The abortion fight just got more complicated

From: POLITICO Pulse - Friday Dec 17,2021 03:02 pm

Dec 17, 2021

Presented by The American Petroleum Institute (API)

With help from Josh Siegel

Editor’s Note: Morning Energy is a free version of POLITICO Pro Energy’s morning newsletter, which is delivered to our s each morning at 6 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day’s biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro.

Quick Fix

— Puerto Rico could be a trailblazer in renewable power, setting an example for the rest of the country, but only if it first overcomes management and reliability challenges.

— BBB won't get done this year, but that isn't deterring Senate climate hawks.

— Coal is slated to have a major upswing as world economies recover, setting back global efforts to keep emissions in check.

HAPPY FRIDAY! I’m your host, Matthew Choi. Sadly, no one knew Iasi is the second most populous city in Romania. For today’s trivia, Greta Gerwig is a native of what California city? Send your tips and trivia answers to mchoi@politico.com . 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: Biden’s plan to tackle lead pipes.

Listen to today's POLITICO Energy Podcast!

A message from The American Petroleum Institute (API):

The Biden administration is looking just about everywhere for solutions to elevated gasoline prices. Unfortunately, the administration has looked in all the wrong places – repeatedly asking OPEC+ to ramp up crude production, while suggesting that U.S. companies are to blame.

Driving the Day

THE PUERTO RICAN TEST: As Puerto Rico rebuilds its grid, residents and clean energy advocates see potential for a massive build out of renewable energy that could be a model for the mainland, Pro's Gloria Gonzalez reports. FEMA has $9.4 billion — the largest amount awarded in the agency’s history — to spend on the island’s power network, and activists want it used toward equipping homes with rooftop solar as a way to decentralize power. Doing so could also minimize the blackouts caused when the power lines crossing the island's rugged terrain get damaged in more frequent, destructive hurricanes.

“Puerto Rico is a very big test,” said Ruth Santiago, a community and environmental attorney in Puerto Rico and a member of pro-solar group Queremos Sol. Santiago noted that President Joe Biden can deploy the technology without any resistance from Republicans in Congress. “The funds are already allocated. They’re fully within the control of FEMA under the Biden administration.”

But Puerto Rico’s grid has a unique set of challenges, including a history of management issues, and lawmakers and residents alike are fighting over the privatization of the network. LUMA Energy, which has a 15-year contract to run Puerto Rico’s grid, is the subject of ire from both residents and environmentalists who say blackouts have worsened and renewable power isn’t being deployed quickly enough. And there’s skepticism about making the island a test case for a renewable buildout when it's already plagued with reliability issues.

“Puerto Rico could be the big experiment for the whole nation in terms of having a diversified portfolio of energy, not just one experiment in terms of renewables,” Jenniffer González-Colón, a Republican who is Puerto Rico’s congressional representative, told Gloria. Read more from Gloria, who takes a deep dive into the grid challenges on the island and the fight on how to move forward.

JOIN TODAY FOR A WOMEN RULE 2021 REWIND AND A LOOK AHEAD AT 2022: Congress is sprinting to get through a lengthy and challenging legislative to-do list before the end of the year that has major implications for women’s rights. Join Women Rule editor Elizabeth Ralph and POLITICO journalists Laura Barrón-López, Eleanor Mueller, Elena Schneider and Elana Schor for a virtual roundtable that will explore the biggest legislative and policy shifts in 2021 affecting women and what lies ahead in 2022. REGISTER HERE.

On the Hill

INTO THE NEW YEAR: Biden acknowledged Thursday that Democrats’ $1.7 trillion reconciliation package won’t get done this year. But Senate climate hawks remain adamant yet another delay is not damaging to the fortunes of the legislation, Pro’s Josh Siegel reports.

“It’s just a hope we get it done before Christmas,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). “But if we get it done after Christmas, that would be just fine.”

“This is a hard thing to do, but it's an incredibly important thing to do. We just can't give up,” Environment and Public Works Chair Tom Carper told Josh. “Hopefully, we can get the ball in the end zone this month. But if we can’t, when we come back on Jan. 3, let's get back to work.”

Democrats said they won’t lose momentum by skirting past another self-imposed deadline and punting their climate and social spending bill to 2022, an election year that always represents tough terrain to pass big legislation. But multiple senators still acknowledged Thursday that the drawn-out negotiations mean the U.S. is wasting precious time in making a meaningful contribution to the global fight against climate change.

Democrats already failed to achieve an earlier goal of arming Biden with a major legislative win ahead of the recent COP26 U.N. climate conference, which caused some allies to question whether the U.S. can achieve his aggressive emissions reduction targets. And House Democrats, for their part, are losing patience with their Senate colleagues after they successfully passed their version of the spending bill last month with similarly tight margins.

“If this is a punt into next year on Build Back Better, it would be deeply disappointing and arguably a betrayal,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) told Josh. “We have a climate crisis and there is an urgent need to do this. Senators need to walk and chew gum and approve nominees and pass Build Back Better all at the same time.”

UYGHUR BILL EN ROUTE TO LAW: The Senate reached an agreement Thursday to unanimously pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a bipartisan bill that would crack down on China’s use of slavery and ethnic persecution in Xinjiang. The bill bans all imports from Xinjiang, though companies can be granted an exception if they can show proof the imports aren’t the product of human rights abuses.

“Many companies have already taken steps to clean up their supply chains,” Sen. Marco Rubio , one of the bill’s bipartisan coauthors, said. “For those who have not done that, they’ll no longer be able to continue to make Americans — every one of us, frankly — unwitting accomplices in the atrocities, in the genocide that’s being committed by the Chinese Communist Party.”

China dominates much of the solar supply chain, with Xinjiang developing into a production hub for solar parts. The Solar Energy Industries Association has been pushing its members to move their supply chains out of the region, with SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper saying many firms have hired third-party audits to do so. “The risks of forced labor in the region are just too high,” she said in a statement. POLITICO’s Andrew Desiderio has more on the bill.

EPW REVEALS ITS TEXT: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee unveiled its portions of Democrats’ reconciliation package on Thursday. But the game isn’t over, with lingering disputes being discussed behind closed doors. The draft revealed Thursday maintained the House-passed version of the methane fee, which is still under negotiations to placate centrist concerns that it would be too punitive on the oil and gas sector. A Senate Democratic aide involved in the talks told Pro’s Josh Siegel that "negotiations continue in a positive direction.”

Other climate-related committees have already unveiled their texts this week, including Senate Finance with its clean energy tax credits and Senate Energy with its (less far-reaching than the House) reforms to the federal oil and gas leasing system. Read more from Josh on EPW’s portion here.

Beyond the Beltway

THE COAL COMEBACK: Global coal generation is on the upswing, forecasted to have its largest ever annual surge this year after a muted decline in 2020 due to the pandemic, according to the International Energy Agency’s Coal 2021 report released today. That could portend even more growth for coal generation next year, meaning a backslide from international goals to keep global temperature rise under 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to the report.

The rise in coal is closely tied to the rise in electricity demand as economies recover from the pandemic. Renewables are struggling to keep up with the speed of demand, and high natural gas prices around the world are making coal an economically competitive option. Global coal power generation is expected to go up by 9 percent in 2021, with overall coal demand, including industrial uses outside of electricity, expected to go up 6 percent. That’s 10,350 terawatt hours of generation — an all time high.

“Coal is the single largest source of global carbon emissions, and this year’s historically high level of coal power generation is a worrying sign of how far off track the world is in its efforts to put emissions into decline towards net zero,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol in a statement.

Coal was a major topic of discussion on the sidelines of this year’s U.N. climate summit in Scotland, where dozens of countries pledged to stop using coal at home and financing overseas fossil fuel projects. But as IEA’s report highlights, China and India are far ahead in coal consumption and production, and the two countries will have an outsized say in the direction of global coal consumption going forward.

“These two economies – dependent on coal and with a combined population of almost 3 billion people – hold the key to future coal demand. The fate of coal depends on how quickly and effectively countries move to implement their net zero commitments,” the report said. Read the full report here.

A message from The American Petroleum Institute (API):

Around the Agencies

PHILLIPS’ FIRST FERC: Pipeline issues came to the forefront during Commissioner Willie Phillips’ first FERC open meeting Thursday. The agency vacated the certificate for the PennEast Pipeline and the Jordan Cove LNG facility and pipeline, and said it would consider potential environmental penalties for the Midship Pipeline Company and Rover Pipeline. Chair Richard Glick said these actions signaled the commission would be “more aggressive” in enforcing standards. Republicans have accused the commission of creating setbacks for the natural gas industry via its more stringent posture on safety and environmental reviews.

Though Phillips didn’t vote during the meeting, he indicated he had his eye on reliability and sustainability issues during his opening remarks. The commission also opened a probe into political activity costs being offset onto utilities’ ratepayers and finalized its rule on dam safety, which beefs up inspection requirements and public safety reporting while codifying current safety requirements. Catherine has more from inside the meeting for Pros.

STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.

In the States

NO TO NECEC: The backers of a long-distance transmission line bringing Canadian hydropower into New England were dealt another blow Thursday when a Maine judge declined a request to delay implementation of the referendum that had effectively killed the project. A lawsuit by the New England Clean Energy Connect challenges the constitutionality of the referendum, which passed with 59 percent support. But “while the economic harm to Plaintiffs brought about by delaying construction of the corridor during the litigation will be substantial, that harm does not outweigh the harm to voter confidence and participatory democracy that would result from preventing the Initiative from becoming law while this legal challenge is pending,” Judge Michael Duddy wrote. Pro’s Jordan Wolman has more.

The Grid

— “Enbridge seeks to thwart state by moving second Line 5 closure suit to federal court,” via The Detroit News.

— “Pro Q&A: EPA Region 2 Administrator Lisa Garcia,” via POLITICO.

— ” Trudeau directs senior ministers to combat U.S. protectionism,” via POLITICO.

— “The race to defuse Congo’s carbon bomb,” via The Washington Post.

— ”Green-Energy Race Draws an American Underdog to Bolivia’s Lithium,” via The New York Times.

— “Nord Stream 2 won't go live in first half of 2022, German regulator warns,” via Reuters.

A message from The American Petroleum Institute (API):

Four Things to Know About Crude Oil and Gasoline Prices:
It’s important to remember that the U.S. energy revolution helped America achieve greater self-sufficiency, a semblance of energy independence, and at a minimum helped protect American consumers from global crude oil price spikes. That is currently lacking. The reality is the administration’s policies have effectively thwarted the best response to a global crude supply shortfall that has put upward pressure on gasoline prices – increased American oil production.

Here's what policymakers should consider when assessing oil markets: