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Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine and get Washington Briefing: politics and policy stories that will keep you up to date with what's going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue! GOOD NEWS FOR BIDEN ON TWO FRONTS: Falling fuel prices and a green energy bill on the cusp of passage have given President Joe Biden a double-boost of momentum after a tough few months of energy politicking. High energy prices have been hanging over Biden for half his tenure, but crude oil prices have fallen steeply over the last month. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate fell below $90 per barrel yesterday for the first time since the war in Ukraine began, closing yesterday more than 18% below WTI’s July peak. Brent crude futures are trading at their lowest levels since the invasion, too. Retail fuel prices are slipping, too, at a pace the White House is celebrating as the fastest in a decade. Today’s national average gasoline price is $4.113 per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association, down by nearly a dollar over the record nominal record average of $5.016 recorded on June 14. More importantly for Biden, though, is that the monthslong negotiations over Democrats’ tax and spending bill appear to be paying off. Just three Fridays ago, Biden determined the successor deal to “Build Back Better” to be dead and promised to act on his own. When he subsequently held out on declaring a climate emergency, it added to the list of disappointments among his green constituencies. Now, the Senate is preparing to vote tomorrow on the Democratic bill, after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer got the go-ahead from Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, which would provide some $370 billion for green energy and climate change-related initiatives. “Pass it. Pass it and get it to my desk,” Biden told Congress yesterday. “Pass it for the American people.” A few qualifications: Prices are falling, but they’re still still exceptionally high. WTI remains 30% higher than a year ago, and there’s no guarantee that prices don’t shoot up again because of supply disruptions or geopolitical developments related to the war in Ukraine, such as the EU’s impending embargo of seaborne oil imports or the oil price cap which the U.S. and other G-7 countries are pursuing against Russia. At the same time, among the drivers of lower prices is lower demand and recession worries — not an ideal way to bring down prices. For the bill, arbitration before the Senate parliamentarian is still in the works, and it could lead to key items being cut. Some have suggested the provision providing tax credits for clean vehicles, which is core to the Democrats’ green energy agenda, could miss the cut because the added condition governing where eligible vehicles must source inputs may be deemed not germane to reconciliation rules. To be determined… Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Jeremy Beaman (@jeremywbeaman) and Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep). 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.
CHINA SUSPENDS CLIMATE TALKS IN RETALIATION FOR PELOSI TAIWAN VISIT: China has cut off climate talks with the U.S. as part of retaliatory measures for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. It’s a tricky development for the Biden administration’s climate efforts, and for climate envoy John Kerry. China is the world’s largest emitter, by far. Kerry claimed a deal with China late last year on stepping up emissions reductions goals and reducing methane emissions in particular. The deal, though, was short on details of what steps China might take to limit emissions. Then, in January of this year, President Xi Jinping made fairly clear that he would not pursue climate goals that involved slowing economic growth or disturbing “normal life.” SENATE APPROVES MEASURE TO CANCEL BIDEN NEPA RULE: Sen. Joe Manchin joined Senate Republicans yesterday to pass Sen. Dan Sullivan’s joint resolution of disapproval covering the Biden administration’s NEPA implementation rule, which it finalized in April. Sullivan called the rule a “delay bomb” ahead of the vote and said it runs contrary to the bipartisan infrastructure law, framing the vote on his Congressional Review Act resolution as a choice between laborers who build projects, such as highways and pipelines, and liberal interest groups seeking to stop projects. Manchin, whose deal with party leadership on reconciliation includes separate legislation on “comprehensive” permitting reform, was the lone Democrat to join Republicans in the 50-47 vote. He said the administration’s permitting approach is “dead wrong.” Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, expressed his opposition to the resolution ahead of the vote. Blocking the Biden rule, Carper said, is the "policy equivalent to burying our heads in the sand" about climate change and the environmental impact that a given project might have. The Biden rule repealed the more narrow Trump-era environmental review rule and instead directs agencies to consider the direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts of an action, with the intent being to quantify how a project could contribute to climate change. Republicans said the vote was a test of Democrats’ level of commitment to the prospective permitting legislation expected to follow their reconciliation effort. The resolution required Democrats to go on record challenging the president of their own party. Schumer, who cut the reconciliation and permitting deal with Manchin and by all counts intends to support reforms, voted against the resolution. GRAHAM PUTS MANCHIN ON NOTICE FOR PIPELINE ASK: Sen. Lindsey Graham called out Manchin this morning and insisted he wouldn’t support any permitting reform legislation that is part of a “payback scheme,” referring to the agreement between Manchin and Schumer to follow up the reconciliation agreement with measures to amend the permitting process. One possibility for Democratic leadership to marshal through the permitting reform, which Republicans generally support, is to attach it to a government funding bill, but Graham rejected that possibility outright unless he were to get something in return. He took specific issue that the list of permitting provisions floating around includes an earmark for Manchin’s state in a provision that proposes to require the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. “I will come up with ideas for South Carolina to help our energy needs, and if you put my provision [in the bill], I'll vote for yours,” Graham said at a press conference this morning. “Every senator should come up with provisions that would help their state and ask our Democratic friends when it comes to the continuing resolution, ‘Let all boats rise.’” Otherwise, the resolution should be clean, Graham said, adding: “Senator Manchin, if you think you're going to get 60 votes to get the sweeteners that can't be done in reconciliation, you need to think long and hard about what you're doing.” It’s unclear yet how an agreement on permitting reform would provide for the completion of MVP. The list of agreed-upon provisions contemplates only that relevant agencies would be ordered to “take all necessary actions” to complete reviews and fully permit the natural gas pipeline. A draft version of Democratic permitting legislation excludes any mention of MVP, Bloomberg reported this week, although that text pre-dated the announcement of the Manchin-Schumer deal. UTILITIES BETTING BIG ON SMALL MODULAR REACTORS: The new nuclear generating capacity that a group of electric utilities are planning to add through 2050 would amount to a doubling of current U.S. nuclear output, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, a nuclear policy group. NEI polled the chief nuclear officers at its various member utilities, who together said they have plans to add more than 90 gigawatts of nuclear power to the grid via small modular reactors. Most of that capacity is planned to be online by mid-century, NEI said. New nuclear’s momentum: Republicans and Democrats in Congress, as well as the Biden administration, agree that advanced nuclear is integral to maintaining energy security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, especially as the legacy nuclear fleet ages and retires. Congress approved $2.5 billion in funding in the bipartisan infrastructure bill to support the Energy Department’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration program, and the Democrats intend to do more with their reconciliation bill, which would provide technology-neutral clean energy tax credit to generators that could be used for advanced reactors. The RundownBloomberg US investors visit South Africa with eye on renewable energy Financial Times Australia enters ‘new era’ on climate change as greenhouse gas bill passes New York Times How coal mining and years of neglect left Kentucky towns at the mercy of flooding CalendarTUESDAY | AUGUST 9 12:00 p.m. The American Security Project is holding a virtual discussion titled, "Moving Mountains: Energy, Climate, and National Security in West Virginia." |
