Congress takes aim at nation’s nuclear regulator

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Lawmakers who support a new generation of advanced nuclear power are setting their sights on what they see as the technology’s top obstacle: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The Biden administration has touted small, factory-built reactors as a possible lifeline for an aging nuclear industry and a crucial step toward cutting the nation’s planet-warming emissions. But only one reactor design has gotten the greenlight from the NRC, and administration-backed advanced nuclear energy projects are struggling to get off the ground.

Key leaders in the House and Senate are now considering fundamental changes to the NRC, an independent federal agency tasked with protecting public safety and health.

The House Energy and Commerce and Senate Environment and Public Works committees are negotiating a compromise legislative package that would streamline regulations at the NRC and potentially adjust the agency’s mission statement, as I write today.

The talks come after four Senate Democrats recently kneecapped a renomination bid for one of the NRC’s longtime regulators, Jeff Baran, who was first appointed by former President Barack Obama.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) was among the Democrats who called Baran an overzealous regulator overtly hostile to nuclear energy. Today, Manchin said he won’t support any nominee who’s too focused on safety.

“We’re just looking for people who understand that we have to have nuclear energy in the mix,” Manchin said.

Lawmakers believe fundamentally changing the NRC, in leadership and policy, will give so-called small modular reactors a fighting chance to succeed.

However, activists worry what will happen to nuclear safety if the NRC becomes a voice of the industry. (As the NRC’s website notes, Congress created the commission in the 1970s to address criticisms that its predecessor agency’s regulations were “insufficiently rigorous.”)

“The nuclear industry’s disgraceful torpedoing of Jeff Baran’s reappointment to the NRC is a great loss for the agency and for public health,” said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

There’s still plenty of pitfalls to adjusting the NRC, especially for the compromise package, considering the difficulty House Republicans have had in passing substantive legislation.

Lawmakers, however, say the desire from both parties to overhaul nuclear regulations may be too big to fail.

“An election year always makes policy more difficult, but we have more overlapping interests than ever before,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.).

It’s Wednesday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO’s Power Switch. I’m your host, Nico Portuondo. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to [email protected].

Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Josh Siegel chats with Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) about his new role as chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment, Manufacturing and Critical Materials.

Power Centers

Putting the brakes on China
Major automakers are warning the Biden administration that the complexity and cost of tracing battery materials used in electric vehicles has made it tougher for EV models to qualify for federal tax credits, Hannah Northey reports.

An alliance that includes Ford, Honda, Toyota, Stellantis and General Motors told the Treasury Department that the auto sector may struggle to build systems by 2025 that can track critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, graphite and nickel to a specific vehicle.

The Biden administration is trying to strike a balance between accelerating U.S. demand for electric cars while shifting the whole supply chain away from China, a dominant supplier of everything from processed minerals to battery technology.

Concrete plans
Concrete is an energy-intensive industry often overlooked by economywide efforts to address carbon emissions. Inflation Reduction Act tax credits are spurring growth in battery technology and other clean energy projects, but a lack of incentives is hobbling plans to boost low-emissions cement production, Brian Dabbs reports.

Industrial tax credits aren’t delivering for new “greenfield” manufacturing processes that avoid carbon emissions and instead prioritize retrofits to existing facilities, said Leah Ellis, CEO of Sublime Systems, which aims to use renewable energy and the chemical process electrolysis to produce concrete.

Brazilian meat and the climate
The Biden administration is under pressure to block a Brazilian meat processing giant linked to Amazon deforestation from offering shares on the New York Stock Exchange, Corbin Hiar reports.

Opponents of JBS argue that its move to join the exchange would inject cash into the scandal-plagued company that’s a major climate polluter and the world’s largest meat processor. But the Securities and Exchange Commission lacks the authority to stop JBS from selling stock if the company is transparent with investors about its impact on the climate, according to financial experts.

“They could say, ‘Our goal is to literally destroy the planet,’” Ann Lipton, a former securities litigator who now teaches business law at Tulane University, said of JBS. “As long as that was accurate and complete, the securities laws have nothing to say about it.”

In Other News

White House delays gas terminal decision: The Biden administration may wait until after the November election to decide whether to greenlight the country’s largest-ever gas export terminal, The New York Times reported today. Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass 2 project needs a key permit from the Department of Energy, which will now consider climate change as part of its evaluation. (Read more about the decision behind that climate test in Ben Lefebvre’s story earlier this month).

Tesla’s outlook: The automaker’s profits declined by 23 percent last year, despite selling a record number of electric vehicles.

Digging deep: Colleges and universities are drilling holes deep underground and burying pipes to heat and cool their buildings without burning fossil fuels.

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Global power growth will come primarily from low-emissions sources of electricity, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency. The IEA’s Electricity 2024 report forecasts that renewable energy is set to overtake the world’s use of coal by early 2025.

Americans are increasingly concerned about global warming, a new national analysis found, but that hasn’t changed the deeply partisan lens through which voters still view climate policy.

New Jersey approved two huge offshore wind farms, boosting the sector just three months after the surprise cancellation of two projects due to rising costs.

That’s it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.