WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Wednesday, readers! In today’s edition of Daily on Energy, we include more highlights from the Energy and Innovation Summit held in Pittsburgh yesterday.
Plus, we take a closer look at Callie’s exclusive reporting on pressure growing on Republicans in Congress to push for the release of more than $40 billion worth of clean energy loans that were approved under the Biden administration. A former senior official from within the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office has sent a letter to the House and Senate pressing for the loans to be finalized.
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Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner energy and environment writers Callie Patteson (@CalliePatteson) and Maydeen Merino (@MaydeenMerino). Email cpatteson@washingtonexaminer dot com or mmerino@washingtonexaminer dot com for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
FORMER ENERGY OFFICIAL PRESSES GOP TO RELEASE OVER $40B IN LOANS: Republicans in Congress are being called on to help facilitate the release of more than $40 billion worth of clean energy loans, as several former and current Department of Energy employees grow frustrated with inaction from the administration.
One former senior official and civil servant, Jennifer Downing, took matters into her own hands last week and appealed to lawmakers in the House and Senate to help advance deals that she said could advance the Trump administration’s goals of energy dominance.
What’s at stake: Looking at the entire LPO portfolio, more than $40 billion worth of loans have a conditional commitment status, meaning these deals have yet to be finalized, and no money has yet been disbursed to the project developers.
The LPO has not finalized a single loan agreement since the Trump administration took office in January. Simultaneously, Energy Secretary Chris Wright has publicly doubted the validity of those loan commitments made in the weeks before the Inauguration.
Downing, who served as chair of the Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment Program, one of the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office’s four main loan programs, said most if not all of these programs can save Americans millions and support the president’s energy agenda.
Failure to finalize the loans for the existing deals “undermines the credibility of the federal government in public-private partnerships for infrastructure projects that require multiple decades of collaboration and billions of dollars of investment,” she said.
Read more from Callie here.
PITTSBURGH SUMMIT FOSSIL- FUEL CENTRIC: One takeaway from Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Dave McCormick’s Energy and Innovation Summit yesterday is that it centered on how fossil fuels and nuclear energy can help power emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence.
The summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, featured President Donald Trump’s cabinet members Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. The cabinet members and other energy executives spoke little about renewable energy sources and instead touted the need for more natural gas and coal.
“You need the natural gas or coal infrastructure in order to provide these giant AI data centers the power that they need,” Lutnick said on stage.
Trump also praised coal, saying, “I ended Joe Biden’s war on Pennsylvania’s clean, beautiful coal.” The administration has taken steps to revive the coal industry, which has been in decline for years.
The president at the summit unveiled more than $90 billion in investments from energy and technology companies in Pennsylvania.
Trump said that the technology boom would be powered by “maybe nuclear, maybe gas, maybe coal. They won’t be powered by wind because it doesn’t work. It’s rather intermittent. It causes a lot of problems.”
Wright also bashed renewable energy sources, stating that the administration is to get the country off the “energy crazy train.” He said the country was pushed in the wrong direction by the Biden administration, which allocated hundreds of billions for clean energy sources under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Pennsylvania’s energy profile: Pennsylvania is the nation’s second-largest natural gas producer after Texas and the third-largest coal-producing state after Wyoming and West Virginia, and is the fifth-largest coal exporter to foreign markets, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
NATIONAL LAB TAPS MICROSOFT AI TO STREAMLINE NUCLEAR PERMITTING: Microsoft and the Idaho National Laboratory announced this morning that they will be partnering to use AI in streamlining the permitting and licensing processes for new nuclear power plants.
The AI will be predominantly used for generating standard reports required in the regulatory processes, such as engineering and safety analysis reports. The tech will not perform any analysis on these documents, but has been trained to automate the process of constructing such reports before they undergo human verification.
The partnership is being funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy.
Read more from Callie here.
PLUS…A PROGRAM TO BOOST NUCLEAR FUEL SUPPLY CHAINS: The Department of Energy is also supporting a new program that would help bolster the domestic supply chain for nuclear fuel, reducing reliance on foreign imports.
The agency announced today that it is seeking applications from U.S. companies to build and operate nuclear fuel production lines, focused on enriched uranium and related critical minerals. The DOE said that, not only will this end reliance on foreign sources of nuclear fuel, but it also will encourage increased private capital in the industry.
All applicants will be responsible for any costs associated with constructing, operating, and decommissioning advanced nuclear fuel lines. DOE has said that the nuclear fuel lines included in this program will only serve for research, development, and demonstration purposes. However, the agency will provide a fast-tracked process for future commercial licensing activities.
Why this matters: The U.S. has attempted to end reliance on foreign imports of nuclear fuel in the past, as former President Joe Biden signed a law banning the import of enriched uranium from Russia in May 2024. Since then, however, the U.S. has continued to purchase enriched uranium from Moscow. This is in part due to a lack of domestic supply chains for the fuel. In 2023, the U.S. imported roughly 99% of the uranium used by domestic nuclear generators.
DOE’s announcement does not directly mention Russia, but the administration has reportedly weighed targeting Russian uranium in recent months. A draft summary of the nuclear energy executive orders signed by Trump in May included a provision declaring a national emergency over U.S. dependence on Russia and China for the fuel, according to Reuters. The final orders signed made no mention of Moscow.
Key quote: “America has the resources and the expertise to lead the world in nuclear energy development, but we need secure domestic supply chains to fuel this rapidly growing energy source and achieve a true nuclear energy renaissance,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement.
U.S. STRIKES DEAL TO INCREASE LNG EXPORTS TO EUROPE: Italy has agreed to purchase liquefied natural gas from the United States, striking a deal with major exporter Venture Global.
The details: Earlier today, Italian state-controlled energy company Eni said it will be purchasing 2 million metric tons of LNG a year in the 20-year deal. The LNG is expected to be sent from Venture Global’s third facility in Louisiana, CP2 LNG.
As of this week, Venture Global has already sent nearly 40 cargoes of LNG to Italy from its two other facilities. CP2 LNG is set to begin exporting the fuel by 2027 and will export as much as 3.96 billion cubic feet per day of gas and upward of 20 million tons annually at its peak.
Venture Global received export authorization for the project in March and has been working to secure funding for its construction and operations since. In addition to partnering with Italy, the company has announced several similar deals with countries like Malaysia and Germany.
Quick reminder: Venture Global’s third facility was stalled under the Biden administration amid its controversial pause on approvals for new LNG export authorities. Critics accused the administration of imposing the pause to block the project, given the amount of downstream methane emissions associated with increased LNG exports.
RESCISSIONS PACKAGE MOVES FORWARD: The Senate yesterday evening voted to push forward the White House’s rescissions package that would repeal funding from foreign aid and public broadcasting.
Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote after three Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins voted against moving forward. The Senate will now undergo a vote-a-rama starting today to debate the resolution and propose amendments.
The package would rescind $1.7 billion for the Economic Support Fund, which helps to mitigate the impacts of climate change. It would also repeal $125 million from the Clean Technology Fund, which provides financial resources for developing countries to invest in clean energy projects.
The House voted to pass the package last month. It needs a simple majority from the Senate to be sent to Trump’s desk. Some Senate Democrats could be introducing amendments today during the vote-a-rama session, E&E News reports.
Oregon Democrat Sen. Jeff Merkley’s spokesperson told E&E News that the senator was considering proposing amendments on several topics like clean technology. The publication also said that Colorado Democrat Sen. John Hickenlooper will look at a “variety of amendments.”
ICYMI – BIG WINS FOR NUCLEAR SEEN IN PITTSBURGH: Major electricity and utility companies gave a nod to the nuclear industry during the Pittsburgh energy summit this week, announcing plans to build several new reactors in the coming years.
Nuclear New York: One of the first announcements came from Constellation Energy CEO Joe Dominguez, who told Bloomberg that the company is planning to pursue a new nuclear project in upstate New York. Constellation, which is working to restart the Three Mile Island facility in Pennsylvania, is responding to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s intention to develop at least 1 gigawatt of new nuclear energy. The utility also already operates three nuclear plants in New York state.
“It makes the most sense to create nuclear where there is existing nuclear,” Dominguez told the outlet.
10 large reactors: Westinghouse is also amping up its investment in the industry. Interim CEO Dan Sumner said during the summit roundtable with Trump that the company plans to build 10 new large nuclear reactors, with construction starting as soon as 2030. Westinghouse’s plans would directly follow through on Trump’s executive order signed in May, which called for 10 new large reactors to be under construction by that same year.
Just one of Westinghouse’s large reactors currently generates enough power for more than 750,000 homes, with a four-unit facility powering at least three million homes.
RUNDOWN
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