| | | | |  | | By Matthew Choi | Presented by Growth Energy | With help from Ben Lefebvre, Karl Mathiesen, Josh Siegel, Meredith Lee and Anthony Adragna. Editor's Note: Morning Energy is a free version of POLITICO Pro Energy's morning newsletter, which is delivered to our subscribers each morning at 6 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro.
| | | — The Biden administration will nix summer restrictions on gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol as it seeks to give drivers relief at the pump. — FERC is reassessing its gas policy statements, and all eyes are on Commissioner Mark Christie. — Clean energy spending has had a field day owing to pandemic recovery plans, but the build out has mostly been in rich countries. HAPPY TUESDAY! I'm your host, Matthew Choi. Cheniere's Khary Cauthen gets the trivia for knowing the API gravity of water is 10 degrees. For today: What was the answer to 6-down in yesterday's NYT crossword? Send your tips and trivia answers to mchoi@politico.com. Find me on Twitter @matthewchoi2018. Check out the POLITICO Energy podcast — all the energy and environmental politics and policy news you need to start your day, in just five minutes. Listen and subscribe for free at politico.com/energy-podcast . On today's episode: A climate compromise at FERC?
| | | A message from Growth Energy: Fuel prices are up, and drivers across the nation are looking for relief at the pump. Now more than ever, we must invest in American-made energy like ethanol by unleashing the power of year-round E15, a lower-cost, lower-emission option compared to traditional fuel blends. The administration must work swiftly to issue an emergency waiver and lift E15 restrictions that threaten to cut off motorists from lower-cost options at the pump. Learn more here: www.GrowthEnergy.org/GasPrices. | | | | | | E15 ALL YEAR ROUND: President Joe Biden will be in the Corn State today to announce his administration is lifting summer restrictions on gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol in a bid to offer consumers some relief at the pump. It's a huge win for agriculture states and ethanol backers but could garner pushback from environmentalists who fear greenhouse gas emissions linked to ethanol production and from refiners who question the legality of extending E15 sales. The move will require EPA to issue a national emergency waiver to lift current restrictions, which are in place to protect air quality in the summer months from June 1 to Sept. 15. The administration is also considering additional action that could lead to year-round E15 use, including coordination with state governments. EPA will also work with states to make sure any moves don't have severe adverse impact on air quality, which an administration official told reporters was largely an issue in "very large urban centers, often on the coasts." The administration is eager for solutions that could grant gas price relief as the midterms approach and consumer confidence in the economy descends. And despite the Biden administration's adamant messaging that Russian President Vladimir Putin is to blame for the high gasoline prices, shifting blame doesn't alter the reality that motorists are hurting. The U.S. has also coordinated releases of national crude stockpiles to help cool prices. The national average gasoline price was $4.114 on Monday, according to AAA. Biden is making the announcement in Menlo, Iowa, during his first trip to the state since 2020 when he was a candidate. Rep. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa), one of the lawmakers pressing Biden to lift the summer ethanol restrictions, is planning to greet the president at the Des Moines airport tomorrow and attend his remarks. POLITICO's Kelsey Tamborrino and Ben Lefebvre have more. HOW MUCH BITE TO THE GAS POLICY? FERC is going back to the drawing board after pulling back the natural gas policy statements that drew ire from industry and lawmakers. Republican Commissioner Mark Christie could be the key player in determining how a revised policy framework might look, POLITICO's Catherine Morehouse reports. The policy statements increased the weight environmental justice and climate concerns held in approving new natural gas projects, with Democrats citing the trail of court orders vacating past permits due to what the D.C. federal appeals court determined were insufficient environmental reviews. But with the administration calling for greater natural gas export capacity over the war in Ukraine, lawmakers including Senate Energy Chair Joe Manchin and industry interest groups protested that the policy statements would impede vital energy infrastructure. Christie and his Democratic peers appear ready for a compromise, with Christie agreeing that the commission has the authority to regulate projects' immediate emissions, such as methane leaks. But he stopped short of saying indirect upstream or downstream emissions from gas are fair game for shutting down a project, though he conceded they could count in FERC's analysis. Environmentalists retort that removing the climate factors from the final permitting decision takes all teeth out of the matter. And it wouldn't solve the issue of federal courts vacating permits over environmental concerns. If FERC can't reject a project based on those considerations "why put them in the mix at all?" Moneen Nasmith, a senior attorney at Earthjustice said. "Frankly, I don't see that as consistent with the law as it currently stands. And so I don't see that as something that the chairman and the two other [Democratic] commissioners are going to be on board with." Read more from Catherine.
| | | | DON'T MISS ANYTHING FROM THE 2022 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO is excited to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider" newsletter featuring exclusive coverage and insights from the 25th annual Global Conference. This year's event, May 1-4, brings together more than 3,000 of the world's most influential leaders, including 700+ speakers representing more than 80 countries. "Celebrating the Power of Connection" is this year's theme, setting the stage to connect influencers with the resources to change the world with leading experts and thinkers whose insight and creativity can implement that change. Whether you're attending in person or following along from somewhere else in the world, keep up with this year's conference with POLITICO's special edition "Global Insider" so you don't miss a beat. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | | A GREENER RECOVERY EMERGES: Clean energy spending through pandemic recovery plans has surged by 50 percent in the past five months, with $710 billion being earmarked globally to be spent before 2030, the International Energy Agency said this morning. But that's mostly been in rich countries. Emerging and developing economies are making investments at one tenth of the rate of governments in the rich world. The good news: As the pandemic moves into its third year, hopes of a game-changing green stimulus had largely faded as many governments chose to provide support to the fossil fuels that already ran their economies. But the past few months have seen the clean energy side of the equation surge, according to the IEA. It's now 40 percent higher than clean energy spend after the 2008 financial crisis. "Countries where clean energy is at the heart of recovery plans are keeping alive the possibility of reaching net zero emissions by 2050," said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. Reality check: The IEA data doesn't measure energy spending on fossil fuels. The Energy Policy Tracker, set up by energy and environmental research organizations in several countries around the globe, does. Its methodology differs from the IEA's, but it finds that G-20 governments have simultaneously spent more on supporting fossil fuel energy than clean energy. Still, IEA said even where funding was available, spending it effectively and quickly has proven extremely challenging because governments had failed to establish the right processes, deal with supply or labor bottlenecks or adequately inform the public about measures that need their buy-in. WHAT TO DO ABOUT RUSSIAN OIL: The European Union's executive is considering an embargo on Russian petroleum imports, Reuters reports, but OPEC warned EU officials that finding a replacement would be no easy task. "We could potentially see the loss of more than 7 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil and other liquids exports, resulting from current and future sanctions or other voluntary actions," OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo told EU officials in Vienna on Monday, according to Reuters. "Considering the current demand outlook, it would be nearly impossible to replace a loss in volumes of this magnitude." The White House has gone to great lengths to show sympathy for countries with lower energy production capacity and not pressure them into implementing their own bans on Russian energy imports. It's a point Biden brought up during a Monday call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But a senior administration official told reporters Monday that "we don't think India should accelerate or increase imports of Russian energy. And the U.S. is ready to support India, remain in a conversation with India about its diversification of imports."
| | | | INTRODUCING DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED: Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | MONTANA DREAMIN': Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's race for Montana's District 1 Congressional seat is taking another twist toward the weird. Last week, Democratic candidate Monica Tranel published a letter to ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Ryan Lance demanding that the oil company stop paying Zinke, one of the three Republican candidates for the new seat representing the western part of the state, after Zinke filed a financial disclosure form late last year showingthe company paid him $460,000 over two years for "consulting." Later in the day, Zinke campaign spokesperson Heather Swift responded to Tranel's letter by saying on Twitter that " Zinke gave up his board seat months ago to focus on the campaign." That phrase "his board seat" is raising some eyebrows, especially given that Zinke listed his income from ConocoPhillips as separate from the income from his consulting firm Continental Divide. Multiple messages to Swift and to Zinke's official campaign asking for clarification were not answered. A Conoco spokesperson said Zinke did not serve on the company's board, but declined to say what exact issue the former one-term Congressman and two-year Interior Secretary was advising on. The company, which has a permit pending with Interior to drill for oil in Alaska while it's also dealing with a major natural gas leak at another site in the state, stopped working with Zinke "a few months ago," the spokesperson said. Zinke's campaign brought in $1.1 million for the first quarter of this year, including $2,500 from ConocoPhillip's political action committee, according to his latest campaign financial disclosure submission. Other notable donations were $2,500 from Occidental Petroleum and $1,000 from TransCanada, the company that sought to build the Keystone XL pipeline through the state. Zinke, with his universal name recognition, is seen as the prohibitive favorite in the newly-created district, which includes parts of the state that voted for former President Donald Trump by more than seven percentage points in 2020. MANCHIN IN CANADA: Manchin is continuing his two-day tour of Alberta, Canada, today to promote the region's oil sands. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney touted Manchin's visit as a means to highlight "the critical role we play in North American energy security." The Biden administration is looking to increase Canadian oil imports to offset the loss of Russian energy — but they're looking to do so without resurrecting the Keystone XL pipeline, The Wall Street Journal reported last week. Manchin has previously called on Biden to reconsider his decision to cancel a permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which effectively killed the long-contested project that would have carried Canadian oil sands from Alberta to Texas. But a spokesperson for Manchin told ME he would be promoting North American oil and gas broadly during his visit, rather than pushing for Biden specifically to revive Keystone XL. Still, Manchin has not been shy making demands on policies Biden can take to boost fossil fuels during the current energy crisis, as he seeks to maximize his leverage as the holdout vote over Biden's climate and social spending agenda.
| | | | A message from Growth Energy:   | | | | | | WHAT INVESTORS WANT: Investors want more clarity in how upstream oil and gas companies disclose their environmental impacts, according to a report by Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy today. The study analyzed the ESG and sustainability reports of 15 companies of varying sizes and interviewed major investors in the domestic oil and gas sector and found companies used different baseline years and timelines in describing their emissions reductions targets, leading to difficulty comparing their performances on combating climate change. But companies don't need to fear climate-minded investors divesting en masse, with investors in the study largely preferring to stay involved in the companies' emissions reductions efforts. Oil and gas companies are quick to point to investor confidence when asked why they aren't using federal leases they currently hold to drill more oil. Industry executives and interest groups told lawmakers in numerous panels over the past weeks that with little confidence in long-term returns in new drilling ventures, upstream companies can't get the capital they need to ramp up production — which the Biden administration has urged companies to prioritize in order to bring down retail fuel prices. Read the full report here. STRANGE LNG BEDFELLOWS: Dow, one of the world's largest chemical producers, is changing its tune when it comes to U.S. LNG exports. The company that in 2013 was one of the most vocal opponents of shipping greater quantities of its main raw material natural gas overseas now says it is planning to build a proposed LNG import terminal at its Stade industry site in Germany to help the country wean itself off Russian gas. Dow did not say how much money it would invest in the project, which would have a capacity of 13 billion cubic meters a year but said it will contribute land for construction and help with infrastructure if it makes a final decision this year to go ahead with the plan.
| | | — "Red states ask court to torpedo special California authority over vehicle emissions," via POLITICO. — "China's Latest Covid-19 Lockdowns Begin to Drag on the Economy," via The Wall Street Journal. — " Prosecutors drop charges against PG&E in new settlement," via POLITICO. — "Arrests at W.Va. protest denouncing Manchin coal industry ties," via WLWT5. — " Bobby Rush wants to pick who gets his seat. 19 people disagree," via POLITICO. THAT'S ALL FOR ME!
| | A message from Growth Energy: Gasoline prices have recently surged to record levels, and drivers across our nation are feeling the pain at the gas pump. Fortunately, U.S. leaders have an opportunity to provide consumers with immediate relief from high gas prices with higher blends of plant-based, America-made ethanol.
President Biden and EPA Administrator Michael Regan must act quickly to increase the supply of lower-cost biofuels available to motorists. The EPA has authority to waive summertime restrictions on the sale of higher biofuel blends like E15, just as the agency has done in response to past market interruptions.
Now more than ever, it is critical that policymakers in Washington protect access to lower-cost, lower-emissions fuel options made with more American-made energy. We're calling on the administration to support American-made biofuels and waive summertime E15 restrictions. Learn more here: www.GrowthEnergy.org/GasPrices. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
Comments
Post a Comment