ICYMI: The Senate last night unexpectedly passed a bill from House Energy and Commerce Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers to ban uranium imports from Russia, with Sen. Ted Cruz lifting a months-long hold on the legislation.
Cruz objected to the bill’s passage through unanimous consent in December over his provisions that were stripped out of last year’s National Defense Authorization Act bill. But following the news that the White House was working on banning Russian imports via executive action, the Senate passed the measure unanimously.
“I’m encouraged by the efforts of my colleagues in the Senate to advance this important legislation, which will strengthen American nuclear energy leadership and national security, and I look forward to seeing it signed into law,” Rodgers said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
The bill’s future: The bill is likely to be signed into law by President Joe Biden. Officials noted in Bloomberg’s report that they preferred legislation to be passed, since executive action would be more susceptible to legal action than an actual law.
What broke the dam? It’s unclear why Cruz decided to lift his hold now. But, considering the prospect of executive action, his hold on the Russian uranium imports ban as leverage for his own legislation would prove moot. It’s also important to note that Cruz supported the intent of Rodgers’s bill, and said back in December that he would work with senators to pass the measure.
A spokesperson for Republicans on the Senate Commerce Committee referred back to the senator’s December remarks when asked about Cruz lifting his objection.
What the bill does: The bill would ban the import of unirradiated, low-enriched uranium from Russia unless it was indicated by the Department of Energy to be absolutely critical to U.S. nuclear operations.
Russian uranium accounts for almost a quarter of the supply for the U.S. nuclear fleet, and imports provide an estimated $1 billion a year to Russia. Congress passed legislation earlier this year appropriating $2.7 billion in subsidies for building out a domestic uranium supply chain – but the funding is contingent on a ban on Russian imports being enacted by legislation or executive action.
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BUDGET HEARING ON BIG OIL: The Senate Budget Committee held a hearing examining the role oil companies have played in global warming and climate change, and how they have sought to undermine efforts to curtail emissions.
The panel, chaired by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, looked deeper into the years-long investigation into oil majors, originally steered by House Democrats on the Oversight Committee. Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin testified before the body, remarking in his opening statements that the science of global warming was “well-understood” by oil companies in the 1960s – but instead of sharing those findings and changing their business model, the industry instead attempted to suppress the findings, and challenged calls by academia to take the issue of climate change seriously.
A notable quotable: “Instead of acting like Paul Revere, and sounding the alarm about climate change, they acted like Maleficent – the evil fairy in Sleeping Beauty – and cursed everyone to try to go to sleep for 100 years,” Raskin said in his opening remarks.
Budget Ranking Member Sen. Chuck Grassley slammed Democrats for not being transparent about possessing records from the Oversight investigation and answering questions about issuing a report.
“The majority failed to inform the minority they were working with House Democrats on a report,” Grassley said in his opening remarks. “The majority could’ve been transparent with the minority many months ago, as is the normal course of business. You chose not to do so. This unfortunate series of non-transparent events has undone years of investigative precedent … And, I will keep that in mind as my investigations move forward.”
GRANHOLM ON THE HILL: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm appeared before the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Energy, Climate, and Grid Security Subcommittee to testify on the budget. She fielded numerous skeptical questions from Republicans about grid security and the administration’s efforts to promote electric vehicles. She also faced one curveball from Rodgers about DOE funding going to universities in light of the protests currently roiling many schools – a topic that has risen to the top of the agenda in the House.
In response to a question from Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, Granholm also provided slightly more clarity about the timing for the administration’s LNG export approval pause. “The review should be completed by the end of this year or the beginning of next year,” she said. “Around that time.”
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION RELEASES SUSTAINABLE AVIATION FUEL RULES: The Biden administration yesterday released guidance for qualification for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) tax credits created by the Inflation Reduction Act.
The basics, in case you missed it: The SAF credit will go to alternative fuels that achieve a lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions reduction of at least 50% as compared with jet fuel.
Producers are eligible for a tax credit of $1.25 to $1.75 per gallon, with the higher amount going to fuels that achieve greater emissions reductions.
The rules, laid out in a 41 page document, say that ethanol can qualify if farmers engage in certain climate-friendly practices, including no-till farming, planting cover crops, and applying enhanced efficiency nitrogen fertilizer. Soy-based fuels can qualify if the producers use no-till farming and planting cover crops.
Yesterday’s guidance also included the announcement of a new model for estimating lifecycle emissions, adapted from the GREET Model developed by the Energy Department’s Argonne Lab. The update includes modeling of key feedstocks and processes used in aviation fuel and indirect emissions, and also takes into account whether producers use carbon capture and storage, as well as whether they get power from renewable natural gas or renewable electricity.
The reaction: Renewable fuel interests had a mixed reaction. Sen. Grassley of Iowa called the updated GREET model “a stupid approach,” arguing it wouldn’t be workable for corn farmers.
Renewable Fuels Association CEO Geoff Cooper said that the guidance provided a path for ethanol-based SAF, but that “less prescription on ag practices, more flexibility, and additional low-carbon technologies and practices should be added to the modeling framework to better reflect the innovation occurring throughout the supply chain.”
Mark Brownstein, the Environmental Defense Fund’s senior vice president for energy transition, said that he worried the guidance may have missed the mark. “The bottom line is that to decarbonize aviation, U.S. airlines need a volume of alternative fuels that sustainable biomass alone cannot meet,” he said.
AXING OF TESLA SUPERCHARGER TEAM CASTS DOUBT ON NETWORK EXPANSION: Tesla’s dismissal yesterday of the team responsible for building its Superchargers is a setback for the broader push to build out an electric vehicle charging network across the country.
Tesla’s charging standard, the North American Charging System (NACS), has become the default standard across the country, as other automakers have committed to using it and it has gained support from the Biden administration.
Superchargers, many of which have been opened to owners of non-Tesla EVs, account for a fifth of the nation’s roughly 10,000 fast chargers, and so represent a major part of the network. The Biden administration is implementing a range of programs meant to boost the network, as a lack of access to charging is a major barrier to EV adoption. So far, though, its efforts, including the $7.5 billion in funding for chargers in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, have only yielded a paltry number of chargers.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted yesterday that “Tesla still plans to grow the Supercharger network, just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100% uptime and expansion of existing locations.”
About 500 employees were reportedly laid off. Tesla had previously said it would shrink its global workforce by 10% in an effort to improve efficiency.
MICROSOFT INKS DEAL TOUTED AS LARGEST POWER PURCHASE EVER: Microsoft and Brookfield Asset Management said today they reached a deal to develop 10.5 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity to help with Microsoft’s goal of “having 100% of its electricity consumption, 100% of the time, matched by zero carbon energy purchases by 2030.”
Connor Teskey, president of Brookfield Asset Management, said the agreement was almost eight times larger than the largest single corporate power purchase agreement ever signed.
Delivering on the agreement is likely to cost on the order of $10 billion, according to the Financial Times.
Microsoft needs tremendous amounts of energy to power its data centers as it competes to lead on artificial intelligence. Other major AI companies and data providers have also sought deals to secure clean energy – for example, Amazon Web Services recently purchased a campus in Pennsylvania that will be powered by an adjacent nuclear power plant.
INDUSTRY GROUP INVESTS $58.3M IN CARBON REMOVAL STARTUP: Frontier, an entity that buys carbon removal, has agreed to pay the startup Vaulted Deep $58.3 million to remove 152,480 metric tons of CO2 between 2024 and 2027, Canary Media reports. That amount is equivalent to about 40% of the annual emissions from a gas power plant.
Frontier is a group that commits in advance to buying carbon removal, so as to help create demand and boost the nascent carbon removal industry. It purchases on behalf of a number of companies, including Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and McKinsey. Vaunted works by taking carbon-rich biomass waste and turning it into a slurry that can be permanently injected into underground storage, preventing it from decomposing.
FOR YOUR RADAR: Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES) and the Conservative Energy Network (CEN) will host their sixth annual congressional fly-in, where clean energy advocates, business leaders, and state officials from 17 states will participate in meetings with nearly 90 congressional offices. The meetings will center around advocating for conservative clean energy policies. Read more here about the policies they’re championing.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT – NEW WATER HEATER RULES: The Department of Energy finalized new energy efficiency standards for residential hot water heaters yesterday, an action billed as the most consequential of all of the efficiency rules it has rolled out for household appliances. Read more about it here.
RUNDOWN
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