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Politico
6 hours ago
- Politico
Clean energy's bleak outlook
The country's largest renewable installers and manufacturers reported financial earnings today for the first time since passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The takeaway: Clean energy projects are moving forward for now — but the outlook for additional renewable development is bleak. NextEra Energy's call perhaps best underscored the rapidly shifting energy and political landscape. The country's largest renewable installer called President Donald Trump's budget law — which rolls back wind and solar tax incentives — 'tough, but constructive.' 'New gas and nuclear are on the way and will be critical to meeting demand over the long term,' said CEO John Ketchum. 'Renewables and storage can bridge the gap and will play an important role in an all-of-the-above future.' 'All of the above' and 'bridge fuel' were once widely used to signal a continued role for fossil fuels in a country rapidly pursuing a renewables build-out. Now, the clean energy industry has flipped the meaning to promote wind and solar at a time when Trump is demanding more fossil fuel production. NextEra executives expressed confidence they would be able to bring online new wind and solar projects in time to receive credits that the GOP megalaw is phasing out. The company is also pitching renewables as the cheap option to quickly add power to the grid. An earnings presentation shared with investors Wednesday estimated that new wind and storage projects cost $25-$50 per megawatt-hour, while solar and storage cost $35-$75 per MWh — compared to $90-$115 for combined cycle gas plants and $130-$150 for small modular nuclear reactors. A $1 billion hit Trump's moves have hit the offshore wind industry particularly hard. On its call Wednesday, Equinor announced a $955 million write-down driven by its expectation that few, if any, offshore wind projects will come online after Empire Wind 1 is complete. The Trump administration halted that New York project for a month earlier this year — a move that cost the company $50 million a week. GE Vernova, the turbine-maker, reported a robust quarter for gas turbine sales and grid infrastructure like transformers and switchgear. As for wind turbines? Not so much. Sales there continue to lag. The company reported orders of $2.7 billion through the first six months of 2025, compared to $3.3 billion over the same period last year. The Spanish power giant Iberdrola, however, struck an optimistic note Wednesday. It reported that 17 of the 62 turbines at Vineyard Wind 1 are sending electricity to the New England grid — and said it expects a second project, New England Wind, could qualify for federal tax credits if it starts construction within the next year. But prospects for New England Wind appear grim. Negotiations between Avangrid, an Iberdrola subsidiary, and Massachusetts over a power contract for the project have been repeatedly delayed this year. It's Wednesday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Benjamin Storrow. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to bstorrow@ Today in POLITICO Energy's podcast: Garrett Downs breaks down how Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee's plan to sell public lands was stripped from the megalaw. Power Centers White House rolls out plans for AIThe White House on Wednesday outlined 90 actions federal agencies should take to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence, Christa Marshall writes. Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright have stressed the need for the U.S. to lead on AI to counter China's rise on related technologies. The plan includes a call to hold back funding for states that hinder AI development and directs the Department of Commerce to eliminate climate change from its 'risk management' AI framework, among other suggestions. 'This plan galvanizes Federal efforts to turbocharge our innovation capacity, build cutting-edge infrastructure, and lead globally, ensuring that American workers and families thrive in the AI era. We are moving with urgency to make this vision a reality,' White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios said in a statement. Never mind the scienceThe Trump administration plans to argue that federal law does not require agencies to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, writes Zack Colman. The move is designed to dismantle virtually all U.S. limits on climate pollution — and avoids challenging the science behind the so-called endangerment finding, which in 2009 laid out how greenhouse gases threaten human health. Instead, the administration may assert that a key 2007 Supreme Court ruling allowed but did not require the agency to regulate greenhouse gases, according to the three people who were granted anonymity to discuss a draft regulation not yet made public. The Environmental Protection Agency has been conspicuously missing from White House meetings to discuss revoking the endangerment finding, as Jean Chemnick reports. Green lobbying blitz yielded littleRenewable energy lobbyists spent millions trying to save their priorities from a wave of Republican attacks in recent months, Timothy Cama and Kelsey Brugger write. They have little to show for it. The recently signed megalaw slashed the timetables for wind and solar tax credits. But it didn't end them immediately. 'Was it a failure? No, absolutely not. Every single Republican voted against the IRA in the first place, so anything north of complete repeal was a win,' said Colin Hayes, founding partner at Lot Sixteen, which has a number of clean energy clients. That's not to say advocates are satisfied with their investment. 'We all failed to appreciate just the intensity of the desire to undo any fraction of any figment of any remaining Biden policy,' American Clean Power Association CEO Jason Grumet said on POLITICO's Energy podcast. Legal showdown asks: Who's in charge of small nuclear reactors?States and developers are suing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over the licensing of smaller reactors, and the outcome could reshape the agency's authority, Francisco 'A.J.' Camacho writes. The complaint, originally brought by developer Last Energy and the states of Texas and Utah, alleges that the NRC doesn't have the authority to license small modular reactors and some microreactors. And they say the agency is slowing down the industry at a time when it's being called on to address growing electricity demand. 'Although the case is still in its early stages, a successful legal challenge could significantly reshape the regulatory landscape for some reactors in the United States,' Judi Greenwald, president and CEO of the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, told A.J. In Other News Hot topic: Heat waves in Europe have inflamed political battles about the benefits of air conditioning. Endangered finding: EPA has drafted a plan to rescind a finding that forms the basis for regulating greenhouse gas emissions. Subscriber Zone A showcase of some of our best subscriber content. The Department of Energy canceled a $4.9 billion loan guarantee for the Grain Belt Express transmission line. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved requests from two grid operators to fast-track projects to meet skyrocketing demand. The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was unable to tell lawmakers today whether the agency would continue under the Trump administration. That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.
New York Post
6 hours ago
- New York Post
Trump admin to open nation's largest immigration detention center in Texas with $1.2B contract
The Trump administration will open the nation's largest immigration detention center in Texas thanks to a massive contract worth $1.2 billion, according to a report. The feds will be able to hold up to 5,000 illegal immigrants at a time at Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas, to meet the demands of the rapidly expanding Trump administration's deportation campaign, Bloomberg reported. Shackled migrants walk toward a military transport plane before their deportation from the US. US Department of Defense/AFP via Getty Images The Department of Defense awarded the contract, which ends Sept. 30, 2027, to Virginia-based Acquisition Logistics LLC to set up a tent city on the base. The Trump administration has sought to erect temporary facilities to hold migrants as it attempts to make room for the 3,000-person quota it's seeking to collar each day. The effort has been turbocharged by a new flood of $45 billion for new detention beds from Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The massive spending bill will double Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detention capacity, with the goal of holding 100,000 illegal immigrants at a time as the Trump administration seeks to carry out 1 million deportations each year. ICE opened 'Alligator Alcatraz,' a tent detention center erected by the state of Florida in the middle of the alligator-infested swampland of the Everglades, earlier this month. The feds can currently hold up to 3,000 illegal immigrants there and hope to expand that to 5,000. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also set his sights on two additional military bases, Camp Atterbury in Indiana and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, for the deportation campaign, according to the Associated Press. The Trump administration has set out to deport one million illegal immigrants each year. AFP via Getty Images 'We're looking for any available bed space we can get that meets the detention standards we're accustomed to,' Trump's border czar Tom Homan said Friday. 'The faster we get the beds, the more people we can take off the street,' he added. Fort Bliss has previously been used for immigration purposes, housing unaccompanied migrant kids and Afghan refugees following the US withdrawal from the war-torn country, according to Stars and Stripes.
Politico
6 hours ago
- Politico
Ding-Dong! Lawler's gov run is dead
With help from Amira McKee 'MILK-BONE' MIKE: Wake up, you sleepyhead, rub your eyes, get out of bed. Wake up, Mike Lawler's run for gov is dead! The Democrats' Wicked Witch of the Hudson Valley melted his own ambitions of running for governor this morning — and Dems are experiencing a moment of jubilation during an otherwise dreary year marked by President Donald Trump's ascension and his One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Starting near the crack of dawn this morning, Lawler — through successive interviews with The New York Times, the New York Post, Fox & Friends and News 12 — declared he would not run for governor, after more than a year of hinting he wanted to take Gov. Kathy Hochul's job. Instead, he's running for reelection again in NY-17, a Hudson Valley district former Vice President Kamala Harris won by a hair last year, with an already crowded field of Democratic primary candidates. Lawler's announcement came after intense pressure from House GOP Speaker Mike Johnson and a private meeting with Trump. Lawler told News 12 today he met with Trump in the Oval Office last week 'for almost an hour' and that the president 'expressed his view to me about how important, obviously, maintaining the house majority is.' On his way out, the self-styled moderate Republican chided his fellow GOP foe Rep. Elise Stefanik — a devout MAGA loyalist who has similarly spent the last few months traveling the state and courting speculation of a statewide run. (Speculation remains that Republican Nassau County Bruce Blakeman could run for governor, too). Lawler's much anticipated reveal today inspired Democrats to get creative. They called him everything from an 'obedient lapdog' to a chicken who squawked his way out of the running for governor in the wake of the news. Gov. Kathy Hochul took the lead. She posted a picture on X of a box of 'Milk-Bone' dog treats with a post-it note on the box that read 'To: Mike Lawler.' 'A treat for Donald Trump's Good Boy,' the governor wrote, adding a dog bone emoji. Others remarked that Lawler's decision not to run wasn't one of obedience, but self-doubt. 'Lawler has always made one thing very clear: he would only run for governor if he thought Republicans had a path statewide,' the Democratic Governors Association said in a memo. 'By declining to run, Lawler has admitted that he doesn't think any Republican can win statewide — especially a Trump Republican like Elise Stefanik.' Stefanik, for her part, said she won't make a decision on running for governor until November. Blakeman declined to comment on Lawler's announcement. State Conservative Party Chair Gerard Kassar told Playbook he'll nudge the North Country Republican to speed up her decision. 'I'm going to urge her to move up that timetable,' he said. 'We've been leaning her way, and I would like to move the timetable up. But I'm going to have that conversation with her.' In a parting dig at Stefanik — or whoever takes on Hochul next year — Lawler said in a statement this morning that he fundamentally believes he's 'best positioned to take on Kathy Hochul and offer New Yorkers a real choice for Governor' (even though he's not going to run). Lawler also told News 12 that Stefanik's decision to wait until November 'does the party a disservice.' 'Elise owes it to the party, she owes it to the people of the state, to run,' Lawler said, as if to foist the game of chicken onto her. 'She says she'll make a decision in November. I don't, frankly, think she can wait that long. I think she needs to jump in and really start the race.' — Jason Beeferman, with Nick Reisman FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL PRIMARY INSIGHTS: Zohran Mamdani picked up more than 85,000 votes when Brad Lander was eliminated in the mayoral primary, while Andrew Cuomo gained over 31,000 — another sign of the impact of the city comptroller's cross-endorsement with the Democratic primary winner, Hit Strategies' Jake Rubinstein reported on X. The Board of Elections certified the results Tuesday and released a trove of data on the race. Election geeks jumped at the spreadsheets, analyzing the info and building maps and graphics. Here are some of the most interesting insights: Mamdani's wide appeal: Nearly 60 percent of voters included Mamdani's name somewhere on their mayoral ballot — the highest rate in the primary, according to Aaron Narraph Fernando, who crunched some of the numbers on X. Cuomo came in fourth in that category with 46 percent, behind Lander and Adrienne Adams — due in part to the relatively high number of people who appear to have followed the 'DREAM' campaign's advice and didn't rank the ex-governor at all. RCV uptake: Some 78 percent of mayoral primary voters ranked more than one candidate, according to Fair Vote, and Mamdani backers were far more likely to use RCV. About 37 percent of Cuomo supporters 'bullet voted' for him, meaning they didn't rank anybody else on the ballot, per political forcaster Jesse Richardson on X. Another 2 percent ranked Cuomo five times. While just 7 percent of Mamdani voters only ranked him. Overall, just 5 percent of voters' ballots weren't counted in the final round, since they didn't rank either Mamdani or Cuomo. District disagreements: Mamdani won House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' Brooklyn district with 46 percent of the vote in the first round and 56 percent in the final round, per Competitive Advantage Research. Jeffries still hasn't endorsed Mamdani and has been highly critical of the Democratic Socialists of America. Mamdani also won Rep. Dan Goldman's district 46-23, after Goldman backed Zellnor Myrie in the primary. How neighborly: Mamdani won his own election district in Astoria 76-10 over Cuomo, and Cuomo won his ED in Midtown East 62-16 over Mamdani. Mayor Eric Adams' Bed-Stuy ED backed Mamdani 72-17, but his neighbors in Gracie Mansion picked Cuomo 49-18. Lander got second in his own ED, with 24 percent to Mamdani's 66 percent. Eric Adams' opted out of running in the primary, but will be on the general election ballot. Lander's influence: More than 56 percent of voters who preferred Lander had their votes go to Mamdani when RCV played out, compared to just 21 percent going to Cuomo. Another 23 percent were exhausted, meaning they ranked neither Mamdani or Cuomo. That three-to-one advantage for Mamdani is a significant shift from the roughly three-to-two split that the Marist Poll found just before Lander cross-endorsed in June. — Jeff Coltin FROM CITY HALL 26 FED PLAZA: New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams are demanding the city's fire and buildings departments inspect the shadowy immigrant holding site at 26 Federal Plaza. In a letter today, Lander and Williams urged those city agencies to 'use every tool available to ensure that New York City's zoning, building, and fire codes are complied with, in order to protect New Yorkers.' Two videos first reported by THE CITY yesterday offered a glimpse into the secretive 10th floor processing facility to which a handful of local, state, and federal elected officials — including the comptroller and public advocate — were denied access. The letter claims the site is serving as a 'de facto jail or detention facility,' allegations federal immigration authorities have adamantly denied. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Eric Adams, whose relationship with Trump has been the subject of controversy, said the reports of poor conditions inside 26 Federal Plaza were brought to his attention Tuesday. At an unrelated event that day, he shrugged off a reporter's question about the facility, asking: 'Do you realize that's a federal building?' Today, the mayor changed his tune, saying his administration had already contacted federal officials regarding the videos. 'We immediately reached out to find out exactly what is taking place there,' he said at a press conference. 'We are going to coordinate with our local electeds to look at what is happening there, including our federal electeds. And I'm happy to see that they are raising their voices at this time, but we're going to look into it.' Lander and Williams weren't convinced. The comptroller was quick to characterize the mayor's comments on the city's limited authority to inspect federal buildings as 'words of a patsy for Donald Trump and for Tom Homan and for Kristi Noem.' 'I have lost all faith and confidence in this administration,' Williams said. 'I am simply asking him to act like he cares about what's happening and what Donald Trump is doing to this city. And that is what's most disheartening … We do have limitations in what we can do, but the mayor can show the city of New York that he cares about making this happen.' — Amira McKee MEANWHILE IN NASSAU COUNTY…: New York state Sen. Julia Salazar and Assembly Member Michaelle Solages were allowed brief access to an immigrant holding site at East Meadow Jail, after being initially blocked by facility staff. Nassau county executive Bruce Blakeman said the elected officials arrived at the jail unannounced this morning and that his team advised the facility to grant them access and sent personnel to escort the pair. The lawmakers' access was delayed, Blakeman told reporters, because they didn't coordinate with the facility ahead of their visit. Salazaar said the conditions of the facility were not egregious, but she remains concerned with a lack of transparency around the state's ICE detainment sites. 'Inside the jail, it was clear that Nassau County and ICE were detaining New Yorkers without due process, or access to their families and legal counsel,' Salazar wrote in a statement. 'We were only able to speak with a few individuals, as the facility officials and the Nassau Executive's team rushed us out, as if they had something to hide.' — Amira McKee IN OTHER NEWS — WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PROBES?: The federal investigations into former members of Adams' administration — like NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban and aides Tim Pearson and Phil Banks — seem to have suddenly halted. (Gothamist) — ADAMS ON THE POD: The mayor said he would like to see cannabis use limited to certain city blocks and praised Trump's border security in a wide ranging interview on the 'Pod Force One' podcast. (New York Post) — DELGADO WADES INTO CDPAP: Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado visited the Capital Region to slam Hochul on her handling of the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program. (POLITICO Pro) Missed this morning's New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
