Senators Joe Manchin and Charles Schumer announce a climate spending breakthrough, the Energy Department announces its first loan under an electric vehicle program in a decade, and the Biden administration seeks to boost solar power.
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Manchin: Deal reached on taxes and climate
Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) announced Wednesday that he has reached an agreement with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (DN.Y.) on legislation intended to advance key pieces of President Biden’s agenda. , including measures aimed at taxes, the reduction of drug prices and the fight against climate change.
So what does that mean? “I strongly support the passage of common sense policies that reduce inflation and focus on the main challenges facing the United States today and in the future,” Manchin said in a statement.
- “I now propose and will vote for the Reduce Inflation Act of 2022. Instead of risking more inflation with trillions in new spending, this bill will lower the inflationary taxes Americans pay, lower the cost of health insurance and prescription prescribed, and will ensure that our country invests in the energy security and climate change solutions we need to remain a global superpower through innovation rather than elimination,” he added.
- The provisions agreed to by Manchin and Schumer would invest a total of $369.75 billion in Energy Security and Climate Change programs over 10 years, they said.
- They also said the package would cut about 40 percent of the country’s carbon emissions by 2030.
How we got here: The announcement comes after Manchin had previously withdrawn from talks related to climate and tax provisions, saying he preferred to focus on lowering drug costs.
Manchin’s statement said the deal invests in technologies that would power various types of energy, including fossil fuels, renewables, nuclear hydrogen and energy storage.
It added that it also invests in reducing both planet-warming domestic carbon and methane emissions, as well as reducing global emissions.
The statement did not include policy details on how this would be achieved, but many of the goals it set appear to be in line with previously proposed clean energy tax credits.
Read more from Rachel and The Hill’s Aris Folley.
Facility obtains loan to process electric vehicle materials
The Energy Department announced Wednesday that it will provide a $102 million loan to expand a processing plant for materials used in electric vehicle batteries.
- The department said the project is expected to create 150 construction jobs and 98 operations jobs.
- The facility, owned by Syrah Technologies in Vidalia, Louisiana, is a major manufacturer of a material used in lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles and other clean energy technologies.
What does that work on? In a conditional approval from April, the Department of Energy said that the loan could give the facility enough capacity to produce about 2.5 million electric vehicles by 2040, saving 970 million gallons of gasoline.
- The Department of Energy’s “investment in Syrah Vidalia builds on President Biden’s goals to secure our clean transportation future and grow America’s advanced battery and electric vehicle manufacturing workforce,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm in a statement.
- The installation, however, has been the subject of some controversy. E&E News reported in May that the graphite it uses in its batteries is mined in an area of Mozambique where an ISIS-linked insurgency is taking place.
Asked in a press call Wednesday if anything was being done to make sure the loan didn’t further inflame those tensions, officials referred Syrah CFO Stephen Wells. Wells said the company was monitoring incidents near the mine, has a strong relationship with local and national government, and “undertakes[s] to” employ 96 percent of the locals at the mine.
The loan issued by the Department of Energy is the first it has issued through its Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program since 2011.
Read more about the program here.
Biden officials announce solar initiatives
The Biden administration is announcing several initiatives aimed at boosting the deployment of solar energy.
- An administration fact sheet framed the move as a way to cut energy costs and create jobs, as well as tackle climate change.
- It comes amid mounting pressure on the administration to act more on the issue after Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) walked back from talks on legislation to combat climate change last month.
One of the initiatives, from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, would allow people in government-subsidized housing better access to solar power.
I’d do it for not counting your participation in solar programs that reduce your energy bills against your incomewhich can determine your level of rental assistance.
A White House fact sheet said this would allow up to 4.5 million families access to solar power, which it said can save families an average of 10 percent annually on electricity.
The administration is also launching a pilot program in Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Washington, DC, to make locally produced solar energy more affordable for low-income households. This program would connect households receiving energy assistance from the federal government with this solar community.
Read more about the announcement here.
WAITING FOR GOFFMAN
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee did not vote Wednesday on the nomination of Joe Goffman to head the EPA’s air and radiation office, as originally scheduled, but instead advanced two other nominees by voice vote. .
- Not all Democratic members of the 10-10 panel were present, which could jeopardize the committee nomination.
- Goffman was the architect of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, the 2015 emissions reduction plan recently thrown out by the Supreme Court in its West Virginia vs. EPA, and is currently serving in the administration in an interim capacity.
“His response to the Supreme Court decision reaffirmed why I oppose him,” Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (RW.Va.) said at the opening of the hearing Wednesday.
ON TAP TOMORROW
- The Senate Energy Committee will hold a full committee audience consider pending legislation
- The House Oversight Committee will conduct a audience titled “Toxic Air: How Leaded Aviation Fuel Is Poisoning America’s Children”
WHAT WE ARE READING
- Dark Power: How Utilities Neutralize Opponents and Increase Profits (orlando sentinel/flood light)
- Barbados resists climate colonialism in an effort to survive the costs of global warming (Pro Public/ The New York Times Magazine)
- Unprecedented heat and stressed grids make dangerous power outages increasingly likely (HuffPost)
- In the Brazilian Amazon, the destruction of the rainforest has minimal political cost (washington post)
ICYMI
Lighter click: Causing a stir
That’s all for today, thanks for reading. Take a look at The Hill’s Energy and environment page for the latest news and coverage. See you tomorrow.