Biden staff vow to ​‘run through the tape’ to finish allocations

CLEAN ENERGY: Biden administration officials continue to work to allocate the remaining $46 billion from four climate and infrastructure bills this year, but $303 billion will remain that cannot be spent until after President-elect Trump takes office. (Washington Post)

ALSO:

• China’s long-term investments position it to dominate the global clean energy economy if the U.S. retreats, experts say, though the country maintains a complex relationship with coal. (NPR)
• “It’s going to work out better than folks think,” says the head of Conservatives for Clean Energy at a North Carolina gathering, where attendees predict Trump won’t follow through on his pledges to upend U.S. clean energy policies. (Energy News Network)
• A North Carolina Republican congressman whose district has seen billions of dollars in investment from the Inflation Reduction Act calls the law ​“a highly partisan scam” but doesn’t say whether he will support repeal. (New York Times)

OIL & GAS: 

• Oil company executives who backed Trump’s campaign say they do not actually want to ​“drill, baby, drill,” but to pursue policies to speed up pipelines and export projects to create more global demand for their products. (Wall Street Journal)
• An anticipated Department of Energy analysis will likely show that liquified natural gas exports will drive up U.S. prices and have a worse climate impact than coal, according to people close to the process. (E&E News, subscription)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Calling for ​“stability and predictability,” Ford, GM and Stellantis urge Trump to keep electric vehicle rules in place; meanwhile, Tesla CEO and close Trump advisor Elon Musk has supported eliminating tax credits, reasoning it will undercut his competitors. (New York Times)
• Analysts say a federal EV charger program ridiculed by Trump on the campaign trail has strong bipartisan support and has provisions that will make it difficult for Congress to repeal. (Politico)
• Tesla takes the lead on electric vehicle charging as major automakers like Ford and GM now offer customers an adapter that allows their customers to access Tesla’s vast charging station network. (NPR)

WIND:

• A 2,000 MW wind farm planned for the Gulf of Mexico is unlikely to be affected by Donald Trump’s enmity for wind energy, largely because its timeline is so protracted his term will be over before permitting and construction begin. (Verite News)
• U.S. Sen. James Risch, an Idaho Republican, says he will work with the incoming Trump administration to kill the proposed Lava Ridge wind facility on federal land in the southern part of the state. (E&E News, subscription)

GRID: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gives states a greater role in regional transmission planning, updating a May order that critics said amounted to federal overreach. (E&E News)

CLIMATE: Oregon regulators vote to reinstate the state’s landmark climate plan aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions after a court invalidated the 2021 program over a technicality. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)