Overnight Energy: Bipartisan framework remains mostly consistent on climate | Pelosi, Schumer vow climate action: ‘It is an imperative’

by Zack Budryk and Rachel Frazin - 07/28/21 5:20 PM ET

IT IS WEDNESDAY, MY DUDES. Welcome to Overnight Energy, your source for the day’s energy and environment news.

Please send tips and comments to Rachel Frazin at rfrazin@digital-staging.thehill.com . Follow her on Twitter: @RachelFrazin . Reach Zack Budryk at zbudryk@digital-staging.thehill.com or follow him at @BudrykZack .

Today we’re looking at the latest bipartisan infrastructure deal, vows to stick to ambitious climate targets from Democratic leaders, and a reported Biden administration plan to compensate industries affected by offshore wind.

LET’S MAKE A DEAL: Bipartisan framework remains mostly consistent on climate

The latest iteration of the bipartisan infrastructure deal is remaining largely in line with a previously announced version of the framework on energy and environment spending.

The latest figures come after lawmakers said they reached an agreement on “major issues.”

Like a previously announced version, the latest deal would put $73 billion towards power infrastructure, $7.5 billion towards electric buses and transit, $55 billion for water infrastructure and $21 billion for environmental cleanups.

What else?: Also in line with the prior proposal, it would put $7.5 billion towards building out a network of electric vehicle chargers, though it’s unclear whether an additional $7.5 billion in low-cost financing for the effort that had been announced by the White House will be included.

The new proposal cuts down on investments in public transit, which would have received $49 billion in a prior proposal but would get just $39 billion in the new package.

FOLLOW THE LEADERS: Pelosi, Schumer vow climate action: ‘It is an imperative’

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke Wednesday at a League of Conservation Voters press conference to vow action on climate change, calling such action “imperative.”

“It is an imperative that we get this job done and we fully intend to do it,” Pelosi said in her remarks.

“What we can do in the next few months in terms of big, bold action is like nothing this nation and this world has ever seen before,” Schumer added. “We are surrounded by evidence of the climate crisis: the fires, the heatwaves out west, the floods.”

“I tell my constituents in New York, COVID was horrible, but if we do nothing on climate, each year will be worse than COVID and each year will be worse than the previous year,” the majority leader said.

What action is Schumer vowing?: Schumer cited the climate provisions in the bipartisan infrastructure deal reached in the Senate and also pledged to include aggressive climate measures in the Senate’s reconciliation bill.

He specifically vowed to ensure a “robust Civilian Climate Corps” is part of the final reconciliation package, saying that “as the crisis comes closer and closer … we’ll have an educated corps of people able to fight it not just this year and next year but on into the future.”

“It’s spreading, everyone knows the crisis,” Schumer said. “It’s only the people with their head in the sand or some of our Republican colleagues who are in the palm of the oil, gas and coal industry who don’t realize it or don’t want to realize it.”

WIND IN YOUR HAIR: Biden administration considering payments to fishing industry to offset offshore wind losses: report

The federal government is reportedly examining a plan to financially compensate the commercial fishing industry for business lost as a result of expanded Atlantic wind power, Reuters reported Wednesday.

The report comes as the industry has come out strongly against the proposed offshore wind projects, which they say could interfere with both the ecosystems and harvesting of scallops, clams, squid and lobster.

The U.S. has fallen far behind Europe in the development of offshore wind amid heavy lobbying against permitting for large-scale projects by the fishing industry.

States urge action: Nine coastal states also urged the federal government to develop plans for addressing the potential damage to fisheries in a letter earlier this month.

Signers of the letter, including New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maine, Connecticut, Virginia, Maryland and New Hampshire, called on the administration to develop “mitigation frameworks for demonstrated negative impacts” on the affected fisheries, according to Reuters.

Read more about the report here.

WHAT WE’RE READING:

India Ditches Key Climate Meeting After Disrupting G-20, Bloomberg reports

‘An abomination’: the story of the massacre that killed 216 wolves, The Guardian reports

How climate change is making parts of the world too hot and humid to survive, The Washington Post reports

Eviction ban’s end could leave millions baking in heat waves, E&E News reports

ON TAP TOMORROW:

The Senate Environment & Public Works Committee will hold hearings to examine the nominations of Stephen A. Owens, Jennifer Beth Sass and Sylvia E. Johnson, of North Carolina to be Members of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.
The House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis will hold a hearing on Financing Climate Solutions and Job Creation
The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing entitled “Renewable Energy Transition: A Case Study of How International Collaboration on Offshore Wind Technology Benefits American Workers”