With help from Kelsey Tamborrino, Zack Colman and Alex Guillén.
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— Ag and ethanol producers are asking why there isn’t more biofuel in the Biden climate agenda.
— Momentum is building for a contemporary Civilian Conservation Corps to protect public spaces and fight climate change.
— EPA is moving to sharply reduce hydrofluorocarbons, a common refrigerant that can be a major contributor to climate change.
WELCOME TO TUESDAY! I’m your host, Matthew Choi. Congrats to NRDC’s Joan Matthews for knowing Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” takes place in Nagasaki. For today’s trivia: In what European region is Buddhism the majority religion? 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: Why Democrats are being picky on the CRA.
WHAT ABOUT ETHANOL?: Electric vehicles are front and center in President Joe Biden’s plans to decarbonize the economy, with billions of dollars allocated to bolstering EV development and infrastructure in his American Jobs Plan. But that’s leaving farm-state lawmakers, corn growers and ethanol producers feeling a little left out.
Biofuels would only get a tiny slice of the funding pie under Biden’s infrastructure overhaul, despite the president saying he views biofuels as a key factor in weaning off fossil fuels.
“To not see [biofuels] listed as part of an infrastructure piece, I’m hoping is just an oversight and a misunderstanding — because I know that there’s support for it,” said Rep. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa), the only Democrat in Iowa’s congressional delegation.
Wading into biofuels represents a potential political minefield for the White House, with the ethanol industry maintaining outsize influence in battleground farm states and large swaths of farmers remaining skeptical about Biden’s climate plans.
Farmers and ethanol groups insist the administration can bolster biofuels without compromising its EV goals. Ryan McCrimmon and Kelsey Tamborrino break down the tension for Pros.
MOVIN’ ON A CONSERVATION CORPS: There’s been a seemingly endless number of proposals on Capitol Hill for funding a Civilian Conservation Corps that would put millions to work conserving public spaces and addressing climate change. It’s an idea that harkens back to the New Deal era, and it’s often been tossed around during the pandemic.
“We have a huge opportunity to address multiple challenges: climate change, wildfire risk, unemployment — all at the same time, if we think boldly and apply creative solutions,” said Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) at a news conference Monday. Neguse has put forward one of the leading proposals, H.R. 1162 (117), along with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
Backers range from progressive legislators like Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who offered their own proposal S. 1525 (117) last week, to a bipartisan proposal introduced by Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) boosting service programs that includes a conservation title S. 3624 (116). And Biden’s jobs plan calls for a $10 billion investment in a Civilian Climate Corps.
“None of these bills are mutually exclusive,” Neguse said. “We’ve had some very promising conversations with Republican members in the House, and I believe Sen. Wyden has had similar conversations in the Senate.”
Other supporters of the idea told ME they see reasons for a new hope as well. “Because everybody’s actually at the table — and you need that — that shows that we can get to yes here,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said in an interview. “There are many of us who believe in natural infrastructure climate solutions but that’s not necessarily hard to pair with what many of the Republicans want in terms of putting people to work in rural communities.”
Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman, whose Northern California district has suffered damage from the state’s worsening wildfires, said there is “a great need.”
“You’re going to have to get in and do the kind of projects that require boots on the ground,” he said. “Everything from the thinning and clearing of brush that is not merchantable timber to controlled burns. And that just is a perfect fit for something like the Civilian Conservation Corps.”
Supporters stress they want the program to be inclusive of all ages, genders and racial groups. The Neguse-Wyden measure, for instance, would ensure the “original sins of the last Civilian Conservation Corps, which embraced segregation and perpetuated inequities that endure to this day … do not endure in a new CCC,” said Mustafa Santiago Ali, vice president of environmental justice at the National Wildlife Federation.
FIRST IN ME: More than 40 environmental and energy groups are urging congressional leaders and top appropriators to give a multibillion-dollar funding boost to clean energy innovation at the Energy Department. The groups, including Third Way, ClearPath Action and the American Petroleum Institute, see this as the way to allow the U.S. to “continue competing for global market share in a changing energy sector.” Read the letter here.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will discuss the department’s budget proposal with the House Appropriations Energy Subcommittee on Thursday. The administration aims to quadruple clean energy research government-wide in four years.
THE “PURGE”: Two House Republicans have a bad feeling that the recent reassignment of the scientist running the National Climate Assessment process is part of a “purge” of government officials connected to the Trump administration.
Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) of the House Oversight Committee on Monday sent a letter asking the Office of Science and Technology Policy to produce documentation about the decision to move Betsy Weatherhead from the NCA to the U.S. Geological Survey, which the Washington Post’s Jason Samenow reported was due to her “friction” with agency heads.
“With deep praise from both sides of the political aisle for the qualifications of Dr. Weatherhead, her reassignment within the first months of a new Administration solely based on her ties to the Trump Administration demonstrates yet another example of a deeply troubling partisan political agenda,” Comer and Norman wrote.
Comer and Norman previously pressed EPA Administrator Michael Regan to explain his firing of all members of two science advisory panels, in what they also argued was a purge of political opponents.
HFCs BE GONE: EPA proposed a rule on Monday that aims to eliminate 85 percent of hydrofluorocarbons by 2036, sharply reducing use of the refrigerants that are far more potent greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide, Pro’s Alex Guillén reports. The proposed rule stems from Congress’s December law requiring the agency to design a measure to reduce HFCs, and it would put the U.S. on path to meet the targets under the 2016 Kigali Amendment calling for the phase-down of the gas. Alex has more on the EPA rule for Pros.
THE ENDLESS FRONTIER ACT: Granholm is working with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office on his legislation countering Chinese influence amid conservative criticisms that the bill would create a redundancy with research conducted at the Energy Department.
“Nobody wants to duplicate resources, taxpayer dollars,” Granholm told reporters Monday. We just want to make sure it’s done well. Those conversations are happening and have been going on so I think it’s going to be fine.”
CRIMSON AND SOLAR: The Bureau of Land Management has given a final approval to the proposed Crimson Solar Project on public lands in Southern California. The record of decision announced Monday authorizes Sonoran West Holdings, a subsidiary of Recurrent Energy, to construct the 350-megawatt solar photovoltaic facility on up to 2,000 acres of BLM-administered lands near Blythe, Calif.
The Interior Department says the $550 million project has the potential to deliver enough power for roughly 87,500 homes and provide about 650 temporary construction jobs. The facility is located within one of the areas designated for development under the Obama-era Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, which directs renewable energy development and conservation efforts on millions of acres in California.
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS MICHAEL REGAN?: The EPA administrator is going to Iowa today to tout the administration’s infrastructure agenda. His trip will include a roundtable with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and community leaders, a tour of an ethanol plant, a visit to the Des Moines Metropolitan Wastewater Reclamation Authority and a visit to the Des Moines TCE Superfund site with Mayor Frank Cownie, according to agency spokesperson Nick Conger.
Regan continues to St. Louis on Wednesday, where he’ll meet with community and faith groups, discuss the West Lake Landfill Superfund Site and visit the Chain of Rocks water treatment plant, according to Conger.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?: Former Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt and former EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler have both landed new gigs — Bernhardt at his old law firm, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, and Wheeler at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Eric Wolff has more for Pros on their post-Trump administration jobs.
BLENDING IN: EPA asked a federal appeals court to do away with a Trump-era exemption it granted to federal biofuel blending rules, saying the previous administration granted exemptions “outside the scope of EPA’s statutory authority.” The agency also said there was “substantial uncertainty” whether EPA performed analysis on whether the refineries granted exemption extensions were qualified to receive them. Kelsey Tamborrino has more for Pros.
PLAYING ON REPEAT: The Biden administration is repeating arguments from the Trump era on the Dakota Access pipeline as it asserts the pipeline should not be shut down while it undergoes an environmental review. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers argued the tribes seeking a shutdown “have not met the applicable standard” to do so, reaffirming an argument it used under former President Donald Trump.
“It is possible that in the EIS process the Corps would find new information, but to date the Corps is not aware of information that would cause it to evaluate the injunction factors differently than in its previous filing,” the corps wrote in its filing.
Earthjustice attorney Jan Hasselman said the move clashed with the Biden administration’s commitment to environmental justice, particularly toward Indigenous communities, while Grow America’s Infrastructure Now, a pro-pipeline coalition of businesses, lauded the Corps as engaging in a “steadfast, science-based approach to the Dakota Access pipeline.”
TAKING A THIRD SWING AT THE SOCIAL COST OF CARBON: A coalition of red states led by Missouri is asking a federal court to block Biden’s revamped social cost of carbon. Missouri also sued the administration over the new SCC back in March, arguing it violated congressional legislative powers. Louisiana led a lawsuit filed in April contesting the SCC based on alleged notice-and-comment violations. Alex has more for Pros.
PIPELINES IN THE STREAM: A group of environmental organizations is challenging in federal court a Trump administration rule change that lets oil and gas pipelines cross over streams with minimal environmental review. The complaint was filed in the same federal court in Montana whose chief judge briefly froze the construction of new oil and gas pipelines last year, until that decision was overturned by the Supreme Court. Annie Snider has more on the case for Pros.
THE $83 BILLION QUESTION: Paying retirement, wage replacement and other benefits to coal miners and utility workers as the nation transitions to clean energy could cost nearly $82.9 billion through 2030, according to a study by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Utility Workers Union of America. The 2030 coal phase-out plan would cost more than a more gradual 2040 exit from coal, which would cost $33.2 billion, according to the analysis.
The study directly assessed the costs of aiding the nation’s coal workers in a sweeping remake of the power grid, and included the price of “transitional support” for employees likely to lose their jobs before age 65. But the study likely underestimated the economic effects on certain communities, as it assessed only direct employment in power plants and mines while ignoring the significant work benefits miners accrue, according to its authors.
“The reality is that coal will not return to its heyday; the industry will continue its decline simply because cheaper and cleaner technologies are widely available and rapidly scaling,” the report’s authors wrote.
IN MEMORIAM: Pete Lyons, a top nuclear energy official who served under both the W. Bush and Obama administrations, has died, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday. “He was a mentor, a friend, and a role model for public service,” said NRC Chair Christopher Hanson in a statement. “We are deeply saddened over the loss of this great man.”
Lyons held numerous positions at the Los Alamos National Laboratory spanning his decades there from 1969 to 1996 and was also previously a science adviser to former New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici.
— JC Sandberg is joining the American Clean Power Association as chief advocacy officer. He comes from GE Renewable Energy, where he led global government affairs and policy.
— Elizabeth Littlefield, former head of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, was appointed senior adviser by specialist climate change advisory and investment firm Pollination.
— Clean Air Task Force is bringing on Lily Odarno as director of energy, development and climate in Africa. She was previously energy access policy manager at World Resources Institute. Jeanette Pablo is also joining as a resident senior fellow from former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz’s Energy Futures Initiative. Olivia Azadegan joins CATF’s European Carbon Capture and Zero-Carbon Fuels team.
— FERC Chair Richard Glick appointed Debbie-Anne A. Reese as deputy secretary of the Office of the Secretary at the commission.
— “Bill and Melinda Gates announce decision to end marriage after 27 years,” via GeekWire.
— “Limetree Bay refinery violated Clean Air Act -EPA,” via Reuters.
— “Leaked docs: Gas industry secretly fights electrification,” via E&E News.
— “The New Menu at Eleven Madison Park Will Be Meatless,” via The New York Times.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
