Axios' Amy Harder reports...Democratic senators are threatening to obstruct President-elect Joe Biden’s nominees if he’s not aggressive enough on climate change, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said.

Why it matters: Whitehouse is a leader on climate change in his party, but he has also shown to be a bipartisan dealmaker when he wants to be. So, what he says suggests broader support among other Democrats.

What they’re saying:

“I think there are quite a considerable number of senators who keenly believe that we missed huge opportunities in the Obama administration, that the Trump administration was a wasteland in which we went backwards and that the urgency of this moment is incredibly compelling and we just won’t tolerate a casual, insipid approach to dealing with this vital issue.”

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), struck a similar tone in a statement to Axios. He said Biden's commitment to addressing climate "head-on" helped him win, and "I will be strongly encouraging the incoming administration to deliver on that promise in every way possible.”

Driving the news: Whitehouse wants the Biden administration to have the Justice Department investigate organizations that fossil fuel companies have in the past funded and may continue to that are propagating “climate denialism and climate obstruction and political ownership of the Republican Party.”

• One example he cited is the Heartland Institute, an organization known for pushing false information on climate change.
• Heartland President James Taylor dismissed the threat and said the group “welcomes free and fair discussion of climate change” in an email to Axios.
• Whitehouse noted that he’s shared his ask with John Kerry, Biden’s incoming international climate envoy, and “I get good feedback,” Whitehouse told me. “We’ll see once they actually get in and once they actually start governing.”

The intrigue: What happens if Biden doesn’t move as aggressively as Whitehouse and others want? “We’ve got a lot of officials who are going to need to get confirmed by the Senate,” Whitehouse said.

• It’s less common, but not unprecedented, for senators of the same party as the president to hold up Cabinet nominees over disagreements on policies or specific parochial issues.

For the record: Biden transition team spokesman Jamal Brown, in a statement, echoed Biden’s plans to pursue an aggressive climate agenda.

• He didn’t respond to Whitehouse’s comment about holding up nominees or investigating specific organizations.
• Biden said in 2019 he would seek to hold companies accountable if they knew and misled the public about climate change, which is a related issue Whitehouse is pushing.

The ongoing cost declines for lithium-ion battery tech is helping to make electric vehicles competitive against internal combustion models, per new analysis from the research firm BloombergNEF.

Why it matters: The annual study sees 2023 as the point where automakers "should be able to produce and sell mass market EVs at the same price (and with the same margin) as comparable internal combustion vehicles in some markets."

How it works: That chart above shows an average across different types of vehicles, as well as stationary storage. BloombergNEF's Nathaniel Bullard points out in a column this morning that there's lots of variation.

Yes, but: "In every application, though, these batteries are now making serious inroads into their respective markets of public transportation, personal vehicles, and electricity networks," Bullard writes.

This week brought a new and maybe decisive turn in a high-stakes fight over how much oil and mining companies should reveal about payments to foreign governments.

Driving the news: The Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3-2 yesterday to finalize disclosure rules required under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial law. But the panel's Democrats and human rights groups called it too weak.

Why it matters: The Dodd-Frank provision aims to create transparency to battle the "resource curse."

• That's the poverty, conflict, and government corruption in some resource-rich nations in Africa and elsewhere.
• The idea is to reveal payments for contracts, royalties and so forth to help ensure residents share the benefits from resource extraction.
• The oil lobby says it favors disclosure but argues that granular mandates are burdensome and hobble SEC-regulated firms when competing for contracts.

Catch up fast: The SEC first issued rules in 2012. But industry groups sued and a federal judge nixed the regulation.

• The SEC completed a rewrite in 2016. But in 2017 Republicans passed legislation to kill the rule and President Trump signed it.
• Now it's tricky because the law they used, called the Congressional Review Act, bars agencies from re-issuing rules that closely mirror an overturned one.

What's new: Yesterday's version makes the required public disclosures much less specific than prior versions.

It defines "project" in a much less detailed way and enables companies to report payments at national and broad regional levels. The rule also contains multiple exemptions.

What they're saying: "We appreciate the Commission’s...effort to balance transparency with the overall mission to protect investors, competition and the efficiency of capital markets," said Stephen Comstock of the American Petroleum Institute.

Yes, but: Advocacy groups blasted it. "Oil companies and corrupt kleptocrats should no longer be able to exploit U.S. financial secrecy, and investors should have the information they really need to make informed investment decisions," said Ian Gary of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition.

What's next: Several groups said the incoming Biden administration, which will appoint a Democratic SEC chair, should revisit and strengthen the rule. And Gary said it's "vulnerable to litigation," though called that only "one possible option."

Axios' Hans Nichols and Alexi McCammond report: Nancy Pelosi's endorsement of Rep. Deb Haaland to be Interior secretary alleviates pressure on the House speaker from Native American groups — and throws it right back on Biden to put the New Mexico Democrat in his Cabinet.

Why it matters: The president-elect has been casting about to find an Interior secretary he both desires and adds diversity to a Cabinet he's pledged will resemble the American people.

• The Democrats' fear about losing their slim majority in the House had given him a reason not to pick Haaland, despite her wide tribal backing.
• On the policy front, Interior will play a key role in Biden's wider energy agenda, including his vow to thwart new oil-and-gas development on public lands.

The big picture: If Biden does settle on Haaland, she would be the first Native American to join the Cabinet. She would also be his point person in tribal negotiations.

Go deeper

Axios' Jennifer A. Kingson reports that a growing number of climate-conscious cities — from San Francisco to Brookline, Massachusetts — have voted to ban natural gas hookups in newly built apartment and commercial buildings, putting an end to gas-powered stoves, water heaters and clothes dryers.

Why it matters: As more liberal-tilting cities like Seattle follow suit, the push toward "electrification" is likely to play out on the national stage, sparking debate over the merits of electricity versus gas.

• The bans have drawn lawsuits from restaurateurs and building developers.

Where it stands: About 40 municipalities in California have banned the use of gas in new construction, with Berkeley being the first (in 2019) and San Jose the latest. The argument is that electricity causes fewer health and environmental problems than natural gas.

• But some copycat efforts have been blocked: Brookline's measure was overruled by the Massachusetts attorney general.
• Several states — like Oklahoma, Arizona, Louisiana and Tennessee — have taken preemptive moves, passing laws that say local governments can't do this, per Inside Climate News.

There are also cries of elitism, given that the cities involved are mainly wealthy and that gas-powered heat tends to be easier on the pocketbook.

The big picture: While the battles play out locally, major environmental groups are leading the campaign to get municipalities to ban natural gas, and big utilities and gas companies have organized in opposition.

Jennifer has much more here.