Biden asks OPEC what?

Presented by Williams

With help from Kelsey Tamborrino, Gloria Gonzalez and Tanya Snyder

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Quick fix

— The Biden administration is asking OPEC+ to produce more oil as gas prices remain hot. But the move is prompting raised eyebrows on both sides of the aisle.

— Manchin is not keen on a $3.5 trillion cash infusion under Democrats’ budget plan, throwing a wrench into the party’s plans.

— Democratic House moderates are pushing for the bipartisan infrastructure deal to go forward independent of the budget resolution. Pelosi isn’t having it.

WELCOME TO THURSDAY! I’m your host, Matthew Choi. Congrats to Christina Baworowsky of ChargePoint for knowing Agnetha Fältskog sang the lead vocals in ABBA’s “Chiquitita.” For today’s trivia: What dance do Queen Elizabeth II and President Nkrumah do in Season 2 of “The Crown”? Send your tips and trivia answers to [email protected]. Find me on Twitter @matthewchoi2018.

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Driving the day

THE OPEC OPTICS: The Biden administration surprised the oil market with an early morning statement from National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan calling on OPEC+, which includes the cartel as well as Russia, to raise output to take some of the heat off the market. That’s an unusual call, not only because those countries are competitors of the U.S. in the global crude trade, but, as both Republicans and environmentalists noted, Biden has cast himself as a climate warrior who wants to move the U.S. to clean energy.

The early statement on OPEC was accompanied by a letter from National Economic Council Director Brian Deese calling for the Federal Trade Commission to take a close look at the gasoline market for any sign of illegal conduct, a move driven by the fact that retail gasoline prices are $3.185 a gallon, up about a nickel from a month ago and the highest level since 2014, according to AAA, despite a pullback in benchmark crude prices.

“That’s not what you’d expect in a competitive market,” Biden said in a speech Wednesday afternoon. “I want to make sure that nothing stands in the way of oil price declines leading to lower prices for consumers.”

Notably, these comments came in a speech about offering help to U.S. families, and as inflation data showed the second straight month of 5.4 percent increases, so it’s clear the White House is starting to sweat. While it may be a bit early to see a new economic swoon from the Covid resurgence, the price pressure on Americans looks likely to take a bite out of household budgets, and the Biden team doesn’t want to look like they’ve been caught napping. Still, it’s opened the door for the kind of political attacks that Republicans have been leaning into for months.

“President Biden canceled an American pipeline on Day One. Seven months later, he is now begging OPEC to pump more oil,” tweeted House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy, referring to Biden’s nixing of the permits for the Keystone XL pipeline in January.

Conservatives also blamed Biden for erecting other roadblocks to fossil fuels at home through the Interior Department’s pause on new federal oil and gas lease sales (even though permit approvals and output on federal land haven’t suffered).

“Calling for increased OPEC+ oil production demonstrates the fallacy of the White House Federal lands energy ban,” said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Christopher Guith in a statement. “We need to let the US produce oil under the world’s strictest environmental standards and boost our economy instead of Russia’s and the Middle East.”

TO PROGRESSIVES it makes no sense to ask for more oil production abroad while aiming to eliminate carbon emissions and push for vehicle electrification at home. The OPEC call also came just two days after the dire assessment from the UN’s climate science body that showed the window for limiting global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius was shrinking faster than thought, and catastrophes already occurring around the world would only get worse with more greenhouse gases.

“Transparent oil boosterism in the week of the latest [U.N.] report shows a fundamental lack of acknowledgment about what’s driving climate disaster,” said Collin Rees, senior campaigner for Oil Change International.

What calling for OPEC action does, however, is try to signal to voters that the administration is attuned to the pocketbook issues that affect their everyday lives. With Republicans directly tying rising gas prices to Biden’s energy policies as a campaign tool, the White House needs to counter the narrative as it looks to hold onto its microscopic margins in both the House and the Senate.

“Voters can see gasoline prices a lot more easily than they can see energy transitions, and the White House has Congressional majorities to defend,” Kevin Book, managing director at ClearView Energy, told Pro’s Ben Lefebvre. “Biden’s green future depends on keeping blue seats blue.” Read more from Ben here.

On the Hill

MANCHIN WANTS THE BUDGET TO CHILL: The Senate adopted a $3.5 trillion budget resolution in the wee hours of Wednesday after a vote-a-rama longer than your host’s childhood flights to Seoul. But despite the party’s discipline in voting to advance the behemoth package, Senate Energy Chair Joe Manchin is raising concerns with such a large cash infusion into the U.S. economy.

“Early this morning, I voted ‘YES’ on a procedural vote to move forward on the budget reconciliation process because I believe it is important to discuss the fiscal policy future of this country. However, I have serious concerns about the grave consequences facing West Virginians and every American family if Congress decides to spend another $3.5 trillion,” Manchin said in a statement Wednesday morning. “Given the current state of the economic recovery, it is simply irresponsible to continue spending at levels more suited to respond to a Great Depression or Great Recession — not an economy that is on the verge of overheating.”

Manchin had always been noncommittal on his more progressive peers’ spending ambitions. And Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) similarly expressed aversion to a $3.5 trillion figure recently. The two are offering an opening to Republicans who are pushing the moderates to rein in spending in the budget plan, as POLITICO’s Burgess Everett reported Wednesday.

Meanwhile in the House, the lower chamber is coming back from recess in two weeks to take up the budget resolution. Moderates are calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hurry up and pass the bipartisan infrastructure deal irrespective of the budget’s timeline. But Pelosi is not budging, standing firm that she will only consider the bipartisan deal with the budget resolution.

“I’m not freelancing. This is the consensus of the caucus,” Pelosi told her members on a callreported by POLITICO’s Sarah Ferris and Heather Caygle. “The votes in the House and Senate depend on us having both bills.”

EV BOOSTERS PUSH BACK AGAINST MEANS TESTING: Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) was among the lucky senators to get an amendment to the budget resolution not only considered but actually passed in this week’s vote-a-rama. Electric vehicle advocates are lucky too — her amendment to means-test eligibility for electric vehicle tax credits is nonbinding. Still, they’re not resting. Advocates are working to press their message with senators that the point of the incentive is to fight climate change and protect public health, “and we are all better off when they work, no matter who the driver is,” as Zero Emission Transportation Association executive director Joe Britton told Pro’s Tanya Snyder. The amendment could have limited eligibility to the tax credit for people making more than $100,000.

Friends in high places: Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) needs no convincing. She said in her floor speech against the amendment that capping the price at $40,000 was “just plain anti-pickup truck” because “our farmers and small businesses and families” wouldn’t have access to it when buying an electric pickup truck the way consumers buying small cars would.

DEMS LOOK TO SPUR OFFSHORE WIND MANUFACTURING: Democratic Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker and Bob Menendez of New Jersey unveiled legislation Wednesday to drive domestic manufacturing and boost offshore wind development that they hope will be included in the budget reconciliation package working its way through Capitol Hill. The Offshore Wind American Manufacturing Act would establish a 30 percent investment tax credit for qualified facilities that manufacture offshore wind components and subcomponents. It would be available through 2028 and would then step down annually until 2030.

The bill would also create a production tax credit, which would vary by component but range from 2 to 5 cents per watt multiplied by the total rated capacity of the turbine, and would be available through 2030. The legislation would also require prevailing wages for laborers involved in the construction and expansion of qualified manufacturing facilities or offshore wind products. “The Offshore Wind American Manufacturing Act helps ensure that each offshore wind turbine deployed in the United States over the next 10 years is made in America and made by Americans receiving family sustaining wages,” said Markey in a statement.

The legislation lands as lawmakers move forward on the budget reconciliation package that Senate Democrats say will invest in clean energy and manufacturing tax incentives. A Markey aide told ME the bill is being introduced with the intent of including it in the reconciliation text coming out of the Senate Finance Committee and with collaboration from committee staff.

Around the Agencies

CHATTERJEE TAKES THE BLAME: FERC Commissioner Neil Chatterjee is doing a lot of reflecting as his time on the commission approaches its end, noting his belief that the agency’s fundamental obligation and responsibility is oversight of the grid, but taking the blame for issues with FERC’s grid resilience dockets during his tenure as chair. The dockets were opened after the commission unanimously rejected a notice of proposed rulemaking centered around providing a subsidy for coal and nuclear plants in 2018 proposed by then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry.

“I really bungled it,” he said during a virtual event held by Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions Wednesday. “I didn’t bungle it so much in my vote as I voted the right way, but it’s the manner in which I handled it. I really approached that process the way a politician would or a political operative would, not an independent regulator.”

This failure to properly address resilience challenges “really came home to roost” this past year in two states with very different grids — progressive California due to wildfires and conservative Texas due to winter storms — both of which had market design challenges that “genuinely require examination,” he said. “I was frustrated in both cases because, partially due to my own guilt of introducing politics into this serious conversation, everyone immediately viewed the circumstances through their own partisan fuel source lens.”

WHERE IS THE ADMIN? Biden’s climate officials are continuing their clean energy infrastructure tour, with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm traveling to Richmond, Va., with Rep. Abigail Spanberger to tout the clean energy and jobs components of the administration’s infrastructure agenda. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland are going to Yellowstone National Park on Friday to discuss investments in park infrastructure.

In the States

WEST COAST EFFICIENCY: The California Energy Commission unanimously approvedmore stringent building standards Wednesday aimed at boosting energy efficiency in new buildings. The standards will encourage electric alternatives to gas appliances, expanding solar and battery standards as the state moves toward a clean grid, set up single-family homes for more electric appliances and EV charging, and strengthen ventilation standards. The Building Standards Commission will take up the measures, which are likely to be folded into a revision of the building code in December. Colby Bermel breaks it down here.

Movers and Shakers

— Amanda Kasper is joining Ervin Graves Strategy Group (where former Rep. Tom Graves serves as president) as a vice president in its government relations practice. Kasper was formerly senior adviser to then-EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler.

The Grid

— “$26B opioid settlement may foreshadow Big Oil climate payout,” via E&E News.

— “Hidden Toll of the Northwest Heat Wave: Hundreds of Extra Deaths,” via The New York Times.

— “Cuomo resignation may shift N.Y. energy, climate policy,” via E&E News.

THAT’S ALL FOR ME!