CLOCK RUNNING OUT ON RECA: A program offering compensation to victims of nuclear contamination is likely to lapse due to inaction from the House, as lawmakers end a short legislative week without voting to extend or expand the program.
The details: The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act is set to sunset on June 7 – and House lawmakers have left the Capitol for the week before voting on any bill to reauthorize the program before the deadline. A number of lawmakers are heading to France – along with President Joe Biden – to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion of Normandy on Thursday.
Why this is important: The program offers a one-time payment to those that were affected by nuclear testing conducted by the government during the Cold War, and contracted diseases, such as cancer, as a result. Any finalized claims would need to be postmarked by June 10 to be considered.
Wait, so does that mean the real deadline is June 10? There could be some wiggle room there. However, the House would need to act before or on June 10 – and the House isn’t scheduled to come in for the rest of this week or on Monday.
Where did we leave off in the RECA saga? There are dueling bills that would extend and/or expand coverage – two from Utah lawmakers and another bipartisan measure from Sen. Josh Hawley, Sen. Ben Ray Luján, and Rep. Ann Wagner. Speaker Mike Johnson had initially planned for a vote this week on the Utah lawmakers’ “clean,” two-year extension of RECA – before pulling the bill from floor consideration, following an uproar from Missouri lawmakers objecting to the bill excluding residents in their state.
Johnson initially opposed the bill from Hawley and Luján, disagreeing with passing a measure with a price tag of at least $50 billion. However, after consulting with Wagner, Johnson decided to pull consideration of the smaller RECA bill.
We caught up with Johnson as he was heading out of votes Monday night, and he said he didn’t have an update. “No comment,” he told us.
“We have done all we can do – we’ve sent them multiple vehicles, we have passed this thing multiple times,” Hawley told Nancy on Monday. “They’ve got to act, and they are on the shot clock now and it’s running down.”
But here’s the general sentiment, as summed up by Rep. Celeste Maloy: “We have to reauthorize RECA. This is something the federal government owes to Utahns and others. They’ve admitted that they’re liable for causing cancers that are related to radiation and we can’t let the authorization lapse.”
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YOUNGKIN DITCHES CALIFORNIA ELECTRIC VEHICLE RULES: Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced this morning that Virginia will withdraw from the emissions standards set by California at the end of the year, even though the state legislature failed to pass legislation toward that end.
Youngkin claimed authority to exit the rules on the basis that the standards expire at the end of the year. New rules are set to come into force in 2025 requiring zero-emission vehicles to make up at least 22% of all new car sales in participating states by the end of the year and 100% by 2035. But Youngkin cited a decision from Attorney General Jason Miyares finding that Virginia is not obligated to follow the new standards.
MIXED MESSAGES FROM SUNRISE MOVEMENT ON BIDEN: The Sunrise Movement is giving some conflicting signals about whether and how it will support Biden’s reelection.
Its communications director Stevie O’Hanlon told Axios that “Biden is shooting himself in the foot: His actions on fossil fuels and Gaza mean he’s not going to get the celebration he’s looking for from environmentalist voters.”
The group also tweeted, though, that it was planning “another massive youth voter operation” to oppose Donald Trump. Read more about Sunrise’s positioning here.
BREAKING – HOCHUL DELAYS CONGESTION PRICING: New York City’s congestion pricing policy will be delayed, after years of preparation.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a press event that she ordered the MTA to “indefinitely pause” the $15-a-car tax to enter lower Manhattan from the planned start date of June 30, according to Politico’s Jason Beeferman. Sources had told the publication that Hochul is worried that the fee would hurt Democrats in congressional races.
Why it matters: Many environmentalists favor congestion pricing on the grounds that it could shift commuters from cars to modes of transit that entail fewer carbon emissions and other forms of pollution. New York City would be the first to implement congestion pricing at scale.
Officials in the suburbs in New Jersey and elsewhere have strongly opposed the tax, as has Donald Trump, who said he’d undo it if he wins back the presidency.
SHELL CEO HOT ON IRA, COLD ON LNG PAUSE: Shell CEO Wael Sawan gave a renewed endorsement of the Inflation Reduction Act yesterday, saying that it was leading to investment in clean energy in multiple states.
“You’re creating jobs. You’re actually starting to anchor new industries. And over time, what you will do is you will create supply chains locally that are able to satisfy the demands of many of these industries,” he said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event, according to E&E News.
Shell was one of the large companies that originally backed the IRA as it moved forward in 2022. Still, Sawan’s defense is notable given the pre-election pressure to shy away from backing Biden’s climate policies.
Nevertheless, Sawan did criticize the administration on the topic of its pause on new LNG export approvals, decrying the “absolutist perspective” that LNG is bad for the climate.
SANCTIONS WATCH – GAZPROM HURTING BADLY: A new internal report indicates that Russian state gas company Gazprom is hurting badly from western sanctions, the Financial Times reports.
The report sees gas exports to Europe at just a third of pre-war levels by 2035. Although Gazprom is hoping to increase exports to China via a new pipeline, it won’t command the same prices.
Why it matters: It’s been a matter of debate whether and how sanctions have been effective in limiting Russia’s war funding. The report suggests that Gazprom, at least, has been hurt. It indicates that officials are planning for Russia to face long-term sanctions and for living standards to take a hit.
The report notes that Gazprom might have better prospects if it is able to ship more gas as LNG rather than through pipelines. But sanctions are also limiting Russia’s ability to build out the needed infrastructure for LNG exports.
SOLAR DEVELOPERS TO PAY MORE FOR MAINE FARMLAND: New rules drafted by Maine’s Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry would charge solar developers extra for building projects on farmland, Energy News Network reports.
Some analysts, though, are crying foul, saying that the state is effectively singling out solar for tougher rules, noting that the far greater threat to Maine farmland is urban sprawl.
“If we’re talking about environmental impacts, we’re requiring mitigation of the one type of development that is benefiting the environment,” conservation biologist and GIS manager Sarah Haggerty of Maine Audubon told the publication.
SHOCKING COSTS WINTER STORM URI FOR OKLAHOMANS: The typical customer of Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. will pay an extra $5.72 to $7.82 per month for 25 years to retire the debt the utility racked up during Winter Storm Uri in 2021, the Southwest Ledger reports. The utility serves over 900,000 customers.
To keep the heat on as demand spiked during the freeze, the utility bought gas on the spot market at extreme prices. Ratepayers in Texas have similarly faced huge costs from the storm.
RUNDOWN
Wall Street Journal Volvo Says Users Can Track Source of Battery Metals in Its EVs
E&E News House Republicans mull future of tax cuts, IRA credits
Bloomberg Dow Average Gets ESG Boost From Adding Amazon