Overnight Energy: White House says bipartisan deal will get rid of all lead pipes | House panel draft proposal includes $15.6B increase in Interior funds | Green groups shift energy to reconciliation package

MONDAY AGAIN! Welcome to Overnight Energy, your source for the day’s energy and environment news.Please send tips and comments to Rachel Frazin at rfrazin@digital-stage.thehill.com . Follow her on Twitter: @RachelFrazin . Reach Zack Budryk at zbudryk@digital-stage.thehill.com or follow him at @BudrykZack . 

Today We’re looking at lead removal provisions in the bipartisan infrastructure deal, the House Appropriations Committee’s fiscal 2022 budget request for the EPA and Interior Department, and environmentalists’ infrastructure lobbying plan.

GET THE LEAD OUT: White House says bipartisan deal will get rid of all of the country’s lead pipes

The bipartisan infrastructure agreement reached last week will get rid of all of the country’s lead pines and service lines, according to a new White House memo, but it’s not clear how long it will take.

The memo, from National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and senior adviser Anita Dunn, says the bipartisan framework “will replace 100 percent of the nation’s lead pipes and service lines.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki also told reporters on Monday that “it will put Americans to work replacing 100 percent of our nation’s lead water pipes” but wouldn’t give a time period when asked how long it would take. 

“The details are very important here. It needs to all be written into the final legislation of the bill, but the president is clearly eager to get that done as quickly as possible,” she said when asked about timing.

What’s in the agreement?: Overall, the package will put $55 billion toward “water infrastructure,” which will include replacing lead service lines. 

This figure and others were initially announced last week as part of the $579 billion in new spending for infrastructure. 

It was also announced that other funds would go towards environmental purposes, including $7.5 billion for electric vehicle infrastructure and an additional $7.5 billion for electric buses. 

However, the Deese-Dunn memo indicates that even more funding could go toward the infrastructure piece, listing the $7.5 billion top-line number for electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure but also saying that the package would invest “$7.5 billion in grant funding, plus an additional $7.5 billion in low-cost financing, to build out a national network of EV chargers.”

Read more about the announcement here:

INTERIOR DESIGN: House panel draft proposal includes $15.6 billion increase in Interior funds

The House Appropriations Committee proposed funding increases for the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday, but at slightly lower levels than those proposed by the Biden administration for Interior.

The draft proposal for fiscal 2022 includes $15.6 billion in Interior discretionary funding, $2.3 billion more than that enacted in fiscal 2021 but $240 million less than the White House requested.

The draft proposal would also appropriate $11.34 billion for the EPA, up $2.11 billion from the enacted fiscal 2021 level and $110.8 million above the White House request.

What are the specific proposed numbers?: The request for the Interior Department includes $1.6 billion for the Bureau of Land Management, $285 million above the enacted fiscal 2021 level but $26 million below the White House request. It would also include $1.9 billion for the Fish and Wildlife Service, $301 million more than enacted in fiscal 2021 and $32 million less than that requested by the administration.

The EPA proposal includes $248 million for environmental justice initiatives, up $235 million from the levels enacted in fiscal 2021. Of this, $148 million in programmatic funds would go toward broadening the agency’s capacity to incorporate these considerations across all aspects of EPA work.

 Read more about the draft here:

RECON OPERATION: Green groups shift energy to reconciliation package

Environmental advocates are shifting their focus to a multi-trillion, Democrat-led spending package after seeing that a smaller bipartisan infrastructure deal is unlikely to include many of their priorities.

The bipartisan agreement is expected to include some scaled-down versions of President Biden’s climate proposals, but activists are optimistic that they can achieve many of their goals through a Democrat-only measure that is poised to advance alongside the smaller $1.2 trillion package.

“Our eyes are on the prize,” Ben Beachy, director of the Sierra Club’s living economy program, told The Hill on Thursday.

“We’re fighting for a big bold infrastructure package, and the path for that, as confirmed today, is the reconciliation path, and that is certainly our focus,” he said.

The story so far: During weeks of bipartisan negotiations, advocates have stressed that they see infrastructure as crucial to getting key climate provisions across the finish line.

That bipartisan deal announced on Thursday is slated to include just $15 billion for electric vehicles and transit, compared with Biden’s initial goal of $174 billion.

It also appears to omit other Biden proposals, such as a push for energy efficient building upgrades and a clean electricity standard, which would make power providers get all of their energy from clean sources by 2035.

Biden said, however, that he also wants to pursue a separate bill to be passed through budget reconciliation, a process that would allow Democrats to sidestep a GOP filibuster and pass the measure with a simple majority.

Read more about the efforts here:

ON TAP TOMORROW:

• The House Science, Space and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on the state of wildland fire science

• The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a legislative hearing on climate, resiliency and electric-grid related bills
• The House Natural Resources Committee will hold a legislative hearing on water and conservation bills

WHAT WE’RE READING:

Oil bankruptcies leave environmental cleanup to California taxpayers, The Desert Sun reports

Oregon lawmakers approve ambitious carbon-reduction goals for state energy grid, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports

Judge tosses ousted Trump EPA appointee’s defamation suit, E&E News reports

Study: Climate lawsuits aren’t relying on the latest science, Axios reports

Seattle breaks another heat record, The Seattle Times reports

FROM THE HILL’S OPINION PAGES: ‘Oil and gas exports give the US a strategic geopolitical tool’ by Ellen R. Wald of the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center

ICYMI: Stories from Monday (and the weekend)…

White House delays agency changes to environmental law procedures under Trump rule by two years

White House says bipartisan deal will get rid of all of the country’s lead pipes

House panel draft proposal includes $15.6 billion increase in Interior funds

Record high 114 temperature set in Canada

White House disputes criticism that climate left out of bipartisan infrastructure deal

Green groups shift energy to reconciliation package

Watchdog found EPA employees kept on payroll by Trump appointees after they were fired: report

Canada Goose to end use of animal fur by 2022

OFF BEAT AND OFF-BEAT: Oh, rats.