Fuckers back to do little...

Congress returns for final dash

By Anthony Adragna

WINDING DOWN WORK THIS CONGRESS: Congress returns this week from its post-Thanksgiving food coma, and it seems that lawmakers aren't going to have a very eventful lame-duck work session. Atop their list of things to accomplish is funding the government beyond Dec. 9, though they’re expected to kick the funding debate into March with a short-term continuing resolution. There’s some push to get some goodies onto that funding resolution — a carbon capture and sequestration tax credit extension with the backing of a broad array of groups is frequently mentioned — though Republican tax writers seemed disinclined to consider extending a host of energy-related credits before Thanksgiving.

One big question remains whether/how Congress will provide funds to address the drinking water crisis in Flint, Mich. Republicans provided an "iron-clad commitment" in late September that funds for the beleaguered city would come in the final version of the Water Resources Development Act, though House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton told reporters before Thanksgiving aid for Flint would now most likely hitch a ride on a spending package. Negotiations on WRDA have been progressing slowly, raising doubts about whether lawmakers can wrap up the broad water infrastructure bill this year.

Also unclear is whether House and Senate negotiators will be able to beat the clock and reach a final agreement on broad energy legislation. Both chambers have ping-ponged several offers of a compromise, though a Friday statement from Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Maria Cantwell suggested an agreement remained far off. “We responded today with a new offer that restores a host of provisions that the House was prepared to drop — including those related to [liquefied natural gas] exports, sportsmen's, the Land & Water Conservation Fund, hydropower, natural gas pipelines, manufacturing, innovation, carbon benefits of biomass, and critical minerals. We also remain hopeful that an agreement can be reached on provisions to address California’s drought crisis, to remedy wildfire funding challenges, and to improve forest management,” the chair and ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee said.

WELCOME BACK EVERYONE! It’s Monday and I'm your host Anthony Adragna. I’d like to congratulate the Appliance Standards Awareness Project’s Marianne DiMascio for correctly naming Sarah Josepha Hale as the writer who successfully lobbied President Lincoln to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. For today: Who was the first ever chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee (then known as the Committee on Public Lands)? Send your tips, energy gossip and comments to aadragna@politico.com, or follow us on Twitter @AnthonyAdragna, @Morning_Energy, and @POLITICOPro.

PROTESTERS STANDING GROUND DESPITE ULTIMATUM: Thousands of people currently demonstrating against the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota made clear over the weekend they weren’t going anywhere, despite an order from the Army Corps of Engineers for protesters to leave federal land by Dec. 5. “This letter by the Army Corps of Engineers is just a disgusting continuation of 500 years of colonization and systemic oppression,” Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network said Saturday. “It’s absurd for us to see such a declaration the day after Thanksgiving.”

In a Nov. 25 letter, district commander of the Corps of Engineers, John Henderson, said he was closing the area where protesters have set up camp in response to violent clashes with law enforcement and “to prevent death, illness, or serious injury to inhabitants of encampments due to the harsh North Dakota winter conditions.” Demonstrators found in the area after Dec. 5 could face trespassing charges, though the Corps will establish a “free speech zone” for protests. In a statement issued Sunday, the Corps said it was "seeking a peaceful and orderly transition to a safer location, and has no plans for forcible removal" of demonstrators. "We fully support the rights of all Americans to exercise free speech and peacefully assemble, and we ask that they do it in a way that does not also endanger themselves or others, or infringe on others’ rights," Henderson said in that statement.

Praise from police, elected officials: Republican elected officials and police authorities praised the decision as necessary to protect public safety. Sen. John Hoeven urged demonstrators to leave the area surrounding the pipeline peacefully: “The well-being and property of ranchers, farmers and everyone else living in the region should not be threatened by protesters who are willing to commit acts of violence,” he said in a statement. “This difficult situation has gone on too long and we need to get it resolved.”

Booker, Heinrich weigh in: But other Democratic lawmakers weighed in on the side of the protesters. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey called on the Department of Justice in a Friday letter to investigate reports of inappropriate police tactics and send monitors to the scene. And New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, in a Thanksgiving statement, called for President Barack Obama to reroute the pipeline: “There is no excuse for the brutality we've seen in recent days and it should not be rewarded.”

WEALTHY ALASKAN WANTS INTERIOR SLOT: Robert B. Gillam, Alaska’s richest man, is tossing his hat in the ring for Interior Secretary in President-elect Donald Drumpf’s administration, according to the Alaska Dispatch News. “I am not looking to use this job as a means to an end or a place to go and trade for another,” he said in a personal statement. “I am looking at this job as a place to end my career and to provide a return to all of those wonderful people who help me along my journey of life.” Other names under consideration for the job include Lucas Oil co-founder Forrest Lucas; venture capitalist Robert Grady; former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin; former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer; Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin; Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis; and Oklahoma oilman Harold Hamm.

RUMORED EPA PICKS MEET Drumpf TODAY: Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt and Kathleen Hartnett White, the director of the Armstrong Center for Energy and the Environment at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, will meet with President-elect Donald Drumpf today. Both are seen as possible contenders for EPA administrator. The meeting comes after Drumpf met last week with potential Interior chiefs Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin about “increasing energy independence including alternatives for energy consumption” and Rep. Cynthia Lummis.

CLIMATE CHANGE ‘BUNK’ AND Drumpf: Although Donald Drumpf seemed to indicate some flexibility on his climate change position last week, incoming White House Chief-of-Staff Reince Priebus made clear on Sunday he remained deeply skeptical that human activity was driving the problem. “He'll have an open mind about it but he has his default position, which most of it is a bunch of bunk,” Priebus said on Fox News Sunday. “But he'll have an open mind and listen to people.”

VAN HOLLEN VOWS TO DEFEND NASA: Amid reports the incoming Drumpf administration plans to slash funding for NASA’s climate change research program, Maryland Sen.-elect Chris Van Hollen is vowing a strong defense. ".@NASA's Earth Science program is crucial for studying our planet & climate change. We must fight against funding cuts,” he tweeted Sunday.

STEYER WARNS Drumpf AGAINST PULLING OUT OF PARIS: Withdrawing the U.S. from the international Paris climate agreement would be “shockingly misguided” and a “tragic mistake,” billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer said Sunday on Fareed Zakaria GPS. Steyer, who poured tens of millions into the 2016 elections, said he was "surprised and obviously disappointed” by Drumpf’s election and Republicans retaining control of Congress, but also warned threats of pulling out of Paris were already impacting the U.S.’s international standing. "If you look at what people around the world are saying right now about the Paris agreement, they are looking to the Chinese government and to [Germany’s] Angela Merkel for leadership of the world,” Steyer said. "For us to take our leadership of the world and throw it out the window is a tragic mistake."

OBAMA AGENCIES FINISHING FLURRY OF FINAL RULES: The White House is reviewing as many as 98 final regulations that could be implemented before Donald Drumpf takes office, Pro’s Bob King and Nick Juliano report. Seventeen of those actions under review are considered "economically significant," with an estimated economic impact of at least $100 million a year. Many of the agencies are pushing forward with the actions despite warnings from congressional Republicans and vows to use the Congressional Review Act to block them.

Among the actions: preliminary steps from the EPA to regulate methane emissions from existing oil and gas infrastructure; final updated rules governing almost 1,700 oil and gas wells inside national wildlife refuges; the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management major rule on leases for wind and solar projects on federal land; an EPA rule due out by Dec. 1 that will require mining companies demonstrate they can afford to clean up any pollution they cause, and a final EPA rule governing emergency preparedness at chemical plants.

Less likely be issued: A long-in-the-works Interior Department effort to update the so-called stream protection rule, the 1983 coal mining regulation designed to prevent water pollution from coal mining. Republicans in Congress have been loudly opposed to the regulation for years, so that while the administration appears to be on the cusp of finishing it, fears of it being overturned through the Congressional Review Act may keep it from ever being released.

HEITKAMP BILL WILL GET A HOUSE VOTE: House lawmakers are scheduled to vote Tuesday on legislation (S. 546) from Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) that would boost training for first responders dealing with hazardous material spills, such as crude oil derailments. The bill will create a council of emergency responders, federal agencies and other experts to develop best practices for first responders to address hazardous material incidents. Heitkamp’s bill passed the Senate unanimously in May 2016.

DOJ SETTLES CASE AGAINST DOE CONTRACTORS: Bechtel Corp. and AECOM have agreed to pay $125 million to resolve allegations that they made false statements to the Energy Department when supplying deficient materials, services, and testing for a nuclear waste treatment project in Washington state. On Wednesday, the Justice Department also said the settlement resolves allegations that Bechtel improperly used federal contract funds to pay for a “comprehensive, multi-year lobbying campaign of Congress and other federal officials for continued funding” of the project, the Waste Treatment Plant. Bechtel is designing and building the $12 billion project but in February, the agency's inspector general found instances where problems weren't managed or tracked properly, and that Bechtel "did not meet any of its goals" for correcting problems in a timely fashion. When it's done, WTP will be the world's largest radioactive waste treatment plant. Three project whistleblowers brought the initial lawsuit against the contractors.

SWISS SEND (NU)CLEAR SIGNAL: Voters in Switzerland soundly rejected setting a strict timetable for phasing out use of nuclear power in the country, according to projections from that country’s public television. Approximately 55 percent of people and majority of Swiss states voted down the plan, which would have forced three of the country’s five nuclear power plants to close next year.