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Policy Watch

Time for Tariffs and Permitting Reform?

A look at federal and state policy battles over the past week

Factory illustration.
Getty Images / Heatmap illustration

Tariffs time, baby – All eyes are on the U.S. Trade Representative after the Biden administration locked in 100% tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports effective in a week and a half, and determined up next are a 50% tariff on solar cells and 25% tariff on steel, aluminum, EV batteries and transition metals.

  • Before the duty news came down, walking around RE+ last week, I was honestly surprised at the sheer number of Chinese manufacturers with convention showroom booths, from EV company BYD to companies like Gotion that have riled up lawmakers in D.C. It was a charm offensive.
  • If Ford executives are to be believed, China could still play a role in the future of the U.S. automotive industry. But that being said, I have my doubts U.S. trade policy will change on EV and solar supply chains given the big lobbying spend from domestic manufacturers and mining companies in Washington.

Permit time, time permitting – Lots of hay is being made of permitting reform back in D.C., where congressional Republicans have revived legislative efforts to overhaul the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act.

  • Action lately has largely taken place in the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees land use issues. The committee held a hearing on legislation to modify NEPA implementation last week. Its chair Bruce Westerman also introduced legislation that would change federal species preservation.
  • These bills go much further than the bipartisan permitting compromise reached in the Senate, which focuses on judicial review, fossil fuel leasing, and renewable energy timelines.
  • I’ll say this with all the painful confidence of someone who covered Congress for far too long: some centrists have applauded the bills but they’re DOA – especially if Kamala Harris wins the November presidential election. That’s simply because the math for radically changing NEPA just isn’t there, and doubly so for wildlife protection law.

Maine’s offshore wind – The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced it’ll officially hold the first offshore wind lease sale on Maine waters on Oct. 29.

  • It is widely expected that for offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine to succeed it must consist of floating turbines to accommodate concerns from the state’s politically powerful fishermen.
  • BOEM issued a research lease for a floating offshore wind pilot project last month to the University of Maine for studying the technology.

Transformers, too – A White House-led infrastructure policy committee recommended the federal government should create a “virtual reserve” of transformers for energy security.

  • The recommendations note a growing wait time for procuring transformers for the grid and note physical products wouldn’t be necessary. Instead, it says the government needs ample data on what’s in stock domestically and the capacity to offer pricing support to businesses for purchasing transformers and products in the supply chain.

Here’s what else I’m watching…

  • The Treasury Department this morning proposed wide eligibility parameters for the IRA electric vehicle charging station credit.
  • House Speaker Mike Johnson said congressional Republicans may preserve some IRA credits if the GOP maintains control of Congress next year. He didn’t say which credits, though I took a stab at predicting which would stay over the summer.
  • Fresh off his op-ed for Heatmap, former White House National Economic Council head Brian Deese authored a new report on building out advanced transmission.
Climate activists are urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reverse its approval of the Southeast Energy Exchange Market, a regional energy trading platform.

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Hotspots

Tough Times for Renewable Energy Projects

A look at the week’s biggest fights over wind and solar farms.

Map of renewable energy fights.
Heatmap Illustration

1. McIntosh County, Oklahoma – Say goodbye to the Canadian River wind project, we hardly knew thee.

  • The TransAlta utility-scale wind facility was canceled mere days after we were first to report on the uprising in favor of a ban on new renewables in the state.
  • Local residents had banded together against the project due to its close proximity to Lake Eufaula, a large reservoir. Opposition included representatives of the native Muscogee Tribe.
  • TransAlta confirmed the project was dead in a statement to me last week after state politicians were first to declare its demise. On Monday, the company provided a statement in lieu of making someone available to speak with me: “The unfortunate decision to terminate the project was due to two primary reasons – challenges with land acquisition as well as ongoing uncertainty regarding grid interconnection.”

2. Allen County, Ohio – A utility-scale project caught in the crossfires over solar on farmland and local-vs-state conflicts now appears deceased, too.

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Q&A

How to Find Consensus to Build More Transmission

A conversation with Cici Vu and Morgan Putnam of DNV Energy Systems

Cici Vu and Morgan Putnam
Heatmap Illustration

Today we’re speaking with Cici Vu and Morgan Putnam from DNV Energy Systems, who helped craft a must-read report out this week on community relations in transmission with Americans for Clean Energy Grid (ACEG). Their report compiles findings of a roundtable with environmentalists, Indigenous rights activists, developers, and individual land owners, and finds transmission can fare better than solar and wind in this current political climate – and that community benefit agreements can be helpful for getting projects across the finish line. But some issues divided the roundtable, including how to structure labor benefits to ensure lots of people get job opportunities from transmission.

The following is a lightly edited and abridged version of our conversation:

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Policy Watch

Hearings Galore, Youngkin’s Slow Bore

This week’s top news around renewable energy policy.

Glenn Youngkin and solar farms.
Heatmap Illustration / Getty Images

1. Youngkin sides with locals – Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin this week said at his State of the State address that he would oppose efforts to “end local control of solar project siting” – indicating he will fiercely challenge efforts by some state policymakers to resolve challenges posed by town and county restrictions on renewables by overriding them.

  • “Local communities must be able to exercise their rights with regards to land use,” Youngkin said, adding a comparison that tied solar’s growth to the data center boom in the state. “Different communities will make different decisions on data centers but these must be their decisions.”
  • As we previously explained, solar developers are seeking changes to state policy in order to overrule local restrictions and draft recommendations from a Virginia commission on electricity called for the creation of an independent body to adjudicate these objections.

2. More like Hearing Watch – We’re starting to learn how Trump’s most significant nominees may run federal energy and climate agencies. Thank you, senatorial advise and consent process!

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