THE POLITICS OF A PROPOSED CAP ON PLASTIC PRODUCTION: A major question looming over this week’s talks in Canada over a proposed treaty on plastic pollution is whether countries will agree to adopt a cap on plastic production. 

The details: Representatives from more than 176 countries will gather in Ottawa on Tuesday for the U.N.’s fourth round of talks on a plastics treaty, with the aim to finalize a deal at the end of the year to end plastic pollution within the next two decades. But a major sticking point of the treaty draft  – which is meant to address plastics through their entire lifecycle – is whether to cap the production of plastic. 

Why it matters: Plastic production is expected to double or triple by 2050, according to a study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The study outlines that the greenhouse gas emissions from plastics production could account for roughly a fifth of the carbon “budget” that would keep temperatures in line with the 2015 Paris Climate Accords, where nearly 200 countries agreed to keep global temperatures from increasing above 1.5 degrees Celsius. A growing awareness of the toll of the use of plastic on the environment and on public health is fueling calls to end plastic production and to find alternatives to the toxic chemicals used to make the material. If the treaty is finalized, this could be one of the most significant global agreements on the environment and emissions since the 2015 Paris Agreement.  

The pushback: Countries like Saudi Arabia and China, which have large petrochemical industries, have opposed the production caps. Trade groups such as America’s Plastic Makers, which represents many petrochemical producers, have argued that production caps would lead to higher prices for consumers. They also say that it would be highly energy intensive to create alternatives to plastic. 

What greens want: Environmental advocacy groups such as Greenpeace are calling for plastic production to be reduced by 75% from 2019 levels by 2040 – arguing that recycling is not a substantive effort to reduce plastic waste, as only a small percentage of materials are actually recycled. 

Some background: The U.N. Environment Assembly in 2022 agreed to develop an international, legally binding agreement tackling plastic pollution. Since then, there have been a total of three out of five rounds of talks to address the issue, held in Uruguay, France, and Kenya. The fifth and final session will be held at the end of November in Busan, South Korea. 

Congress angle: A congressional delegation is expected to be in Ottawa this week, led by climate hawk Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. Whitehouse, along with House and international lawmakers, wrote to President Joe Biden and other leaders last week to call for restricting plastic producers’ influence on the U.N. meeting, in fears of obstructing progress to reducing waste. Exxon, for example, is one of the largest names attending the conference – and is leading a fight against the production cap. 

Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment writers Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep) and Nancy Vu (@NancyVu99). Email bdeppisch@washingtonexaminer dot com or nancy.vu@washingtonexaminer dot com for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list. 

OIL CALM AS IRAN-ISRAEL CONFLICT DEESCALATES: Oil prices held lower this morning, with Brent crude trading below $87, as investors took heart from the de-escalatory language from Iran on Friday after Israel launched a retaliatory strike. 

The lack of any further reprisals helped calm investors, as did the fact that none of last week’s belligerence threatened oil market logistics. 

“The market reaction to the rise of geopolitical temperature in the region was yet another example that it is only reasonable to expect a protracted oil price rally in case of blocking the Strait of Hormuz or if Saudi Arabia is directly drawn into the conflict,” Tamas Varga, an analyst with oil broker PVM, told clients this morning, according to CNBC. 

Israel initially planned on a much more aggressive attack on Iran, but scaled it back under pressure from the U.S. and other allies, the New York Times reported this morning. Ultimately, it bombed a military airfield in central Iran – a strike that was small enough for the Iranian government to liken it to playing with toys. 

SHAH BLAMES CULTURE FOR LACK OF TRANSMISSION UPGRADES: Department of Energy Loan Programs Office Director Jigar Shah said in a new interview that it is not technology that is holding back the deployment of energy infrastructure, but rather “culture and norms.” 

In the interview with the publication Cipher, Shah was specifically asked why transmission lines are not being replaced with more efficient wires with greater capacity. He responded that, when he brings up new technologies with utilities or regulators, he’s told: “‘It’s just not something that our grid operators like to do.’”

Shah is responsible for overseeing hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of lending authority to back clean energy projects, a role greatly expanded by the Inflation Reduction Act. As permitting reform has eluded Congress and the White House in the time since the IRA’s enactment, though, the regulatory and logistical bottlenecks to rolling out new projects have threatened its goals. 

Shah said that utilities and regulators must be given latitude to allow projects to proceed even if they don’t work out perfectly. “We’ve got to figure out how to give people protection so that they can do the right thing,” he said. 

HOUSE FIELD HEARINGS THIS WEEK: The House is out this week, but the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands is holding a field hearing this afternoon in Utah on “Empowering Local Voices and Stopping Federal Overreach to Improve the Management of Utah’s Public Lands.”

The Oversight Committee Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs will hold a hearing tomorrow in Plano, Texas: “Drilling Down: Oversight of the Challenges and Opportunities Facing U.S. Energy Production.” The hearing will feature testimony from multiple oil company officials. 

BIDEN MARKING EARTH DAY WITH SOLAR AND CLIMATE CORPS ANNOUNCEMENT: Biden is set to mark Earth Day with a speech this afternoon in Prince William Forest Park in Virginia, where he will announce $7 billion in grants for the Solar for All program, Nancy reports, as well as new efforts to roll out the Climate Corps. 

Other members of the administration are also going on tour to tout the Inflation Reduction Act and other Biden climate measures in a bid to court young climate voters. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm are headed separately to Pennsylvania. 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ENERGY UPDATE – ALTMAN INVESTS IN EXOWATT: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is among the investors (along with major venture capitalist firm Andreessen Horowitz) in the solar power and storage company Exowatt, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

AI developers have been looking for alternate supplies of energy in light of the tremendous amounts of power needed for data centers. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last week that supplying energy will be a major constraint for the development of AI in the near future. 

Exowatt has developed solar modules that use lenses to convert sunlight into heat that can be stored for use. 

RUNDOWN 

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