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SENATE GOP DILEMMA: As Republicans struggle to come to consensus on the potentially last pandemic relief bill before the election, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is hearing different things from his members on how to handle energy policy.
As we’ve been reminded this week, where Republicans stand on energy often depends on where they’re from and who they serve, a reflection that GOP members no longer represent only fossil fuel states and districts.
Seven Republicans on Thursday from states that have suffered “massive” job losses in industries like solar and energy efficiency urged McConnell in a letter to include policies that “bolster jobs and innovation across the clean energy economy” in any pandemic relief bill.
The letter was led by Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a growing state for solar energy that has lost more than 21,000 jobs in the clean energy sector, according to the advocacy group Environmental Entrepreneurs.
Tillis was joined by North Carolina’s other senator Richard Burr, along with traditionally outspoken clean energy advocates Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, another emerging market for solar. Other senators on the letter are facing tight re-election races in purple states, including Tillis, Cory Gardner of Colorado — a major wind state, along with oil and gas — Martha McSally of Arizona, and Susan Collins of Maine, a burgeoning hub for offshore wind.
“You have seven senators from across the country of different political stripes saying clean energy is good,” said Heather Reams, executive director of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, which helped organize the letter. “The jobs on the ground are really significant,” Reams told Josh.
Fossil fuel senators push back: But just days earlier, Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota led a group of nine Republican senators, mostly from major oil and gas states, warning against extending wind tax credits set to expire at the end of the year.
The dilemma: The Tillis letter doesn’t propose any specific policy to help clean energy, and doesn’t pick a favored technology, urging broad support for renewables, nuclear, carbon capture, efficiency, advanced transportation, and storage. That offend-no-one strategy shows that Republicans still are grappling with a policy lane for themselves without “alienating the base,” Reams said.
“A challenge for Republicans is they don’t want to vote like Democrats, but what can they be for?” Reams said.
How that manifests itself into pandemic relief policy will likely be narrow compromises such as giving direct payment access to wind, solar, and carbon capture developers receiving tax credits, and possible extensions for when expiring tax credits can be used.
“It’s an all boats can rise strategy,” Reams said.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Josh Siegel (@SiegelScribe) and Abby Smith (@AbbySmithDC). Email [email protected] or [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
DFC FINALIZES POLICY LIFTING BAN ON FUNDING NUCLEAR EXPORTS: The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation finalized a policy change Thursday lifting its ban on funding nuclear projects overseas, in what the industry and its supporters are calling a potential “game changer” for small nuclear technologies being developed in the U.S.
The change, finalized after a 30-day comment period, removes an Obama-era restriction on funding civil nuclear projects overseas.
“Reversing this ban is a commonsense action that will increase global energy security and help other countries meet their own emissions reduction goals while providing their citizens with reliable baseload generation,” said Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette.
A senior official from DFC told Josh last month that the agency mostly had small nuclear reactors in mind when it proposed the policy change.
The new policy puts the U.S. in the game with China and Russia, which are already aggressively promoting their state-owned advanced nuclear technologies in developing countries. The DFC offers direct equity financing, loans, and political risk insurance to companies looking to export technologies.
“If we have a way of advancing U.S. technology, giving a punch to Putin, and helping developing economies move forward, that’s a home run in my book,” the official said.
IF NOT ON EARTH, NUCLEAR ON THE MOON? The Energy Department on Friday sought feedback from industry to help NASA develop a nuclear reactor that can be used on the moon.
Battelle Energy Alliance, the contractor that operates DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory, issued a request for information from the nuclear and space industries to develop technologies for a fission surface power system that can be operated on the moon.
“This project will be an incredible opportunity to showcase the innovation at our labs and industry,” tweeted Rita Baranwal, DOE’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy.
ADVANCED NUCLEAR AND CARBON CAPTURE GET A BOOST IN DEFENSE BILL: A number of energy and environment-related amendments made it into the final defense authorization bill approved Thursday by the Senate, including bipartisan legislation from Murkowski, the chairman of the Energy Committee, supporting development of advanced nuclear reactors.
The defense bill also included bipartisan legislation from Senate Environment Committee Chairman John Barrasso and others seeking to encourage development of carbon dioxide pipelines and boost direct air capture research. The Senate approved that legislation, known as the USE IT Act, in last year’s defense bill, too, but it has run into roadblocks with House Democrats.
Senators also approved a bipartisan reauthorization of a popular program administered by the EPA that replaces old diesel engines with newer, cleaner vehicles, led by Sen. Tom Carper, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment Committee.
Additional energy and environment amendments approved in the bill include legislation from Sen. Chris Coons to support sustainable chemistry research, a measure from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse cracking down on illegal fishing in the oceans, and a provision from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen to increase funding to study the health effects of “forever chemicals” per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (or PFAS).
DEWINE CALLS FOR REPEAL OF NUCLEAR SUBSIDIES LAW: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, called Thursday for repealing a law providing subsidies to coal and nuclear plants because of a bribery scandal involving state House Speaker Larry Householder, a Republican and a chief backer of the legislation.
DeWine reversed himself from a day prior when he said the law should stay in place because he was concerned about potential job losses if the two nuclear plants aided by the law were to close.
“While the policy, in my opinion, is good, the process by which it was created stinks. It’s terrible, it’s not acceptable,” DeWine said Thursday during his coronavirus briefing, calling the law “forever tainted.”
A bipartisan group of lawmakers have announced plans to introduce a bill to repeal the law, but it’s unclear if it will have the votes to pass, given the original legislation passed easily with the support of both parties.
EPA SEEKS TO HELP URANIUM MINERS: The EPA is agreeing it won’t regulate groundwater contamination from uranium mines, leaving the oversight to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Wyoming state regulators.
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, who signed a memorandum of understanding on the issue in Wyoming on Thursday, said during a news conference the agency is “recognizing the authority that the NRC has had for a number of years.” He said an Obama EPA proposal that would have required uranium miners to study groundwater prior to mining and clean up contamination at closed mines was “encroaching on the NRC’s authority.”
Environmentalists say the EPA is ceding its legal authority to protect groundwater. “For decades the uranium mining industry has gotten a free pass to pollute, and now the Trump administration wants to just give up any pretense of protecting scarce water resources across the Mountain West,” said Geoff Fettus, a senior attorney in the Natural Resources Defense Council’s nuclear program.
HERE’S WHO LEFT-WING DEMOCRATS WANT IN A BIDEN CABINET: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, the Democrats’ O.G. climate candidate, is named as a top pick for four different cabinet positions — EPA administrator, Energy secretary, Interior secretary, and Office of Management and Budget director — according to a wish list released Thursday by Data for Progress.
Other familiar names made the list for EPA administrator, including Green New Deal author Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and California’s top air regulator Mary Nichols, as well as some lesser known names outside of environment circles, including former Washington state ecology secretary Maia Bellon and former EPA regional administrator Heather McTeer Toney.
For Energy secretary, Data for Progress also lists Michigan Rep. Andy Levin (who previously served as deputy director of Michigan’s energy agency) and Daniel Kammen, a former science envoy for the State Department. Then for Interior secretary, the group also recommends Rep. Raul Grijalva, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee; New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland; and Fawn Sharp, president of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians.
TAMMY DUCKWORTH PROPOSES ‘MARSHALL PLAN’ FOR COAL WORKERS: Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a candidate to be Joe Biden’s running mate, introduced legislation Thursday to “revitalize” coal communities by investing in power plant or mine workers who’ve lost their jobs.
The “Marshall Plan for Coal Country Act” would provide Medicare to all coal workers who have lost their job, make higher education free for coal workers and their families, increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, and modify U.S. bankruptcy laws to require that coal companies pay expenses for healthcare and pension benefits ahead of executive pay and bonuses.
The United Mine Workers of America endorsed the plan, calling it “the first legislation that takes aim at the tremendous economic problems that already exist in the coalfields of America.”
WIND ENERGY IMPROVES RENEWABLE HYDROGEN’S ECONOMICS: Cheap wind power could make hydrogen produced from renewable energy (known as green hydrogen) competitive with traditional hydrogen in just the next two to three years, analysts from Morgan Stanley said in a research note Thursday.
To make that possible, however, the analysts say federal tax credits for wind power must be extended and either federal or state governments should provide incentives to bring down the cost of electrolyzers, which splits water molecules to create hydrogen. Green hydrogen projects should also be located directly on site of renewable energy projects, they say.
“We believe there is the potential for wind leaders and companies that seek to generate and use green hydrogen to form strategic alliances to bring all of the necessary skill sets together and allow green hydrogen to be competitive at a far more rapid pace than appreciated,” the research note says.
The Rundown
New York Times The great climate migration has begun
Washington Post Trump administration says massive Alaska gold mine won’t cause major environmental harm, reversing Obama
Los Angeles Times Is America’s biggest gas utility abusing customer money? California demands answers
Huffington Post ‘It’s past time’: Rep. Ilhan Omar, Sen. Bernie Sanders unveil bill to strip fossil fuel funding
Calendar
TUESDAY | JULY 28
10 a.m. 366 Dirksen. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing examine the development and deployment of large-scale carbon dioxide management technologies in the United States, including technological and natural carbon removal, carbon utilization, and carbon storage.
11 a.m. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change holds a remote hearing entitled, “There’s Something in the Water: Reforming Our Nation’s Drinking Water Standards.”
