| | | | |  | | By Matthew Choi, Kelsey Tamborrino and Gavin Bade | Presented by Equinor | With help from Catherine Morehouse Programming announcement: Starting June 27, Morning Energy will be exclusively available to POLITICO Pro subscribers. Subscription benefits include access to the must-read daily Morning Energy newsletter and POLITICO Pro's exclusive suite of nonpartisan news, real-time intelligence, in-depth analysis, bill tracking and research tools. Please visit our website to continue receiving Morning Energy and to learn more about a POLITICO Pro subscription . Additionally, on June 27 POLITICO will launch Power Switch, a new energy- and climate-focused consumer newsletter. This will be a high-level newsletter focused on the larger conversation around the politics and policy of the energy transition.
| | | — The Biden administration's emergency actions to calm a nervous solar industry could face legal backlash from domestic manufacturers. — A Senate Energy subpanel considers public lands bills today. — DOE kicks off the national hydrogen hubs included in last year's bipartisan infrastructure package. HAPPY TUESDAY! I'm your host, Matthew Choi. Naaz Khumawala of Granite Lane Capital gets the trivia for knowing Tiananmen literally translates to "Gate of Heavenly Peace." For today: What territory derives its name from "Mountain of Tariq" in Arabic? 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: Will Biden's solar moves silence critics?
| | | | | A message from Equinor: Can a wind turbine generate more than electricity? We believe it can. At Equinor, we're working to power 2,000,000 New York homes with homegrown, renewable energy while boosting the economy, generating jobs, and launching tomorrow's clean energy infrastructure. Equinor is a broad energy company, committed to become net-zero by 2050. We're advancing the Empire Wind and Beacon Wind offshore wind projects and quickly becoming a leader in this growing industry. | | | | | | BIDEN USES EMERGENCY POWERS TO SAVE U.S. SOLAR SECTOR: President Joe Biden's actions on Monday to waive new solar tariffs for two years and boost domestic manufacturing of clean energy technologies involves some seldom-used provisions of American trade law that could spark legal challenges. Biden on Monday used his emergency powers under the Tariff Act of 1930 to facilitate a 24-month "bridge" for certain solar imports, allowing developers to source solar modules and cells from the four countries at the center of Commerce's circumvention probe. That is a rare — but not unprecedented — use of presidential authority under the act. Back in 2020, Trump used his emergency authority to temporarily waive collection of certain tariffs from companies that were hit by the Covid pandemic. In this case, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters the emergency in question is a threat to the availability of sufficient electricity generation capacity to meet expected customer demand. But Mamun Rashid, the CEO of Auxin Solar, which sparked the initial circumvention probe, said Biden is taking an "unprecedented — and potentially illegal — action," which has opened the door for "Chinese-funded special interests to defeat the fair application of U.S. trade law." Tim Brightbill, a partner at Wiley Rein who represents domestic solar manufacturing but does not represent Auxin, called the administration's actions "extremely problematic." The actions, he told ME, are effectively negating the Commerce Department's trade investigation, without formally shutting it down. "It's virtually unprecedented for the president to declare a national emergency and use that as the premise to negate a trade investigation," he said. The White House has maintained the actions are separate from the ongoing trade proceeding, which will continue uninterrupted. In a client note, ClearView Energy Partners predicted legal challenges by domestic solar manufacturers and like-minded parties, adding the actions could serve as something of a test for similar authorities being used to declare a climate emergency in the future. Rashid told ME Auxin was not consulted ahead of the White House's announcements Monday and said the company is "currently evaluating all of our legal options." DPA action: Biden also signed a handful of executive orders that could presage major government action to direct domestic manufacturing of clean energy technologies. The orders under the Defense Production Act stipulate that domestic manufacturing of five types of clean energy products are critical to national security. That could allow the administration to mandate direct government purchases or production orders for the technologies if Biden sees fit in the future. "Today's EOs set the stage," said Todd Tucker, director of industrial policy and trade at the progressive Roosevelt Institute. "We still don't know what exactly they will do. But the setting of the stage on its own is a huge qualitative shift in thinking about actually delivering on the DPA's mandate since the 1970s to maximize domestic (green) energy supply." Related: Investor companies representing $100 million or more of annual renewable energy investment reported 71 percent of their U.S. solar investments on average are "at risk" due to the Commerce inquiry, according to an analysis released today by the American Council on Renewable Energy. WHERE IN THE WORLD IS JENNIFER GRANHOLM? The Energy Secretary is in Fort Washington, Md., today for a news conference with Ali Zaidi, White House deputy national climate adviser, at an Altus Power community solar project. The news conference will focus on building up the country's domestic clean energy manufacturing, including Monday's actions under the Defense Production Act.
| | | | A message from Equinor: The energy transition is the defining challenge opportunity of our time. Our world needs energy to keep moving forward — but it must be affordable, reliable, and accessible. We all have a role to play. At Equinor, we're doing our part by helping accelerate the energy transition . We're growing our renewable energy portfolio and lowering emissions from production. We're already on the way to powering 2,000,000 New York homes with energy from the Empire Wind and Beacon Wind offshore wind projects. We're creating jobs, building tomorrow's infrastructure, and sparking new economic activity. But for us, that's only the beginning. By the time the global population reaches 9 billion in 2050, our goal is to have net-zero emissions. Discover more about Equinor at www.equinor.com/USA. | | | | | | IN COMMITTEE: The Senate Energy Public Lands, Forests and Mining Subcommitteemeets today to discuss several pieces of legislation focusing on everything from local public lands issues to streamlining permitting for federal oil and gas leases. Another bill by Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) would require the Interior Department to report data on Bureau of Land Management acquisitions to Congress. Nada Culver, deputy director of policy and programs at BLM, is among today's witnesses. The Senate Agriculture Conservation, Climate, Forestry and Natural Resources Subcommittee meets today on shoring up farmland and forests against persistent drought conditions in the West. STATES CAN ONLY DO SO MUCH ON CLIMATE: A lot of climate activists have found some solace in state and local action to combat climate change after sweeping efforts in Congress collapsed late last year. During the Trump administration, state and local governments picked up a lot of the slack to keep emissions in check. But 22 governors from both parties are telling House and Senate leadership today that they can't do everything and Congress needs to pass a comprehensive climate package. "At the state level, we are doing our part by innovating and accelerating climate solutions. We are getting more zero emission vehicles on our roads, rapidly transitioning to clean energy, improving energy efficiency, supporting overburdened communities and displaced workers, cutting harmful emissions, and strengthening resilience. But this is not enough to reach our country's climate goals," the governors write. "The U.S. House of Representatives previously approved a transformative $550 billion climate package for this purpose, and it is critical that any climate package include a similar level of funding." Signatories include the governors of California, Louisiana, Illinois, Vermont and New Mexico. Read the letter here.
| | | | 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. | | | | | | | | CLEAN HYDROGEN HUBS: The Energy Department is making moves toward funding the national clean hydrogen hub program outlined in last year's bipartisan infrastructure package, releasing a notice of intent Monday. The bipartisan package includes $8 billion toward the hydrogen hub program, dubbed H2Hubs, to create four sites spread out across the country to develop the country's clean hydrogen sector. DOE will prioritize project proposals with workforce development opportunities and access to hydrogen feedstocks in determining the sites. The clean hydrogen hubs garnered some controversy when the infrastructure package was being negotiated. The final law requires at least one of the hydrogen hubs to focus on hydrogen produced using fossil fuels and at least two of the hubs to be located in areas rich in natural gas. While the natural gas industry praises hydrogen for its compatibility with natural gas infrastructure, environmentalists fear hydrogen produced with fossil fuels prolong the release of planet-warming emissions (The infrastructure package also requires at least one hub to focus on renewable-produced hydrogen and another to focus on nuclear-produced hydrogen). BOEM WANTS YOUR TAKES: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is opening up public comment on the first proposed offshore wind facility off the coast of Maryland. The agency announced Monday it will conduct an environmental review of the construction and operations plan submitted by US Wind for a lease area approximately 10 nautical miles off the coast of Ocean City, Md. If approved, the project could support up to an estimated 2,679 jobs annually over seven years during the development and construction phases. The agency will publish a notice of intent on Wednesday, setting up a 30-day public comment period. WATER YOUR CONCERNS: EPA and the Department of the Army have a virtual roundtable today focused on waters of the United States issues in the Southeast. It's one of 10 regionally focused community outreach events hosted by the agencies on WOTUS implementation, with the agencies hosting a similar roundtable on Southwest WOTUS concerns last week. CLEAN ENERGY PROTESTS DELAYED FERC RULE: The clean energy industry is unhappy with several regional power markets' proposals to comply with a FERC rule that requires them to lower barriers to distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar, battery storage and energy efficiency. In particular, groups are wary of a proposal from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator that would delay implementation of the rule — dubbed Order 2222 — until the end of 2029, industry executives said during a webinar hosted by Advanced Energy Economy on Monday. "That would take longer than a NASA mission to Mars. Yet 95% of what's needed to implement 2222 exists in MISO's system today, and the remaining elements really simply require a set of creative IT solutions," said Gregg Dixon, CEO of distributed resource platform company Voltus. But utilities across the Midwest largely supported the longer timeline in comments filed with FERC on Monday. MISO has argued the longer timeline is needed because bringing more non-traditional resources online will require a complete overhaul of the market and its systems.
| | | BONN DISPATCH: Global climate negotiators are gathered in Bonn, Germany, this week in hopes of paving the way for a climate deal at this year's U.N. climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. But so far, the war in Ukraine is dominating the conversation, POLITICO's Karl Mathiesen reports from the conference, with negotiators fearing the Russian invasion could stretch out reliance on fossil fuels. Swiss delegate Franz Perrez said Russia's invasion was "a threat to humanity's goal to tackle climate change in a timely manner." Several Western countries have cast the invasion and subsequent spikes in fossil energy prices as motivation for transitioning to clean energy independent of global oil and gas markets. Alok Sharma, who spearheaded last year's COP26, said the war "has increased, not diminished, our determination to deliver on climate action." But one of the biggest challenges at Bonn is financially securing a path to clean energy for lower income countries that are more acutely feeling the global energy pinch. With more natural gas diverted to help wean Europe off of Russian imports, "resources may be shifting away" from greening lower income countries, said U.N. climate chief Patricia Espinosa. Read more from Karl here.
| | | | DON'T MISS DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED: Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | — Paul Sass is leaving his post as Republican staff director on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Sass has served in the role since 2019 and has had a hand in the crafting of numerous iterations of the bipartisan Water Resources Development Act. — Scott Yager is now vice president of environment for the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America. He was previously a long-time staffer at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, most recently serving as its chief environmental counsel.
| | | — "Six things to watch during the Summit of the Americas," via POLITICO. — "Colorado will lose half its snow by 2080 and look more like Arizona, federal scientists conclude ," via The Denver Post. — "Tropical Storm Alex Drifts Into the Atlantic After Flooding Florida," via The New York Times. — "Texas power use to hit record as temperatures soar," via Reuters. — " Army Corps deals blow to Ga. titanium mine, reverses Trump move," via E&E News. THAT'S ALL FOR ME! | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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