WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Thursday, readers! In today’s edition of Daily on Energy, Callie and Maydeen dive straight into the climate-related rules from the Biden administration that House leadership plans to target through the Congressional Review Act. 

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission held its monthly meeting this morning with newly appointed Chairman Mark Christie at the helm. Keep reading to find out what Christie had to say about recent executive orders and layoffs impacting federal and independent agencies. Plus, in a win for the nuclear power industry, the restart of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant may be a bit ahead of schedule. 

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.

HOUSE LEADERSHIP LAYS OUT BIDEN CLIMATE RULES TO SLASH: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise released a list of former President Joe Biden’s climate and energy regulations that Republicans will aim to reverse through the Congressional Review Act (CRA) in the coming weeks. 

Just a reminder: The CRA allows Congress to bypass the filibuster and take a simple majority vote in the House and Senate to overturn recently implemented rules. The process allows the vote to come to the floor in an expedited fashion, forcing all members to go on the record with their votes. If Congress votes to undo a rule, the agency cannot propose a similar regulation. 

Scalise listed 10 regulations Republicans will look to undo, with the majority of the rules being climate-related, including the California Clean Air Act Waiver granted by the Environmental Protection Agency, which allows the state to implement stricter vehicle emission standards than federal requirements. California has required all new car sales to be zero-emissions by 2035.

GOP members have strongly opposed California’s gas vehicle ban and Trump has promised to reverse the waiver. The waiver has “resulted in higher vehicle prices for consumers, increased costs and manufacturing complexities for automakers, and a more complicated regulatory environment,” Scalise said in a press release. 

Other climate-related rules on the chopping block: 

• The Waste Emissions Charge for Petroleum and Natural Gas Systems, through which the EPA imposes a fee on oil and gas facilities that exceed specific methane emissions thresholds. 

• Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Gas-fired Instantaneous Water Heaters, which is a set of rules by the Energy Department requiring a minimum efficiency level for gas-powered tankless water heaters. 

• Energy Conservation-Appliance Standards for certification and labeling, by which appliances must meet specific standards to receive a label informing consumers that they are energy-efficient.

• Oil and Gas and Sulfur Operations in the Outer Continental Shelf, which are regulations on offshore oil drilling in high-pressure and temperature environments.

• Standards for Rubber Tire Manufacturing, which are standards for hazardous emissions from the rubber tire manufacturing process

• The Protection of Marine Archaeological Resources rule, requiring oil and gas lessees and operators to submit archaeological reports for exploration or development on the Outer Continental Shelf

• The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Guidance on Carbon Credits, which sets standards to buy and sell carbon credits to offset emissions. 

“In addition to these rules, the Leader will be looking at more potential CRAs as we continue to fight to undo the damage done by the Biden Administration,” Scalise said. 

FERC AFFIRMS POSITION AS INDEPENDENT AGENCY FOLLOWING TRUMP ORDER: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Mark Christie insisted today that the agency is still “independent” under the Department of Energy Organization Act, as its autonomy came into question this week following an executive order signed by President Donald Trump this week. 

The order: The president signed the order, titled “Ensuring Accountability For All Agencies,” on Tuesday, effectively giving the executive Office of Management and Budget authority over all proposed and final significant regulatory actions from all departments and agencies — including those considered independent, such as FERC. Legal experts and former FERC officials have since sounded an alarm over the order, claiming it could strip agencies like FERC of their power. 

Not that worried: Chairman Christie indicated to reporters after the agency’s monthly meeting that he isn’t all that concerned about the executive order, as FERC already submits a number of items to OMB for approvals, such as the agency’s budget, its strategic plan, and major regulations. “We’ve been doing it for years and they can question it, so that’s not new,” Christie said.

He indicated, however, that many questions remain as to what additional regulations the executive office may want to review. “I always said in teaching regulatory law, that regulations are simply laws by another name. So of course, they’re going to want to know that when any agency is issuing laws and just calling it a regulation, there’s going to be some explanation and coordination about what are you doing,” Christie said, adding that he doesn’t anticipate it to encompass actions related to technical conferences or resource adequacy. The chairman said he plans to ask the administration for additional clarification. 

Plus…FERC avoids layoffs: Also this morning, Christie confirmed that the agency had not fired a single probationary employee, making it one of the few federal agencies or departments to come out of the sweeping layoffs unscathed. Thousands of employees have been let go from the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, National Parks Service, Department of Interior, Department of Agriculture, and more in the last week. “I don’t know the number of probationary [employees] off the top of my head, but I know that no one has been terminated,” Christie told reporters.

CLIMATE CHANGE, NO LONGER A ‘THREAT MULTIPLIER’ TO DOD: The Department of Defense is seemingly no longer considering climate change a major threat or threat multiplier under the Trump administration, instead categorizing the claim that there is a crisis as “woke.” 

The details: In a news release issued last night, the department announced its plan to identify around $50 billion of what it described as “low-priority Biden-legacy programs” that it intends to cut to utilize that funding for advancing the president’s agenda. Among those programs, the DoD specifically targeted ones focused on climate change and changed the department’s longstanding viewpoint on the issue. 

“Through our budgets, the Department of Defense will once again resource warfighting and cease unnecessary spending that set our military back under the previous administration, including through so-called ‘climate change’ and other woke programs, as well as excessive bureaucracy,” the release read.

Changing positions: The verbiage used in the release marks a notable departure from the DoD’s decades-long position on climate change. As far back as 1990, the U.S. Naval War College – which is overseen by the Department of the Navy – issued a report saying “nearly all areas of operational effectiveness are threatened” by climate change and environmental risks like global warming and rising sea levels. In 2014, then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said that the U.S. defense strategy referred to climate change as a “threat multiplier,” with the potential to worsen ongoing threats and crises across the globe, such as terrorism. President Joe Biden’s Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin echoed a similar sentiment in 2021, calling climate change an “existential” threat to the U.S. and world. 

It remains unclear which climate-related programs the department, led by Secretary Pete Hegseth, will axe. But it appears strategies like the department’s Climate Adaptation Plan for 2024-2027 are under risk. The recent changing position comes as no surprise given Hegseth has been skeptical of climate science. 

OIL AND BIOFUEL GROUPS ASK EPA TO PRIORITIZE RENEWABLE FUELS: A group of oil and biofuel companies sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin asking the agency to increase renewable fuel volumes for 2026 and beyond. 

“While our organizations have not always agreed on every detail, we have joined together in recognition of the critical role liquid fuels serve in the American economy, to advance liquid fuels, and ensure consumers have a choice of how they fuel their vehicles,” the letter reads. 

The group of companies included the American Petroleum Institute, Renewable Fuels Association, Advanced Biofuels Association and several others. 

The group added that the Renewable Fuel Standard has helped increase energy security and enhanced the agricultural industry. They called the EPA to release a multi-year standard for RFS to provide certainty for renewable fuel producers and other market participants. 

“Our organizations are excited to help deliver on the Trump Administration’s promise of U.S. energy dominance. Together we share the same mission—to produce and deliver reliable, affordable, and cleaner fuels for our nation and our world,” the groups wrote. 

EMISSIONS ROSE IN U.S. LAST YEAR EVEN AS RENEWABLES HIT RECORD LEVELS: Carbon emissions in the U.S. continued to increase last year, despite efforts to curb rising levels through increased power generation from renewable and clean energy sources like wind, solar, geothermal, and nuclear. 

The details: The Business Council for Sustainable Energy and BloombergNEF released their 13th annual Sustainable Energy in America Factbook today, outlining how sustainable energy technologies are ready and available to help growing energy demand across the country. 

Last year, renewable energy sources hit record volume levels, bringing solar, wind, and others to around 24% of US power generation, the report found. When accounting for all zero-carbon energy (such as nuclear power), the cleaner power sources made up around 42% of U.S. power generation — a record high. Solar power dominated this green push, as 49 gigawatts of new solar power generating capacity were added to the national grid last year, the report found. 

Despite the accelerated transition to greener energy sources, emissions still continued to rise in 2024. The report found that the U.S. emitted roughly 6,250 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gasses, a 0.5% increase year over year. This has primarily been attributed to an increased use of fossil fuels in a number of industries as well as “limited adoption” of lower carbon technologies. Still, emission levels are much lower (15.8%) than 2005 levels, the report found.

THREE MILE ISLAND RESTART PROJECT ‘AHEAD OF SCHEDULE’: Constellation Energy has said it is on track to re-open the Three Mile Island nuclear facility by 2027 and is even ahead of schedule on some workstreams. 

The details: The energy company, which is restarting the plant as part of a power purchase agreement with Microsoft, revealed yesterday that more than 200 full-time employees have been hired to work at the Pennsylvania-based facility, including several who worked at Three Mile Island before it was shut down. The plant, set to be renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center, is expected to create around 3,400 direct and indirect jobs as well as add roughly $16 billion to the state’s GDP, according to Constellation Energy. 

“Every new milestone confirms our belief that the Crane Clean Energy Center can be returned to service better than ever, restoring 835 megawatts of carbon-free energy to the regional grid at a critical time for Pennsylvania and our nation,” Constellation president and CEO Joe Dominguez said in a statement. “Major maintenance and upgrades are proceeding ahead of plan, new equipment has been ordered, and we are making tremendous progress on hiring and training the next generation of skilled workers to operate the plant at world class levels of safety and performance, just as before.” 

Work to be done: A number of inspections have already been conducted on the plant’s steam generator, main generator, rotor, turbines, feed water heaters, and condensers in order to restart. Constellation Energy plans to purchase and install new equipment for the facility’s three main power transformers by 2026. The company also will hire more than 600 employees before restarting that will be properly trained and licensed for daily operations. Documents filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission show the company is seeking to restart by the end of the second quarter of 2027.

ICYMI – ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS FILE LAWSUIT AGAINST TRUMP’S OFFSHORE DRILLING ORDER: Climate groups yesterday filed two separate lawsuits challenging President Donald Trump’s offshore oil drilling orders. 

As one of his first orders of business, Trump signed an executive order undoing oil and gas drilling limitations in the Gulf of America and the Arctic, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans set by former President Joe Biden. The groups include Earthjustice, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and many others. 

“We defeated Trump the first time he tried to roll back protections and sacrifice more of our waters to the oil industry. We’re bringing this abuse of the law to the courts again,” said Earthjustice managing attorney for oceans Steve Mashuda. 

“Trump is illegally trying to take away protections vital to coastal communities that rely on clean, healthy oceans for safe living conditions, thriving economies, and stable ecosystems,” Mashuda added. 

Another group is asking the federal court to invalidate an attempt by the first Trump administration to undo Obama-era offshore protections. The group includes Oceana, Center for Biological Diversity, the Surfrider Foundation, Greenpeace, and many others. 

RUNDOWN 

Inside Climate News EV Battery Manufacturing Capacity Will Rise When 10 New Plants Come Online This Year. But Can They Thrive in Chaos?

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Forbes The Truth About Big Oil And Climate Change: Who’s Really Responsible?

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