The details: The Interior Department will hold a highly anticipated auction for federal waters off the coast of Massachusetts on Dec. 13.

• Zinke also said he will begin the first steps in offering the first-ever wind auction in federal waters off California’s coasts.

One key moment: A protestor interrupted the conference to yell “fire,” only to wait a few seconds before adding “Zinke" (implying there was a fire in the building). He then walked through the back of the conference room yelling that Zinke doesn’t support renewable energy or believe in climate change, to which Zinke said from stage: “Isn’t America great?” In a twist on typical protesters, attendees at the conference booed the interrupter and told him to get a job.

Go deeper: California, oil exec huddle on offshore wind

Danish wind giant makes big U.S. move

The big picture: Today's move is in line with previous conflicting statements from the administration. Trump publicly doubts climate change, yet in official moves, EPA and other agencies stick largely with the scientific consensus, which is that human activity is driving the Earth's temperature up.

Details:

• Reported emissions from large power plants have dropped 4.5% since 2016 and nearly 20% since 2011.
• These declines are driven mostly by market forces of cheap, cleaner-burning natural gas replacing dirtier coal in the electricity sector. Trump wants to bring back coal, which would raise emissions, though he's unlikely to succeed.
• The decline is also due to renewable energy growth, driven by state energy mandates and federal tax credits over the past decade.
• A 2012 air-pollution regulation Obama issued also drove a lot of coal plants to shut down. Trump wants to review that, though it's unlikely to bring back any coal plants.

Between the lines: EPA is repealing all of Obama's climate-related regulations, though given the plethora of natural gas available and dropping renewable-energy prices, the regulations are unlikely to have a big impact either way.

Reality check: As I said in this recent Harder Line column, Trump administration officials tout how America's greenhouse gas emissions are at levels not seen in decades. Yet these same Trump officials don’t say they actually care about climate change, which is what these emissions are all about.

The details: Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a $1 billion fund created in 2015 by Gates and other billionaires, is creating a joint investment vehicle called Breakthrough Energy Europe.

• The fund, which will be worth a total of €100 (roughly $115) million, will invest in European companies working to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
• Half the money will come from the European Commission and the other from the Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

In a blog post accompanying his announcement, Gates said he would be writing more over the next year about what he calls the five grand challenges of addressing climate change, including under-focused areas such as agriculture and manufacturing.

Go deeper:

• Quartz’ Akshat Rathi runs down the companies the Gates-led fund has recently announced it’s funding.
• On Tuesday, Gates signed onto a separate new commission led by former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, World Bank Chief Executive Kristalina Georgieva, raising awareness about adapting to climate change, per this Bloomberg article. Many parts of the world are already experiencing the impacts of a warmer world--and that will continue and increase even if emissions drop suddenly.