Europe’s Greens take a beating at the polls. Is the US next?

Presented by Chevron: Your guide to the political forces shaping the energy transformation

Jun 10, 2024 View in browser   By Joel Kirkland Presented by Chevron President Joe Biden smiles with French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday at the Elysee Palace in Paris. | Michel Euler/AP Climate action on the other side of the Atlantic flourished after the “green wave” and “quiet revolution” of the 2019 elections elevated the Green Party into a force in the European Parliament. Five years later, a reversal of political fortunes in Europe could upend the move to zero-carbon energy and a hard shift toward electric cars by 2035. In a continent-wide election that ended Sunday and left Europe’s political establishment in tatters, political support for green policies was undercut by the rightward tide. The center-right European People’s Party will have the highest number of seats in the European Parliament, while far-right parties gained significant ground. Green parties lost almost a quarter of their seats, and support cratered in France and Germany. Our reporting team in Brussels noted it marked a reversal after climate activists marched in the streets before the last election. Parties on the left are sure to come to the defense of climate policies. But a fight among factions on the right could also be on the horizon if far-right politicians attack the European Green Deal and its goal of zeroing out climate pollution by 2050. EPP leader Manfred Weber told POLITICO the European Union’s ban on the sale of combustion engine cars after 2035 was a “mistake” and promised the party would discuss rolling it back in “upcoming days.” That would mean a split with his party’s lead candidate, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has backed the ban on the campaign trail. Sound familiar? Other than the parliamentary aspect, this all might strike a chord. In November, American voters face a similar choice: Endorse four more years of a clean energy-driven U.S. industrial policy that took shape under President Joe Biden that aims for a zero-carbon economy in 2050, or return Donald Trump to the White House. If Trump is elected and the federal government takes a far more skeptical viewpoint of the climate problem, hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for clean energy technology could wither on the vine. To get in front of this new wave beating against the political establishment, Biden, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron are taking dramatic steps, John Harris and Alexander Burns write. On Sunday night, after the strong showing of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party in France, Macron called for snap parliamentary elections. Sunak has also called for a new U.K. election in early July to shore up support for his beleaguered Conservative government, if possible. And Biden, who’s struggling to get a handle on worrisome poll numbers, got Trump to agree to the earliest-ever general election debate, scheduled for June 27. For climate and energy policy in the United States, instability is par for the course. U.S. energy and climate policy have been zigging and zagging since the end of the Clinton presidency. President Barack Obama took a chisel to President George W. Bush’s oil-friendly policies. Trump took a hammer to Obama’s Paris agreement. And Biden overcame united Republican opposition when he redefined what it is to offer federal support for clean energy technology by signing the Inflation Reduction Act.   It's Monday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Joel Kirkland. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to jkirkland@eenews.net.   A message from Chevron: Energy demand is projected to reach record highs and continue to rise in the future. Chevron is responding to that growing need while innovating to help do so responsibly. All to help us provide energy that’s affordable, reliable, and ever-cleaner.   Listen to today’s POLITICO Energy podcast Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Zack Colman sits down with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm for an interview about the Inflation Reduction Act, competition with China, the power grid, manufacturing and more.   THE GOLD STANDARD OF DEFENSE POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. The Pro platform dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries, like defense, equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists. Our newsroom is deeper, more experienced, and better sourced than any other. Our defense reporting team—including Lara Seligman, Joe Gould, Paul McCleary, Connor O’Brien and Lee Hudson—is embedded with the market-moving legislative committees and agencies in Washington and across states, delivering unparalleled coverage of defense policy and the defense industry. We bring subscribers inside the conversations that determine policy outcomes and the future of industries, providing insight that cannot be found anywhere else. Get the premier news and policy intelligence service, SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICO PRO TODAY.     Power Centers Illustration by Jade Cuevas/POLITICO (source images via Getty Images) Republicans tout infrastructure funding they opposed Some vulnerable House Republicans are tacitly taking credit for federal infrastructure funding they voted against, writes Katherine Tully-McManus. Nearly three years after Congress passed the $1.2 trillion bill — with the support of only 13 House Republicans — project announcements and preparations have begun across the country. Battleground Republicans who opposed the law are now showing up at opening ceremonies, celebrating public transit, highway and dredging projects. Congestion pricing heads for the doldrums Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's decision to halt congestion pricing in Manhattan could hinder similar efforts across the country, writes Scott Waldman. Cities from Portland, Oregon, to San Francisco were waiting to see how the controversial climate policy played out in the nation's largest city. The program would have charged drivers $15 to travel below 60th Street, in a bid to reduce pollution and traffic. “It was always this sense of well, we’ll get to see how New York’s going and we’ll learn from that as we go to implement our program here,” said Stuart Cohen, co-founder and senior adviser for TransForm, a California-based public transportation advocacy group. “And so yeah, this will absolutely take the wind out of the sails of pricing programs across the country, but especially on the West Coast.” PacifiCorp's coal revival One of the country’s largest utilities is considering awarding a contract to a carbon capture startup once helmed by its CEO, write Jason Plautz and Carlos Anchondo. PacifiCorp CEO Cindy Crane is still executive board chair at Enchant Energy, which is the lead company on the only bid to install carbon capture at one of the utility's coal power plants. The bid was submitted when Crane was still CEO at Enchant — and its fate may be decided when she’s CEO at PacifiCorp. The utility, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, announced in April that it would extend the life of some of its coal plants.   JOIN US ON 6/12 FOR A TALK ON THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY: As air travel soars again, policymakers and airlines are grappling with a series of contemporary challenges to the industry's future. Join POLITICO on June 12 for a topical and timely conversation with government leaders and aviation stakeholders about the state of the airline industry. From what passengers want to what airlines need amid the high demand for air traffic, workers and technology solutions. What can Washington do to ensure passengers and providers are equipped to fly right? REGISTER HERE.     In Other News Constitutional showdown: Donald Trump is vowing to take key spending powers from Congress — despite those powers being enshrined in the Constitution — if elected this November. Allies say the former president wants to cut funding for the World Health Organization and green energy initiatives. What national debt? Republicans are preparing to expand tax cuts on corporations and the wealthy if Trump wins the White House. As POLITICO's E&E News recently reported, House GOP lawmakers have already begun to comb through the Inflation Reduction Act to find offsets for extending Trump-era income tax cuts.   A message from Chevron:   Subscriber Zone A showcase of some of our best subscriber content. Traffic on a Los Angeles-area freeway during evening rush hour last year. | Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images An uptick in electric vehicle use could worsen air quality in historically disadvantaged parts of Los Angeles, even though such broad adoption would have the opposite effect in other large U.S. cities. A senior Bureau of Land Management official warned in an internal email that the federal government might be rushing the environmental review of a controversial lithium mine, a project some see as critical to jump-starting electric vehicle supply chains in the U.S. Global spending on clean energy is set to eclipse $2 trillion in 2024, double the $1 trillion spent on fossil fuels, according to the International Energy Agency. That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.   A message from Chevron: Oil and gas are still an important part of the global energy system. To help responsibly address growing needs, Chevron is stepping up. Our Gulf of Mexico facilities are some of the world’s lowest carbon intensity operations, and our technological advances enable us to reach previously unviable oil and gas reserves there. In the Permian Basin, we’re harnessing new drilling and completion technologies to increase the amount of oil we recover. We expect to reach 1 million barrels of oil-equivalent there per day by 2025. Providing energy that’s affordable, reliable, and ever-cleaner. That’s energy in progress.     Follow us on Twitter Arianna Skibell @ariannaskibell   Follow us

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