Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine and get Washington Briefing: politics and policy stories that will keep you up to date with what’s going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue!
BUILDING CODE FIGHT: Sen. Marco Rubio’s amendment aimed at blocking the Biden administration’s proposed energy and efficiency upgrades for certain U.S. homes and buildings has sparked fierce opposition from affordable housing associations, consumer, and environmental groups—who argue that for millions of Americans, the issue is quite literally a matter of life and death.
Background: The Biden administration in May proposed a rule requiring all new U.S. homes be constructed using the most up-to-date energy efficiency codes, passed in 2021, in order to qualify for federal loans from HUD and USDA. The proposed rule would apply to roughly one-sixth of new homes built per year, the administration estimates, and would save consumers some 35% more in energy costs compared to the previous standard passed. (That’s an average savings of $14,536 over the lifetime of a single-family home, and more than $5,000 for multifamily units.)
Rubio’s amendment would block HUD and USDA from using any funds from Congress to “impose [the] updated minimum energy efficiency standards” in issuing the new loans, according to the text. It could also come up for a vote as part of an agreement on advancing the appropriations minibus.
Ahead of the vote, American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, or ACEEE, joined more than three dozen housing groups, nonprofits, and environmental organizations in urging senators to oppose the amendment, arguing that it will raise costs for already-struggling American families.
“Low-income households already bear significant energy cost burdens compared to higher income households,” the groups said in a letter to Sens. Chuck Schumer, Mitch McConnell, Patty Murray, and Susan Collins.
Rubio’s amendment “will exacerbate these inequities,” they said, and put millions at risk in the event of an extreme weather event or grid crisis.
Why it matters: The number of U.S. grid failures increased 150% between 2016 and 2021, according to a report published by the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
Building with up to date energy codes is therefore more important than ever, since it “extends the amount of time that someone can remain in their home at a safe and comfortable temperature by hours or days” in the event of a protracted heat wave, Mark Kresowik, senior policy director at ACEEE, told Breanne.
“Homes built with modern building codes are more resilient and safe in those extreme events,” he added.
The Environmental Science and Technology report found that nearly half the population in Phoenix would experience medical distress if the power were to go out during a heat wave. It also found that simple efficiency upgrades, like installing “cool roofs” that reflect sunlight, would bring down death rates by a staggering 66%.
“It’s important that state, local, and federal agencies step in to ensure that homeowners and homes are built with up-to-date energy components to lower costs and withstand extreme climate events,” Kresowik told Breanne, including events “that are threatening Florida homeowners in particular.”
The other side: Housing industry groups say the codes would be too costly. Federal researchers say meeting the new standards will raise building costs by just 2%, an increase they say will pay for itself in less than three years, but the Mortgage Bankers Association has strenuously objected to this, estimating far higher costs ranging between $8,859 and $22,572, depending on the location of the property.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep) and Nancy Vu (@NancyVu99). 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.
HOUSE DEMOCRATS INTRODUCE CLEAN WATER ACT UPDATE TO ADDRESS SCOTUS: 118 House Democrats are supporting a bill that would aim to reverse the Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA decision, which significantly limited the scope of the Clean Water Act and curtails protections for wetlands. Led by Democratic Reps. Rick Larsen, Grace Napolitano, and Don Beyer, the bill aims to restore “a uniform minimum level of protection for rivers streams, wetlands and other critical water bodies,” Larsen said in a press conference unveiling the new legislation.
GERMANY CEDES TO FRENCH DEMANDS ON POWER MARKET REFORM: Germany said yesterday that it will allow France to use its government subsidies to fund its massive fleet of nuclear power plants, backing off its earlier opposition and clearing the way for broader approval of the European Union’s power market reform plan.
Germany approved France’s request to use government subsidies for nuclear power after months of negotiations—born out of fears that Paris would use the new EU’s power market reform rules to unfairly benefit its nuclear industry and obtain structurally lower prices. Crucially, however, the compromise also includes restrictions aimed at preventing France from achieving an unfair advantage.
France generates a combined 70% of its electricity from nuclear power plants, while Germany, in contrast, just shuttered its last reactors.
EU leaders had asked the two countries to reach a compromise on the issue, noting that it threatened to hold up progress as the bloc looks to diversify its energy sources following Russia’s war in Ukraine, and several leaders framed the EU power reform as crucial to compete with the U.S. and China, which have each spent massively on clean energy subsidies.
“We are in a global competition for our energy intensive industries,” Claude Turmes, Luxembourg’s energy minister, told the Financial Times.
NEW GAO REPORT CALLS FOR BETTER NUCLEAR WASTE CLEAN-UP: A Government Accountability Office report published Tuesday called for the Army Corps of Engineers to better remediate areas contaminated by radioactive waste, The Hill reports.
The Corps had reported more than $2.5 billion in environmental damages from nuclear waste in the last year – with 19 sites deemed contaminated under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, which manages areas contaminated by U.S. atomic energy activities such as the Manhattan Project. The GAO report found eight sites are located near disadvantaged communities.
The report also found that six of those eight sites were located in majority-minority areas, including two in the St. Louis area. If you’ll recall, St. Louis was the site of uranium refinement for the Manhattan Project in the 1940s.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said the findings were “not a surprise to the residents of St. Louis who have been asking for help for decades.” Rep. Cori Bush, whose district includes the two St. Louis sites identified in the report, said that she would “continue to fight to hold the relevant agencies accountable and won’t stop until this waste is cleaned up for good and individuals harmed by it are rightfully compensated.”
Bush, along with the former head of the House Oversight Committee, Carolyn Maloney, initially requested the GAO review in 2021. Read more on that here.
GENERAL MOTORS DELAYS ELECTRIC TRUCK EXPANSION: General Motors Co. is delaying the opening of its second electric-truck plant in Michigan in efforts to preserve capital, as the company experiences a slowdown in sales for electric vehicles, Bloomberg reports.
The company said Tuesday that the transformation of the Orion Assembly plant will be delayed to 2025, “to better manage capital investment while aligning with evolving EV demand.” It will also plan to make improvements to its electric trucks with aims to increase profitability, GM said in a statement.
The move comes as the automaker wrestles with both slowing demand for EVs in the U.S., and the likelihood of higher labor costs in the next four years stemming from current union contract negotiations. The United Auto Workers have been striking for more than a month despite an offer for a 20% pay increase.
At the end of last month, automakers had 88 days worth of EV inventory, compared to 56 days for conventional models, according to researcher Cox Automotive. Read more on that here.
FAIN SAYS TESLA WORKERS ARE FUTURE UAW MEMBERS: United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain called employees of non-union automakers such as Tesla and Toyota as “the UAW members of the future.”
Fain made the statement in response to an appeal to workers to end the strike from Ford executive Bill Ford at the company’s Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan.
“This should not be Ford vs. the UAW. It should be Ford and the UAW vs. Toyota, Honda, Tesla and all the Chinese companies that want to enter our home market,” Ford said, according to Axios.
Ford argued that jobs and even factories like the River Rouge complex could be lost if the UAW and Ford don’t negotiate to “bring an end to this acrimonious round of talks.” Note that Elon Musk also said last month that UAW demands would bankrupt Ford, GM, and Stellantis.
As reported by InsideEVs, Fain responded by saying: “It’s not the UAW and Ford against foreign automakers. It’s autoworkers everywhere against corporate greed. If Ford wants to be the all-American auto company, they can pay all-American wages and benefits. Workers at Tesla, Toyota, Honda, and others are not the enemy – they’re the UAW members of the future.”
The Rundown
E&E News Why the UAW wants inside the battery factory
Reuters QatarEnergy, Shell agree 27-year LNG supply
Bloomberg Climate Change Is Driving a Global Water Trade You Can’t See
