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NEW EFFORT TO OVERHAUL TRANSMISSION: Clean energy groups armed with funding from billionaire Bill Gates launched an initiative Wednesday to expand and upgrade the nation’s “antiquated” transmission lines needed to deliver wind and solar power, a key weakness in the U.S. that limits efforts to reduce emissions from electricity.
The American Council on Renewable Energy and Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, with backing from Gates’ Breakthrough Energy, plan to use its “Macro Grid” project as a mechanism to raise awareness and generate support for building transmission, which is plagued by opposition at the local, not federal, level.
“We can save consumers a ton of money and achieve dramatic reductions in emissions with a common sense effort to connect the different regional electricity markets and connect population centers with areas of our country richest with renewable resources,” Greg Wetstone, CEO of ACORE, told Josh in a joint interview that also included Rob Gramlich, ACEG’s executive director.
Transmission lines are critical to transporting electricity from places, typically rural areas, that have an abundance of wind or solar to consumers in population centers that don’t generate significant renewable electricity.
But building transmission is hard: Major long-distance transmission projects require 10 or more years to be approved and developed, because of a diffuse permitting process that is subject to delay because of local opposition from people living near the planned power lines — a problem known as not-in-my-backyard-ism, or NIMBYism.
Unlike with natural gas pipelines, which have also been plagued by NIMBYism mostly because of environmental reasons, the federal government has little power to approve transmission lines, with the authorities mostly delegated to states.
And the places where power lines would need to be built don’t necessarily benefit from using or generating the power, making it harder to get their approval to build.
With little federal power, it’s about fostering a ‘shared vision’: Wetstone and Gramlich say their initiative is a high-level effort intended to raise awareness on the value of transmission, and encourage greater coordination between regions and operators of wholesale electricity markets.
“It’s true our current policy and regulatory structure was not set up for a national or multiregional grid,” Gramlich said. “It’s also true when there is a shared vision, those local and state proceedings become a little more easier.”
The initiative does contain at least one policy proposal, however. Wetstone and Gramlich, working with other clean energy stakeholders, intend to propose a rule to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to encourage better planning and coordination for building transmission lines.
Not just for geeks: Wetstone and Gramlich are optimistic improving transmission enjoys bipartisan support. It hasn’t gotten much attention in the presidential race, but House Democrats addressed transmission siting in their 100% clean economy bill, and conservative Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida called for streamlining the approval process in his proposed “Green Real Deal” climate plan.
“We are trying to get the issue beyond electricity geekdom,” Wetstone said.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Josh Siegel (@SiegelScribe) and Abby Smith (@AbbySmithDC). Email [email protected] or [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
SENATE APPROVES BIPARTISAN CONSERVATION BILL: The Senate easily approved a bipartisan public lands package Wednesday, in what Republican supporters see as a major conservation achievement that will aid vulnerable members in the upcoming election.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the bill’s main Republican sponsors, Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado and Steve Daines of Montana — both in tight re-election fights — blocked debate on amendments in the lead-up to the vote to ensure passage.
Still, the vast majority of Republicans and Democrats supported the Great American Outdoors Act, which has a good chance of becoming law because President Trump has endorsed it. A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced matching legislation in the House, and the Democrat-controlled chamber is expected to move on it soon.
The public lands package would fully fund the popular Land and Water Conservation Fund and also create a fund to pay for a massive maintenance backlog in national parks and other federal lands.
REPUBLICANS PREPARE FOR ENERGY ‘COLD WAR’ WITH CHINA: Republican lawmakers want to break U.S. reliance on China for the critical minerals used in everything from military equipment to renewable power to cellphone batteries.
“This is an effort where the Chinese are systematically trying to get a market on critical minerals,” said Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah, the top Republican on the House Natural Resource Committee. The U.S. needs to start thinking about the long-term policy implications “so that at no point are we found vulnerable to other countries,” Bishop told Abby in an interview.
The U.S. faces a huge challenge: Once home to the world’s largest critical minerals mine, the U.S. is now wholly reliant on foreign imports for 14 of the 35 minerals the Interior Department listed as critical in 2018, including graphite and rare earths.
It’s not just a risk now: Production of these minerals and metals would have to scale up massively to meet the demands of an increasingly renewable-powered world, in some cases as much as a 500% increase in the next three decades, the World Bank has said.
But efforts to expand critical minerals mining domestically face political headwinds. Mining can cause massive damages, environmental advocates say, and they see the push by Republicans and industry to speed permitting as a ploy to undo pollution protections.
“A lot of this has to do with trust,” said Jim Lyon, vice president of conservation policy for the National Wildlife Federation. “We can’t fall back into the old way of doing things or using this as a cover for rolling back environmental standards.”
More in Abby’s story posted this morning.
OIL DEMAND RECOVERY STAGNATES: U.S. oil demand fell last week to 17.3 million barrels per day from 17.6 million barrels per day a week earlier, the Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday. Gasoline demand slightly declined, while jet fuel demand rose a bit.
Over the past month, when oil prices have stabilized, U.S. oil demand is still down by about 20% from the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the buildup of crude stocks continued, a continued signal of a glut in the market.
U.S. crude oil inventories increased from a record high the previous week, gaining another 1.2 million barrels to reach 539.3 million barrels.
BIDEN MAKES UPDATED CLIMATE PITCH TO MEET THE MOMENT: Joe Biden sees addressing climate change on day one of his presidency as a key component of recovering from the economic crisis and healing national unrest over police brutality of black people.
“The blinders are off. The American people realize how all of these issues converge,” Biden said during a virtual event hosted Tuesday night by the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental group whose action fund has endorsed him. “Climate change is not just an environmental issue,” Biden added. “They now look at it as a health issue and a jobs issue and an equity issue.”
Biden accused Trump of negligence in failing to prepare the country for the coronavirus pandemic and he said the U.S. would face a similar fate by ignoring climate change.
“The president’s total disregard for science has become so consequential,” Biden said. “It shows when our leaders ignore science, people die. It’s much more real when people say this is what’s going to happen if we don’t deal with global warming.”
A peek into climate plan 2.0: Biden has pledged to release an upgraded climate change plan in coming weeks in response to environmental groups like LCV and progressive activists who say he needs to link new spending to recovery from the coronavirus and repairing environmental “injustice.”
On Tuesday night, he promised to send to Congress within his first 100 days a plan “setting standards right away” to reach a 100% clean energy economy by 2050.
He envisions creating “millions of good paying jobs” by “building back better,” investing in retrofitting buildings to be more energy efficient, and modernizing the electricity grid. He also reiterated his plans to immediately rejoin the Paris Agreement and set higher emissions-cutting targets for the U.S., restore rules gutted by the Trump administration on weakening fuel-efficiency and methane rules, and “demand” a worldwide ban on fossil fuel subsidies.
MARATHON MARKUP OF INFRASTRUCTURE BILL BRINGS FIGHT OVER CLIMATE: House Republicans are lamenting the lack of bipartisanship in crafting major infrastructure legislation, arguing that roughly $200 billion of the nearly $500 billion package the Transportation Committee is considering would be spent on the “meeting the goals of the Green New Deal.”
Rep. Sam Graves, the top Republican on the committee, said lawmakers could have found “common ground” even on climate and resilience issues but weren’t given the chance. “Believe it or not, Republicans don’t automatically oppose addressing these issues,” Graves said in opening remarks Wednesday. But he added, “there’s a difference between addressing an issue, and transforming every single core infrastructure program into a climate change program.”
Democrats, though, lauded the bill and its inclusion of climate change as a central focus. Rep. Peter DeFazio, who chairs the committee, said House Democrats’ legislation “dramatically expanded upon” climate provisions included in the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure bill, including by creating programs to incentivize states to reduce transportation-related carbon emissions.
Buckle up for a lengthy markup: Lawmakers filed more than 300 amendments to the transportation bill.
DOMINION SEEKS EXTENSION FOR ATLANTIC COAST PIPELINE: In a filing Tuesday to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Virginia-based Dominion Energy says it will need two more years to finish building the Atlantic Coast natural gas pipeline “due to unforeseen delays in permitting.”
The 600-mile pipeline was supposed to complete construction in October of this year, but the project has been caught up in litigation for years. On Monday, though, the Supreme Court lifted a major legal hurdle for the pipeline, reversing a lower court decision and upholding a Forest Service permit that would allow the pipeline to run under the Appalachian Trail.
Dominion, in its filing, says it expects to obtain the necessary approvals for the pipeline by the end of this year.
FISHING FOR A LAWSUIT OVER MONUMENT UNRAVELING POWER: Environmental groups sued the Trump administration Wednesday for lifting restrictions on commercial fishing at an underwater national monument off the coast of New England designated by former President Barack Obama.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, Conservation Law Foundation, Center for Biological Diversity, and a whale watch naturalist in Maine filed the suit in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
The suit argues that the Antiquities Act, which allows presidents to make national monuments, does not give the authority to unravel them.
The Obama administration used the Antiquities Act in 2016 to create the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which protects 5,000 square miles of deep sea corals and marine life in the North Atlantic.
Trump has weakened other Obama administration national monuments, including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah, using the same Antiquities Act authority, and environmental groups have challenged those actions in federal court too.
JERSEY SHORE: OFFSHORE WIND EDITION: New Jersey is aiming to become a hub for offshore wind manufacturing by building a major wind turbine assembly and production facility on its shores. The New Jersey Wind Port will begin construction next year, and the $300 million to $400 million investment could create 1,500 jobs and $500 million in economic activity, according to a news release.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy called the project a “vital step” toward reaching the state’s goal to build 7,500 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035 and reach 100% clean energy by midcentury.
The Rundown
New York Times PG&E pleads guilty in 84 deaths caused by Camp Fire
Bloomberg Texas eyes gas flaring curb to allay Wall Street climate worries
CNBC Major oil executives ‘optimistic’ amid anxiety over coronavirus ‘second wave’
Washington Post Turning manure into money
Bloomberg Goldman sees $16 trillion opening as renewables pass oil and gas
Financial Times Climate-related passive funds fail to win over top pension plans
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | JUNE 24
9:30 a.m. 366 Dirksen. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing to examine the impact of COVID-19 on mineral supply chains, the role of those supply chains in economic and national security, and challenges and opportunities to rebuild America’s supply chains.
