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A CLOSER LOOK AT THE BARRASSO BILL: Senate Republicans’ new energy package, like that of their House counterparts, goes much further than reforming energy permitting laws and would address degenerating grid reliability by getting regulators more involved in agency rulemakings that may affect the bulk power system.
Deteriorating grid reliability has been a central theme of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s recent seasonal and long-term assessments of the health of the bulk power system, which have blamed vulnerabilities and worsening blackout risks largely on the swift rate of coal, gas, and nuclear plant retirements.
The SPUR Act from ENR Ranking Member John Barrasso, who represents the nation’s overwhelming leader in coal production in Wyoming, would amend the Federal Power Act to allow states, FERC, and heads of executive agencies to request that NERC look into the effects of an “identified agency proposal” that would be “likely to have a significant negative impact” on grid reliability.
What would be covered: Proposed rules, regulations, and agency standards of the sort expected out of EPA later this week covering new and existing power plants.
NERC’s findings would then have to be incorporated into the rulemaking process. FERC would be required to submit comments to the agency whose rule was subjected to review, and the agency would have to explain to FERC how it responded to the comments before finalizing the rule or action.
‘At the request of a state:’ State litigants, most notably West Virginia, have played a preeminent role in the legal fight over EPA’s regulatory authorities, especially its authority to regulate power plants.
The bill’s inclusion of states among parties able to initiate a proceeding is big and could provide opponent states an option in addition to litigation to be used to challenge agency rules.
The reliability conversation largely revolves around the retirement of coal-fired plants, which supply the majority of power for 18 states and which the Biden administration wants to regulate more stringently to reduce pollution that damages health and contributes to climate change.
Where this process might be employed: EPA projected that its ozone transport rule, as proposed in March 2022, would result in 18 gigawatts of coal and 4 gigawatts of oil/gas retirements by 2030. Its final rule was projected to result in an additional 14 GW of coal retirements nationwide, a reduction of 13% of national coal capacity.
The reliability problem: NERC and FERC, as well as regional ISOs and RTOs themselves, have detailed significant reliability shortcomings in recent years that are forecast to continue, with Texas’s ERCOT, CAISO in California, and MISO in the Midwest facing some of the tightest margins during recent summers.
FERC’s four commissioners were united in agreement during last week’s oversight hearing before ENR that the bulk power system is far from prepared to do without coal generation.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Jeremy Beaman (@jeremywbeaman) and Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep). Email [email protected] or [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
TESLA BREAKS GROUND AT TEXAS LITHIUM REFINERY: Tesla broke ground at the site of its new planned lithium refinery outside Corpus Christi, which it expects will have production capacity sufficient to supply approximately 1 million vehicles with battery-grade lithium each year.
The company has developed an alternative refining method using sodium carbonate and lime instead of heavy sulfuric acid and other chemicals that generate undesirable byproducts. The refining method uses around 20% less energy than a more conventional approach and reduces waste.
CEO Elon Musk said lithium ore is abundant in the world but refining is too scarce for the growing EV sector.
“We thought it’s important to address — as we look ahead a few years, a fundamental choke point in the advancement of electric vehicles is the availability of battery-grade lithium,” he said at a groundbreaking ceremony yesterday.
Tesla may eventually expand the refinery beyond its 1 million vehicle capacity, too, Musk said.
NEW TEXAS BILL TO CRIMP RENEWABLE PROJECTS CLEARS THE STATE SENATE: The Texas Senate voted yesterday to approve a controversial bill that would impose new permitting restrictions on renewable energy projects in the state. It’s an effort designed to bolster reliability, but one that critics say risks driving renewable energy investments away from the state while also sending consumer energy costs soaring.
S.B. 624, which cleared the Senate yesterday by a 21-9 vote, is the latest GOP-led effort in Texas to shift the state’s power generation away from renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, and back toward natural gas-fired generation, in the name of reliability – a major concern since 2021’s Winter Storm Uri.
The new bill would force renewable energy project developers in Texas to pay a new yearly fee for their operations, compared to fossil fuel projects, which would pay nothing. And it would force developers to undergo a lengthy new permitting and environmental review process every time their projects change. On top of that, the requirements would retroactively apply to renewable projects already online in the state—forcing developers to go through the lengthy permitting and review process for a second time.
An empowered PUCT: S.B. 624 would grant the Public Utility Commission of Texas the ability to enter project sites without warning, and to remove clean energy capacity in Texas that has already been installed, should they deem it has “not met” new regulatory standards.
What’s next: House lawmakers will now begin debating the bill in the coming days. They’ll also be considering two other major energy-focused bills the Senate punted to them just weeks earlier. Those bills seek to funnel more money toward natural gas and so-called “dispatchable” energy sources that can be brought online quickly in the event of a supply shortfall. Read more from Breanne here.
US, RUSSIA, AND KOREA ROUND OUT TOP 3 PER-CAPITA EMITTERS: The U.S. was the globe’s top emitter on a per capita basis in 2019, according to new data from the World Resources Institute.
The world’s largest economy emitted 17.6 metric tons of CO2 equivalent that year, ranking ahead of Russia and South Korea at nos. 2 and 3. Iran and Japan rounded out the top 5.
China, the globe’s top emitter on a total emissions basis, ranked 6 and India, no. 3 on a total emissions basis, ranked 10 on a per capita basis. Both countries have populations exceeding 1 billion people.
Why this matters: Backers of more aggressive climate policies such as Sen. Jeff Merkley, who said recently that the U.S. needs to end new fossil fuel projects or else forfeit the authority to encourage climate change mitigation from other nations, want to drive down emissions quickly.
For less developed countries, the per capita stat is also a useful one for making the case against the kind of rapid transition away from coal, oil, and gas that wealthier Western nations want to oversee because they can show a given nation is outperforming others that have stricter climate policies.
India, for example, which generates three-quarters of its electricity from burning coal, has pointed to its relatively lower per capita emissions to defend its use of coal.
Other notable data points: 45 of the 50 lowest per capita emitters, mostly in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, are lower-income countries with an average per capita emissions value of a fourth of the world average.
Fiji is a category unto itself, according to the WRI estimates. Its per capita emissions are negative “because their land use change and forestry sector absorbs more emissions than all the other sectors combined.”
The Rundown
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