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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 the Renewable Energy Industry Is Processing Trump 2.0

A conversation with Carl Fleming of McDermott Will & Emery

Carl Fleming
Heatmap illustration

This week we’re talking to Carl Fleming, a renewables attorney with McDermott Will & Emery who was an advisor to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo under the Biden administration. We chatted the morning after the Trump administration attempted to freeze large swathes of federal spending. My goal? To understand whether this chaos and uncertainty was trickling down into the transition as we spoke. But Fleming had a sober perspective and an important piece of wisdom: stay calm and remain on course.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

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Policy Watch

Chaos in the Climate Kingdom

This week’s top news in renewable energy policy.

turbines.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Freeze, don’t move – The Trump administration this week attempted to freeze essentially all discretionary grant programs in the federal government. A list we obtained showed this would halt major energy programs and somehow also involve targeting work on IRA tax credits.

  • Despite a court ruling that was supposed to lift the freeze, key climate programs – like the EPA’s Solar For All effort – remain reportedly on ice.
  • Our guts here at Heatmap tell us there’ll be a lot more news to come on this front. Stay tuned.

2. Sorry, California – The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management canceled public meetings on the environmental impact statement for offshore wind lease areas in California, indicating the Trump wind lease pause will also affect pre-approval activities.

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Hotspots

Deathwatch for Atlantic Shores?

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

Renewable energy fights across the country.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Atlantic County, New Jersey – The Atlantic Shores offshore wind project is on deathwatch.

  • Earlier today, Shell announced it would pull out of its 50-50 joint venture with EDF Renewables to develop the Atlantic Shores offshore wind project off the coast of New Jersey.
  • Atlantic Shores then sent us a statement unprompted, saying they’re “committed” to developing New Jersey’s first offshore wind site.
  • “Business plans, projects, portfolio projections and scopes evolve over time – and as expected for large, capital-intensive infrastructure projects like ours, our shareholders have always prepared long-term strategies that contemplate multiple scenarios that enable Atlantic Shores to reach its full potential,” the statement read.
  • It continued: “While we can’t comment on the views of shareholders, Atlantic Shores intends to continue progressing New Jersey’s first offshore wind project and our portfolio in compliance with our obligations to local, state and federal partners under existing leases and relevant permits.”
  • As we previously explained, we anticipate this project to face challenges to the legality of its permits and leases, as previewed by the Trump administration.

2. Waldo County, Maine – The Sears Island saga is moving to the state legislature, as a cadre of lawmakers push to block construction of a floating offshore wind turbine construction facility there before Trump leaves office.

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