WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Wednesday, readers! In today’s Daily on Energy, we give you the latest on the reopening of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. Callie is in Pennsylvania visiting the plant, where executives indicated that it could be operational as early as 2027.
We also have coverage from today’s Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, at which Democrats sounded off on President Donald Trump’s firing of Christopher Hanson, a Democratic member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
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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.
BREAKING – SHELL IN TALKS TO ACQUIRE BP: The Wall Street Journal is reporting this afternoon that Shell is in early-stage talks to acquire BP.
That would be the largest deal in the sector since the merger that created Exxon Mobil. It would put Shell in a better position to challenge Exxon and Chevron. BP, meanwhile, has struggled in recent years in the wake of an effort to pivot to renewable energy that did not pan out.
Shell denied the report.
THE LATEST ON THREE MILE ISLAND, FROM CALLIE IN PENNSYLVANIA: The decommissioned Three Mile Island nuclear facility could come back online as early as 2027, thanks to continued support from Microsoft, executives said today.
Quick reminder: The restart efforts for the central Pennsylvania plant, which has since been renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center, is being led by Constellation Energy and Microsoft in order to help meet rising energy demand brought on by artificial intelligence and other tech advancements.
The two companies announced last fall that they would be moving to reopen the plant as part of a 20-year purchase agreement — pending federal approval.
The details: While they previously announced the plant would come back online by 2028, Constellation Energy president and CEO Joe Dominguez said today that it could be up and running as soon as 2027.
The shortened timeline has been attributed to significant progress made on hiring more than 64% of necessary full-time employees, training new licensed reactor operators, purchasing critical equipment, and getting critical approval of an early interconnection request from grid operator PJM Interconnection.
Constellation has also pointed to Microsoft’s major investments in the project as a large reason why Pennsylvania could see it reopened much faster than initially anticipated.
Dominguez told Callie that the utility plans to use artificial intelligence to help streamline the plant’s operations, such as through monitoring ongoing and future maintenance. He said Constellation plans to then use Microsoft’s AI capabilities across all its other nuclear facilities.
Read more from Callie and see photos of the facility by our photographer Graeme Jennings here.
DEMOCRATS PRESS NRC CHAIR OVER DEMOCRATIC COMMISSIONER’S DISMISSAL: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing this morning on reappointing David Wright as Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Wright’s hearing comes one week after President Donald Trump fired Democratic commissioner Christopher Hanson. The former commissioner claimed his dismissal from the agency was unjust and against precedent for independent appointees.
Hanson is the first NRC commissioner to be fired since 1975. He was appointed during Trump’s first term and reappointed in 2024. His term was set to expire in 2029.
“His political firing is not just troubling on its face but will hamper the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s critical work and erode the essential trust and responsibility that the NRC holds,” California Democrat Sen. Alex Padilla said at the hearing.
Hanson’s termination also follows Trump’s effort to reform the five-member commission, which the administration has blamed for not approving commercial reactors in recent decades. He is one of a number of commissioners fired by the administration from independent agencies, raising major legal questions.
Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Ed Markey pointed to the Trump administration’s efforts to hinder the wind industry and other renewable energy, which he said would place “more pressure” on the commission to move faster.
“Trump has declared war on [renewables],” Markey said.
Markey said the NRC is an independent agency that is expected to act free from financial or political interest but the “administration has fired commissioner and former NRC Chair Hanson without cause.”
The senator asked Wright how he would protect the NRC from attacks that jeopardize its independence and ability to protect public health and safety.
“We’re an independent agency. We’re in the executive branch,” Wright said. “We’re accountable to both Congress and the administration. Safety is our strike zone over home plate. It is our North Star and will continue to be that.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the Republican chairwoman of the committee, told reporters that the president’s decision to terminate Hanson is a reflection of “a certain amount of frustration, a lot of inactivity, a lot of stalling at the NRC.”
Capito said, “What we’re going to see is a newly created NRC that’s actually going to respond to the directives of Congress and through the Advance Act to move things along, to have SMRs, to have them licensed.”
“We got a hunger for power, and nuclear power is going to be a big part of the Trump administration,” she added.
SENATE EPW RELEASES UPDATED TEXT TO COMPLY WITH BYRD RULE: The EPW committee released an updated version of its budget reconciliation text to comply with the Byrd Rule.
The Senate parliamentarian last week struck down several measures from the committee’s legislative text for the Republican One Big Beautiful Bill Act for violating the Byrd Rule. The Byrd Rule ensures that measures in the reconciliation must be primarily fiscal in their effects.
Specifically, the parliamentarian said the committee’s measure to allow certain environmental projects to exempt judicial review if they pay a fee violates the rule.
The parliamentarian also struck down measures to repeal the Environmental Protection Agency’s emissions standards for light and medium-duty vehicles. The parliamentarian also said Republicans could not repeal energy programs from the Inflation Reduction Act, but could still eliminate the program’s unobligated funds.
Capito told reporters that the committee’s new text “reflects what the parliamentarian’s decisions were.”
EPA SHOULD REVISE ITS COAL-ASH REGULATIONS, CEMENT GROUP TELLS LAWMAKERS: The American Cement Association is calling on lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to help promote the use of coal ash.
In a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the ACA expressed concern about the Environmental Protection Agency’s current regulatory framework on coal ash. The group referred to the EPA’s rule finalized in May 2024, which implemented regulations for coal-ash at inactive surface impoundments and landfills.
Coal ash is a byproduct of burning coal in power plants and is used in the production of cement and concrete.
The group said the rulemaking process relied on inadequate evaluations and risk assessments. The ACA said the EPA should revise its policies to “support responsible” coal combustion residuals reuse from legacy sites.
The letter comes as the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow to examine the beneficial use of coal ash.
SPENCER COX LAUNCHES ENERGY ‘SUPERABUNDANCE’ INITIATIVE: Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has taken over as chairman of the Western Governors’ Association and launched an initiative to pursue “energy superabundance.”
The effort is meant to address federal regulations that are obstacles to energy production, according to Deseret News. The yearlong initiative will result in a report to the federal government, a spokeswoman for the Republican governor told the Santa Fe New Mexican.
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