'Pass the torch'
The influential youth green group Sunrise Movement is calling on Biden to drop his reelection bid to “protect” his climate legacy, Josh Siegel reports. Sunrise Executive Director Aru Shiney-Ajay on Friday cited low enthusiasm for Biden among young people, which she said in a statement has continued to drop since his disastrous debate performance last month, and urged the president to “pass the torch to a new nominee.” "I’m concerned that Joe Biden isn’t positioned to mobilize young people and win in November," she said. Other environmental groups, such as Friends of the Earth Action, have stopped short of asking Biden to exit the race. Blowback after Beryl
The Biden administration rejected a request from Houston’s electric utility last year for $100 million to strengthen its electric poles and wires against the type of hurricane winds that knocked out power to more than 2 million customers this week, Thomas Frank writes. CenterPoint Energy sought the money from a new $10.5 billion Department of Energy program that is helping utilities, states and local agencies protect the electric grid from the growing threats of extreme weather and climate change. “I don’t understand how the grant application could be rejected,” said University of Houston energy economist Ed Hirs. “This is the home of the petrochemical part of America. I mean, for God’s sakes, what’s DOE thinking?” Federal departments and agencies routinely reject grant proposals because their programs have limited funds. The utility has faced withering criticism for the weeklong recovery after Hurricane Beryl's assault on the Texas coast. Half a million Houston-area households and businesses still won't have electricity into early next week. They'll endure more 90-degree or triple-digit temperatures, Peter Behr reports. It's all looking more familiar. Regulators and elected officials face a question that’s haunted the state for years: Can Texas defend its power grid against extreme temperatures, storms and floods that scientists say will only get worse? Lithium exports?
The Biden administration is expressing confidence that the U.S. can become a lithium exporter — a claim that some experts say is unrealistic, Hannah Northey and Nicole Norman write. “In lithium, we’ll probably be exporting by early next decade,” said Jigar Shah, director of the Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office, to attendees at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event late last month. Lithium, a key ingredient of the rechargeable batteries that make electric vehicles possible, is widely considered a key resource of the 21st century and is today mostly exported from Australia, Chile and China. The U.S. could hypothetically join their ranks, but numerous economic, policy and environmental challenges stand in the way.
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