“A pair of top North Dakota Democrats said over the weekend that it’s unlikely Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) would accept the position of Agriculture secretary if President-elect Donald Trump offers it to her,” KTIC reports.
Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 192
November Surprises
Trial Balloon · Ep. 192: November Surprises
Perry Seen As Favorite for Energy Secretary
Donald Trump has narrowed his search for energy secretary to four people, with Rick Perry the leading candidate, Bloomberg reports.
“Two Democratic senators from energy-producing states — Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia — are also in the mix, along with Ray Washburne, a Dallas investor and former chairman of the Republican National Committee.”
Other reports suggest Heitkamp will be agriculture secretary instead.
For members: Here’s Trump’s Cabinet So Far
Trump Transition Want Names of Obama’s Climate Staff
Advisers to President-elect Donald Trump are trying to identify staff in the Energy Department who played a role in promoting President Obama’s climate agenda, Bloomberg reports.
“The transition team has asked the agency to list employees and contractors who attended United Nations climate meetings, along with those who helped develop the Obama administration’s social cost of carbon metrics, used to estimate and justify the climate benefits of new rules.”
Gore Meets with Trump to Discuss Climate Change
“Former Vice President Al Gore, a leading voice in the fight against climate change, and Donald Trump, who at one point called it a hoax, met on Monday in what Gore called a ‘productive’ session,” Reuters reports.
Gore “spent about 90 minutes in meetings at the president-elect’s Trump Tower apartment and office building in Manhattan. In addition to seeing Trump, he also met briefly with the Republican’s daughter, Ivanka, who attended a series of high-level meetings since her father won the Nov. 8 election.”
Memo Insists Trump Backs Pipeline for Policy Reasons
President-elect Donald Trump “supports completion of the disputed Dakota Access oil pipeline in the Midwest, based on policy and not the billionaire businessman’s investments in a partnership building the $3.8 billion pipeline,” according to an aide’s memo obtained by the Associated Press.
Spokesman Bryan Lanza said in a memo this week to supporters that Trump’s backing for the pipeline “has nothing to do with his personal investments and everything to do with promoting policies that benefit all Americans.”
Manchin Considered As Possible Energy Secretary
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is considering Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) for the energy secretary job, Politico reports.
The conservative Democrat “is being considered to show the coal people how serious Trump is about coal.”
Perry Considered for Energy Secretary
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry was being discussed as a potential Energy Secretary in the Trump administration, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The department is the one Perry famously forgot during a Republican primary debate in 2012.
Obama Says Climate Change Is ‘Terrifying’
New York Times: “Climate change, Mr. Obama often says, is the greatest long-term threat facing the world, as well as a danger already manifesting itself as droughts, storms, heat waves and flooding. More than health care, more than righting a sinking economic ship, more than the historic first of an African-American president, he believes that his efforts to slow the warming of the planet will be the most consequential legacy of his presidency.”
He added: “What makes climate change difficult is that it is not an instantaneous catastrophic event. It’s a slow-moving issue that, on a day-to-day basis, people don’t experience and don’t see.”
Republicans Ignore Climate Deal
“President Obama hailed the landmark climate accord reached this weekend as ‘the best chance we’ve had to save the one planet that we’ve got.’ To the Republicans vying to succeed him, it was almost as if the deal never happened,” the New York Times reports.
“In a stark display of the partisan divide in the United States over climate change, the Republican presidential candidates have said almost nothing about the Paris Agreement, even though whoever succeeds Mr. Obama will be tasked with carrying it out.”
“The near-silence among Republicans is a striking illustration of the vastly different roles that climate change is playing in the presidential primaries for the two major parties. In some ways, the ardor among Democrats to address it — and the lack of interest among Republicans in discussing it — makes it seem as if the parties are on different planets.”
Trump Bashes Cruz on Ethanol in Iowa
Donald Trump, who had so far avoided attacking rival Ted Cruz, laid into the Texas senator for opposing the Renewable Fuel Standard, the Des Moines Register reports.
“Cruz has opposed the Renewable Fuel Standard, which is widely supported in Iowa, but has favored some subsidies for oil companies — a point Trump tried to drive home to Iowans on Friday.”
Said Trump: “The oil companies give him a lot of money. But I’m with you. I’m self-funding. I have no oil company. I have no special interest.”
The Climate Cliff
Politico: “On Dec. 11, Obama administration diplomats will be in Paris working to clinch a global climate deal that will hinge on whether they can back up a pledge to provide billions of dollars to help poor countries deal with climate change. That same day, Republicans back in Washington will be trying to hold that money hostage with a government shutdown hanging in the balance.”
“Congress must pass a new spending bill by Dec. 11, when a stopgap measure expires. The simultaneous deadlines on each side of the Atlantic Ocean give Republicans a tool to derail a legacy-defining pact for the president and score a rare victory on climate policy. They also significantly raise the stakes in this year’s game of shutdown chicken.”
Wonk Wire: Republican candidates receive failing grade on climate change
Obama Will Reject Keystone XL Pipeline
“The Obama administration will reject the Keystone XL pipeline, according to people familiar with the decision, capping a politically charged review of the oil project that lasted more than seven years and escalated into a broader debate on energy, climate change and the economy,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Obama is expected to cite the urgency of climate change as a key reason behind his decision, these people said. The Keystone XL pipeline would have moved as many as 830,000 barrels of oil a day, mostly from Canada’s oil sands to Steele City, Neb., where it would have connected with existing pipelines to Gulf Coast refineries.”
Wonk Wire: TransCanada fumbles its approach to pipeline
Bonus Quote of the Day
“He’s not a scientist, he’s a religious leader.”
— Jeb Bush, quoted by the Huffington Post, dismissing Pope Francis’ views on climate change.
Clinton Finally Comes Out Against Keystone Pipeline
After months of declining to take a position on the Keystone XL pipeline, Hillary Clinton says she opposes the construction of the project, NBC News reports.
Said Clinton: “I think it is imperative that we look at the Keystone XL pipeline as what I believe it is: A distraction from the important work we have to do to combat climate change, and, unfortunately from my perspective, one that interferes with our ability to move forward and deal with other issues. Therefore, I oppose it. I oppose it because I don’t think it’s in the best interest of what we need to do to combat climate change.”
First Read: “Consider the political expediency: Had Hillary Clinton supported Keystone, it might have led to a donor meltdown.”
Senate Democrats Unveil Aggressive Climate Bill
Senate Democratic leaders “plan to unveil a measure intended to signal their full-throated support of President Obama’s aggressive climate change agenda to 2016 voters and to the rest of the world,” the New York Times reports.
“The Democrats hope that the bill, sponsored by Senator Maria Cantwell, of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy Committee, will demonstrate a new unity for the party on energy and climate change, and define Democrats’ approach to global warming policy in the coming years.”
Quote of the Day
“We don’t want to destroy people’s jobs based on some theory that’s not proven.”
— Gov. John Kasich, quoted by National Journal, on whether humans have caused climate change.
Obama Could Force Climate Change Debate in 2016
“The issue of climate change played almost no role in the 2012 presidential campaign. President Obama barely mentioned the topic, nor did the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney. It was not raised in a single presidential debate,” the New York Times reports.
“But as Mr. Obama prepares to leave office, his own aggressive actions on climate change have thrust the issue into the 2016 campaign. Strategists now say that this battle for the White House could feature more substantive debate over global warming policy than any previous presidential race.”
Obama to Unveil Even Tougher Climate Plan
“In the strongest action ever taken in the United States to combat climate change, President Obama will unveil on Monday a set of environmental regulations devised to sharply cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from the nation’s power plants and ultimately transform America’s electricity industry,” the New York Times reports.
“The rules are the final, tougher versions of proposed regulations that the Environmental Protection Agency announced in 2012 and 2014. If they withstand the expected legal challenges, the regulations will set in motion sweeping policy changes that could shut down hundreds of coal-fired power plants, freeze construction of new coal plants and create a boom in the production of wind and solar power and other renewable energy sources.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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