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The rise of the electric vehicle is creating an urgent need for the auto and power industries to develop a closer relationship — or face the risk that the disconnect between cars and the electric grid will cause rolling blackouts, writes David Ferris.

Automakers and utilities “are going to have to interact in ways they hadn’t before, in ways that aren’t comfortable,” John Taggart, co-founder of the charging software company WeaveGrid, told David.

While the Biden administration has created an office to foster collaboration between the Energy and Transportation departments, electric vehicles are speeding out of factories and onto roads before some crucial kinks are worked out, David writes. Those largely include technical issues that could arise when millions of vehicles begin seeking power from the grid at different times of day and in a multitude of locations.

For example, Ryan Quint, an authority on the U.S. electric power supply, told David that some electric vehicles include a programming bug that could cause electric vehicles to consume power erratically, destabilizing the grid. The results could one day include catastrophic blackouts, said Quint, a senior official at the North American Electric Reliability Corp., which oversees the reliability of the U.S. power grid.

Quint helped author a NERC report in April that warned that as EV adoption increases, the grid may experience sky-high electricity demand, need “expensive, last-minute upgrades” to accommodate chargers, and could suffer from unplanned blackouts.

Even worse, Quint said he can’t find anyone at the world’s largest auto manufacturers to speak with about the problem.

Automakers and oil and gas producers have a long-standing relationship, but official lines of communication between auto giants and their new fuel providers — electric utilities — are lacking. Forums where an auto engineer can sit down with a utility engineer are few, David writes.

Some joint ventures are underway, such as one called the EV Charging Initiative, which brings together the auto sector, utilities, environmental groups and government officials. Other forums are getting off the ground, including one announced last month between BMW and the utility Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

The bug that Quint identified is unlikely to manifest itself until millions of electric cars and trucks draw on the grid for power, but he said now is the time to deal with the issue.

“Can we get out in front of this thing early, before all these cars are out there doing things we don’t want them to do?” Quint asked.

It’s Monday— thank you for tuning in to POLITICO’s Power Switch. I’m your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to [email protected]

Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: James Bikales breaks down the decision made by General Motors and Ford to adopt Tesla’s charging technology for their electric vehicles.

California’s climate reckoning
During the yearlong negotiations over how to share the pain of Colorado River shortages, California officials managed to pull rank and preserve the majority of the state’s water intake, writes Jennifer Yachnin.

But the reality of climate change driving a dwindling supply could mean steeper cuts are coming for California anyway.

The Manchin show
Sen. Joe Manchin is lobbing fresh accusations at the Treasury Department, asserting that the agency is either misreading or purposely undermining President Joe Biden’s climate law as it doles out lucrative tax credits for new electric vehicles, write Hannah Northey and Timothy Cama.

The West Virginia Democrat said recent guidance deviates from the underlying statute in “major” ways, including loosening critical mineral content requirements and expanding free-trade agreements.

Climate law challenge
Poland will try to overturn the European Union’s effort to phase out combustion-engine vehicles and other climate laws by appealing before the bloc’s top court, write Zia Weise and Joshua Posaner.

The legislation that Warsaw opposes is part of a larger set of bills designed to cut the EU’s planet-warming emissions by 55 percent this decade.

Environmental justice: How climate justice could look different — and the same — in the Gulf Coast and Appalachia.

“The fire equivalent of an ice age”: Humanity has entered a new era of fire.

A showcase of some of our best subscriber content.

A recent congressional hearing invoked a bizarre episode from 2013, when EPA employee John Beale was caught stealing his government salary while he took stretches of time off, pretending to be working as a CIA agent.

Wind and solar generated more electricity than coal from January through May, marking the first time renewables have outpaced the former king of American power over a five-month period.

The Biden administration urged a federal court on Monday to reverse its April decision, which struck down a ban on gas hookups in Berkeley, Calif.

That’s it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.