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— FERC Commissioner Allison Clements spoke to POLITICO about letting states set their own policies — but holding them to reliability standards that protect consumers from events like the kind that hit Texas.

— The SEC made its first move Wednesday in the Biden era to address financial risks from global warming.

— More than half of respondents in a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll said they thought Texas should connect its electric grid to other regions.

IT'S THURSDAY! I'm your host, Kelsey Tamborrino. The trivia win goes to Jonathan Simon of Van Ness Feldman for correctly identifying former President Woodrow Wilson, who signed the bill into law in 1916 that established the National Park Service. For today: What was the federal minimum wage when it took effect in 1938? Send your tips and trivia answers to [email protected].

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: The U.S. rejoined Paris. Now comes the hard part

A CONVERSATION WITH ALLISON CLEMENTS: In a conversation with Pro's Eric Wolff, FERC Commissioner Allison Clements explained when the power regulator should get out of the way of state policy, when it should jump in, and why it needs to get buy-in from states to allow more transmission.

Clements said she did not think FERC gets to "pick and choose" which state policies it respects. "I think I'm pretty legally consistent there," she told Eric. "There are opportunities to improve markets design to both come into congruence with state policies and to ensure that customers don't get left holding the bag, or get exposed to the type of emergency events that were taking place this week [in Texas]."

But there's a caveat. "FERC has reliability authority to work with NERC and to direct standards be developed. So, in that sense, I will push the commission to act, to protect customers via reliability standards," she said. "And so that certainly interacts with state functions, but it's a clearly defined federal authority in terms of what do we do about all this."

On the subject of opening up transmission, Clements pointed to a the need to break through the "to-date intractable problems of cost allocation," where she said there is a lot FERC can do. "And there's some things the commission can't do on that front and so inter-regional transmission development that is required to move the 750 gigawatts of wind, solar, and battery storage that are in that interconnection queues, in regions across the country, that's going to require the buy-in of states, and the buy-in of customers," she said. "And I think we're just at the beginning of that process."

About that buy-in: "The reality is we're going to spend money. The grid is old. It needs to be improved, and the time for the next build out is here," she said. "So in my mind as a FERC commissioner, my job is to ensure that we spend that money well so that customers get benefits commensurate to what they're going to pay on their bills for the development of that transmission and doing that requires planning for public policies." Read the full Q-and-A.

GRANHOLM GETS VOTE: The Senate will vote shortly after noon today to confirm former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm as the secretary of Energy after clearing a procedural hurdle on Wednesday.

MANCHIN CLEARS PATH FOR HAALAND CONFIRMATION: Backers of New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland for Interior secretary got a big boost Wednesday after moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said he'd support the nominee. Following Day 2 of Haaland's confirmation hearings before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Manchin — the panel's chair and a key vote in the Senate as Democrats hold a razor-thin majority — released a statement promising to vote in favor of the nominee. "I believe Deb Haaland will be a Secretary of the Interior for every American and will vote to confirm her," he said.

As POLITICO's Anthony Adragna notes, several other moderate senators, notably Democrat Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) and Republican Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), have yet to state their position on Haaland's nomination.

— Hearing highlights: Haaland faced another round of questioning Wednesday over her past criticism of fossil fuels but emerged largely unscathed, promising to work on issues with the senators if confirmed, as Eric recaps for Pros. She also sought to assure senators of her commitment to promote jobs on federal lands.

"What I can say is I'm going to fight hard for every single job — I want people to work," Haaland said. "I know what that's like. And I promise you that wherever I have opportunities, I will take them to make sure that people have secure futures. Every family deserves to have a roof over their head.

NEXT UP: Two more of Biden's environmental picks, Brenda Mallory for chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Janet McCabe for deputy EPA administrator, are scheduled to appear March 3 for their confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Anthony has the details for Pros.

REPORT: HOUSE GOP HOLDS CLIMATE SUMMIT: Twenty-five House Republicans across the ideological spectrum attended a summit last weekend in Utah to discuss their approach to climate change in the new Congress, according to the Washington Examiner. Conservative groups including the American Conservation Coalition, Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions and the Alliance for Market Solutions held panel events to educate members on climate change.

TAX TALK: Manchin said Wednesday that a value-added tax could be the "only tool" available for Congress to pay for its forthcoming infrastructure package, Anthony also reports. Manchin acknowledged the difficulty of selling the prospect of new taxes — "nobody likes taxes, I know that" — but said it would be crucial for Congress to pay for the legislation. He again did not rule out a hefty $4 trillion package.

"A VAT tax, basically, for infrastructure might be the only tool. Now if the public believe that the politicians will keep their hands off of it and not rob it, it might have a chance," Manchin said during a virtual American Council for Capital Formation event. "If you want to do a $4 trillion infrastructure bill over 10 years — you want to do a perpetual one — you're going to have to have an infrastructure bank that states and communities can work out of ... and match down." Merely hiking a gasoline or fuel tax is "not going to do what we need" and Congress needs to look "much broader" for options, he said.

BIDEN TAPS TRIBAL EXPERT TO ARMY CORPS: The Biden administration is tapping Jaime Pinkham, the executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, to be principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, according to a source with knowledge of the move. Pinkham, a member of the Nez Perce tribe, serves on the board of the nonprofit American Rivers and stands to play a key role in issues ranging from the Dakota Access pipeline to the scope of the Clean Water Act to dams in the Pacific Northwest.

SEC STARTS ON CLIMATE DISCLOSURE: Acting SEC Chair Allison Herren Lee directed staff to get to work on revising decade-old guidance on climate change disclosures by public companies, Pro's Zachary Warmbrodt reports. In a statement Wednesday, Lee said she was asking the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance to "enhance its focus on climate-related disclosure in public company filings," including a review of the extent to which companies address topics identified in the agency's climate disclosure guidance from 2010 and how the market is managing climate-related risks.

"The staff will use insights from this work to begin updating the 2010 guidance to take into account developments in the last decade," she said. The statement comes as the agency is widely expected to develop rules that would require companies to disclose more information about their contributions to climate change and the related risks they face.

POLL: VOTERS SUPPORT TEXAS CONNECTING ITS GRID TO OTHERS: More than half of U.S. voters believe the Lone Star state should no longer go it alone when it comes to its electric grid. Fifty-six percent of voters said the state should connect its grid to other regions, which would open it up to federal oversight, after last week's deadly winter storm that left more than 4 million customers without electricity, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll conducted Feb. 19-22. Twenty-four percent of respondents said the state should continue to operate its independent electric grid and to make "decisions that are best for the state and avoid federal regulations." Twenty percent had no opinion or did not know.

Looking closer at the crosstabs: Seventy-one percent of Democrats said they support Texas connecting its grid to other regions, while 41 percent of Republicans and 48 percent of independents said the same. Breaking it down by region, 60 percent of voters in the Northeast, 59 percent in the Midwest, 50 percent in the South and 58 percent in the West said they believed Texas should connect to other regions.

The poll also asked voters to weigh in on who bore the brunt of the responsibility for the crisis. More than any of the options offered, 72 percent of voters said Texas electric utilities were either "very responsible" (42 percent) or "somewhat responsible" (30 percent). Sixty-six percent also said the Electric Reliability Council of Texas was either very (41 percent) or somewhat (25 percent) responsible. Notably, renewables were lower on the list than oil and gas: 44 percent of respondents said the clean energy industry was either very or somewhat responsible compared to 50 percent who pointed the finger at oil and gas industry.

Asked about climate change's responsibility in the crisis, 53 percent of voters said it was either very or somewhat responsible, while 20 percent said it was not responsible at all. The poll surveyed 2,013 registered voters and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

AD WARS: The Environmental Defense Fund is running a new digital display ad in Michigan, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and D.C. targeting moderate Fox News viewers on what role fossil fuels played in the crisis in Texas. "Failing to move on from fossil fuels got us here," it says.

BIDEN ORDERS SUPPLY CHAIN REVIEW: Biden signed an executive order Wednesday to review the global supply chains used by four industries, including critical minerals and large capacity batteries like those used in electric vehicles. "This is about making sure the United States can meet every challenge we face in this new era, pandemics, but also in defense, cyber security, climate change, and so much more," Biden said.

The details: The order institutes 100-day reviews of the global producers and shippers for: computer chips used in consumer products; large-capacity batteries for electric vehicles; pharmaceuticals and their active ingredients; and critical minerals used in electronics, POLITICO's Gavin Bade reports. The reviews will seek to determine whether U.S. firms in these sectors are relying too much on foreign suppliers, particularly those in China, a senior administration official told reporters. They will also consider other vulnerabilities, like extreme weather and environmental factors.

The order will also direct yearlong reviews for six sectors: defense, public health, information technology, transportation, energy and food production.

CLEARING THE AIR: White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese will meet virtually with representatives from airlines Friday to discuss sustainability efforts, sources familiar with the arrangements told Pro's Tanya Snyder. The CEOs of American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines will participate, according to Reuters.

COAL CASE: U.S. investors hold 58 percent of institutional investments in the global coal industry with shares and bonds valued at $602 billion as of the beginning of this year, according to new research this morning from Urgewald, Reclaim Finance, Rainforest Action Network, 350.org Japan and other NGOs. The report totaled 4,488 institutional investors holding investments of $1.03 trillion in companies along the thermal coal value chain. U.S. mutual fund company Vanguard is the largest global institutional investor in the coal industry, with holdings of nearly $86 billion, followed closely by BlackRock, which holds more than $84 billion — together representing 17 percent of institutional investments in the industry, according to the report.

— Kristina Baum, previously communications director for the Trump White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, starts today as a vice president at Qorvis Communications.

— "Exxon casts out Canadian oil sands in massive reserves slump," via Bloomberg.

— "Texas electric bills were $28 billion higher under deregulation," via The Wall Street Journal.

— "PolyMet wins Minnesota top court ruling on $1 billion mine," via Reuters.

— "Exelon to split generation business from its regulated utilities," via Greentech Media.

— "Dominion proposes ending its South Carolina coal generation by 2030," via Utility Dive.

THAT'S ALL FOR ME!