Welcome to the September crunch

Your guide to the political forces shaping the energy transformation

Sep 05, 2023 View in browser   By Arianna Skibell The U.S. Capitol. | Francis Chung/POLITICO Buckle up, folks. Congress is returning from summer recess with a massive to-do list and precious little time to do it. By the end of this month, lawmakers need to pass 12 spending bills — or a short-term stopgap — to keep the government funded. And the path there is filled with partisan land mines. Already, Republican hard-liners in the House are calling for significant spending cuts and threatening to tank Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s plan to approve the legislation on time. Climate-related provisions in the Defense Department’s annual policy bill are also stirring up trouble, including Republican-backed measures that would bar the Pentagon from implementing clean energy programs and a Democratic proposal to require contractors to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions. Adding to the pressure: Billions of dollars for disaster relief are on the line, writes Manuel Quiñones. President Joe Biden has asked Congress for $16 billion to replenish the country’s disaster recovery coffers, which took a massive hit during this year’s onslaught of extreme weather — including last week’s landfall by Hurricane Idalia. As if that weren’t enough ... Congress also faces an Oct. 1 deadline to pass the 2023 farm bill. Lawmakers are divided on whether to make permanent the nearly $20 billion in new climate-related agriculture funds included in Biden’s climate law. In all, the farm bill could include more than $1 trillion in spending, the most ever. And early momentum to include green provisions in the spending bill for the Federal Aviation Administration has stalled. The House approved plans to streamline environmental reviews for airport construction over the summer. The Senate version omits the proposal, while including language to promote cleaner fuels. Conspicuously missing from the agenda: plans to overhaul the country’s process for permitting energy infrastructure projects. Once a major Senate priority, permitting appears to have taken a back seat for now. Democratic lawmakers are instead leaning on executive agencies to accelerate the incorporation of clean energy into the electric grid.   It's Tuesday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to askibell@eenews.net. And folks, let's keep it classy.   GROWING IN THE GOLDEN STATE: POLITICO California is growing, reinforcing our role as the indispensable insider source for reporting on politics, policy and power. From the corridors of power in Sacramento and Los Angeles to the players and innovation hubs in Silicon Valley, we're your go-to for navigating the political landscape across the state. Exclusive scoops, essential daily newsletters, unmatched policy reporting and insights — POLITICO California is your key to unlocking Golden State politics. LEARN MORE.     Listen to today’s POLITICO Energy podcast Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Kelsey Tamborrino and James Bikales break down Congress' and the Biden administration's energy and climate goals for the rest of the year — and what could stand in the way. Power Centers Green group organizers want to keep up momentum after a surge of unionizing in recent years. | POLITICO illustration/Images by iStock, Freepik State of the green unions Years after a wave of union organizing swept through major U.S. green groups, workers inside influential environmental nonprofits are still feuding with their bosses as they attempt to hammer out their first union contracts, writes Robin Bravender. Labor leaders and workers inside green groups see this as a critical moment for the future of organizing within environmental nonprofits. They’re hoping to maintain workers’ enthusiasm for contract negotiations, even in groups where talks have been lengthy and contentious. Underwater transmission push North Atlantic states are weighing development of an ocean corridor of high-voltage power lines. That would pave the way for wind turbines to connect to the electric grid and allow states from Maine to New Jersey to more easily add new clean energy, write Heather Richards and Miranda Willson. But the obstacles are great. States will need to come to consensus on a host of issues, from technology type to how to share costs. British no-show The British government has pulled out of a meeting with green business leaders amid widespread concern that its flagship scheme for investing in clean energy will fall short, writes Charlie Cooper. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government has granted new oil and gas drilling licenses in recent months, sending mixed messages on the U.K.’s plan to switch to clean energy. In Other News Public health: Pakistan has become the epicenter of a new global wave of disease linked to climate change, highlighting how ill-prepared the world is for grappling with climate-fueled pathogens and toxins. Flooding: This Alaskan glacier holds back billions of gallons of water. Until it doesn’t.   Enter the “room where it happens”, where global power players shape policy and politics, with Power Play. POLITICO’s brand-new podcast will host conversations with the leaders and power players shaping the biggest ideas and driving the global conversations, moderated by award-winning journalist Anne McElvoy. Sign up today to be notified of the first episodes in September – click here.     Subscriber Zone A showcase of some of our best subscriber content. A freight rail terminal in Conway, Pa. | Gene Puskar/AP Photo The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration will suspend a Trump-era rule that allowed the hauling of liquefied natural gas on rail cars. Minnesota auto dealers are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop their state from modeling California's strict vehicle emissions standards — a key element of Democratic Gov. Tim Walz's climate agenda. A Louisiana oil and gas company has agreed to relinquish the last drilling lease on a swath of public lands in Montana sacred to the Blackfeet Nation, ending a roughly 40-year legal fight. That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.   Follow us on Twitter Arianna Skibell @ariannaskibell   Follow us

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