Biden claims new federal rule will 'make air travel better for all Americans'

Christian Datoc

May 08, 03:12 PM May 08, 03:15 PM

President Joe Biden rolled out two reforms Monday that he claimed will "make air travel better for all Americans."

The president had previously directed the Department of Transportation to try to lower costs for families by cracking down on excess booking fees, and he said Monday that the administration will propose a rule later in the year requiring all airlines to compensate fliers for the cost of meals, hotels, taxis, rideshares, and rebooking fees "when they're the ones to blame" for canceled or delayed flights.

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"The airline industry is a key part of our economy, and they've been critical partners in a number of important initiatives from requiring employees to get COVID vaccines and addressing the supply chain problems over the last couple of years. But I know how frustrated many of you are with the service you get from your U.S. airlines," Biden stated in remarks at the White House Monday. "A year ago, almost no major airline guaranteed any compensation beyond the price of the ticket if they caused the delay. The delay was their fault. No reimbursement for a hotel after a canceled flight or a meal after a delayed flight. But then, we challenged them to do better.

"Later this year, my administration will propose a historic, new rule that will make it mandatory, not voluntary, but mandatory, for all U.S. airlines to compensate you with meals, hotels, taxis, rideshares, rebooking, food, fees in cash, miles, and/or travel vouchers whenever they're the ones to blame for the cancellation and delay, and that's all on top of refunding the cost of your ticket."

The president also announced the launch of a new Transportation Department website, flightsright.gov, where fliers can compare airline reimbursement policies.

"I hope and I expect the Department of Transportation to move as quickly as it can to put this new rule in place," Biden continued. "It matters. I know these things may not matter to the very wealthy, but they matter to most middle-class families and people struggling to get the cost of — in the first place to get in that airline."

You can watch Biden's remarks in full below.

Top lawmakers voice opposition to short-term debt limit deal

Ryan King

May 07, 03:14 PM May 07, 03:14 PM

Top lawmakers are giving the prospect of a short-term debt limit deal a cold reception, while largely refraining from ruling it out entirely.

Under a short-term plan, Congress would effectively push back the debt ceiling in order to buy time from the June deadline to figure out a longer-term agreement. Many lawmakers appear skeptical that more time could solve the impasse, but are simultaneously adamant that the United States can't default on its obligations.

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"I don't think the responsible thing to do is to kick the can down the road," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told NBC's Meet the Press. "We have to avoid default period. Full stop."

Although unhappy with a short-term arrangement, Jeffries declined to rule out backing one when asked. Some Biden administration officials are deliberating over such a proposal as an avenue out of the debt ceiling standoff, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Some analysts have suggested that punting on the debt limit, for now, would avert default, which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen forecasted could come as soon as June 1. From there, Congress could pair the debt limit with the upcoming battle over government funding for the next fiscal year.

Both Jeffries and the White House conveyed that Democrats are open to talking about spending priorities with the GOP. They remain adamant, however, that Republicans must give them a stand-alone bill to lift the nation's borrowing authority.

"We want to do the right thing for the American people. And that means paying our bills and simultaneously having this discussion about the future and what spending can look like anchored in President Biden's budget proposal," Jeffries added.

A short-term debt limit measure could breach House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) vow to "never" move a bill that just lifts the debt limit. A handful of Republicans have already criticized a short-term deal.

“I would prefer that we get this done the first time. That always gets dicey. And, frankly, I don’t even know if there’d be the votes for that,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SC) said, per NBC. “I think there’s going to have to be a really earnest effort made to try and negotiate something that can get passed by the deadline.”

"We all work around deadlines here. If we do a short-term extension, it means we won’t get into negotiations in earnest until three or four weeks before whatever the new extension is. That’s how this place works," Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) argued, according to the outlet.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) initially signaled openness, but later clarified that he is not supportive of such a measure, according to Semafor.

Another Republican, Rep. Patrick McHenry (NC), argued that everything should be left on the table as the country stares down a potential economic crisis.

“I think everything’s on the table at this point. The key thing that has to be in this equation is addressing our fiscal house, short term, and long term,” he told CBS's Face the Nation.

The clock is ticking for lawmakers to break the deadlock. Biden is set to meet with the four congressional leaders Tuesday to discuss the standoff.

If the U.S. runs out of cash to fund its operations and defaults, unemployment could skyrocket, and inflation could accelerate dramatically, according to some estimates.

Yellen says using 14th Amendment to scrap debt limit would cause a 'constitutional crisis'

Ryan King

May 07, 11:14 AM May 07, 11:14 AM

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen repeatedly declined to rule out the possibility of declaring the debt ceiling unconstitutional if Congress fails to resolve its standoff, but said doing so would be a "not-good" option.

Amid the brinkmanship, some have suggested that President Joe Biden could invoke the 14th Amendment to scrap the debt limit and avert a default. Yellen warned that such action would trigger a constitutional crisis and also stressed that Congress must act quickly to forestall an economic calamity.

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"There is no way to protect our financial system in our economy other than Congress doing its job and raising the debt ceiling and enabling us to pay our bills. And we should not get to the point where we need to consider whether the president can go on issuing debt. This would be a constitutional crisis," Yellen said on ABC's This Week.

The 14th Amendment stipulates that the “validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.” However, the Constitution also grants Congress the power of the purse.

Yellen avoided a direct answer about whether such action was off the table.

"If Congress fails to meet its responsibility, there are simply no good options. And the ones that you've listed are among the not-good options," Yellen added.

Biden downplayed the potential use of the 14th Amendment during a recent MSNBC interview.

"I've not gotten there yet," he said.

Yellen also re-upped her well-worn warnings that if Congress fails to up the debt limit, "economic chaos would ensue" that would unleash havoc on both the domestic and global economy. She insisted that there are no more tricks in the department's reserve to buy additional time.

Biden is set to meet with congressional leaders, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), on May 9. McCarthy and Biden last met back in February. The United States rammed up against its $31.4 trillion debt limit back in January, but the Treasury Department has deployed "extraordinary measures" to keep funds flowing in the time since.

Yellen recently estimated that those steps will run dry by June 1, giving Congress less than a month to resolve its differences. So far, neither side has shown signs of blinking, with Biden demanding a clean bill with no strings attached and McCarthy adamant that spending cuts be part of any deal.

House GOP takes ax to Democratic clean energy credits with debt ceiling proposal

Jeremy Beaman

April 19, 04:32 PM April 19, 04:32 PM

House Republicans proposed new debt ceiling legislation Wednesday that would repeal nearly a dozen clean energy subsidies recently authorized by the Democratic Inflation Reduction Act as a way to reduce federal spending.

The GOP proposal would cut or shrink numerous of the tax credits that President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress signed off on in August to expand renewable energy technologies, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and accelerate their climate change agenda, including the new tax credit for consumer purchases of used electric vehicles.

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Other tax credits that would be repealed include the law's zero-emission nuclear power credit and the new tax $7,500 hundred tax credit for light-duty electric vehicles purchased for commercial use.

The debt ceiling bill also includes elements of HR 1, the House Republican sweeping energy proposal that would increase domestic production of fossil fuels and ease permitting for mining.

"The Limit, Save, Grow Act will limit federal spending, save taxpayers trillions of dollars, grow our economy, and lift the debt limit into next year," House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said. "This legislation will make us less dependent on the whims of the Chinese Communist Party and curb high inflation, all without touching Social Security or Medicare — because no one is hurt more by inflation than seniors."

Republicans have argued the Inflation Reduction Act's tax credits strengthen the advantage of China, which dominates various industries that produce batteries, solar products, and their upstream supply chains.

The law included language designed to bring those industries home or enable their expansion in trade partner countries, although some Democrats, most notably the chief author, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), have complained that the administration is implementing the law too liberally to achieve those goals.

The White House is blasting Republicans' effort to repeal Biden's signature achievement, flipping the script to say their proposal would favor China.

"Let's be clear what MAGA attacks on the Inflation Reduction Act would mean for American families," press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. "Offshore tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs, including in districts many of these members actually represent."

The legislation unveiled Wednesday is McCarthy's first offer in talks with Biden to raise the federal debt ceiling. The limit must be raised by some time this summer or early fall to prevent the Treasury from defaulting on the debt, a prospect the Treasury has said would create massive economic turmoil. Biden has said that he won't negotiate with Republicans over raising the debt limit and has challenged the House GOP to produce a budget resolution to show their plans for taxing and spending.

Navajo Nation to receive federal funds for severe winter flood damage

Eden Villalovas

April 12, 05:44 PM April 12, 05:44 PM

The Biden administration granted federal funding to assist the Navajo Nation in the areas affected by severe storms and flooding from Jan. 14-17. The funds will be used for emergency repairs and other possible mitigation efforts.

The largest Native American reservation in the United States, which spans across Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico, declared a state of emergency earlier this year when heavy snow, high winds, mud, and flooding conditions affected multiple communities.

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“Federal funding is available to the Navajo Nation and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the severe winter storms and flooding,” a Tuesday statement from the White House said. “Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures for the Navajo Nation.”

The storm, which hit days after Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren was sworn into office on Jan. 10, promoted the deployment of Division of Transportation resources to Defiance Plateau communities in need of immediate assistance.

Benigno B. Ruiz of the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been named as the federal coordinating officer to delegate recovery operations in the damaged areas.

“Additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the Tribal Nation and warranted by the results of further damage assessments,” the statement concluded.

EV push threatens to strain power grids and threaten reliability

Breanne Deppisch

April 12, 05:35 AM April 12, 05:50 AM

The Biden administration's push for widespread electric vehicle adoption threatens to place significant strain on aging power grids, threatening capacity during hours of peak demand and raising the risk of blackouts.

To date, the administration has announced tens of billions of dollars in federal spending to help entice families and states to embrace electric vehicles as it seeks to meet its target of having electric vehicles make up 50% of new car sales by 2030.

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The biggest incentives include the $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric vehicle purchases in the Inflation Reduction Act designed to mitigate high upfront costs for consumers, as well as the $7.5 billion in funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law dedicated to building out a national network of 500,000 public EV charging stations.

An estimated 3.2 million EVs are on the roads in the United States today, representing approximately 1% of vehicles in the country.

That number is slated to rise sharply in the coming years: The Edison Electric Institute estimated that by 2030, the number of EVs in the U.S. is expected to grow to about 22 million vehicles — a massive increase that will correlate with a strong rise in demand on U.S. power grids.

But without proper planning, widespread adoption of electric vehicles could add severe strain to already-stressed U.S. power grids — threatening transformer blowouts, electricity shortages, and even requiring the use of costly new power plants to meet the heightened demand.

How much additional power EVs will require is difficult to quantify. A 2020 estimate from the Brattle Group suggested as much as $125 billion would need to be invested in grids to meet the demand.

That number includes $30 billion to $50 billion for additional power generation and grid storage, $15 billion to $25 billion for transmission and distribution upgrades, and $30 billion to $50 billion for EV chargers and infrastructure, the report found.

Otherwise, the threat of power shortages will become increasingly frequent.

The risks increase if grids fail to add the necessary transmission to bring clean energy resources online, if EV users fail to heed mitigation strategies such as charging their vehicles during the day, or if grid operators move too quickly away from fossil-fueled or "dispatchable" resources in an effort to decarbonize the grid.

Ronald Schoff, the director of the Electric Power Research Institute, told reporters this month that decarbonizing U.S. power grids while also ensuring that they can withstand growing EV demand is likely to prove a “daunting," though not altogether impossible, challenge.

“In order to hit those kinds of figures, we see a rapid buildout of renewable energy — from the 230 gigawatts [of renewable power] we have today to over 600 gigawatts potentially by 2030,” Schoff said, citing ERPI's modeling.

“We are effectively rebuilding an airplane that is in midflight,” he said.

“We are trying to switch the fuel, and we're trying to change out the wings, the wheels, the engine, all as we go,” he added. “Which is possible — but it's complicated.”

Why it matters

The supply-demand imbalance on U.S. power grids has been on stark display in recent years, especially in certain states — threatening rolling blackouts or fears of complete collapse.

Last September, a historic heat wave descended on California, bringing blistering triple-digit temperatures and pushing energy demand to a record of 52,000 megawatts.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) declared a state of emergency, and the state's grid operator activated an emergency conservation program that stretched beyond a week, successfully but narrowly avoiding more blackouts like those that roiled the state in 2020.

Earlier this year, federal regulators approved a request to extend the life of California's Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant — a once-unthinkable request from Newsom and other Democrats made in the name of reliability concerns.

Reliability concerns are also top of mind in Texas after a devastating 2021 winter storm caused 4.5 million Texans to lose power and a near-collapse of the state's power grid.

As a result, state lawmakers are weighing new bills that would shift the state’s power generation away from renewables and toward natural gas, threatening its status as a wind and solar energy powerhouse and possibly driving up costs for consumers.

Proponents of the bills say adding more fossil-fueled or "dispatchable" generation to the grid will help protect against outages from other extreme weather events.

A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said in a new report that it is necessary to develop “demand mitigation strategies” to help reduce EV strain on grids as the rate of adoption increases.

One key mitigation strategy is to invest in strategically located public chargers downtown and near workplaces to encourage charging during the day, when electricity demand is lower.

These need not be the faster, Level 2 variety chargers, the researchers said. Rather, they found that the addition of even slow public chargers at workplaces can sufficiently help reduce the strain on power grids.

Workplace chargers also help use renewable sources, such as solar power, which is often in abundant supply during the day, they noted.

Oftentimes, excess solar generation is wasted in the hours of peak generation because most grids lack the battery or storage capacity required to keep it online for very long in the evening.

Solar power oversupply during daylight hours can also cause fossil fuel-powered plants to reduce their power generation to maintain the supply-demand balance, thus resulting in a resource shortage during the evenings, when solar generation abruptly retires and household demand sharply increases — the phenomenon known as the “duck curve.”

And since workplace charging cannot be the sole source of charging, researchers also recommended "delayed home charging," under which drivers would program their EVs to charge by a fixed amount overnight.

The delayed home charging solutions can eliminate peak demand from EVs by "well over 50%," the report found.

Without these mitigation strategies, they said, as much as 20% more power generation would need to be installed for power grids to keep up with the added demand from EVs.

Failure to adopt such mitigation strategies would also increase electricity prices relative to today's costs, thus raising costs of EVs over time compared to conventional gas-powered vehicles and “potentially providing a new barrier to further electrification of the transport sector," they wrote.

A Stanford University study published last fall in the journal Nature Energy cited similar concerns.

Researchers found that rising levels of EV ownership in the West could cause electricity demand to increase by as much as 25% by 2035 overall, should drivers continue the dominant trend of charging their EVs in their homes at night.

In order to reduce the strain on grids, the Stanford report also called for “significant” investments to build out more public charging infrastructure, particularly downtown and near places of work.

California and other Western states should also consider adopting new time-of-use electricity pricing structures to encourage daytime charging, they added.

Their recommendations go beyond just the West Coast, where EV adoption is highest: They warned that similar supply-demand gaps are growing for all U.S. power grids as electrification spreads, particularly due to the rise in EV sales.

“All states may need to rethink electricity pricing structures as their EV charging needs increase and their grid changes,” the study’s lead author, Siobhan Powell, said in a statement.

The MIT researchers found that workplace charging during the day reduced grid demand during evening "peak hours" by a whopping 70% in New York and 80% in Dallas, the two locations it studied closely for the report.

Decarbonizing the grid

Increasing the share of EVs in the U.S. to 50% compared to the just 5% of EVs on the road today will require a “rapid” buildout of renewable energy resources and transmission to supply grids nationwide, according to researchers.

But that's especially true the Biden administration hopes to deliver on its pledge to halve U.S. carbon emissions by 2030 compared to 2005 levels as part of the nation's commitment under the Paris climate accord.

The U.S. transportation sector accounts for 27% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, meaning that electrifying the fleet is key if the U.S. hopes to deliver on its goals of fighting climate change and meeting its target set under the Paris Agreement.

Doing this presents myriad challenges for utilities, generators, and grid operators, which must develop planning models that anticipate both the rise in energy generated by EVs and what the charging patterns will be, including during hours of peak demand.

“I think that’s one of the challenges,” said former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Neil Chatterjee, who oversaw key efforts to help reconfigure and prepare power grids for electrification during his tenure.

“Charging at the workplace, charging cars during the day — that anticipates that you drive to work and park in at work," he said. "And what if you're in an urban environment, where parking your car at the office or plugging it in there is not an option? Similarly, for residential charging — what about people who don't have garages and who don't have the ability to plug in when they come home?”

Chatterjee, now a senior adviser at Hogan Lovells, said he is optimistic that grid operators can anticipate and meet the heightened demand from EVs and add clean energy to the grid to do so, though he said these dual challenges also underscore the importance of adding transmission to the grid.

“As we just electrify more in society, we’re going to have to understand not just the surge in demand — the timing and when those surges in demand come and be ready for that. I think the system can handle it,” he said.

“But I think that also argues for why we need more transmission to get more clean power onto the grid,” he added. “So that we can kind of ameliorate some of these situations.”

Senate Intelligence Committee to get tough with Biden administration stonewalling

Sarah Westwood

April 11, 06:00 AM April 11, 06:17 AM

Senate Intelligence Committee members could soon reach a breaking point in their fight with the Biden administration over access to classified documents found in the homes of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Months of negotiations over whether lawmakers should get to read the contents of the classified documents have produced no progress, with the Justice Department continuing to cite the existence of two criminal investigations in their denials to the committee.

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Now, Senate lawmakers say they will consider creative ways to pressure the Biden administration to cooperate.

Proposals have included withholding funding and even putting limits on the authority of intelligence agencies. Committee members have said they need to review the underlying documents not to determine whether Biden or Trump mishandled them but to gauge how effectively intelligence agencies have managed the potential fallout of the documents’ contents falling into the wrong hands.

Frustration has also mounted over how top administration officials have traded blame for the delays.

Senate Intelligence Committee members say the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has blamed the Justice Department for preventing its cooperation, while the Justice Department has said it has no intention of blocking the committee’s access to the documents.

“I’m surprised to hear the DNI used the word blocking,” Attorney General Merrick Garland testified before Congress on March 28 when pressed by Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) about the documents. “I would say we are working well with them. We believe that there is an accommodation possible.”

Garland said the Justice Department has confidence that the administration could find a way to satisfy the committee’s interest without threatening the criminal investigations.

“We intend to work out an arrangement to accommodate those interests,” Garland said.

But no such arrangement has materialized in the weeks since that exchange, and lawmakers appear to be losing their patience.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the committee’s top Republican, said Friday that intelligence community funding could be on the chopping block if intelligence officials continue to stonewall lawmakers.

“They’re ruining their relationship with a committee that has always been very responsible and a very good working partner with them,” Rubio told the Hill.

“There’s no doubt that there’s going to be consequences for it. There has to be,” Rubio added. “We have to protect our role on oversight. And the way you do that, unfortunately, is to leverage [the power] that appropriations and authorizations give us.”

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) recently suggested the committee could threaten the authority of the intelligence community if lawmakers don’t get answers.

“I am done with the lack of willingness of the administration to address this,” Warner said during a recent appearance on MSNBC. “Their position does not pass the smell test. We are going to put limitations on what the IC does, and I am going to encourage my colleagues to do the same on the Justice Department.”

And Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has floated the prospect of blocking Biden nominees until intelligence agencies comply with the committee’s requests.

He said in January that a bipartisan group of lawmakers agreed with the need to “impose pain” on the Biden administration in order to force its hand.

Lawmakers from both parties have noted that the Biden administration’s refusal to share the documents departs from precedent.

During the Trump-era special counsel investigation involving Russia, the Senate Intelligence Committee received more information in a shorter time frame despite the existence of a criminal investigation.

The appointment of two special counsels, one each to oversee investigations of the mishandling of classified documents by both Trump and Biden, has virtually frozen the ODNI’s cooperation with lawmakers.

Senate Intelligence Committee members left a January briefing angry about the lack of answers from Avril Haines, the intelligence director.

The top two members of that committee, Warner and Rubio, as well as the top two leaders of the House and Senate and the top two members of the House Intelligence Committee, a group known as the “Gang of Eight,” left another briefing in February unsatisfied with the answers they received from Haines and other intelligence community leaders.

The inability of Senate Intelligence Committee members to gain insight into the contents of the classified documents amid the special counsel investigation stands in stark contrast to the amount of information about at least the Trump investigation that has ended up in news reports.

Anonymous sources have provided information to reporters about evidence the special counsel’s offices have amassed, including specific documents that have become part of the case and the latest suspicions prosecutors have about Trump’s conduct.

Earlier in the investigation, anonymous sources also characterized to reporters the contents of some of the classified documents discovered in Trump’s home, such as naming Iran as a country about which Trump had classified information and noting that some of the documents related to nuclear secrets.

Spokesmen for Warner and Rubio did not return requests for comment.

Biden's fight with Manchin over key legislation adds to pile of overreach claims

Haisten Willis

April 04, 05:35 AM April 04, 05:35 AM

Senators who delivered historic legislative wins to President Joe Biden last year are beginning to regret it.

Bipartisan complaints from the upper chamber now add to a long list of accusations that the Biden administration is exceeding the powers granted to the executive branch.

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"I think they're going to try to screw me on this, and I'm willing to go to court," Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said during comments at the SAFE Summit, an industry conference focused on electrification. "I'm willing to stop it all."

Manchin provided the crucial vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which, among other things, included a $7,500 tax credit for electrical vehicles intended to promote both green energy and American manufacturing. But some of the buy-American provisions upset Asian and European allies, and Biden later told French President Emmanuel Macron there were "tweaks" that could be made even though the bill had already been signed into law.

Those tweaks were unveiled Friday when the Treasury Department announced it would open electric vehicle tax credits to more foreign exporters' products.

Manchin was furious, saying the "horrific" move undercuts the bill's intent to bring manufacturing back to the United States and would "cede control" to the Chinese Communist Party.

He also threatened to sue.

"I think they're going to try to screw me on this, and I'm willing to go to court," Manchin said.

Just a few weeks prior, a group of Republican senators felt similar remorse. They had helped pass the CHIPS and Science Act, which was designed to promote American semiconductor manufacturing, and were upset the Biden administration stipulated on its own that companies receiving money from the bill would have to provide child care, detail their relationships with unions, share profits beyond a certain threshold with the government, and purchase supplies from domestic producers, among other requirements.

"We are in strong opposition to regulations your Department is putting in place that will use this legislation and the funding it provides as a tool to pursue controversial policies that go beyond the requirements of the law," wrote Sens. Steve Daines (R-MT), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and John Cornyn (R-TX).

While those are the two most recent examples, accusations of executive overreach have been lobbed at Biden since the early days of his presidency. Those claims have included the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's eviction moratorium, the federal vaccine mandate for private employers, the federal mask mandate, Biden's $400 billion student debt transfer, efforts to ban gas stoves and curtail independent contracting, and even an attempt to expand the definition of "waters of the United States."

"Executive overreach has become synonymous with the Biden administration," Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said during a Senate floor speech in March. "It’s created a desperate need for oversight from my Republican colleagues, both in the Senate and in the House of Representatives."

Capito mentioned an analysis from the American Action Forum, which found that the Biden administration has imposed 539 regulatory actions since taking office, creating $359 billion in costs.

Spearheaded by Capito, the Senate later voted to overturn a WOTUS rule that could have placed federal regulations on small, temporary waterways.

But Manchin, who faces long odds at reelection in 2024, may not be so lucky, and his conservative manufacturing-heavy state could be negatively affected if the Inflation Reduction Act's tax credits are diluted.

"We have a respectful, a productive relationship with Sen. Joe Manchin," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said when asked about his criticisms of the Inflation Reduction Act. "And we are very proud of the Inflation Reduction Act and our shared goals and values that the President signed into law, as you know, this past summer."

The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.

Republicans have vowed to rein the White House in now that they control the House of Representatives, but the biggest check on Biden's power may be the Supreme Court.

The high court has struck down a series of pandemic-related administration moves, including the eviction moratorium, vaccine and mask mandates, and efforts to regulate emissions, and may do so with student loans as well.

"Some of the biggest mistakes in the court's history were deferring to assertions of executive or emergency power," Justice Brett Kavanaugh said during the student loans hearings. "Some of the finest moments in the court's history were pushing back against presidential assertions of emergency power, and that's continued not just in the Korean War but post-9/11, in some of the cases there."

Biden's job approval ratings take a tumble again, imperiling reelection plans

Haisten Willis

March 30, 07:00 AM March 30, 07:01 AM

President Joe Biden's approval ratings have dipped again even as he prepares a reelection bid, complicating his plans for 2024 and beyond.

Biden's approval has dipped from 45% to 38%, per the latest -NORC Center poll, dropping close to the all-time lows he set amid skyrocketing gas prices and high inflation last summer.

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While Biden's approval ratings have been underwater for 18 months and have hovered in the low 40s since last year, critics charge that the latest dip is a sign he's not fit for another run at the White House.

"Banking crisis, border crisis, inflation crisis, Ukraine crisis, debt crisis, fentanyl crisis, should I keep going?" tweeted firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). "Is he really running for president again?"

Biden's approval rating is near his record low of 36%, which was set amid 9.1% inflation and $5-per-gallon gas last summer. Those factors have eased somewhat in the months since, suggesting other issues may be driving his numbers down.

Democratic strategist Brad Bannon acknowledged the low numbers could dog Biden.

"The easiest way to understand why Biden's approval ratings are in the high 30s is to watch a half hour of the network news," Bannon said. "There's a story about a school shooting, tornadoes in the mid-South, the latest winter storm in California, followed by a story on Ukraine and then one about conflict in Washington. Most voters think the country is going to hell in a handbasket."

That reality is reflected in the poll as well, with just 21% of respondents saying the country is headed in the right direction, which is also the lowest the number has been since last summer.

Nonetheless, Bannon argues that Biden has plenty of time to recover ahead of November 2024, particularly if his opponent is former President Donald Trump.

"If your job approval rating is that low, it presents problems for Biden's reelection campaign," he said, "unless, of course, he's running against Trump because however unpopular Biden will be at election time, Trump will be even more unpopular."

Biden often invokes the mantra "Don't compare me to the almighty; compare me to the alternative." But if the alternative is Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Bannon argues that the president will need to get his approval ratings up into the mid-40s in order to win.

Not everyone agrees that factors like extreme weather, school shootings, or the war in Ukraine are behind Biden's struggles. His approval rating on the economy was just 31% in the -NORC poll, compared to 68% who disapprove.

"President Biden's terrible approval numbers on the economy are due to his reckless policies that have caused historic inflation and a prolonged recessionary environment," Job Creators Network CEO Alfredo Ortiz said. "Biden is desperately trying to boost his approval numbers by going on the road to support Inflation Reduction Act spending that supports green businesses. This gambit will backfire, as ordinary Americans know the free market, not the Biden administration, should pick the winners and losers in the economy."

The president's economic ratings have consistently lagged behind his overall approval.

To combat that, Biden has launched a blue-collar focused manufacturing tour to brag on job growth during his administration and try to shore up his status with working-class voters.

"We're creating jobs. We're exporting jobs no longer," Biden said Tuesday. "American products are being made here. We're growing the economy, and today, I announced that since I took office, we've attracted jobs, and we've attracted $435 billion in private investment in American manufacturing."

But as the latest polling shows, he's got an uphill battle to fight.

Biden has not had a positive approval rating since August 2021, when the Afghanistan withdrawal occurred. He shares low approval ratings with Trump, his immediate predecessor, whose numbers likewise hovered in the high 30s and low 40s throughout his presidency.

Federal agencies hit deadline to rid TikTok from government devices

Ryan King

March 29, 02:54 PM March 29, 02:59 PM

Federal agencies have hit the deadline to comply with the Biden administration's directive to get TikTok off of government systems and devices.

Last month, the White House gave agencies 30 days to affirm that the popular China-affiliated short-form video app was not on any government systems amid mounting national security concerns over its parent company ByteDance and its links to the Chinese Communist Party.

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Other governments have undertaken similar measures, including Canada, Taiwan, the European Union, and a bevy of states. The White House issued a memo outlining the ban on Feb. 27, Reuters reported. Agencies were also given 90 days to deal with TikTok by IT services and 120 days to ban its use in new solicitations, per the report.

As agencies bump up against the deadline for the ban, Congress is mulling multiple pieces of legislation to ban the use of TikTok nationally.

On the Senate side, there is a proposal from Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) to give the Biden administration power to ban the social media app. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has floated a proposal to ban it outright. Last week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on TikTok, scrutinizing its ties to China.

China has a policy of civil-military fusion that has fueled concerns that the CCP could extract U.S. data from TikTok and turn it into a vessel for Chinese spying.

During the hearing last week, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew downplayed the company's ties to Beijing. He admitted that ByteDance might have some access to U.S. data, but he highlighted a plan dubbed Project Texas to address those concerns.

A deluge of TikTok influencers converged on the Capitol last week to rally against a ban, but their influence appeared meager with legislators.

The head of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has been reviewing TikTok. The White House has underscored national security concerns over TikTok, but it has not issued a full-throated endorsement of a national ban on it.

"The President really, as you rightly noted, has been very consistent about our concerns in terms of Big Tech, and particularly some social media applications, and that includes TikTok," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a briefing earlier this month. "With the CFIUS review — underway, there’s not a whole lot that I can talk about right now."

Support for a national ban has been largely bipartisan, though some dissenters have raised free speech concerns.

Progressive Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), as well as conservative Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), have come out against a national ban.

How Senate Republicans could tank Biden's student loan forgiveness program this week

Ryan King

March 27, 08:54 AM March 27, 08:54 AM

A crew of Republicans is gearing up for a bid to dismantle President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness program, possibly as early as this week.

Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Joni Ernst (R-IA), and John Cornyn (R-TX) are preparing to bring forth a resolution that would overturn the student loan forgiveness program, which is tangled up in the courts. Biden is widely expected to veto the measure if it makes it to his desk, but the bill would put Democrats on the spot.

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"President Biden’s student loan scheme does not ‘forgive’ debt, it just transfers the burden from those who willingly took out loans to those who never went to college, or sacrificed to pay their loans off," Cassidy said in a statement about the program.

The GOP trio is seeking to tap into powers under the Congressional Review Act, which permits Congress to nix regulations within a set time frame. Earlier this month, the Government Accountability Office determined the program qualifies as a procedure subject to the Congressional Review Act, laying the groundwork for the bill.

On the heels of that GAO finding, the three announced plans to bring forth a resolution tapping into those powers to undercut the forgiveness plan. Biden unveiled the sweeping student loan cancellation program last August.

Under his plan, borrowers with an annual income of $125,000 or less will see up to $10,000 in federal student loans wiped out, while those who received Pell Grants during their schooling can have up to $20,000 erased. The plan utilizes the 2003 HEROES Act, which grants the executive power to relieve student loan debt in times of national emergency or war.

Republicans appear keen on exposing fractures within the Democratic coalition on student loans. Progressives, such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), have roundly applauded the measure, but more centrist members, such as Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), have been apprehensive.

“I’ll review the full text of the CRA when it is released, but like I said before, I disagree with President Biden’s executive action on student loans because it doesn’t address the root problems that make college unaffordable,” Cortez Masto told the Wall Street Journal.

A lower court in Texas halted the program last November. The White House revealed it garnered roughly 26 million applications and approved 16 million for relief, but cancellation has not yet taken place amid the legal squabbling. The Supreme Court is expected to make a determination on the program's legitimacy by June or July.

Critics have pointed to the fact that Biden declared the COVID-19 pandemic was "over" in a 60 Minutes interview last year but the pandemic was thought to be an underpinning of the use of the HEROES Act for the forgiveness program.

Should the high court strike down the initiative, the Biden administration may be able to bring forward a new iteration of the student loan forgiveness plan in hopes that a new framework could muster court challenges.

Biden used his veto power for the first time last week to reject a resolution that would've scrapped a Labor Department rule allowing for retirement plans to consider environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, considerations in investment decisions.

Biden’s Justice Dept. keeps hard line in death row cases

March 26, 04:38 PM March 26, 04:41 PM

CHICAGO (WHD) — Rejon Taylor hoped the election of Joe Biden, the first U.S. president to campaign on a pledge to end the death penalty, would mean a more sympathetic look at his claims that racial bias and other trial errors landed him on federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana.

But two years on, Justice Department attorneys under Biden are fighting the Black man’s efforts to reverse his 2008 death sentence for killing a white restaurateur as hard as they did under Donald Trump, who oversaw 13 executions in his presidency’s final months.

“Every legal means they have available they’re using to fight us,” said the 38-year-old’s lawyer, Kelley Henry. “It’s business as usual.”

Death penalty opponents expected Biden to act within weeks of taking office to fulfill his 2020 campaign promise to end capital punishment on the federal level and to work at ending it in states that still carry out executions. Instead, Biden has taken no steps toward fulfilling that promise.

But it’s not just inaction by Biden. An review of dozens of legal filings shows Biden’s Justice Department is fighting vigorously in courts to maintain the sentences of death row inmates, even after Attorney General Merrick Garland temporarily paused executions. Lawyers for some of the over 40 death row inmates say they’ve seen no meaningful changes to the Justice Department’s approach under Biden and Trump.

“They’re fighting back as much as they ever have,” said Ruth Friedman, head of the defender unit that oversees federal death row cases. “If you say my client has an intellectual disability, the government ... says, ‘No, he does not.’ If you say ‘I’d like (new evidence),’ they say, ‘You aren’t entitled to it.’”

Administration efforts to uphold death sentences for white supremacist Dylann Roof, who killed nine Black church-goers, and Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are better known. Lower-profile cases, like Taylor’s, have drawn less scrutiny.

The Justice Department confirmed that since Biden’s inauguration it hasn’t agreed with a single claim of racial bias or errors that could lead to the overturning of a federal death sentence.

It’s a thorny political issue. While Americans increasingly oppose capital punishment, it is deeply entrenched. And as Biden eyes a 2024 run, it’s unlikely he’ll make capital punishment a signature issue given his silence on it as president.

In announcing the 2021 moratorium, Garland noted concerns about how capital punishment disproportionately impacts people of color and the “arbitrariness” — or lack of consistency — in its application. He hasn’t authorized a single new death penalty case and has reversed decisions by previous administrations to seek it in 27 cases.

Garland recently decided not to pursue death for Patrick Crusius, who killed nearly two dozen people in a racist attack at a Texas Walmart. His lawyers have said he had “severe, lifelong neurological and mental disabilities.” He could still be sentenced to death under state charges.

Garland also took the death penalty off the table for a man accused in 11 killings as part of a drug trafficking ring.

Defense lawyers say that makes it all the more jarring that Garland’s department is fighting to uphold some death sentences. In one case, Norris Holder was sentenced to death for a two-man bank robbery during which a security guard died, even though prosecutors said Holder may not have fired the fatal shot.

Prosecutors decide before trial whether or not to seek the death penalty, and current death row inmates were all tried under previous administrations. Prosecutors have less leeway after a jury’s verdict than before trial.

Court challenges after trials are also often not about whether it was appropriate to pursue the death penalty, but whether there were legal or procedural problems at trial that make the sentence invalid.

“It’s a very different analysis when a conviction has been entered, a jury has spoken,” said Nathan Williams, a former Justice Department lawyer who prosecuted Roof. “There has to be a respect for the appellate process and the legal approaches that can be taken.”

A Justice Department spokesman said prosecutors “have an obligation to enforce the law, including by defending lawfully obtained jury verdicts on appeal.” The department is working to ensure “fair and even-handed administration of the law in capital-eligible cases,” he said.

Inmate lawyers dispute that prosecutors have no choice but to dig in their heels, saying multiple mechanisms have always existed for them to fix past errors.

Justice officials announced this month that they wouldn’t pursue death in the resentencing of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., convicted of killing North Dakota student Dru Sjodin. But that only happened after a judge vacated the original death sentence.

Notably in 2021, the department agreed with lawyers for Wesley Coonce, sentenced to death for killing a fellow inmate in a mental health unit, that lower courts should look again at intellectual disability questions in his case. But the Supreme Court disagreed, declining to hear his case or remand it to lower courts.

Seven federal defendants are still facing possible death sentences.

The first federal death penalty case tried under Biden ended this month. The jury was divided, meaning the life of Sayfullo Saipov, who killed eight people in a terrorist attack on a New York bike path, will be spared. Trump made the decision to seek death and Garland allowed the case to move forward.

Garland’s criteria for letting some capital cases proceed isn’t clear, though the department often consults victims’ families. Some feel strongly that suspected or convicted killers should face death.

Inmate attorneys have asked for all capital cases to get a fresh look. Garland has appeared to take one step in that direction.

The department this year restored written guidance emphasizing that staff can be proactive in fixing egregious errors in capital cases, though none has invoked that option. Garland also re-set processes in which capital defendants can, in certain circumstances, ask the department to consent to their bids for relief.

Taylor was charged with killing restaurant owner Guy Luck in 2003. His lawyers say the 18 year old “discharged his gun in a panic” as Luck tried to grab a gun inside a van in Tennessee.

The prosecution described Taylor to his almost entirely white jury as a “wolf” whom they had an “obligation” to kill. An alternate later said some jurors were determined to get Taylor, recalling: “It was like, here’s this little Black boy. Let’s send him to the chair.”

An appeals court rejected Taylor’s bias claims in 2016, though a dissenting judge said courts must be especially diligent to guard against bias when a defendant is Black and the victim white. She also said Taylor didn’t seem to be among the worst of the worst, for whom death sentences are reserved.

Taylor revived the bias claims, though the department hasn’t directly addressed them. It has rejected many of his separate claims.

As the 2024 election looms — and with the chance of someone even less sympathetic to their claims entering the Oval Office — death row inmates know the clock is ticking.

“Trump ran out of time during his killing spree,” Taylor told the WHD via a prison email system. If elected again, “I don’t think he’d waste any time in continuing where he’d left off.”

Eric Adams defends Biden's record, says Republicans are the ones soft on crime

Ryan King

March 19, 02:15 PM March 19, 02:21 PM

New York City Mayor Eric Adams swooped to President Joe Biden's defense amid criticisms from Republicans on crime.

Seeking to neutralize the narrative that Republicans are strong on crime, Adams countered that the GOP has not always been supportive of increased funding for law enforcement and urged Democrats to begin fortifying their messaging on the matter.

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"They gave the appearance that Democrats are soft on crime. No, soft on crime is the Republicans who refused to put money in his crime bills to make sure that we gave the resources to our police department," Adams said during the debut of MSNBC's Inside with Jen Psaki.

Adams, a former police officer, has made combating crime a top priority of his administration. He encouraged Biden and the Democrats to drive home the message that Democrats are tough on crime.

Recently, Democrats were rocked by the defeat of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot in her reelection bid, making her the first incumbent to do so since 1989. Many analysts pegged crime as one of the major factors that contributed to her loss.

As the 2024 cycle heats up, Republicans sought to put Biden on the spot with a bill to overturn a Council of the District of Columbia crime reform that rolled back sentencing and other penalties on crime. Congress has the power to overturn district law via resolution. Biden ultimately opted not to veto the measure, and the city council moved to withdraw the legislation.

Biden's move on the crime bill, approval of the Willow Project mass oil drilling venture, and recent actions on immigration have widely been viewed as a lurch to the center ahead of an expected 2024 reelection bid.

"I think President Biden is a blue-collar president. Like I like to believe I'm a blue-collar mayor," Adams added. "He's a plain-talking producer. He has produced, and it's unfortunate the noise is getting in the way of what he has to do ... He needs to keep doing what he's doing."

Host Jen Psaki served as Biden's White House press secretary from January 2021 until May 2022. Sunday's show marked the formal debut of her new show, Inside with Jen Psaki, on MSNBC.

Inside with Jen Psaki premiere to feature Hakeem Jeffries, Gov. Whitmer, and Eric Adams

Julia Johnson

March 17, 06:00 AM March 17, 06:01 AM

Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who served in the role for the first 16 months of President Joe Biden's administration, is gearing up for the first episode of her new MSNBC Sunday show, Inside with Jen Psaki.

The premiere episode will air on Sunday at 12 p.m.

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Last week, Psaki attended 2023's South by Southwest conference, where she unveiled her new show's logo, as well as several big-name guests who will join her for the first episode.

The first three guests will be House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, according to a reporter who attended SXSW 2023.

According to Variety, one of the show's segments, "Don’t Freak Out," aims to offer more nuance to news and “lower the temperature” around some current events.

“I have found there are certain five-alarm fires, especially in the world we are living in today, and we will talk about them,” Psaki told the publication. “I will tell you, everything is not a five-alarm fire. Sometimes, you get focused on one aspect of something when, really, the bigger story about it is largely different.”

One of the program's other segments is called "Weekend Routine." This portion of the show will reportedly try to give viewers a better understanding of various influential politicians and public figures. The first subject: Mayor Adams.

Freshmen Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), 25, is said to be a future focus of this segment.

“I will always be transparent when I believe in something,” Psaki explained ahead of her hosting debut. “I have done work before for Planned Parenthood. I’m not going to pretend I see both sides of that issue."

"I believe that people should be able to marry anyone that they want. I’m not going to both-sides that issue," she continued. “But I also hope that I can have people from different political viewpoints on the show. I do think there is a space and a place for engaged poricidal discussion and debate. That’s something during the Trump era that we lost a bit, and I think it’s important to try to bring some of it back.”

The program's executive producer Alex Lupica told Variety, “What you can’t teach is 20 years of experience on campaigns and in government.”

According to her, Psaki “has a deep curiosity about issues and the news, and an incredible work ethic. All the others stuff you can practice and learn.”

On Wednesday, a group of influential members of the Biden administration, as well as powerful media players, reportedly gathered to celebrate Psaki's debut.

One report indicates that the guests included: MSNBC President Rashida Jones, MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart, MSNBC host and former Chief Spokesperson to the Vice President Symone Sanders Townsend, White House Senior Adviser Anita Dunn, and journalist Kara Swisher.

The event took place at Maydan, a restaurant in Washington, D.C.

After it airs on Sunday, Psaki's show will be available for streaming on Peacock.

This won't be the former press secretary's only gig at the network, however. She will still be included in special coverage across programs and is also developing two more of her own projects. MSNBC previously announced she will begin both an original streaming show and a social show this Spring.

She will also write a regular column for MSNBC Daily, a morning newsletter.

Mass vaccination of chickens against bird flu could hurt US sellers

Abigail Adcox

March 10, 02:55 PM March 10, 02:56 PM

A mass vaccination campaign for poultry against avian influenza that's reportedly being considered by the Biden administration could hurt chicken farmers by making it harder for them to export birds.

Several vaccines against different strains of bird flu have been developed and administered to poultry in other countries, including China, but the United States has never carried out mass bird flu vaccination. Mass vaccination could cause problems exporting poultry products because trading partners may object that it is difficult to prove poultry is not infected with the virus.

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"The concern is if you start to vaccinate, you can actually maybe protect the birds from getting sick or dying, but the virus may still be able to transmit within that flock, so now, it becomes much harder to know that if you have the virus or not," said Dr. Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. "From an importing country's perspective, that's what the theoretical concern is — that when you start to implement vaccination, it becomes much harder to know if you're actually free from the disease."

Officials at the Department of Agriculture are reportedly exploring possible poultry vaccines that could protect against the virus that causes bird flu, known as H5N1, amid an outbreak of bird flu that has killed tens of millions of chickens in the U.S., according to the New York Times.

The recent spread of bird flu to wild birds and other mammals is one reason why U.S. officials may be considering vaccinating poultry despite trade concerns. No such vaccine has been authorized for poultry.

"The idea being, if you can vaccinate poultry, you're reducing the amount of virus that's out there, reducing the exposure of people to infected birds, so reducing the chances that this virus may actually make that leap from birds to humans," Webby said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it believes that the risk of bird flu to human public health is low at this point but has urged heightened safety procedures, particularly for workers in the poultry industry who may be dealing with infected birds.

Cases of bird flu have been tracked for decades, but the H5N1 strain spurred a global outbreak beginning in 2020. The outbreak has spread through migratory birds to Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. More than 58 million poultry and 6,000 wild birds in the U.S. have been infected with bird flu, according to the CDC.

While only a few isolated cases of bird flu have been reported in humans so far, the World Health Organization has warned health officials to expect more human cases because the disease has recently crossed into small mammals, including minks, otters, foxes, and sea lions.

White House confirms Biden will veto GOP-backed anti-ESG bill

Ryan King

March 01, 03:22 PM March 01, 03:22 PM

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed Wednesday that President Joe Biden will veto the Republican-backed bill rolling back a Labor Department investing rule if it makes it to his desk.

House Republicans advanced a bill Tuesday to undo a Biden administration rule that permits retirement plans to consider environmental, social, and corporate governance, or ESG, in their investment decisions. The veto, which had been widely speculated, could become the first of his presidency.

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"It forces MAGA Republicans' ideology down the throats of the private sector and handcuffing investors as well. The bill would bar fiduciaries from considering significant risks like extreme climate threats and poor corporate governance when they make investment decisions," Jean-Pierre told reporters during a White House press briefing.

Centrist Democratic Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) signaled they will back the bill, which must first clear the Senate to get to Biden's desk. Supporters of the push to scrap the so-called ESG rule argue the policy is "woke capitalism" that undermines retirement accounts for workers, but Jean-Pierre contended it could hamstring investors.

"It would give investment professionals less flexibility to make prudent decisions, meaning they won't be free to maximize the retirement savings for millions of Americans. That would jeopardize the retirement and life savings for police officers, firefighters, teachers, and tens of millions [of] retirees all across the country," she said.

"This is unacceptable to the President and that is why he will veto this bill if it does come to his desk," she added. "President Biden is focused on protecting workers' hard-earned life savings and pensions. And that is what he's going to continue to do."

Under the resolution, the ESG rule “shall have no force or effect" and investment managers are expected to consider financial returns instead of other issues when making decisions. The measure cleared the lower chamber 216-204.

Biden recently announced that he will tap Julie Su to be his next labor secretary to replace Marty Walsh who is leaving to become the next executive director of the NHL Players' Association.

Maritime sector welcomes Biden wind leasing as new energy era in the Gulf of Mexico

Jeremy Beaman

February 27, 04:00 AM February 27, 04:01 AM

Business interests on the Gulf Coast are hopeful the start of federal offshore wind leasing activities there can further strengthen the region's footprint as a critical energy producer.

The Biden administration just proposed the first-ever offshore wind lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas. It was welcome news for the offshore energy lobby and local service sector, which hope to cash in on the administration's push to develop more wind energy projects in the Outer Continental Shelf.

"Through offshore wind, along with regular and predictable offshore oil and gas leasing, the U.S. Gulf of Mexico can expand its remarkable and irreplaceable energy portfolio," said Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association. "The energy, jobs, and investment opportunities from Gulf of Mexico offshore wind will be additive to the incredible benefits the offshore oil and gas sector provides our nation."

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The Gulf has long been a contributor to U.S. oil and gas production. Output has varied in recent years, but Gulf operators produced an average of 1.8 million barrels of oil per day in November, the latest month for which data are available. That's equivalent to roughly 15% of total current U.S. production, which is averaging about 12.3 million barrels per day.

Chett Chiasson, executive director of the Greater Lafourche Port Commission in Louisiana, said the region is prepared to expand into wind.

Chiasson and GLPC manage Port Fourchon, which announced an agreement in early February with marine service company Crowley potentially to lease and develop an offshore wind terminal at the port.

"Hopefully, before the end of the year, [the agreement] will turn into a full-fledged lease for the first purpose-built offshore wind service facility in the Gulf of Mexico," Chiasson told the Washington Examiner.

President Joe Biden set a goal of enabling the construction of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. The Gulf sale would be the fourth offshore wind lease sale to be held during his tenure.

The vast majority of acreage leased for wind development to date is located in the Atlantic Ocean, where two commercial-scale wind projects are expected to begin generating electricity this year.