Special Energy Update: Jan 8

Energy Update - January 08, 2020

Friends,

A few new energy items happening since Monday:

1) HFC Legislation Introduced in House – Last night, House members introduced the American Innovation and Manufacturing Leadership Act (AIML Act) that would bring about a phase down of a class of refrigerants known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and allow for a market- and consumer-friendly transition to new and better performing refrigerants and related products and equipment The legislation, which was introduced by Reps. Paul Tonko (D-NY), Pete Olson (R-TX), Scott Peters (D-CA) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is similar to the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act (S. 2457), introduced in the Senate on October 30th by Sens. John Kennedy (R-LA) and Tom Carper (D-DE), which now has 32 bipartisan co-sponsors.  HVACR Industry trade association head Steve Yurek says the legislation will “accomplish our industry's refrigerant objectives while also protecting consumers and providing significant economic and environmental benefits."

The legislation will be the subject of a hearing next week.  Testifying will be HVACR manufacturing companies Danfoss NA and Lennox as well as NRDC who also weighed in in favor of the legislation here. 

2) House Leaders Outline Climate Principles – House Leaders today released a 15-page document outlining a set of climate principles.  The CLEAN Future Act formally adopts the goal of achieving of a 100% clean economy by 2050. The draft bill incorporates both proven and novel concepts which will form a set of policy proposals that will put the United States on the path to a clean and prosperous economy, according to Democrats. Over the coming months, the committee will continue to develop and refine the CLEAN Future Act. This process will include additional hearings focused on various topics raised throughout this document and ongoing stakeholder engagement. The Committee particularly looks forward to working with Members on both sides of the aisle to develop bipartisan solutions as part of this process and in the hope of achieving consensus on climate action to the maximum extent possible.  Document Attached…  My colleague Scoot Segal on the move:

“Speaker Pelosi has made it clear that House action on climate is an important Democratic objective before Election Day.  Just today the House Energy and Commerce Committee released legislative principles for their bill.  The House Select Committee will have its legislative climate report out in March.  And Natural Resources is working on climate legislation as well.  In this election year, climate will be a priority and much of the regulated community is gearing up to participate constructively in the legislative process.”

3) Tom Reed Introduces Clean Energy Tax Bill – Republican Rep. Tom Reed unveiled a bipartisan bill – cosponsored by Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), Darin LaHood (R-IL), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Dave Schweikert (R-AZ) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) – to provide federal tax subsidies for “first-of-a-kind” clean energy technologies for combating climate change. Reed’s Energy Sector Innovation Credit is unique in that it is technology-neutral, providing new electricity sector tax credits to use applications rather than specific energy sources. While existing clean energy tax policy provides subsidies for wind and solar, for example, Reed’s bill would direct credits to applications such as energy storage, carbon capture for natural gas plants, advanced nuclear reactors, and offshore wind.

ClearPath’s  Rich Powell on the Reed legislation: 

"This tax code fix complements a series of bipartisan bills that could turbocharge clean power innovation. ESIC would be a market based solution in the truest sense because the incentive is designed to reward the most flexible clean power sources – the ones that can respond to market signals to provide power."

ACORE CEO Greg Wetstone also favors the legislation:

“We commend Rep. Reed’s commitment to energy innovation and look forward to working with him on the Energy Innovation Credit Act as the legislation moves forward.”

See ClearPath’s latest video, and learn more about ESIC here.

4) DOE Launches Energy Storage Initiative – The Department of Energy is launching an Energy Storage Grand Challenge, a comprehensive program to accelerate the development, commercialization, and utilization of next-generation energy storage technologies and sustain American global leadership in energy storage.  The vision for the Challenge is to create and sustain global leadership in energy storage utilization and exports, with a secure domestic manufacturing supply chain that is independent of foreign sources of critical materials, by 2030.  It has five big goals over the next decade:

  • Technology development with ambitious, achievable performance goals.
  • Technology transfer to speed up the process of moving from research to system design to use in the private sector.
  • Policy and valuation to enable the most effective value proposition and use cases for storage technologies.
  • Bolstering the U.S. manufacturing and supply chain for storage technologies.
  • Workforce training to help U.S. workers meet the needs of the 21st Century electric grid and energy storage value chain.

In case you looking for more, ClearPath has an Energy storage 101 HERE. 

5) Report: GHGs Go Down for 2019 – The Rhodium Group recently released a new report, Preliminary US Emissions Estimates for 2019, that shows greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. fell last year, putting the country back on a downward emissions trend. The results estimate a decline in greenhouse gas emissions of around 2% in 2019. Rhodium attributes the drop, which counters an emissions rise in 2018, to wind, solar and natural gas gaining popularity over coal-fired power in the electricity sector.  According to Rhodium's estimates, U.S. coal generation experienced a historic year-on-year decline, falling 18% last year. Renewables supplemented a chunk of that decline, with large-scale renewables (including hydro) increasing 6% in 2019.  

6) NEPA Expected Tomorrow – The White House is expected to release its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reforms tomorrow.  It Is important to note that the Act hasn’t been updated in more than 40 years. My NEPA expert colleagues here at Bracewell Ann Navaro and Christine Wyman are ready to help with you background perspective and questions. 

That is a lot for a couple of days…  Call with questions.

Frank Maisano

202-997-5932