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Biden Team Preparing Up to $3 Trillion in New Spending for the Economy
The first legislative piece under discussion, which some Biden officials consider more appealing to Republicans, business leaders and many moderate Senate Democrats, would combine investments in manufacturing and advanced industries with what would be the most aggressive spending yet by the United States to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change. Documents suggest it will include nearly $1 trillion in spending alone on the construction of roads, bridges, rail lines, ports, electric vehicle charging stations and improvements to the electric grid and other parts of the power sector. [ read more … ]
Wind Energy
FOIA docs raise questions about interference in wind project
Federal regulators finished an environmental study of America’s first major offshore wind farm in the summer of 2019, according to documents newly obtained by E&E News through a Freedom of Information Act request. But the review was never made public, and the timing of its completion raises fresh questions about whether the Trump administration interfered with Vineyard Wind’s pursuit of federal approval. [ read more … ]
Clean Energy Policy & Politics
Democrats Get a Second Chance on Climate
Barbara Boxer was in Greenland in July 2007, watching chunks of ice slide off glaciers into the rising ocean. She had brought Republican senators there with her, hoping a first-person confrontation with climate change would persuade them to take action. And as the newly calved icebergs flowed past, the then-senator thought her colleagues might be persuaded to vote yes on legislation to transform the U.S. from one of the world’s biggest greenhouse-gas polluters into a leader in addressing the crisis. “This was a moment in time,” Boxer tells Rolling Stone, “where I thought, ‘We’re going to do it. It’s going to work.’ ” [ read more … ]
Why major unions are wary of the move to wind and solar jobs
President Joe Biden wants to quickly move the United States toward clean energy jobs in wind and solar. But unions — some of Biden’s strongest allies — are skeptical about the transition to green energy. Biden and congressional Democrats are poised to introduce a large infrastructure plan that is supposed to deliver on two promises: putting job creation into overdrive, and decarbonizing the economy, with an aggressive goal of powering 100 percent of America’s electricity sector with clean energy by 2035. [ read more … ]
Texas Blackouts
Texas Supreme Court punts on whether ERCOT is immune from storm lawsuits
Five justices led by Justice Jeff Boyd said the Texas Constitution prohibits them from ruling on the case after the trial court issued a final judgment dismissing the case. Based on a finding of sovereign immunity by an appeals court, the Supreme Court narrowly ruled that the dismissal by the lower court in Dallas made the case moot and that it no longer had the authority to rule in the case. Four dissenting justices led by Chief Justice Nathan Hecht, argued that they should rule on the case because the public has an interest whether ERCOT can be sued in the aftermath of last month’s storm. [ read more … ]
Texas’s chief energy regulator fiercely defended fossil fuels after historic blackouts. She also profits from oil and gas.
The father-daughter pair, who hail from Midland — the heart of the West Texas oil and gas boom of the past decade — own and manage land across the state that generated more than $100,000 from Texas’s largest natural gas producers in 2019. Critics say the ownership stakes reflect a conflict of interest for the Craddicks and exemplify a major ethics loophole in Texas, where regulators are allowed to have financial interests in the companies they oversee, unlike in some other oil-rich states. The ties are also newly relevant in light of last month’s blackouts, which left more than 9 million Texans without power and may turn out to be the costliest weather event in the state’s history. [ read more … ]
Texas Plan to Claw Back $4 Billion in Power Charges Fizzles
A move in Texas to wipe out more than $4 billion in electricity overcharges from last month’s devastating blackouts appears dead in the water after deeply divided lawmakers left town without taking final action on the proposal. “Repricing push ends with a whimper,” Josh Price, an analyst for Height Capital Markets, wrote in a note to clients on Friday. He added that the House is adjourned until Monday with no plans to pass the Senate repricing bill ahead of the Saturday deadline. [ read more … ]
EVs
Rivian planning to install 10,000 EV chargers across the US and Canada by 2023
Amazon-backed electric vehicle startup Rivian will install more than 10,000 fast chargers across the US and Canada by 2023, the company announced. The Rivian Adventure Network is designed to allow quick recharges along highways and also includes Level 2 charges at more remote locations near parks and other destinations. [ read more … ]
With or Without Tesla, California Is EV Country
What does this tell us? That California, home to roughly 40 million people, dwarfs other states when it comes to embracing Tesla as a brand. At the same time, 63% of the company’s U.S. sales now occur in other states, where there’s plenty of room to grow. Tesla’s decision to build its next factory in Austin is not just because it’s prime pickup truck country — Tesla already has lots of customers in Texas. [ read more … ]
How Volkswagen’s Sins Fueled Its Redemption
Not long ago Volkswagen was a global pariah after pleading guilty to the biggest emissions fraud in automotive history. Now it is the toast of the stock market, with its shares worth twice as much as they were a year ago. What happened? Ironically, Volkswagen’s misdeeds helped pave the way for its reversal of fortune. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.