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THE VIEW FROM THE CENTER: Rep. Kurt Schrader of Oregon is warning that he and eight other holdout centrist Democrats won’t fold from their threat to oppose the party’s budget resolution until the House passes the bipartisan infrastructure deal and it gets signed into law by President Joe Biden.
Schrader, in an interview with me last night, said he would “absolutely” vote against the Democrats-only budget blueprint, as would the rest of his group and “probably more” if Speaker Nancy Pelosi sticks with her two-track plan moving the sprawling spending package through reconciliation before passing the bipartisan bill.
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.
“This is a good bill, man. it should stand on its merits. The stuff we have in this bill for climate is pretty freaking significant,” Schrader said of the bipartisan bill, listing its record funding for transit, climate resilience, and electric vehicle charging. He touted the $7.5 billion earmarked for EV charging stations as being “revolutionary.”
Schrader said it’s wrong to “conflate” the two measures.
Biden needs a ‘win’: “American voters don’t want to get caught up in procedural motions, they don’t understand that. They just want to get stuff done,” Schrader said. “We have a real opportunity to have a magic moment up here and I would hate to lose it.”
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.
“The president in particular, God bless him, needs a win right now. This is it,” Schrader said.
Schrader also suggested he opposes doing a multi-trillion dollar Democratic-only reconciliation package at all.
“You don’t need to go to reconciliation,” he said, adding the budgetary process was established as “a way to reduce deficits, not increase deficits.”
Schrader lays out the alternative, below…
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More from Schrader… he pitches his own CES ‘solution’: The Oregon Democrat was dismissive of environmentalists such as the Sierra Club, which said this week the holdout centrists are “undermining climate action.”
Liberals say the bipartisan bill falls short on addressing climate change. They worry moderates won’t want a second bite at the apple if the House quickly approves the bipartisan bill and it’s signed into law. This could be the only chance for Democrats to pass significant climate legislation, liberals say.
“Far be it from standing in the way, I have got the solution out there,” Schrader said.
Schrader was nodding at bipartisan legislation he introduced this summer with GOP Rep. David McKinley of West Virginia imposing a clean electricity standard requiring utilities to slash emissions 80% by 2050.
The McKinley and Schrader mandate would not kick in until 10 years after enacting the bill, after first massively scaling up research and development spending for clean energy technologies through 2030 to lower their cost.
It’s much less aggressive than the target embraced by Biden and House Democratic leaders for 100% clean power by 2035, and 80% by 2030.
Schrader, however, is skeptical of the “clean electricity payment program” proposed by Democratic leaders as part of the reconciliation package because it’s not an actual standard with enforcement, but rather an offering of carrots and sticks to incentivize utilities to use more clean power.
“Our bill is better. Jesus, we actually have a hard core standard in legislation, so it’s not at the whim of the president, so it would be tough for a Congress to undo in the future,” Schrader said.
Fellow Democrats who dismiss him as a barrier to major climate legislation are a “few disgruntled people that want their own way and are obviously unaware of our bill.”
“I see another path to get to the same solution — a carbon-free utility sector,” he said.
EXELON TO EXPLORE HYDROGEN PRODUCTION AT NUCLEAR PLANT: Utility Exelon has received an Energy Department grant to support hydrogen production at its Nine Mile Point nuclear plant in New York, the company announced.
Exelon will partner with Nel Hydrogen, Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to demonstrate production, storage and usage of hydrogen at the plant.
An electrolyser will be installed at the plant and operations are expected to begin in 2022. It will use the plant’s existing hydrogen storage system and supporting infrastructure.
Nuclear power plants already use hydrogen in their daily operations, and are well positioned to explore hydrogen production for other uses.
“The project will generate an economical supply of hydrogen, a natural by-product of nuclear energy, to be safely captured, stored and potentially taken to market as a 100% carbon-free source of power for other purposes, including industrial applications such as transportation,” Exelon said in a statement.
INTERIOR MULLS FUTURE OF COAL LEASING: The Interior Department announced yesterday it intends to launch a review of leasing federal lands for coal mining.
Interior’s Bureau of Land Management will take comment on whether current regulations should be changed to improve how it decides which coal resources should be made available and how the leasing process should work, including when and where to lease.
It will examine whether the bonus bids, rents, and royalties paid by companies to produce coal on federal lands represents a fair return to taxpayers. BLM will also explore if leasing and production of coal on federal lands is consistent with the nation’s goals to reduce emissions to mitigate climate change.
Interior is not formally imposing a leasing pause during the review as it has for oil and gas, though BLM has not approved a new coal lease sale since the Biden administration took office.
Don’t forget about coal: Oil and gas has soaked up most of the attention from the Biden administration, but we produce a lot of coal on public lands. About 44% of U.S. production comes from federal lands, a larger share than onshore oil (9%) and natural gas (10%).
STORAGE IS GROWING AND PRIMED FOR MORE: U.S. large-scale battery storage capacity grew by 35% in 2020 and has tripled in the last five years, the Energy Information Administration said in a note this morning.
The growth is expected to continue. Utilities have reported plans to install over 10,000 MW of additional large-scale battery power capacity in the U.S. over the next three years — 10 times the capacity in 2019.
Much of the recent increase in new storage capacity comes from battery energy systems co-located with or connected to solar projects, EIA said.
WOAH…RAIN AT THE SUMMIT OF GREENLAND: Greenland experienced the heaviest rainfall ever recorded and for the first time this month it rained at the highest point on the ice sheet, a location that rarely creeps above freezing temperatures.
On August 14, temperatures rose above freezing on the summit of Greenland for only the third time this decade, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center. But for the first time on record, rain fell at the National Science Foundation’s Summit Station.
At the peak of the Greenland Ice Sheet, located 10,551 feet above sea level, Summit Station is basically the coldest location in the Northern Hemisphere.
The rain fall occurred as Greenland was hit with warmer temperatures, with some areas 18 degrees Celsius higher than average. The warm weather caused extensive melting across the ice sheet.
The Rundown
Washington Post As Biden urges global warming action, courts shape climate policy at home
Associated Press Colorado’s Boebert discloses husband’s work for energy firm
Wall Street Journal Iraqi lawmakers call for probe Into GE, Siemens electricity contracts
Reuters Emerging oil nations reject climate curbs on exploration, pursue rapid development
Bloomberg The methane hunters
Calendar
MONDAY | AUG. 23
The House returns from recess.
