With help from Ben Lefebvre, Eric Wolff and Anthony Adragna.
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— Democrats are facing a test on how far to go with to strike a bipartisan deal that would push through Biden’s infrastructure plan.
— Biden is cooking up a cross-government executive order to take action on climate-related financial risks in both government and the private sector.
— Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is in Washington and climate activists will be looking for clues about whether the country is softening its support for coal ahead of Biden’s climate leaders summit.
HAPPY FRIDAY! I’m your host, Matthew Choi. Sadly, no one got yesterday’s trivia, but for your enrichment, the Titanic had 20 lifeboats (16 standard, 4 collapsable). For today’s trivia: What’s the most populous state/union territory in India? 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: Is Biden building the grid of the future?
CALCULATING INFRASTRUCTURE VICTORY: Democrats are at a crossroads and are going to have to decide how much ground they want to give to get a bipartisan deal for President Joe Biden’s infrastructure proposal.
There are some fresh proposals circulating, including from Sen. Chris Coons, a close Biden ally, who is floating the idea of dividing the package into a bipartisan measure focused on Republican’s strict definition of infrastructure and a bigger proposal with everything else. And according to Coons, there’ve been some receptive ears on the GOP side.
“Why wouldn’t you do $800 billion of it in a bipartisan way and do the other $1.2 trillion Dems-only through reconciliation. Why wouldn’t you do that?” Coons told POLITICO’s Marianne Levine, Burgess Everett and Sarah Ferris.
But his proposal doesn’t fully address the question of how to pay for the package — one of the biggest sources of division down the aisle. White House chief of staff Ron Klain privately said that though he’s amenable to working with Republicans, the party shouldn’t wait forever. Read more from Marianne, Burgess and Sarah.
BTW: The GOP proposals for a $600 billion-$800 billion package? Forget it. White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy made it clear that Biden has no desire to pare down his proposal that small.
RISK MANAGEMENT: Biden is working on a sweeping executive order on climate risk across that federal government that would touch virtually every corner of American industry. Dubbed “Climate-Related Financial Risk,” the EO would kick start a strategy to measure, mitigate and disclose climate risks facing federal agencies. It would also make climate risk a key part of the work of federal regulators in sectors including banking, oil and gas, housing and agriculture. POLITICO’s Lorraine Woellert snagged a draft of the order and goes into its provisions here.
YOKOSO: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga hits Washington today, making him the first foreign leader to visit the Biden White House in the flesh. ME’s on the lookout for what Suga has to say about his country’s climate plans ahead of Biden’s climate leaders summit next week. Japanese media have been giving conflicting signs on whether the country would curb its financing of coal projects around the world, and his visit may provide some clarity. Pro’s Zack Coleman had more on the summit on Thursday.
TAI WANTS TO CHANGE THE RULES: U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai wants world leaders to reform global trade rules to fight climate change, and she condemned the current system as encouraging a “race to the bottom” for firms to avoid regulations. And while there may be opportunities to build on provisions of the USMCA, she said its failure to mention climate change was a “glaring omission.”
“For too long, the traditional trade community has resisted the view that trade policy is a legitimate tool in helping to solve the climate crisis,” Tai said in remarks for a virtual meeting hosted by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. “That dated line of thinking only perpetuates the chasm that exists between the lived experiences — and expectations — of real people on the one hand, and trade experts on the other.” Gavin Bade has more for Pros.
INTERIOR MAIL CALL: The oil and gas industry is urging the Interior Department to end its pause on new oil and gas leases on federal property. In letters the American Petroleum Institute and AXPC made public after the agency’s virtual round table in March, the two lobby groups say the halt will hurt U.S. consumers and state coffers.
“It is just as critical we highlight that a ban or significant curtailment of new oil and natural gas leasing would effectively reduce our domestic energy supply and will not reduce demand,” API Vice President of Upstream Policy Kevin O’Scannlain wrote, while AXPC pointed to the impact to state budgets and suggested Interior “develop regulations that allow for future production on federal lands to pair with and complement other emissions-reducing technologies, such as carbon capture utilization and storage.”
Environmental groups for their part are going with sheer numbers. The Sierra Club, Wilderness Society and other green organizations said they shared with Interior petitions containing a combined 115,000 signatures asking that it continue to review and eventually change at least some of the leasing laws.
REGAN EXPLAINS HIMSELF: EPA Administrator Michael Regan has gotten a lot of raised eyebrows for his controversial decision to fire the entirety of two scientific advisory panels last month. Regan dismissed every member on the Science Advisory Board and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, saying he wanted to start anew after the Trump administration increased representation from industry. On Thursday, he said he had been heeding recommendations from his staff.
The membership of the boards was “out of balance,” Regan said Thursday, and the problem was not “the individuals that were in the seats, but more so [that] the collective seats were not representative of the needs that the agency has.” Alex Guillén and Annie Snider have more for Pros.
HOLD IT: The Interior Department plans to delay implementing a Trump-era order that the Bureau of Land Management release all of its land in Alaska to mining and mineral development. Interior said BLM would use the two-year delay to “work to correct defects associated with initial analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act.” That would include consulting with the public and tribes. Ben Lefebvre has more for Pros.
WHOSE JUSTICE?: Republicans and Democrats clashed on environmental justice legislation Thursday, illustrating the fault lines on one of the pillars of Biden’s environmental policy. Members of an Energy and Commerce subpanel were discussing a slate of bills focused on EJ, including measures in the CLEAN Future Act, Democrats’ first major climate legislation of Biden’s presidency, as well as bills aimed at protecting vulnerable communities from pollution and toxic coal ash and identifying EJ communities.
Republicans decried the measures, with Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.), the panel’s ranking member, extolling lawmakers “to lose your sanctimonious attitude and walk in the shoes of these families who are about to experience poverty, all in this guise of justice.” But panel chairman Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) called for lawmakers to take an expansive view of the various legislation before them, saying “no one bill will undo the generations of injustices, racism and discrimination against front line communities.”
CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez and nine of his Democratic peers want to make climate change a focal point for U.S. foreign policy. The United States Climate Leadership in International Mitigation, Adaptation, and Technology Enhancement Act (or U.S. CLIMATE Act), unveiled Thursday, codifies Biden’s efforts to be a global leader in combating climate change, just a week before the start of his climate leaders summit.
The bill focuses on climate change’s impacts on global stability and national security, U.S. engagement with international climate efforts and a spate of other priorities. Axios has a breakdown here.
RISK DISCLOSURE: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) reintroduced legislation Thursday that would require companies to document their financial exposure to climate risks. The Biden administration is making similar pushes, and Warren has been working with the administration this week on the bill text.
The bill would have the SEC require publicly listed companies to “detail their direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, the fossil fuel assets they own or manage, risk management strategies for dealing with climate change and how companies’ valuations would fare if the world warmed 1.5 degrees Celsius or if lawmakers passed policies to avert that mark,” Zack reports for Pros.
Here’s what you missed at FERC’s monthly public meeting Thursday:
FERC is dropping its previous plan for promoting transmission construction that called for doubling the financial incentives for developers in regional transmission organizations. The new plan will create a more modest incentive of 0.5 percent return on equity for new RTO members that lasts for three years. Eric Wolff has more for Pros.
The commission also finalized a carbon pricing policy, giving a green light to power markets to propose emission externalities in their pricing programs. It got bipartisan approval, with Commissioners Mark Christie and James Danly both concurring in part and dissenting in part. Eric has more.
And FERC levied a maxed-out $15 million fine against Michigan dam operator Boyce Hydro for failing to follow its orders, including risk assessments and report requirements. Boyce is currently in bankruptcy as it struggles to compensate victims of flooding after the Edenville dam failed last year.
FERC also started considering a $42 million fine against PacifiCorp, which is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berhshire Hathaway Energy. The commission ordered an investigation into the firm’s maintenance and clearance from its transmission lines after a Utah fire marshal said one of its subsidiaries had power lines too close together, causing a 2012 wildfire. Eric has more on the fines, too.
FERC Chair Rich Glick also sought to sooth the gas industry over the commission’s handling of a long-granted certification for a New England compressor station, promising that FERC would never go back on a certificate it granted once rehearing had passed. The commission alarmed the gas pipeline industry when it issued a request for briefing papers over the troubled Weymouth, Mass., compressor station at its February meeting, leading the industry to believe the commission would undo years-old approvals.
Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.), the top Republican on the Energy Committee, sent FERC a letter on the issue in late March, and Glick, in his response earlier this week, said the commission had a long standing responsibility to ensure the public interest was maintained, and he hinted the commission could call for more mitigation measures given the frequency of leaks from the station. On Thursday, Glick told reporters that “we have no intention of taking back the certificate.”
— The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association named Ashley Slater to lead its regulatory advocacy programs. She previously served as vice president for government affairs and policy at PNGC Power.
— “U.S. Startup Plans to Build First Zero-Emission Gas Power Plants,” via Bloomberg.
— “California, NASA partner to launch methane-tracking satellite,” via Reuters.
— “Dallas Fed: Winter storm blackout cost Texas up to $130B,” via POLITICO.
— “What Happens When an Oil Giant Walks Away,” via Bloomberg.
— “The GOP’s most important votes: 2 Democrats,” via POLITICO.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
