We can easily imagine the trauma, in the country of the queen car. On the other side of the Atlantic, the gallon of gasoline (3.785 liters) has reached the historic mark of 5 dollars on average at the pump (the equivalent of 1.20 euros per litre) in recent weeks in the wake of of the global surge in crude oil prices. A price capable of making the European consumer still dream, but which, in the United States, has put the subject of energy back at the heart of the political debate. Unsurprisingly, the war unites Republicans and Democrats on the necessary maintenance of energy independence, duly acquired and now the keystone of national security.
Witness the bipartisan support for recent government decisions to use strategic oil reserves, but also to relaunch authorizations to exploit oil and natural gas on public lands. Question of sovereignty, therefore, but also economic opportunism. To massively export oil and gas to a very demanding Europe, President Biden did not hesitate to ask the “oilmen” to push their production. The man who put the United States back in the Paris agreement would therefore have sacrificed his climate plan on the altar of the slogan dear to the Republicans “Drill, baby, drill!” (Fore, darling, fore!)? There are no signs pointing in that direction.
Decarbonization and strategic independence
In areas specific to the energy transition, bipartisan agreements signed in recent months aim to secure the supply chains necessary for energy production and critical infrastructure. This new concern reinforces the ambition of industrial relocation carried by the “Buy American Act”, revised in September 2021. Joe Biden also lined up behind the “Defense Production Act” to justify the revival of mining investments. It is now expected that the critical metals, the equipment essential to the production of renewable energies – solar panels above all – and other elements essential to the energy transition such as semiconductors for electric vehicles are of American origin.
The dangers of overreliance on exhaustible natural resources were pointed out, which reinforced the argument for the importance of an urgent transition to renewable and decentralized energy resources. The allocation of the massive financing enshrined in the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act of November 2021 ($550 billion over five years) has begun for renewable energy projects and microgrids, for the deployment of electric charging stations, for improve the management of the electrical network. This will help reduce the demand for fossil resources. And for the decarbonization of heavy industry, the law provides that carbon capture, use and storage projects will receive an additional $8 billion, including to industrialize processes for direct capture of CO2 from the air.
Transparency on emissions
Another very recent project illustrates the administration’s still strong voluntarism in climate matters. On March 21, the Securities and Exchange Commission [NDLR : organisme fédéral américain de réglementation et de contrôle des marchés financiers] proposed to strengthen the rules on the transparency of environmental data. Adopted as they stand, the regulations would require companies listed in the United States to disclose the greenhouse gas emissions resulting directly from their activities and those related to their energy consumption, whether electricity, heat or cold (Scope 1 and 2). It would also require large companies to calculate and gradually provide between 2023 and 2026 the indirect emissions upstream and downstream of their production of goods and services sold (Scope 3). This proposal, which goes in the right direction, sends a very strong message to businesses. It is already giving rise to numerous debates, its finalization being expected for November 2022.
The energy crisis has failed to derail the transition desired by Joe Biden in the United States. Until now. Mid-term elections will be held on November 8. The tenant of the White House will play big on this occasion, the Senate being able to switch with only one additional seat on the side of the Republicans. A victory for the Grand Old Party and “cohabitation” would narrow the path for proactive environmental policies in the face of the current increase in the price of hydrocarbons. The chances would be very slim, bipartisan agreements in this area are still counted on the fingers of one hand.