| | | | |  | | By Matthew Choi | Presented by the Edison Electric Institute | With help from Catherine Morehouse. 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.
| | | — New Mexico's Democrats have a warning for their national peers: Don't pit fossil fuels against clean energy. — The Biden administration will issue the sale notices for its first onshore federal oil and gas lease sale today, but with a lot of changes to the program. — Transmission planning, electricity market design and gas pipelines are on the docket at FERC's monthly meeting this week. HAPPY MONDAY! I'm your host, Matthew Choi. Congrats to Beth Viola of Holland & Knight for finishing the Chiquitita lyrics: "You'll be dancing once again and the pain will end. You will have no time for grieving." For today's trivia: Which pope excommunicated Martin Luther? 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: California's ambitious gas car phase out plan.
| | | | | A message from the Edison Electric Institute: Our Clean Energy Leadership. America's investor-owned electric companies are committed to getting the energy we provide as clean as we can as fast as we can, while maintaining the reliability and affordability that our customers value. We are making progress . Today, carbon emissions from the U.S. power sector are as low as they were in 1984, while electricity use is up 72% since then. We are proud to be delivering America's resilient clean energy. | | | | | | THE NEW MEXICO WAY: New Mexico has quietly — and quickly — become the second largest oil producing state in the country. And while Democrats who control most state offices there are eager to boast about their state's rapid clean energy growth, they are wary of national party and environmentalists groups' calls to eliminate fossil fuels that could turn off a lot of the state's voters, POLITICO's Ben Lefebvre and Josh Siegel report. New Mexico produced more than 10 percent of the total U.S. oil output in January, and more than a third of the state's budget in recent years has come from oil and gas royalties on state lands. The oil and gas industry is also a principal employer in the state, particularly in the south. That's forced Democrats there to take a different approach than many of their colleagues in other states. "Environmentalists can be out of touch that a typical person here in New Mexico is trying to put food on their table and thinking about how to pay their bills," New Mexico state Rep. Angelica Rubio. "When they hear a [call for an oil] ban, that means an end of the job. My effort as a legislator has been to find what the middle ground is." Democrats in the state know better than to set their fossil fuel production against their renewable energy sector, which has seen significant growth in the past few years. Solar and wind capacity are now triple what they were in January 2019. But that doesn't mean Democrats are betting their future on fossil fuels, since the state's revenues can swing wildly with oil markets, New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard said, and there needs to be more sustainable long-term plans to keep the state's budget healthy. Read more from Ben and Josh.
| | | | 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. | | | | | | | | FOR SALE, NEW LEASES: The Biden administration plans to reveal details for its first federal onshore oil and gas lease sale today, though it'll be considerably scaled back and subject to stricter environmental reviews than many in industry had hoped for. The Interior Department revealed its intentions on Friday, and the administration and its allies emphasized that the lease sale will come with major changes, including increasing royalty rates to 18.75 percent and adding more community and Tribal consultation. Some of the leasing program changes reflect long-standing legislative priorities for energy-focused Democrats. Lawmakers had called for the first increase to the royalty rates in more than a century in their stalled budget reconciliation package last year, and the House Natural Resources Committee advanced Rep. Mike Levin's Restoring Community Input and Public Protections in Oil and Gas Leasing Act (H.R. 1503 (117)) last year. "I'm glad we finally have an administration that recognizes that the status quo for our oil and gas leasing program is a rip-off for the American people," House Natural Resources Chair Raul Grijalva said in a statement Friday. "If we're going to let the fossil fuel industry pocket more of our public lands for drilling, we should at least make sure they're paying a decent price to do it." But neither environmentalists nor Republicans were pleased, pointing out the news drop came on the Friday before Easter (déjà vu to when DOI released its long anticipated oil and gas leasing report on Black Friday). While many green groups were frustrated that the administration was keeping the door open to fossil fuels, Republicans complained the changes were dramatically hamstringing the country's energy output when domestic production should be going all out. "First it was an illegal moratorium imposed at the start of his presidency. Now it's this proposal to dramatically increase the cost of onshore leases while cutting the acres offered for lease by 80 percent," Senate Energy ranking member John Barrasso said in a statement. "The president claims he's doing nothing to limit domestic production, but once again his administration is making American energy more expensive and harder to produce." ON THE FERC DOCKET: FERC may make take steps to update U.S. transmission planning — a rulemaking process that has the potential to unleash more wind and solar resources — during its open meeting this week, according to the agency's agenda. Regulators have hinted that they are considering breaking apart the proceeding into smaller rulemakings, rather than unveiling one comprehensive rule all at once. The commission will also tackle potential changes to U.S. electricity market design this week, after Chair Richard Glick hinted earlier this month FERC was almost ready to take next steps on potential alterations after hosting several technical conferences on the issue. Potential changes could include redesigning market rules to better compensate more "flexible" zero or low-carbon resources for the attributes they provide to the grid. The agency is also considering permitting several gas pipelines. During last month's open meeting, FERC approved three pipeline projects after deciding to pause its efforts to expand the criteria it considers for those certificates. ASEAN GET TOGETHER: President Joe Biden will host the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for a D.C. summit on May 12 and 13, the White House announced last week. Though the White House didn't say energy would be on the agenda, ASEAN includes some of the world's biggest liquefied natural gas producers, including Malaysia and Indonesia, and the administration is looking for LNG partners to help replace Russian gas exports to Europe ahead of next winter's heating season. The White House announcement said the summit will build off of last year's meeting, where the members discussed Covid recovery, climate change, economic growth and gender equality issues. The meeting was originally slated for the end of March but got pushed back due to scheduling conflicts. Read more from POLITICO's Brianna Crummy. BIDEN'S EARTH DAY: Biden will head to the Pacific Northwest for Earth Day, including a Thursday stop in Portland, Ore., and a Friday visit to Seattle. He'll use the trip to continue the administration's national tour touting the bipartisan infrastructure package while also discussing ways the administration hopes to lower consumer energy costs and build out clean energy. AND MICHAEL REGAN? The EPA administrator will travel to the Midwest this week to tout the benefits of the infrastructure package. He sets off for Cleveland today to discuss portions of the package targeting lead contamination, Great Lakes preservation and air pollution. On Tuesday it will be Youngstown and Toledo, Ohio, where he will discuss clean drinking water and lead pipe removal portions of the package. Regan finishes the tour in Wisconsin on Wednesday to discuss rural water infrastructure and electric bus investments.
| | | | A message from the Edison Electric Institute:   | | | | | | BASTA TO RUSSIAN GAS: Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi is optimistic about shutting off Russian natural gas quickly, telling Corriere della Sera : "Diversification is possible and feasible in a relatively short time, shorter than we imagined just a month ago." Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank, also said a proposal from Italy to cap the price of natural gas "is gaining support" in the EU. Italy is heavily reliant on Russian imports, which account for 40 percent of its natural gas. But Rome is looking to other producers including Algeria to fill in the gap. Draghi also told Corriere della Sera that Italy has plenty of gas in storage and should be in a good shape for next winter. POLITICO's Sarah-Taïssir Bencharif has more. RUBLES REQUEST RECEIVED: Several Russian natural gas customers are willing to pay in rubles, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Friday according to Reuters . Russian President Vladimir Putin called on "unfriendly" countries who buy Russian natural gas to pay in the Russian currency, which nosedived sharply after the invasion of Ukraine but has since made a comeback. Novak didn't reveal who those newly compliant customers were, but Armenia and Hungary both disclosed last week their past payments or plans to pay in rubles. Several European Union leaders scoffed at the idea of paying in rubles when Putin made his demands, decrying the announcement as an attention grabber. LA PRÉSIDENTIELLE: We're just under a week away from France's presidential runoffs, and President Emmanuel Macron is hoping to use climate change to sway undecided voters to his camp. Macron vowed to make his prime minister "directly responsible for ecological planning" and trashed his opponent, far right Marine Le Pen, as counterproductive on climate issues by calling for a reduction in wind power and greater autonomy from the EU's grid and climate plans. Macron made the comments Sunday in Marseille, a southern city that handedly voted for leftist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon who did not make it past the first round of voting. Mélenchon campaigned heavily on climate issues as an existential challenge for the next government, and Macron co-opted some of his talking points to score support. Though Mélenchon told his supporters not to vote for Le Pen, he didn't formally endorse Macron, and his supporters are split on whom to vote for in the second round, if they do at all. POLITICO's Clothilde Goujard has more.
| | | | 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. | | | | | | | | — "How a Determined Congressional Aide Helped Break Open the Biggest Environmental Scandal in U.S. History," via POLITICO Magazine. — " Utilities Plan Huge Electric Grid Upgrades, Adding to Power Bills," via The Wall Street Journal. — "Tesla recalls hundreds of thousands of cars, the 8th recall so far this year," via POLITICO. — "To fight climate despair, this Christian ecologist says science isn't enough," via The Washington Post. — "War in Ukraine generates interest in nuclear energy, despite danger," via The Washington Post. THAT'S ALL FOR ME!
| | | | A message from the Edison Electric Institute: Our Clean Energy Vision. Today, 40% of the electricity that powers our homes and businesses comes from clean, carbon-free sources, including nuclear energy, hydropower, wind, and solar energy. Equally important, carbon emissions from the U.S. power sector are nearly 40 percent below 2005 levels. On our clean energy journey, we are focused on maintaining the reliability and affordability our customers value. And, we have proven that powering the economy and protecting the environment can go hand in hand.
America's investor-owned electric companies are well-positioned to be a major part of the climate solution—and we want to be part of the solution. With new technologies and the right policies—including congressional passage of a robust clean energy tax package that will deliver significant long-term benefits to electricity customers—a 100% clean energy future can be more than a goal. It can be a reality. We are #Committed2Clean.® | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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