Surveying Florence’s damage

With help from Anthony Adragna and Darius Dixon

DECISION TIME: Today’s shaping up to be a crucial day in determining whether Congress can actually resolve differences in its third minibus H.R. 6147 (115) that contains the Interior and Environment title. Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) told reporters he was huddling with other conferees to see if there’s a path forward. “Have we reached a real impasse?” he asked. “Or are there some things we can jump over and work out?” Shelby acknowledged the riders in the House bill would complicate the task, which already faces an uphill path to the finish line before the Oct. 1 deadline.

Moving on disaster relief: Shelby said he’d like to get some funding to the hurricane-ravaged Carolinas before the end of the fiscal year if possible. “If we had some numbers — and if the administration and the House would work with us — I think we could do something ahead of time — be ahead of the curve a little bit,” he said. “Do they have enough information to give us some information that we can act on while we’re still here? Or do we have to wait until the flooding is all receded and they assess the damages, and then we have to act?”

SURVEYING THE DAMAGE: While Florence continues to bring flooding across several East Coast states, North Carolina continues to shoulder the brunt of the devastation. By officials’ latest count, at least 32 people have died as a result of tropical depression Florence, with 25 of those from North Carolina. “This is a monumental disaster for our state,” Gov. Roy Cooper said Monday. “This is an epic storm that is still continuing because the rivers are still rising.”

While no significant pipeline issues have so far been reported, the Energy Department said coastal areas impacted by Florence “are experiencing widespread outages at retail fuel stations due to power outages and conditions preventing resupply from terminals.” As of Monday afternoon, GasBuddy.com calculated 23 percent of North Carolina gas stations and 11 percent of South Carolina gas stations were reported out-of-service.

As of Monday night, about 400,000 utility customers in the region remained without power, mostly in North Carolina, according to the Associated Press. Duke Energy calculated it experienced a total of 1.5 million outages so far throughout Florence, but the company said it has already restored power for roughly 1.2 million of those customers and is working to get the rest of its customers online. “I’ve lived in North Carolina my entire life, and I’ve seen a lot of bad storms, a lot of bad hurricanes. But this is absolutely the worst,” David Fountain, president of Duke Energy North Carolina, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Several of North Carolina’s open-air manure pits at hog farms have failed and are spilling pollution, the state’s top environmental regulator warned. At one hog lagoon in Duplin County, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Michael Regan said the earthen dam was breached, according to the AP. There’s also been several reports of lagoon levels going over their tops or being inundated in Jones and Pender counties. Regan said state investigators will visit the sites as conditions allow. The AP also reports based on data obtained from the National Inventory of Dams that North Carolina has 1,445 dams rated high hazard, and 185 structures that had conditions of poor or unsatisfactory during recent inspections, causing concern that the dams might not be able to hold up under the influx of flood waters.

Meanwhile, Florence’s remnants brought rare tornadoes to Virginia, knocking out power for thousands of Dominion Energy customers in the Richmond area. Dominion spokesman David Botkins told the Richmond Times Dispatch there was “extensive damage,” including to utility poles, transformers and wires.

IT’S TUESDAY! I’m your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. The U.S. Oil & Gas Association’s Albert Modiano knew Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) appeared on the television game show “High Rollers” and won. For today: Name the former presidents who visited all 50 states while in office. Send your tips, energy gossip and comments to [email protected], or follow us on Twitter @kelseytam, @Morning_Energy and @POLITICOPro.

NO WORD: For those curious, Senate EPW Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told ME as he scampered into the Senate chamber it remained unclear whether a vote on a broad water infrastructure package S. 3021 (115) would happen this week. “There’s a lot going on,” he quipped.

SEARCHING FOR A SEA CHANGE? Energy Secretary Rick Perry is in Bucharest, Romania, today for Day Two of the Three Seas Initiative Summit, where he will meet with heads of state and deliver closing remarks. The event brings together central European leaders in hopes of delivering the message that they want to be a “significant player” in the world’s economy, according to remarks from Polish President Andrzej Duda. The trip follows Perry’s meeting last week with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, where the secretary told Novak that “Moscow can no longer use energy as an economic weapon.” The White House has touted energy security before Baltic leaders in the past, previously detailing that the U.S. is seeking to diversify energy sources, supplies and routes throughout the region, including with the expansion of U.S. liquefied natural gas.

President Donald Trump sent a letter Monday to Romania President Klaus Iohannis saying the 12-member initiative could expand infrastructure and strengthen energy security, among other issues, according to the AP. Duda will be in Washington today to meet with the president, where trade and security matters are on tap.

WHERE’S ZINKE? Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will hold a news conference today in Lafayette, La., to announce Land and Water Conservation Fund “funding to leverage public and private investment in America’s state and local public parks.”

— The final countdown: House Natural Resources Committee Democrats launched an online “#SaveLWCF” social initiative on Monday to highlight the conservation program ahead of its Sept. 30 funding deadline. As part of the effort, Natural Resources Democrats will tweet out an “LWCF success story” every hour until the end of the month.

PUTTING A FINER INDIAN POINT ON IT: After a famously long review process, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved new licenses Monday for both of Entergy Corp.'s Indian Point nuclear reactors. Yet it’s something of a mixed blessing for the nuclear industry. The company spent 11 years trying to get the licenses renewed but instead of running for another 20 years — the normal length of an extension — the units will only be allowed to run through April 2024 and April 2025 as part of an agreement reached with New York state and Riverkeeper to close the reactors early.

Many, many, MANY Democratic politicians have raised hell about Indian Point over the decades, pouncing on every real and perceived flaw the plant had, especially after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, without really acting to shut the plant down. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo proved himself to be dogged on the issue and last year’s deal calls for Entergy to close the plant in 2021 but the extra few years is meant offer a buffer in case the state’s grid operator says that reliability upgrades need to be made before the units can be taken offline.

AIR BILLS ON TAP TODAY: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee holds a markup on a spate of targeted air pollution bills today, including S. 1857 (115), a bill from West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito that would delay emissions compliance deadlines for residential wood heaters and similar devices until May 15, 2023. The committee will also vote on the nomination of Harold Parker to be co-chair of the Northern Border Regional Commission, as well as four General Services Administration resolutions. If you go: The hearing begins at 9:55 a.m. in 406 Dirksen.

PASSING GAME: The Office of Government Ethics opted out of taking on a complaint from Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and three other Democrats concerning acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s contacts with former clients, instead referring the complaint Monday to EPA’s in-house ethics experts, Pro’s Alex Guillén reports. The Democrats in July argued that since his arrival at EPA, Wheeler met with at least three former clients despite his ethics agreement. OGE Director Emory Rounds wrote Monday that “EPA is in the best position to ascertain the relevant facts and is responsible for monitoring its appointees’ compliance with ethics requirements.”

EPA CONSIDERS PARTIAL WAIVERS: EPA is weighing whether to give small refiners partial exemptions from the Renewable Fuel Standard, a spokesman tells Pro’s Eric Wolff. The move would allow refiners to shed a portion of their requirements to blend ethanol with gasoline, after former Administrator Scott Pruitt sharply increased the number of economic hardship exemptions the agency issued to small refiners. “This issue is the subject of ongoing discussions” with the Department of Agriculture, the White House and DOE, EPA spokesman Michael Abboud said Monday.

ATLANTIC PIPELINE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE CONSTRUCTION: FERC staff lifted an agency order that halted work on the Atlantic Coast natural gas pipeline on Monday, allowing previously held-up portions to continue with construction, Pro’s Darius Dixon reports via a letter to project developers. The pipeline builders were told to stop working on the project last month after the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out permits for letting the project cross land held by the National Park Service.

PUERTO RICO WATER ANNOUNCEMENT TODAY: To mark the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria’s landfall, EPA Regional Administrator Pete Lopez will meet with Caribbean officials on how best to strengthen the partnerships formed during the emergency response. Lopez will also announce an agreement today on strengthening community drinking water systems in Puerto Rico, EPA said.

EDF ACTION PUTS $1M IN 4 RACES: EDF Action will detail a plan today to spend $1 million across four House races over the next four weeks. The plan will involve both direct mail and digital ads targeting Reps. Jason Lewis in Minnesota, Mike Coffman in Colorado, and Dana Rohrabacher in California, as well as Danny Tarkanian, who’s running for an open seat in Nevada.

LOOKING TOWARD THE MIDTERMS: The political arm of the Environmental Working Group, known as EWG Action Fund, released a report this morning grading every House lawmaker on chemical policy and chemical safety votes. The action fund focused on 17 bills and amendments, which members voted on during both the 115th and 114th Congresses. An analysis from EWG Action found that 140 lawmakers voted against safeguards for toxic chemicals in every vote, while 149 members consistently voted for chemical safety protections.

Breaking it down: The scorecard comes a day after Michigan Reps. Debbie Dingell, Dan Kildee, Fred Upton and Tim Walberg introduced a bill to combat the spread of the toxic nonstick chemicals known as PFAS. Upton and Walberg both scored low marks under the scorecard, while they’re facing races that the Cook Political Report listed as among the most competitive. Walberg voted against every measure on the EWG scorecard, garnering a 0 percent “pro-environment” score from the group. Upton voted against all but two measures, gaining an 18 percent score. Elsewhere on the card, North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson also scored 0 percent — his district faces contamination of GenX, a PFAS chemical similar to PFOA and PFOS.

MAIL CALL! Massachusetts Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren asked questions and requested documents from Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, NiSource and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration on Monday related to last week’s natural gas explosions in Lawrence, North Andover and Andover, Mass., that killed one person. “It is imperative that the people of the Commonwealth are provided an understanding of what caused this disaster and how you responded to it, in order to ensure that we never again face a similar tragedy,” the senators write.

— Four Democratic senators wrote to OMB Program Associate Director Kathy Kraninger on Monday demanding that she hand over documents related to her role in transferring funds from FEMA to ICE amid hurricane season.

QUICK HITS

— “Trump’s tariffs will make recovery from Hurricane Florence more expensive,” McClatchy.

— “The rivers keep rising, but some in flood zones won’t leave,” The Associated Press.

— “Sources: Green Plains to shut down two Iowa ethanol plants,” Reuters.

— “8 ways that EPA’s helping the coal industry,” E&E News.

— “Probe of FEMA chief Brock Long referred to prosecutors,” The Wall Street Journal.

THAT’S ALL FOR ME!