News: Biden fills clean energy stockings with billions

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Biden fills clean energy stockings with billions

Nov 26, 2024

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A row of wind turbines near Montezuma, Kansas.

A row of wind turbines near Montezuma, Kansas. | Orlin Wagner/AP

Time flies. It is nearly Thanksgiving. Before we know it, it’s Christmas. Then, the big day: Inauguration Day.

At a quickening pace, the Biden administration is pushing money out the door for big-ticket clean energy projects — before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the Oval Office on Jan. 20.

Over the past 24 hours alone, the Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office announced nearly $12 billion worth of loan agreements. One is for a transmission project to ship wind power generated in the Midwest; a second helps deploy a solar and battery system across 27 states; and a third loan is aimed at getting a large electric vehicle factory built in Georgia.

Late last evening, after most reporters logged off their computers, DOE announced the largest of the three: a $6.6 billion direct loan to EV-maker Rivian to finance and build its Project Horizon plant near the city of Social Circle, a 45-minute drive east of Atlanta, Hannah Northey, Mike Lee and Brian Dabbs report.

Irvine, California-based Rivian, which makes pricey electric SUVs and an electric pickup at a factory in Normal, Illinois, is arguably Tesla’s chief U.S. competitor. Today, Rivian is far smaller than Tesla, but it plans to roll out a midsize electric SUV in 2026 and, after that, a smaller electric car.

The loan to Rivian attracted the attention of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s pal, Vivek Ramaswamy, who’s co-leading Trump’s effort to slash government spending, Hannah writes.

“This smells more like a political shot across the bow at @elonmusk & @Tesla,” Ramaswamy wrote on X.

Chris Wright, Trump’s pick for secretary of Energy, has been critical of subsidies for clean energy technology. That could jeopardize the loan deal to Rivian, which requires it to meet certain conditions before the loan is finalized.

Wind shipments
Satisfying a White House goal of bringing more long-distance power lines into service, the Grain Belt Express, a proposed 780-mile high-voltage superhighway for renewable energy, secured a $4.9 billion conditional loan guarantee, Jeffrey Tomich reports.

The project’s developer, Chicago-based Invenergy, sought the loan guarantee almost two years ago, touting it as critical for grid reliability and to help move zero-carbon energy to electricity consumers.

The first phase of the power line project spans from southwestern Kansas to central Missouri. A second part would run to Indiana to deliver Kansas-generated wind and solar energy to the nation’s largest regional power market, PJM Interconnection.

For those who are following along, the Grain Belt Express project was first proposed more than a decade ago. And as is the story of so many electric transmission projects, political and legal challenges slowed the project to a crawl. It might very well be politics, not money, that determines its fate.

It's Tuesday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Arianna Skibell. Shout out to Joel Kirkland for writing the top of today's edition. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to askibell@eenews.net.

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Power Centers

Destroyed houses and buildings along the Broad River in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

Destroyed houses and buildings stand along the Broad River in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on Oct. 1 in Bat Cave, North Carolina. A state program partly funded by the CDC has helped residents with health-related information in the storm's aftermath. | Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Is climate ‘too woke’ for Trump’s CDC?
This winter, a North Carolina health department branch will do a door-to-door survey of Hurricane Helene victims to find out their longer-term health needs, writes Ariel Wittenberg.

Experts say such work is vital to hurricane recovery. But it’s at risk in North Carolina — and in many other states — if Trump zeroes out funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Climate and Health Program.

How Trump’s ‘energy czar’ could upend Interior
Doug Burgum is poised to be a very busy man, writes Heather Richards.

As the next Interior secretary, who is also the White House’s “energy czar” with a seat on the National Security Council, the Republican governor of North Dakota could not only boost oil production, but also overhaul federal permitting, reduce government regulations and boost energy infrastructure like power lines.

Europe urged to stay the green course
Europe should resist backtracking on its Green Deal to avoid damaging the European Union’s credibility and leadership, Virginijus Sinkevičius, a former environment commissioner who is now a Green member of the European Parliament, told Louise Guillot.

Speaking from his office on the fifth floor of the European Parliament, the Lithuanian politician argued it would be “a mistake” to walk back the bloc’s green agenda just as it is being rolled out.

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Lois Bower-Bjornson

Lois Bower-Bjornson, a community organizer, opposes the ARCH2 hub because of its reliance on fracked natural gas. | Clare Fieseler/POLITICO's E&E News

A band of residents and environmental activists in Appalachia are rallying against a billion-dollar federal plan that's at the center of President Joe Biden's push to slash emissions with "clean" hydrogen.

Offshore wind developers are preparing to weather an intense storm when Trump takes office next year, with some planning to pause all major spending.

Trump’s threat to impose a 25 percent tariff on Canadian and Mexican goods would hit more than $900 billion worth of goods from the two countries, including huge volumes of autos, auto parts and energy products.

That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.

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