With help from Zack Colman, Kelsey Tamborrino and Alex Guillén
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— Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s first attempt at an infrastructure bill vote failed, but negotiations are still going and a new vote is likely next week.
— Tracy Stone-Manning is up for a vote today in the Senate Energy Committee, as her nomination to head the Bureau of Land Management continues to draw sharp opposition from Republicans.
— Jigar Shah, head of DOE’s loan program, said the pace of deploying climate solutions is “wholly unacceptable”.
JOYOUS THURSDAY! I’m your host, Matthew Choi. NAM’s Rachel Jones gets the trivia for knowing Edward J. Smith was the captain of the Titanic. For today: What Swedish ocean liner crashed into the Andrea Doria, causing her to sink? Send your tips and trivia answers to [email protected]. Find me on Twitter @matthewchoi2018.
Check out the POLITICO Energy podcast — all the energy and environmental politics and policy news you need to start your day, in just five minutes. Listen and subscribe for free at politico.com/energy-podcast. On today’s episode: Europe’s historic floods.
NOW WHAT? The Senate voted down Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s first attempt to advance the bipartisan infrastructure package on Wednesday. But nothing is dead yet, and the exercise hasn’t been totally fruitless.
Though Republicans rejected the move due to the absence of legislative text, negotiators indicated they could come to an agreement within the coming days, Pro’s Sam Mintz reports. And getting the ball moving after a month of negotiations was Schumer’s goal all along.
“I think we’ll get it done over the weekend, and then I hope that we get another cloture vote next week, and that will succeed,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), one of the Republican negotiators. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), the lead Republican negotiator, said that the bill will likely be ready to be taken up Monday, POLITICO’s Marianne Levine and Burgess Everett report.
Even if details are worked out, there’s still some hesitation among Republicans about voting on a framework that hasn’t been translated into a formal legislative text — a process that could still take days. “We’re going to have to have a product. You can’t vote on a framework. There just isn’t the kind of trust around it right now that would allow that to happen,” said Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.).
Read more on the state of things from Marianne and Burgess.
And for actual infrastructure asks: Over 100 House Democrats are insisting infrastructure legislation includes enough money to remove all lead pipes in the country, Anthony Adragna reports for Pros. The lawmakers wrote to their party leadership after Annie Snider and Anthony reported earlier this week that the bipartisan infrastructure agreement may fall short in delivering on one of the most popular water priorities on both sides of the aisle.
And if the deal falls through? There’s some division among Democrats on whether to swell their budget plan beyond its $3.5 trillion topline figure. While moderates fear going too high could make them vulnerable to GOP attacks, Democrats further left counter the vehicle for their priorities doesn’t matter if they end up with the same result. More from Marianne, Sarah Ferris and Heather Caygle.
IN COMMITTEE: Tracy Stone-Manning, Biden’s pick to run BLM, will get her vote in the Senate Energy Committee today. Chair Joe Manchin signaled this week that he would vote to confirm her, but every Republican on the committee is adamantly against the nomination due to her past ties to radical environmentalists and a tree spiking incident in 1989. Her nomination has turned into a partisan brawl, and Stone-Manning and her defenders say the allegations against her are overblown, occurred three decades ago and don’t reflect her many years in public service.
Ranking Member John Barrasso isn’t letting up. “This isn’t just about groups that work with the agency or even the people who enjoy our public lands, it’s also about the employees at the Bureau of Land Management,” he plans to say ahead of the vote. “How can the men and women who work at this important agency respect Tracy Stone-Manning knowing she threatened their colleagues at the U.S. Forest Service?”
Stone-Manning was never charged with a crime in relation to the tree spiking incident and testified against the environmental extremists who were.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is also meeting today to go over issues affecting environmental justice communities, the low-income and communities of color that suffer the most from pollution. The White House unveiled guidelines on implementing its environmental justice goals on Tuesday, with the House Oversight Committee having its own hearing Wednesday on the issue.
PASS THE PFAS: The House passed the PFAS Action Act, H.R. 2467 (117), on Wednesday, with 23 Republicans joining Democrats in the vote. The bill, introduced in April by Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.), would direct EPA to designate certain PFAS compounds as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980. The agency would also have to issue a national drinking water regulation for PFAS and issue grants to help community water systems treat PFAS contaminated water.
“We’ve known about these harmful forever chemicals for decades, and it’s time we have federal policies in place to combat these threats to our air, our land, our water, and our communities,” Dingell said in a statement after its passage. Kelsey Tamborrino has more for Pros.
TOO SLOW: Jigar Shah, director of DOE’s Loan Programs Office, told IHS Markit that the U.S.’ current pace of deploying climate solutions was “wholly unacceptable.” The U.S., he said, is at “maybe” $200 billion annually for climate change spending. “That number has to probably be a trillion dollars a year to be able to be on track to the goals that the president will be announcing in Glasgow” at the UN’s annual Climate Change Conference, he told the group’s CERAWEEK Conversations in a chat conducted earlier this month and released today.
When it comes to the successes and failures of the loan office, Shah said the administration needs to take several swings at bat. “The question becomes, if we fund four EV manufacturers and one of them becomes Tesla and the other three either go out of business or are not as financially successful, that still promotes the interest of the United States of America,” he said. “Making sure all of that innovation that we’ve paid for at the Department of Energy stays here and grows here and creates jobs here.” (That’s a stance that POLITICO’s Michael Grunwald dug into recently, and risks reawakening the specter of Solyndra.)
The Loan Programs Office is receiving an average of $7 billion in loan requests every month for everything from advanced nuclear to renewable energy and EV and battery manufacturing, according to Shah, who touted the program as a “bridge” to the commercial debt market. “Ultimately, we’re a liquidity instrument,” Shah said. “The goal for us is to fund a project, but more importantly, fund it in a way where we think that we can just pass all of our notes on to Wall Street so that they can do the next set.”
UP TO CODE: The Energy Department plans to push state and local governments to adopt energy efficiency building codes that could dramatically slash greenhouse gas emissions, Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced Wednesday. While the department can help municipalities with technical assistance, it doesn’t have much actual authority on what codes local governments adopt.
“We need state and local officials to step up. You are the only ones who can adopt and implement smart and ambitious building codes. We’re asking you to join us in this push,“ Granholm said during DOE’s National Energy Codes Conference. Catherine Boudreau has more for Pros.
EPA AIR CHIEF TEASES ACTIONS ON MERCURY, TRUCK NOx, RFS: Joe Goffman, the acting head of EPA’s busy Office of Air and Radiation, told a clean air advisory panel on Wednesday that multiple high-profile rulemakings are on track and proposals could be issued in the coming weeks or months.
To start, the end of August should see a review of the “appropriate and necessary” finding for the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard, Goffman told the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee. Not only is that rule expected to re-establish the mercury rule’s legal underpinning, an updated review of costs and technologies “would merit, potentially, tightening the technology standards now in place,” Goffman said. That could impose additional requirements on existing coal plants under the rule that famously forced many of the nation’s older, dirtier plants to close.
Goffman admitted he was being “coy” with the panel regarding details about two other upcoming rules. For the long-delayed rule expected to restrict nitrogen oxide emissions from heavy-duty trucks, Goffman said his office “will be making a recommendation to [Administrator Michael Regan] to announce shortly.” And pressed about reports this week that the 2022 blending rule for the Renewable Fuel Standard has been delayed by the White House, Goffman replied only that the proposal will be out “soon.”
OAR Speedwagon: All of this, of course, is on top of the upcoming proposal to boost federal tailpipe greenhouse gas standards, expanded rules targeting methane from the oil and gas sector, the review of the particulate matter standard, work on the third iteration of a carbon rule for existing power plants, and action on persistent interstate pollution problems. And those are just the regulatory actions that merited discussion during the CAAAC meeting yesterday.
ME FIRST: MANUFACTURERS PRESS FOR SOLAR CREDIT: Solar manufacturers are pressing Biden in a new letter shared with ME to support inclusion of the Solar Energy Manufacturing for America Act in any legislative package that invests in clean energy manufacturing jobs and infrastructure. The push for the bill, S. 2140 (117), which would establish an advanced solar manufacturing production credit, comes as portions of the U.S. solar energy supply chain are “hindered” by overseas monopolies and choke points, the group wrote, adding it “would enhance competition throughout the solar supply chain, allowing for the dramatic price reductions in solar deployment to continue and help bring the country’s ambitious climate goals within reach.” Hanwha Q CELLS North America, Hemlock Semiconductor Operations, REC Silicon, First Solar, Wacker Polysilicon North America and Sunnova are among the letter’s signatories.
CHAMBER OF CES: As lawmakers consider the creation of a clean energy standard, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is urging senators not to be too absolutist while considering proposals. The business group wrote to the Senate Energy and EPW committees as well as House Energy, pushing for investment in research and development for new technologies to get to net zero emissions, while avoiding compromising grid reliability. “All technologies should be on the table, provided they move us in the direction of the CES’ ultimate emission profile goals,” Martin Durbin, senior vice president for policy, wrote.
FINE CHINA?: China could still well meet its goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2060 if it ceases new coal-fired power plant construction and the financing of overseas coal, Jonathan Pershing, a top adviser to special presidential climate envoy John Kerry, said Wednesday during a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing. Pershing noted the top global emitter has exceeded their targets for renewable energy and emissions intensity — and he added that the country hadn’t been using all of its newly constructed coal capacity.
“Historically they’ve done more than they said they would do, and they’re on a trajectory that would suggest they could still meet this commitment,” Pershing said. Still, climate scientists have warned the world must reach net-zero emissions by 2050 to avoid baking in the worst effects of climate change — and China’s target misses that mark.
Pot, meet kettle: Democratic senators also pressed Pershing on how the U.S. would reconcile its own oil and gas production with its calls to other nations to end their fossil fuel use. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said the Biden administration “can’t teach temperance from a barstool.”
Pershing replied that some fossil fuel infrastructure decisions are outside the federal government’s purview, creating a “tension.” Still, Pershing acknowledged the perception gap between actions within the U.S. and its message abroad: “It makes it harder to make the case globally when we’re making different investments at home.”
ZELENSKY AND THE NORD STREAM 2: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Biden in Washington at the end of next month, the White House confirmed Wednesday. The announcement comes after the administration refused to confirm a visit date as it pressured Ukraine not to stir trouble as the U.S. reworks its relationship with Germany over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, POLITICO’s David Herszenhorn and America Hernandez report.
And Biden is getting some serious fire from both sides of Congress over his new agreement over the new pipeline with Germany, Andrew Desiderio and Alexander Ward report for POLITICO.
— “Floods wreck towns, but Europe’s wind power goals tangled in red tape,” via Reuters.
— “France Pushes Back on EU Proposal for New Carbon Market,” via Bloomberg.
— “U.S. crude stockpiles rise for first time since May as imports surge -EIA,” via Reuters.
—”$62 million settlement filed in Hoosick Falls PFOA water contamination,” via The Times Union.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
