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HOW MUCH ROOM FOR BIPARTISANSHIP? President Joe Biden is insisting he wants to find agreement with Republicans on infrastructure spending, but we’re wondering: How big is the window of opportunity for bipartisan talks?
Biden had conversations yesterday with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee who is leading the GOP counteroffer to Biden’s plans. The GOP plan proposes to spend $568 billion, far less than Biden’s $2.3 trillion, and it is narrowly focused on roads, bridges, and other traditional infrastructure, while Biden’s proposal is as much about climate as it is about highways.
Both Biden and Capito claimed their conversation was positive and constructive, and it included an invitation from Biden for the West Virginia Republican to come with any of her colleagues to the White House for a meeting.
Nonetheless, it sounds like little agreement has been forged about the size and scope of an infrastructure plan, how to pay for it, or even what “infrastructure” should encompass.
The latter is what Biden told reporters he and Republican lawmakers need to decide on first, before getting into the trickier conversation of how to pay for it.
Reaching that point could be difficult: Biden gave his infrastructure plan top billing during his joint address to Congress this week, and he linked his plan directly to curbing climate change.
Given how significant of a priority climate change is for this administration — not to mention the pressure Biden is under from Democrats and environmental activists to act aggressively and quickly — we’re thinking it’s unlikely Biden would agree to back down from his plan’s massive investments in clean energy.
Some Democrats are pushing Biden to go even further. A handful of Senate and House Democrats, led by Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Debbie Dingell, unveiled legislation yesterday proposing to spend $1 trillion per year on infrastructure, including significant investments in clean energy and electric cars, through fiscal year 2031.
Biden, in remarks to reporters last night, also made it clear he isn’t going to budge much on his topline spending number, leaving potentially little room for negotiations.
“If, like last time, they come in with one fourth or one fifth of what I’m asking and say, ‘That’s a final offer,’ then…it’s a no-go for me,” he 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.
AMERICAN OIL MAJORS JOIN THE PROFIT PARTY: The full spectrum of Big Oil’s recovery is complete after U.S. majors ExxonMobil and Chevron posted profits this morning for the first quarter of the year, overcoming historic losses from the pandemic downturn.
Exxon posted its first profit since 2019, reported at $2.7 billion, while Chevron notched $1.4 billion in profit. Darren Woods, CEO of Exxon, and Mike Wirth, Chevron’s CEO, attributed success to rising oil prices that have stabilized to over $60 per barrel along boosting efficiency by prioritizing investments in lower cost assets. But there remains uncertainty about whether demand can keep on track in the second quarter, as the virus surges in some big oil consuming countries such as India.
Both Exxon and Chevron pledged to restrain their capital spending, with the former sticking with its plan of 30% cut in annual expenditures.
The U.S. companies, especially Exxon, are also facing scrutiny from shareholders for focusing more specifically on oil and natural gas rather than pivoting towards renewables as European majors are doing.
DEMOCRATS PUSH FERC TO APPROVE PIPELINES: Centrist Democratic senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and Jon Tester of Montana are joining Republicans to urge FERC to review 14 pending natural gas pipeline projects “without further delay.”
The senators in a letter published today warned of pipeline capacity constraints that are “depriving” consumers of “affordable, reliable, and cleaner energy.”
They noted FERC should not sit on these projects while the commission reviews its policy for reviewing natural gas pipelines, which has not been updated since 1999.
IT’S OFFICIAL…SAY GOODBYE TO INDIAN POINT NUCLEAR PLANT: The Indian Point nuclear plant outside New York City will shut down today, and its zero carbon energy is likely to be replaced by natural gas in the short-term.
The reactor set to shutter, first commissioned in 1976, is responsible for avoiding nearly 4 million metric tons of carbon a year, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute.
It comes as New York is racing to replace the zero carbon electricity provided by the last of three reactors to close with aggressive renewable energy growth targets. Announced in 2017, the decommissioning of the plant is a result of a settlement brokered by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Entergy, Indian Plant’s owner.
While the plant faced economic pressures, it was targeted by Cuomo before he became governor in 2011 because of its proximity to New York City on the eastern banks of the Hudson River.
“Indian Point’s enduring legacy will be the thousands of men and women who operated the plant safely, reliably, and securely, while helping to power New York City and the lower Hudson Valley for nearly 60 years,” Chris Bakken, Entergy’s chief nuclear officer, said in a statement.
CARPER CALLS ON EPA TO TARGET ALL ZERO EMISSION CARS BY 2035: Sen. Tom Carper, chairman of the Senate Environment Committee, is calling on the EPA to set aggressive fuel economy standards that would facilitate a rapid transition to all zero-emission car sales.
Carper, in a letter yesterday to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, said the agency should set near-term fuel economy standards, which would cover up to model year 2026 vehicles, consistent with a deal several automakers struck with California during the Trump administration. Those automakers, which included Ford, promised to meet fuel economy standards stricter than what the Trump administration set but slightly weaker than the Obama administration levels.
Regan has said the EPA intends to meet a deadline set by Biden in his climate executive order to propose new fuel economy standards by July. Earlier this week, the EPA took steps to walk back a separate Trump administration action that revoked California’s ability to set its own stricter tailpipe emissions standards.
Carper, however, argues the EPA must go further, setting even stronger standards for model year 2027 vehicles and beyond. Those standards should lead to 50% of new vehicles sales being zero-emissions by 2030, increasing to all new vehicle sales by 2035, Carper said. That trajectory is “consistent with the ambition we are seeing from automakers,” he added.
Other Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate, as well as a dozen governors, have also called on the Biden administration to set similar targets to end the sale of gas-powered cars.
KEEP THIS LEGAL FILING ON YOUR RADAR: More than a dozen Republican attorneys general, led by West Virginia’s Patrick Morrisey, are asking the Supreme Court to settle, once and for all, what the scope of the EPA’s authority is to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
In a legal filing yesterday, the attorneys general argue that a panel of D.C. Circuit judges erred in January when they threw out the Trump administration’s weaker carbon controls for power plants (a replacement for the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan). In doing so, the attorneys general say, the D.C. Circuit ruling gives the EPA “wildly expansive authority” to force “dramatic changes in how and where electricity is produced.”
The attorneys general are hoping to convince the Supreme Court to intervene now, before the Biden EPA issues a new power plant rule that will certainly be more aggressive than the Trump rule and would very likely seek deeper carbon cuts than the Obama plan.
Is this a long-shot bid? Most likely, yes. The Supreme Court takes up very few appeals each term, and it’s possible the high court could want to wait until it has another regulation in front of it (i.e. a Biden administration rule) before it passes judgment on EPA’s authority.
Even so, Morrisey has scored a victory in a long-shot bid like this before. He led the effort to challenge the Clean Power Plan and petitioned the Supreme Court to put the rule on pause before the D.C. Circuit even weighed its legality. Many legal observers saw that petition as doomed to fail, but the Supreme Court, in a rare out-of-turn move, granted it in 2016, dealing a significant blow to the Obama administration’s climate agenda.
If the Supreme Court does end up taking up this appeal, it could spell trouble for Biden’s team given the high court’s conservative majority is more likely to have a narrower view of the EPA’s authority.
BIDEN’S OVERSEAS CLIMATE FINANCE PLAN FALLS SHORT: The gulf between Biden’s domestic commitments to fund efforts to curb emissions and his spending promises abroad has many environmentalists saying the White House’s first international climate finance plan, unveiled last week during the climate summit, is underwhelming.
In the plan, Biden commits to double U.S. climate finance to developing countries by 2024, a feat that has already been undertaken by countries in Europe and by China in the last four years while the Trump administration sat on the sidelines of global climate finance discussions.
Biden’s plan also doesn’t fully close the door on financing for fossil fuels overseas, instead simply encouraging agencies to scale back investments in “carbon intensive” fossil fuel projects in favor of clean energy. The United Kingdom, meanwhile, has already pledged to end all overseas fossil fuel financing.
“It’s one tiny step when we need 10 leaps forward,” said Kate DeAngelis, a senior international policy analyst at Friends of the Earth. “If we don’t see a lot more action to follow up on this, especially announcements from these other agencies, then I think it’s going to be barely different than business as usual.”
More in Abby’s story appearing in next week’s Washington Examiner magazine.
BIG BUSINESS HAS SEC’S EAR ON CLIMATE DISCLOSURE: Top Securities and Exchange Commission officials have been meeting with big banks and asset managers, major corporations, and big business lobbies as the agency considers how to craft a framework for climate change disclosures, according to meeting records posted recently (h/t Axios Generate for spotting the update).
In the last two months, Kristina Wyatt, senior counsel of SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, has met with officials from JPMorgan, State Street Global Advisors, the Business Roundtable, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Edison Electric Institute, Apple, Walmart, and more.
The SEC is currently taking public input on how it should craft a framework for companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions and the risks they face from climate change. It’s expected the SEC will make such disclosures a requirement for public companies, a move that is backed by major asset managers like BlackRock and corporations like Apple and Salesforce.
DOE’S LATEST CRITICAL MINERALS PUSH HAS FOSSIL FUELS ANGLE: The Energy Department is awarding $19 million in new funding for 13 projects to produce rare earth elements and critical minerals key to making wind turbines and electric vehicle batteries, and cutting reliance on imports from China.
DOE announced yesterday it is specifically targeting projects in regions traditionally dependent on fossil fuel development, as it tries to argue jobs in critical mineral mining and development is a natural fit for coal, oil, and gas workers.
For example, one project aims to deploy technologies for manufacturing rare earth elements, critical minerals, and non-fuel carbon-based products from coal in the South Appalachian Basin. Another project seeks to simulate new minerals development around the nation’s largest coal mines in the Powder River Basin.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers representing these areas, including Capito and Manchin, complimented DOE’s initiative.
“DOE’s award advances research that could support jobs in Appalachia and shore up supply chains vital to our country’s security and economic growth,” said Rep. Morgan Griffith, a Virginia Republican.
ZINKE’S BACK: Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke filed federal paperwork yesterday to run for Congress in the district that Montana will gain after 2022 as a result of the 2020 census, the Washington Examiner’s Emily Brooks reports.
Zinke left the Trump administration at the end of 2018 amid Department of Justice investigations into conflict of interest issues and potential violations of the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from using their power to influence campaigns.
Prior to joining the Trump administration, Zinke was the Republican representative of Montana’s at-large congressional district.
BOEM MOVING ON OFFSHORE WIND: The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Management announced yesterday it will begin the environmental review process for the offshore Revolution Wind project planned off the coasts of Rhode Island and Connecticut.
The Bureau touted that advancing review of the 880 megawatt project, initiating a 30-day public comment period, signals a commitment to fulfilling the Biden administration’s goal of 30 gigawatts of installed offshore wind by 2030. More than two dozen projects are in the queue of the permitting process, which the administration has promised to accelerate.
The Rundown
Los Angeles Times California just hit 95% renewable energy. Will other states come along for the ride?
ProPublica The climate solution actually adding millions of tons of C02 into the atmosphere
Bloomberg The US will need a lot of land for a zero-carbon economy
Bloomberg Law Dakota Access to seek Supreme Court review of pipeline order
The Detroit News GM Mexico’s $1 billion EV investment called ‘slap in the face’ by UAW
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | MAY 5
11:30 a.m. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Energy Subcommittee will hold a remote hearing on electric vehicle provisions in the CLEAN Future Act.
THURSDAY | MAY 6
1 p.m. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will testify remotely on DOE’s FY 2022 budget request before the House Appropriations Committee’s Energy and Water Development Subcommittee.
