With help from Annie Snider, Anthony Adragna, Kelsey Tamborrino, Ben Lefebvre, Alex Guillén, Ryan McCrimmon and Zack Colman
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— Competing interests and unanswered questions continue to complicate the two-package infrastructure plan.
— Senate Republicans are hoping to get a meeting with Biden to as why biofuels aren’t a bigger part of his agenda.
— The White House is launching new working groups on extreme heat and wildfires plaguing the West, with Biden and VP Kamala Harris set to huddle with governors today on how to help.
HAPPY FRIDAY! I’m your host, Matthew Choi. Luke Bolar of ClearPath gets the trivia for knowing Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega danced to “You Never Can Tell” by Chuck Berry in “Pulp Fiction.” For today: What Beatles’ song did Ferris sing during the parade in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”? 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: A BIF deal.
DUST ISN’T SETTLED YET: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi maintains she won’t steam ahead on the bipartisan infrastructure deal without the Democrats-only budget resolution to go with it. But tension is mounting on how long the House should wait for the budget bill before moving on the highly popular bipartisan measure.
Pelosi is getting pressure from centrist Democrats and Republicans, who want the $1 trillion plan passed as soon as possible. Rep. Kurt Schrader, a founding member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, told POLITICO’s Burgess Everett, Sarah Ferris and Heather Caygle that he wants to “take something home for the summer that people will be proud of.”
Meanwhile progressives aren’t ruling out sinking the bipartisan deal if the budget resolution evaporates, Burgess, Sarah and Heather report. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called Pelosi Wednesday to make sure they’re on the same page on the two-bill rogressive plan. And progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) warned: “We currently do not have the votes to move the bipartisan bill, unless the reconciliation is moving simultaneously. And the speaker obviously knows that.”
Any discord is reason for concern for Democrats, who have razor-thin margins in both chambers. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer still said he has enough votes to at least get the budget resolution moving, and Pelosi hasn’t shown any cracks in her commitment to the two measures.
“It would be nice if we didn’t need a backstop, that in the Senate we had our own adherence to our priorities among the Democrats. But she’s there,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii). “I say: Good. Thank you, Nancy.”
Meanwhile, there are still a number of questions remaining over the bipartisan infrastructure deal while lawmakers wait for legislative text.
Key senators remained frustrated Thursday with the deal’s drinking water and wastewater provisions, which they said could yet change. “I think some of those details are still [to be determined]” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, said Thursday afternoon. Multiple sources close to the negotiations said that the deal fails to fund any of the grant programs authorized in the bipartisan water bill, S. 914 (117), that passed the chamber in April, and currently would only put dollars towards that bill’s provisions boosting funding for the federal loan programs for drinking water and wastewater utilities.
“We’re very disappointed. It doesn’t stop our enthusiasm for support of this bill, but yeah, we’re disappointed,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and top advocate for water programs.
And, while most Democrats were reluctant to directly contradict the president’s claims that the deal will fully fund replacement of all lead water lines across the country, it became increasingly clear that dedicated funding for the effort will fall far short of the $45 billion the White House has called for. “We’re seeing a lot of spin out of the White House, which is just unbelievable,” House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said on a call with reporters Thursday, noting that the $15 billion senators had said was tagged for lead removal “of course would not replace all the lead pipes.”
DON’T FORGET BIOFUELS: Nine GOP senators are requesting a meeting with Biden to go over the administration’s biofuels policies, writing that “the promise of homegrown biofuels and our agriculture sector appear to be woefully underrepresented in your administration’s energy, environmental, and transportation agenda.”
In the letter to Biden, the senators called on the administration to recognize the reduced carbon emissions of biofuels amid the push for electric vehicles, promote biofuel blending infrastructure, ensure year-round access to E15 — which a court recently struck down — and enforce the Renewable Fuel Standard to Congress’ intent. They also call for the administration to direct EPA to adopt modern greenhouse gas modeling for renewable fuels and approve long-stalled registrations for advanced, cleaner fuels.
No word on whether Biden will take the meeting (the White House did not respond to a request for comment), but ME remembers how tensions between oil refiners and biofuels makers vexed the Trump White House, so we’ll be watching to see if this administration wades in.
WILLOW, WEEP FOR ME: A cohort of 29 House and Senate Democrats are urging Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to stop legally defending a controversial oil drilling project in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve. Democrats had already come out against to ConocoPhillip’s Willow project, which the Trump administration approved in 2020 but became the target of lawsuits from environmentalists and indigineous groups.
But the latest push — which includes Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) — shows the opposition may be spreading. “The administration has set bold goals for meaningful climate action and the protection of biodiversity,” they wrote in a Tuesday letter to Haaland. “A new oil project of this scale is at odds with those efforts. At a minimum, Interior must ensure that any authorization it defends comply with relevant environmental laws. The Department’s approvals of Willow should be rescinded immediately.”
BONNIE SPEAKS: Agriculture Department leaders aren’t shying away from potentially using the Commodity Credit Corporation, a multibillion-dollar farm support fund, to implement their sweeping climate agenda — a point Robert Bonnie made clear at his Thursday confirmation hearing before the Senate Ag Committee to become undersecretary for farm production and conservation. Still, he assured skeptical Republicans that USDA will get buy-in from the industry before taking any such action, Ryan McCrimmon reports for Pros.
Key Republicans have consistently pushed back against the idea of funneling climate-related payments to producers through the CCC (such as incentives for farmers and ranchers who capture and store carbon dioxide in the ground). Bonnie is currently deputy chief of staff and Vilsack’s senior adviser on climate change — so he’s right at the intersection of farm subsidies and climate policy.
FIRE TALK: The White House is launching two new working groups today to deal with wildfires and extreme heat ravaging the West. The Wildfire Resilience Interagency Working Group, chaired by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, will focus on long-term land management strategies to combat wildfires, while the Extreme Heat Interagency Working Group will focus on mitigating the impacts of extreme heat on vulnerable communities. That group will be chaired by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad and EPA Administrator Michael Regan. More details here from our Colby Bermel.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will also be meeting virtually with several Western governors today on how the federal government can help with wildfires and drought, CNN scooped. He’ll meet with Govs. Greg Gianforte of Montana, Jay Inslee of Washington, Gavin Newsom of California, Brad Little of Idaho, Kate Brown of Oregon, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Mark Gordon of Wyoming.
KITTY HAWK OFFSHORE FACILITY TAKES FLIGHT: The Biden administration kick-started the environmental review process Thursday for what could be the first offshore wind project to operate off North Carolina. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management opened a 30-day public comment period on the proposed 800-megawatt Kitty Hawk offshore wind farm, a project that would consist of up to 69 total wind turbine generators located 27 miles offshore. The commercial-scale project developed by Avangrid Renewables would include export cables connecting to the electric grid in Virginia Beach, Va.
Transmission thoughts: David Hayes, the former deputy Interior secretary now serving as special assistant to the president for climate policy, floated the possibility of a “backbone” transmission line to serve the growing U.S. offshore wind industry. On Thursday, Hayes applauded recent developments to launch the nascent U.S. industry, but cautioned it’s not going to be an easy lift to integrate that new offshore wind energy onto the grid.
“We are going to have to have a good working relationship among the federal family including with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the regional transmission organizations in the Northeast in particular, and think long-term about the potential for a backbone transmission line offshore, rather than having individual strings coming in like spaghetti over the years,” he told an event hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center. “And then where they come in, of course, there is going to need to be upgrades in terms of capability of the grid. This is going to be a big project that is going to require all forms of government to work together.”
EPA’S PM REVIEW PANEL DRAWS A CROWD: EPA has received 75 nominations for an expert panel being formed to review the federal particulate matter standards. Traditionally, these kinds of panels support the seven-member Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee by providing more manpower and expertise in a greater range of specialties. The Trump administration eschewed the expert panel in its PM review, drawing complaints even from some CASAC members. The panel being formed now doesn’t have a set number of members but likely will fall between one and two dozen. Comment on the nominees is due Aug. 19.
EV BUSINESS DEAL: The White House is working with private automakers on a goal to have at least 40 percent of their sales be electric vehicles by 2030, The Washington Post reports. Ford, General Motors and Stellantis (the Fiat Chrysler successor) are expected to endorse the target, according to the Post, citing anonymous sources. The agreement is still under negotiation, but manufacturers are pressing for major federal investment in charging infrastructure — whose scarcity on long distances remains one of the biggest turn offs for potential buyers. The bipartisan infrastructure deal offers $7.5 billion for charging infrastructure to go toward the administration’s goal of 500,000 new charges around the country.
RENEWABLE RENAISSANCE: Wind, solar and battery storage power represented three-quarters of new electricity capacity brought on line in 2020, according to newly released data by the American Clean Power Association. The data come a day after the U.S. Energy Information Administration found renewables (including wind, solar, hydroelectric, biomass and geothermal) were the second most prevalent energy source in 2020, behind natural gas but ahead of coal and nuclear. More for Kelsey Tamborrino.
— Mami Hara will be the next CEO of U.S. Water Alliance. Hara is currently general manager and CEO of Seattle Public Utilities and previously was the first deputy commissioner at Philadelphia Water.
— Amber Wood is joining the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy as its buildings program director. Wood comes from the City of Denver’s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency.
— “Agency in Political Crossfire: Land Management Bureau Explained,” via Bloomberg Law.
— “Rep. Casten on ‘#hotFERCsummer’ and embarrassing his daughters,” via E&E News.
— “Big Oil back to boom after pandemic bust, aiding climate push,” via Reuters.
— “Electric Utilities, Formed Decades Ago, Struggle to Meet Climate Crisis,” via The New York Times.
— “Climate-Conscious Banks Stick With Distressed Polluters,” via The Wall Street Journal.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
