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| By Arianna Skibell |
Presented by Chevron |
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Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally Sunday in Las Vegas. | John Locher/AP |
Crypto miners have a new friend: former President Donald Trump. After calling the industry a “scam” six years ago, Trump is now embracing crypto mining as a way to slow the closure of coal plants and boost natural gas use, writes Scott Waldman. Computers “mine” digital currencies like bitcoin by solving complex puzzles around the clock — a process that requires vast amounts of electricity, eating up roughly 0.6 to 2.3 percent of the nation’s power in recent years. And Trump has come out as a fierce defender of the industry against efforts by President Joe Biden’s agencies to limit crypto’s impact on the grid and consumers. “Biden’s hatred of Bitcoin only helps China, Russia, and the Radical Communist Left,” Trump wrote this week on his Truth Social platform. “We want all the remaining Bitcoin to be MADE IN THE USA!!! It will help us be ENERGY DOMINANT!!!””. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s endorsement of energy-intensive digital mining comes amid bipartisan worries about how the industry will affect an already shaky electric grid. Republican Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — a close Trump ally — wrote on social platform X that crypto miners are crushing his state, where demand on the grid is expected to nearly double in six years. The Biden administration has focused on regulating the industry, saying crypto mining can raise the cost of electricity on families and contributes to climate change. But Republicans and a number of Democrats have pushed back against some of Biden’s efforts, including a Securities and Exchange Commission rule that requires companies to mark digital assets as liabilities. Earlier this year, the Energy Department agreed to postpone a study on crypto miners’ electricity use after the industry sued. Trump’s reversal on digital mining came one day after he met with cryptocurrency company representatives at his Mar-a-Lago estate, including Brian Morgenstern, a bitcoin lobbyist and former Trump administration official. Trump’s anti-regulation approach might curry favor with libertarians, whose vote he’s been courting (he has pledged to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, the founder of online drug marketplace Silk Road, if elected).
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It's Thursday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to askibell@eenews.net.
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| A message from Chevron: Energy demand is projected to reach record highs and continue to rise in the future. Chevron is responding to that growing need while innovating to help do so responsibly. All to help us provide energy that’s affordable, reliable, and ever-cleaner. |
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Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Wes Venteicher breaks down California's expansion of its climate damages lawsuit against five major oil companies to include accusations of false advertising and unfair competition.
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| A message from Chevron:   |
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'Summer of rebates' looks uncertain
In recent public appearances, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said a $9 billion fund in Biden's climate law would usher in a “summer of rebates” to help people install heat pumps and other appliances, writes Brian Dabbs. But an an analysis from POLITICO’s E&E News found that the funding is unlikely to be distributed before the November election, when a Trump victory could undermine the effort altogether. Capitol Hill is abuzz with talk of green cuts
Trump met with GOP lawmakers today to sketch out plans for a possible second administration. Going into the meeting, Republicans said repealing Democrats' signature climate law is on the table, write Kelsey Brugger and Emma Dumain. But it might not be so easy to kill the Inflation Reduction Act. Republicans would need to win the White House and both chambers of Congress in November. Plus, some Republicans have said they don’t want to trash all the clean energy tax credits, such as the hydrogen and carbon capture ones, noting their benefits to red-state districts. Keep the gas flowing, without Russia
European officials have asked Azerbaijan to run its natural gas through a pipeline that currently brings Russian fuel to the EU by way of Ukraine, write Gabriel Gavin, Federica Di Sario and Victory Jack. The proposal would allow natural gas to keep flowing to Europe — while cutting out Russia — when a transit deal between Kyiv and Moscow expires at the end of the year.
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Up in the air: Is climate change making turbulence worse? What to know. P(oll)utin war: A new report shows that Russia’s war with Ukraine is accelerating the global climate emergency.
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 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), seen at a House Rules Committee meeting in April, is among the Democrats who criticized New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's (D) decision to delay on congestion pricing in Manhattan. | Francis Chung/POLITICO |
Congressional Democrats on Wednesday were unsparing in their criticism of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's decision to prevent congestion pricing in Manhattan. The Senate confirmed Judy Chang to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday in a 63-33 vote, bringing the commission to a full complement of five. The 470-mile-long Greenlink West transmission line proposed to span the length of Nevada from Las Vegas to Reno will cross the boundaries of a national monument established by Congress a decade ago to protect Ice Age fossils. That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.
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| A message from Chevron: Oil and gas are still an important part of the global energy system. To help responsibly address growing needs, Chevron is stepping up. Our Gulf of Mexico facilities are some of the world’s lowest carbon intensity operations, and our technological advances enable us to reach previously unviable oil and gas reserves there. In the Permian Basin, we’re harnessing new drilling and completion technologies to increase the amount of oil we recover. We expect to reach 1 million barrels of oil-equivalent there per day by 2025. Providing energy that’s affordable, reliable, and ever-cleaner. That’s energy in progress. |
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