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With help from Gloria Gonzalez and Ben Lefebvre
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Quick fix
— Lead removal is one of the most popular infrastructure priorities across the political spectrum, but actually getting the funding to do it isn't guaranteed.
— Senate bipartisan infrastructure negotiators have officially ruled out stricter IRS enforcement to pay for their infrastructure plan.
— Ransomware, environmental justice, a Civilian Climate Corps and more will go under the microscope in committee this week.
IT’S MONDAY! I’m your host, Matthew Choi. Congrats to IBEW’s Sergio Espinosa for knowing Louis XVIII sat on the French throne in 1818, the year Brooks Brothers was founded. I have no idea what compelled me to make that a trivia question, but thanks for humoring me. For today: What role did Cynthia Nixon play in “Amadeus”? 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: FERC Chair's green grid ambitions.
Driving the day
GETTING PLATA FOR PLOMO: Though removing lead from the nation's water lines is a popular priority for both parties, it isn’t clear if either the bipartisan infrastructure framework or Democrats’ companion spending measure will have enough money to address the problem, Pro’s Annie Snider and Anthony Adragna report.
The bipartisan framework’s water provisions are based on a $35 billion bipartisan water measure passed in April, which offers less than $1 billion for lead programs. That’s a far cry from the $45 billion the White House has hoped for to remove lead pipelines, and even farther from the $60 billion the industry estimates would be needed to completely eliminate lead for all service lines nationwide.
There are plenty of question marks on how lawmakers would raise lead removal funding when they still aren’t clear on how to fund the infrastructure package to begin with. And even if it is fully funded, it’s not all new money.
Water groups are starting to fear that what they see as one of the best windows in a generation for a national waterline overhaul could be closing. “There’s definitely concern that this bill will not meet the investment needed and not live up to what this bill is set up to do,” Jason Isakovic, a lobbyist for National Association of Clean Water Agencies, which represents wastewater utilities, told Annie and Anthony.
Isakovic’s group wrote to congressional leaders last week pushing for direct investments — not loans — to make a serious impact in merely maintaining the current level of water services. Read more from Annie and Anthony on the questions that remain on securing the cash to revamp the country’s water infrastructure.
On the Hill
END OF THE IRS ROAD: Bolstering IRS enforcement is officially no longer an option to pay for the bipartisan infrastructure framework, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), one of the negotiators, said on CNN Sunday. The tax gap exceeded $580 billion in 2019, according to a Treasury Department analysis, and the bipartisan infrastructure deal would have given the IRS a $40 billion budget boost, in part to help get the money back.
But greater IRS enforcement met resistance from Republicans, and interest was already waning last Thursday. Portman said there are plenty of other potential ways to pay for the package and remained optimistic about getting a deal, despite Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s tight deadline to have a procedural vote on an infrastructure bill by Wednesday. “Chuck Schumer, with all due respect, is not writing the bill. Nor is [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell, by the way. So that's why we shouldn’t have an arbitrary deadline of Wednesday,” Portman said. POLITICO’s Myah Ward has more.
ON THE DOCKET: Here’s what’s going down in committee this week.
Ransomware and cybersecurity will get attention from both the House and Senate, with the House Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee meeting Tuesday to discuss the rise in ransomware, and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee meeting Wednesday to go into cybersecurity threats to critical infrastructure. The House subcommittee will hear from cybersecurity industry and academic experts, while the Senate committee will have testimony from authorities on public works and infrastructure.
Lawmakers will also examine some of the Biden administration’s key environmental priorities this week. A House Natural Resources subcommittee is meeting Tuesday to discuss the creation of a Civilian Climate Corps. Two committees will be diving into environmental justice issues, with the House Oversight Committee discussing Wednesday how the American Jobs Plan addresses EJ concerns and a Senate Environment and Public Works subpanel meeting Thursday on issues adversely impacting EJ communities.
A House Ways and Means subpanel is having a hearing Wednesday on how to address forced labor in supply chains — a major concern amid the shift to renewable and electric alternatives amid allegations of forced labor used to produce critical minerals and vital solar components abroad.
In the climate space, a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee is meeting Wednesday to discuss climate change in the Asia-Pacific region. The House Science Committee will discuss Wednesday the impact of increased extreme heat on the country, and the Senate Banking Committee will meet Tuesday to discuss climate change and resilience.
THE NUCLEAR OPTION: A bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill Friday to shore up the U.S. nuclear sector, particularly by protecting the current fleet as it faces financial difficulties, securing the nuclear supply chain from potential national security threats and supporting progress in advanced nuclear. The American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2021 was introduced by Senate Environment and Public Works Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Senate Energy Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho). Read the bill text here and a section-by-section here.
ICYMI: House appropriators approved their $53.2 billion fiscal year 2022 funding bill for the Department of Energy, Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation on Friday, Annie and Ben Lefebvre report for Pros.
AND: House Democrats are trying to use a massive climate and infrastructure bill to change how Americans get around — by breaking states’ decades-old fondness for building highways, from Pro’s Sam Mintz.
Around the Agencies
IT’S SO HARD TO SAY GOODBYE TO CHATTERJEE: FERC Chair Rich Glick had nothing but good things to say about his soon to be former commissioner colleague Neil Chatterjee, who participated in what will likely be his last FERC meeting on Thursday. Glick told POLITICO he was “sad” to see Chatterjee leaving, but hopes President Joe Biden nominates someone soon so FERC can quickly go back to being a 5-member commission — one that will have several critical agenda items to tackle amid the Biden administration’s clean energy push.
Glick expects the public to have plenty to say about FERC’s planned rulemaking to revise transmission and cost allocation rules, which the chair hopes to finalize by the end of next year in what may be a wildly ambitious timeframe for a complicated rulemaking. He is eager to hear comments about whether “there is a better way to anticipate what generation is going to be built in the future” in the transmission planning process, input on “what’s the best way and the fairest way of allocating the costs of new transmission facilities” and how FERC can expedite the “cumbersome” interconnection process.
But he’s particularly interested in comments about cost containment, making sure consumers don’t get stuck with the bill for the needed buildout of the U.S. transmission system, an issue Glick said doesn’t get talked about enough. Read more of what Glick told Pro’s Gloria Gonzalez here.
A TRIBE CALLED SOLAR: The Interior Department is inching forward in its goal to build 25 gigawatts of onshore clean power facilities by 2025. The department said Friday it gave final approval to the 400MW Southern Bighorn Solar Project in Nevada and that construction is starting on the 200MW Arrow Canyon solar project in the same state. Both sites are being backed by the Moapa Band of Paiutes Indians. The Interior Department is advertising these projects as supporting 800 jobs and generating enough electricity to power up to 192,000 homes.
“The time for a clean energy future is now — and Tribal communities have a significant role to play in the Administration’s ambitious goals,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.
Beyond the Beltway
OPEC WORKS IT OUT: The Saudi-Emirati stalemate on oil production reached a resolution Sunday, with the cartel agreeing to let the U.A.E. increase its production quota, along with Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Russia, The New York Times reports. OPEC+ will increase its output by 400,000 barrels a day starting next month, according to the Times.
The stalemate had not only prompted oil price volatility and delayed potential relief to the summer's spiking gasoline prices, but also was a major shock to the de facto OPEC pecking order. The U.A.E. is usually closely in step with Saudi Arabia, which is widely considered the unofficial head of the cartel. But with Abu Dhabi hoping to eventually diversify for a post-oil future, the country was driven to act outside of Riyadh’s agenda. But Sunday’s resolution put to rest any speculation of the Emirates going solo and signaled Saudi’s leadership is still the de facto.
“We are here to stay,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the Saudi oil minister said during a news conference after the meeting, according to the Times. “What bonds us together is way beyond what you imagine.”
IT’S A CLIMATE CRISIS: POLITICO’s Sabrina Rodriguez traveled to Guatemala to see how climate change creates the conditions pushing thousands of migrants to leave Central America for the U.S. Natural disasters, ruined crops, destroyed homes and malnutrition are increasingly common in communities where families have lived for generations. And with little government help and no simple sustainable solutions, many are ignoring the warnings from Vice President Kamala Harris not to make the trek up to the U.S. Read more from Sabrina for POLITICO Magazine.
Movers and Shakers
— Kyle Winslow is joining the Department of Energy to help lead congressional affairs for the Loan Programs Office. Winslow joins from CALSTART and was previously legislative director at DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable energy.
— Gridpoint named Tom Kloster its chief financial officer and Melissa Blanken its chief marketing officer.
The Grid
— “Greenland Scraps All Future Oil Exploration on Climate Concerns,” via Bloomberg.
— “How One of the World’s Biggest Ships Jammed the Suez Canal,” via The New York Times.
— “Cities Try to Phase Out Gas Stoves—but Cooks Are Pushing Back,” via The Wall Street Journal.
— ”Sen. Joe Manchin, key Democratic holdout on federal voting protections, coming to Texas for fundraiser hosted by several GOP donors,” via The Texas Tribune.
— “Former Sen. Tom Udall is Biden's pick as ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa,” via POLITICO.
— “Trump showerhead rule on more water flow goes down the drain,” via The Associated Press.
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