| | | | | |  | | By Kelsey Tamborrino | Presented by American Clean Power | With help from Annie Snider Editor's Note: Morning Energy is a free version of POLITICO Pro Energy's morning newsletter, which is delivered to our subscribers 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. | | | | | | | — In an interview with POLITICO, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey said he wants Democrats to pursue a clean energy standard rather than carbon pricing and called Joe Biden's early actions "an excellent start" toward the Green New Deal. — Idaho Republican Mike Simpson released a nearly $34 billion plan over the weekend that calls for breaching dams on the Lower Snake River to help restore salmon runs. — A new study finds the average electric vehicle increases overall household electricity load by 2.9 kilowatt-hours per day — a figure that is less than half the amount assumed by state regulators. GOOD MORNING! IT'S MONDAY. I'm your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. The League of Conservation Voters' Nick Abraham gets the Super Bowl trivia win. California is the state that has produced the most Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks by birth: Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Trent Dilfer, Troy Aikman and Jim Plunkett. For today: What is the last word in the Declaration of Independence? Send your tips and trivia answers to ktamborrino@politico.com. 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: Delivering Biden's environmental justice agenda | | | MARKEY'S REMARKS: A decade after his push for major cap and trade legislation was derailed, now-Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) says the drive for a Green New Deal is helping boost momentum and pave the way for Congress to make major progress on climate change in 2021. | 
Sen. Ed Markey speaks at the Back the Thrive Agenda press conference at the Longworth Office Building on Sept. 10, 2020 in Washington, D.C. | Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Green New Deal Network | Markey told Pro's Anthony Adragna on Friday he is pleased with President Joe Biden's early moves on climate change, describing them as "very consistent with the goals" of the Green New Deal resolution he and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) unveiled two years ago. "I would say that it's an excellent start," he said in response to Mitch McConnell's recent comments that Biden's actions amounted to a "piecemeal" Green New Deal. "Talking about Joe Biden, it's an agenda that in my opinion is going to have climate justice built into every reconciliation package." The Massachusetts senator also said he wants Democrats to pursue a clean energy standard over carbon pricing in their push for climate legislation. "[M]y view is that sector-wide solutions like a clean energy standard can help enact the Biden campaign promise of moving toward 100 percent carbon-free electricity sector by 2035," he said. "And there's a strong case to be made that this policy proposal can be done through reconciliation. It's effective, it's endorsed by the Biden campaign, [and] it polls very well. And I think it should be our starting point for climate negotiations, not a carbon tax." He also reflected on lessons learned from the Waxman-Markey bill: "Henry Waxman and I decided to draft that bill and to finish it quickly. We passed the bill through the House of Representatives on June 26, 2009, Barack Obama had been inaugurated on Jan. 20. We started the hearings before he was sworn in as a president. So my belief is that we had the right strategy in the House in 2009, and in 2021 the House and Senate both must move quickly to implement a climate crisis response legislative package and to not allow it to slip into 2022. It must be done and it must be done quickly and we should go." | | A message from American Clean Power: American Clean Power is the voice of the companies turning America's enormous clean power potential into reality. Our members are invested across wind, solar, transmission and energy storage. Together, we are providing cost-effective solutions to the climate crisis while creating jobs, spurring massive investment in the American economy and driving high-tech innovation. Learn more about what's next at www.cleanpower.org. | | | | | | SIMPSON FLOATS DAM REMOVAL PLAN: After three years of effort, Republican Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson floated a $33.5 billion plan this weekend aimed at recovering threatened and endangered salmon and stanching the economic bleeding at the Bonneville Power Administration, which has spent more than $17 billion on fish recovery with little to show for it. The proposal hinges on breaching four operational hydropower dams along the Lower Snake River in Eastern Washington — a long-time priority for the region's conservationists and tribes, but one that has been viciously fought by the state's GOP House members, including Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee. The plan would fund replacement of the power lost from the dams with battery storage, small modular reactors or other means, and would also provide compensation for other lost benefits to local communities and agricultural producers. And it would halt litigation over the environmental impact of dams along the Columbia River system for 35 years, while automatically extending the remaining dams' licenses by 35 years. For now it's just a proposal — but one that Simpson hopes will swiftly start a conversation with the Pacific Northwest delegation, governors, tribes and other stakeholders that could produce legislation to get a piece of the massive infrastructure bill lawmakers hope to pass. But the region's House GOP members are already fighting the plan's call for dam removal. McMorris Rodgers said in a statement that "spending $33 billion to breach them — with no guarantee that doing so will restore salmon populations — is a drastic, fiscally irresponsible leap to take." HAPPENING THIS WEEK: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will vote to advance Michael Regan's nomination to be EPA administrator on Tuesday. DEMS INTRODUCE GREEN ENERGY TAX BILL: Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee unveiled legislation Friday to extend incentives for renewable energy, carbon capture projects, electric vehicles and energy efficiency upgrades, Pro's Zack Colman reports. The legislation was co-sponsored by every Democrat on the tax-writing committee and seeks to offer a longer lifeline for credits supporting zero-emission technology deployment, create new credits for manufacturers and buoy union jobs. Among its many provisions, the legislation would lift the cap for tax credits for plug-in vehicles to 600,000 from the current 200,000 cap, though the credit would drop by $500 after the first 200,000. The bill would also maintain the investment tax credit, which allows developers to recoup up to 30 percent of costs for solar and geothermal projects that begin construction by the end of 2026, and phase that credit down to 26 percent in 2026, 22 percent in 2027 and 10 percent after that. DEMS CALL ON BIDEN TO SHUT DOWN DAPL: Democrats are pressing Biden to order a shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Sens. Jeff Merkley (Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), House Natural Resources Chair Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.) and California Reps. Nanette Barragán and Raul Ruiz signed onto a Friday letter that calls for Biden to build on his shutdown of the Keystone XL pipeline — which they called a "promising start" — to also shut down DAPL. They point to a January decision upholding a conclusion that the Army Corps of Engineers failed to conduct the necessary environmental review before approving the easement needed to build the pipeline. | 
Activists hold signs during a rally on the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016. | Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images | "By shutting down this illegal pipeline, you can continue to show your administration values the environment and the rights of Indigenous communities more than the profits of outdated fossil fuel industries," they write. A federal judge has set a hearing date for Wednesday to decide whether the pipeline should be shut down in the wake of an appellate court's ruling requiring a new environmental study. The Biden administration could use that hearing to announce its own plans to order a shutdown of DAPL. BARRASSO QUESTIONS DRILLING ORDERS: Noting his "strong opposition" to the underlying orders, Senate Energy ranking member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) sought clarification in a letter to acting Interior Secretary Scott de la Vega on what activities are permitted under the new executive orders restricting oil and gas drilling on public lands, Anthony reports for Pros . Barrasso said he's received reports that operators in Wyoming have been unable to obtain permits for existing leases, while other drilling-related activities in Nevada and New Mexico have been allowed to continue. DAINES VOWS TO BLOCK HAALAND: Montana Sen. Steve Daines (R) has promised to block Biden's nominee for Interior secretary, Deb Haaland, after their meeting last week. "I'm not convinced the Congresswoman can divorce her radical views and represent what's best for Montana and all stakeholders in the West," Daines said in a statement, citing Haaland's support for the Green New Deal and Biden's oil and gas leasing moratorium and opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline. "Unless my concerns are addressed, I will block her confirmation." | | | | TUNE IN TO NEW EPISODE OF GLOBAL TRANSLATIONS: Our Global Translations podcast, presented by Citi, examines the long-term costs of the short-term thinking that drives many political and business decisions. The world has long been beset by big problems that defy political boundaries, and these issues have exploded over the past year amid a global pandemic. This podcast helps to identify and understand the impediments to smart policymaking. Subscribe for Season Two, available now. | | | | | | | | UP-HILL DRIVE: In the shadow of Super Bowl Sunday's much-talked about electric car ad from GM, new data released this morning provides estimates of electric vehicle home charging and finds EVs are getting less use than expected. Researchers for the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago examined hourly electricity meter measurements and address-level EV registration records from 2014 to 2017 in California, the state home to about half the EVs in the U.S., and found that one vehicle increases household electricity consumption by 2.9 kilowatt-hours per day — less than half the 7.2 to 8 kWh per day assumed by state regulators. That discrepancy could "adversely affect decisions about electricity distribution infrastructure investments, as well as lead to biased estimates of EV-related pollution abatement benefits," the report states. "The implications relating to [electric vehicle miles traveled] are also far-reaching." To translate its estimates into electric vehicle miles traveled, the report found EVs average 5,300 miles traveled per year, which is "substantially lower" than vehicle miles travel in gasoline-powered cars — raising questions, the authors wrote, over the true extent of EV usage at present and the role of gasoline and electricity prices on EV usage. The researchers also found that Teslas consume almost double the amount of electricity per hour than the other types of EVs studied, likely due to various factors like Tesla's higher battery capacity. And, they found that the majority of EVs' pull on the power grid occurs between 10 p.m.-6 a.m., which puts more of the load on California's gas plants, which run more at night, compared to the solar energy power resources that provide clean power during the day. They call for further research into the variety of potential explanations for the apparent low utilization of EVs. "It is important to understand why EVs are being driven so much less in order to properly weigh the costs and benefits of EV policy and maximize environmental benefits," said co-author James Bushnell, a professor at the UC Davis Economics Department, in a statement. | | | | A message from American Clean Power:   | | | | | | ME FIRST: ACP LAUNCHES NEW ADS, WEBSITE: The American Clean Power Association, the newly created trade group formed out of the American Wind Energy Association, unveiled a new website today and announced a six-figure ad campaign focused on clean energy jobs and clean power electricity generation. The campaign, called "All Ready," will run online and on social media for several months. GREENS' NEW RENEWABLES CAMPAIGN: Environment America launched its 2021 campaign for 100 percent renewable energy in 13 states today. The multi-state effort will feature campaigns in California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. The campaign expands upon its 100 percent renewable campaign in 2018 and will advocate for commitments including meaningful interim targets to ensure near-term renewables growth. | | | IN MEMORIAM: George P. Shultz, a widely respected statesman and economist, has died. He was 100. Shultz, who was secretary of State under Ronald Reagan, advocated for addressing climate change and co-authored a carbon dividends plan with fellow former Secretary of State James Baker at the Climate Leadership Council. — "Inherently vigilant about our national interests , Shultz deeply believed that both parties needed to come together in order to address the threat posed by climate change to America's future prosperity and security," said CLC CEO Greg Bertelsen. "He deployed his same brand of statecraft that helped America end the Cold War to tackling the climate challenge: building trust and confidence among unexpected allies." — "It was his interest in market-based climate solutions that brought Secretary Shultz and me together, and like so many others I benefited from his sage advice and deep perspective," said Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense Fund in a statement. "As we make rapid, urgent climate progress in the days and years to come, we would all do well to heed his example: follow the evidence and build broad, bipartisan consensus around solutions that can stand the test of time." SUBPOENA SERVED TO PEBBLE CEO: Northern Dynasty Minerals, the Canadian company trying to develop the Pebble copper and gold mine in Alaska, said Friday the Pebble Limited Partnership and its former CEO Tom Collier were served subpoenas by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska, calling on them to produce documents in connection with a grand jury investigation involving secretly recorded tapes of Collier boasting about how he would influence Alaskan politicians to support the project. Northen Dynasty said the company, Collier and the Pebble Partnership will cooperate with the investigation. Recall: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied a key permit for the Pebble Mine in November — a decision that Northen Dynasty pledged to appeal. | | | | THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO OFFICIAL WASHINGTON: February is short month, but there is a lot in store. From the impeachment trial to the Covid relief package to intraparty squabbles, our new Playbook team is on the case. Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza and Tara Palmeri are canvassing every corner of Washington, bringing you the big stories and scoops you need to know – and the insider nuggets that you want to know – about the new power centers and players. "This town" has changed. And no one covers this town like Playbook. Subscribe to the unofficial guide to official Washington today . | | | | | | | | — Senate EPW Chair Tom Carper named Rachel Levitan as the committee's new communications director. Most recently, she was the deputy director of communications and a senior adviser for the House Foreign Affairs Committee. — AVANGRID appointed Catherine Stempien as president and CEO of its subsidiary Avangrid Networks, effective March 15. She is currently president of Duke Energy Florida. | | | — "The Democratic version of John McCain," via POLITICO. — "Top union leader: Biden's Keystone plan wrong, will cost U.S. jobs," via Axios. — " Asset manager BlackRock cuts stake in Occidental Petroleum," via Reuters. — "Floating wind turbines buoy hopes of expanding renewable energy," via The Wall Street Journal. — "Ford doubles electric vehicle investment to $22 billion through 2025," via Electrek. — "Proposed river authority would assert Utah's claims to the Colorado's dwindling water," via The Salt Lake Tribune. Did we miss anything? Send future events to: energycalendar@politicopro.com. THAT'S ALL FOR ME! | | A message from American Clean Power: American Clean Power is the voice of the companies turning America's enormous clean power potential into reality. Our members are invested across wind, solar, transmission and energy storage. Together, we are providing cost-effective solutions to the climate crisis while creating jobs, spurring massive investment in the American economy and driving high-tech innovation. Learn more about what's next at www.cleanpower.org. | | |
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