Your guide to the political forces shaping the energy transformation
| | | | |  | | By Arianna Skibell | |  Illustration by Claudine Hellmuth/POLITICO (source images via AP, Getty and Benjamin Storrow/POLITICO's E&E News) | Joe Biden had just four years to completely transform the economy and unleash a clean energy revolution. While the president made major strides — investing a record $1.6 trillion into the effort and unlocking a wave of private capital — the core of his domestic legacy stands unfinished as Donald Trump prepares to take office, write Jessie Blaeser, Benjamin Storrow and Kelsey Tamborrino. A team of POLITICO and E&E News reporters examined the Biden administration’s spending and tax policies, scrutinizing a spending blueprint rivaling Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. That includes funding for batteries, solar cells, computer chips and clean water — luring foreign-owned factories to U.S. soil and turning some red-state Republicans into supporters of green energy projects. The team found signs that Biden’s undertaking could leave a lasting mark on the U.S. economy, but also ways in which his agenda has yet to take hold. For example, a $42 billion expansion of broadband internet service has yet to connect a single household. And of the $1.1 trillion Congress provided for Biden’s clean energy and infrastructure programs, more than half — at least $561 billion — has yet to be obligated or is not yet available for agencies to spend. That means the ultimate fulfillment of Biden’s climate legacy rests in the hands of President-elect Trump and a GOP-controlled Congress. But competing pressures could scramble a traditional partisan approach. Republican lawmakers whose districts stand to benefit enormously from Biden’s investments have been urging leadership to approach any rollbacks with caution. Leaders of large corporations who stand to benefit from Biden’s green tax credits are taking a similar tack. “I think that we'll look back years from now, and we'll say that this is when America had the chance to get in the game and lead in one of the biggest and most important economic revolutions in history,” said Bob Keefe, executive director of the national clean energy business group E2, which tracks project announcements. “The question to be answered in the months ahead is, will we do so or will we continue to fall behind and ultimately lose out to other countries?” Tune into Power Switch next year as we chronicle Trump’s approach.
| | | It's Tuesday — 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. PROGRAMMING NOTE: We’ll be off starting Wednesday for the holidays but back to our normal schedule on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025.
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Katie Miller (left) and her husband, Stephen Miller, smile as they walk past reporters at the White House on July 31, 2020. | Alex Brandon/AP | Trump picks his downsizers
Trump has named picks for positions that will help guide his efforts to downsize the federal government, writes Robin Bravender. The president-elect announced that Katie Miller, a former Trump administration aide, will join the government-downsizing effort known as the Department of Government Efficiency. The president-elect named venture capitalist Scott Kupor as his nominee to lead the Office of Personnel Management, the agency that oversees the federal workforce. Zelenskyy accuses Slovakia of helping Putin
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is weakening Europe by helping Russia's leader Vladimir Putin finance its war against Ukraine, write Elena Giordano and Gabriel Gavin. Fico met with Putin on Sunday as part of a bid to secure continued access to cheap Russian fossil fuels, with a major deal that allows imports via Ukraine due to expire at the end of the year.
| | Driving an EV? Big oil hopes you don’t cut down on plastic, too. Impacts: A Santa Cruz pier collapsed in a storm, tossing three people into water.
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Heather MacDougall (left) with National Safety Council President and CEO Lorraine M. Martin in 2021. | Steve Ruark/AP | A former Amazon executive who's on the president-elect's short list to lead the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has hampered federal efforts to protect workers from extreme heat. The New York Power Authority wants to salvage a financially troubled transmission line that terminated its state contract due to rising costs. That's it for today, folks. Thanks for reading, and have a great holiday!
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