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— The Senate's month-long recess is scheduled to begin later this week, and that's giving Majority Leader Chuck Schumer some leverage to push the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

— Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez and several European counterparts are condemning the Nord Stream 2 deal between Germany and the U.S.

— EPA Administrator Michael Regan named his picks for the agency's independent science advisory board after purging the group earlier this year.

HAPPY TUESDAY! I’m your host, Matthew Choi. Rennie Meyers of Ørsted North America gets the trivia for knowing Nicki Minaj and Timothée Chalamet went to LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts in New York City. For today: What was the name of Amélie’s love interest in “Amélie Poulain” (he is played by Mathieu Kassovitz, whose birthday is today)? 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: Alright, folks: Here’s the deal.

WE’RE HERE TILL IT’S DONE: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is channeling his inner elementary school teacher and using recess to keep things on track. Schumer isn’t afraid to threaten to shorten the August break to motivate members to get the bipartisan infrastructure deal squared away and out the door, reports POLITICO’s Burgess Everett.

“Getting home is always a good motivator,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who supports the bipartisan bill. “People are going to get irritated and sick of each other.”

The bipartisan infrastructure bill clocks in at 2,702 pages, and legislation of that length and complexity would typically take several weeks on the Senate floor. And Republicans are pushing back on any expedited timetables, insisting on ample time for amendments. But Schumer is banking on members' frustrations staying in the capital and missing out events back home to persuade them to get things flowing more quickly, Burgess reports.

“The longer it takes to finish the bill," Schumer said, "the longer we'll be here.”

We’re still in a pandemic, though, and with Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Republican supporter of the bipartisan deal, testing positive for Covid, any member forced to call in sick could throw a wrench in the timeline.

CUT FROM THE BILL: An advanced energy tax incentive didn’t make the final infrastructure bill released Sunday evening, even though it had appeared in drafts as recently as Saturday. The 48C tax credit provision, pushed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and supported by Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.), was meant to entice clean energy companies to areas with high unemployment, with $4 billion incentives to set up shop in areas with closed coal mines and power plants.

A source familiar with the negotiations told ME the 48C credit came out after lead negotiator Sen. Rob Portman insisted Davis-Bacon labor standards be pulled from the title, prompting the removal of the whole provision. Stabenow and others said Democrats would make a new push for the 48C provisions during the forthcoming reconciliation package, while Portman’s office did not respond to request for comment. Anthony Adragna has more for Pros.

Meanwhile, over 180 groups and businesses are urging Congress to include robust carbon capture provisions in their infrastructure package, including via the 45Q tax credit. The groups, which span a wide ideological spectrum from National Wildlife Federation and ClearPath Action to the AFL-CIO, United Airlines and West Virginia University, wrote to Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to push for expanded and streamlined 45Q tax credit, financing regional CO2 storage and transport infrastructure, and major funding for commercial scale carbon capture projects. Read their letter here.

For a rundown on the bill’s biggest energy and environment takeaways, here’s a refresher from the Pro Energy team.

ICYMI: Pro’s Annie Snider dug into how the deal will pay for removing lead pipes that plague drinking water systems around the country, a bipartisan goal that President Joe Biden says will be possible under the deal. The reality, however, is that funding is woefully insufficient to address the problem.

AND ON THE BUDGET FRONT: Democrats are searching the couch cushions for ways to pay for their $3.5 trillion go-it-alone budget resolution that they insist will be fully paid for, and finding that much money is no easy task. As Pro’s Jennifer Scholtes and Brian Faler point out, the sum could eclipse the GDPs of Spain, Australia and Switzerland combined.

Some of the options on the table:
— Killing the Medicare rebate rule, potentially freeing up up to $180 billion.
— Going after super-sized retirement fund accounts.
— Rolling back Republicans’ cuts to the corporate tax rate.
— Beefing up capital gains taxes.
And much more. Jennifer and Brian break it down.

STILL UNITED AGAINST NORD STREAM 2: Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) joined several of his European counterparts in condemning the latest U.S.-German deal on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline Monday. Foreign affairs chairs in the legislative bodies of Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Ireland and the U.K. all signed on to a joint statement decrying the pipeline as a “geopolitical project geared towards expanding Russia's influence on Europe by dominating the energy market.”

The lawmakers urge the U.S. and EU to up sanctions on the project to protect Ukraine from Russian aggression and to curb European reliance on Russian gas. The project bypasses Ukraine, which profits handsomely from transit fees from Russian gas, and installs Russian infrastructure in NATO territory. U.S. lawmakers of both parties and the European Union have been opposed to the project, despite Germany’s push for its completion. Monday’s statement from lawmakers calls for more input from actors across the region in making decisions that touch the entire NATO-sphere.

“We insist that any further agreements on Nord Stream 2 necessitate consultations across the transatlantic family,” the statement reads.

A State Department spokesperson reiterated in a statement that the U.S. still opposes the pipeline and its deal with Germany includes new assistance for Ukraine, including "at least $240 million to support a more secure and sustainable energy future, as well as a commitment by Germany to work to extend Ukraine’s gas transit contract beyond 2024, preserving billions of dollars in transit revenue for Ukraine."

EPW HEARING POSTPONED: Wednesday’s planned Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on three EPA nominees is being pushed back as Chair Tom Carper (D-Del.) manages floor debate on the bipartisan infrastructure deal. The hearing was slated to consider Amanda Howe for assistant administration for mission support, David Uhlmann for assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance, and Carlton Waterhouse for assistant administrator of land and emergency management.

The Senate Energy Committee is meeting today to consider three nominations: Geraldine Richmand for under secretary for science at DOE; Cynthia Weiner Stachelberg for assistant secretary of Interior (policy, management and budget); and Asmeret Berhe for director of DOE’s Office of Science.

EPA's REGAN NAMES SCIENCE ADVISERS: EPA unveiled its new lineup of 47 scientific advisers Monday, replacing the panel purged by Administrator Michael Regan in his quest to scour out political influence left over from the Trump administration. The new lineup for the Scientific Advisory Board includes a number of returning names, including Alison Cullen, a University of Washington environmental policy professor, whom Regan chose to chair the panel.

It’s the most diverse panel in history, according to EPA, with 22 women, 25 men and 16 people of color. “We worked expeditiously and deliberately to finalize the new Science Advisory Board, and now we can move forward knowing EPA’s work is guided by the most credible, independent expertise," Regan said in a statement. Annie has more for Pros.

FIRST IN ME: WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT FROM FERC: Environmental advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council hired consultants at MJ Bradley to find out just what the public wants in a FERC Office of Public Participation. Congress mandated FERC create an OPP, and the commission held its own public comment periods to gather input.

The MJ Bradley report found some common themes among the comments, namely that the OPP should have independent authority on FERC’s actions and should improve accessibility, offer educational and technical assistance, and have direct outreach to specific stakeholders, including landowners and marginalized groups. The report was conducted for NRDC’s Sustainable FERC Project. Read it here.

MCCARTHY ON THE MOVE: White House National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy is traveling the country this week to tout climate provisions in both the bipartisan infrastructure deal and Biden’s overall infrastructure agenda, according to a White House official. She’ll be in Hampton Roads, Va., today with Rep. Elaine Luria, specifically focusing on coastal resilience, offshore wind and dealing with impacts of climate change like flooding.

Also on the tour itinerary so far: A trip to LaMont, Ill., with Rep. Sean Casten next Tuesday and another to California with Rep. Mike Levin the Tuesday after that.

For your radar: “Fuel-Efficiency Standards Are Set to Get Tougher. The Question Is by How Much,” via The Wall Street Journal.

EUROPE'S SUMMER HEATS UP: Europe is baking under one of its worst recorded heatwaves this week, with temperatures expected to exceed the record high on the continent today of 48 degrees Celsius (that’s 118.4 Fahrenheit for us Yanks). Greece is at the epicenter of the heatwave, with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis saying it was the worst the country has faced in over 30 years. He urged citizens to reduce electricity use, and authorities asked people to avoid unnecessary travel, Zia Weise, Karl Mathiesen and Nektaria Stemouli report for POLITICO Europe.

The heatwave comes as scientists and governments finish the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sixth Assessment Report, slated to come out next Monday. The report is expected to explicitly link recent major natural disasters, including the heatwaves and flooding in Europe, to climate change.

ALSO FROM BRUSSELS: “The European Commission on Monday decided to extend anti-dumping measures against U.S. biodiesel until August 2026,” reports POLITICO Europe’s Barbara Moens.

NUCLEAR REACTIONS: The bipartisan infrastructure bill offers $6 billion in assistance for the nuclear sector, but it may not be enough for a couple of Illinois plants. The program, which will be implemented by the Energy Department over five years will offer assistance to nuclear projects set to cease operations due to economic factors, and it authorizes $3.2 billion through fiscal year 2027 to DOE's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.

But the bill won't likely help two Illinois generators poised for early closure. Exelon's Byron and Dresden nuclear plants are eyeing a fall deadline for refueling — Byron in September and Dresden in November — and the company says refueling both stations to delay their retirement would commit them to running the plants for up to an additional two years, during which time they could face revenue shortfalls to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Instead, the company is looking toward proposed clean energy legislation stalled in Illinois. "We can't risk taking those losses with no guarantee of a legislative solution," Exelon said in a statement to ME, adding that the state's measure is the "only solution that can pass in time to provide the certainty we need, while also protecting consumers by ensuring that any funds directed to nuclear from future federal legislation are passed through to customers." NPR Illinois has a good run-down on the latest with the Illinois bill here.

DOC OF THE DAY: U.S.-based solar companies Auxin Solar and Suniva formally filed their petition for an extension of Trump-era tariffs imposed on certain solar cells and modules for another four years. The U.S. International Trade Commission has received a filing, a spokesperson told ME, which will now undergo the commission's regular review process to determine whether or not it can be accepted, and then, subsequently, whether to institute.

Should the ITC institute the process, a report on whether to extend the tariffs could end up at the White House, where President Joe Biden would then make the final determination. Mamun Rashid, co-founder and CEO at Auxin Solar, called the tariffs crucial to leveling the playing field, and said the company's expansion plans for U.S. module manufacturing — and potentially ingot and wafer manufacturing — dependent on an extension. "If we do not have, not only the module manufacturing but the entire supply chain in the U.S., we've given up our energy independence to overseas countries and nations," Rashid said. "This is a very serious national security issue."

— The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) named Hill Thomas as its vice president of legislative affairs. He was previously NRECA’s legislative affairs director and is an alumnus of former Reps. John Barrow and Gwen Graham.

— “Utilities Eye Mini Nuclear Reactors as Climate Concerns Grow,” via The Wall Street Journal.

— “Many fossil fuel CEOs saw pay increase in 2020 amid severe industry downturn,” via S&P Global.

— “Withering drought threatens Mexico's ability to borrow money,” via E&E News.

— “News Corp to Buy Oil Price Information Service for $1.15 Billion,” via The Wall Street Journal.

THAT’S ALL FOR ME!