RECA BACKERS AT WORK ON CAPITOL HILL: Advocates flooded Capitol Hill this week to call for the extension and expansion of a bill compensating victims sickened by government-authorized nuclear testing programs, following a meeting with the office of Speaker Mike Johnson.
The details: Johnson’s office met with the victims on Thursday, following pressure from advocacy groups and fellow Republicans to meet with the downwinders amid calls to pass a reauthorization of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
Sen. Ben Ray Luján, the lead Democratic senator on the bill, blasted the previous iterations of the 1990 law that had left out communities in qualifying for the program, including an area in his home state of New Mexico.
“How’s it possible? How could Congress get something so wrong?” Lujan said during the Thursday press conference.
Luján, along with Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, has been calling for the speaker to bring their RECA bill to the House floor. The bill would extend RECA for five years, and expand to include additional states such as Missouri, Idaho, Montana, Guam, Colorado, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alaska. The bill would also increase the payout maximum for eligible constituents from $50,000 to $100,000.
This is a largely bipartisan issue: Members from across the political spectrum called for RECA’s reauthorization at Thursday’s presser, ranging from Democratic progressives (Luján and Reps. Teresa Leger Fernandez, Cori Bush, and Melanie Stansbury) and centrists (Rep. Gabe Vasquez) to Republicans (Guam Del. James Moylan).
Bush summed up the bipartisan nature of the cause: “When you have Cori Bush and Josh Hawley on the same side, fighting for the same thing for our Missourians, you need to listen,” she said at the presser.
The Senate also passed the bill in a 69-30 vote in March.
Paths forward: Having passed the upper chamber, the measure can be brought to the House floor as a standalone bill if Johnson chooses to bring it up – or it can be voted on as an amendment to a legislative vehicle. Vasquez mentioned on Thursday that he’ll be introducing the bill as an amendment to this year’s annual defense bill.
But: There is resistance from Republicans because of the cost of the bill – a rough estimate of $50 billion, without any offsets.
When asked if the speaker intends to take the bill up for a standalone floor vote, a spokesperson did not answer the question, but stated: “The Speaker understands and appreciates Senator Hawley’s position and is working closely with interested members and stakeholders to chart a path forward for the House.”
The clock is ticking: RECA is set to sunset on June 10, 2024.
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A PERMITTING DEAL … IN THE HOUSE? Majority Leader Chuck Schumer may have thrown cold water on the possibility of permitting reform being considered in the Senate – but that doesn’t mean lawmakers aren’t going to continue to try in the House.
As Daily on Energy alum Josh Siegel reports, House Natural Resources Committee Bruce Westerman and Democratic Rep. Scott Peters – a transmission advocate – are working to release a bipartisan permitting proposal together this year.
Westerman and Peters have met a handful of times individually, agreeing to a broad set of principles that could form the foundation of a deal benefitting both renewables and fossil fuel projects, while touching on areas like the National Environmental Policy Act and public lands.
The goal, they say, is to release a bipartisan bill that could carry over to the next Congress regardless of who controls both chambers, and even if Donald Trump returns to the presidency. Read more on that here.
HOUSE OVERSIGHT GETS GRANHOLM TESTIMONY AFTER A LONG TIME TRYING: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will appear before the House Oversight Committee next week, where Republicans are set to grill her over the administration’s pause on new LNG export applications, the agency’s management of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, her summer 2023 electric vehicle road trip, allegations of conflicts of interest within the department’s loan program, and other grievances.
The panel’s chairman, Rep. James Comer, has been trying for months to get Granholm to testify, and accused the agency of failing at basic scheduling. He threatened last month to subpoena her.
He said in a statement announcing the hearing that the committee is “prepared to shine a light on the Biden Administration’s disastrous policies and will continue to work to hold Secretary Granholm accountable.”
ELECTRIC VEHICLE SUBSIDY CRA INTRODUCED WITH DEMOCRATIC SPONSORS: Legislators formally introduced a Congressional Review Act resolution yesterday to undo the Treasury rule implementing the electric vehicle tax credits.
As previously reported, the measure has a few Democratic backers. In the Senate, the resolution is cosponsored by Sen. Joe Manchin, who has been harshly critical of the rule, on the grounds that it is not sufficiently restrictive with respect to China. It is also backed by Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who faces a tough reelection campaign and has bucked the administration on its rules to promote electric vehicles, arguing they will hurt his state’s auto industry and union workers.
“We cannot allow American tax dollars to enrich Chinese companies attempting to infiltrate the American auto supply chain,” Brown said in a statement announcing support for the CRA.
In the House, the measure is cosponsored by Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, whose rural district is rated as a tossup.
POWDER RIVER BASIN FALLOUT: The administration said yesterday that it would end coal leasing in the years ahead on 13 million public acres in the Powder River Basin, which spans Wyoming and Montana and accounts for nearly 50% of all U.S. coal production.
The all-GOP Wyoming congressional delegation condemned the move, Breanne reported. Sen. Cynthia Lummis said that the action “will push our country to rely on foreign adversaries for energy needs at a time when our grid is pushed to the brim and Wyoming coal is needed now more than ever to power our nation and the world.”
The Republican members of Montana’s congressional delegation also criticized the administration. Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, who is facing a very tough reelection campaign in the red state, is weighing action against the administration, E&E News reports.
“Senator Tester will always stand up to President Biden’s energy policies when they don’t make sense for Montana,” a spokesperson for the senator told the publication. “He is reviewing the proposal and encourages Montanans to make their voices heard during the public comment period.”
Tester’s Republican opponent, Tim Sheehy, took the opportunity to tee off on Tester. He tweeted that the Bureau of Land Management is waging a “war on American energy” and described its director, Tracy Stone-Manning, as a “former @JonTester advisor and eco-terrorist.”
MALIGN NEW TREND – EV CHARGERS BEING STRIPPED FOR COPPER: Vandals are increasingly wrecking electric vehicle chargers to steal the copper wiring, InsideEVs reports.
The publication identified a number of instances of Tesla Superchargers and other fast chargers being stripped for copper across the nation, including in Houston, Fresno, the Bay Area, and outside Seattle. The vandals might get $50 of copper at most, but the damages cost operators thousands of dollars to replace. Chargers are attractive targets because they’re often in locations that are empty at night.
The trend is noteworthy in light of the fact that a lack of access to working chargers is one of the top obstacles to EV adoption.
RUNDOWN
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