Politics

The approval of Conoco-Phillips’ big Willow drilling project by the Bureau of Land Management will allow three drill sites including up to 199 total wells. Two other drill sites proposed for the project will be denied. ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO Ryan Lance called the order “the right decision for Alaska and our nation.”

The Houston-based company will relinquish rights to about 68,000 acres of existing leases in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

The order, one of the most significant of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s tenure, was not signed by her but rather by her deputy, Tommy Beaudreau, who grew up in Alaska and briefed state lawmakers on the project Monday. Haaland was notably silent on the project, which she had opposed as a New Mexico congresswoman before becoming Interior secretary two years ago.

However, administration officials were concerned that ConocoPhillips’ decades-old leases limited the government’s legal ability to block the project and that courts might have ruled in the company’s favor.

Monday’s announcement is not likely to be the last word, with litigation expected from environmental groups.

The Willow project could produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day, create up to 2,500 jobs during construction and 300 long-term jobs, and generate billions of dollars in royalties and tax revenues for the federal, state and local governments, the company said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Monday the decision was “very good news for the country.”

“Not only will this mean jobs and revenue for Alaska, it will be resources that are needed for the country and for our friends and allies,” Murkowski said. “The administration listened to Alaska voices. They listened to the delegation as we pressed the case for energy security and national security.”

Fellow Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan said conditions attached to the project should not reduce Willow’s ability to produce up to 180,000 barrels of crude a day. But he said it was “infuriating” that Biden also had moved to prevent or limit oil drilling elsewhere in Alaska.

“This decision greenlights 92% of proposed oil drilling (by ConocoPhllips) and hands over one the most fragile, intact ecosystems in the world to” the oil giant, said Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen. “This is not climate leadership.”

Biden understands the existential threat of climate change, “but he is approving a project that derails his own climate goals,” said Dillen, whose group vowed legal action to block the project.

John Leshy, who was a top Interior Department lawyer in the Clinton administration, said Biden’s climate goals aren’t the only factor in an environmental review process that agencies must follow.

Leshy, a professor at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, called the decision on Willow defensible, adding: “I think it reflects a balancing of the things they have to balance, which is the environmental impact and the lease rights that Conoco has.”

Christy Goldfuss, a former Obama White House official who now is a policy chief at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said she was “deeply disappointed” at Biden’s decision to approve Willow, which the BLM estimates would produce more than 239 million metric tons of greenhouse gases over the project’s 30-year life, roughly equal to the combined emissions from 1.7 million passenger cars.

“This decision is bad for the climate, bad for the environment and bad for the Native Alaska communities who oppose this and feel their voices were not heard,” Goldfuss said.

Biden has not commented publicly on the project’s approval. However, he talked about climate change with Kal Penn, an actor who served in the White House under President Barack Obama, in an interview that was taped last week and will be aired Monday evening on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”

“We’re going faster than anyone has ever gone,” Biden said when asked about young people who want him to push harder. He said the energy situation “got really complicated” with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, adding that “we’re going to need fossil fuel.”

“So it’s a matter of transitioning, but it’s not like you can cut everything off immediately,” Biden said.

Anticipating anger among environmental groups, the White House announced Sunday that Biden will prevent or limit oil drilling in 16 million acres in Alaska and the Arctic Ocean. The plan would bar drilling in nearly 3 million acres of the Beaufort Sea — closing it off from oil exploration — and limit drilling in more than 13 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve.

The withdrawal of the offshore area ensures that important habitat for whales, seals, polar bears and other wildlife “will be protected in perpetuity from extractive development,″ the White House said in a statement.

The conservation announcement did little to mollify activists.

“It’s a performative action to make the Willow project not look as bad,” said Elise Joshi, the acting executive director of Gen-Z for Change, an advocacy organization.

City of Nuiqsut Mayor Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, whose community of about 525 people is closest to the proposed development, has been outspoken in her opposition, worried about impacts to caribou and her residents’ subsistence lifestyles. “My constituents and community will bear the burden of this project with our health and our livelihoods,” she said.

But there is “majority consensus” in the North Slope region supporting the project, said Nagruk Harcharek, president of the group Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, whose members include leaders from across much of that region.

The conservation actions announced Sunday block drilling in the Beaufort Sea and build on President Barack Obama’s actions to restrict drilling there and in the Chukchi Sea.

Separately, the administration moved to protect more than 13 million acres within the petroleum reserve, a 23-million acre chunk of land on Alaska’s North Slope set aside a century ago for future oil production. Areas to be protected include the Teshekpuk Lake, Utukok Uplands, Colville River, Kasegaluk Lagoon and Peard Bay Special Areas, which serve as habitat for grizzly and polar bears, caribou and migratory birds.

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By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) – The new conservative majority on North Carolina’s top court will consider on Tuesday whether to overturn the court’s decision last year outlawing partisan redistricting, a move that would boost Republicans ahead of the 2024 congressional elections.

A reversal could be a mixed bag for Republicans, however. After the North Carolina Supreme Court decided last month to revisit the issue, the U.S. Supreme Court signaled it may sidestep a ruling in a related case in which Republicans have asked the justices to grant state legislatures sweeping new powers over federal elections.

The North Carolina Supreme Court’s then-Democratic majority threw out a Republican-drawn congressional map last year, ruling the state constitution does not permit lawmakers to manipulate district lines for partisan advantage, a process known as gerrymandering.

As a result, November’s midterm elections took place under a court-approved map, and Democrats and Republicans split the state’s 14 congressional seats evenly.

But Republican candidates flipped two of the court’s seats, giving conservatives a 5-2 majority. The new court agreed along party lines to rehear the redistricting case, as well as a case in which the previous Democratic majority struck down a Republican-backed voter identification law.

Legal experts say the decision to rehear the cases suggests the new majority is prepared to reverse the court’s prior rulings. A Republican-drawn congressional map would likely give the party three or four additional seats, helping to bolster a razor-thin majority in the U.S. House of Representatives next year.

“I think most folks who are watching this, myself included, would not be surprised or stunned if the decisions go in a partisan direction,” said Michael Bitzer, a professor at Catawba College and the author of a book about the state’s history of redistricting.

In court filings, Republican lawmakers argue that redistricting is inherently political and should be left to legislators, rather than judges. Good government groups, including Common Cause, have countered that gerrymandering harms democracy and that the court should not reverse rulings just because its partisan composition changed.

Last year’s redistricting decision also prompted North Carolina Republicans to turn to the U.S. Supreme Court in what has become a high-profile case.

The Republicans urged the U.S. Supreme Court to adopt a contentious legal theory, the independent state legislature doctrine, that would prevent state courts from reviewing lawmakers’ actions regarding federal elections, giving legislators unfettered authority over voting rules and redistricting.

Democrats have warned that doing so would invite a flood of new restrictions that would threaten fair elections, while Republicans say it would corral activist state courts that are undermining legislative power.

The Supreme Court’s conservative justices appeared sympathetic to the Republicans’ argument during oral arguments in December. But after the North Carolina Supreme Court’s decision to rehear the case, the U.S. Supreme Court asked the various parties in the case to weigh in on whether the court still has jurisdiction over the matter.

If the justices decide they no longer have jurisdiction, they could dismiss the case without issuing a ruling.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Rosalba O’Brien)

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By Kanishka Singh and David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was released from a hospital and will continue receiving treatment at a rehabilitation facility, his office said on Monday after one of Washington’s most powerful figures suffered a fall last week.

McConnell’s recovery from a concussion is proceeding well, his office said in a statement, adding that he also suffered a minor rib fracture in the fall. His continued treatment means McConnell will not be present when the Senate returns to Washington on Tuesday.

A senior Senate Republican aide suggested McConnell could be in rehab for up to two weeks.

“That decision (on a rehab timeline) will be made by the leader’s physicians and the therapists. It is very common to undergo physical therapy to regain strength after a hospital stay, and this ranges anywhere from a week to two weeks,” the aide told Reuters.

The Republican leader, who is 81 and was first elected to represent Kentucky in the Senate in 1984, tripped at a dinner event on Wednesday evening and was admitted to a hospital for treatment for a concussion. A former aide of the leader said on Friday that McConnell was eager to be discharged.

His hospitalization came as Democratic President Joe Biden and Republicans, who control the House of Representatives after the midterm elections, remained locked in a standoff over the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling. A lack of progress in talks has raised concern about a possible default over the summer.

Several of his fellow Senate Republicans told reporters last week that McConnell was likely to be hospitalized for a few days but added they were confident he would be back on the job when the Senate reconvened this week.

As Senate minority leader, McConnell has taken a back seat to Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on the debt ceiling issue. But independent experts view the Kentucky Republican as a skilled negotiator who could broker a compromise deal in an emergency.

Currently serving his seventh six-year term, which runs through 2026, McConnell was the third U.S. senator to be hospitalized in recent weeks. Democrat John Fetterman is being treated for depression, while Democrat Dianne Feinstein was discharged to recuperate at home following a bout with shingles.

McConnell served as Senate majority leader from 2015 to 2021 and as Senate minority leader since then. Democrats, including three independents who vote with them, currently hold a 51-49 majority in the Senate, when all senators are present.

McConnell’s legislative skills have torpedoed many Democratic initiatives over the years, both when his party held a majority in the chamber and when Democrats have held the edge, as they currently do.

He has long been criticized by Democrats, particularly for his tactics that allowed Republicans to build a 6-3 conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, including having the Senate refuse to consider a 2016 nomination to the high court by Democratic then-President Barack Obama.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and David Morgan; additional reporting by Costas Pitas Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)

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By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was released from a hospital and will continue receiving treatment in a rehabilitation facility, his office said on Monday after one of the most powerful figures in Washington suffered a fall last week.

McConnell’s recovery from a concussion is proceeding well, his office said, adding that he also suffered a minor rib fracture in the fall. His continued treatment means that McConnell will not be present when the Senate returns to Washington on Tuesday.

The Republican leader, who is 81 and was first elected to represent Kentucky in the Senate in 1984, tripped at a dinner event on Wednesday evening and was admitted to a hospital for treatment for a concussion. A former aide of the leader said on Friday that McConnell was eager to be discharged.

His hospitalization came as Democratic President Joe Biden and Republicans, who control the House of Representatives after the midterm elections, remained locked in a standoff over the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling. A lack of progress in talks has raised concern about a possible default over the summer.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh; Editing by Scott Malone)

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By Karen Freifeld

(Reuters) -Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, is expected to testify on Monday afternoon before a Manhattan grand jury investigating hush money payments he has said he orchestrated to porn star Stormy Daniels on behalf of the former president.

“This is all about accountability. He needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds,” Cohen said of Trump outside a Manhattan courthouse on his way to the grand jury.

Lanny Davis, Cohen’s attorney, confirmed earlier that Cohen was scheduled to testify in the closed door proceeding at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT).

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Grand jury proceedings are not public.

The renewed interest in Stormy Daniels and the $130,000 payment she received before the 2016 presidential election comes at a critical time for Trump, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. Daniels has said she received the payment in exchange for not discussing a sexual liaison with Trump, who denies it happened.

Trump has been given a chance to testify before the grand jury as a person subject to an investigation, Susan Necheles, an attorney for the former president, told Reuters last Thursday, a sign the grand jury may be close to deciding whether to bring criminal charges against him.

The Manhattan District Attorney “now threatens to indict former President Trump for payments made to Stormy Daniels seven years ago,” Necheles’ said in a statement on Friday. “For the DA’s office to charge former President Trump, a victim of extortion, with a crime because his then lawyer, Michael Cohen, a convicted liar, paid the extortionist, would be unprecedented and outrageous selective prosecution.”

Cohen was sentenced to prison in 2018 in Manhattan federal court in connection with his arranging hush payments to Daniels and another woman during Trump’s 2016 campaign.

“This is not revenge,” Cohen told reporters on Monday. “My goal is to tell the truth.”

It is doubtful Trump, who has called the investigation a witch hunt, will agree to testify.

“I did absolutely nothing wrong, I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels,” he said on Truth Social last week.

Joseph Tacopina, another Trump lawyer, said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Monday there were no plans to participate in the grand jury, though a decision had not been made.

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; additional reporting by Douglas Higginbotham; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Bill Berkrot)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday harshly criticized former President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, widening the rift between the two men as they prepare to battle over the Republican nomination in next year’s election.

“President Trump was wrong,” Pence said during remarks at the annual white-tie Gridiron Dinner attended by politicians and journalists. “I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”

In the days leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, Trump pressured Pence to overturn President Joe Biden’s election victory as he presided over the ceremonial certification of the results. Pence refused, and when rioters stormed the Capitol, some chanted that they wanted to “hang Mike Pence.”

“Make no mistake about it, what happened that day was a disgrace,” Pence said in his Gridiron Dinner remarks. “And it mocks decency to portray it any other way.”

Trump, meanwhile, has continued to spread lies about his election loss. He’s even spoken in support of the rioters and said he would consider pardoning them if he was reelected.

Speeches at the Gridiron Dinner are usually humorous affairs, where politicians poke fun at each other, and Pence did plenty of that as well.

He joked that Trump’s ego was so fragile, he wanted his vice president to sing “Wind Beneath My Wings” — one of the lines is “did you ever know that you’re my hero?” — during their weekly lunches.

He took another shot at Trump over classified documents.

“I read that some of those classified documents they found at Mar-a-Lago were actually stuck in the president’s Bible,” Pence said. “Which proves he had absolutely no idea they were there.”

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday to raise the federal debt ceiling without conditions, warning that a default on U.S. debt would cause an “economic and financial catastrophe.”

Yellen, in budget testimony before the Republican-controlled House Ways and Means Committee, said that failure to increase the $31.4 trillion borrowing cap would threaten the economic progress that the United States has made since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In my assessment – and that of economists across the board – a default on our debt would trigger an economic and financial catastrophe,” Yellen said in prepared remarks. “I urge all members of Congress to come together to address the debt limit – without conditions and without waiting until the last minute.

Some Republicans have demanded spending concessions from U.S. President Joe Biden in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. Yellen has refused to negotiate over raising the debt ceiling, arguing that it is about making good on Congress’ past spending decisions.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Paul Simao)

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By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday to raise the federal debt ceiling without conditions, warning that a default on U.S. debt would cause “economic and financial collapse.”

Yellen, in budget testimony before the Republican-controlled House Ways and Means Committee, said that failure to increase the $31.4 trillion borrowing cap would threaten the economic progress that the U.S. has made since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In my assessment – and that of economists across the board – a default on our debt would trigger an economic and financial catastrophe,” Yellen said. “I urge all members of Congress to come together to address the debt limit – without conditions and without waiting until the last minute.”

Asked about the possibility of prioritizing payments to cover U.S. debt payments first from available cash resources, as some Republicans have suggested, Yellen said that was “not a solution to the debt ceiling issue.”

“Prioritization is simply not paying all of the government’s bills when they come due. That is something we have never done since 1789. And that really is just default by another name.”

The only option to avoid a crushing spike in interest rates following a default is for the U.S. to commit to pay its bills on time, she said.

“If we don’t do that and think that there’s some shortcut around it that will avoid economic chaos, we’re kidding ourselves because not paying the government’s bills will produce economic and financial collapse,” she said.

Some Republicans have demanded spending concessions from U.S. President Joe Biden in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. Yellen has refused to negotiate over raising the debt ceiling, arguing that it is about making good on Congress’ past spending decisions.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Paul Simao and Josie Kao)

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By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Three U.S. senators blasted the Treasury Department on Thursday for what they called its failure to act more swiftly on countering climate risks, and they urged Secretary Janet Yellen to appoint a new climate counselor to lead the effort.

In a letter to Yellen viewed by Reuters, Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon Whitehouse and Edward Markey criticized the work done by John Morton, Yellen’s first climate counselor. Morton stepped down in December and returned to the private sector.

The senators said nearly two years had passed since Treasury created a “Climate Hub” and named Morton to coordinate its strategies, but the results have been disappointing.

Yellen has not yet named a replacement for Morton, although Treasury has dozens of people working on climate-related issues, including some in key senior positions.

Treasury spokesperson Julia Krieger underscored the key role the department and the Climate Hub had played on climate issues, including through passage of the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax incentives, its work to better understand climate-related financial risks and international efforts.

“Treasury has been central to delivering on the Biden Administration’s climate agenda,” she said, when asked about the senators’ letter. “The Climate Hub has played a critical role coordinating this overall agenda and providing expertise to support climate-related policy development and implementation.”

A second Treasury official said the criticism of Morton was frustrating, given his leadership on key initiatives, including $279 billion in clean energy tax credits under the IRA and in mobilizing capital for climate-friendly energy transitions around the world.

In their letter, the senators also faulted Treasury’s leadership of climate work by the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which identified climate change as an “emerging and increasing threat to U.S. financial stability” in October 2021.

The second Treasury official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the independent agencies grouped under FSOC were taking action, but those steps followed prescribed processes. No Treasury climate counselor could speed up that work since the agencies were independent, the official said.

The senators also said Treasury had failed to use its power as the largest shareholder in the International Monetary Fund to halt lending that enabled fossil fuel expansion in other countries, noting that other countries were moving faster.

They asked Yellen to respond to over a dozen questions on Treasury’s efforts to mitigate risks to the U.S. economy posed by accelerating climate change and a timeline for doing so.

Yellen this week told an advisory panel climate change was already having a major economic and financial impact on the United States and may trigger asset value losses in coming years that could cascade through the U.S. financial system.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Tom Hogue and Hugh Lawson)

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By Jason Lange and Alexandra Ulmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A fundraising group tied to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis raised close to $10 million in February, a major haul as the Republican eyes running for president next year, according to a financial disclosure released on Friday.

The disclosure by the Friends of DeSantis group, which was formed to back DeSantis’ campaigns in Florida’s 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial elections, points to it having about $80 million in the bank at the end of last month.

Even though DeSantis easily won re-election months earlier in November, Friends of DeSantis last month took in some of its biggest contributions in years, including $2.5 million from billionaire options trader Jeff Yass, the disclosure showed.

Public opinion polls show DeSantis as the strongest threat to former President Donald Trump for their party’s nomination for next year’s presidential contest.

DeSantis made his first trip to the early nominating state of Iowa on Friday as he tests the waters for a presidential bid, only days before Trump is slated to campaign there.

Friends of DeSantis’ bank account puts DeSantis on a similar financial footing as Trump, who unlike DeSantis has formally launched a 2024 presidential campaign.

Trump and an allied Super PAC he has financed reported having close to $80 million across several fundraising accounts at the end of 2022.

Those accounts include Trump’s Save America group, which was registered with election regulators to support allied campaigns rather than his own, but has transferred at least $60 million to a pro-Trump Super PAC expected to support his campaign.

Super PACs are big-money groups that can legally raise and spend limitless sums to help a candidate as long as the spending isn’t controlled by the candidate’s campaign. They typically get substantial funding from the wealthiest Americans.

The Friends of DeSantis group, which is registered in Florida to support DeSantis’ gubernatorial campaigns, would also be unable to legally finance a presidential run by DeSantis.

But Friends of DeSantis is also expected to transfer money to a Super PAC backing the Florida politician’s presidential aspirations.

On Thursday, a former senior official in Trump’s administration announced he had formed a Super PAC with the aim of getting DeSantis to enter the White House race.

Government watchdogs have attempted legal challenges against such transfers in the past and one is currently seeking to block Trump’s financing of the Make America Great Again Inc Super PAC.

But because leadership at the Federal Election Commission typically deadlocks on sensitive partisan questions, the regulator is unlikely to challenge transfers to Super PACs, said Shanna Ports, a campaign finance lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center, a non-partisan government watchdog.

“The FEC has laid out a roadmap for how candidates can get away with it,” Ports said.

Paul S. Ryan, an election law expert at the Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation, said he was concerned about money from local elections being used in federal campaigns, as state contributions limits can be more lax than federal ones. “The Supreme Court has said repeatedly over decades that big contributions can buy access and influence,” said Ryan.

DeSantis’ political team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Friends of DeSantis said in its disclosure that it has raised $222 million since its founding, including $9.9 million in February, and has spent $140 million.

If DeSantis joins the presidential race, he will also have to compete with former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, as well as other potential candidates such as former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

(Reporting by Jason LangeEditing by Alistair Bell)

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