WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Tuesday, readers! In today’s Daily on Energy, we are taking a look at a letter from over 100 energy, agriculture, and transportation groups applauding Republican lawmakers’ efforts to undo California’s vehicle emissions rules.
Callie and Maydeen also take a look at the Trump administration’s plan to eliminate climate-related offices in California and in the Environmental Protection Agency.
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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.
ENERGY, AGRICULTURE, AND TRANSPORTATION GROUPS ASK CONGRESS TO UNDO CALIFORNIA VEHICLE RULES: Over 100 stakeholders in the energy, agriculture, and transportation sectors are asking lawmakers to take action to undo California rules that aim to transition away from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles.
Groups including the American Petroleum Institute, Minnesota Truckers Association, National Corn Growers Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and many more sent a letter to Congress expressing their support for Republican lawmakers’ approach to undo the California Clean Air Act Vehicle waiver through the Congressional Review Act. Republicans in recent weeks have used the CRA, which allows lawmakers to bypass the filibuster and take a simple majority vote in both chambers to undo regulations implemented in the previous administration.
The trade groups are calling on lawmakers to take this opportunity to reverse regulations implemented by California, adopted by other states, that would ban gas-powered vehicles.
The other regulations include California’s Advanced Clean Cars II, which is a set of standards adopted by the California Air Resources Board to reduce emissions and transition to zero-emission cars. They also include the state’s Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) rule that requires heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers to increase the sales of zero-emission trucks, and the Heavy-Duty Omnibus rule, which aims to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from heavy-duty vehicles.
Republicans have criticized California and the previous administration’s series of regulations on the auto industry, calling them an “electric vehicle mandate.”
“While we support reducing emissions in the transportation sector, forced electrification and unachievable standards are not the only way to accomplish this,” the letter reads. “In a country as big and diverse as ours, vehicle offerings need to be diverse to meet Americans’ wide-ranging transportation needs.”
BLACKROCK, VANGUARD, AND STATE STREET ASK COURT TO DISMISS ANTITRUST CASE: Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street are asking a federal court in Texas to dismiss a lawsuit brought by several Republican states alleging the firms violated antitrust laws by constricting coal output, Reuters reports.
The lawsuit is being led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who claims that the firms obtained significant holdings in U.S. coal producers and used their influence to pressure coal companies to reduce their output. Other states in the lawsuit include: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, and West Virginia.
In court, the firms said the allegations are “half-baked and untested” legal theories, Reuters wrote. “To find that Plaintiffs have stated an antitrust claim on these alleged facts requires contorting the law in a way that would hurt both coal companies and individual investors,” the firms told the judge.
They proceeded to ask the judge to reject the antitrust allegations. The plaintiffs added that Paxton has not provided examples of the firms telling coal companies to constrict output. The lawsuit is one of the only large antitrust cases related to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) efforts.
‘SIGNIFICANT’ OIL DISCOVERY IN NORTHERN ALASKA: Independent energy company APA Corporation and its partners have announced what they have described as a “significant oil discovery” in northern Alaska.
The details: Yesterday, APA Corporation, along with Lagniappe Alaska and Oil Search, revealed the results of an exploratory well in Alaska’s North Slope. The well, known as Sockeye-2, was drilled around 10,500 deep, where a “high-quality” reservoir with roughly 25 feet of net oil pay was found.
The energy companies have said the Sockeye prospect spans 25,000 to 30,000 acres and is a favorable site for further exploration or drilling. However, its permeability will still need to be confirmed with flow tests. Executives have since declared Sockeye-2 the “second successful exploratory well” drilled by the three companies on state lands.
Why does this matter? Alaska’s North Slope stretches across the northern part of the state from the Chukchi Sea to the border with Canada. The eastern part of the North Slope Borough happens to overlap with the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) — a region the Trump administration is looking to open up for increased drilling operations.
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order focused on unleashing Alaska’s energy potential. The order called on the U.S. to “fully avail” itself of Alaska’s lands and resources, maximize the development of natural resources, and expedite permitting and leasing for energy projects in the state. In part, the order withdrew a number of Biden administration policies related to the region, including its cancellation of any leases within ANWR. As there has been increased debate whether there should be increased leasing in the region for potential drilling operations, APA’s oil discovery may hand more evidence to the administration in support of its agenda.
NEARLY TWO DOZEN CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL OFFICES TARGETED BY DOGE: Amid the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink government spending, nearly two dozen environmental and science offices are facing closures in California.
The details: For weeks, the Department of Government Efficiency has moved to terminate lease contracts for hundreds of buildings occupied by federal agencies monitoring the environment, oceans, atmosphere, forests, agriculture, and more. As of Tuesday, DOGE listed 793 leases it planned to terminate in order to save around $500 million in spending. Lawmakers and federal employees have appealed to the administration against ending many of these leases, insisting the buildings are key to their operations.
Among the leases under threat are 22 buildings in California occupied by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, National Park Service, and U.S. Forest Service and Geological Survey, according to the Los Angeles Times. This also includes offices for the Bureau of Land Management in Ukiah, as well as the Farm Service Agency in Madera and Bakersfield.
Some background: Ending these leases appears to align with Project 2025, which called for the administration to break up NOAA, the National Weather Service, and other environment-related agencies. While Trump repeatedly distanced himself from the policy blueprint created by the Heritage Foundation on the campaign trail, various policy recommendations from the document have appeared to make their way into a number of executive orders and administration actions. Sweeping layoffs across agencies like NOAA and the EPA have also stoked fears that the administration may consider completely overhauling the agencies.
UKRAINE AND US COME TO LNG DEAL: Ukraine has purchased roughly 100 million cubic meters of liquefied natural gas from the United States, as the Trump administration continues to push for the end of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The details: Ukrainian-state firm Naftogaz announced today that the firm and Polish power company Orlen came to a deal to purchase the LNG, which is set to be transported over the Polish-Ukrainian border, according to Reuters. The gas is expected to arrive sometime in April. A senior Ukrainian official told the outlet that the country is also considering importing US LNG through Germany, Greece, and Lithuania.
The deal comes as Ukraine has looked for ways to strengthen its energy reserves, after Russian attacks in the years-long war have left production and storage facilities damaged. Not only will importing U.S. LNG to Ukraine boost economic relationships with the Trump administration, but the deal is also expected to deter additional Russian attacks on Ukrainian storage facilities, Reuters reported.
Key quote: “Stable gas supplies remain our top priority. Cooperation with Orlen expands Ukraine’s LNG import capacity and enhances energy security,” said Naftogaz acting chairman of the board Roman Chumak. “We are diversifying supply sources to ensure a reliable and accessible gas supply, especially amid ongoing Russian attacks on our infrastructure.”
Related – energy ceasefire highlights Trump-Putin call: Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin agreed in a call this morning that “the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire,” according to a read-out of the conversation from the White House. Read more on that here.
EPA PLANS TO CUT ITS RESEARCH AND SCIENCE OFFICE: The Environmental Protection Agency will look to eliminate the Office of Research and Development, which is composed of chemists, biologists, toxicologists, and other scientists, the New York Times reported.
The EPA has plans to fire up to 75% of the people who work in the Office of Research and Development, according to documents reviewed by the Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. The office helps to conduct research to help ensure agency actions are protecting human health and ecosystems from pollutants.
The document said that the remaining staff members at the office will be transferred to a different part of the agency “to provide increased oversight and align with administration priorities,” a staff member from the committee told the New York Times.
Mass firings at the EPA and other federal agencies are part of the Trump administration’s plan to shrink the government and reduce spending. At the first cabinet meeting, Trump mentioned that he spoke with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin about cutting 65% of workers at the agency. The White House later walked back the comments, stating that the president meant 65% of EPA’s spending would be cut.
BIDEN’S DOE ‘INTENTIONALLY BURIED’ DATA TO DISCREDIT BENEFITS OF LNG: The Biden administration’s Department of Energy “intentionally buried” data to discredit the benefits of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, the Daily Caller reports.
In January 2024, the DOE paused LNG exports while it conducted a study on its climate and economic impacts. Four sources at the Trump administration’s DOE told the Daily Caller that the Biden administration finalized a draft of the study in 2023 but “subsequently buried it” because it did not align with the administration’s reason to freeze LNG.
The Daily Caller said the final draft of the study found that LNG exports would reduce global emissions, which is in conflict with the DOE’s final study, which noted that an increase of LNG exports will increase emissions. One of the sources told the outlet that the Biden administration seems to have deleted a number of pages from the draft version before publicizing the final report.
ICYMI — TRUMP VOWS TO OPEN HUNDREDS OF COAL PLANTS: The Trump administration is moving full steam ahead with its support and backing for the coal industry in an effort to get an economic advantage over China.
The details: Last night, Trump said he was authorizing his administration to ramp up production of the fossil fuel — which the U.S. has looked to reduce in recent years to prioritize clean sources of power.
“After years of being held captive by Environmental Extremists, Lunatics, Radicals, and Thugs, allowing other Countries, in particular China, to gain tremendous Economic advantage over us by opening up hundreds of all Coal Fire Power Plants, I am authorizing my Administration to immediately begin producing Energy with BEAUTIFUL, CLEAN COAL,” the president wrote in a post to Truth Social.
He did not elaborate on how this would impact existing policy or the coal industry itself. The president could opt to use emergency powers to revive retiring facilities, as suggested by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum at CERAWeek in Houston last week.
Some background: Like other western nations, the U.S. has drastically decreased its use of coal to fuel power plants over the last two decades in an effort to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. In 2023, the Energy Information Administration estimated that coal only made up around 16% of the nation’s total net electricity generation.
Dozens of coal-fired plants are expected to retire over the next five years, with trade group America’s Power estimating that around 120 will be shuttered. The EIA estimates that this year alone, around 8.1 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity will be retired — around 4.7% of the fleet operational at the end of 2024. It is important to note that the reason for retirement may vary, as some facilities are shuttered due to age while others are later transitioned into natural gas-powered plants.
RUNDOWN
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Forbes The U.S. Needs To Drill Smarter, Not Harder