with research by Vanessa Montalbano
Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202! We hope you had a great weekend, and if you’re a congressional staffer or lawmaker, welcome back to the season that’s known in D.C. as “humidity’s wrath.” Automobile Experimental Equipment
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In today’s edition, we’ll cover the tension between President Biden’s push toward electric vehicles and his support for union labor. But first, on a related note:
House Republicans have proposed a slew of amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act that would limit the Pentagon’s use of electric vehicles.
The amendments come amid a debate over the merits of the military’s transition to EVs, which has accelerated under President Biden. Beyond the climate benefits, EVs emit less noise and heat, so they’re harder for enemies to detect. But they do require recharging, which is a challenge on the battlefield.
Here are the GOP proposals that caught our eye:
“The military is no place to experiment with untested technology,” Gosar said in an emailed statement. “The combat readiness and training of soldiers and equipment is jeopardized by the compelled use of electric vehicles. Further, the AC equipment in the EV units do not work in the desert heat, constituting a health risk to personnel.”
Extreme heat and cold do put additional demand on EV batteries, reducing how far the vehicles can travel on a single charge. But Anthony Foti, a spokesman for Gosar, didn’t respond to a request to provide examples of air conditioning equipment in EVs malfunctioning in desert heat.
The Pentagon is the world’s largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels. It operates more than 250,000 tactical vehicles — the ones that go into combat — and about 170,000 non-tactical vehicles.
The Defense Department has been studying the shift to EVs for some time. But its efforts have ramped up under Biden, who has taken a whole-of-government approach to combating climate change.
When Democrats controlled the House, Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) also included provisions in the NDAA requiring the military to purchase more electric non-tactical vehicles. In an interview, Garamendi slammed his GOP colleagues for trying to restrict EVs for “ideological” reasons.
“It’s just stupid,” he said. “I’d be happy to tell them that to their face and probably will. Put your ideology and your politics aside and get down to reality. The military actually would like to have EVs.”
Richard Kidd, who served as one of the top climate officials at the Pentagon until he retired in May, said the GOP amendments fail to recognize the tactical advantages of EVs. In particular, he noted that electric and hybrid combat vehicles emit less heat and noise, so they are harder for enemies to detect.
“Some of the proposals would actually deny the military hybrid and electric technologies that make the forces safer and more capable,” Kidd said.
Sharon Burke, who served as assistant secretary of defense for operational energy during the Obama administration, agreed with this assessment. She added that Russia’s war in Ukraine has revealed the risks of relying on fossil-fuel-powered combat vehicles, as Moscow has struggled to keep a consistent fuel line running.
“We’re getting a really visceral, searing lesson in why a vehicle that uses less fuel on the battlefield is important,” she said.
Still, both Kidd and Burke acknowledged that it’s difficult to recharge EVs on the battlefield, a problem highlighted in a recent report by the Atlantic Council.
“How do you recharge them in the field? Right now, there are some solutions, but those technologies are not yet mature,” said Tate Nurkin, a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council and co-author of the report.
Burke also voiced concern about the security risks of relying on China for the critical minerals used in EV batteries. But she emphasized that this concern is not unique to EVs.
“There are all kinds of defense technologies that depend on critical minerals for which the supply chain is a problem,” she said. “So this is something that U.S. national security leadership needs to take into account, even if the military isn’t going to electric vehicles.”
The House will likely take up the NDAA this week. But it’s unclear whether all the GOP amendments will receive floor votes or pass the chamber, since some of the proposals previously failed to pass the House Armed Services Committee.
However, one wild card is conservatives’ influence on the House Rules Committee, which will determine on Tuesday which amendments get votes. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) gave spots on the committee to three far-right Republican lawmakers — Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.), Chip Roy (Tex.) and Ralph Norman (S.C.) — as part of his deal to secure the speakership.
Spokespeople for Perry and Boebert did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Massie, who drives a Tesla with a “friends of coal” Kentucky license plate, also did not respond to an email seeking comment.
As contract negotiations between big automakers and the United Auto Workers get underway this week, President Biden faces a balancing act between two high-profile priorities: championing labor rights and advancing clean-energy policy, The Washington Post’s Jeanne Whalen reports.
In recent weeks, the UAW’s new leadership has sounded alarms about the Biden administration’s push for EVs, criticizing the relatively low pay workers are earning at one new battery factory and blasting the closure of older gasoline-vehicle factories. In the negotiations with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, the union has called for ensuring that workers at older factories can transition to new EV jobs with the same pay and benefits.
If progress isn’t made on the multiyear contracts covering about 150,000 UAW workers, some plants could go on strike as early as September. The automakers have said they are committed to creating thousands of new union jobs with attractive wages, while also controlling costs in an increasingly competitive global industry.
On Wednesday: The House Financial Services Committee will kick off a month of hearings focused on ESG — environmental, social and governance — policies. The panel will start by considering legislation from Rep. Garland “Andy” Barr (R-Ky.) that would prohibit banks from refusing or limiting financial services to businesses based on ESG criteria.
On Thursday: The House Foreign Affairs Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee will discuss the State Department’s climate agenda and budget, with U.S. climate envoy John F. Kerry scheduled to testify.
Automobile Training Base Construction On Friday: The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance will meet to examine how ESG considerations might be increasing insurance or housing costs.