Steeling for a fight at the Energy Department

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THE WEEK THAT WAS

STEEL MAN — A South Carolina steel plant could be the future of the electricity industry, but legacy producers say it shouldn’t be, Brian Dabbs reports for POLITICO’s E&E News.

Metglas’ 150-plus employees are making what’s called amorphous metal. The non-traditional steel is used to form the cores of distribution transformers, the ubiquitous piece of equipment typically fixed on electricity poles or platforms to transfer power from higher-voltage transmission lines to residences and businesses.

Company president Rob Reed says amorphous cores waste far less electricity than the traditional steel industry competition, making his product more environmentally friendly.

But Metglas is fighting most of the power industry and legacy steel companies in the United States, which say reliance on the company’s technology could actually exacerbate the crippling transformer supply chain crisis — and stall the Biden administration’s push to electrify more of the country.

At issue is a Department of Energy proposed regulation that could force transformer producers to use amorphous cores, benefiting Metglas, the nation’s only producer of the technology. DOE says the efficiency proposal is a big win for climate change, but critics challenge that assertion.

“It’s a horrible idea, let me just state that. And it doesn’t move the needle [on climate],” David Tudor, CEO of the power supplier Associated Electric Cooperative, said in Senate testimony this month.

WHAT WE'VE LEARNED

ANTI-ESG PROLIFERATION — A status update on Republicans’ attacks on environmental, social and governance-motivated investing, courtesy of Adam Aton and Avery Ellfeldt of POLITICO’s E&E News:

Sixteen states — all led by GOP-controlled legislatures — passed laws this year aimed at restricting the investing strategy that screens for ESG risks such as long-term climate impacts, according to a new report by Pleiades Strategy, an environmental group.

The 19 new laws so far, out of 165 bills introduced, include a measure in Kansas that would prevent public pension funds from using ESG principles, another in Texas that prohibits insurers from doing the same and a Utah law that bars state and local government contracts with financial firms accused of boycotting industries such as fossil fuels and firearms.

Some other top-line takeaways:

Lawmakers don’t know what they’re doing. They’re often relying on “model bills” from groups like the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Opportunity Solutions Project, American Legislative Exchange Council and Heritage Foundation.

“This continues to be a topic lawmakers know little about,” the report says. “As we saw in legislatures around the country, in some cases, even bill sponsors do not know how to defend the bills they introduced.”

The financial sector is resisting. In most cases, aggressive anti-ESG measures were either defeated or watered-down — oftentimes amid intense opposition from pension managers, banking associations and other business groups.

Public money is being affected. Research from state and local officials and academics is coming in, like the University of Pennsylvania/Fed analysis of Texas’ boycott law.

“The early evidence suggests that states that have adopted this legislation are facing … higher fees, and higher costs of raising capital or municipal bonds,” said David Webber, a Boston University law professor who focuses on ESG issues.

The town of Stillwater, Okla., had to pay more than $1 million in higher interest rates when it had to find an alternative financier to Bank of America, which Oklahoma’s treasurer blacklisted for allegedly boycotting fossil fuels.

AROUND THE NATION

MELEE IN MONTANA — The first youth-led climate trial in the U.S. wrapped up this week in Helena. It’s likely to be appealed whichever side loses, but a decision by the lower court could still mark a sea change in how governments have to respond to climate change, advocates told POLITICO’s E&E News’ Lesley Clark.

Observers don’t expect Judge Kathy Seeley to require Montana to actually do anything, but she could issue a declarative ruling that the state is violating its constitutional guarantee of a “clean and healthful environment.” She could also more narrowly declare that the state can’t adopt a law preventing state agencies from considering climate change, as it did earlier this year.

Such declaratory judgments sound like a “hollow kind of remedy for an issue as pressing as the climate crisis,” said Randall Abate, assistant dean for environmental law studies at George Washington University Law School. But they’d still be “a very important stepping stone, given how difficult the climate litigation landscape has been for plaintiffs.”

AROUND THE WORLD

BIG DIVESTMENT — The Church of England is selling all of its remaining oil and gas investments, cutting off investments in oil majors such as Shell, BP and Total from its £10.3 billion endowment fund.

The Church of England Pensions Board will also disinvest from oil and gas companies, including a £1.35 million investment in Shell, Charlie Cooper reports.

Movers and Shakers

BACA OUT — Joshua Baca has left the American Chemistry Council, where he was vice president in the trade group’s plastics division since 2020.

“I can confirm Joshua Baca and ACC have parted ways,” said ACC spokesperson Matthew Kastner in a statement. “It is company policy not to comment on personnel matters.”

Baca was a major part of the ACC’s expanded push for chemical recycling, a controversial suite of technologies that use high heat to break down waste plastic instead of landfilling the material. He was in Paris last month for the second round of U.N.-led negotiations toward a global plastics treaty.

Prior to his role at the ACC, Baca was a senior vice president for public affairs at the American Beverage Association and in 2012 was the national coalitions director for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

YOU TELL US

GAME ON — Happy Friday! Welcome to the Long Game, where we tell you about the latest on efforts to shape our future. We deliver data-driven storytelling, compelling interviews with industry and political leaders, and news Tuesday through Friday to keep you in the loop on sustainability.

Team Sustainability is editor Greg Mott, deputy editor Debra Kahn, and reporters Jordan Wolman and Allison Prang. Reach us at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].

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WHAT WE'RE CLICKING

— World leaders who gathered at Emmanuel Macron’s climate conference in Paris are once again promising to unlock billions of dollars to help combat global warming, according to Reuters.

— Efforts to build public support for fighting climate change are going to be that much harder if even discussing global warming on television becomes life-threatening. The New York Times explains.

— Tomorrow is World Upcycling Day — yeah, we’d never heard of it, either — which will spotlight efforts to reduce food waste by turning it into other foods. The Associated Press explains.