UNREST IN FRANCE: French farmers used tractors, tires, and manure to block off eight major roads to Paris and showcase their displeasure with planned European Union regulations on the farming sector, which they argue could cripple their industry and push business into other, less-efficient parts of the world.
Why they’re protesting: Like others in the bloc, French farmers say the new EU environmental regulations will drive up costs for farmers and push production down, driving what they argue could be the final stake into the heart of France’s farming industry, which shrunk by 21%—or 100,000 businesses—between 2010 and 2020 alone.
Among other things, the European Commission’s new regulations require French farmers to set aside 4% of their farmland for so-called “non-productive” purposes– to give land time to recover, or “fallow”—in order to qualify for bloc-wide subsidies. That’s in line with the EU’s proposed nature restoration law, a 2023 effort to restore roughly 20% of the bloc’s land and sea areas by the end of the decade.
Farmers in France have also been incensed by other domestic regulations, including a plan to reduce subsidies on agricultural diesel—prompting the government to officially walk it back just days earlier.
Why it matters: France is the biggest agricultural producer in the bloc, meaning that their grievances carry outsize importance in the EU. They also play an important role within the country as well— prompting French President Emmanuel Macron to announce just hours ago that he planned to bring farmers’ complaints before the European Commission at their meeting later this week, and to press for legislation to address these complaints.
But these promises appeared to fall on deaf ears. Speaking this morning to local radio station RTL, the president of France’s FNSEA union, Arnaud Rousseau, demanded more concessions and vowed that the protests would continue nationwide “with the aim of securing emergency measures about the core of our business.”
What they’re planning: Pro-farming protesters said they plan to choke off all eight major highways heading towards Paris, prompting the government to deploy some 15,000 police officers to the region.
“Our target is not to annoy French people or to make their lives difficult, but to put pressure on the government,” Rousseau told RTL. “What we have understood though is that as long as the protest is far from Paris, the message is not getting through.”
…And it’s not just France. Pro-farming protests are currently playing out in Brussels ahead of the European Commission’s meeting. It comes on the heels of major demonstrations in Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the Netherlands, where tens of thousands of protesters have massed in tractors against so-called “anti-farming” policies enacted by the EU, and which threaten to play a major role in European Parliament elections taking place this fall.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment writers Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep) and Nancy Vu (@NancyVu99). Email bdeppisch@washingtonexaminer dot com or nancy.vu@washingtonexaminer dot com 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.
NEW TODAY: ENERGY DEPARTMENT FINALIZES WATERED-DOWN GAS STOVE RULE: The Department of Energy this morning finalized standards for energy efficiency for gas stoves and other cooking products that were significantly watered down from the previous versions that elicited tremendous blowback from Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin. The agency said in a press release that the standards align with industry recommendations and that 97% of gas stove models on the market meet the standards.
PS-2 DELAYED: Russia’s long-awaited pipeline running between the country’s gasfields and China is hitting roadblocks, with the project expected to be delayed, according to the prime minister of Mongolia – impeding Moscow’s plans to create a new pathway for gas it previously sold to Europe.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Mongolia’s prime minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene said the two countries still haven’t hashed out the critical details of the project – despite previously stating that the 3,550 kilometer pipeline’s buildout was expected to start in 2024.
Oyun-Erdene told the publication that the countries needed more time to conduct research on the project’s economic studies, noting that global gas prices over the last two years were muddling negotiations.
Russia’s deputy prime minister Alexander Novak had issued the same sentiment, writing in state-backed publication Energy Policy that the project’s timing will be finalized after signing binding agreements with Chinese partners.
What’s the hold-up: Sergey Vakulenko, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the Financial Times that Russia was probably looking for better financial terms from China than it had previously achieved in its PS-1 contract – which was signed in 2014 when gas prices were significantly lower. Based on analysis of Chinese government data, Vakulenko suspects Russia was paid less than Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan, which also supply gas to China.
The significance: PS-2 would bring another 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China – with the hopes that the country can replace Europe as its biggest export market for its gas. The continent used to buy more than 150 bcm of Russian gas a year, but flows have decreased since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. More on that here.
CHAMBER SAYS LNG MOVE IS EXAMPLE OF ADMINISTRATION ‘SCHIZOPHRENIA’: In a piece that ran over the weekend, Breanne ran down the winners and losers from President Joe Biden’s pause on approvals for pending liquefied natural gas export terminals.
One response in particular worth highlighting is that from Christopher Guith, the senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute. The LNG decision represents “the latest example of some of the schizophrenia that we’ve seen come from this administration,” he told Breanne.
“On one hand, they’re saying that energy security is imperative and on the other hand implementing policies that damage [that], saying that the relationship the loyalty to our geopolitical allies is sacrosanct, and then putting it into question,” he said.
“Overall,” he said, “there’s a lot of fits and starts.”
TRUMP VS BIDEN ON UAW: Former President Donald Trump isn’t taking it too well that the United Auto Workers endorsement went to Biden – and aired out his grievances on his social media platform, Truth Social.
In a post published Sunday night, Trump went after UAW President Shawn Fain, claiming that he is “selling the automobile industry right into the big, powerful, hands of China.” He continued on, claiming that Biden’s plan to expand electric vehicles will send jobs overseas, and stated that he would require China and other countries to build industries in the U.S. “through TARIFFS, or otherwise.”
“Shawn Fain doesn’t understand this or have a clue. Get rid of this dope & vote for DJT,” Trump wrote. “I will bring the Automobile Industry back to our Country.”
The Biden campaign’s response: “So…apparently losing the UAW endorsement to Joe Biden has left Donald Trump’s wounded ego with quite the SCAB,” said Michael Tyler, the campaign’s communications director. “Scab” is a term for a worker who undercuts union efforts by going to work during a strike.
Some background: Fain had endorsed Biden for reelection last week, in a highly sought-after boost to the campaign. Trump seemingly courted the endorsement, rallying at a non-union auto factory in Michigan in September and campaigning against Biden’s electric vehicle policies.
Biden has been seen openly courting the endorsement, joining striking autoworkers in Michigan in September – becoming the first president to join a picket line.
“ICON OF THE SEAS” MAKES ITS DEBUT: Royal Caribbean International’s “Icon of the Seas” – the largest cruise ship in the world – set sail from Florida on Saturday, launching renewed criticisms about the environmental effects of cruise tourism.
The ship is equipped with eight neighborhoods, seven swimming pools, six waterslides and a total of 20 decks, CNBC details. The ship cost $2 billion to build, and measures 1,200 feet long while weighing 250,800 metric tons. It’s also notably five times the size of the Titanic, and can house 7,600 passengers.
The criticisms: However, the debut of the ship has sparked conversation about the harmful environmental effects of a ship running on liquified natural gas, and the associated methane emissions.
“It’s a step in the wrong direction,” said Bryan Comer, director of the Marine Program at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), an environmental policy think tank, told Reuters.
Royal Caribbean International stated that every kilowatt of energy used for the ship is “scrutinized for energy efficiencies and emission reductions.” More on that here.
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