Daily on Energy: Cabinet secretaries have trouble finding electric vehicle chargers

That reality has been vividly illustrated this past week with the revelation that two different cabinet secretaries have struggled to find chargers recently.

First, a family called the cops on Department of Energy staffers who had used an ICE vehicle to block an EV charging station at a Walmart near Atlanta while attempting to reserve the spot for Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who was in a convoy of EVs from North Carolina to Tennessee to highlight the administration’s EV push.

Then, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told the Wall Street Journal in a story published today that his family has also had struggles charging their hybrid minivan in public.

“We’ve definitely had that experience. Matter of fact, [we] had it just a few days ago at a park in town” where a public charger was not working, he said.

Buttigieg made the comments in publicizing a new $100 million round of funding to address the problem of broken and unavailable chargers.

Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa used Granholm’s mishap in Georgia to tee off on the administration’s efforts to steer the country toward EVs.

“If the Biden administration can’t make it from Charlotte to Memphis without an incident, then how do we expect that all of our non-tactical military fleet is going to get transitioned by the year 2030 without having big issues?” she asked yesterday at the Senate GOP leadership press availability at the Capitol.

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.

IEA PROJECTS SUBSTANTIAL OIL DEFICIT THROUGH 2023: OPEC+ oil supply cuts this year, including voluntary cuts that were extended through December by Saudi Arabia and Russia, are set to lock in a “substantial” oil market deficit in the fourth quarter of 2023, despite higher output from non-alliance countries, the International Energy Agency said today in its Oil Market Report.

The Paris-based agency said global demand growth is still expected to rise by 2.2 million bpd in 2023, up to 101.8 million bpd, due in large part to higher Chinese demand that it projects will account for 75% of the 2023 demand growth. It also left its demand forecasts unchanged for 2024.

And while non-OPEC+ suppliers, including the U.S., Brazil, and Iran have stepped in to increase production by a combined 1.9 million bpd to help meet demand, IEA predicts that the OPEC+ cuts will still drive a “significant supply shortfall” from September through the end of 2023. Global observed oil inventories also plummeted by 73.3 million barrels in August, down to a 13-month low.

If OPEC+ moved to unwind the production cuts at the start of 2024, the tight margins could shift to a surplus, the group said. “However, oil stocks will be at uncomfortably low levels, increasing the risk of another surge in volatility that would be in the interest of neither producers nor consumers, given the fragile economic environment.” Read the report in full here.

UAW REITERATES STRIKE THREAT AS DEADLINE LOOMS: The head of the United Auto Workers reiterated that the union will strike against Big Three automakers unless the two sides can reach agreement on contract negotiations before tomorrow at midnight, in a bid to further pressure the automakers to meet their demands on wage hikes and other benefits, including defined pension plans and cost-of-living increases.

“As it stands right now, all three are most likely to be struck unless we get a deal by Sept. 14 at midnight,” UAW President Shawn Fain said today on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “All three are expected to deliver for their workers and if they don’t, there will be action.”

The UAW is also weighing the idea of so-called “targeted” strikes, or strikes that affect specific, local plants, according to the Detroit Free Press. Doing so would allow the union to extend its $825 million strike fund longer than a non-targeted strike, while likely still forcing U.S. automakers to slow or halt manufacturing activity altogether.

Fain is expected to elaborate on those plans more at a closed-door union meeting tonight.

Any coordinated UAW strike would be the first-ever work stoppage to involve all three Big Three Detroit automakers. It could also be economically devastating: A report from the Anderson Economic Group found that even a 10-day strike could cause $900 million in lost worker pay and $1 billion in lost automaker earnings. It would also reduce the U.S. GDP by a whopping $5.6 billion.

ICYMI – BERNARD LOONEY OUT AT BP OVER FAILING TO DISCLOSE RELATIONSHIPS: Bernard Looney resigned as CEO of BP yesterday and was replaced by Murray Auchincloss, previously the CFO, on an interim basis.

BP said that Looney admitted to having relationships with colleagues that he did not disclose in a May 2022 review of allegations that he had engaged in misconduct in personal relationships.

Looney, who had become CEO in 2019, had steered the company further than its U.S. competitors in embracing the green transition.

Still, he had pushed back against activists who wanted the company to stop investing in fossil fuel production altogether, saying earlier this year that BP would remain an oil and gas company as long as there is demand for the fuels.

INTERIOR: 1872 MINING LAW UPDATE IS KEY TO INCREASING PRODUCTION, PROTECTING LANDS: Updating a 1872 U.S. mining law is key to boosting domestic critical minerals production while also ensuring safe and timely mining on public lands, the Biden administration said yesterday in a new report.

That’s just one of the 65 recommendations Interior made yesterday in a new report detailing ways that the U.S. should update and modernize its mining process as it seeks to boost domestic clean energy production.

Updating the mining law is a top priority, Interior said, since it was signed into law more than 150 years ago but still governs U.S. mining practices on public lands. As a result, it is riddled with problems—including a burdensome federal approval process and antiquated practices that allow developers to submit incomplete plans and miners to hold low-cost “claims” to federal land, sometimes for many years, without action.

Reforming and updating the mining process is crucial to ensure the U.S. has adequate supply to meet rising demand, and to ensure these projects are done in a way that best protects the environment and communities potentially at risk from mining, Interior said.

The current process “is proving to be a recipe for local opposition, litigation and protracted permitting delays,” Deputy Interior Secretary Tommy Beaudreau told reporters on a call yesterday. “I’m not saying we need to rewrite America’s mining laws every century, but maybe every other century.”

Other recommendations include streamlining the government’s response to permitting by increasing interagency communication and communication with industry groups on prospective projects.

It also called on Congress to work with the mining industry, tribes, environmental groups, and other key stakeholders to craft a transition to a new leasing system that “increases certainty and stability for industry, strengthens domestic mineral supply chains, advances environmental sustainability, and fosters early and meaningful community engagement.”

The lofty report is almost certain to be met with criticism both from environmental groups opposed to mining on public lands, and from industry leaders, who might argue that the report adds even more obstacles to potential mining activity in the U.S. Read it in full here.

ZIENTS HAS CLOSE TIES TO METALS COMPANY KEY TO BIDEN PLANS: White House chief of staff Jeff Zients has recused himself from involvement with the metals company TechMet because his brother-in-law, Brian Menell is its CEO, The Intercept reports.

TechMet has received financing through the International Development Finance Corporation and stands to benefit from provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law as well as the Inflation Reduction Act that provide incentives for domestic sourcing of critical minerals used in EVs and renewable energy.

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