It's Electric

by Kelsey Tamborrino (Politico's Morning Energy) IT'S ELECTRIC: A coalition of utilities, electric vehicle makers and mineral producers have formed a new association to push for 100 percent electric vehicle sales by 2030, Pro's Anthony Adragna reports this morning. The group, dubbed the Zero Emission Transportation Association, will seek policies to help the growing sector, such as point-of-sale consumer incentives to buy electric vehicles, investments in federal infrastructure and strengthened emissions performance standards. The aim is for all light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicle sales to be entirely electric by 2030.

"We can either invest in this sector and compete and win, or we're ceding that leadership to other foreign, commercial interests," said Joe Britton, the group's executive director. "We'll be able to show we represent job creators in every state of the country."

Members of the group include major utilities like Pacific Gas and Electric, Duke Energy, Vistra, Southern Company and Con Edison, as well as auto giants Tesla, Lordstown Motor Co. and Uber, though none of the major legacy automakers are involved. Producers of charging infrastructure like ChargePoint, EVgo and Volta are also members, as are mineral producers like Albemarle, Ioneer and Piedmont Lithium.

The launch of the new group comes as President-elect Joe Biden met Monday with union representatives and the heads of major businesses to discuss how they can work together on an economic recovery. After the meeting, Biden said the officials — which included General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Rory Gamble, president of the United Auto Workers — discussed the "need to own the electric vehicle market."

"We talked about climate a lot, building 550,000 charging stations, creating over 1 million good-paying, union jobs here at home," Biden said.

GREENS URGE BIDEN NOT TO PICK MONIZ: Meanwhile, a slew of environmental groups — including the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, Friends of the Earth U.S. and Climate Hawks Vote — want to make sure Ernest Moniz "holds no public or private role, whether formal or informal" in Biden's transition team, Cabinet or administration. They write that Moniz, who is being floated for Energy secretary, is an "unrepentant founding father of the fracking industry" and call his approach "incompatible with a stable climate."

Related: If Biden campaign's policies were fully implemented with the support of Congress, they could reduce emissions by between 38 percent-54 percent below 2005 levels, and reduce estimates for average global temperature increases in 2100 by 0.1 degrees Celsius, according to a new report this morning from the Asia Society Policy Institute and Climate Analytics. The report also looked at China's carbon neutrality target by 2060, and found that to keep China aligned with a trajectory of keeping global temperatures to between 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius it would need to deepen its ambition in the short-term, including peaking emissions as soon as 2025. READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: COMPANIES BACK EV PRINCIPLES:A group of 21 major U.S. companies unveiled a set of electrification principles this morning (December 15, 2020) meant to provide guidance on what auto and truck manufacturers, regulators, policymakers and utilities can do to advance the commercial electric vehicle market. The Corporate Electric Vehicle Alliance, which is led by the sustainability nonprofit Ceres, includes Amazon, AT&T, Best Buy, DHL, Exelon, IKEA, Siemens, National Grid and Uber. The group's nine principles include greater variety and volume of zero-emission vehicle model options and upfront cost parity with internal combustion engine vehicles. READ MORE