News

To secure the stable, diversified critical materials supply chains that the U.S. needs to remain globally competitive and achieve energy dominance, changes must be made to the 2026 Energy Critical Materials Assessment, the NAM said today.

What’s going on: “Manufacturers in America utilize critical materials and minerals extensively, deploying them in a wide array of manufactured products throughout the U.S. economy,” NAM Vice President of Domestic Policy Chris Phalen told the Department of Energy in response to a request for information seeking public input on the assessment.

• The NAM recommended the DOE take certain steps regarding the assessment, including adding certain materials to its list and ensuring others remain on it. It also urged the DOE to collaborate with other agencies and Congress to “streamline permitting processes to ensure greater domestic access to these materials.”

Other actions: The NAM also urged the DOE to:

• Maintain “the critical materials that are currently listed within the DOE’s Energy Critical Materials Assessment,” including aluminum, cobalt, copper, electrical steel, lithium and graphite;
• Add iron nitride and zirconium to the assessment;
• Remove permitting barriers that are “restricting the United States from being able to mine, process and access domestic resources, modernize infrastructure and shore up supply chains”;
• Offer financial tools—including investment tax credits, production tax credits and grants—to help “de-risk technological advancement”;
• Align the DOE’s critical materials list with the U.S. Geological Survey’s separate critical minerals list; and
• Add fluorine to the USGS list.

The final say: These recommendations will “ensure [that] manufacturers of all sizes and in all segments of the industry have access to the materials necessary for modern, innovative manufactured products,” Phalen continued.

• They will also allow manufacturers to do what they “do best—put more Americans to work, more factories into motion, more innovation into the marketplace and more investments into our communities while strengthening the hand of the United States on the world stage.”

The federal government has agreed to fast-track some power project requests by U.S. grid operators, potentially staving off electricity shortfalls from an overloaded grid (POLITICO Pro, subscription).

What’s going on: Last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued unanimous orders “conditionally authorizing requests from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) and Southwest Power Pool (SPP).”

• The move follows a similar approval for an expedited interconnection process for PJM Interconnection, the largest power grid in the U.S.
• It also comes just months after FERC rejected a similar request from MISO.

Why it’s important: The MISO and SPP plans seek to get new projects online quickly as some traditional power plants are closed “and replacements are stuck awaiting studies for approval to plug into the bulk power grid.”

• Utilities have signaled that they need more generation to account for growing power appetite, much of it stemming from the rapid construction of capacity-hungry data centers.

What’s new this time: Although FERC said in May that MISO’s expedited resource adequacy study process was too broad and therefore risked worsening the “existing interconnection queue delays,” the revised proposal, submitted in June, caps at 68 the number of ERAS endeavors in coming years.

• The revised proposal also adds new eligibility requirements.
• And “projects seeking expedited grid studies must have approval of the appropriate local regulator, control the site for the project and have a contracted buyer as well as pay a $100,000 application fee and meet other conditions.”

Two manufacturing leaders testified at House Ways and Means Committee field hearings in Nevada and California this past weekend.

• Click Bond Director of Manufacturing Austin Robinson testified on Friday in Las Vegas, focusing on the impacts of the One Big Beautiful Bill’s tax provisions for the manufacturing workforce.
• On Saturday, Robinson Helicopter Company Vice President of Business Development Will Fulton testified alongside NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where they discussed the impacts of the tax provisions for manufacturers. (In case you missed it, here is our article from yesterday on Timmons’ testimony.).

Click Bond: Austin has spent his career in manufacturing. He now manages the 80% of employees who make up the manufacturing workforce at Click Bond, which designs, manufactures and supports adhesive bonded fasteners that are used in space, aviation, marine and other applications, both civil and defense.

• After Austin thanked policymakers for passing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, he explained what it means for his company. “2017 tax reform was tremendously impactful for both our business and our workers,” he said. “It allowed us to increase wages, scale up our engineering and development workforce, invest in next-generation equipment and create a new employee academic assistance program.”
• “[By] making permanent a pro-growth tax code, the One Big Beautiful Bill will empower us to continue and expand these investments, to purchase more equipment and conduct more research and to further increase pay and benefits for our employees.”

Investing in workers: Austin emphasized that the bill will allow manufacturers to keep investing in workers, building on the pay increases Click Bond was able to provide to their hourly employees following the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

• “My first employer paid for my education, and I am proud to say that Click Bond does the same for any employees who want to go back to school and develop their skill,” he said. “Our workforce at Click Bond is the most precious resource, and that is reflected in the investments that we make in them. Those investments are actually enabled by a pro-growth tax policy.”

Robinson Helicopter: Will also thanked policymakers for this legislation.

• Robinson “specializes in helicopter design, assembly, inspection, flight testing, manufacturing and production. … Our Torrance, California, manufacturing facility is the world’s leading commercial helicopter manufacturer, period,” he told policymakers.
• “The One Big Beautiful Bill Act supports [Robinson] by driving our ability to accelerate domestic investment expansion and growth. … This legislation helps accelerate our ambitions into a more near-term reality.”

R&D support: “These tax provisions help us to invest both in the design of new technology and its production processes,” Will added. “We recently launched our newest helicopter, the R88, which offers more robust first responder capabilities.”

• “Our R&D efforts for the R88 include the ability to fit that helicopter with more advanced technology and equipment for firefighting, disaster response and emergency medical services. That helicopter will act as an operational control center to a fleet of fire surveillance drones to better scan for any signs of ignition, ensure faster response times and expand the capacity of fire departments to contain fires earlier.”
• “Thanks to your leadership, Congress and the administration have empowered Robinson Helicopter to create jobs, invest in equipment, innovate through R&D and drive economic growth faster,” he concluded.

The litigation of the Biden administration’s limits on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in drinking water will resume this fall (POLITICO’s GREENWIRE, subscription). The NAM and other industry groups are leading the challenge against these standards, contending that they are unachievable and rely on invalid cost-benefit analyses.

What’s going on: In a court filing last week, the Environmental Protection Agency “said it and the … industry groups challenging the standards need until Aug. 1 to come up with a schedule for additional briefing, which was suspended earlier this year while EPA considered what to do.”

• In May, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that the agency would rescind and rework the standards for some substances while continuing to defend the equally unworkable standards for PFOA and PFOS.

A two-pronged strategy: While the NAM and its allies are awaiting the resumption of the court case, the NAM’s experts are pressing the administration to reconsider the standards for all six substances, including PFOA and PFOS. This week, they urged the EPA and the National Drinking Water Advisory Council to revise the PFAS National Primary Drinking Water Regulation.

• “The NAM supports health-protective and science-based safe drinking water standards. Manufacturers continue to innovate ways to protect the environment and our communities,” said NAM Managing Vice President of Policy Charles Crain. “The EPA’s [maximum contamination level] standards should encourage such innovation while setting attainable limits that water systems can realistically finance and meet. ”
• “Manufacturers support rational regulation of PFAS that allows manufacturers to continue supporting critical industries, while developing new chemistries and minimizing any potential environmental and public health impacts.”
• “Certain PFAS uses remain essential to the functionality and safety of products that underpin modern life, from semiconductor fabrication and advanced energy storage to lifesaving medical devices and aerospace systems, where no technically viable substitutes exist and are estimated to be decades out. PFAS regulations require a measured and evidence-based approach that the 2024 Final PFAS NPDWR lacks.”

In-person appearance: The NAM also reiterated manufacturers’ concerns to the EPA and the National Drinking Water Advisory Council in a public meeting on Monday.

• “[R]ules that are not feasible, cost effective or adequately supported by robust scientific analysis don’t just strain water systems, they cascade through water rates, capital plans, liability frameworks and ultimately the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing,” NAM Director of Chemicals Policy Reagan Giesenschlag said.
• “In a time of fragile supply chains, regulations that unintentionally push manufacturing offshore or stall investments in innovation are devasting and at odds with the President’s America First priorities.”

What to watch: The NAM will continue its advocacy directed at the federal agencies, while appearing again in court once those proceedings resume. There it will argue that the government’s cost-benefit and feasibility analyses are irretrievably flawed and violate both the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons appeared before the House Ways and Means Committee at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Saturday, commending  legislators on the passage of comprehensive, pro-growth tax legislation earlier this month and underscoring the benefits of the law’s tax provisions for manufacturers nationwide.

What he said: “I want to begin simply by stating: thank you. Because you have made the investment of a generation in America’s manufacturers, you have strengthened the hand of the 13 million people who make things in America, and you have delivered historic pro-growth tax legislation powering every manufacturer in America to invest, innovate and lead,” Timmons said.

• “Let’s remember what was on the line: the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was rocket fuel for our industry. Powered by that legislation, our industry kept our promises. We created the most jobs in 20 years and the strongest wage growth in 15 years. We put more factories into motion, more shovels into the dirt and more prosperity into our communities.”
• “Several of the key provisions from 2017 had already expired, as would nearly all others by the end of this year. So this year was a time for choosing. We could double down on an investment that worked and make the 2017 provisions stronger and permanent, or we could let those provisions expire and wipe out 6 million jobs, more than half a trillion dollars in wages and more than a trillion dollars in GDP.”

The victory: “This is a manufacturers’ law through and through,” Timmons said.

• “By making immediate R&D expensing, full expensing of capital equipment and interest deductibility permanent, this Manufacturing Law delivers for investment and innovation.”
• “Through the pass-through deduction, reduced individual tax rates and estate tax provisions for family-owned businesses, this Manufacturing Law delivers for small businesses that power our economy.”
• “Through protecting the 21% corporate tax rate, and through strengthening the international tax system that incentivizes companies to invest here, build here [and] hire here, this Manufacturing Law will help deliver another American century.”

Reagan’s legacy: “As I speak with you today in the library that bears his name on behalf of the industry that you have reenergized, I think back to President Reagan’s very words when he signed the 1986 Tax Reform Act. …”

• “[President Reagan] said [of the American people]: ‘It was their hard work that built our cities and farmed our prairies, their genius that continually pushed us beyond the boundaries of existing knowledge, reshaping our world with the steam engine, polio vaccine and the silicon chip. It was their faith in freedom and love of country that sustained us through trials and hardships and through wars, and it was their courage and selflessness that enabled us to always prevail.’”
• “That’s the story of manufacturing. It’s a story that must go on—because when manufacturing wins, America wins,” Timmons added.

A promise: “[T]hrough the power and potential of these reforms, manufacturers will work every day to make sure that all Americans benefit,” Timmons concluded. “You have my word, and just as we did after 2017, manufacturers will deliver again.”

NAM on TV: Timmons also appeared on NewsNation to preview the hearing, emphasizing the importance of the new law’s tax provisions.

• “Manufacturers have been given an incredible opportunity with this tax law,” he said. “We called it ‘once in a generation.’ I think this is once in the lifetime of the country that we’ve seen something that is this competition focused, allowing us to attract investment to our shores.”

The U.S. and European Union have announced a trade deal, but no joint statement or official order has been released, though the White House issued a broad fact sheet. The president must issue an executive order or other legal document amending his April 2 EO that established “reciprocal” tariff rates to make the terms of the new trade deal official.

15% tariff: President Trump said that U.S. goods would gain access to European markets without tariffs, but the specific terms of that arrangement are not yet known.

• Meanwhile, the EU agreed to a 15% tariff by the U.S. on its products, which it regards as a “clear ceiling.”
• The 15% tariff on EU goods will apply “across most sectors, including cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals,” according to a statement issued by EU President Ursula von der Leyen.
• President Trump and EU leaders also made differing statements about metals, with the EU statement saying that metal “tariffs will be cut. A quota system will be put in place.” President Trump, however, said the 50% tariff on steel and aluminum would remain.

Zero-for-zero: According to the EU statement, the U.S. and EU agreed on zero-for-zero tariffs on many strategic products, including all aircraft and component parts, certain chemicals, certain generics, semiconductor equipment, certain agricultural products, natural resources and critical raw materials.

• This agreement, if verified, would reflect in part the NAM’s longstanding advocacy of zero-for-zero tariffs on industrial trade.
• The EU has also said it is working to get other products added to this list.

EU investments in the U.S.: President Trump suggested the EU would purchase $750 billion in U.S. liquefied natural gas, oil and nuclear fuels; buy U.S. military equipment; and increase its foreign direct investment into the United States by $600 billion. The EU statement references energy and U.S. AI chips.

Stay tuned: These statements represent an uncertain sketch of an eventual deal, and the NAM will report on the official terms of the agreement once they become available.

• Meanwhile, President Trump indicated in a press conference that other countries might soon receive tariff letters outlining new rates, though these too require EOs to become official policy.

A bipartisan duo in Congress has introduced legislation to speed up permitting reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act while limiting legal challenges (POLITICO Pro, subscription). The NAM has called for NEPA reform for years.

What’s going on: Last Friday, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR) and Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) unveiled the SPEED Act to “help launch America into a future where we can effectively innovate and implement to revitalize our infrastructure, meet skyrocketing energy demands, lead the world in the AI race and work in harmony with our natural environment,” said Westerman, who told POLITICO Pro there “really seems to be momentum” in the government to make the changes outlined in the measure.

The backdrop: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) said last week Republican leadership plans to make bipartisan permitting reform a priority this fall.

• “Under direction from Trump’s Inauguration Day executive order, the Council on Environmental Quality has pulled back federal-wide NEPA regulations, and agencies have weakened their own NEPA rules.”
• Senate Democrats have said recently they’re willing to restart permitting reform talks with Republicans.

What the measure would do: The SPEED Act “would codify parts of a May Supreme Court ruling that limited the scope of environmental reviews” and build on 2023 NEPA reforms, including the establishment of a two-year time limit on conducting environmental impact statements. And among other actions, it would:

• Stop agencies “from evaluating impacts outside the immediate causal result of the proposed action”;
• Reduce the number of projects that can be deemed “major federal action” and thus become subject to the NEPA process;
• Set a higher bar for judicial challenges, mandating that litigants sue within 150 days and courts issue judgments within 180 days;
• “[O]nly allow parties that provided substantive comments during the public review period the opportunity to issue a legal challenge”; and
• “[L]imit a court’s ability to remand an agency decision.”

Our take: “This bill provides critically needed clarity and guardrails for manufacturers to invest and grow in America—while maintaining public input and safeguarding our environment,” said NAM Vice President of Domestic Policy Chris Phalen.

• “Energy sources of all types have for too long run into needless delays and frivolous litigation—delaying jobs for Americans and getting electrons on our grid. Manufacturers look forward to working with Chairman Westerman and Rep. Golden to advance this legislation as part of a comprehensive and bipartisan permitting reform package to drive America forward.”

The Manufacturing Institute, the NAM’s 501(c)3 workforce development and education affiliate, has released a blueprint for much-needed changes to federal workforce policy.

• This framework is the manufacturing industry’s response to President Trump’s Executive Order 14278, which calls for the modernization of the federal workforce system and the expansion of employer-led apprenticeship opportunities.

Manufacturers’ voices: The MI spent months consulting with manufacturers across the country as it formulated its recommendations. Firms of all sizes and sectors, in both rural and urban locations, told the same story: too few workers with the necessary skills are applying for the many open jobs in the industry, and this shortage has become a threat to America’s economic health.

• These testimonials echo previous findings from the MI: A landmark 2024 study it produced with Deloitte found that the U.S. manufacturing sector will face 3.8 million job openings by 2033—more than half of which may go unfilled without substantial investment in workforce development.

A policy update: To remedy this dire situation, the MI is recommending a slate of new policies to the Departments of Labor, Education and Commerce to help inform their own recommendations to the White House. Among other actions, it advises federal policymakers to:

• Promote employer participation in program design and delivery to ensure training reflects real-time industry needs;
• Simplify and stabilize access to funding for employer-led training initiatives, particularly for small and medium-sized manufacturers; and
• Expand support for incumbent worker training to help manufacturers invest in upskilling their current workforce and retaining talent.

Apprenticeship reform: The MI also offers specific recommendations for creating and enhancing employer-based apprenticeship programs. Policymakers should:

• Support flexible work-based learning models, including apprenticeships by right-sizing the regulatory scheme and investing in program development and expansion;
• Incentivize employer-responsive organizations to serve as apprenticeship intermediaries to assist employers in launching and managing programs; and
• Expand financial incentives for employers to create and operate apprenticeships.

Read the whole thing: You can read the MI’s full list of recommendations for policymakers here.

Hands-on experience: The MI’s recommendations are informed by its own expertise in running a nationwide apprenticeship program.

• The MI manages the Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (FAME USA), founded by Toyota, which has become the new American model for manufacturing skills training.
• With nearly 500 employers participating across 46 locations in 16 states, FAME has graduated more than 2,700 students, has nearly 1,500 students currently enrolled and boasts a 90% job placement rate.

The MI says: “It’s more important than ever that we ensure manufacturers in the U.S. have the talent they need for today and tomorrow—talent that is prepared with the skills necessary to compete,” said MI President and Executive Director Carolyn Lee.

• “The United States has long faced a structural workforce shortage, and we applaud the Trump administration for recognizing that the federal workforce development infrastructure needs to be streamlined and focused on supporting manufacturers’ and employers’ talent needs.”

To win the artificial intelligence race with China and better compete with Russia, the U.S. must reduce its project-approval times, the head of the largest American natural gas company has warned Congress (Financial Times, subscription).

What’s going on: “Congress [needs] to step up and act,” EQT President and CEO Toby Rice told the FT regarding the need for the government to streamline “America’s byzantine permitting process,” which has greatly increased infrastructure project costs and times.

• “The threat of not getting infrastructure built has only gotten larger,” he continued. “Not only from bad actors getting rich by selling energy that could be replaced with American energy—it’s also the threat of China winning the AI race.”
• The biggest concern, according to Rice: judicial review, which allows for up to six years of legal challenges of permit decisions.

We need it all: In recent years, the U.S. has been shuttering baseload power plants and making it harder for companies to build natural gas infrastructure, Rice continued, and as a result, prices have risen and the electrical grid is becoming unreliable.

• Since the start of his second term, however, President Trump has prioritized making the U.S. energy dominant, taking actions like lifting the previous administration’s ban on new LNG export permits.

The backdrop: “These actions come as the U.S. races to meet growing domestic and global power demand caused by the data centers used to build and develop AI.”

• Global electricity demand from data centers is expected to double by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency.

A positive step: This week, EQT “signed an agreement in principle to provide gas to a 4.4[-gigawatt] plant that will power the Homer City Energy Campus, a 3,200 acre data center in Pennsylvania.”

Europe, too: Europe has been trying to wean itself off Russian gas since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

• This week, ENI—one of Europe’s biggest energy firms—signed an agreement to purchase 2 million metric tonnes of LNG from U.S. company Venture Global.

The NAM’s view: “Mr. Rice is right that, as the NAM has long said, the U.S. permitting system is holding us back,” said NAM Vice President of Domestic Policy Chris Phalen.

• “The administration has made important strides in cutting needless red tape, but manufacturers need comprehensive permitting reform legislation from Congress that supports all energy sources and makes improvements to our transmission and distribution systems for the nation to reach its full potential.”

Researchers seeking new methods of generating thermal energy are now trying something new: the oil and gas industry (POLITICO’s E&E News).

What’s going on: “State research officials in North Dakota are examining two new options—pairing geothermal with active oil and gas sites and using captured carbon dioxide as a feedstock for geothermal power production.”

• The state gave the go-ahead in June for a $250,000 feasibility study looking at “whether those two new geothermal technologies could be used” there.

Why it’s happening now: President Trump signed an executive order in April, calling for the elimination of “all illegitimate impediments” to the development of geothermal projects.

• Geothermal power enjoys bipartisan support in Congress, and federal tax incentives for both geothermal and carbon capture and storage have “created an environment where companies and researchers can start to explore different methods of production,” Matt Villante, an earth scientist with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, told E&E News.
• In addition, the 45Q tax credit, which offers an incentive for carbon management undertakings that capture carbon dioxide, was preserved in the recent reconciliation bill.

How it works: Researchers are exploring several different methods for using captured carbon dioxide to produce geothermal energy, which is traditionally extracted “by drilling and pumping up brine from deep within the earth.”

• One method would involve injecting large amounts of carbon dioxide into the ground to push out the brine.
• “Another approach could be pushing CO2 underground to the heat source, and pumping back up the heated CO2 to power the turbines, then injected the cooled carbon dioxide back underground in a closed-loop system.”
• A third way would use hydraulic fracturing to break up “hot dry rock” using carbon dioxide.

Yes, but…Despite the support for geothermal, actual projects to harness it are thin on the ground.

• In 2023, only about 0.4% of U.S. power came from geothermal sources, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, as “investors … [wait] for the existing technology to become safer bets.”

The NAM says: “While geothermal represents a small portion of the energy mix now, the NAM supports efforts to invest in developing the technology so that the U.S. has more sources in its all-of-the-above energy portfolio,” said NAM Director of Energy and Resources Policy Michael Davin.