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Policy Watch

What I’m Watching in Washington

A rundown of key policy moves from the past week.

capitol hill.
Heatmap Illustration/Wiki Commons

China, China, China – Republicans in Congress are trying to pressure the U.S. into an even more hawkish stance against Chinese battery supply chains ahead of the November election.

  • The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Marco Rubio, wrote the Defense Department last week requesting the Defense Department blacklist the world’s largest battery manufacturer CATL, a Chinese company.
  • The House of Representatives is also scheduled to vote next week on a bill requiring the Homeland Security Department to blacklist CATL and other Chinese-owned battery manufacturers.
  • I’ve written a lot of stories about how many Republicans are trying to get the U.S. to entirely decouple its commercial enterprises from Chinese companies – a wholly different objective than building up U.S. industries so the nation can compete with and wean off China. (Like what the IRA did.)
  • No matter the national security justifications, forcibly decoupling from China would take essential supplies off the table for an energy transition.
  • What I’m watching for is if the Republican pressure influences how Kamala Harris approaches this topic, and whether she’ll differ from the Biden administration’s approach to China and batteries.

BLM’s solar plan The Bureau of Land Management last week released its long-awaited programmatic environmental impact statement for solar development across the Southwest, opening 31 million acres to potential projects across almost a dozen states.

  • The Biden administration says its steering development away from “wildlife and land conflicts,” but it already faces pushback from conservation activists. One of the most likely plaintiffs against the plan – the Center for Biological Diversity – released a statement critical of the document that noted it would impact a sizable amount of desert tortoise habitat.

Trump’s energy whisperer The Trump campaign told Reuters last week the former president would ax the EPA’s climate-minded power plant rules if elected… but that’s not what caught my eye.

  • No, what’s most notable is that the campaign official who made this news was former Trump administration Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who is now a key figure at the MAGA-aligned America First Policy Institute.
  • I’ve covered Bernhardt for years and interviewed him last year upon the release of his book, “You Report to Me.” It’s my belief he is angling for an even more influential role in a future Trump administration that would leverage his expertise in the administrative state to make Trump far more successful at undoing energy and climate rules. (OMB?)

Other policy moves worth watching…

Nevada’s new plan Joe Lombardo, the Republican governor of Nevada, released a new statewide climate plan after the one put forward by his Democratic predecessor vanished. It’s getting panned.

‘Greenwashing’ push — The Agriculture Department launched an initiative aimed at combating misleading climate claims in the meat and poultry industries.

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Q&A

How Are Renewable Energy Developers Reacting to IRA Cuts?

A conversation with Mike Hall of Anza.

The Fight's Q&A subject.
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This week’s conversation is with Mike Hall, CEO of the solar and battery storage data company Anza. I rang him because, in my book, the more insights into the ways renewables companies are responding to the war on the Inflation Reduction Act, the better.

The following chat was lightly edited for clarity. Let’s jump in!

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A Solar Flare-Up in New York, Battery Aftershocks in California

And more of the week’s top news in renewable energy conflicts.

The United States.
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1. Columbia County, New York – A Hecate Energy solar project in upstate New York blessed by Governor Kathy Hochul is now getting local blowback.

  • Last week, the Hochul administration granted many solar projects their renewable energy certificates, including Hecate’s Shepherd’s Run solar project in the town of Copake. Shepherd’s Run has struggled for years with its application process and was previously rejected by state land use regulators.
  • This certificate award has now inflamed longstanding local criticism of the project, which has persisted due to its proximity to schools and concerns about fire risk.
  • We’ll find out whether this flare-up will cause more headaches when the state’s Renewable Energy Siting office completes reviewing Hecate’s application in 60 days.

2. Sussex County, Delaware – The battle between a Bethany Beach landowner and a major offshore wind project came to a head earlier this week after Delaware regulators decided to comply with a massive government records request.

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Spotlight

Trump Targets Solar on Farmland

Anti-solar activists in agricultural areas get a powerful new ally.

Sheep and solar panels.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The Trump administration is joining the war against solar projects on farmland, offering anti-solar activists on the ground a powerful ally against developers across the country.

In a report released last week, President Trump’s Agriculture Department took aim at solar and stated competition with “solar development on productive farmland” was creating a “considerable barrier” for farmers trying to acquire land. The USDA also stated it would disincentivize “the use of federal funding” for solar “through prioritization points and regulatory action,” which a spokesperson – Emily Cannon – later clarified in an email to me this week will include reconfiguring the agency’s Rural Energy for America loan and grant program. Cannon declined to give a time-table for the new regulation, stating that the agency “will have more information when the updates are ready to be published.”

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