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Policy Watch

The IRA’s Coming China Change

And more of the week’s biggest news around renewable energy policy.

Trump.
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Sourcing requirements – As we explain in our Q&A today, there’s momentum building in Washington, D.C., to attach new sourcing requirements to an IRA credit for advanced manufacturing known as 45X.

  • 45X is supposed to supercharge production of battery and solar components, as well as key minerals and materials for those components that are largely imported from China or what U.S. trade officials believe are Chinese pass-throughs.
  • Some U.S. companies are now quietly urging Congress to enact a “foreign entity of concern” requirement to 45X that would essentially stop battery and solar manufacturing plants with Chinese business involvement from qualifying.
  • Why? Well, doing this would definitely insulate the credit from GOP repeal by tying it not to rapid decarbonization but instead American blue collar jobs.
  • Patrick Donnelly, chief commercial officer for Anovion, told attendees of a Hill briefing I moderated earlier this week that he wants to see this happen because it would be a “game changer” for domestic manufacturing. “I’ve heard some Republicans talking about it already.”
  • But it could also undermine the effectiveness of the credit for climate purposes. Similar requirements were tacked onto the IRA’s EV consumer credit that curtailed its reach and meant many cars couldn’t access the benefit.

Virginia’s planning – The state of Virginia is looking at its own plans to override local objections, which would make it one of the few GOP-led states to do so.

  • The state’s commission on electricity regulation proposed a draft plan late last month that would enable companies to appeal local rejections. Under that plan, the state would create a siting advisory board that would give insights as to whether a rejection was contrary to the overall state’s power needs.
  • It’s not a sure shot. The commission acknowledged legislation will be necessary to make this plan a reality, and the state’s divided government has rarely found agreement with energy policies. But all those Virginia data centers are going to need power from somewhere.

Here’s what else we’re watching…

  • So much money is going out the door right now: In the last week, the Energy Department has announced billions in new conditional loan commitments. Good news for the Grain Belt Express transmission line!
  • Included in those funds – a gusher of offshore wind research money.
  • Environmental justice advocates worry there’ll be less of a rush to award money they won in the Inflation Reduction Act before Trump takes office.

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Hotspots

Indiana Energy Secretary: We’ve Got to ‘Do Something’ About the NIMBYs

And more on the week’s most important battles around renewable energy.

The United States.
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1. Indianapolis, Indiana – The Sooner state’s top energy official suggested energy developers should sue towns and county regulators over anti-renewable moratoria and restrictive ordinances, according to audio posted online by local politics blog Indy Politics.

  • Per the audio, Indiana Energy Secretary Suzie Jaworowski told a closed-door audience Tuesday that she believes the state has to “do something” about the recent wave of local bans on renewable energy because it is “creating a reputation where industry doesn’t want to come.” Among the luncheon’s sponsors were AES Indiana, Duke Energy, and the industry group Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy, and it was officially chaired by Citizens Energy, Indiana Electric Cooperatives, and EDP Renewables.
  • Jaworowski – who was previously an official in the first Trump administration – bemoaned the fact companies spend copious amounts of money on community engagement only to reach no deal. “Personally I think that those companies should start suing the communities and get serious about it,” she said, adding that her office is developing a map of “yes counties” for energy development.
  • At least eleven Indiana counties have outright moratoria on renewable energy development and more than twenty others have at least some form of restriction on solar or wind, according to the Heatmap Pro database.

2. Laramie County, Wyoming – It’s getting harder to win a permit for a wind project in Wyoming, despite it being home to some of the largest such projects in the country.

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Q&A

A Former New England Energy Official Grapples With Losing Offshore Wind

A conversation with Barbara Kates-Garnick, former undersecretary of energy for the state of Massachusetts

Barbara Kates-Garnick.
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This week’s conversation is with Barbara Kates-Garnick, a professor of practice at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, who before academia served as undersecretary of energy for the state of Massachusetts. I reached out to Kates-Garnick after I reported on the circumstances surrounding a major solar project cancellation in the Western Massachusetts town of Shutesbury, which I believe was indicative of the weakening hand developers have in conflicts with activists on the ground. I sought to best understand how folks enmeshed in the state’s decarbonization goals felt about what was happening to local renewables development in light of the de facto repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean electricity tax credit.

Of course, like anyone in Massachusetts, Kates-Garnick was blunt about the situation: it’s quite bad.

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Spotlight

National Republicans Are Parachuting into Local Battery Battles

Here come Chip Roy and Lee Zeldin.

Chip Roy and Lee Zeldin.
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National Republican political leaders are beginning to intervene in local battles over battery storage, taking the side of activists against developers. It’s a worrisome trend for an industry that, until recently, was escaping the culture clashes once reserved only for solar and wind energy.

In late July, Texas Congressman Chip Roy sent a letter to energy storage developer Peregrine Energy voicing concerns about a 145 megawatt battery project proposed in rural Gillespie County, an area one hour north of San Antonio that sits in his district. Roy, an influential conservative firebrand running to be state attorney general, asked the company more than a dozen questions about the project, from its fire preparation plans to whether it may have ties to Chinese material suppliers, and stated that his office heard “frustrations and concerns” about the project from “hundreds of constituents – including state and local elected officials.”

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