Capitol Light/Climate Politics

Today's ten tidbits

Use it or lose it! The EPA said it would use a competitive grant process to distribute $7 billion for residential solar projects under a fund that congressional Republicans are seeking to eliminate.

The agency published a notice of funding opportunity for the grant competition, and said it intends to distribute up to 60 awards to states, territories, tribes, municipalities and nonprofits. These funds would be used to establish and expand low-income solar programs that provide financing and technical assistance. Applicants can seek the grants in three categories: $25 million to $100 million, $100 million to $250 million, and $250 million to $400 million.

The money is part of $27 billion Congress provided to establish the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund in last year's climate, tax and health care reconciliation law. The program was modeled on so-called green banks that states have used to finance projects historically unable to obtain capital from traditional sources. (Roll Call)

Comment: The Biden administration has a great deal of motivation to get money out the door. The IRA’s climate-related policies and programs are popular with voters. However, a personnel problem may be difficult to overcome. Unsurprisingly, many mid and upper agency career executives left the government during the Trump administration. Refilling and training the federal ranks is taking time.

So much for environmental justice. The Biden administration dropped a civil rights investigation over whether two Louisiana state agencies discriminated in how they regulated their chemical plants in an industrial stretch of the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor—an area colloquially known as “Cancer Alley.”

In a court filing yesterday, the EPA said it had taken “significant actions” to protect vulnerable communities, including striking an agreement with the plants to cut emissions and handle their waste, and thus was dropping the probe. (Washington Examiner)

Comment: Earthjustice and other environmental groups were disappointed with the administration’s decision to abandon the investigation. Cancer Alley got it’s name for good reason. Biden is not being as aggressive in some areas, e.g., environmental and energy justice, as many in the clean energy and climate communities. Whether the administration’s decisions in this and other cases weakens the willingness of climate activists to support the president in 2024 is unclear at this point.

Bus-ted. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced that nearly $1.7 billion in new grants for electric and low-emissions buses today, the latest tranche of funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law aimed at electrifying the U.S. public transport fleets.

The funds will go towards transit projects in 46 states and territories and will purchase 1,700 U.S.-build buses—including half that will have zero carbon emissions. (Washington Examiner)

Bus-ted again. For many transit agencies, federal grants like those recently announced can supply a vital boost to their plans to switch to electric buses and slash emissions from carbon-intensive bus fleets. But the demand for all-electric buses far exceeds the amount of money Congress has appropriated for them.

Comment: What we’re seeing happen is that legislation like the IRA is tapping into a wellspring of willingness to go green. Increasing demand for clean energy alternatives is increasing private investments. Although unwilling to vote for the programs, many Republicans in Congress and in state government have few qualms about taking credit for federal monies flowing into their states.

Stop stealing my thunder. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is escalating his attack on President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle policy, speaking at the groundbreaking for a company that received more than $100 million to refine graphite for electric batteries from the infrastructure law Biden signed.

“Georgia’s electric mobility boom is taking place because our state is second to none for companies looking to invest, relocate, expand, and innovate – not because the federal government continues to put their thumb on the scale, favoring a few companies over the industry as a whole,” Kemp said, according to advance remarks of his speech at Anovion Technologies. (AP)

Comment: President Biden and Capitol Hill Democrats are outraged that Republican governors and red state members of Congress who voted against the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are taking credit at ground breaking ceremonies in their states and districts. Kemp’s comments were unusually political and aggressive for the venue.

That’s my ash you’re talking about. At a federal hearing, residents and advocates from Western tribal communities, Midwest cities and Black communities in the South call on U.S. EPA officials to further expand the agency’s proposed coal ash storage rules and step up enforcement of existing regulations.

The proposed rules, released in May, would subject hundreds more coal ash dumps to federal regulations adopted in 2015. But scores of coal ash dumps would remain unregulated, leading residents and advocates to plead with the EPA to further expand the proposed rules and step up enforcement of existing rules.  (Energy News Network)

Comment: Unregulated coal ash ponds are polluting the streams, rivers, and wells that people rely on for their water supply. For more details on the issue and possible solutions see here and here.

You gotta’ be kidding. The auto industry’s largest lobbying group said an EPA plan to electrify American vehicles is “neither reasonable nor achievable in the time frame covered in this proposal.” The Alliance for Automotive Innovation in public comments criticized a proposed rule that would require two-thirds of new passenger cars sold in the United States to be all-electric by 2032. (The New York Times)

Comment. The statement is coming from auto manufacturers who have committed to an electric vehicle future. It’s likely to be taken seriously by government policymakers. It’s going to be important for the Biden administration not to over promise what it has or is going to accomplish.

It’s too damn hot. Extreme heat kills more people than nearly every other weather event combined. But does the government respond to these potentially lethal events as they do with hurricanes and floods? Not yet. (Washington Post)

We’ll make honest companies of them. Companies that buy carbon offsets from the voluntary market to counterbalance their greenhouse gas emissions now have guidelines to inform what they can and can’t claim about purchased credits. The rules, published Wednesday by the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI), aim to tighten climate claims companies make, in the face of sham claims, abuse and illusory credits. (Bloomberg)

Comment: There’s definitely a need for rules, along with oversight, of carbon markets. There are more than a few suspicions that companies are double and triple counting the same credits over and over again.

It hardly pleased the progressives. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has authorized the resumption of construction activities for the Mountain Valley pipeline, clearing the way for the natural gas project to move toward completion weeks after Congress ordered federal agencies to approve it.

Comment: The climate activist community—along with many of the 100+ members of the progressive House caucus—were not very pleased by the president’s willingness to go accept the inclusion of the pipeline and NEPA reform provisions that were made part of the debt ceiling deal. The changes to NEPA and the pipeline were part of an agreement between Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Senate Majority Schuler (D-NY) that led to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Photo by Bernd 📷 Dittrich on Unsplash