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THE RISKS FACING PELOSI: One thing worth considering involving Democrats’ intra-party dispute over infrastructure is whether Speaker Nancy Pelosi is taking a risk siding with liberals on doing the more sprawling spending package through reconciliation before passing the bipartisan bill.
Pelosi sent another letter to her members last night reiterating her position, noting President Joe Biden backs her strategy.
Yesterday, the White House endorsed Pelosi’s tactic of making a package deal out of the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure plan and the Democrats-only budget blueprint by advancing them simultaneously.
The House is planning to return from a short recess Monday night to take a procedural vote that will enable the chamber to proceed on the infrastructure deal and budget framework.
“Again, any delay in passing the budget resolution could threaten our ability to pass this essential legislation through reconciliation,” Pelosi said.
The group of nine centrist Democratic holdouts argue the infrastructure investments in the bipartisan bill are substantial and can’t afford to wait.
Biden and his party need a win, given the current attention on his chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan as his poll numbers creep below 50% for the first time.
If the bipartisan bill is signed into law already, voters would see some of that money do things by the 2022 elections, but these spending programs take time to implement.
Democrats could take a victory lap on the bipartisan infrastructure spending bill, and then come back refreshed for reconciliation.
Centrists could fold to preserve Biden’s agenda: Paul Bledsoe, a former Democratic aide to the Senate Finance Committee, told me time is the biggest “enemy” facing Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
But he said Democratic leaders are right to link the two efforts together, noting both are central to Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda that he promised voters.
“These intra-caucus disagreements should compel Schumer and Pelosi to act as quickly as possible on both bills if they want to make sure they pass,” said Bledsoe, who said the goal should be to pass them by mid-October. “Democrats are a really diverse caucus and there are going to be disagreements, but at the end of day everybody will be behind the president’s agenda. I am convinced of that.”
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INDUSTRY PROMOTES NEW CYBER STANDARD FOR PIPELINES: The American Petroleum Institute released a new cybersecurity standard today designed to encourage its member oil and gas companies implement mitigation measures to protect against ransomware attacks and other threats to information technology and operations systems.
Suzanne Lemieux, API’s director of operations security and emergency response, told me the revised standard has been in the works since 2017 and is not a response to the April hack of Colonial Pipeline that halted fuel delivery across the Southeast and led to panic-buying at the pump.
“This is not in reaction to any particular incident, but is responsive to the evolving threats we are seeing and we want to make sure the programs we put in place have flexibility to adapt to those changes,” she said.
She said the standard, which involved input from state and federal regulators within FERC, TSA, PHMSA, and others, is more comprehensive than previous versions that focused only on shielding data systems that operate a pipeline.
Resisting mandates: Lemieux emphasized the standard is voluntary for its members and does not envision a specific timeline for companies to implement the recommendations.
API has resisted a call from some Democrats, such as FERC Chairman Richard Glick, for Congress to impose broader cybersecurity mandates on pipeline operators in the way the utility sector is subject to federal rules.
Lemieux argued comparing protecting pipelines to utilities is not “apples to apples” and noted the electricity sector is more “homogeneous” in how it operates, given the shared connection to a grid.
She also countered that while large multinational firms might find it easier to adhere to federal rules, the pipeline sector also includes smaller municipal gas companies that lack resources.
“There is a frustrating misconception that if you are not regulated, why would you do anything about it,” Lemieux said. “Our members do take this seriously across a spectrum of pipeline operators.”
NOT HOT AIR: The Energy Department announced yesterday it is awarding $24 million for nine research projects of new methods to capture carbon emissions directly from the air.
“Finding ways to remove and store carbon directly from the air is an absolute necessity in our fight against the climate crisis,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
Direct air capture technology is a growing field that still requires significant investments in research and development to make it cost effective and economically viable.
The new research projects will support breakthroughs in understanding how to overcome the limitations of currently available technologies, including inefficient energy usage, with the goal of building new and more effective approaches for direct air capture.
BILL GATES TO HEADLINE ENERGY DEPARTMENT’S HYDROGEN SUMMIT: Billionaire Bill Gates of Breakthrough Energy will join Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry as speakers at the Energy Department’s first ever Hydrogen Shot Summit later this month.
At the virtual event on Aug. 31, government officials, industry members, regional and community leaders, and national labs will map out strategies for achieving DOE’s goal of driving down the cost of hydrogen by 80% within the decade.
Gates has emerged as a leading promoter of DOE’s innovation efforts, committing $1.5 billion last week to support clean energy demonstration projects passed as part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill approved by the Senate.
Gates is pledging to apply for matching funds through a DOE public-private partnership clean energy demonstration program that is provided $25 billion as part of the infrastructure bill.
VOTERS SUPPORT ‘POLLUTERS PAY’: More than 60% of voters support the idea of a Polluters Pay Climate Fund as floated by a group of liberal senators that would impose a tax on a handful of the largest oil and gas companies.
That includes 83% of Democratic voters, 65% of Independents, and 43% of Republicans, according to a poll this morning from Data for Progress, a liberal group.
The web-based survey of 1,169 likely voters asks whether they would support a bill proposed by Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland that imposes a fee on major fossil fuel companies as “partial compensation for the damages caused by these companies’ emissions that have contributed to climate change.”
The bill, released as a draft legislative proposal, would identify the oil producers and refiners that released the most greenhouse gases from 2000 to 2019 and assess a tax based on the amounts they emitted. Van Hollen said his proposal could raise $500 billion over the next decade, and he posited it could be used as a funding source for Senate Democrats’ $3.5 trillion climate and social spending reconciliation package.
CALL BACK OPEC, REPUBLICANS SAY: A group of two dozen Republican senators yesterday called on Biden to reverse his decision to ask OPEC and its allies to increase oil production in response to rising gas prices.
“It is astonishing that your Administration is now seeking assistance from an international oil cartel when America has sufficient domestic supply and reserves to increase output which would reduce gasoline prices,” wrote the senators, led by Sens. James Lankford and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma.
OPEC+ is resisting Biden’s request for the group to produce more oil beyond an agreement reached in July to increase output each month by 400,000 barrels a day.
His push has been criticized by both parties, including liberals who are disturbed Biden is propping up fossil fuels when UN-backed scientists just confirmed climate change is bad and getting worse.
US OIL DEMAND RISING: U.S. oil demand bounced back last week rising around 10% after falling the previous week, the Energy Information Administration said today in its Weekly Petroleum Status report.
Oil consumption rose to 21.5 million barrels per day from 19.5 million barrels p/d the week prior.
Jet fuel demand increased from 1.3 million barrels p/d to 1.7 million barrels p/d, while diesel consumption saw an even bigger jump.
But gasoline consumption fell and was below the average level from the prior six weeks, a possible signal that rising coronavirus cases are negatively impacting demand.
EIA also reported a crude oil inventory draw of 3.2 million barrels, pulling oil prices higher this morning.
The Rundown
Bloomberg Escalating US-China solar rift threatens Biden green goals
Washington Post Federal program to cut bus emissions gets a Senate mandate: Some buses must pollute
Wall Street Journal Summer road trips, falling crude prices pump up refiners’ profits
Wall Street Journal Carbon offset deal helps Michigan cash in on its trees—by not cutting them down
Calendar
THURSDAY | AUG. 19
The House and Senate are out on recess.
