2023 Pro Energy Policy awards

🥇 1. Biggest winner: Joe Manchin

• Manchin got the Mountain Valley Pipeline in the debt ceiling deal without giving progressives in his party much of anything. He got a ban on gas stove regulations into the Senate's appropriations package.
• And he's managed to remain the center of attention on IRA implementation, despite the fact that he's leaving Congress. Next stop: a presidential run?

👎 2. Biggest loser: Transmission hawks

• All they really got in 2023 was a study for which they didn't ask. Now the window's closing fast to get something done on big power lines — a huge priority for Dems coming into the year.

😮 3. Biggest surprise: The NEPA/MVP deal

• Neither of us really expected lawmakers to do anything at all on permits this year. Instead, they pulled the biggest changes to NEPA in a generation from the Kevin McCarthy–Garret Graves–Joe Biden black box.

🤡 4. Funniest member: Garret Graves

• Graves is a well-known practical joker, and he's kept his sense of humor in our conversations since Kevin McCarthy, his wagon ride to the top, was ousted.
• Right after McCarthy lost the speakership, Nick asked Graves — who had become part of the speaker's leadership team — what he planned to do now. "I'm going to try being a member of Congress," he replied.

🎻 5. The world's smallest violin award: Senate's NDAA priorities/CFATS expiration (tie)

• 2023 could've had more energy wins because of the Senate's NDAA riders on advanced nuclear projects and semiconductor permitting reviews, but those provisions hit a brick wall in the chaotic House.
• And — go figure — it was the Senate's chaos that killed the CFATS reauthorization.

💞 6. Oddest couple: Ted Cruz and Ed Markey on AM radios

• Did Ted Cruz want to freak out the EV industry, or was Ed Markey trying to soothe older would-be Rivian drivers? No matter whose idea it was, the Cruz–Markey AM radio mandate has bedeviled auto industry lobbyists.
• Thanks to its wide bipartisan support it could become law, if Rand Paul doesn't stand in the way.

⁉️ 7. Strangest moment: Raul Grijalva's churros

• Earlier this fall, with the House engulfed in turmoil, Raul Grijalva walked up to Nick in the Speaker's Lobby and handed him a small foil package.
• "What's this?" Nick asked. "Churros," Grijalva replied as he walked away.
• The churros were room temperature and stale. 6/10.

✈️ 8. Most likely to fly "sustainably": Tammy Duckworth

• The Illinois Democrat is a warrior for the ethanol industry in its bid to shape the IRA's plane fuel tax credit. So far, she's winning.

🗣️ 9. Best hallway interviewee: Kevin Cramer/Bill Cassidy (tie)

• Nick: Cramer is a man who will spend 10 minutes getting into the weeds on an obscure energy issue on a random Wednesday afternoon in the Senate basement.
• Jael: The same can easily be said about Cassidy. You can ask this guy any energy policy question and he will spit out wonky acronyms that only three other people in the world probably know.

🎶 10. Best 'last song': "Over My Head" from John Hickenlooper

• We love asking our sources for the last song they listened to. This year's best suggestion, hands down, came from Hickenlooper, who name-checked The Fray's "Over My Head" and then … introduced Jael to the band's lead singer, Isaac Slade.
• The two talked about the efficacy of carbon offsets. What a town!