Today’s Key Takeaways: 40% of IRA projects have been put on hold. Sullivan blasts BLM for abandoning land conveyance beneath TAPS. U.S LNG shaken by setback. Proposal to ban open-pit mining advances in Mexico. Swing state voters support domestic drilling.
NEWS OF THE DAY:
IRA DELAYS: Roughly 40% of the projects announced in the first year of the implementation of President Joe Biden’s largest industrial and climate infrastructure spending bills have been put on hold, according to a new analysis that illustrates the difficulty of translating major subsidies into physical construction.
During the 117th Congress, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act, which together offered more than $400 billion in subsidies for clean technology and the domestic buildout of semiconductors.
Of projects worth up to $100 million, however, $85 billion have been put on hold for several months or years or paused for an unspecified period of time, according to a Financial Times investigation. The total valuation of these projects was $227.9 billion.
This poses a complication for the Biden administration, which has said that its spending measures would reshore industries and bring back manufacturing jobs to the United States. The delays are also a setback for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign as she looks to attract support from blue-collar workers.
It also highlights the failure of the Biden administration to enact permitting reform to facilitate the construction of major projects. As part of negotiations for the Inflation Reduction Act, Sen. Joe Manchin struck a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to put a permitting reform proposal on the floor, arguing it was essential to realizing the potential of the law and its subsidies. Biden endorsed the reform measure, but it failed to advance thanks to opposition among Democrats. A new proposal from Manchin, along with Republican Sen. John Barrasso, has reignited hope that a bipartisan effort could gain traction in the upper chamber. Read more on that here.
From the Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy, August 15, 2024
Related: Environmentalists are suing us out of addressing climate change
OIL:
Sen. Sullivan presses Biden officials for answers amid concerns about trans-Alaska pipeline’s future
Alex DeMarban, Anchorage Daily News, August 15, 2024
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska wants top officials in the Interior Department to hand over texts, emails, and other communication they’ve had with conservation groups.
Sullivan made the request in a four-page letter to Tracy Stone-Manning, director of the Bureau of Land Management, this week.
Sullivan told reporters Tuesday that he wants to know why the Bureau of Land Management has dropped an effort to open the door for the federal government to convey the land beneath the 800-mile trans-Alaska pipeline to the state.
He said he’s concerned the agency’s lack of action comes in response to conservation groups who have filed a petition with the Interior Department calling for a plan for the decommissioning of the 47-year-old pipeline.
Earlier this summer,Stone-Manning abandoned a process to lift a land order that would have enabled the conveyance of the land to the state, Sullivan said in the letter.
“Your decision to abruptly abandon the public process associated with lifting (Public Land Order) 5150, without notice, at the same time that far-left environmental groups are trying to shut down the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) raises questions regarding potential collusion between the Biden Administration and the Lower-48 radical environmentalists that want to shut down Alaska,” Sullivan writes.
GAS:
U.S. LNG Ambitions Shaken by Regulatory Setback
Alex Kimani, OilPrice.Com, August 15, 2024
NextDecade Corp.’s $4.3B Rio Grande LNG project in Texas faces uncertainty after a court ruling invalidated its federal permit.
The decision raises concerns about the viability of other multibillion-dollar LNG projects in the U.S., as legal and regulatory challenges mount.
Despite setbacks, some LNG companies have seen favorable rulings, such as a Louisiana judge’s decision to halt the Biden administration’s pause on natural gas export permits.
MINING:
Proposal to ban open-pit mining advances in Mexican Congress
Reuters, August 15, 2024
A committee in Mexico’s lower house of Congress approved two constitutional reforms that would prohibit open-pit mining and fracking, as well as restrict the use of genetically modified corn.
The proposals, passed on Wednesday, will be taken up for discussion by the full lower house after lawmakers return to session in September.
The changes would also prevent the exploitation of water in areas with water scarcity, with the exception of extraction in populated areas for domestic use, according to a statement released Wednesday night.
The changes are part of a package of constitutional reforms presented in February by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which contains other proposals, including one to restructure the judiciary.
POLITICS:
Swing state voters support domestic drilling
Casey Harper, The Center Square, August 15, 2024
Voters in several key swing states this November support domestic oil drilling, according to new polling data.
The American Petroleum Institute commissioned the poll, but it was conducted by the reputable pollster Morning Consult.
According to the poll, more than 90% of voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are concerned about inflation.
“Voters in electoral battleground states are concerned about inflation and are experiencing financial pain, and they see a role for domestic natural gas and oil production in helping consumers and small businesses,” the poll said.
The poll found that in the same seven states, 80% or more of voters agree that “producing more natural gas and oil here in the United States could help lower energy and utility costs for American consumers and small businesses.”
About 70% or more of voters in the same states “oppose government mandates that would ban gas stoves, gas furnaces, or new gasoline, diesel and hybrid vehicles.”