources," Manchin said in a statement. "This committee has a long history of bipartisanship that has helped propel our nation's energy technology forward. West Virginia is a leading energy producer and major contributor to advanced energy technologies, and I intend to ensure this progress is continued," he said. "The problems facing our country are serious, and I am committed to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to find common sense solutions for long-term comprehensive energy policy that incorporates an all-of-the-above strategy and ensures our state and our nation are leaders in the energy future." The panel oversees the Energy and Interior departments, including public lands, energy policy, energy efficiency standards and fossil fuel production on federal land and offshore. Manchin, who won a rough reelection race last month, is a strong supporter of the coal industry and frequently sides with the Trump administration and the GOP on energy matters. He famously shot a copy of the Democrats' cap-and-trade climate change bill in a 2010 campaign commercial to demonstrate his opposition to it and support for coal. But he voted last week against Bernard McNamee, President Trump's nominee to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. It was a flip from his vote in the Energy Committee, and he said it was because McNamee denied the science of climate change. We've got more on Manchin here. ARCTIC HITS SECOND WARMEST TEMPS ON RECORD IN 2018: Historically high temperatures and increasingly thinning ice in the Arctic indicate worrisome climate trends, according to a new federal report released Tuesday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) annual report paints a stark picture for the future of one of the globe's coldest regions, finding that temperatures in 2018 were the second warmest on record after 2016 -- an increase of 1.7 degrees Celsius relative to the long-term average. In fact, over the past five years, temperatures have risen above that average, the report said. Hotter temperatures are also contributing to significant melting in the typically extensively frozen and inhospitable region. The region's oldest and thickest ice has declined by 95 percent over the past 33 years and currently only makes up less than 1 percent of the total ice pack. Why this has climate experts worried: That directly impacts global climate since the arctic plays a significant role in regulating temperatures. Without older, thicker ice, the region's ice remains younger, thinner and not as expansive as in past years. In fact, the reach of sea ice measured in March of this year was the second lowest in 39 years. The report noted that one of the more "remarkable" changes included the lack of ice found in the Bering Sea, which was at its record low for nearly the entire 2017 and 2018 ice season. The report's warning: "The collective results reported in the 2018 Arctic Report Card show that the effects of persistent Arctic warming continue to mount," the report noted. "Continued warming of the Arctic atmosphere and ocean are driving broad change in the environmental system in predicted and, also, unexpected ways. New and rapidly emerging threats are taking form and highlighting the level of uncertainty in the breadth of environmental change that is to come." More on the Arctic here. | 
