Wednesday's energy & climate stories
The White House's carbon tax meeting
A group of former senior U.S. officials from past Republican administrations have called for a tax on carbon emissions to help fight climate change, per the Financial Times. The group — known as the Climate Leadership Council — is led by James Baker, former secretary of state for George H.W. Bush and Treasury secretary for Ronald Reagan; George P. Schultz, former secretary of state under Reagan; and Henry Paulson, former Treasury secretary under George W. Bush.
They are scheduled to meet with White House officials later today, including Vice President Mike Pence, Jared Kushner and Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn, to present their plan for addressing global warming. They argue the proposal — which would tax carbon emissions at $40 per ton, with all of the revenue recycled in dividends paid back to the public — will "embody the principles of free markets and limited government."
Why this matters: The proposal puts influential members of the GOP on the record as favoring action on climate change — a position that is not publicly supported by establishment Republicans, as most GOP members have promised a rollback of emissions regulations now that they have control of both houses of Congress and the White House.
Trump administration says yes to the Dakota Pipeline
The Army Corps of Engineers has told Congress that it intends to allow the complete construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline as early as tomorrow, per the AP.
The final part of the project is a stretch underneath Lake Oahe in North Dakota, which had been opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux, who feared that their reservation's drinking water may be polluted by the pipeline. Their protests against the pipeline's environmental impact drew thousands of protestors to North Dakota and led to the Obama administration's decision to terminate construction.
Fired up, ready to go: Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the pipeline, has already drilled entry and exit holes for the Oahe crossing and filled the pipeline leading up to the lake with oil.
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