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Quick fix
— This weekend's drama that cast a pall over the infrastructure deal shows the balancing act that the White House is trying to maintain to pull off major legislation.
— House legislation designed to counter China's influence in tech and research hits the floor today.
— The administration's new restrictions on a Chinese solar components manufacturer can add new burdens for U.S. firms down the supply chain.
WELCOME TO MONDAY! I’m your host, Matthew Choi. NRDC's Joan Matthews gets the trivia for knowing Cesaria Evora won a Grammy for “Voz d’Amor”. For today: The Roy family was on a hunting trip in what country during the “boar on the floor” scene in “Succession”? Send your tips and trivia answers to [email protected]. 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: Western megadrought raises alarm.
Driving the day
THE WORK AHEAD: The Senate is in recess, but there's lots of work still going on. Over the next two weeks, negotiators will have to translate the details of the bipartisan infrastructure agreement into legislation while Democrats try to marry it with a progressive budget plan passed through reconciliation.
The big lift already faced its first hiccup not a day after the bipartisan cohort of senators announced a deal with the White House. The weekend kicked off with Republicans irate over President Joe Biden’s vow not to sign the bipartisan deal without companion legislation passed by reconciliation. Though Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had communicated a similar sentiment, Biden setting that kind of ultimatum after weeks of heralding bipartisanship irked GOP lawmakers.
But a statement from Biden on Saturday mollified some key Republicans, with the president emphasizing his commitment to the bipartisan agreement. “Some other Democrats have said they might oppose the Infrastructure Plan because it omits items they think are important: that is a mistake, in my view. Some Republicans now say that they might oppose the infrastructure plan because I am also trying to pass the American Families Plan: that is also a mistake, in my view,” he wrote.
With that brouhaha cleared, there’s already chatter that support could grow. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) predicted Sunday that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell could back the package, though McConnell was immediately vocal about his distaste for Biden’s “ultimatum on behalf of your left-wing base."
And Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) showed openness Sunday to working with his peers on the bigger “human infrastructure” package that would be designed to move via reconciliation, warming up to corporate and capital gain tax increases to help pay for it.
Still, Democrats have their work cut out for them on determining just how far their infrastructure-by-reconciliation package will go. While Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is pushing for as much as $6 trillion, Manchin is looking at something about one quarter of that size.
And nothing is set in stone on the Republican front either, with plenty of potential pitfalls on the payfors for the bipartisan package.
Read more from POLITICO’s Burgess Everett on the weekend infrastructure drama and how talks are going forward.
On the Hill
R&D HITS FLOOR: Two bipartisan bills are scheduled to reach the House floor this week, centered on countering China’s influence with U.S. science and technology research. The NSF for the Future Act, H.R. 2225 (117), and the Department of Energy Science for the Future Act, H.R. 3593 (117), together will invest $128 billion into the office of science and DOE national labs over 5 years. The Senate approved its own China legislation, the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, earlier this month.
Both House bills advanced through committee on a voice vote and are likely to pass the full chamber. But there are still some key differences between the House and Senate legislation, and various House committees continue to push their own pieces of legislation. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with House members Thursday, urging them to support the Senate's USICA as well as the NSF for the Future Act, according to the White House. Sullivan highlighted the bills’ alignment with Biden’s call for increased research and development in climate technology and supply chain resiliency.
THIS WEEK’S HEARINGS: The House is getting busy with climate-focused hearings this week. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is meeting Tuesday to discuss Democrats’ CLEAN Future Act, H.R. 1512 (117). The committee will focus on the bill’s provisions for expanding transmission — a key tenet of the bipartisan infrastructure plan to help connect population centers with renewable generation. The committee will also look at three other bills focused on expanding or securing transmission, H.R. 1514 (117), H.R. 2678 (117) and H.R. 4027 (117). Read more from Chair Frank Pallone’s briefing memo.
The House Appropriations subcommittee charged with Interior and EPA are marking up today the agencies’ budgets. House Democrats’ EPA spending bill would give the agency $11.34 billion, $2.1 billion more than this year and even $111 million more than the Biden administration had requested. The funding focuses on several progressive priorities, including environmental justice, enforcement and clean drinking water. EJ funding would get the biggest boost, going from $15 million to $248 million — more than a 1,500 percent increase. Alex Guillén and Annie Snider get into the details for Pros.
Meanwhile, the Interior Department would get a half billion-dollar spending boost under the House spending bill, but about $240 million less than what the White House had requested. The Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the department’s wildfire management funding would all get boosts, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Operation of Indian Programs would get $8 million more than in Biden’s request. Ben Lefebvre breaks down the Interior bill for Pros.
The House Natural Resources Committee will have a water, oceans and wildlife subpanel on water legislation Tuesday. The committee turns its attention to Puerto Rico on Wednesday with the oversight subpanel meeting on the impact of coal ash on health in the territory, and the full committee meeting on legislation to compensate residents of Vieques for the environmental impact of past military activity on the island.
Elsewhere in committee: The House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis is meeting Wednesday to discuss ways transportation investment can mitigate climate change and promote environmental justice. The House Financial Services Committee is also meeting Wednesday, discussing climate risks posed to the banking system.
ICYMI: Congress erased Trump’s methane rollback on Friday, via Pro’s Alex and Anthony Adragna.
IN MEMORIAM: Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel died Saturday at 91. A champion for statehood and development in the state, Gravel served in the Senate from 1969 to 1981 during the authorization of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and as Congress deliberated on large swaths of federal land in the state. Read the Associated Press’ obituary.
Around the Agencies
BIDEN SILICA BAN SHAKES UP SOLAR SECTOR: The Biden administration’s move last week to block imports of silica-based products from Hoshine Silicon Industry stopped short of a region-wide ban on the solar panel material from Xinjiang. But it’s still expected to have a major effect on the industry.
Customs and Border Protection estimated there has been $6 million in direct imports from Hoshine and at least $150 million in imports of products containing Hoshine's materials in the last 2-1/2 years. That's a tiny proportion of the roughly $8 billion in solar equipment that arrived on U.S. shores last year. But CBP can put the burden on companies that bring products into the U.S. to prove they are free of any materials from Hoshine.
CBP may take a targeted enforcement strategy focused on shipments it thinks are highest risk for containing Hoshine materials, and not rely on blanket detainments of solar materials from China. "I don't think in this case you are going to see a situation where every solar panel or every component is going to be detained and the importer is going to be required to provide sufficient supply chain visibility," said Richard Mojica, counsel at Miller & Chevalier and former attorney with CBP's Office of Regulations and Rulings.
Even so, solar industry officials say their companies are trying to pull out of Xinjiang completely. “Our expectation is that today most of the panels coming in do not include inputs from the region,” said John Smirnow, general counsel at the Solar Energy Industries Association. Kelsey Tamborrino breaks down the potentially hairy path forward for Pros.
FISHY PAY AT EPA: Two Trump-appointed EPA officials improperly kept two staffers on the agency’s payroll after they had been fired, and committed a number of other salary improprieties, according to the agency’s inspector general in a report Alex obtained. Former chief of staff Ryan Jackson and former White House liaison Charles Munoz were behind the payouts, which totaled almost $38,000.
Federal law doesn’t allow severance pay, but federal prosecutors declined to press charges. In a July 2019 interview, Jackson told investigators he went through with paying the staffers because he "didn't think it was really fair to [the person] what was going down." Alex has more for Pros.
OIG TO PROBE LAGGING AIR TOXICS RULES: EPA's inspector general will launch a probe of overdue risk and technology reviews, the regular updates EPA is supposed to make for industry-by-industry rules limiting hazardous air pollution. EPA has long lagged behind on completing RTRs, as the reviews are known, in part because of limited resources and because some rules cover only a few industrial facilities or even a single site. The announcement also comes after EPA and the OIG last month disagreed on aspects of updating such rules to reflect the agency’s findings that ethylene oxide and chloroprene are carcinogenic at much lower levels than previously thought.
SLOW-TUS WOTUS: Greens and progressive Democrats are not happy about the pace of the administration’s reversal of Trump-era Clean Water Act movers. EPA announced earlier this month that it plans to reverse Trump-era rollbacks of protections, but the last administration's rule is poised to stay on the books for months — potentially allowing hundreds of projects to go forward without federal water permitting requirements.
“This should be a top priority for the administration and we understand rulemakings take time, but repealing this unlawful rule — that action should be taken more urgently and the agencies have what they need today to begin that process,” Kelly Moser, lead water attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, told Annie, who dug into the issue for Pros.
In the courts
JUDGE TOSSES SUIT FROM OUSTED TRUMP EPA OFFICIAL: A federal judge on Friday threw out a lawsuit brought by former EPA Region 9 Administrator Mike Stoker alleging Andrew Wheeler and other top EPA officials had defamed him after he was fired in 2020. Stoker had sued Wheeler and the others directly, arguing that their alleged defamation was not done in their official capacity. But Judge John Kronstadt of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California found the statements were made in their official capacity. He swapped out Wheeler and the others as defendants and substituted the United States, then ruled that the Federal Tort Claims Act does not allow defamation lawsuits against the federal government and dismissed the case.
ICYMI: Pro’s Eric Wolff and Ry Rivard dig into the potential implications of a court ruling last week that vacated FERC’s approval of a Missouri pipeline. The federal court decision came nearly two years after the permit was issued, and experts say that could introduce major uncertainty on the operators’ ability to secure necessary approvals and investments. But the pipeline’s critics argued the reversal was necessary after FERC failed to follow its own guidelines in determining the requisite need to justify a new pipeline — an argument the federal court agreed with.
Beyond the Beltway
OREGON’S CES: Oregon lawmakers voted in favor of a state clean electricity standard, with the goal of reaching net-zero emissions in the power sector by 2040. The bill now heads to Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, to sign. The bill passed as Oregon faces a historic heatwave, with Portland reaching 108 degrees over the weekend.
Movers and Shakers
— Ya-Wei Li starts at EPA today as deputy assistant administrator in the chemicals office. Li comes from the Environmental Policy Innovation Center, or EPIC, where he was director for biodiversity. He previously spent almost eight years at Defenders of Wildlife.
The Grid
— “EU Carbon Market to Expand to Shipping, Housing and Transport,” via Bloomberg.
— “Army Corps of Engineers sticks to Line 3 permit defense,” via POLITICO.
— ”The Internet Eats Up Less Energy Than You Might Think,” via The New York Times.
— “Supreme Court overturns limits on ethanol blending exemptions,” via POLITICO.
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