With help from Daniel Lippman IT’S SOLAR: Solar manufacturer Qcells has poached a former Tesla lobbyist to help lead its lobbying shop, as the company rapidly expands its Washington footprint following passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. Joe Mendelson previously oversaw Tesla’s lobbying efforts related to trade, clean energy manufacturing and more. He’s joined Qcells as a vice president and head of public policy and government relations. — Lobbying from renewable energy interests hit a record of more than $60 million last year, according to OpenSecrets, as firms scrambled to cash in on the landmark social and climate spending law. But Qcells, a subsidiary of the South Korean firm Hanwha, now outstrips all of its industry peers. The company’s lobbying expenditures jumped from $900,000 in all of 2022, the year the IRA passed, to $2.2 million just in the first half of this year. — Last year, the company hired President Joe Biden’s former Senate chief of staff Danny O’Brien as its head of U.S. corporate affairs to lead its policy, communications and sustainability teams. Within a few months, Qcells registered its first in-house lobbyist and brought on a former PhRMA public affairs chief as a top spokesperson. Qcells also retained two new outside lobbying firms last year, and three more so far in 2024. — In the years since the landmark social and climate spending law, Qcells has credited the IRA with a $2.5 billion expansion of a manufacturing plant in Georgia. Last month, the Energy Department announced a conditional $1.45 billion loan guarantee for Qcells to open another facility in Georgia. — And this spring and summer, Qcells and a coalition of other U.S. solar manufacturers successfully prodded the Biden administration into launching a probe into whether Chinese-linked manufacturers operating in several Southeast Asia countries are being illegally subsidized as they flood the U.S. market with cheap solar parts. The push for trade penalties has sparked a rift in the solar industry, with opponents arguing that such a move could slow the U.S. transition to clean energy. Happy Tuesday and welcome to PI. What’s going on out there?: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko. HOLLYWOOD STARS WIN THIS ROUND: “Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Tuesday that would protect actors from being replaced by digital imposters — even after their death — without their consent, in a win for Hollywood stars warning about the risks of artificial intelligence,” our Lara Korte and Jeremy B. White report. — “The move comes as celebrities increasingly voice concerns about the impacts of AI on their industry and beyond — a key sticking point in labor negotiations over the actors’ strike last year, led by the SAG-AFTRA union. … Industry players like the Motion Picture Association of America fought the legislation, arguing it would hamstring innovation and spur costly court fights. But Newsom sided with labor, handing significant victories to actors who have pushed for more control.” TREND WATCH: “More large law firms are looking to cash in on lucrative congressional investigations work, investing in new talent and formalizing dedicated practice groups,” Abigail Adcox writes in the National Law Journal. — “While Covington & Burling; Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr; and Hogan Lovells are among well-known firms in this space, at least three other big firms have launched a congressional investigations practice group in 2024, seizing the opportunity to promote the practice to their current clients.” — “Experts say the practice area is full of business potential for big firms, since the number of investigations is growing and the ‘bet-the-company’ matters frequently involve the board and top executives.” ROUNDTABLE TO HEAR FROM RUNNING MATES: “Both presidential campaigns will be making their pitch this week to America’s business elite,” per our Hailey Fuchs. “Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are both expected to address the Business Roundtable, a group that includes the CEOs of some of the largest U.S. corporations and the wielders of outsized economic clout that both candidates have assailed in the past.” — Their appearances “will give both campaigns a chance to secure support from powerful executives who could prove crucial in what polls still show to be an excruciatingly close race. … The CEOs have already heard from former President Donald Trump, who in June spoke with the group and pledged his opposition to taxes on tips and support for lowering the corporate tax rate.” — “For Walz, the gig will be a chance at a new first impression of sorts. The Minnesota Democrat has not worked in Washington for years, and his roots as a schoolteacher and veteran are a far cry from the corporate elite that will hear him talk later this week.” But Vance, who will address the group Thursday, has “spent a significant portion of his professional career among big businesspeople.” FLYING IN: Male maternal health advocates were on the Hill today to lobby for legislation addressing the maternal health crisis as part of the “Dad’s Got Something to Say” advocacy day organized by 4Kira4moms. The fly-in featured a congressional briefing with Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) and was supported by the Black Maternal Health Caucus, Congressional Dads Caucus, formula company Bobbie, What to Expect Project, Chamber of Mothers and March of Dimes. — More than 250 travel advisers and suppliers are in town for a fly-in organized by the American Society of Travel Advisors. The trade group has hundreds of staff-level meetings on the books tomorrow, during which they’ll advocate for a bill to ensure that, under the Transportation Department’s new airline refunds rule, travel agencies will not be responsible for refunding clients for canceled flights until the agency receives the refund from the airline. Attendees will also push for the inclusion of a seat for ticket agents on DOT’s aviation consumer protection advisory committee. FORD ADDS STABENOW SPOX: Robyn Jackson has joined Ford Motor Company’s D.C. office as government affairs communications manager. Jackson has spent the past five years with Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), most recently as the senator’s communications director, and is a Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) alum. FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES: Our Mohar Chatterjee reports that Trump’s former chief technology officer lauded Vance’s tech ties at POLITICO’s AI & Tech Summit today. “Having someone who has dialed in and part of the tech community at sort of part of the top of the ticket of a presidential election is pretty amazing and pretty special,” Michael Kratsios told the summit. — He predicted a boost for smaller tech players in particular: “There needs to be a place for Big Tech to work in a way that is positive for the American people and also allow space for little tech to be able to grow and flourish.”
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