Energy

Hand on the valve for DAPL


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With help from Ben Lefebvre, Sam Mintz, Kelsey Tamborrino, Anthony Adragna, Annie Snider and Eric Wolff.

— The continued operation of the Dakota Access oil pipeline is at stake in federal court today as the Army Corps of Engineers prepares to launch a full environmental review.

— President Joe Biden’s proposed $15 billion investment in EVs may fall well short of the financing needed to propel the industry, according to industry and environmental advocates.

— Biden is prepping an executive order to kick start a climate finance plan. Looping in the financial sector has been a major part of the administration’s climate approach.

WELCOME TO FRIDAY! I’m your host, Matthew Choi. Mabrouk! LCV’s Tiernan Sittenfeld gets the trivia win for knowing Algeria’s Independence Day is on July 5 (1962). For today: How many children did Queen Victoria have? 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: Where farming emissions actually come from.

DAPL’S BIG DAY: The big question of whether the Dakota Access oil pipeline needs to shut down while an environmental review takes place is expected to be answered today in federal court.

Lawyers representing Native American tribes, environmental groups, the Army Corps of Engineers and pipeline operator Energy Transfer will hold a status call with U.S. District Judge Brian Boasberg to hear whether the Corps will say the 510,000 barrel-a-day pipeline needs to stop the flow while the agency goes back to the drawing board on a review Boasberg earlier ruled was insufficient.

Tribes and environmental groups have been pressuring the Biden administration to make such a decision. The Corps could punt and say no shutdown is needed, which would then force Boasberg to decide whether to take up the tribe’s injunction request, though it’s unclear if he would rule on it immediately or take it under advisement.

But if DAPL is ordered shut down, hoo boy. ME expects the press release flow to be set to “stun.” The Sioux tribes who have fought for years against the pipeline on the grounds that an oil spill would send petroleum into their water supply would be ecstatic.

But it would also give ammunition to Republican lawmakers who are still slamming Biden over his decision to rescind a permit to construct the Keystone XL pipeline. Trade associations will argue that shutting down DAPL will raise fuel prices, at least in the Midwest. And all eyes will be on Energy Transfer, which is expected to take the case to the Supreme Court. Reuters has a good rundown you can read here.

CHARGING SLOWLY: The Biden administration wants to go big on electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, but its proposal still might not be enough to jumpstart the industry, Pro’s Tanya Snyder reports.

The $15 billion planned investment in charging is particularly concerning for industry and environmental advocates, as studies have estimated it will take double that or more to reach the kind of broad goals Biden has talked about. “Fifteen billion is not nearly enough,” said Britta Gross, managing director of the Carbon Free Mobility Global Program at the Rocky Mountain Institute.

But it’s a good start: “This is a big investment in EV charging,” said Anne Smart, vice president of public policy for ChargePoint, the world’s biggest EV charging network. “This will enable billions of additional dollars to be leveraged to accelerate the buildout of charging.”

And It’s unclear what kinds of investments the White House wants to make with its $15 billion — how much will go to super-fast public chargers, and how much will go to home and office charging.

CLIMATE FINANCE EO: Biden is brewing up a plan to protect public and private financial assets from climate change, Bloomberg’s Jenny Leonard reports, and an executive order launching the strategy is close to completion. Here’s how it would work, according to Jenny:

“The strategy would be drafted by National Economic Council director Brian Deese and National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy in coordination with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the Office of Management and Budget.”

“Treasury would also work with members of the Financial Stability Oversight Council to share climate-related financial-risk data and issue a report within six months on efforts to address such risks within the respective purviews of each independent regulatory agency. Members of FSOC include the heads of the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission.”

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry has been prodding the financial industry to put its money where its mouth is in climate-friendly finance. A climate finance executive order was expected as part of that push, Pro’s Zack Colman reported last month.

KERRY IN DELHI AND DHAKA: Kerry is traveling from one of the world’s biggest emitters to one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries in a final leg of his Middle East and South Asia tour.

Kerry will be in Bangladesh today, where he’ll meet with “representatives from the Government of Bangladesh and with key development and international partners,” a State Department spokesperson tells ME. It’s unclear who that will include, but Kerry met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his trip to India, possibly hinting Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is on the list.

Hasina was invited to Biden’s climate leaders summit, taking place later this month. Bangladesh is particularly vulnerable, with 1 in 7 Bangladeshis expected to be displaced by the effects of climate change by 2050. The country’s dense population clusters along the coast also make it susceptible to greater damage from stronger typhoons.

Kerry’s visit comes on the tails of his trip to India — one of the world’s largest carbon emitters and a crucial partner in the fight against climate change. Kerry spoke with The Washington Post in New Delhi, where he said India was “deeply invested” in climate change mitigation.

India isn’t “using coal because they like coal or they’re oblivious to the impact,” he told the Post. “If they can find a way to finance an alternative, they’ll leap at it.” Kerry also said the developed world has a responsibility to help developing countries reduce their emissions when they don’t have the resources to do so. Read more from the Post.

Kerry also is “not confident” that China will be on board with reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, he said during an interview with Raj Chengappa of India Today. Kerry acknowledged the tensions between China and the U.S., but still urged that “we can’t be the prisoner of all of those differences” and pushed for climate as an area of greater cooperation.

MEANWHILE: As Iranian and U.S. officials play a game of telephone via Europeans on the Iran nuclear deal, an Iranian ship believed to be a base for the IRGC was attacked, the country’s officials disclosed Wednesday. Though Iran hasn’t named a suspect, the attack is largely believed to be the work of Israel.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani seems chipper about the nuclear discussions, calling the Vienna talks a “success” in an address to his cabinet. But a European diplomat told the Associated Press the attack could alter the negotiating calculus in Austria. Read more from the AP.

BIOFUELING AIR, SHIPPING: The Energy Department opened up a $61.4 million funding opportunity Thursday for next-generation biofuels for transportation, including difficult-to-electrify airplanes, ships and other heavy-duty vehicles.

The research opportunity is focused on biotechnologies that can lead to the production of low-cost, low-carbon biofuels, and comes as part of the Biden administration’s wider effort to decarbonize the transportation sector and reach a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm touted the funding opportunity as “a down payment on what we need to do as a nation” during a White House briefing Thursday.

“The airline industry itself has been investing in next-generation biofuels to be able to demonstrate that it can be used, so without saying specifically, I think certainly within five to 10 years we will be able to see this deployed and available for both shipping and for air,” Granholm said.

Mind the wage gap: The secretary was also asked Thursday about what the administration can do to ensure the jobs it creates as part of its infrastructure plan will provide strong benefits and wages for workers — days after data was released that showed fossil fuel workers earn a higher median hourly wage than those in renewable energy.

“The federal government has many mechanisms for pushing out funding, and that includes bidding on projects and that includes passing it through in competitions, etc.,” Granholm responded. “In those opportunities, you can attach strings to make sure that these are good-paying jobs, that they have project labor agreements.” The same holds true for the government’s procurement power, she added.

RIGHTING THE PFAS WRONGS: The Biden EPA released a new health assessment for toxic PFBS, a type of PFAS found in some drinking water supplies, after withdrawing a Trump-era version amid allegations of political interference.

“The assessment posted today fixes the errors in the version issued earlier this year, was developed by EPA career scientists, and upholds the values of scientific integrity,” said Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, acting assistant administrator for the Office of Research and Development, in a statement. Annie Snider has more for Pros.

DROUGHT DECLARATIONS: The Biden administration is seeking to assure Westerners that it is taking “an all-hands-on-deck” approach to dealing with the painful drought conditions setting in across a broad swath of the country heading into the summer. In a statement late Thursday, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack vowed that their agencies are taking an approach “that both minimizes the impacts of the drought and develops a long-term plan to facilitate conservation and economic growth.“

The statement called out the Klamath River basin, along the border of California and Oregon, which is facing particularly poor water conditions that could lead to historically low deliveries for the regions’ farmers this year. The basin’s scarce water supplies have long been fought over by farmers, tribes and environmental groups, and on Thursday the Biden Interior Department withdrew a controversial legal opinion issued by the Trump administration in its final days that reduced Endangered Species Act protections that had limited water deliveries to farmers — a victory for the region’s tribes.

HEINRICH LENDS A HAND: Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) re-introduced his bill to create a tax credit for transmission development Thursday, giving a boost to Biden’s effort to string more wires across the country. Transmission has been stuck in a quagmire of conflicting incentives for a decade, and the tax credit could offer a crucial financing to merchant developers. Heinrich was joined by Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Angus King (I-Maine) on the bill.

N.C. WANTS TO BE BLOWN AWAY: A bipartisan group of seven North Carolina lawmakers is asking BOEM to “promptly and responsibly” hold offshore wind sales for two existing wind energy areas and find new ones off their state’s coast. They’re concerned a 10-year moratorium on offshore wind leasing, established by former President Donald Trump, will take effect on July 1.

“North Carolina can and will be a leader in offshore wind energy generation capacity, research, and manufacturing, but to achieve this we need expeditious action from BOEM,” reads the letter, led by Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.).

IT’S OFFICIAL: Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) office officially released the details of the Budget Committee’s climate hearing, which Pro’s Ben Lefebvre and Anthony Adragna scooped Wednesday. Here’s a list of witnesses, which Anthony points out is so far all white men.

DUKE OF HAZARD: The U.K.’s Prince William said banks need to “invest in nature” as a cost-effective, long-term measure to prevent further climate change. His Royal Highness was speaking at the spring meeting of the World Bank and IMF, emphasizing that combating global challenges like climate and poverty as well as approaching the post-Covid economy were dependent on investments in “reforestation, sustainable agriculture and supporting healthy oceans.” More from the BBC here.

Lehotsky Keller LLP is bringing on Michael B. Schon as a partner to expand the firm’s environmental litigation capabilities. Schon served as chief counsel for energy and environmental litigation for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

— “China’s Greenland Ambitions Run Into Local Politics, U.S. Influence,” via The Wall Street Journal.

— “Climate adaptation, resilience panel recommends planning for gas infrastructure,” via POLITICO.

— “Rat poison found rampant in eagles,” via E&E News.

— “Confusion may be Democrats’ friend in drive to raise corporate taxes,” via POLITICO.

— “CME seeks to tap electric-car demand with lithium futures,” via The Wall Street Journal.

THAT’S ALL FOR ME!





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