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BIDEN’S FIRST CLIMATE RULE: The Biden administration’s first climate regulation may end up being its least controversial because industry and Republican lawmakers helped craft the blueprint it is based upon.
This morning, the EPA unveiled a proposal to begin limiting potent greenhouse gas coolants known as hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs. It’s a significant step to curb climate change, as phasing down HFCs could help avoid roughly 0.5 degrees Celsius of warming.
The EPA estimates that the HFC phasedown in the U.S. would eliminate greenhouse gas emissions equal to 4.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2050 — or roughly three years of U.S. power sector emissions, based on 2019 levels.
Industry is welcoming the proposal: In a dynamic we’re not likely to see with other Biden administration climate rules, the regulated industry, as well as big business lobbies like the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are praising the EPA for moving quickly to regulate.
That is because those industry groups helped to craft the bipartisan legislation the EPA proposal is implementing. The bill, passed as part of the year-end spending package, is the biggest step Congress has ever taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It would phase down the production and import of HFCs, which can be thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide, by 85% over the next 15 years.
“EPA’s action will help create the certainty necessary for U.S. companies to maintain their natural technological advantage in the global HFC marketplace,” said Stephen Yurek, president and CEO of the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute, in a statement.
Rachel Jones, vice president of energy and resources policy at the National Association of Manufacturers, said the broad collaboration on HFC limits “creates a compelling template for continued climate action.”
Politics never really disappear: Still, Republicans aren’t ready to give the proposal a stamp of approval just yet.
Sen. John Barrasso, who as chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last year struck the deal allowing the HFC legislation to pass, is still reviewing the EPA’s proposal and wasn’t given any advance notice or briefing from the Biden administration on the move, said spokesman Mike Danylak.
Barrasso, now the top Republican on the Senate Energy Committee, “is concerned about the lack of advanced notice for Senate Republican committee leaders, especially given the provision was fully bipartisan when it passed Congress,” Danylak added.
By contrast, Senate Environment Committee Chairman Tom Carper, the lead Democrat on the HFC legislation, was quoted in the EPA’s press release. “Passing the AIM Act was a momentous climate achievement that will help save our planet, and today we are one step closer to its benefits being a reality,” Carper said.
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LITHIUM MINE COULD UNLOCK BIDEN CLEAN ENERGY GOALS: President Joe Biden’s clean energy goals will get a massive boost from a lithium mine sitting above a prehistoric volcano on the northern edge of Nevada that received final federal permitting approval at the end of the Trump administration.
Lithium is a key ingredient in batteries, including ones used for powering electric cars and storing renewable energy, but almost none of it is produced in the United States.
“We are the most advanced, shovel-ready, largest lithium asset in the U.S., probably in North America,” Jon Evans, president and CEO of Lithium Americas, a Canada-based company developing the project, told Josh in an interview for a story this morning.
Over a lifetime of 45 years, the mine would produce 60,000 tons of lithium carbon equivalent a year, or about 1 million electric vehicles worth, the company said.
Thacker Pass, located on 5,500 acres of federal land near the border with Oregon, was one of several mining and energy projects the Trump administration expedited for review during the pandemic. New Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has not weighed in on the project publicly, but the mine would be compatible with the clean energy agenda of the Biden administration, which includes a prioritization of boosting U.S. development of critical minerals.
As Thacker Pass awaits final state permits, environmental activists have protested at the proposed site.
The mine is expected to move forward anyway: It has bipartisan support from Nevada’s political leaders, who are eager to diversify the state’s tourism-dependent economy, including Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, and his Republican predecessor Brian Sandoval, along with Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat who has visited a pilot version of the project. The site could be operational by late 2022 or early 2023.
HOW THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION WANTS TO USE CARBON CAPTURE: The Biden administration intends to focus more on capturing the carbon emissions of natural gas plants and industrial manufacturing facilities than from coal-fired power, a top Energy Department official said.
It’s a shift for the federal government’s carbon capture program, which, until recently, has spent significant funds and resources on attaching carbon capture to power plants, especially coal. The Biden administration instead views carbon capture as essential to decarbonize harder-to-abate sectors of the economy, such as steel, chemical, and cement production.
“It’s clear that carbon capture may not make economic sense on the remaining existing fleet of coal-fired power plants in the United States,” said Jennifer Wilcox, the Energy Department’s principal deputy assistant secretary for fossil energy, during a virtual briefing hosted Friday by the Carbon Utilization Research Council.
That’s in part because many existing coal plants in the U.S. are already nearing retirement within the next decade, Wilcox noted. Many natural gas plants, meanwhile, won’t reach retirement age as soon, and the Energy Department is looking for opportunities to capture their emissions, she added.
More on how the Biden administration is shaping its agenda on carbon capture in Abby’s story posted this morning.
WHERE’S GRANHOLM? Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has a busy week on tap. She’ll speak at the EU-US Future Forum on Thursday about cooperating with Europe on climate change. At the event, hosted by the European Union’s delegation to the U.S. and The Atlantic Council, Granholm will speak on a panel with Kadri Simson, European commissioner for energy.
We’ll be watching to see if border carbon tariffs come up, potentially the most tense area between the U.S. and Europe, which has more advanced climate policies.
Climate envoy John Kerry has said he is “concerned” about the EU’s plans for a border carbon adjustment as part of its emissions-trading program and said such a policy should be used only as a “last resort.”
Granholm is also testifying about her agency’s budget request on Thursday before the House Appropriations Energy Subcommittee.
Happening today: This morning, Granholm participated in a roundtable discussion with leaders of historically black colleges and universities, promoting greater diversity in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
She announced DOE is providing $17 million in funding for HBCUs and other minority serving institutions.
“We really want to see a diverse pipeline of our future workforce, and our problem solvers and scientists,” Granholm said, before citing research from Pew that black and hispanic Americans make up only 9% and 8% of STEM jobs, respectively.
BIG SOLAR BOOST IN VIRGINIA: State regulators approved Friday the first large group of new solar projects under Virginia’s 100% clean power law passed in 2019.
The nine new solar facilities will total nearly 500 megawatts, enough to power 125,000 homes at peak output, according to Dominion Energy, the Virginia-based utility that will own and operate three of the projects.
Virginia’s Clean Economy Act calls for 16,100 megawatts of solar or onshore wind to be proposed to the State Corporation Commission or in operation by 2035. The law made Virginia the first state in the south to target 100% clean power, requiring Dominion to generate carbon-free electricity by 2045.
WHEELER TO HERITAGE: Former EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is joining the Heritage Foundation as a visiting fellow, the Washington Examiner’s Zachary Halaschak reports. Wheeler will advise the conservative think tank, which he frequently joined for public events during his time as administrator, on energy, environmental regulations, and climate change.
FORMER NRC COMMISSIONER DIES: Peter Lyons, a former commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has died.
The commission released a statement on Lyons’ death this morning.
“For decades, Pete distinguished himself as an influential thought leader in nuclear science and energy policy, first at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and later at the NRC and Department of Energy. He was a mentor, a friend, and a role model for public service,” said NRC Chairman Christopher Hanson. “We are deeply saddened over the loss of this great man.”
Lyons served a five-year term on the commission in the George W. Bush administration. Later, he was the Energy Department’s Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy in the Obama administration.
The Rundown
Financial Times Most big investors skeptical over oil majors’ green ambitions
Wall Street Journal Litigation without end: Chevron battles on in 28-year-old Ecuador lawsuit
Reuters Climate finance targets top agenda for this week’s G7 meetings
Axios John Kerry discloses millions in income from finance, energy firms
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.
