Dive Brief:
Republican senators on Thursday unveiled their second counter-offer to President Joe Biden s proposed $2 trillion infrastructure proposal, following multiple meetings between Republican leadership and White House officials.
The latest proposal from the right, led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W. Va., includes a $4 billion carve-out for electric vehicle infrastructure, under a broader $506 billion proposed investment in roads, bridges and major projects. Biden s proposal had called for a $174 billion investment in EV infrastructure and incentives.
In all, the Republicans proposal would spend $928 billion on infrastructure over the next eight years, a $360 billion increase over their previous proposal. It s a serious effort to try to reach a bipartisan agreement, Capito told reporters following the release of the proposal.
Dive Brief:
The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners approved an exemption from the Clean Truck Fund Rate for the cleanest natural-gas-powered trucks, according to an announcement Monday. The rate, which has been set at $10 per 20-foot equivalent unit for any non-zero-emissions truck at the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles, has not yet been implemented.
This new exemption applies to trucks picking up or dropping off loaded containers at the Port of Long Beach that use natural gas engines that meet the 0.02 grams of nitrogen oxides per brake horsepower-hour standard, according to the announcement. To be eligible for the lifetime exemption, trucks must be purchased and registered in the Port Drayage Truck Registry by Dec. 31, 2022.
Dive Brief:
ClearGen, the Blackstone Group sustainability fund, will commit up to $500 million in partnership with GreenStruxure, a joint venture of Schneider Electric and Huck Capital, to develop renewable energy microgrid solutions for commercial and industrial customers.
GreenStruxure launched in September 2020 and offers no-money-down, modular microgrids installed on-site as part of an energy-as-a-service model. The microgrids serve a variety of users, including small- and medium-sized industrial facilities, schools, hotels and other commercial facilities.
Through the partnership announced on Tuesday, ClearGen will provide capital and financial expertise, including navigating tax incentives and other market incentives. This allows us to operate seamlessly for the client as an integrated unit, with transparency and some trusted brand names, said Clark Wiedetz, chief sales officer for GreenStruxure.
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In efforts to prevent a repeat of the February disaster that left millions without electricity, Texas policymakers continue to disagree over the cause and appropriate mitigation efforts. The blackouts from the storm led to spikes in power prices and the deaths of at least 151 people.
Republican leadership was quick to criticize renewables for the role they played in the blackouts, with Gov. Greg Abbott, R, claiming on national television that renewables caused the outages. They cannot be dispatched by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and therefore cannot be relied upon, said state Sen. Kelly Hancock, R, who chairs the Senate Business and Commerce committee. Hancock sponsored Senate Bill (SB) 1278, which would impose reliability costs on intermittent generation.