On Monday or shortly thereafter, a bipartisan group of senators is expected to release details of a $579 billion infrastructure plan, having agreed to partially pay for it via a delay to a costly Trump-era Medicare requirement.
What we’re watching: While Republican senators on Wednesday dealt a blow to the prospects for the plan backed by President Joe Biden by voting to block debate on the package because the bill language was unfinished, lawmakers and officials working on the negotiations are optimistic that it will be finalized over the weekend. We’ll be keeping an eye on the environment and energy provisions of the package, especially given that Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) has signaled that he could oppose the final bill if it did not include more funding for water and sanitation and that several of his colleagues have expressed concern about funding levels for transit priorities such as high-speed rail.
On Tuesday the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy will hold a hearing titled “The Changing Energy Landscape: Oversight of FERC” at 10:30 a.m. ET.
What we’re watching: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is in the midst of a transition, as Commissioner Neil Chatterjee (R) prepares to depart and his role is taken by a Democrat. Chatterjee said during an American Enterprise Institute event Thursday that he worries that the commission’s focus on a clean energy transition (which he supports) could result in “accidentally driving out competitive resources that are needed to maintain reliability.” This hearing will involve all of FERC’s commissioners — though Biden still has yet to announce his nominee for Chatterjee’s successor — and will provide clues on how the commission will take on the twin priorities of reliability and the transition after its partisan balance tips to the left.
This comes just a week after Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) reintroduced a bill that would require FERC to factor emissions into energy rates (alongside a “Hot FERC Summer” campaign to raise awareness about the commission’s role, to the amusement of all who cover it).
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual Building Resilience Through Private-Public Partnerships conference, featuring Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
What we’re watching: In May 2020, Samantha Montano, assistant professor of emergency management and disaster science at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, told me that the United States has the wrong approach to disasters: “We wait for a disaster to happen and then we react to it. And we need to be proactive.”
As discussed below, this past week has been one of cascading disasters on top of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic; in this context, resilience is top of mind. Is there a chance emergency management could be reliably included in climate conversations going forward? Montano expressed her cautious optimism on that point via Twitter on Friday. The conference is a rare opportunity to hear from Criswell directly on the future of the agency amid our changing environment as disaster management is in the spotlight.
On Wednesday, Securities and Exchange Commissioner Gary Gensler will give a speech to the United Nations on responsible investment. Why it’s worth watching: Gensler is expected to outline the SEC’s regulatory agenda for 2021 as it relates to climate change, which could include guidance on climate disclosures by companies.
On Thursday, Royal Dutch Shell will release its second-quarter earnings, followed on Friday by Chevron Corp.’s presentation and ExxonMobil Corp.’s presentation.
What we’re watching: This year’s first-quarter earnings were an example of a rising tide lifting all boats, with most oil and gas majors seeing significant year-over-year gains as vaccination rates picked up, many major lockdowns ended and demand for their products consequently increased. However, in the weeks since the end of the second quarter, the rise of the delta variant has had a negative impact on both oil prices and the economy as a whole more recently, and an agreement by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies to ease oil production curbs over the course of the next year also pushed prices down. I will be watching what the oil majors have to say about the outlook for oil given the latest developments.