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September 27, 2023 by

Autoworkers aren’t just turned off by electric vehicles because they might kill their jobs. They also don’t want to purchase them, and aren’t buying into either party’s approach to electrification — a view that signals political risks for both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner.

In interviews across the country Monday, many striking members of the United Auto Workers said they would likely shun EVs because of charging worries and the vehicles’ high prices. While some said they were inclined to credit Biden for walking the picket line Tuesday, others expressed distrust that either the president or Trump could do anything to save their jobs in the face of the EV transition.

“We’ve got a lot of people that are frustrated, just with all of them,” said Aaron Westaway, a unit bargaining representative, of the presidential candidates. He is part of UAW Local 900, which covers the Ford Motor Co.’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, on the outskirts of Detroit.

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Westaway backed Biden’s visit to Michigan to draw attention to the union’s ongoing strike, but said there’s an overall dissatisfaction with presidential hopefuls among union workers.

“Nobody’s happy with Trump, nobody’s happy with Biden,” he added.

To gauge autoworkers’ opinions on EVs, E&E News visited the picket lines at Big Three auto plants in three states and interviewed almost two dozen workers. Along with Ford’s assembly in Michigan, there were visits to two parts warehouses — one belonging to General Motors Co. in Roanoke, Texas, northwest of Dallas, and another of Stellantis NV in Beaverton, Ore., outside Portland.

The workers’ attitudes are consequential not just for the future of EVs and of the 146,000 employees at the country’s three biggest legacy automakers represented by the UAW, but could affect who controls the White House, considering the influence of unions in battleground states like Michigan.

Biden considers his moves to support EVs — chiefly the billions of dollars of subsidies to build charging stations and manufacture EVs and their batteries in 2021’s bipartisan infrastructure law and last year’s Inflation Reduction Act — as a key administration achievement that increases American competitiveness versus China and combats climate change.

Trump — who is scheduled to visit Michigan on Wednesday — is seeking the support of autoworkers in that swing state on the argument that EVs will kill jobs. He is slated to deliver a speech that is counterprogramming to a Republican primary presidential debate, being held at the same time in California.

Biden on Tuesday visited a GM picket line in Belleville, Mich., to express solidarity with the UAW, a union that historically has been aligned with Democrats but so far has withheld its endorsement in the presidential race.

Speaking through a bullhorn at the GM redistribution center, the president credited the UAW with saving the auto sector in the past and making sacrifices. “Now they’re doing incredibly well,” said Biden. “And guess what? You should be doing incredibly well, too.”

UAW President Shawn Fain, asked at the event about the union’s stance on EVs, said, “it’s got to be a just transition, where it has our labor standards in there, not paying poverty wages and not a race to the bottom, and it’s currently driving a race to the bottom.”

Biden was asked whether he supported a 40 percent raise for UAW workers, a number that automakers have called a nonstarter. Biden said simply “yes.”

Union workers are seeking a broad portfolio of improvements to their contract, including better wages, cost-of-living increases and an end to wage tiers that disadvantage more recently hired employees. They were encouraged, but not necessarily won over, by Biden’s visit. Meanwhile, they held views of EVs that were sometimes hostile.

“I’m good with the regular 87 unleaded,” said DeJhon Moore, 37, a production operator at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne. “I don’t trust [EVs] to drive long distances, I’d rather just do the regular, go get some fuel and go about my day.”

Aaron Franklin, an autoworker at the Wayne plant for the past three years, struck an open tone. Franklin said the shift to electrification is moving forward quickly and it’s not clear what will happen to the Wayne facility. He said he doesn’t yet drive an EV but supports technology that can reduce emissions, especially if it provides opportunity for Ford workers.

Edgar Litton, 60, said he’s nearing retirement after working 35 years at the Wayne facility and decided to strike to fight for better pay and stronger pensions. When asked about Ford’s shift to EVs, Litton expressed a concern about the lack of charging infrastructure and questioned whether there would be steady supplies of power, noting that Michigan has suffered repeated outages during recent storms.

The White House, the Trump campaign, GM, Stellantis and Ford did not reply to requests for comment.

In an interview with the Washington Examiner earlier this month, GM CEO Mary Barra said that the automaker was “leveraging all of our facilities” in the move to EVs and “wanted to make sure we took our entire manufacturing team along with us.”

Some workers, though, are making dire predictions. “I think EVs are going to wipe us out,” said Whitney Walch, 28, a team leader at Stellantis’ Portland Parts Distribution Center in Beaverton, speaking of the plant’s workers.

Her concern points to a confluence between the transition to EVs and the way that the UAW has carried out its strike.

Last Friday, the union expanded its work stoppage — first targeting just one assembly plant per automaker — to include dozens of parts distribution warehouses of GM and Stellantis. Ford was spared this expansion because, according to Fain, it was negotiating in good faith while talks with the other automakers showed little progress.

Parts distribution plants are warehouses that take in parts from automakers and their suppliers and resort them for delivery to the auto dealers, where they are key ingredients of service departments.

Walch could point to specific parts her team handles that will one day be affected by the EV transition.

“They don’t need spark plugs, what else, oil filters, we sell a lot of those,” she said. “If we don’t have all those parts, I feel like we don’t have a lot to do.”

On Monday, about a dozen of the warehouse’s 40 workers were on the picket line in the rain. A slow line of trucks and cars, some of them Teslas, were squeezed between the strikers on one side and road construction on the other. The occasional vehicle honked in support. The warehouse flagpole’s three flags — American, Stellantis white and UAW blue — were soggy and struggled to flap.

The negative vibe toward EVs extended toward the possibility of owning one.

“I’m not a fan, I don’t like them. I don’t want one,” said Keith Sandberg, 43, a picker-packer who came to work at the warehouse last year after getting laid off of the assembly line at the company’s factory in Belvidere, Ill.

“With the infrastructure, we’re not set up for EVs. We have nothing concrete, really, in place for EV drivers.”

Supporters of EVs have said that while the technology is facing the adolescent challenges of scaling up, it is necessary to reduce carbon emissions and to catch up to China in the EV race. z

“The question for the U.S. is whether we want to build the cars of the future or whether we want to buy them from China,” said Nick Nigro, the founder of Atlas Public Policy, an EV consultancy based in Washington.

‘Dissonance for the American people’

At GM’s distribution warehouse in Roanoke, where eight UAW members walked a picket line along a street in an industrial park, there were concerns about financial uncertainty created by EVs.

“My question is, our security as far as jobs,” said Cornelius Lincoln, 49
, the facility’s UAW president. Asked about job losses, he said, “It’s almost inevitable.”

The attitudes toward EVs are the opposite of what Biden hoped to achieve when he embarked as a candidate on an aggressive pro-EV campaign.

In the year after Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. has seen more than $92 billion in EV investment in EVs, according to an analysis by the Environmental Defense Fund. However, most of that money is going to battery and battery-component plants that lie outside the UAW stronghold states of the Upper Midwest.

In that sense, it could be a challenge for Biden to make the case to union autoworkers that the EV transition is benefitting the American autoworker.

“There is going to be a dissonance for the American people, ” said Mike Williams, who follows EV policy as a senior fellow for the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress Action in Washington.

“As [Biden] talks more about this, people will see this as a complex, complicated story,” he said.

Because the Big Three automakers’ involvement in building batteries doesn’t fall under the umbrella of the UAW, the plants that make them aren’t part of the master agreements with the union. The agreements are structured as joint ventures with Korean battery makers. So far, few factories proposed across the country have been completed and staffed, much less unionized.

The autoworkers interviewed were well aware that the billions of dollars in battery investments fall out of their orbit.

“A lot of the EV decisions have already been made, they have designated places for plants like Tennessee, and we don’t even know if it’s going to be union,” said Westaway, the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant UAW representative.

Ford is building a massive battery plant in Haywood County, Tenn., as a joint venture with Korean battery maker SK Innovation Co. Ltd.

Alongside the automaker-UAW negotiations, the state of these battery factories — and whether they are eventually unionized — weigh on workers, said Jessie HF Hammerling who studies the relationship between green jobs and labor at the University of California at Berkeley.

“The core issue is how employers are deploying these new technologies in a way that explicitly weakens the union,” she said in an email. “All of the jobs in the supply chain, from lithium extraction and battery manufacturing all the way up to automotive assembly, could be union jobs.”

Workers said that while the impact of EVs on their jobs is uncertain, the negotiations now underway are intended to establish how they are treated in the day when EVs become standard.

“It will be an impact in the future,” said Sandberg, the picker-packer in Oregon. “The last thing we want to see is our labor union grow smaller. We’d actually like to see it grow bigger.”

This story also appears in Climatewire.

September 27, 2023 by

Ford Motor Co.’s decision to halt construction of a controversial $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Michigan is empowering critics of the project, even as supporters downplay the severity of the automaker’s move.

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, hailed Ford’s decision to stop work on the plant in Marshall, Mich.

The facility would use technology from China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL), the world’s largest producer of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.

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Manchin, who has repeatedly raised concerns about incentives tied to the Inflation Reduction Act, which he helped craft, benefitting CATL through working with Ford.

“Sen. Manchin has been clear that projects seeking federal support should not be dependent on Chinese technology, and he believes this is the correct course of action on the part of Ford and hopes they will drop all ties to CATL,” Sam Runyon, a spokesperson for the senator, said Tuesday.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has also called on Ford to change course. And Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said Monday he saw the delay as Ford taking a “crucial first step” to reevaluating its pans.

“Ford needs to call off this deal for good,” Gallagher said.

President Joe Biden joins striking United Auto Workers on the picket line.
President Joe Biden joins striking United Auto Workers on the picket line Tuesday. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo

Michigan has been thrust into the spotlight this week with President Joe Biden making history Tuesday as the first sitting president to join workers on strike. Former President Donald Trump is also visiting the state Wednesday in a bid to win over working class voters in the swing state.

Ford added to that attention Monday after announcing it was pausing work on its well-publicized Marshall project after weighing a “number of considerations” but stopped short of providing details or clarifying whether the ongoing United Auto Workers strike had swayed its decision.

Democratic proponents of the project about 100 miles west of Detroit, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Rep. Debbie Dingell, are betting on its completion.

“We have been fighting hard to keep auto manufacturing here in Michigan and bring back jobs that have been shipped overseas, and the Ford Marshall EV Plant is evidence of that,” Dingell said in a statement.

“Ford has said explicitly this is a pause, and the plant, when complete, will employ thousands of Michiganders and help keep our country competitive in the global transition to EVs.”

Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, accused Ford of threatening workers taking part in a national strike.

“I just think the Marshall decision yesterday — or the Marshall threat, as I’ll call it — is just more of the same from the companies,” Fain told reporters Tuesday.

“They closed 65 plants, the Big Three have in the last 20 years, and this is just a testament to how they operate,” said Fain.

Ford, in a statement Tuesday evening, declined to offer any additional details about its delay but reiterated the plant would be built and run by Ford.

“The other options for getting these advanced LFP batteries to EV customers are to build a battery plant outside the U.S. that also licenses the technology, or buy them from manufacturers in China, like our competitors exclusively do today,” the company said. “If we proceed with this project, we’d be investing $3.5 billion and creating 2,500 good-paying American jobs.”

‘Awkward or difficult position’

Ford’s move to freeze work at its Marshall plant could have bigger ripple effects for Democrats and the national push for adoption of electric vehicles, which has received a chilly reception in some corners of the Mitten State.

“I think for Democratic supporters, it puts them in an awkward or difficult position. … You’re not saying ‘complete withdrawal,’ but some kind of a pause,” said Barry Rabe, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan.

“That puts an even bigger question mark on the future of electric vehicle production in the United States in a week where Michigan’s gonna get national attention because a sitting and former president are there pitching their views on the merits of the IRA [Inflation Reduction Act] and these vehicles,” said Rabe.

Adrian Hemond, a Democratic consultant in Lansing and CEO of Grassroots Midwest, said it’s impossible to know how much of Ford’s decision is related to the strike, but it’s “very silly” to assume it’s unrelated.

“It’s entirely possible this is less a negotiating tactic and more a response to the economic disruption from the strike — it could be both,” he said. “It’s impossible to parse out completely. I think it is both in some regards.”

Hemond said pressure from Capitol Hill probably didn’t play a central role in Ford’s decision but that scrutiny is only going to increase.

“I do think it only increases scrutiny and, in that regard, could potentially backfire for Ford, depending on what there is to find,” he said.

September 27, 2023 by

Many of the Republican presidential candidates are offering the same message to striking autoworkers: Kill President Joe Biden’s plan to dramatically expand the electric vehicle market.

That position promises to be a theme at the second GOP debate Wednesday as seven candidates compete for airtime with former President Donald Trump, who is skipping the nationally broadcast debate to hold a rally in Michigan near the lines of striking autoworkers.

The Republican push against electric cars comes as both parties throw themselves into a political brawl in hopes of winning union votes. Trump’s narrow Michigan victory in 2016 paved his path to the White House — something he hopes to replicate.

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“Joe Biden’s draconian and indefensible Electric Vehicle mandate will annihilate the U.S. auto industry and cost countless thousands of autoworkers their jobs,” Trump said Tuesday in a statement. “The only thing Biden could say today that would help the striking autoworkers is to announce the immediate termination of his ridiculous mandate.”

At least three other GOP candidates have described Biden’s EV policies as economic euthanasia.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said the United Auto Workers strike was a result of “Bidenomics and their green energy, electric vehicle agenda.”

“This drive toward electric vehicles, driving people away from gasoline-powered vehicles, any autoworker that’s paying attention would know that’s not in their long-term interest,” he said last week in an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said while campaigning in Iowa last week that eliminating the administration’s EV push would create more jobs.

“With respect to the auto industry and the autoworkers, one of the things that’s a big threat to that is Biden’s push to impose electric vehicle mandates,” DeSantis told KCCI television in Des Moines. “The reality is that’s not where the market is. We want to preserve the ability of automakers to actually produce the type of vehicles that people want to buy.”

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) blamed Biden for what he said are policies that would weaken American car companies. He argued that “we’re going to be dependent on China for our transportation needs.”

The union strike lines are now the front lines in the presidential race. Trump will not only try to outmaneuver his Republican opponents, but also Biden, who climbed onto a small stage of wooden pallets Tuesday to show solidarity with strikers at a General Motors Co. plant near Detroit.

President Joe Biden joins striking United Auto Workers on the picket line in Michigan.
President Joe Biden joins striking United Auto Workers on the picket line Tuesday in Van Buren Township, Mich., while UAW President Shawn Fain listens at left. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo

Biden was joined by UAW President Shawn Fain, who has so far withheld endorsing the president’s reelection but has expressed support for his climate policies. Fain said last week that “global warming is happening” and that his union wants a “just transition” to the green economy and its expanded EV market.

“Thank you for coming to stand up with us in our generation’s defining moment, and we know the president will do right by the working class,” Fain said Tuesday as he and Biden joined the picket line at a GM distribution center in Belleville.

Biden told the workers: “You deserve what you earned, and you’ve earned a hell of a lot more than you’re getting paid now.”

Most of the Republican candidates have attacked Biden’s climate agenda as a formula for enriching China and its ballooning market for electric cars, even as the administration’s policies have helped fuel efforts to open battery plants for EVs in several Southern states.

The debate will be an opportunity to scorch Biden’s climate agenda as anathema to the interests of blue-collar workers.

On Tuesday, Trump falsely claimed that all EVs will be made in China and called on rank-and-file autoworkers to pressure their leaders into endorsing him instead of Biden.

In fact, the vast majority of the EVs sold in the United States are made by American companies. Tesla cars account for almost two-thirds of the U.S. EV market. Only Polestar — headquartered in Sweden but owned by the Chinese car company Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Ltd. — sells Chinese-made EVs in the United States. About 10,000 were sold in the United States last year.

Still, carmakers around the world, including in the United States, are heavily dependent on China for EV batteries. China dominates the global critical minerals market.

Fain and other union leaders have not called for a slower transition to electric cars, but said they want to ensure those jobs have higher pay.

Yet it’s not clear if Fain’s message on EVs is rippling through his vast membership. Trump’s campaign has said the former president is taking his anti-EV message to members of a variety of unions, including some UAW members.

EVs now account for less than 10 percent of the overall market, according to data from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation released Monday. However, business is booming and sales are up 38 percent compared to a year ago.

Most of the top Republicans in the primary race have pledged to eliminate EV mandates and roll back Biden’s climate policies.

It comes as some labor officials have expressed concern that the shift to EVs could hurt workers financially. The average electric car has fewer parts than a traditional internal-combustion vehicle, and requires fewer workers to assemble.

A significant part of the EV workforce has not unionized, largely because the industry is dominated by Elon Musk’s Tesla, which has been hostile to labor. But a pillar of the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes $370 billion in climate spending, is meant to expand EVs. More than 100 manufacturing and battery facilities have been announced since Biden took office, creating new jobs that could be unionized some day.

On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom called Trump’s visit to Michigan “purely performative.” The Democrat contended that Trump’s attacks on EVs showed he was out of touch with consumers and union workers.

“There will be no inroads whatsoever, and I think on the EV transition, there is an inevitability here, the world is already moving in this direction,” Newsom said on a call with reporters to preview the GOP debate, which will be held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

By contrast, many of the GOP front-runners have argued that the best way to support the 150,000 UAW workers is by ending Biden’s EV mandates and rolling back his climate policy.

“This is not just about wages,” Burgum of North Dakota told reporters in New Hampshire earlier this month. “This is about a battle about the future of American transportation. And the union workers are going, ‘Wow, if we’re going to switch to all EVs, we’re going to have less jobs.’”

Other GOP candidates, including Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, both attacked the union. Haley said she was a proud “union buster,” and Scott criticized the UAW for asking for “more pay and fewer days on the job, it’s a disconnect from work.”

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy blamed Biden’s economic policies for the UAW’s stagnant wages.

“The UAW strike is just a symptom of the deeper problem: a trifecta of rising prices + rising interest rates + stagnant wages. American workers deserve answers for horrendous economic policies & ‘civil service protections’ enjoyed by federal bureaucrats that ordinary workers don’t get,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday. “The picket line we need is in D.C., not Detroit.”

September 26, 2023 by

BELLEVILLE, Mich. — President Joe Biden made history Tuesday, becoming the first sitting president to walk with workers striking at a Michigan auto parts distribution center and thrusting himself further into an ongoing labor dispute that’s likely to have far-reaching political implications.

Biden joined Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, to rally workers on strike at General Motors Co.’s Willow Run Redistribution Center in Belleville, Mich., where he applauded their contributions to the success of Ford Motor Co., GM and Stellantis NV.

“Now [automakers] are doing incredibly well,” Biden said through a bullhorn to members of the UAW Local 174. “And guess what? You should be doing incredibly well, too.”

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Biden, who was greeted at the airport in Detroit by Fain, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist and Michigan Democratic Reps. Shri Thanedar, Debbie Dingell and Rashida Tlaib, marched alongside workers with signs that read “UAW STAND UP RECORD PROFITS RECORD CONTRACTS,” according to pool reports.

The president’s visit was focused on the Willow Run facility, which employs about 200 workers. Union members there were called to walk off their jobs last week as the UAW escalated its strike against the Big Three automakers to include GM and Stellantis parts and distribution centers.

Workers who marched alongside Biden applauded the president for drawing attention to their plight. “I think it’s significant to have a sitting president actually come to the picket line,” said Ralph Morris, a union member and worker at the Willow Run facility. “It’s never been done before. It signals the president’s office supports working-class people.”

But GM pushed back in a statement, arguing that the company has offered record-setting economic proposals to the union.

“Our focus is not on politics but continues to be on bargaining in good faith with the UAW leadership to reach an agreement as quickly as possible that rewards our workforce and allows GM to succeed and thrive into the future,” said Jeannine Ginivan, a company spokesperson.

“We have presented five, record economic proposals that address the areas our team members have said matter most, including wage increases and job security,” said Ginivan. “We value our workforce and understand the impact a strike has on our employees, communities and the economy — nobody wins.”

Biden’s visit was met with mixed reactions among union members on the picket line at Ford’s Wayne assembly plant, about 8 miles east of where the president appeared.

The president’s visit is notably occurring just one day before former President Donald Trump also plans to visit the state instead of participating in the second Republican primary debate.

Sean Conley, a union member and upfitter at the Wayne assembly plant for 30 years, noted Biden’s push to transition the country to electric vehicles.

“He’s pushing an EV agenda — it’s a job killer,” Conley said. “We don’t need him. I feel like it’s a photo-op for him.”

But the White House framed Biden’s visit as cementing his loyalty to the unions.

“President Biden is no stranger to a picket line. In fact, he joined a UAW picket in Kansas City back in 2019,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday morning aboard Air Force One on the way to Wayne County. “Today marked the first time a sitting President has visited a picket line in modern times.”

On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy took a shot at Biden’s participation in the strike.

“He created the reason why they’re on strike. They’re on strike because their jobs are going away. Why? Because this president subsidizes electric cars over everything else,” said McCarthy, a California Republican.

After the event, Fain told reporters that the automakers’ transition to electric vehicles is playing a central role in negotiations as union members strive to ensure they benefit from such seismic shifts.

Fain called for a “just transition” and again blasted Ford’s decision on Monday to announce plans to pause work on an EV battery plant in Marshall, Mich.

“We have to have a piece of that. Workers can’t be left behind. … We’ve made it apparent to the companies that we want a future in that industry,” said Fain. “We’re not against a green economy, but we’re against a green economy if the workers get left behind — it’s got to be a just transition.”

Fain also blasted Trump’s decision to visit a nonunion location Wednesday. Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks in Clinton Township at Drake Enterprises Inc., a supplier of automotive parts.

“I find that odd, he’s going to go to a nonunion business to talk to union workers,” said Fain. “I don’t think he gets it.”

Reporters Robin Bravender and Andres Picon contributed.

September 26, 2023 by

Work on the Biden administration’s signature climate change law won’t screech to a halt if the government shuts down at midnight Saturday.

The climate law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, has received multiyear funding from Congress, so it isn’t subject to the same spending limitations as other government programs that are funded on a per-year basis.

That means climate law programs — at least some of them — can continue if lawmakers don’t reach a spending agreement before the fiscal year ends Oct. 1.

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Work on federal programs that are funded by sources outside of annual appropriations can continue even under a shutdown, according to the White House budget office. The Inflation Reduction Act — signed into law last year — includes multiyear funding approved by Congress.

With a shutdown looming, the White House is still “preparing for any contingency, and determinations about specific programs are being actively reviewed by agencies,” Timothy White, a spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget, told E&E News.

“When programs operate using funding from sources outside annual appropriations, those activities may continue pursuant to the statutory scope of the funding they receive,” White said.

But he added, “There is no question that shutdowns are disruptive and distracting, making it difficult for agencies to deliver for the American people at the same pace — even for programs with available funding — given how much time and attention must go to managing the impacts of a shutdown.”

Some agencies doing work on the climate law, including EPA and the Interior Department, haven’t publicly released updated shutdown plans since the law was enacted. It remains unclear exactly what climate law work — if any — would proceed at those agencies.

The Energy Department appears ready to plow ahead with at least some of its climate law work in case government funding runs out.

The Energy Department’s shutdown contingency plan, updated earlier this month, says the department has received “multiyear appropriations” through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

“As of August 4, 2023, 1,040 DOE employees were fully or partially funded by multiyear appropriations,” the plan says. “These employees would continue to perform funded work after the exhaustion of DOE base funding.”

DOE didn’t respond to questions for this story, including what programs employees would be allowed to continue working on if the government shuts down.

Climate, infrastructure law funds ‘treated differently’

A government shutdown would be the first since the climate and infrastructure laws were enacted.

How exactly that plays out remains to be seen, said Stan Meiburg, who served 39 years at EPA, including as acting deputy administrator during the Obama administration.

“I’m sure there are people in EPA who are thinking about this question as we speak,” said Meiburg, now the executive director of the Andrew Sabin Family Center for Environment and Sustainability at Wake Forest University.

When Superfund was funded by its own trust fund, the program’s employees at EPA would continue to work during a shutdown, Meiburg said. Whether that will be true with IRA funds, he doesn’t know, but he added the climate and infrastructure laws were not part of the annual budget process.

“Those funds under those pieces of law are treated differently than normal appropriations,” Meiburg said. “The authorization doesn’t expire at the end of the fiscal year.”

EPA’s latest shutdown contingency plan was signed off on Sept. 29, 2021, which was before both the infrastructure and climate laws were enacted, so it’s not clear what work from those pieces of legislation would continue at the agency. EPA referred E&E News to OMB when contacted for this story.

EPA is set to receive $41.5 billion over 10 years from the climate law. That includes $27 billion for its Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund; $5 billion for climate pollution reduction grants to state, local and tribal governments; and $3 billion for environmental and climate justice grants, according to a slide deck prepared by the agency.

EPA employees funded by that law, working on programs authorized by it, likely won’t be able to move into different roles if they’re needed elsewhere at the agency during a shutdown.

“The agency would have very limited flexibility to shift employees from one area to another,” Meiburg said.

But EPA might not shut down with the rest of the government, at least not right away, if funding runs out by the end of this week.

In September 2021, EPA Administrator Michael Regan told staff in an email that the agency had “sufficient carryover funds” to stay open for another week if a shutdown occurred. It’s a similar tack his predecessor, Andrew Wheeler, took in December 2018.

In Wheeler’s case, however, government funds did expire. EPA shut its doors about a week later.

At the Energy Department, most of the appropriations “are multi-year or no-year,” according to the department’s contingency plan.

“Federal employees in offices with funding for salaries continue to report for work as scheduled,” the department says. “A prolonged lapse in appropriations may require subsequent employee furloughs.”

The Interior Department declined to comment about possible work on the Inflation Reduction Act under a government shutdown or on the timing of an updated contingency plan.

September 26, 2023 by

Ford Motor Co. is stopping work on plans to build a $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Michigan using Chinese technology, a project that triggered pushback locally and on Capitol Hill.

“We’re pausing work and limiting spending on construction on the Marshall project until we’re confident about our ability to competitively operate the plant,” said T.R. Reid, a spokesperson for Ford. “We haven’t made any final decision about the planned investment there.”

Reid said Ford weighed a “number of considerations” in opting to halt work on the project near the town of Marshall, but stopped short of providing detail or clarifying if the United Auto Workers’ ongoing strike played a role in the decision.

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President Joe Biden is slated Tuesday to join workers who walked the picket line at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne. Workers are pushing for higher wages amid a shift to electric vehicles, while automakers have argued that they cannot meet the union’s demands. Former President Donald Trump is also visiting the state Wednesday, planning to deliver remarks in Clinton Township at Drake Enterprises Inc., a supplier of automotive parts.

Ford’s announcement drew a sharp rebuke from Shawn Fain, the UAW’s president, who blasted the move as a “shameful, barely-veiled threat by Ford” to cut jobs, just as union members call for higher pay and other benefits.

“Closing 65 plants over the last 20 years wasn’t enough for the Big Three, now they want to threaten us with closing plants that aren’t even open yet,” Fain wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “We are simply asking for a just transition to electric vehicles and Ford is instead doubling down on their race to the bottom.”

Stacey LaRouche, a spokesperson for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, emphasized in a statement that Ford is stopping work temporarily, adding that the governor is dedicated to pursuing deals that support workers while bringing supply chains back to the United States.

“Ford has been clear that this is a pause, and we hope negotiations between the Big 3 and UAW will be successful so that Michiganders can get back to work doing what they do best,” LaRouche said.

In February, the Democratic governor joined Ford executives in unveiling plans to build the plant after reaching an agreement with China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., or CATL, the world’s largest producer of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.

Ford at the time said a newly created subsidiary called BlueOval Battery Park Michigan would build and completely own the sprawling complex about 100 miles west of Detroit.

The UAW supported the plant when announced, saying it would “benefit the community and maintain strong wage and benefit standards in the auto industry.”

Ford also said it was building nickel cobalt manganese and LFP batteries at the facility, which is slated to come online in 2026. The company said CATL would continue to own the technology for creating battery cells and be contracted to provide some additional services.

Ford’s decision to build and operate in Michigan was partly driven by the Inflation Reduction Act, and company officials in recent months repeatedly expressed confidence that the newly produced batteries would qualify for all of the production tax credits under the law, including for both battery cells and modules as well as commercial and lease customers. The plant was slated to employ 2,500 employees to start.

But the project has repeatedly drawn questions from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

House Republicans earlier this month launched a probe into the deal between Ford and CATL, asking Ford CEO James Farley in a letter to share a copy of the agreement that the automaker inked with CATL.

The deal has also been scrutinized by lawmakers like Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), while some House Republicans have also announced investigations of Ford’s agreement with CATL.

Ford officials have repeatedly maintained that a subsidiary of the company would build, own and operate the plant, and no other entity tied to the project would receive U.S. tax dollars.

Republicans on Monday applauded Ford’s decision, while Democrats publicly backed unions.

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, in a statement said he was encouraged to see Ford take a “crucial first step” to reevaluate the deal after months of investigation by his committee.

“Ford needs to call off this deal for good,” Gallagher said.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) wrote on X on Monday evening that he has “been standing in solidarity with the UAW since Day 1 of their strike. I’m happy @POTUS will join them on the picket line in Michigan to support their fight for fair wages, benefits & job security.”

CATL and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment when asked about Ford’s announcement.

September 26, 2023 by

Rising temperatures can come with risks far beyond the physical dangers of extreme heat.

Warmer weather is associated with an increase in violent crime, even during the winter. It’s correlated with increased incidents of hate speech, harassment and discrimination. High temperatures have been known to have adverse effects on mood, increasing irritability and symptoms of depression.

Now, new research finds that warmer weather can increase the risk of substance-related hospitalizations.

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The study, published today in the journal Communications Medicine, finds that higher temperatures are associated with more hospitalizations related to the abuse of alcohol and drugs in New York state. For nonalcohol substances, hospitalizations increased until temperatures reached about 50 degrees — then tapered off.

The researchers, led by Robbie Parks from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, compiled hundreds of thousands of hospital records related to alcohol- and substance-related disorders in New York state between 1995 and 2014. They then compared these records with temperature data from the same period.

They also controlled for potentially confounding factors, like seasonal patterns and long-term trends in hospitalizations.

Some overall patterns emerged. The majority of hospital visits were composed of people between the ages of 25 and 44, and there were more men than women. Both alcohol- and substance-related hospitalizations increased throughout the study period, with substance-related cases driven largely by increases in hospitalizations related to cannabis and opioids.

And spikes in temperatures caused hospitalizations to rise, even as much as six days later.

The findings point to “some less obvious potential consequences of climate change,” Parks said in a statement.

It’s unclear exactly why these associations exist.

Other studies have suggested that warmer temperatures can have adverse effects on mood and mental health, potentially increasing the risk of substance abuse. Warmer temperatures may alter the physiological effect of alcohol or other substances on the body, increasing the risk of hospitalizations for some people. People may be more likely to go out and socialize with others in settings where alcohol or drugs are present when temperatures are higher.

It’s also unclear why substance-related hospitalizations peaked at a certain point. It’s possible that past a certain temperature threshold, the weather becomes comfortable enough that people aren’t any more likely to go out and socialize.

Still, that’s just speculation. The study doesn’t actually explore the causes behind the associations — those are questions for future research.

The study has some major limitations. It focuses only on New York state, and it’s unclear whether similar results would be found in other parts of the country with different climates. The researchers also note that certain populations are likely to be more vulnerable to alcohol- and substance-related hospitalizations, including people with preexisting health conditions and unhoused populations. The study doesn’t explore the effects of those factors either.

Still, the research lays the groundwork for another potential side effect of rising temperatures. It’s a pattern public health experts should keep an eye on, the researchers suggest.

“Public health interventions that broadly target alcohol and substance disorders in warmer weather — for example, targeted messaging on the risks of their consumption during warmer weather — should be a public health priority,” study co-author Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou of Columbia University said in a statement.

September 26, 2023 by

This story was updated at 10 a.m. EDT.

Congressional Democrats are defending Jennifer Granholm following Republican criticism of the Energy secretary’s ethical behavior.

In recent months, ridicule of Granholm has grown. One House Republican floated a potential impeachment inquiry of the Energy secretary, accusing her of perjury. Over a dozen conservative groups have demanded her resignation over “repeated ethical lapses.” And a recent tumultuous electric vehicle road trip has been the subject of scorn by conservative media and Republican leaders.

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And yet prominent Democrats say that the attacks on Granholm’s ethical record are shocking considering her standing among many members of both parties.

Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who has frequently clashed with the Biden administration over its energy policies, suggested Republican attacks are over the top — including those from committee ranking member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).

“She made an honest mistake,” Manchin said. “She’s human. People make mistakes.”

Manchin was referring to Granholm’s June letter in which she admitted to having incorrectly told the committee in April that she did not own any individual stocks.

Manchin will be holding a hearing in the coming weeks scrutinizing DOE’s climate spending, said an ENR aide granted anonymity to speak candidly. Granholm could be a witness.

Granholm, in the letter to correct the record, said she owned stocks in six companies that were deemed “non-conflicting” by DOE ethics officials. Her husband owned stock in Ford Motor Co. The shares have been sold.

Republicans across Congress, however, aren’t buying the “honest mistake” explanation.

“That’s just willful blindness,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said of Manchin’s comments. “And it’s really telling that the committee won’t look into this and doesn’t want to think about it.”

The issue came to a head this month when New York Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney wrote on social media that the controversy was enough of a concern that “Congress must consider an impeachment inquiry into Granholm for her perjury charges.”

“That’s perjury, period,” Tenney said during a House hearing with Granholm. “Why should you not resign, or why should we not consider some kind of impeachment inquiry into you for your perjury charges?”

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.).
Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) has suggested Granholm should resign or be removed from office. | Ken Cedeno/AP Photo

Granholm has repeatedly maintained that both she and DOE officials see ethics as a No. 1 priority.

“Of course I do not believe it’s OK to violate ethics laws. Nor does anyone else in the Department of Energy,” Granholm told Tenney during the hearing. “I made a mistake when I testified saying that I had sold all stock. I honestly thought we had.”

It’s unclear whether the impeachment push will pass muster with more moderate Republicans in the coming months. Tenney hasn’t been shy in her impeachment threats, backing broader calls for inquiries into President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas), who chairs the Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy and Regulatory Affairs, said he would need more time to investigate the facts of the matter.

“People get accused [of] all sorts of things, I’ve been accused of things,” Fallon said. “You have to drill down to the truth, and I have to look into what the appropriate response would be.”

DOE declined comment for this story.

Summer of scrutiny

The controversy over the stock sale hasn’t been Granholm’s only ethics headache.

Republicans in 2021 criticized her for holding stock in Proterra Inc. while directing policy that could boost the electric bus company.

The Office of Special Counsel last year said Granholm violated the Hatch Act in 2021 when appearing in a video in which she cheered Democrats winning a majority in Congress.

But scrutiny of Granholm’s actions over a variety of issues has never been as prominent in Congress as it has been in recent months.

In August, 14 conservative groups called on Granholm to resign, citing “repeated ethical lapses.”

Republicans have since repeatedly pointed to an NPR report that while on a four-day road trip to promote EVs, DOE staff used a gas-powered car to reserve a spot at a Georgia charging station so the secretary, who was traveling behind, could quickly recharge her Cadillac Lyriq.

While DOE aides were blocking the spot, a family with a young child looking to charge on a hot day became frustrated and called the police. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) made sure to mention the gaffe during a recent Senate Republican leadership press conference.

“A family actually called the police … . They had a baby in their car that was crying [on a] really hot day,” Ernst said. “Here’s a gas-powered car, Granholm’s staff trying to save them a spot so they could just slip in line and give their EV a charge.”

House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and Fallon on Tuesday morning announced a probe of the EV road trip, which they called a “taxpayer-funded publicity stunt.”

Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee are jumping in on the action against the secretary, too.

Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Energy, Climate, and Grid Security Subcommittee Chair Jeff Duncan went after Granholm in August for reports that she consulted with a Chinese energy official days before the Biden administration announced it would release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in 2021.

Granholm’s backers, however, continue to see any of the controversies pushed by Republicans as just noise.

“I’ve never heard anything to make me doubt her ethical commitment,” said Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with Democrats. “She’s making a very good secretary.”

On the horizon

Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and ranking member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) are shown. Barrasso has become one of Granholm’s antagonists. Manchin defends her. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

Even if a formal impeachment inquiry doesn’t transpire in the House, Granholm’s ethics are likely to continue to be under significant Republican scrutiny in the months to come.

Barrasso pushed back on Hawley’s assertion that the committee won’t dive into recent controversies. He recently called for a DOE inspector general investigation into Granholm’s stock admission.

“At times, she has not been forthcoming, she has not been honest,” Barrasso said. “Anytime she comes before the committee, and she continues to do so … [the committee] will continue to ask questions along those lines.”

When the next ENR hearing does occur, Hawley isn’t likely to hold back, and he echoed Tenney’s assertion that Granholm actively committed perjury.

“At a bare minimum, she ought to be brought back before the Energy Committee,” said Hawley. “This is where she committed what looks a heck of a lot like perjury.”

Still, it appears that Democrats will continue to have her back.

“She is great,” said Energy and Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.). “Impeachment of her is absurd, totally absurd.”

September 25, 2023 by

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack turned up pressure on Congress on Monday to avert a partial government shutdown, predicting impacts on food aid, access to public lands, and the federal loans that support homeownership and farm operations.

“It’s incredibly disruptive,” Vilsack said at a White House news conference, adding that as many as 50,000 workers at the Department of Agriculture could be furloughed, hurting USDA operations in “every county in the country.”

Vilsack, who oversaw the USDA during a 2013 shutdown over similar budget-related conflicts in Congress, was the featured speaker at the daily White House news briefing, driving home the Biden administration’s message that far-right House Republicans are pursuing extreme policies to bring the government to its knees.

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A shutdown would have “real consequences to real people in a real way,” Vilsack said, including possibly slowing passage of the five-year farm bill that authorizes programs across the USDA and leaving the department less able to help lawmakers obtain information they need to craft the bill.

The 2018 farm bill expires Sept. 30, although lawmakers have said the new version could wait until December with minimal negative effect.

House Republicans see the issue differently, saying the budget impasse is an opportunity to rein in what they consider runaway federal spending and a demand from constituents for leaner government programs, as well as a chance to exert influence on other issues such as aid to Ukraine.

Some USDA operations would carry on, Vilsack said, including meat and poultry inspections and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But benefits through the Women, Infants and Children food assistance program could stop within days, or perhaps weeks in states with enough extra money on hand, he said. The program covers around half the babies born in the U.S., he said.

Farmers who’ve applied for USDA marketing loans ahead of the fall harvest could see those applications halted as Farm Service Agency offices close, Vilsack said. Direct USDA loans for homebuyers in rural areas might not go through, he said, potentially squelching purchase deals.

“It creates a tremendous amount of stress,” Vilsack said.

The looming shutdown comes as House Republicans seek still-deeper reductions in agriculture spending than what the GOP-led Appropriations Committee approved several months ago. A manager’s amendment filed on the bill being considered this week would cut most agriculture programs by an additional 14.15 percent, or $1.2 billion, with the exception of the nutrition programs.

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