Daily on Energy: Hawley furious at Johnson for bypassing his nuclear compensation bill

HAWLEY VERSUS THE HOUSE: Sen. Josh Hawley is furious that the House is expected to vote to reauthorize compensation for victims of nuclear testing without considering his proposal to add new beneficiaries in St. Louis and elsewhere. 

The bill that’s being taken up: Hawley posted on X last night that Speaker Mike Johnson informed his office the House would take up a reauthorization of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act that leaves out Hawley’s reforms. The version that is set for consideration in the House is instead a “clean,” two-year reauthorization that was introduced by members of the Utah delegation, according to Billy Gribbin, a communications director for Sen. Mike Lee. Lee, along with Sen. Mitt Romney and Rep. Celeste Maloy, had introduced a measure that would simply extend the authorization at current levels without broadening coverage to additional states. It would not add costs to the current program.

Writing on the wall: We’ve reported Johnson was unlikely to take up Hawley’s RECA reauthorization measure, due to its $50 billion price tag and pressure from other members to include their districts.  

Still, Hawley blasted Johnson’s office on X for scheduling a vote on a “dirty RECA bill” that would leave out compensation to residents in Missouri and New Mexico, tribal groups like the Navajo Nation, and others.

And he’s maintaining his block on any unanimous consent requests for RECA bills that exclude his home state of Missouri. “I will demand every procedural vote. And every vote will be a reminder the House would rather fund foreign wars than compensate Americans poisoned by their government,” Hawley tweeted. 

A spokesperson for the speaker’s office didn’t immediately provide a comment on Hawley’s remarks. 

ICYMI: When Lee had tried to pass the two-year reauthorization measure through unanimous consent last week, Hawley had objected to the bill, advocating for his home state and others to be included. 

Following the floor debate, Lee modified his previous bill to create a compromise measure that would extend RECA coverage for eight years, but would also expand coverage to Utah, New Mexico, and Missouri. The expected cost for that measure, which is separate from the clean reauthorization, is $30 billion.

Keep an eye on the Senate: If the bill offered by Utah Republicans is moving through the House, pay close attention to whether Majority Leader Chuck Schumer takes it up for floor consideration. 

The clock is ticking: RECA authorization expires on June 10. 

Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment writer Nancy Vu (@NancyVu99), with help from policy editor Joseph Lawler. Email nancy.vu@washingtonexaminer dot com for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list. 

NEW WHITE HOUSE NUCLEAR INITIATIVE: A new White House Nuclear Power Project Management and Delivery working group will aim to accelerate deployment of nuclear power projects. 

The group will include members of federal agencies as well as nuclear developers, contractors, labor, and nonprofit organizations, the White House said. It also announced that the Army will issue a request for information for a program to use advanced nuclear reactors to provide power to multiple facilities around the country. 

Both announcements came as the White House held a summit on nuclear development. It is not yet clear who attended, but Duke Energy said it announced at the summit that it had signed new agreements with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Nucor to supply carbon-free energy to meet their needs. 

CLEAN ELECTRICITY TAX CREDITS FOR MORE THAN SOLAR AND WIND: The Biden administration has proposed extending key clean electricity tax credits beyond wind and solar, to include hydropower, marine and hydrokinetic energy, nuclear fission and fusion, geothermal, and certain types of waste energy recovery. 

The new proposed guidance for Clean Electricity Production Credits and Clean Electricity Investment Credits, created by the Inflation Reduction Act, would apply to subsidies starting in 2025, after existing credits phase out. 

The administration this morning touted the credits, known as 45Y and 48E,  as “technology neutral,” and Biden climate adviser John Podesta said that they “are one of the law’s most significant contributions to tackling the climate crisis.”

Under the law, the credits are supposed to go to any facility that generates electricity without producing greenhouse gas emissions, and are supposed to sunset only when emissions from electricity nationwide fall below a certain level. 

The Treasury said this morning that any changes to the process for designating technologies as zero-emissions must be accompanied by an analysis from the Department of Energy’s National Labs. It also provides for applicants to request a Provisional Emissions Rate if an analysis is not available for their technology.

Praise from Wyden: Sen. Ron Wyden, long a proponent of technology-neutral clean energy tax credits, said in a statement that the guidance promises “long-term certainty to a host of clean energy sources, including promising new technologies that will become essential parts of our energy system in the future.”  

OIL BUSINESS NEWS – CONOCOPHILLIPS TO BUY MARATHON: ConocoPhillips said today that it will buy Marathon Oil in a $17 billion transaction, CNBC reports. The deal would give ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil company with a market capitalization of $137 billion, access to Marathon’s assets in the Bakken, Permian, and Eagle Ford formations. 

The transaction adds to a wave of consolidation that includes Exxon’s purchase of Pioneer Natural Resources and Chevron’s merger with Hess, which Hess shareholders voted to approve yesterday. 

SHEFFIELD FIGHTS BACK AGAINST FTC: Former Pioneer CEO Scott Sheffield fought back against the Federal Trade Commission’s accusation that he engaged in anticompetitive behavior by trying to coordinate oil production activity in the Permian with members of OPEC+. 

Sheffield’s lawyers filed a letter with the FTC yesterday challenging the commission’s decision to bar him from the board of Exxon following its acquisition of Pioneer. They argued that the commission “stepped well beyond its proper mandate and unjustly smeared” Sheffield in accusing him of collusion. 

The lawyers argued that the FTC misrepresented the texts and other communications with which he allegedly sought to influence markets. They said the commission took Sheffield’s comments and actions out of context to build a false narrative, and that its process was unfair to him. 

$900M FOR CLEAN SCHOOL BUSES: The Environmental Protection Agency is set to grant $900 million to school districts across the country for electric school buses – a key portion of the Biden administration’s plan to electrify the transportation fleet, Bloomberg Law reports. 

The EPA has selected 530 school districts across the country for the funds. Every state except Alaska, Hawaii, and Nevada has applied and will receive at least some of the new funding, which is expected to finance the purchase of more than 3,400 buses. 

“Each year, our program is oversubscribed,” EPA administration Michael Regan said to reporters. “We have a lot of demand out there for electric school buses from districts all across the country.” 

New York will receive the largest share of funds at $95.8 million, followed by California at $91.2 million and Pennsylvania at $55.7 million.

Why it’s important: The electric school buses program is critical to the White House’s push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while also giving a jolt to the bus and battery manufacturing industries. The program also focuses a large portion of its allocations in low-income communities, which will get 67% of the new funding. Read more on that here. 

CHINA SETS NEW EMISSIONS GOALS: China plans to cut carbon emissions by about 130 million metric tons in key areas in 2024 and 2025, according to a new government action plan released today. 

The plan also calls for using 2.5% less energy for every unit of GDP growth in 2024, according to Reuters. 

Why it matters: China is the world’s largest emitter and has in recent years given conflicting signals in talks with the U.S. about its willingness to commit to policies to reduce emissions. Most recently, climate officials from both countries met in Washington this month. 

What else the goals include: They set a target for non-fossil energy sources to make up more of total energy use and call for the government to “strictly” control coal consumption, “reasonably” limit oil use, and promote biofuels. 

RUNDOWN 

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