MOScout Daily Update: Prepping for the EV Economy - Lovasco Rematch Coming - Foster to Enterprise and more...
The EV Economy
We could be entering a transformative period for the transportation industry where electric vehicles replace gas vehicles. Missouri policy-makers should consider how best to position the state to capitalize on the change.
Bloomberg reports that the “US is the latest country to pass what’s become a critical EV tipping point: 5% of new car sales powered only by electricity. This threshold signals the start of mass EV adoption, the period when technological preferences rapidly flip… Most successful new technologies — electricity, televisions, mobile phones, the internet, even LED lightbulbs — follow an S-shaped adoption curve. Sales move at a crawl in the early-adopter phase, then surprisingly quickly once things go mainstream. (The top of the S curve represents the last holdouts who refuse to give up their old flip phones.) In the case of electric vehicles, 5% seems to be the point when early adopters are overtaken by mainstream demand. Before then, sales tend to be slow and unpredictable. Afterward, rapidly accelerating demand ensues.”
Missouri has often been seen as an ideal, but underperforming, distribution hub for transporting the nation’s goods. Studies have pointed out the state’s competitive advantage in this field is its centrally located geography. (This was one of the selling points behind then-Sen. Eric Schmitt’s ill-fated “China Hub.”)
With the right infrastructure, Missouri be a distribution/logistics leader. Sign posts toward this new economy…
· The recent $100 million planned to install charging stations.
· Ford has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Missouri in electric technology. Axios places Missouri in the western edge of the so-called “Battery Belt” where investments in electric vehicles seemed to be focused.
· Politico’s Influence reports that “a Missouri mining company that produces critical minerals used in electric vehicle batteries has hired former Rep. Filemon Vela of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to help the company secure federal funding likely to flow more easily now that President Joe Biden has signed Democrats’ climate spending package… Missouri Cobalt is in the process of building a new hydrometallurgical facility near its Fredericktown, Mo., mine that it says will help produce large-scale quantities of cobalt and nickel for batteries. It retained Vela at the beginning of July to lobby on ‘funding regarding development and processing of critical minerals essential to electric vehicle battery manufacturing,’ according to a newly filed disclosure… The bill stipulates that to qualify for EV tax credits, the car in question must meet certain domestic manufacturing requirements — including that at least 40 percent of the critical minerals sourced for batteries must come from North America or a nation that is party to a U.S. free trade agreement. Combined with similar supply chain requirements for battery components, zero electric vehicles on the market in the U.S. meet those conditions. To jumpstart that supply chain within the U.S., the bill includes a number of incentives meant to help spur critical minerals processing…”
FYI, Missouri Cobalt has no Jefferson City representation.
Lovasco Re-Elect Starts Now
Deanna Self formed Committee to Elect Deanna Self to run for House 64 in 2024 as a Republican. Self, a pro-life activist in St. Charles, narrowly lost to Rep. Tony Lovasco earlier this month. She placed second in a spirited three-way race, finishing with 34.7%, 69 votes behind Lovasco.
Lovasco starts his third term this January, and will be running for his final term in 2024.
Tony PAC Offloads $$$
In the large contributions, Tony PAC, the political action committee which has been aligned with Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, sent $330,000 to Prosperous Missouri PAC. It’s a PAC which has been around for five years or so, originally named Citizens for a Prosperous 34th District. Its treasurer is attorney James Thomas III who is often used with Axiom clients and issues.
That $330K about matched what Tony PAC had on-hand in its last filing, indicating we may be seeing a termination of the PAC soon.
Luetkemeyer is set to start his second (and final) term as a state senator in January. Word is that he’ll be actively pursing a Parson appointment to the attorney general spot, assuming Eric Schmitt wins in November.
On the Move
· Josh Foster is headed to Enterprise. “I have spent the last ten years of my life working in the Missouri State Senate and the Missouri Attorney General’s Office. In both spots, I didn’t just have a front row seat to the policy making process, I was in the arena where it was being made. I wouldn’t trade these past ten years for anything where I not only made lifelong friendships and met incredible people, but I also had the honor of working in jobs that allowed me serve Missouri’s six million residents… Beginning at the end of the month, though, I will take everything I have learned in public service and bring it with me to the private sector where I will be working on the Government and Public Affairs team at Enterprise Holdings…”
· Jaclyn Schmitz writes on social media, “Today is my last day working for Senator Schupp before I move on to a new position with the Public Consulting Group. It’s bittersweet leaving a boss I love and respect so much. Jill Schupp, you are a bastion of integrity not often found in politics. My life will be forever better because of you, the opportunities you gave me, and all that you’ve taught me. Thank you for a great 4 years in the MO Senate!”
$5K+ Contributions
Prosperous Missouri PAC - $330,000 from TONY PAC.
Missouri AG PAC - $25,000 from Protection Plus LLC.
Uniting Missouri PAC (pro-Parson) - $10,000 from Spire Missouri Inc.
House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $50,000 from Missouri United.
Pfizer Missouri Political Action Committee - Federal Committee - $11,000 from Pfizer Inc PAC (New York, NY).
Birthdays
Happy birthdays to Donna Pfautsch, Mark Siettmann, Tim O’Connell, and Connie Cunningham.