• Nine Senate Democrats voiced their support for President Joe Biden’s two-year tariff pause on solar panel imports from four Southeast Asian countries, while also warning in a letter shared exclusively with The Hill that a bipartisan resolution to resume the tariffs “would deal a devastating blow to the American solar industry, which will kill jobs, raise energy costs, and decrease our ability to achieve clean energy independence.” Despite a veto threat from Biden, the House last week passed a resolution aiming to restart the tariffs in an effort to boost domestic solar manufacturing, and the Senate is scheduled to vote and pass on its own resolution today. (The Hill) 
• Ford Motor Co.’s electric vehicle business lost $722 million in the first quarter, as the company cut the price of its Mustang Mach-E for the second time this year. The company plans to reopen orders for the Mach-E – for which sales were down 20% in the first quarter – sometime this week and expects to boost production of the vehicle this year at its Mexico plant to meet customer demand. (The Wall Street Journal) 
• New York is set to adopt the first statewide law banning natural gas in new buildings after weeks of state budget negotiations, with a final vote enacting the law anticipated this week, although legal challenges are expected. The new law would likely take effect in 2026 for new buildings under seven stories, while larger buildings would need to comply starting in 2029. (CNBC)
  • A recent Morning Consult survey found that support for natural gas bans in new construction is somewhat split among U.S. adults, with 44% backing the proposals and 38% opposing them.
• John Podesta, Biden’s climate adviser, said the administration will support Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) latest permitting effort called the Building American Energy Security Act, which includes a two-year limit on major federal energy project environmental reviews and the completion of the $6.6 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline, as the White House looks for “a path forward on bipartisan, permanent reform.” The administration’s support comes despite Manchin’s recent calls to repeal parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, which he helped pass, and several failures on earlier permitting legislation. (Reuters) 

Happening today:

• OurEnergyPolicy will host a webinar titled “Biofuels: Agriculture and Energy” to discuss the role of biofuels in the nation’s energy transition.

A leading private equity firm claimed to be a climate leader – while increasing emissions

The Guardian

Debt ceiling deadline opens path for permitting

Jeremy Dillon and Emma Dumain, E&E News

News that the federal government faces a debt limit deadline far sooner than previously expected could give supporters of overhauling the nation’s permitting process a rare boost: an actual deadline to complete negotiations.

Biodiversity Beats Climate When It Comes to Swaying Republicans

Saijel Kishan, Bloomberg

The topic may sound just as amorphous as ESG, but there’s growing evidence it plays better with right-wing investors.

Biden administration pledges fight to keep climate-friendly farming funds

Leah Douglas, Reuters

The Biden administration will defend funding for climate-smart farming in the $430 billion U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) if Republican lawmakers seek to cut it during negotiations for the next farm bill, an official said Tuesday.

Ethanol dispute shows power of regional interests in narrow GOP majority

Rachel Frazin, The Hill

A recent disagreement over ethanol exemplifies the power of regional issues to potentially change — or even threaten to derail — Republican bills, given the party’s small House majority.

COP28 head sets agenda for $100bn fund and push for ‘low-carbon’ tech

Attracta Mooney, Financial Times

Jaber promises to ‘supercharge’ climate finance but focuses on cutting fossil fuel emissions rather than production.

Top Energy Republican blasts Haaland on lease sales: ‘You haven’t been following the law’

Zack Budryk, The Hill

Senate Energy Committee Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) castigated Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s record on oil and gas leasing at a committee hearing Tuesday, accusing her of violating the law by not holding quarterly lease sales.

El Nino likely to return this year, fuelling global temperatures, World Meteorological Organization says

Reuters

The El Nino weather pattern is likely to develop later this year and could contribute to rising global temperatures, the World Meteorological Organization said on Wednesday.

Inside big beef’s climate messaging machine: confuse, defend and downplay

Joe Fassler, The Guardian

A Masters of Beef Advocacy program teaches ‘scientific sounding’ arguments on cattle’s sustainability in an all-out public relations war.

Rich nations to meet overdue $100 billion climate pledge this year

Maha El Dahan et al., Reuters

Wealthy nations are on track this year to meet their overdue $100-billion climate finance pledge to developing countries, three years later than promised, Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said on Tuesday.

Flooding may threaten over 120 hazardous sites in California by 2050, study shows

Jacob Knutson, Axios

Hundreds of industrial sites along California’s coastline may face a heightened risk of coastal flooding by 2050 because of sea level rise from human-caused global warming, a new study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology on Tuesday estimates.

Groups to sue federal officials over manatee protection

The Associated Press

Several conservation groups announced Tuesday that they’re planning to sue federal wildlife officials, citing a failure to protect the West Indian manatee following record death rates in recent years.

Rainforest nations seek easier access to UN carbon credit scheme

Ahmed Eljechtimi, Reuters

Countries that are home to rainforest and peatland vital to limiting climate change want easier access to sovereign carbon credits, a financial scheme to reward them for preserving their ecosystems, Congo Republic’s environment minister told Reuters.

Where wind power blows up against a site of WWII trauma

Dino Grandoni, The Washington Post

To wean off fossil fuels and stave off climate change, the nation needs renewable power. But finding places willing to host towering wind turbines? That’s another matter.

New York takes big step toward renewable energy in ‘historic’ climate win

Aliya Uteuova, The Guardian

Measure will also help shift utilities away from private companies to make them publicly owned.

Energy storage takes a hit among investors while solar continues to soar

Emma Penrod, Utility Dive

Venture capitalists are still lining up to invest in solar projects and technologies, but just about every other sector—including energy storage—has seen funding slow in the first quarter of 2023, according to data from Mercom Capital Group.

U.S. oil patch dealmaking grinds to two-year low in first quarter

Curtis Williams, Reuters

U.S. oil and gas dealmaking fell to a two-year low of $8.58 billion last quarter, as combinations of natural gas companies dried up and oil buyers focused on mature plays, energy analytics firm Enverus said on Tuesday.

Hundreds of gas plants could escape EPA climate rules

Jean Chemnick, E&E News

About 1,000 natural gas-fired power plants that provide energy at periods of peak demand could be excluded from the toughest standards under EPA’s upcoming carbon rules.

TotalEnergies sues Greenpeace over emissions report

America Hernandez, Reuters

French oil major TotalEnergies has sued environmental group Greenpeace France and climate consulting firm Factor-X over a report claiming the company massively underestimated its 2019 greenhouse gas emissions, Total said on Wednesday.

Tesla resumes US orders for Model 3 long-range version at lower price

Reuters

Tesla Inc. has resumed taking orders for its Model 3 long-range version in the United States, the company’s website showed late on Tuesday, after a temporary halt last year due to delivery backlogs.

Public transit banked on office workers and now they’re paying for it

Danielle Muoio Dunn and Ry Rivard, Politico

Most of the nation’s most-trafficked public transit systems are still seeing less than 80 percent of their pre-pandemic ridership.

White House says Toyota ‘fully committed’ to electrifying auto fleet

David Shepardson, Reuters

White House senior adviser John Podesta said Toyota Motor Corp “had been the laggard” on producing electric vehicles but is now “fully committed” after he met recently with senior company officials at the Japanese automaker.

Maine court recharges plan for embattled transmission line

Jake Bittle, Grist

The new wires will help wean New England off fuel oil and natural gas.

Biden proposes 30% climate change tax on cryptocurrency mining

Ben Adler, Yahoo News

The White House is trying to persuade Congress to pass a 30% tax on the electricity used in cryptocurrency mining in the next federal budget in order to minimize the nascent industry’s impact on climate change.

Dominion eyeing more natural gas plants, modular reactors

Sarah Rankin, The Associated Press

Renewables alone aren’t expected to meet a projected increase in demand for electricity in the coming decades, Dominion Energy Virginia said in a filing this week that was closely aligned with Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s energy policy.

Coming EPA power plant rules will put carbon capture to the test, but better oversight is needed, critics say

Herman K. Trabish, Utility Dive

Federal funding gives U.S. carbon capture, utilization and storage policy parity to show it can compete with other clean energies, advocates and opponents agree.

This former Tesla engineer is reinventing the home electrical panel

Diana Olick, CNBC

The home is increasingly becoming a command hub for all kinds of smart technology and smart power. One major component of that, however, is not very smart at all: the electric panel. It hasn’t changed much in about 75 years.

Chicago’s $1 Billion Water Deal Shows Great Lakes Wealth

Isis Almeida and Kim Chipman, Bloomberg

As American states such as California grapple with harsher and more frequent droughts, the US Midwest is touting its ample water supplies to spur economic growth.

Chile’s move to control lithium alarms industry

Harry Dempsey and Edward White, Financial Times

Australia, Argentina and African countries set to benefit as Santiago moves ‘urgently’ to take stake in key projects.

Common US consumer products release toxic compounds, new research shows

Tom Perkins, The Guardian

Dangerous chemicals that can cause cancer and air pollution are often found in cosmetics, personal care products and cleaners.