With help from Gavin Bade, Kelsey Tamborrino, Annie Snider and Ben Lefebvre.

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Quick fix

— All signs point forward for an infrastructure deal between the White House and a group of bipartisan lawmakers — albeit without major climate action that progressives say is crucial.

— Fresh fears of recent energy crises can feed hesitancy to switch over to a greener energy landscape.

— The Biden administration is set to issue an import ban on a major solar-parts manufacturer accused of using forced labor in Xinjiang.

HAPPY THURSDAY! I’m your host, Matthew Choi. Great to see so many fans of the Boss in my inbox! Congrats to Kelly Johnson of Holland and Hart for knowing “Greetings from Asbury Park” was Bruce Springsteen’s first studio album. For today’s trivia: What two landlocked countries are also surrounded by landlocked countries? Send your tips and trivia answers to [email protected]. Find me on Twitter @matthewchoi2018.

Check out the POLITICO Energy podcast — all the energy and environmental politics and policy news you need to start your day, in just five minutes. Listen and subscribe for free at politico.com/energy-podcast. On today's episode: A landmark case for pipelines.

Driving the day

HABAMUS DEALUM: The bipartisan group of senators negotiating an infrastructure compromise reached a framework agreement with the White House, the senators announced Wednesday. The deal would follow the lines of the group’s earlier proposal, with about $579 billion in new spending directed at hard infrastructure and a lengthy list of pay-fors, lawmakers involved in the process told Pro’s Sam Mintz.

Of course, that means Democrats insisting on major climate change measures will have to look elsewhere, so the work on reconciliation bill that advances those priorities is likely to begin in earnest — particularly since Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he's targeting July for such a measure.

Still, the news of a breakthrough puts senators closer to their goal of passing major infrastructure legislation, even if there are still details to hammer out with President Joe Biden. Questions linger on how much of the package can get paid for by the options listed in a framework recently distributed by the bipartisan group.

The lawmakers reached their agreement with the White House after meeting with senior staffers Wednesday and agreed not to reveal specific numbers until today. Whatever those specifics may be, the legislation will face its challengers in both the right and left flanks of both parties. More from Sam on the bipartisan agreement here.

RELIABLE AND RENEWABLE: Recent energy crises are putting a wrinkle in Biden's plans to green American energy, with Republicans and industry groups pushing back that the incidents prove the need for more fossil fuel development, not less. It's a line repeated after the Texas winter storm crisis that left millions in the dark as well as the cyberattack that shut on the Colonial Pipeline.

“That [pro-fossil-fuel] message, to resonate with people in a way that’s fearful, has been a part of that playbook for years,” Heather McTeer Toney, climate justice liaison for the Environmental Defense Fund, told Pro’s Gloria Gonzalez. “It’s like ‘let’s scare people so they don’t buy into things that are environmentally safe and friendly.’ But it’s not the truth.”

Some of the communities most impacted by this year’s energy crises are among the country’s most vulnerable, with low income and communities of color left in the dark longer during the Texas blackout, and struggling with gasoline shortages in the Southeast. But pipeline defenders say efforts to block new projects can backfire, since oil that would transported through arteries like the now-defunct Keystone XL still finds its way to market, but via rail cars, which have a worse climate footprint.

Environmentalists retort that the pipelines themselves pose environmental risks to some of the country’s frontline communities, with much of the nation’s fossil fuel infrastructure concentrated in the counties with the most social vulnerability. Gloria breaks down the political dance further for Pros.

Around the Agencies

RAINING ON XINJIANG SOLAR: The Biden administration will announce an import ban on solar materials from a major Chinese firm, three people familiar with the plans told Pro's Kelsey Tamborrino and Gavin Bade. Customs and Border Patrol will issue a ban on imports of products linked to Hoshine Silicon Industry Co. Ltd, a major manufacturer of the feedstock for the polysilicon inside most solar panels. The action, called a withhold release order, will allow CBP to seize shipments from Hoshine, only releasing them if the importer can prove they are not made with forced labor.

The trade ban on Hoshine stops short of a region-wide WRO to block imports of polysilicon from all entities in Xinjiang. The administration has recently considered such a ban, Kelsey and Gavin reported this week, but CBP often blocks imports from individual companies as it builds the legal case for broader action.

The Solar Energy Industries Association said the move, which it anticipated, was welcomed. “The fact is, we do not have transparency into supply chains in the Xinjiang region, and there is too much risk in operating there," John Smirnow, SEIA's general counsel and vice president of market strategy, said in a statement. "For that reason, in October, we began calling on solar companies to leave the region and we provided them a traceability protocol to help ensure there is not forced labor in the supply chain."

BIDEN ON LINE 5: The Army Corps of Engineers said it will conduct an environmental review on the contentious Line 5 pipeline at the center of a conflict between Canada and Michigan. The project would tunnel beneath the bed of the Straits of Mackinac, replacing the current pipes built in the 1950s.

It’s the first time the administration has publicly gotten involved in the issue. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was hellbent on shuttering the pipeline, saying it needlessly endangered parts of the Great Lakes. The Canadian government and the pipeline’s operator, Enbridge, fiercely denied there was any risk, and Enbridge continues to operate the pipeline in the absence of a court order to stop. Ben Lefebvre has more for Pros on the Army Corps’ latest review.

Related: “U.S., Canada in ‘biweekly’ meetings over Enbridge Line 5 dispute,” via Michigan Live.

FASTER AIR DATA: The Biden EPA announced Wednesday it will begin releasing data on the estimated air toxic risks for communities annually, rather than every three to four years, as has been the norm. The agency also said it will take a more systemic approach to the information it releases, including on emissions, ambient concentrations, national screening risk estimates and monitoring data.

Air toxics risk data has in recent years driven community activism and major political decisions. After the latest release of EPA’s National Air Toxics Assessment showed elevated levels of the carcinogen ethylene oxide in communities near medical sterilizing facilities, states led by Illinois cracked down on the sites.

On the Hill

WHAT WE’RE HEARING: The Senate Energy Committee is meeting today to discuss energy, Western water and public lands infrastructure. The panel will discuss some of Chair Joe Manchin’s primary infrastructure goals, which he laid out in a 423-page discussion draft accompanying the hearing announcement last week. Among his priorities: assisting nuclear facilities facing economic struggles, demonstration projects featured in the AGILE Act of 2019 (S. 2657 (116)), $5 billion for plugging orphaned wells, grid resiliency, carbon removal infrastructure deployment and more. Anthony Adragna broke it down for Pros on Monday.

Ranking Member John Barrasso, however, is telling the committee to hold its horses and that the proposal needs work. “I am aware of no precedent where this committee appropriated anything close to the $100 billion included in this draft bill,” he'll tell the hearing.

What ME will be watching: With Manchin’s vote the most closely monitored in the Senate, ME will be on the lookout for any tea leaves on how Manchin sees the proposal fitting into broader infrastructure talks and whether he draws any red lines.

Over in the Senate Armed Services Committee, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and DOE nuclear security head Charles Verdon will discuss the department’s funding requests for the nuclear arsenal in 2022. The pair had a similar hearing before the Senate Appropriations Energy subcommittee on Wednesday, where Granholm touted a number of funding initiatives to bring the costs of clean energy down, including hydrogen through the Energy Earthshots Initiative.

Elsewhere on the Hill: Senate EPW has a hearing on “The Role of Natural and Nature-Based Features in Water Resources Projects.” And Senate Foreign Relations will be marking up bipartisan legislation (S. 65 (117)), their own action preventing the importation of goods made by forced labor in Xinjiang.

DAC ON DECK: Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) is joining the Bipartisan Policy Center to discuss the federal government’s role in advancing direct air capture at a panel today. The event accompanies a series of policy recommendations released today by BPC’s Direct Air Capture Advisory Council for financing, developing and deploying DAC, citing several bills currently under consideration. Read their report here.

MEANWHILE: Reps. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) and David McKinley (R-W.Va.) are introducing bipartisan legislation today to invest in energy innovation, including carbon removal, advanced nuclear power, renewable energy, efficiency and storage. Take a look at the Clean Energy Future through Innovation Act with a section-by-section breakdown here. The pair introduced an earlier iteration last Congress, with support from a host of industry groups.

MAKING CYBER SENSE: A bipartisan group of senators will reintroduce a bill today to create a voluntary Cyber Sense program within the Energy Department to identify cyber-secure products for use in the bulk-power system. The Cyber Sense Act — from Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Angus King (I-Maine), Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C) — echoes companion legislation, H.R. 2928 (117), introduced by Reps. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) and Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) that passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee this month.

The bill would establish testing and reporting processes for the products intended for use in the bulk-power system, and would require the Energy secretary to keep a database on the products in order to help utilities evaluate potential harm to the electric grid.

WATER LEGISLATION FLOWING: House leaders are teeing up a suite of sweeping water bills to move on the surface transportation measure slated for floor consideration next week. The legislation is intended to make up the House’s conference package to the Senate’s bipartisan S. 914 (117), and the House’s includes the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s bill to boost federal funding for sewer infrastructure (H.R. 1915 (117)) as well as three drinking water bills that cleared the Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday on largely party-line votes:

— H.R. 3291 (117), which would significantly boost funding for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and overhaul EPA’s process for setting mandatory drinking water standards.

— H.R. 3293 (117) to create a program to help low-income water customers afford their bills and H.R. 2467 (117) to aggressively regulate toxic PFAS chemicals.

Related: The House Transportation and Infrastructure’s water resources and environment subpanel is also holding a budget hearing with Army Corps leaders today.

CONFIRMED: The Senate approved by voice vote Ali Nouri’s nomination to be assistant secretary of Energy for congressional and intergovernmental affairs Tuesday. He has been serving as principal deputy assistant secretary in that office since January.

Beyond the Beltway

WELL, WHAT NOW?: German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas says his government is discussing with the U.S. how to best protect Ukraine now that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline looks like it’s a go. Secretary of State Antony Blinken “was very clear in impressing upon me that as far as Nord Stream 2 is concerned, Washington has expectations of Germany and that expectations are that we make sure that [Russian] President Putin cannot misuse the pipeline to exert pressure on Ukraine,” Maas told reporters after the meeting in Berlin.

"Already we started to work in that direction by making sure that there is an alternative gas transit agreement via the Ukraine," Maas added. "We are right now in the midst of talks about how we can fulfill these expectations that Washington has of us."

Neither Maas nor Blinken offered details of what measures might be in discussion, but Maas noted that a rollout could happen when German Chancellor Angela Merkel next visits D.C.

COAL NO MORE: Consumers Energy, Michigan’s largest energy provider, announced it will phase out coal in its electricity generation by 2025. It would make the company one of the first utilities in the country to go coal free. The company hopes to use 90 percent clean energy resources by 2040.

The Grid

— “The Asia-sized hole in Biden's trade agenda,” via POLITICO.

— “The Little Hedge Fund Taking Down Big Oil,” via The New York Times Magazine.

— "Exxon Must Face Mass. AG's Climate Change Suit," via Law360.

— “It's complicated: Tensions between EPA, unions persist,” via E&E News.

— “Analysis: Greener oil or green industry? Gridlock puts Norway in a bind,” via Reuters

— “Has the Carbontech Revolution Begun?” via The New York Times Magazine.

THAT’S ALL FOR ME!

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