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— The Biden administration announces new measures today to make sure those 500,000 planned electric vehicle charging stations are usable for as many EV drivers as possible.

— DOE's loan office finalized its first loan guarantee for a clean energy project since the Obama administration.

— An explosion will take one of the country's key LNG export facilities offline for weeks as the administration seeks to send more LNG to Europe to offset its Russian energy dependence.

HAPPY THURSDAY! I’m your host, Matthew Choi. Keely McNeme of Redwood Climate Communications gets the trivia for knowing Princess Anne was the first member of the British royal family to compete in the Olympics. For today: What communist country kept Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state? Send your tips and trivia answers to [email protected]. Find me on Twitter @matthewchoi2018.

Check out the POLITICO Energy podcast","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://politico-energy.simplecast.com/","_id":"00000181-4cc3-d7c5-afb1-6cd7b5760004","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000181-4cc3-d7c5-afb1-6cd7b5760005","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}">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","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/energy-podcast","_id":"00000181-4cc3-d7c5-afb1-6cd7b5760006","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000181-4cc3-d7c5-afb1-6cd7b5760007","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}">politico.com/energy-podcast. On today's episode: Strengthening Puerto Rico’s power grid.

QUALITY WITH QUANTITY: The Biden administration hopes to expand the country’s electric vehicle charging network with 500,000 more charging stations. It also wants to make sure all those stations are actually useful.

The Transportation Department is unveiling a new proposed rule today that would require EV charging stations to meet several criteria to be eligible for money under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, including being accessible for different car brands, banning chargers from requiring subscriptions, ensuring minimum charging speeds and keeping payment systems easy to use.

“You shouldn't have to sort through half a dozen apps on your phone just to be able to pay at a charging station,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters.

The move follows several other measures to expand charging infrastructure to make electric vehicles a more attractive option outside of rich, urban clusters. Last year’s bipartisan infrastructure package included $7.5 billion for EV charging infrastructure, with $5 billion being available this year under the NEVI program. The Energy and Transportation departments operate a joint office helping states stake out their EV deployment plans, and today’s rule is meant to ensure quality in the proposals.

Democrats point to EVs as a key, long-term answer to volatile fuel prices set by global markets. The national average gasoline price yet again hit an all time high Wednesday at $4.955.

But transitioning to electric vehicles will also need support from Congress, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters Wednesday, including via Democrats’ Build Back Better EV tax credits that stalled in the Senate last year. When asked for the latest on the legislative front, Granholm said the discussions are still ongoing but “the President certainly would encourage his original proposal to be adopted.” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) dismissed expanding EV tax credits during last year's BBB negotiations.

A CLEAN SLATE FOR LOAN OFFICE: The Energy Department granted its first clean energy loan guarantee out of its Loan Programs Office since 2014, the department announced Wednesday. The $504.4 million loan guarantee will go toward the Advanced Clean Energy Storage project in Utah, set to be the world’s largest clean hydrogen storage facility.

The announcement leaves $2.5 billion for the office to direct toward other clean energy projects. The office has received more than 70 applications totaling nearly $79 billion as of the end of May, the department said in a news release.

The office, led by Jigar Shah, has been the target of Republican criticism ever since solar firm Solyndra received over $500 million in DOE loans only to go bankrupt in 2011. The office was largely quiet during the Trump administration, but Shah told reporters that Wednesday’s "announcement shows we're back in a big way."

Republicans in Utah’s congressional delegation also seemed chuffed to see the money flowing to their state for a technology popular on both sides of the aisle.

“Utah has a wealth of natural resources that make it an ideal location for clean energy innovation,” Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah), who launched the Conservative Climate Caucus, said in a statement. “Hydrogen can, and should, play a large role in powering our society and I am appreciative of Secretary Granholm supporting this important project.”

Read more from POLITICO’s Kelsey Tamborrino.

LNG OFFLINE: One of the country's most important liquefied natural gas export facilities will be offline for at least three weeks following a Wednesday explosion. The Freeport LNG facility in Texas has nearly a fifth of the total U.S. LNG export capacity, about 2 billion cubic feet per day.

No one was hurt or missing from the explosion, according to a facility spokesperson. But the facility's shutdown comes as the Biden administration strives to secure at least 15 billion cubic meters of LNG for Europe following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While not all of that LNG comes from American producers, the U.S. is among the world's top LNG exporters and has been growing its exports since the Russian invasion. POLITICO's Ben Lefebvre has more.

AN EYE ON APPROPS: A cohort of energy and environment policy groups across the ideological spectrum is pushing for more money for Energy Department research and development programs in a bid to expand the clean energy sector. In a letter to House and Senate leadership and the tops of the House and Senate Appropriations committees today, the groups urge a “significant and targeted increase” in appropriations for the department’s R&D programs in fiscal year 2023 over 2022, citing their success in developing the country’s wind and solar sectors.

Signatories include groups close to both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, including Third Way, ClearPath Action, Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Wildlife Federation. Read the letter here.

The groups didn’t include an exact dollar figure in their letter. The House set a $1.6 trillion budget ceiling for the next fiscal year on Wednesday (POLITICO’s Jennifer Scholtes has more on that front).

OCEANS IN COMMITTEE: The House Climate Crisis Committee has a hearing today on the oceans’ role in combating climate change. The committee will hear from NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad and Monica Medina, assistant secretary for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs at the State Department.

The hearing comes a day after World Oceans Day, when the Biden administration unveiled proposals to protect ocean environments, including an order by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to phase out single-use plastics from national parks and an “Ocean Climate Action Plan that will guide significant ocean-based climate mitigation and adaptation actions, including green shipping, ocean-based renewable energy, blue carbon, and other ocean-related solutions.” POLITICO’s Ben Lefebvre has more on Wednesday’s administration announcements.

HOCHSTEIN ON THE HILL: The State Department’s point person on European energy, Amos Hochstein, will testify before a Senate Foreign Relations subpanel today on the U.S. role in diversifying European energy.

ELSEWHERE IN COMMITTEE: The House Natural Resources Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee has a legislative hearing today on five bills focusing on mine clean up, restoration and community welfare today. The Senate Energy Committee will also be digging into the U.S. Forest Service's FY 2023 budget request, and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has a legislative hearing on S. 4244 (117), a bill banning the production and sale of asbestos.

ICYMI: “House Science Committee probes tools to track methane emissions in oil and gas sector,” via POLITICO’s Ben Lefebvre.

WRDA OUT OF THE HOUSE: The House passed its version of this year’s Water Resources Development Act on Wednesday night on a bipartisan basis, 384-37. The package includes feasibility studies for dozens of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects and authorizations for new environmental infrastructure projects (for more on what’s in the package and how it differs from the Senate version, your host has you covered). The Senate has not yet indicated when it will vote on its version, which advanced unanimously out of the EPW committee last month.

THE STICKY SAUDI SITUATION: Biden appears to be planning a trip to Saudi Arabia this summer to both stabilize global energy markets and help pull a strategic ally away from Russia, but a lot of his allies in Congress aren’t too thrilled about it, POLITICO’s Andrew Desiderio reports. The country’s poor human rights record as well as the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has a lot of Democrats on the Hill gritting their teeth, though several see the strategic importance of recruiting a major oil producer on their side.

OPEC+ recently announced a ramp up in its oil output after months of pleading by the Biden administration to help cool high crude prices. The requests from the West predate Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the subsequent soaring energy prices and moves to isolate Russia’s energy sector amplified calls for OPEC to change course and release more oil. Riyadh stayed on course for weeks, hoping not to anger their Russian partners as relations with the Biden administration stayed frosty.

“I just don’t see any evidence that Saudi Arabia is really stepping up or has stepped up in a situation like this to get relief to people who are just getting clobbered by the cost of gas,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told Andrew.

But the cartel’s recent decision to increase output may not resolve price instability, with reduced spare capacity leaving little wiggle room if another major event drives up prices again — say a storm hitting the Gulf Coast this hurricane season (Reuters has more on that front).

KERRY SOUNDS ALARM ON CLIMATE TARGETS: U.S. climate envoy John Kerry warned that the world could slip off of meeting its global climate targets and that the Russian invasion of Ukraine should not distract from shifting away from fossil fuels. Speaking at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, Kerry said: "There are vested interests right now trying to exploit Ukraine and tell people we need a whole new generation of infrastructure built out that is going to kill 1.5, let alone 2 and 2.7.”

In addition to its overtures toward OPEC, the Biden administration has also been calling on domestic producers to use up their federal oil and gas leases and bring more supply to the market in order to cool the rising fuel prices. But Kerry said continuing down that path would doom the Paris Climate Agreement target of keeping warming under 1.5 degrees celsius. Read more from POLITICO’s Zack Colman.

OIL GIANTS MAKE SCOTUS APPEAL: Several Suncor Energy subsidiaries and Exxon Mobil asked the Supreme Court to rule that the numerous climate related lawsuits against the oil and gas industry should stay in federal, not state, court. The request is tied to a 2018 lawsuit by Colorado local governments against Suncor Energy and Exxon Mobil over the firms’ sale of fossil fuels without disclosing the risks of climate change. There have since been a number of similar cases brought by local governments. The firms generally prefer keeping the cases in federal court, believing that would lead to more favorable outcomes. Read more from POLITICO’s Alex Guillén.

— The American Petroleum Institute has named Amanda Eversole its next chief advocacy officer. She previously spent two years at JPMorgan as its corporate responsibility team's managing director and head of public affairs, and is a longtime U.S. Chamber of Commerce alum (H/t POLITICO Influence).

— ”Explosion rocks major liquefied natural gas terminal in Texas,” via POLITICO.

— ”WA hired a climate epidemiologist — and not a moment too soon,” via Crosscut.

— ”Russia has no extra oil to sign deals with two Indian buyers,” via Reuters.

— "CASAC Splits On Whether To Stall EPA’s Ozone NAAQS Reconsideration," via InsideEPA.

— ”Shell, the Oil Giant, Will Sell Renewable Energy to Texans,” via The New York Times.

— ”Russia complains of ‘oppression’ during climate conference,” via POLITICO.

THAT’S ALL FOR ME!