Energy déjà vu

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Mar 18, 2022 View in browser   By Debra Kahn Presented by THE WEEK THAT WAS The Keystone Pipeline is among the talking points being revived the in the debate over addressing soaring fuel costs. | (Nati Harnik, File/AP Photo) GROUNDHOG DAY — Different crisis, same convo. Policymakers, politicians and parties are clinging to entrenched positions in an election year despite massive changes in the world order and global markets wrought by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and withering sanctions imposed in response, as Mike Soraghan reports for POLITICO's E&E News. With gasoline prices shooting above $4, President Biden and Democrats have dusted off old talking points about unused permits for oil and gas drilling. Republicans are refreshing calls to restart the Keystone XL pipeline and floating suggestions that green groups get money from Russia. "It's like they're playing the iTunes hits of the '80s, '90s and early 2000s," said Mark Pfeifle , a public relations consultant who worked in President George W. Bush's White House. "They have no new ideas." The "Groundhog Day" nature of the debate obscures a real opportunity for creating a sustainable energy policy, said Paul Bledsoe , a former Clinton administration climate official who is now strategic adviser for the Progressive Policy Institute. Democrats, he said, need to recognize the importance of increased production in the short term, and Republicans need to recognize that the country must shift to electric vehicles and cleaner energy over the long haul. "This is the classic crisis moment," Bledsoe said. "The question is which party will seize it." SUSTAINABLE FINANCE WORDS MATTER — Telling Americans that their retirement plan has a sustainable investing option likely won't encourage them to participate or contribute more money — and may make them less likely to save for their golden years, according to research from Morningstar, our Catherine Boudreau reports. Researchers tested four different descriptions of a retirement plan with environmental, social and governance factors, and compared them to generic statements about the benefits of a 401(k) account. For the most part, the ESG information didn't make much of an impact. But in one case, it did. Stating that sustainable investing can be "a way to manage the financially material risks companies face that are related to ESG issues and/or invest in causes you care about" led people to contribute 20 percent less to their plan. Researchers said they found a small relationship to political ideology, with conservatives contributing less. People who thought ESG funds performed worse than the market also invested less. The findings show that retirement plans have to use language carefully to avoid turning people off from sustainable investing, said Ryan Murphy, a co-author of the report and global head of behavioral insights at Morningstar. "Choice overload can be overwhelming to investors," he said in an interview. "We in the industry need to slow down and make sure people don't feel overwhelmed." LIMITED COVERAGE — Reinsurer Swiss Re AG said Thursday that it will stop insuring companies responsible for the top 10 percent most carbon-intensive oil and gas production, the Wall Street Journal reports. Swiss Re also said it would stop insuring or investing in new petroleum projects approved after this year, with an exception for projects by companies that have net-zero emissions plans validated by reputable third parties. It's also excluding companies and projects that have more than 10% of their production in the Arctic region, with an exception for Norwegian producers. Meanwhile, Axa SA, which already has a ban on insuring Arctic drilling, is facing elemental tradeoffs as it goes further, as Bloomberg reports in an excavation of the insurer's deliberations ahead of Climate Finance Day last year. The company's sustainability and property/casualty units dueled internally about where to draw the line on who to cover, with a particular focus on new drilling activity and evaluating oil companies' transition plans. CEO Thomas Buberl ultimately sided with the greens — and is still under pressure from activists to do more.   A message from The American Beverage Association: At America's beverage companies our plastic bottles are made to be remade. We're carefully designing them to be 100% recyclable, including the caps—so every bottle can become a new one. That means less plastic waste in our environment. Please help us get Every Bottle Back. EveryBottleBack.org   PLASTIC POLLUTION Google puts a round number on the cost of closing the "plastics circularity gap": Half a trillion dollars. | (Rajanish Kakade/AP Photo) GOOGLE GOGGLES — The cost of creating a true circular economy for plastic? About $500 billion globally through 2040, according to a report released Thursday by Google, which has been working on the issue in line with its goals for increasing recycled plastic content in its products. That amount of investment could reduce the "plastics circularity gap" — the difference between the amount of plastic produced and the amount that comes from recycled sources — by 4.5 million metric tons, or 59 percent, the report finds. It zeroes in on a few key policies: demand reduction through consumer education and incentives, taxing plastic production and boosting mechanical recycling in the short term and chemical recycling in the long term. Mechanical recycling will need to expand sixfold, while chemical recycling will need to expand its capacity 135 times by 2040. BUILDING BLOCKS MIDDLING MURPHY — Green groups are looking askance at New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's record on climate, POLITICO's Ry Rivard reports. Just last fall, they were rejoicing at the reelection of a progressive Democratic governor who had Al Gore's backing during his first campaign and was talking regularly about extreme weather and climate change in the weeks before he won a second term. But since setting a goal in November to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, Murphy has barely mentioned climate in his speeches. It goes beyond rhetoric: Business groups and environmentalists both say his emissions rules for power plants are weak. And green groups are particularly concerned, in a year with a massive budget surplus, about his proposal to divert $82 million from an energy efficiency fund to transit agencies — leaving "action on climate change on the cutting room floor," as Environment New Jersey Director Doug O'Malley put it. Murphy's officials are counseling patience. Environmentalists' criticism comes from a "misunderstanding" about the "iterative" nature of regulatory change, Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette said last week. "The governor has set the course in order to achieve those goals," LaTourette said. "I don't think you're going to hear more from him beyond what you've heard because he has given us the charge."   A message from The American Beverage Association:   WHAT WE'RE CLICKING — San Francisco is boycotting so many jurisdictions with anti-LGBT, anti-abortion and anti-voter laws that it now can't do business with companies headquartered in 28 states, Mission Local reports. — Wall Street veteran Alex Ehrlich gave Bloomberg a two-year look into his crusade to start a non-racist bank. — Virginia regulators this week approved a massive expansion of renewable energy — 1 gigawatt of solar and energy storage to be deployed by Dominion Energy by next year, with another 10 GW anticipated in coming years, Utility Dive reports. — But the federally owned Tennessee Valley Authority is planning to build 5 gigawatts of gas-fired power, arguing that solar is too expensive and not as reliable, the NYT reports.   SUBSCRIBE TO NATIONAL SECURITY DAILY : Keep up with the latest critical developments from Ukraine and across Europe in our daily newsletter, National Security Daily. The Russian invasion of Ukraine could disrupt the established world order and result in a refugee crisis, increased cyberattacks, rising energy costs and additional disruption to global supply chains. Go inside the top national security and foreign-policymaking shops for insight on the global threats faced by the U.S. and its allies and what actions world leaders are taking to address them. Subscribe today.     YOU TELL US GAME ON – Welcome to the Long Game, where we're delivering the latest on efforts to shape our future. Tuesday through Friday, we've got data-driven storytelling, compelling interviews with industry and political leaders, and more news to keep you in the loop on sustainability. Our team is sustainability editor Greg Mott, deputy editor Debra Kahn, reporters Lorraine Woellert and Catherine Boudreau and digital producer Jordan Wolman. Reach them at gmott@politico.com, dkahn@politico.com, lwoellert@politico.com, cboudreau@politico.com and jwolman@politico.com. Thanks to Mike Soraghan of POLITICO's E&E News and Ry Rivard for contributing today. Want more? Sign up for the Long Game. Four days a week and still totally free!   A message from The American Beverage Association: America's leading beverage companies - The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo - are working together to reduce our industry's plastic footprint through our Every Bottle Back initiative. We're investing in efforts to get our bottles back so we can remake them into new bottles and use less new plastic. Together, we're: · Designing 100% recyclable plastic bottles and caps – we're making our bottles from PET that's strong, lightweight and easy to recycle. · Investing in community recycling – we're marshalling the equivalent of nearly a half-billion dollars with The Recycling Partnership and Closed Loop Partners to support community recycling programs across multiple states. · Raising awareness – we're adding on-pack reminders to encourage consumers to recycle our plastic bottles and caps. Our bottles are made to be remade. Please help us get Every Bottle Back. EveryBottleBack.org   LOOK AHEAD Events are listed in Eastern Time March 21 — The Securities and Exchange Commission will consider a proposed rulemaking related to climate disclosures at 11 a.m. March 21 — The National Association for Business Economics holds a conference focused on sustainable growth on March 21 and 22 at 8 a.m. March 21 — New America holds a discussion on women in climate change at 9 a.m. March 21 — The Hudson Institute discusses the future of U.S. energy production at 12 p.m. March 23 — The Baker Institute for Public Policy discusses oil markets following Russia's invasion of Ukraine at 9 a.m. March 23 — The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee discusses energy investments and climate solutions at 10 a.m. March 24 — The United States Energy Association discusses waste plastics gasification and carbon capture at 1 p.m.   DON'T MISS POLITICO'S INAUGURAL HEALTH CARE SUMMIT ON 3/31: Join POLITICO for a discussion with health care providers, policymakers, federal regulators, patient representatives, and industry leaders to better understand the latest policy and industry solutions in place as we enter year three of the pandemic. Panelists will discuss the latest proposals to overcome long-standing health care challenges in the U.S., such as expanding access to care, affordability, and prescription drug prices. REGISTER HERE.       Follow us on Twitter Catherine Boudreau @ceboudreau Debra Kahn @debra_kahn Greg Mott @gwmott Lorraine Woellert @Woellert Jordan Wolman @jordanwolman   Follow us

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