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Presented by Earthjustice & Evergreen Action

With help from Catherine Morehouse, Josh Siegel and Ben Lefebvre

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— President Joe Biden will call for a gas tax holiday today, but Democrats on the Hill aren't sold on the idea.

— The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee dives into funding for EPA's TSCA implementation.

— The Biden administration unveiled its spring regulatory roadmap, offering timelines for some of its most closely watched climate and energy agenda items.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY! I’m your host, Matthew Choi. Cheniere’s Khary Cauthen gets the trivia for knowing Aeromexico, Air France, Delta and Korean Air were the founding members of SkyTeam. For today: Who was the last president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to have personally known Joseph Smith? Send your tips and trivia answers to [email protected] . Find me on Twitter @matthewchoi2018.

Check out the POLITICO Energy podcast — all the energy and environmental politics and policy news you need to start your day, in just five minutes. Listen and subscribe for free at politico.com/energy-podcast. On today's episode: The changing shape of the environmental movement.

A message from Earthjustice & Evergreen Action:

President Biden has the legal authority and policy tools to lead a just transition from fossil fuel leasing to clean energy. The federal fossil fuel program remains incompatible with science-based climate targets and President Biden’s environmental justice and climate commitments. America can lead the world in moving toward a clean energy future. We must phase out fossil fuel leasing on public lands and offshore waters. Read our report.

A GAS TAX HOLIDAY? President Joe Biden plans to call on Congress today to pause the roughly 18-cent per gallon federal gas tax in a bid to cool off the country's hot gasoline prices, POLITICO's Sarah Ferris and Adam Cancryn report. Biden has been floating the idea for the past few days, and Sens. Maggie Hassan and Mark Kelly have both introduced legislation to pause the gas tax for the rest of the year.

But the idea has hit resistance from several of their fellow Democrats, and members told Sarah on Tuesday that any bill has little chance of going anywhere. The gas tax is one of the key funding streams for roads and road safety, and Democrats aren’t particularly keen on zapping away infrastructure money when they are implementing last year’s massive bipartisan infrastructure package.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm cited the tax’s revenues for surface transportation as a reason for leaving it alone Sunday, though she still said the administration was keeping it on the table. But Biden indicated Tuesday he isn’t too concerned on the funding front, telling reporters that “we have plenty of capacity” to finance infrastructure projects. The White House estimates that a three-month suspension of the tax would cost the highway trust fund $10 billion and acknowledged it was just one in a number of moves to lower prices.

“A federal gas tax suspension alone won’t fix the problem we face,” a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday night. “But it will provide families a little breathing room.”

There is also doubt about how effective a gas tax holiday would actually be in reducing consumer prices. While oil and gas executives told the House Energy and Commerce Committee in April that they didn't plan to pocket the tax benefits for themselves as many Democrats believe, they said the consumer relief was more dependent on the markets. And a gas tax holiday still doesn’t address the root causes of high gasoline prices, which Biden identified Tuesday as limited refining capacity and high global crude prices.

“I'm shaking my head," Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) told ME. "Oil companies and gas stations will pocket most of the money and won't even send President Biden a thank you card. Consumers will get no meaningful relief from this, it will just starve our highway trust fund of revenues. I had hoped better ideas would prevail — like consumer rebates or vouchers for free public transit.”

THURSDAY’S MEETING: Granholm plans to address those up and downstream concerns at a much anticipated meeting with seven of the nation’s top oil and gas executives on Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed Tuesday.

The administration and industry both had some grievance-airing Tuesday ahead of the meeting, with Chevron CEO Mike Wirth writing to Biden that “your Administration has largely sought to criticize, and at times vilify, our industry.” Biden in turn told reporters that he “didn’t know they’d get their feelings hurt that quickly,” and reiterated his calls for more refinery capacity.

Both sides essentially accused each other of acting in poor faith, with Biden rebuffing the idea that the administration was keeping industry from drilling more oil and Wirth pointing to his company’s record-high production volumes last year as evidence it wasn’t holding back to keep profit margins swollen. Wirth also called on Biden to invite senior officials across the administration to Thursday’s meeting.

A message from Earthjustice & Evergreen Action:

TSCA TALK: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee digs into EPA’s implementation of the 2016 revamp of the Toxic Substances Control Act today at a hearing featuring testimony from agency’s toxic chemicals chief, Michal Freedhoff.

The committee is largely interested today in how Congress should dole out resources for the agency’s TSCA work as it mulls appropriations for the next fiscal year. Chair Tom Carper (D-Del.) advocates for the administration’s budget request to increase appropriations for TSCA by $64 million and 201 staffers to a total of $124 million and 532 staffers.

SPEAKING OF APPROPRIATIONS: The House Appropriations Committee's subpanels on energy and interior advanced their spending plans to the full committee Tuesday. POLITICO's Kelsey Tamborrino breaks down the energy and water package, while Alex Guillén dives into the interior and environment bill. The full committee is slated to take on the legislation next week.

ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE BILLS: The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s energy subpanel holds a legislative hearing today on six infrastructure, resiliency and efficiency bills. They include measures to secure the domestic critical minerals supply chain and create new DOE programs to ensure reliability.

LOWERING PAIN AT THE ELECTRIC PUMP: A bipartisan group of four lawmakers is urging FERC to lower market barriers for electric vehicles. In a letter made public Tuesday, Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Reps. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.) and Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) called for the commission to revisit “discriminatory” wholesale market rate designs that threaten to render fast charging stations uneconomic.

Lawmakers asked FERC to reexamine rates that charge consumers based on the amount of energy consumed at a customer’s peak demand — which is high for EV charging stations that use a lot of power at once — rather than rates based on the overall electricity a station uses, which is lower overall than a typical commercial customer. The letter cites a study from DOE that found the current rate structure is responsible for most of an EV station’s operating expenses, making it difficult for fast chargers to break even.

SAVE OUR SEQUOIAS BILL DETAILS: A bipartisan group of more than 20 House members led by top Republican Kevin McCarthy and Democratic Rep. Scott Peters , both of California, plan to introduce legislation Thursday morning to protect giant sequoias, the most massive species of trees on Earth.

The trees are important carbon sinks but are being wiped out by wildfires across California. The “Save our Sequoias Act” would enhance interagency coordination, provide funding and establish a grant program for projects that reduce the amount of fuel for wildfires, expedite environmental reviews to initiate forest thinning and prescribed burns, and create a reforestation strategy to regenerate giant sequoias. Bill proponents blame decades of fire suppression and mismanagement for creating a buildup of hazardous fuels around the sequoias, leading to one-fifth of the trees being destroyed by wildfires over the past two years.

OPEN OIL BORDERS: Six House Democrats are pushing back on calls to halt shipments of U.S. oil, urging Biden not to restrict U.S. exports in a bid to bring down fuel prices. In a letter Tuesday, the lawmakers argue that blocking exports would simply take more supply off of global markets, further driving up prices.

Flooding the U.S. market with U.S. crude would also lead to inefficiencies at American refineries, which are already operating at near max capacity. The signatories include Reps. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas), Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), Luis Correa (D-Calif.), Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) and Tim Ryan (D-Ohio).

STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.

THE REGULATORY AGENDA: While Democrats’ legislative agenda remains brewing behind closed doors, the Biden administration unveiled the unified regulatory agenda on when it hoped to enact some of its biggest climate and energy priorities for the coming year. Though the report’s deadlines aren't binding, they offer a rough timeline of some of the most-anticipated — and politically spicy — regulatory action.

The POLITICO Energy team breaks down the highlights for energy and environment action, including EPA regulations on greenhouse gas pollution, royalty and fee updates for the federal oil and gas leasing program, nuclear licensing changes, biofuel blending requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standard and a new definition of “Waters of the United States.” As ME readers know, all of those regulatory actions have been the subject of fierce political fighting for months, including over pending cases before the Supreme Court.

THE CASE OF WYOMING WAIVERS: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility is asking the Interior Department’s Inspector General to investigate whether the Bureau of Land Management erred in granting waivers to oil companies looking to drill on federal land set aside as habitat for the endangered sage grouse in Wyoming.

PEER says documents received via a public records request shows that three BLM offices in Wyoming gave a total of 80 such waivers over nearly four years leading up to November 2021. The agency hasn’t handed over requested records from seven other BLM offices in the state, PEER says, meaning the total could be even higher.

“These records raise questions about the effectiveness of sage grouse protections if they are routinely waived,” stated Rocky Mountain PEER Director Chandra Rosenthal in a press release.

JOIN TUESDAY FOR WOMEN RULE TALK ON THE ECONOMY: The U.S. economy is showing signs of slowing down after a period of robust growth last year. How would an economic slowdown affect women’s economic security across socioeconomic, racial, and geographic lines? Join POLITICO’s Women Rule for a conversation on what’s ahead for the U.S. economy and how it will impact women’s livelihoods and economic well-being. REGISTER HERE.

— ”Solar-Power Developers Pledge to Buy U.S. Panels—If Someone Makes Them,” via The Wall Street Journal.

— ”Smugglers’ secrets: How Russia can beat EU sanctions,” via POLITICO.

— “Germany risks recession as Russian gas crisis deepens,” via Reuters.

— “​​U.S. Natural-Gas Exporter Completes First Deal With German Buyer,” via The Wall Street Journal.

THAT’S ALL FOR ME!

A message from Earthjustice & Evergreen Action:

The federal fossil fuel program does not line up with President Biden’s national climate pollution targets, the goals of the Paris Agreement, or climate science. Lifecycle emissions from fossil fuels extracted from federal lands are responsible for nearly a quarter of America’s carbon emissions. If the Biden administration continues on their current trajectory with federal fossil fuel leasing, there’s simply no way that it can meet its climate and environmental justice commitments.

Our report provides a policy roadmap for how the Biden administration can align its federal fossil fuel program with the President’s climate and environmental justice commitments. The Biden administration must act by taking three steps: 1) swiftly phasing out new federal fossil fuel leasing on public lands and waters; 2) limiting existing federal fossil fuel production to align with the Paris Agreement; and 3) leading a just transition away from a fossil-fueled economy for communities.