Inside The Senate’s Bipartisan Permitting Reform Packag…
This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm’s Mike Casey.
This week’s episode features special guest Jillian Goodman from Heatmap News, who breaks down the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, a new permitting reform package meant to lower energy costs and make it easier to build infrastructure.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is James Worden, founder of Worden Marine. James has been building solar-powered vehicles since the 1980s, starting with a wood-and-cardboard solar go-kart that won the Massachusetts state science fair. He went on to help start MIT’s Solar Electric Vehicle Team and co-founded Solectria with his late wife, Anita. Now he’s taking that vision to the water. His startup’s TruSolar20 boat, named Anita in her honor, can run all day on six solar panels at about eight miles an hour, and a bigger version built for ferries and river tours is on the way. Congratulations, James!
1. Why Won’t the Clean Energy Industry Play Dirty? — Washington Monthly
We’ve talked on the show about the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC, the super PAC organized by solar investors and executives that went after Chip Roy, Andy Ogles and Ralph Norman, who all lost their elections.
The coalition spent about $5 million through August, most of it against those three candidates, and plans to spend $20 to $30 million by the end of the midterms. Lowman questions whether that’s enough to put fear into Washington, because on the other hand, the fossil fuel industry spent $219 million in the 2024 elections, crypto has spent nearly $200 million so far this cycle, and AI-linked PACs have raised more than $200 million in 2026. And most of the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition’s money isn’t even coming from clean energy. The vast majority came from crypto billionaire Chris Larsen, and the group had only 23 unique donors through August.
2. Trump Sharply Scales Back Fuel Economy Rules for New Cars — The New York Times
The Trump administration finalized its plan Monday to significantly weaken fuel efficiency standards. Automakers now need to hit an average of 34.9 miles per gallon for new cars and light trucks in model year 2031, far below the 50.4 miles per gallon the Biden administration set. Trump pitched it as a way to lower car prices, with affordability a major issue heading into the midterms. The Transportation Department says the looser rules will cut the average cost of a new vehicle by $1,300.
Analysts say the new standards should be easy to meet, and the agency’s own analysis shows model year 2024 cars already came close. Republicans in Congress also eliminated fines for automakers that miss the standards last year, which makes the rules largely unenforceable.
3. Fix it or trash it? How to decide how long to keep your car and home appliances. — The Washington Post
A peer-reviewed study published in Science in August found that if you bought a new gas car tomorrow, trashed it, and then drove a new EV for a decade, you’d still do less harm to the climate than if you’d just kept driving that gas car for 10 years.
A UC Santa Cruz professor and his colleague ran thousands of data points on lifetime vehicle pollution, and EVs came out ahead in 92% of the scenarios, even after scrapping a brand-new gas car. One researcher estimates that swapping a brand-new, fleet-average gas car for an EV the day you drive it off the lot would still cut lifetime carbon pollution by about 56%, with a carbon payback period of around three years.
4. Plug Power Inks Electrolyzer Deal for Denmark Jet Fuel Project — Bloomberg
Plug Power has agreed to supply 280 megawatts of electrolyzers for Arcadia eFuels’ Project ENDOR, a facility planned for Denmark’s south coast that aims to produce sustainable jet fuel. The plant would tap renewable grid power to make hydrogen for jet fuel. Electrolyzers use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
The deal also sets Plug up to be a preferred supplier for four future Arcadia projects in Europe and the Americas, and Plug’s s rose as much as 4.3% in New York trading. It s three years of joint engineering work, and deliveries will begin once Arcadia’s project issues a notice to proceed.
5. The Senate’s Big Bipartisan Permitting Deal, Explained — Heatmap News
On September 29, a bipartisan group of four senators (Capito, Heinrich, Lee, and Whitehouse) released the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, a sweeping permitting reform package meant to lower energy costs and make it easier to build infrastructure.
The bill narrows when environmental reviews under NEPA and related laws are required, shortens lawsuit windows to 150 days, and limits courts to sending flawed reviews back to agencies rather than canceling project approvals.
It also makes long-distance transmission much easier to build by letting FERC approve lines states sit on for over a year, sets national cost-sharing rules, overhauls interconnection queues, and makes data centers pay for the grid infrastructure they rely on.
The bill also tries to stop future administrations from targeting specific energy sectors through permit freezes, but it won’t get a vote until after the November midterms, needs 60 votes, and still hinges on unresolved talks over the Trump administration’s blockade of wind permits.
Sumber Artikel:
Renewableenergyworld.com