WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Thursday, readers! In today’s Daily on Energy, we provide you the latest on the Trump administration’s efforts to delay wind and solar projects. The administration announced that renewable energy project will need to get Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s stamp of approval before being able to move forward.
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.
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TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TIGHTENS RESTRICTIONS ON WIND AND SOLAR: It is growing more difficult for wind and solar energy projects to move forward in President Donald Trump’s second term, as the administration is now moving to require renewable projects to get Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s sign-off.
The details: The Interior Department confirmed this afternoon that all department-related decisions and actions involving wind and solar energy facilities must undergo strict “elevated” reviews by the secretary’s office. This comes just one day after an internal memo detailing the decision was leaked to members of the media.
The new reviews will involve all decisions related to leases, rights-of-way, construction plans, operations plans, grants, consultations, and biological opinions. Interior said this will ensure all evaluations are “thorough and deliberative.” Interior is also moving to end rights-of-way and capacity fee discounts for existing and future wind and solar projects, saying this will level the playing field with alternatives, such as coal and natural gas.
The agency did not acknowledge the media reports of the memo in their announcement, and instead insisted that the move would “further deliver on President Trump’s promise to tackle the Green New Scam.”
Before the decision was confirmed, fears began to grow in the clean energy sector that the strict requirements will cause extensive delays in the permitting and approval process for renewable energy, potentially deterring future investments.
“It absolutely will create so much bureaucratic process that no solar or wind projects are likely to move in a timely and efficient manner, if at all,” Eric Beightel, former executive director of the Federal Permitting Council under the Biden administration, told Politico, which first obtained the leaked memo. “For an administration so focused on eliminating unnecessary roadblocks, this is a clear attempt to use ‘the process’ to kill projects.”
Some background: This is the latest step from the Trump administration to stifle wind and solar project development, despite its own calls to increase the amount of energy pumping into the grid. Wind and solar have dominated energy growth in the U.S. in recent years, outpacing natural gas, coal, and nuclear. In 2024 alone, wind and solar projects added more than 33,000 megawatts of power combined – more than 90% of all new electricity generating capacity, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
EPA RESTRUCTURING EFFORTS: The Environmental Protection Agency has announced its next steps in restructuring the agency by combining its finance and administrative offices into one.
The EPA said its new Office of Finance and Administration will work as a “one-stop-shop for all financial and administrative operations.” The agency also announced some reorganization efforts at its other offices, such as the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance and the Office of Land and Emergency Management.
“These structural changes reinforce EPA’s unwavering commitment to fulfill its statutory obligations and uphold fiscal responsibility,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a press release. “By partnering our operations and mission support services, we can deliver results for American communities while remaining good stewards of taxpayer dollars.”
The announcement overlaps with the EPA’s offer of another round of buyouts and early retirements for staff, particularly in offices undergoing reorganization, Politico reports. The affected offices include the Office of Research and Development, the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, the Office of Mission Support, and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, as well as regional employees.
BURGUM VISITS ALCATRAZ: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited Alcatraz today as the Trump administration seeks to reopen the facility to hold criminals.
Burgum joined Attorney General Pam Bondi to visit Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in California. Trump has proposed the idea of reopening the prison to hold prisoners. However, the island the prison sits on is a national park controlled by the Interior Department.
“Spent the day on Alcatraz Island, a @NatlParkService site, to start the work to renovate and reopen the site to house the most dangerous criminals and illegals,” Burgum wrote on X.
Politico reports that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office is expecting new House legislation to remove the island from the control of DOI and the National Park Service.
A PUSH TO MODERNIZE RECYCLING: The American Chemistry Council is calling on Congress to update the nation’s recycling infrastructure, particularly for plastics that can be repurposed into new products.
The ACC released a report that found critical industries relying on plastics, including automotive and healthcare, employ nearly 5 million Americans.
Ross Eisenberg, the president of America’s Plastic Makers, testified before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment yesterday. The ACC’s Plastics Division represents America’s Plastic Makers.
Eisenberg outlined a three-point plan for lawmakers to use as a means of modernizing recycling. The plan is to:
- Recognize advanced recycling as manufacturing and count plastic made this way as recycled content.
- Establish federal recycling standards to create consistency and scale plastic recycling.
- Assert American leadership in crafting a global agreement on curbing plastic pollution.
“This is a very, very challenging problem to solve, which is why recycling rates remain where they are,” Eisenberg told Maydeen. “I think the longer we go without solving it, the more the voices that don’t like recycling start to win.”
Eisenberg said that having advanced recycling is crucial for the U.S. manufacturing supply chain. The ACC stated that nearly 27% of U.S. manufacturing output is in sectors where plastic accounts for 5% or more of material inputs.
“We as manufacturers need to be designing our products for recyclability continuously – for years, and years, and years,” he said.
API ON PITTSBURGH SUMMIT: The Energy and Innovation Summit, hosted by Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick earlier this week, touted the need for fossil fuels as a way to power technological advances.
Groups like the American Petroleum Institute applauded the Trump administration’s approach to boost the fossil fuel industry and use its energy to help in the race for artificial intelligence.
“Our observations at the event and the evolution of the conversation is that the need for more energy is more obvious by the day,” Dustin Meyer, senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs at API, told Maydeen. He added that the importance of winning the AI race accelerates demand growth for energy.
API CEO Mike Sommers attended the summit earlier this week, where the Trump administration announced $90 billion in investments in the state from technology and energy companies. Trump and some of his cabinet members were in attendance at the summit, where some of them even criticized clean energy, such as wind.
Energy must be produced from diverse forces to meet the rising demand, Meyers said. He added that “it’s universally understood that the call on natural gas specifically is going to be particularly enormous. And I think that the event in Pennsylvania this week, and all of the conversations around that, really reflect it.”
Meyers said a significant focus for API is to ensure that policy does not hinder natural gas developments. He noted that Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act was a step forward in encouraging energy development and provides certainty for the oil and gas industry to make investments.
He added that there are federal agencies that have also made progress on the regulatory front, removing unnecessary obstacles for energy development. However, Meyers noted that there is more to be done that pertains to the need for permitting reform.
“But the presence of AI really cements the understanding that we’re moving into a chapter of our country’s history in which we’re going to have to be able to build big things, and right now we can’t do that because the permitting process is so fundamentally broken, and so we need to reform that,” Meyers said.
AMAZON EMISSIONS JUMP AMID DATA CENTER GROWTH: Data centers aren’t just becoming associated with growing energy demand, but increasing greenhouse gas emissions.
The details: Amazon revealed this week that as it has focused on its buildout of large-load data centers to support its artificial intelligence advancements and operations, its carbon emissions rose for the first time in three years.
The tech giant, which has committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions globally by 2040, said in its annual sustainability report that it emitted 68.25 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2024. That is a roughly 6% increase from 2023. Its indirect emissions from other sources also increased at the same rate, jumping to 2.80 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Amazon attributed this growth to data center construction as well as fuel consumption from third-party delivery service providers.
Something to pay attention to: Data centers have become critical for AI developers, housing tens of thousands of computer servers that can process anything from small ChatGPT requests to more advanced machine learning and processing.
This level of increased emissions will likely fuel environmental concerns associated with the swift expansion of these facilities worldwide. As Big Tech races to get ahead in the AI race, there is no sign of data center buildout slowing down in the near future. This week, Morningstar Equity Research estimated that data center power capacity will soar to around 80 gigawatts in 2030, triple current levels.
ICYMI – FOSSIL FUEL GIANT LOOKS TO DRILL MORE IN ALASKA: ConocoPhillips is seeking to drill more wells in the North Slope of Alaska, a move likely to be approved by the Trump administration.
The details: Earlier this week, the oil and gas company submitted a permit application with Interior’s Bureau of Land Management to expand its exploration activities in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. This includes a seismic program south of its existing Greater Mooses Tooth drilling unit, one-well exploration program in the same area, as well as a three-well exploration with one well in its Bear Tooth Unit and two wells to the west.
If approved by the administration, ConocoPhillips intends to conduct the exploration activities during this winter into 2026.
“ConocoPhillips is dedicated to the safe and responsible development of our leaseholds in Alaska for the benefit of all Alaskans and our nation’s energy security,” ConocoPhillips said in a statement to Daily on Energy.
Some background: ConocoPhillips’ interest in expanding its drilling operations is squarely aligned with the Trump administration’s plans to increase oil and gas production out of the North Slope. Drilling operations in the Arctic have long been a point of contention, as environmentalists point to risks to wildlife, the climate, and the Iñupiaq living in the region. There is, however, growing support among Native Alaskan communities, as so many rely on funds associated with energy development.
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