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Policy Watch

Mineral Mania

The week’s biggest news in renewable energy policy.

Mineral mining.
Getty Images / Chris Briggs / Heatmap

1. Global minerals mania – The U.S. government and allies this week announced the Minerals Security Partnership Finance Network, a global minerals investment operation focused on battery metals and other resources key to the energy transition.

  • Along with the announcement came the disclosure of specific U.S. financing decisions – $600 million to Australian Strategic Materials for a rare earths project in New South Wales; $20 million to Electra Ontario Cobalt, a Canadian company, for a cobalt refinery; $50 million to ESS Inc. for iron flow battery assembly lines at its Oregon plant; and $3.6 million to Pensana Rare Earths for researching the expansion of a rare earths mine in Angola.
  • This represents a new norm where U.S. dollars can go to mining overseas. I’ve covered mining my whole career and can safely say the U.S. has never organized this hard to counter China’s outsized influence in global minerals markets through direct investments.
  • What else does this mean? Companies that rely on raw materials abroad are probably thinking internally about whether their resources could qualify for federal money one day, too.

2. Mining at home – Meanwhile, the Energy Department on Friday announced $3 billion (!) for 25 battery minerals and manufacturing projects in the United States.

  • A noteworthy name on the recipient list: SWA Lithium, a joint venture between Norwegian state-owned oil major Equinor and the Koch-backed mining company Standard Lithium. The money will go towards extracting lithium chemicals from the Smackover formation in Arkansas.

3. Buckwheat bucked – Domestic lithium extraction got another major boost from the government late last week when the Bureau of Land Management published the final environmental review for the Rhyolite Ridge mine in Nevada, one of the few U.S. lithium mining projects close to completing its permitting.

  • Publication of the review without adverse recommendations means the project is all but assured to be approved.
  • It’s another blow to the Center for Biological Diversity, which has fought to block the mine because studies, including research funded by the mining company, show a clear danger to an endangered flower present at dig sites called Tiehm’s buckwheat.
  • I’d expect litigation here from CBD. I’d also treat this as a bellwether for how the Biden administration looks generally at mining vs. species protection.

4. Semiconductors souped – Congress passed legislation on Monday to provide for federal regulators to fund semiconductor projects under the CHIPS Act without environmental reviews, sending it to the president’s desk where it’ll likely be enacted into law.

  • Semiconductor industry representatives had bemoaned the risk of NEPA reviews impacting CHIPS money going out. Now they won’t have to worry.

5. Content standards – The Solar Energy Industries Association published a new draft standard for compliance with U.S. customs requirements against the use of inputs from the Xinjiang region of China, where the U.S. government suspects forced labor is involved with solar materials manufacturing.

  • The draft standard is intended as a series of recommendations for companies to most easily meet the existing customs requirements.
  • They’re open for comment through Nov. 4. You can comment here.

Here’s what else I’m watching…

  • Anti-offshore activists in Nantucket petitioned the Supreme Court to take up their failed appeal of a lawsuit claiming the Vineyard Wind project violated the Endangered Species Act, citing the court’s recent decision to undo the so-called “Chevron Doctrine.”
  • A Senate committee is poised to vote on bipartisan legislation this week that would create revenue sharing for states with offshore wind – which may not easily become law in an election year but could be on the horizon soon after.
  • Nearly half of all IRA funding has gone to seven swing states for the U.S. presidential election, according to analysis conducted by a public policy firm at the request of The Guardian.
  • Colorado is offering a fresh round of grant money to localities in the state that want to use automated rooftop solar permitting software.

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Spotlight

How a Fight over Cables Could Kill Offshore Wind in New Jersey

Let's dive deep into the campaign against the so-called “high-risk” cables.

Cable and offshore.
Wiki Commons / Joel Arbaje / Heatmap

One of the biggest threats to American offshore wind is a handful of homeowners on the south Jersey shoreline spouting unproven theories about magnetic fields.

Within a year of forming, the activist group “Stop The High-Risk Cables” has galvanized local politicians against the transmission infrastructure being planned for wind turbines off the coast of New Jersey known as the Larrabee Pre-built Infrastructure. The transmission route, which will run a few miles from the beaches of Sea Girt, New Jersey, to a substation nearby, is expected to be a crucial landing zone for power from major offshore wind projects in south Jersey waters, including Atlantic Shores, a joint venture between EDF Renewables and Shell that received final permits from federal regulators last week.

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Hotspots

Vineyard Wind’s New Fight

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

Map.
Heatmap illustration.

1. Nantucket County, Massachusetts – A new group – Keep Nantucket Wild – is mobilizing opposition to the Vineyard Wind offshore wind project, seeking to capitalize on the recent blade breakage to sever the town of Nantucket’s good neighbor agreement with project developer Avangrid.

  • Keep Nantucket Wild was started weeks ago by raw bar restaurateur Jesse Sandole and yoga studio owner Evie O’Connor. The group already has amassed more than 1,000 signatures on a petition to the town select board to pull out of the good neighbor agreement.
  • Town officials have previously said they will renegotiate the pact, which included a $16 million company payment into a community fund and promises to reduce nighttime visual impacts.

2. East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana – One lowkey local election this fall may decide the future of Louisiana’s renewables: the swing seat on the state’s Public Service Commission, which is being vacated this year by a retiring moderate Republican.

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Policy Watch

Power Line Planning

And more of the week’s top policy news.

Power Line Planning
Olivie Strauss / Severin Demchuk / Heatmap

Transmissions on transmission – The Energy Department last week released a must-read national planning study for transmission to connect renewables to the grid through 2040.

  • The takeaway? We could reduce billions of tonnes of CO2 emissions with interregional transmission and constraining development would require new nuclear and hydrogen energy to meet emission reduction targets, instead of solar, wind, and batteries.
  • The lengthy report didn’t go into the permitting challenges at all though and the mapping does read aspirational if you know the context.
  • Regardless, we hope to see you on DOE’s webinar on the study next Wednesday.

SCOTUS shrugs for once – The Supreme Court declined to stay challenges to the EPA’s methane and mercury air pollution regulations, meaning at least two Biden regulatory tailwinds for renewables developers remains in play.

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