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BATTLE IN ALASKA: Proponents of ConocoPhillips’ Willow project are stepping up their campaign for the oil field’s approval and seek to put President Joe Biden on notice about what’s at stake with the politically volatile project, especially for local Alaska native communities that would see a major financial windfall if the project is given the green light.
The message: Some Alaska native groups, and many environmentalist NGOs, are strongly opposed to the proposed expansion of oil production on the North Slope and demand the project be shot down to keep on track with Biden’s climate goals.
Its backers insist it’s outside noise and not representative of local sentiment, and they’ve sought to turn the Biden administration officials’ sympathies for giving locals more of a say in the approval of significant projects back on themselves.
“Economic development opportunities in the North Slope are limited, making prompt approval of this project invaluable to our livelihoods,” said Nagruk Harcharek, president of Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, a nonprofit based in Alaska’s North Slope representing the interests of the Iñupiat.
“The majority consensus on the North Slope is in support of the project,” Harcharek said, recalling a resolution supporting the project that the Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat’s 24 member organizations passed unanimously.
Harcharek joined Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and other local Iñupiat leaders of the North Slope, where Conoco plans to build the project, in a briefing yesterday to make the case for Willow.
Willow could generate an estimated $1.25 billion in revenue for the North Slope Borough. Similar levies on existing oil and gas operations in the North Slope have enabled the region to fund education and provide emergency services, said Taqulik Hepa, director of the borough’s Department of Wildlife Management.
Rep. Josiah Patkotak, who represents a coastal district in the North Slope in the state legislature, said the region would need the economic engine of Willow to finance alternative energy sources, such as renewable wind and solar.
“We need that local infrastructure and that ability to bond for some of those projects and all of that comes back to the economic base which development provides for us,” he said.
Refresher on Willow: Interior and the Bureau of Land Management could make a decision to approve or block the project, which is in its fifth year of the planning and permitting stage, as soon as early next month, when the comment period for the final environmental impact statement ends.
Willow’s master development plan seeks to develop five drill sites in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, as well as supporting road and bridge infrastructure, to support the ultimate production of 180,000 barrels of oil per day.
BLM’s environmental impact statement identified an alternative that provides for three drill sites vs. the proposed five, and Interior said it still has “substantial concerns” about the project and the preferred alternative.
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DOT FINALIZES STANDARDS FOR $7.5 BILLION EV CHARGER FUND: The Biden administration announced final standards this morning that will govern the $7.5 billion electric vehicle fund passed in the bipartisan infrastructure law.
Finalization of the standards means states will now be able to begin making orders using federal grants and kickstart construction of a vast interstate charging network that Biden wants to number 500,000 by 2030, administration officials said.
The standards from the Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration require that chargers funded with federal money have consistent plug types and power levels.
They also require the provision of publicly accessible data on locations, price, and availability of charging stations.
“These new standards will make it so that you can charge an EV along major highways as easy as you can fill up the gas, and no matter what kind of car you drive or what state you’re in,” Mitch Landrieu, White House infrastructure coordinator, told reporters.
Other details: Administration officials also announced the finalization of a “Build America, Buy America” implementation plan for federally funded EV charging equipment.
All EV chargers must be built in the United States, a requirement that takes place effective immediately.
A separate component of the plan, which will be phased in, adds sourcing requirements for inputs in charging stations. At least 55% of the cost of all components must be manufactured domestically by July 2024 to access federal funding.
Tesla jumps in: Tesla has also agreed to open a portion of its U.S. Supercharger and Destination Charger network to non-Tesla vehicles, the White House said. That will make at least 7,500 chargers available for all EVs by the end of 2024.
WHITEHOUSE AND KHANNA RESURRECT WINDFALL TAX BILL: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Ro Khanna are renewing their legislative campaign for a windfall profits tax on oil producers.
The two Democrats reintroduced their Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act yesterday, which they first introduced nearly a year ago in the weeks after the war in Ukraine began.
Their bill would tax oil companies that produce or import at least 300,000 barrels of oil per day, imposing a per-barrel tax equal to 50% of the difference between the current price of a barrel of oil and the average price per barrel between 2015 and 2019. Revenues would then be rebated to taxpayers.
“Congress should heed the President’s call, ignore the fossil fuel industry’s lies, and deliver this needed relief for the American people,” Whitehouse said in a tweet.
Biden endorsed a windfall profits tax in the fall after big oil companies posted their third quarter profits.
European governments, including the conservative British government, have imposed windfall profits taxes on energy companies broadly, whose revenues have been driven up by higher oil, gas, and electricity prices, in order to pay for public programs subsidizing utility bills.
TRAIN DERAILMENT LATEST: DEWINE CALLS FOR CHANGES TO TRAIN RULES: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine asked Congress to change its rules for hazardous trains, saying at a press conference yesterday that the state was not notified about the dangerous chemicals on board a 150-car train that derailed earlier this month in East Palestine.
DeWine said he had been told that the Norfolk Southern train was not considered a “high hazardous material” train and was, therefore, not required to notify the state about what materials it was carrying. “Frankly, if this is true, and I’m told it’s true, this is absurd,” DeWine said.
OIL MARKET DEMAND TO RISE TO RECORD-HIGH IN 2023, IEA PREDICTS: Global oil demand is expected to rise by 2 million barrels per day in 2023 to an all-time high of 101.9 million barrels per day, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency—growth it attributed largely to higher crude demand from China as it reopens its economy for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chinese demand is expected to rise by 900,000 bpd alone this year, the IEA predicted in February 2023 Oil Market Report, underpinning the bulk of the growth.
The report is the third month in a row that the IEA has increased its oil demand forecast, and is up 100,000 bpd compared to last month’s forecasted growth.
But the high demand could drive a supply shortfall in the second half of 2023 due to restrained OPEC+ production: “World oil supply looks set to exceed demand through the first half of 2023, but the balance could quickly shift to deficit as demand recovers and some Russian output is shut in,” the Paris-based agency said.
Members of the OPEC+ cartel slashed their output targets by 2 million barrels per day in November last year, tightening the supply-demand balance.
The IEA said Wednesday it estimates roughly 1 million bpd of Russian oil production will be shut in by the end of the first quarter of this year, following the EU ban on refined petroleum products and the second half of the G7-backed oil price cap that took force earlier this month.
BAY AREA PLAN TO PHASE OUT GAS-POWERED DEVICES SPARKS FIERCE DEBATE: A plan that would effectively phase out natural gas-powered water heaters and furnaces in the California Bay Area by 2027 and 2029, respectively, has sparked fierce backlash from some residents, who have taken issue largely with the way the rules are written up.
According to the plan, which will be put to Bay Area regulators for a vote next month, residents would be required to replace their old gas furnaces or water heaters with new electric appliances when they break—a part of the rule that has generated sharp debate.
“Do you really think it’s fair to tell someone who has their hot water heater break they can’t have hot water again until they have an electrician replace the breaker box?” one Palo Alto resident complained, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“I’d have to gut my house and live somewhere else while contractors worked,” another resident from El Sobrante complained. “If I could even find a contractor.”
The Rundown
E&E News Here’s who scored White House climate sit-downs
Washington Post Floating ice around Antarctica just hit a record low
Reuters EU proposes 90% CO2 emissions cut by 2040 for trucks
Calendar
THURSDAY | FEBRUARY 16
10 am. 366 Dirksen. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing to examine the impact Russia’s war in Ukraine has had on global energy security nearly one year after its invasion. Learn more here.
