Morning Consult Energy: Panasonic Said to Be Considering Another $4 Billion EV Battery Plant in U.S.
 

Energy

Essential energy industry news & intel to start your day.
August 26, 2022
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Today’s Top News

  • Panasonic Holdings Corp. is looking into building a roughly $4 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Oklahoma, according to people familiar with the matter, though it is not guaranteed a deal will be reached. Panasonic, which supplies batteries to Tesla Inc., would build its new plant near another $4 billion battery factory that the company plans to construct in Kansas and also close to Tesla’s new EV factory in Austin, Texas. (The Wall Street Journal)
  • The Biden administration will help 24 states plug orphaned oil and gas wells with $560 million allocated from a $4.7 billion program funded by last year’s infrastructure law. The funding for the abandoned wells is the largest single investment in the history of oil field cleanup in the United States, administration officials said. (E&E News)
  • Plug Power Inc. struck a deal with Amazon.com Inc. to supply 10,950 tons of green hydrogen annually starting in 2025, enough supply to power 30,000 forklifts or 800 long-haul trucks. Using green hydrogen, which is processed from renewable energy sources like wind and solar, will help Amazon achieve its sustainability goals as it moves to replace gray hydrogen produced from fossil fuels, the company said. (CNBC)
  • Dangerously high heat will hit most of the globe at least three times more often as a result of worsening climate change impacts, according to a study published in Communications Earth and Environment. By mid-century, those living in Earth’s mid-latitudes could experience a heat index of 103 degrees Fahrenheit or higher between 20 and 50 times a year, the study said. (The Associated Press)
 

Chart Review

 
 

What Else You Need to Know

General
 

Climate Activists Plot Way Out of Manchin’s Oil Lease Mandate

Jennifer A Dlouhy, Bloomberg

Landmark climate law ties wind and solar to drilling leases.

 

Amid permit fight, White House touts money to speed reviews

Kelsey Brugger, E&E News

Progressives are enraged over a permitting deal that’s expected to get a vote in Congress next month, but at the same time, the White House is promoting money in the new climate law that they say will help rev up environmental reviews.

 

Democrats clash over Manchin side deal, raising shutdown risk

Rachel Frazin, The Hill

Liberal lawmakers are pressing Democratic leaders in the House to not include a side deal undercutting environmental reviews worked out with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in a short-term measure funding the government.  

 

GOP targets powerhouse Wall Street firms over investments meant to fight climate change

Tobias Burns, The Hill

Republicans are fighting against a social movement in the financial sector meant to address systemic issues like climate change.  

 
Climate Change and Emissions
 

First-of-its-kind study finds Hurricane Harvey hit Latinos the hardest

Shannon Osaka, The Washington Post

Researchers have connected climate change to extreme weather in the past. Now they can assess who’s most affected.

 

Google Changed Emission Calculations in Google Flights, Making Air Travel Look Cleaner

Molly Taft, Gizmodo

Last month the tech giant shifted its algorithm to exclude a crucial component of the overall greenhouse gas impact of air travel.

 

Friday night fish frys define Wisconsin. What happens when climate change adjusts the menu?

Josh McCracken, Grist

How do you keep a culinary tradition alive on a warming planet?

 

Here are the most and least carbon-intensive places to operate a data center

Lisa Martine Jenkins, Protocol

Tech companies that rely on cloud computing and want to reduce their carbon emissions should take a long look at a new report.

 

Climate Change May Have Doubled the Number of Houston Homes Flooded by Hurricane Harvey

Yale Environment 360

If not for climate change, 2017’s Hurricane Harvey might have flooded half as many homes in the Houston area, a new study finds.

 
Renewables and Storage
 

Dominion threatens to abandon 2.6-GW offshore wind farm over performance guarantee

Ethan Howland, Utility Dive

Dominion Energy Virginia will abandon its planned 2.6-GW offshore wind farm if state regulators don’t reverse their decision to set a performance guarantee requirement for the $9.8 billion project, according to a rehearing request filed this week.

 

New wind additions plummet in Q2, declining 77% from a year ago: S&P

Robert Walton, Utility Dive

The pullback in installations came amid supply chain disruptions, inflation and uncertainty over tax incentives for renewables, analysts noted.

 

A Utah Startup Is Making a ‘Treasure Map’ for Geothermal Energy

Mark Bergen, Bloomberg

Zanskar aims to fix a major blind spot as more companies dig into the earth for clean power.

 
Oil, Gas and Alternative Fuels
 

Trouble on pipeline’s path hits home for Manchin

Miranda Willson et al., E&E News

Becky Crabtree dreamed of her daughter living next door when she purchased a tract of land in this rural community near the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests.

 

Fire at Biggest US Midwest Refinery Threatens Fuel Supplies

Barbara J. Powell et al., Bloomberg

Wholesale diesel and gasoline prices jump throughout Midwest.

 
Transportation
 

The Trouble With Comparing Next-Gen Car Batteries

Paul Tullis, Bloomberg Businessweek

As manufacturers seek to move beyond lithium-ion, they face one big challenge: There’s no yardstick for measuring performance.

 

WA will ban new gas-powered cars by 2035, following California’s lead

David Kroman, The Seattle Times

Gov. Jay Inslee said Wednesday that Washington would follow California’s lead and ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

 

California E.V. Mandate Finds a Receptive Auto Industry

Neal E. Boudette, The New York Times

The move to phase out gasoline-powered cars, with other states expected to follow, matches automakers’ plans. The challenge will be making it happen.

 

Boeing and Airbus Want to Get Greener. Why Aren’t They Building New Planes?

Jon Sindreu, The Wall Street Journal

Designing ‘clean-sheet’ jets instead of updating old ones could be the aerospace industry’s most important contribution to the environment.

 
Electricity, Utilities and Infrastructure
 

Arid West starts dreaming about piping in water from afar

Jennifer Yachnin, E&E News

Even in the decades before the West plunged into a 22-year drought, the proposals to shift water from wetter states to more arid locations have never been in short supply.

 

Drought threatens coal plant operations — and electricity — across the West

Julia Simon, NPR News

Driving through the Wyoming sagebrush west of Cheyenne, the clouds of dust rising from the road give way to giant plumes of steam shooting into the warming sky.

 

The Inflation Reduction Act offers subsidies for heat pumps — will U.S. homeowners warm to them?

Bed Adler, Yahoo News

Kari Plog didn’t expect she would ever need air conditioning in her detached, single-family house in Tacoma, Wash. 

 

Report: Benefits of dams must be replaced before breaching

Nicholas K. Geranios, The Associated Press

The benefits provided by four giant hydroelectric dams on the Snake River must be replaced before the dams can be breached to save endangered salmon runs, according to a final report issued Thursday by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Washington U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.

 
Environment, Land and Resources
 

Heat heightens risks to delivery workers

Ariel Wittenberg, E&E News

Most days in the summer, Fernando Castillo feels like he’s roasting. The brown aluminum truck he drives delivering packages in Brooklyn, N.Y., for UPS doesn’t have air conditioning, and routinely feels at least 20 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the air outside.

 

August may pass without a single named tropical storm in the Atlantic

Matthew Cappucci, The Washington Post

Despite predictions of an above-average season, the tropics have been silent.

 

FDR built a ‘Great Wall of Trees.’ Could Biden do the same?

Daniel Cusick, E&E News

Three years into his presidency and five years into the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt asked destitute Great Plains farmers to stop growing wheat and start growing trees.

 
Coal/Nuclear
 

Deal reached to address 2 leaking nuke waste tanks

Nicholas K. Geranios, The Associated Press

A deal to address two nuclear waste storage tanks that are leaking radioactive materials into the soil in Washington state was reached Thursday between the state and the U.S. Department of Energy.

 

Groups sue Environmental Protection Agency over coal ash

Travis Loller, The Associated Press

A coalition of environmental groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday over its refusal to regulate some older coal ash dumps, claiming they are polluting air and groundwater.

 

Could Coal Waste Be Used to Make Sustainable Batteries?

Eliza Griswold, The New Yorker

Acid mine drainage has long been a scourge in Appalachia. Recent research suggests that we may be able to simultaneously clean up the pollution and extract the minerals and elements needed to power green technologies.

 

Missouri PSC lets Algonquin Power utility securitize $290M in coal retirement, Winter Storm Uri costs

Ethan Howland, Utility Dive

An Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. utility will be able to securitize nearly $290 million in costs related to the early retirement of a coal-fired power plant and to Winter Storm Uri.

 
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
 

Did Congress Really Rebuff the Supreme Court on Climate Rule?

Noah Feldman, Bloomberg

Democrats are toasting a victory against the conservative justices’ assault on environmental law. But it might be a short celebration.

 
Morning Consult