The tale of two very different economies -- one national and one local
FERC FILLER: As Pros were first to learn
Wednesday, Energy Department official Bernard McNamee is expected to be tapped
to fill departing Commissioner Rob Powelson's seat on FERC, three sources
familiar with the discussions tell Eric Wolff and Darius Dixon.
President Donald Trump's anticipated pick is
already familiar with one of the biggest issues he would face if confirmed to fill
the FERC seat: The administration's efforts to rescue economically struggling
coal and nuclear power plants. Sources have said the issue served as a key
litmus test for Trump administration officials evaluating a replacement for
Powelson, and McNamee helped roll out Energy Secretary Rick Perry's proposal on
the topic last year. FERC eventually voted down the plan in January, but the
administration is considering additional options such as invoking rarely used
emergency powers that may wind up before FERC once McNamee arrives. [Morning Energy, August 9, 2018]
McNamee, who runs DOE's Office of Policy, discussed
the administration's plans for the grid at a congressional hearing last month.
Trump and Perry's concern is that "a lot of the organized markets have
distortions in them that aren't representative of an actual free serving
market," McNamee told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee .
"So, the thought is in that sense you need to remove some of those
distortions and get some more parity." He also noted the president had
asked DOE to examine the national security implications of an attack on the
grid but pointed out that no emergency orders had been issued.
It remains unclear when Trump will
formally nominate McNamee, but Eric and Darius report the vetting process is
still underway and it will be several months before the Senate is likely to
confirm him.
Powelson, whose last day is Friday,
says his replacement should know how to work with the states. "If asked, I
would say that it is incumbent to look at someone that's got a firm
understanding of the state regulatory complex," the departing commissioner
said on a FERC podcast released Wednesday. For his part,
McNamee has held posts at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and McGuireWoods
and was chief of staff to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and an aide to
Sen. Ted Cruz.
During his time at Texas Public Policy Foundation,
McNamee penned a pro-fossil fuels op-ed for The Hill marking Earth Day.
"We have been told that fossil fuels are wrecking the environment and our
health," he writes. "The facts are that life expectancy, population and
economic growth all began to increase dramatically when fossil fuels were
harnessed — and have continued to do so for the 200 years since the beginning
of the Industrial Revolution." (h/t UtilityDive's Gavin Bade) [Morning Energy, August 9, 2018]
On this day in 1789, the
U.S. Congress established the War Department. It would keep that title for 160
years — until 1949 when it was formally renamed the Department of Defense
on August 10. (The Soviets would detonate their first atomic bomb just 19
days later.) [The D Brief, August 7, 2018]
NEVER EXERCISE — The Pentagon on
Monday issued an order barring troops and personnel in sensitive locations from
using fitness trackers, smartphones and apps that can reveal their location.
"The rapidly evolving market of devices, applications, and services with
geolocation capabilities (e.g., fitness trackers, smartphones, tablets,
smartwatches, and related software applications) presents significant risk to
Department of Defense (DoD) personnel both on and off duty, and to our military
operations globally," the order states.
The directive comes after revelations earlier this year that
GPS-based exercise apps like Strava could show the locations of U.S. troops in
sensitive places like Syria and Afghanistan. Service members and civilians
"are prohibited from using geolocation features and functionality on both
non-government and government-issued devices, applications and services while
in locations designated as operational areas," according to a DoD memo
outlining the ban. The memo, signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick
Shanahan, didn't specify what parts of the world would be considered
"operational areas," but said senior commanders would designate them.
[POLITICO's Morning Cybersecurity, August 7,
2018]
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| DEMOCRATIC PARTY |
The battle for the future of the Democratic
party will continue tonight, as progressives try to
secure some victories. Both Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Abdul
El-Sayed, who is running for governor in Michigan, and Brent Welder, who is
running in Kansas' 3rd District. El-Sayed has trailed the establishment-backed
Gretchen Whitmer in polling, while "Republicans are confident they can paint
[Welder] as out-of-step with a traditionally Republican area that has recoiled
at Trump's GOP." [Morning Score, August 7, 2018]
— Jeffries, who recently sat down with
Morning Education, stressed that more than half of Democratic primary
voters, African American voters and Hispanic voters don't think public schools
are changing or improving fast enough. The poll also found broad support for
public school choice — a divisive issue for the Democratic Party — and more
equitable funding for public schools, particularly disadvantaged ones. The
results stem from two nationwide phone polls of more than 1,000 voters each
between May and July of this year. The poll was conducted by consulting firms
Benenson Strategy Group and 270 Strategies. [POLITICO's Morning Education,
August 6, 2018]
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| CYBERSECURITY |
HINT HINT, VLAD — Cybersecurity was on the
agenda at a weekend meeting between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his
Japanese and Australian counterparts. The eighth annual ministerial meeting of
the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue in Singapore touched on hostile states' use
of proxy forces in cyberspace, the three nations said in a joint readout . Pompeo and his counterparts
"expressed their concern that states and their proxies are increasingly
willing to pursue their objectives by undertaking malicious cyber
activities," according to the readout. In addition, the three officials
agreed on the need for "an international stability framework for
cyberspace based on the application of existing international law to state
behaviour in cyberspace, adherence to voluntary, non-binding norms of
responsible state behaviour in cyberspace in peacetime, and the implementation
of confidence building measures, supported by coordinated capacity building
programs."
Australia is one of the U.S.'s closest allies in
cyberspace, owing partly to its membership in the Five Eyes
intelligence-sharing partnership. Japan, another close ally on cyber matters,
faces continuous digital threats from two of America's chief rivals, China and
North Korea. The American, Australian and Japanese delegations in Singapore
"decided to deepen practical cooperation to better deter, mitigate,
publicly attribute, and counter malicious cyber activity, and provide clear and
consistent messaging of the consequences of such activity," according to
the readout, which provided no details about these activities. The officials
also "resolved to continue to call out unacceptable behaviour in
cyberspace." [POLITICO's Morning
Cybersecurity, August 6, 2018]
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| KENYA |
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| JORDAN |
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| IRAN |
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