With help from Kelsey Tamborrino and Alex Guillén.
Programming Note: We’ll be off this Monday for Memorial Day but will be back in your inboxes on Tuesday, May 31.
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— Electric vehicles are still unattainable for many Americans suffering from stifling gasoline prices, and it could really hurt Democrats in November.
— The Gulf Coast’s fossil fuel history could be key to an offshore wind future.
— While clean energy backers lambaste the Commerce Department for its solar tariff probe, some Democrats are cheering it on.
HAPPY FRIDAY! I’m your host, Matthew Choi. LCV’s Tiernan Sittenfeld gets the trivia for knowing Baffin Island is the largest island in Canada. For today: What’s Guy Fieri’s middle name? 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 a gas price-fueled EV push won’t save Dems at the polls.
GAS PRICE SURGE CAN’T BUY EV LOVE: Gasoline prices reached yet another record high Thursday at $4.60 per gallon — one of numerous records this month. And while Democrats say it demonstrates the need to switch over to electric vehicles, that’s a lot easier said than done, POLITICO’s Alex Daugherty, Josh Siegel and Ben Lefebvre report. Meanwhile, voters are fed up with the high prices, and it could cause serious pain for Democrats in November.
Even with the high cost of gasoline and the climate benefits of zero-emission vehicles, electric cars remain far out of reach for many potential buyers. A Chevy Bolt can cost almost $15,000 more than an equivalent with an internal combustion engine — far more than the $5,000 in savings EV owners can enjoy on fuel and maintenance over 10 years. Supply chain challenges owing to the pandemic and high transit costs also make finding EVs for sale a challenge, with buyers often placed on wait lists for months or even years.
Meanwhile, voters are blaming President Joe Biden for driving the inflation reflected in gas prices — more so than a lack of corporate competition or Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And if Democrats lose control of Congress next year, that could table much of their EV-supporting, climate changing-combatting agenda, keeping a transition to electric vehicles out of reach for many everyday Americans.
“EVs are one critical weapon in fighting against climate change,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said. “We are collectively putting a lot of hope on the impact of getting gasoline burning engines off our highways and using more EVs and mass transit to move people around. If we don’t make that transition and make it soon there is no way we can meet our climate goals.”
Read more from Alex, Josh and Ben here.
GULF WINDS: The Gulf Coast is shaping up to be an attractive spot for offshore wind expansion, possibly helping the Biden administration reach its goal of 30 gigawatts of wind power capacity by 2030, POLITICO’s Kelsey Tamborrino reports. The area’s long history as a bastion of the offshore oil and gas industry create a labor force well suited for working in generation off the coast, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Amanda Lefton contends, and the shift to offshore wind could be an example of the “just transition” central to the administration’s climate goals.
“When workers hear ‘just transition,’ I think they hear ‘We’re having a fancy funeral,’” said Rick Levy, president of the Texas AFL-CIO labor union. But he said this moment in history offers an opening “to make sure that when we set these offshore wind and other technologies on their course, that workers are able to share in the benefits.”
The region still faces its challenges. It doesn’t experience the robust wind found in the Northeast Atlantic Coast, and the area suffers from frequent hurricanes and billions of migratory birds.
But building out the sector in the Gulf wouldn’t require constructing an industry from scratch. The area’s workforce already has experience welding and servicing offshore energy, and “it’s all easily translatable,” said Michael Hecht, president and CEO of economic development group Greater New Orleans.
SOLAR PROBE PROMPTS ‘MASS HYSTERIA’: Six bicameral Democrats are pressing the administration to stay the course on the Commerce Department’s circumvention investigation into solar components from four Southeast Asian nations despite the probe sparking fierce backlash in the solar industry and among their fellow Democrats.
“This political pressure is an attempt to undermine the integrity of our trade enforcement laws and the independence of our federal workforce,” said a new letter, signed by Sens. Sherrod Brown and Bob Casey and Reps. Marcy Kaptur, Mike Doyle, Terri Sewell and Tim Ryan. The lawmakers add that Commerce is simply upholding U.S. law and that the “troubling” lobbying against the probe has reached “mass hysteria.”
The lawmakers also take aim at industry trade group the Solar Energy Industries Association, which they write represents Chinese manufacturers that are subject to the original duties. “There should be no uncertainty on the market at all if these companies fully participate in the review and if, as they assert, there is no illegal [antidumping and countervailing duties] circumvention occurring,” the lawmakers added.
In a statement response, SEIA President and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper called it “untrue” that the group is attempting to undermine or subvert trade enforcement, and fired back that allegations of Chinese influence on SEIA “are absurd and patently false.” Hopper alleged that “a group of well-funded tariff hawks are selling lawmakers a bad-faith bill of goods” about the probe “in an attempt to conflate it with the broader U.S.-China trade war, and they’re targeting SEIA as the boogeyman.”
MILITARY GREEN: Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Reps. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) and Jason Crow (D-Colo.) want the Defense Department to go green. The group introduced the Depend on Domestic Clean Energy Act on Thursday to switch DOD’s energy supplies away from fossil fuels, which they call in a news release a “strategic and operational vulnerability for U.S. forces and can have negative impacts on our military readiness.” The Defense Department is the biggest institutional consumer of fossil fuels in the world.
The bill would enhance sustainability targets, bolster DOD powers to upgrade energy management systems and expand hiring authority to modernize DOD energy sources, among other measures designed to wean the department off of fossil fuels. Read the bill text here.
WHOOSH GOES THE DEADLINE: Everyone is going home for Memorial Day recess, and it’s safe to say Democrats did not meet their soft deadline to have an agreement on a reconciliation package. The path forward on the legislation remains murky, with Sen. Joe Manchin saying Thursday that he has “no idea” if there will be an agreement, POLITICO’s Brian Faler reports.
But that doesn’t mean it’s dead. Manchin met with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to discuss the matter Wednesday, and the West Virginia said it was “respectful.”
“No one is putting a deadline on that,” Manchin told reporters.
THE FAST AND THE SPURIOUS: Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt routinely ordered his security detail to use their lights and sirens when running around town in non-emergency situations, whether he was late to a meeting, making the four-block journey from the White House to his office or just getting his dry cleaning, according to a newly unearthed internal agency report from 2018.
Although rumors that Pruitt was into the VIP travel style ran rampant four years ago, the report made public on Thursday by the Office of Special Counsel formally details his rubber-spinning activities for the first time. It also comes as Pruitt has made criticizing press coverage of his scandals a central theme in his bid for Oklahoma’s Senate seat.
“Use that magic button to get us through traffic,” Pruitt would tell his security detail, including by cutting across oncoming traffic or entering a venue “hot.” He was so insistent, one official eventually ordered the lights and sirens be disabled on vehicles so they could tell Pruitt they didn’t work.
You know you make me wanna pout: One agent recalled a senior agent once rebuffed Pruitt and explained the lights and sirens were for emergencies only. “The Administrator was visibly upset and was silent for an uncomfortable time in the car. The trip was uneventful but [the agent] said the Administrator was upset and a few days later, [the senior agent] was removed from [their] position,” the report said. That “sent a clear message to the [protective detail] that if you didn’t perform the bidding of the Administrator, you would lose your job.”
The OSC report, large parts of which were still redacted, also touched on other allegations previously confirmed by government watchdogs, including Pruitt’s $43,000 phone booth and his luxe travel spending. H/t New York Times, which has more context on the OSC report.
PEBBLE MINING RESTRICTIONS EXPAND ON 2014 VERSION:EPA’s new proposed restrictions on mining Alaska’s Pebble deposit expand on protections the agency first floated in 2014, according to the 339-page document released on Thursday. The Obama administration had proposed restricting mining discharge in a 268-square-mile area around the contentious copper-and-gold project. The updated version this week, however, bumps that up to 309 square miles after finding mining the deposit would have “unacceptable adverse effects.” It covers the headwaters for several waterways critical to salmon, which swim upstream to spawn.
EPA also preemptively defended its authority to issue a broad restriction on virtually any future mining in that area, arguing that acting now “promotes transparency, clarity, and predictability” by “providing clarity to the regulated community and all interested stakeholders, which will help avoid unnecessary costs and investments.” The proposal has been blasted by the mine’s developers and Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy. Public comment is open through July 5.
SOCIAL COST OF CARBON CHARGES AHEAD: The Biden administration has a clearer path to revise its social cost of carbon, which puts a monetary value on carbon emissions, after the Supreme Court rejected Republican states’ attempt to ax the metric Thursday. The social cost of carbon is currently set at $51 per ton — a temporary figure the Biden administration instituted after the previous administration gutted the tool — but experts advocate raising it as much as four times that amount.
That doesn’t mean the SCC is free of legal challenges. The 5th Circuit is still hearing the matter, though it hasn’t signaled much sympathy to the GOP cause. Several Republican lawmakers led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito have also asked repeatedly for more insight into how the administration is formulating its new SCC, saying the process has so far been opaque (Capito’s office told ME Thursday they haven’t gotten a response yet). POLITICO’s Alex Guillén has more.
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS JENNIFER GRANHOLM? The Energy secretary continues her Western tour today in New Mexico to participate in a small business roundtable with Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.) to discuss public-private partnerships in the clean energy transition.
WINDFALL ATTRACTS SUPPORT ACROSS THE POND: While Democrats push against the odds for a windfall tax for oil majors, London is setting in motion its own version that would raise money to ease the burden on everyday Britons, The Wall Street Journal reports. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced a 25 percent “energy profits levy” marked to finance a fund to offer relief for energy costs. The tax would wane as prices cool and could last until 2025.
Casten and Don McEachin (D-Va.) introduced a similar bill this week that would eliminate 11 tax credits for the oil and gas industry to pay for $500 direct cash rebates for Americans suffering from high prices. Read more from the Journal here.
— Nidhi Thakar is joining Form Energy as its vice president of policy and regulatory. Thakar is currently senior director for resources and regulatory strategy and engagement at Portland General Electric. She was previously a senior adviser in DOE’s Loan Programs Office under the Obama administration.
— “Natural-Gas Prices Surge as Summer Cooling Season Switches On,” via The Wall Street Journal.
— “Interior launches next phase in California offshore wind buildout,” via POLITICO.
— “Nigeria finance minister: low oil output barely enough to cover petrol imports,” via Reuters.
— “Ukrainian fighters take to electric bikes in the war against Russia,” via The Washington Post.
— “Federal pipeline safety agency proposes $3.8M penalty for 2020 carbon dioxide leak,” via POLITICO.
THAT’S ALL FOR ME!
