WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Tuesday, readers! Today is another hot day here in Washington, D.C., and we hope you all are staying cool and hydrated. 

One of the big stories of the day is the steep drop in oil prices following the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran late last night – a ceasefire that appears to have stuck. 

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At the same time, we have major updates relating to the controversial public land sales provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act authored by Sen. Mike Lee. 

Read on for the news. As always, we welcome any feedback, tips, or other correspondence!

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.

OIL CONTINUES TO FALL: Oil prices continued to tumble today, with both international and domestic benchmarks dropping by more than 5% as risks to supply have shrunk amid the Iran-Israel ceasefire. 

Just before 2 pm EST, the price of Brent Crude had dropped by 5.32%, selling at around $67.68 per barrel. Similarly, West Texas Intermediate fell by 5.30% and was priced at $64.88 per barrel. 

The Trump effect: President Donald Trump looked to take credit for the price drop ahead of his flight to the Netherlands for the NATO Summit this morning, telling reporters “I love that it dropped almost $10 yesterday.” 

“I put out a statement, get it down, because a lot of people are able to do things when the energy goes down,” Trump added, referring to his social media posts calling on “everyone” to keep oil prices low. 

Less than an hour later, Trump put out another statement on Truth Social saying China would be able to continue purchasing oil from Iran. 

“Hopefully, they will be purchasing plenty from the U.S., also. It was my Great Honor to make this happen!” Trump wrote. 

Like yesterday, the market appeared to be paying attention with price decline accelerating to 5% in early trading. While the extended losses are a sign that traders are confident Iran will not move to disrupt the global market, analysts have warned that the ceasefire between Iran and Israel remains fragile and prices are considered to be highly volatile. 

PLUS…WHAT TRUMP WAS WEIGHING IN CASE OF OIL MARKET DISRUPTIONS: The Trump administration had reportedly been considering a number of actions to take if Iran moved to disrupt the global oil market this week in retaliation against the U.S.

People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that the administration was specifically considering releasing some crude oil supply from the country’s emergency stockpile – the Strategic Petroleum Reserve – to help curb high prices if global supply were to be strained by Iran. The administration would be able to do this alone, though coordination with other nations would also be an option, as the SPR is only filled with around or slightly less than 400 million barrels of crude (just over half of its capacity). 

While fears of Iran disrupting the global oil markets have subsided in the last 24 hours, a senior administration official told the outlet that the administration is still using every tool it has to keep prices low. This includes a willingness to offer royalty relief for oil companies with operations on federal lands or waivers of fuel specifications for domestic refining and shipments to increase flow of gas and other fuels, sources said. The president could also use executive powers to push U.S. companies to supply more oil domestically. 

PUBLIC LAND SALES AXED FROM RECONCILIATION: Utah Sen. Mike Lee’s attempts to include public land sales in the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act are getting more complicated, as the Republican promised to modify the proposal just as the Senate parliamentarian nixed the original measure late last night. 

Lee’s tweaks: Lee’s original measure proposed mandating the sale of 3 million acres of public land from the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service. 

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled last night that the provision violates the Byrd Rule, which requires any measures included in budget reconciliation to be primarily fiscal in their effects.

After facing increasing pressure from Republican and conservative critics, Lee said he would modify the proposal. Yesterday, as the parliamentarian ruling was issued, Lee said he would remove sales of all Forest Service land and reduce the amount of BLM land eligible for sale to areas within 5 miles of population centers.

As the parliamentarian rejected the proposal entirely, it has yet to be seen if she would accept the modified measure. It was expected to go in front of the parliamentarian again sometime today. 

In addition to the public land sales proposal, the parliamentarian rejected several measures introduced by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, including: 

• A provision requiring offshore oil and gas leases to be issued to successful bidders within 90 days after a sale
• A measure requiring the permitting of the construction of a controversial mining road in Alaska
• A provision nullifying the environmental review processes for offshore oil and gas projects
• A measure removing the interior secretary’s discretion to reduce fees for solar and wind projects on federal lands
• A provision that requires yearly geothermal lease sales
• A measure that would allow natural gas exporters to pay a fee for expedited approvals

Read more from Callie here. 

MAYORS CALL FOR PRESERVING TAX CREDITS: Mayors nationwide expressed support for the Inflation Reduction Act’s tech-neutral and nuclear tax credits to promote nuclear energy. 

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, made up of 1,400 mayors nationwide, released a resolution over the weekend reaffirming its support for nuclear energy and its benefits made possible by the 45U Zero-Emission Nuclear Power Production Credit and the 45Y Clean Energy Production Tax Credit. 

Maydeen spoke with Columbia, South Carolina, Mayor Daniel Rickenmann, who chairs the conference’s energy committee, about preserving the credits.

Rickenmann said that preserving the credits can help bring retired and new nuclear plants online. 

“We need to be a leader in the U.S. in this industry, and we are not right now,” Rickenmann said. 

The mayors’ resolution comes as senators are debating their version of the Republican reconciliation legislation. Senate Republicans have proposed a slower phase-out of clean energy tech-neutral credits than House Republicans put in their version of the bill.

Rickenmann stated that the resolution comes at a critical time, showing that mayors across the country wish to preserve these tax credits.

He emphasized that the tax credits’ direct pay mechanism has been a major asset that he would like to preserve.

Twelve energy tax credits are eligible for direct pay, which allows entities like state and local governments to receive a payment equal to the full value of tax credits for building qualifying clean energy projects or making qualifying investments.

“We can’t just depend on fossil fuel. We need everything at our disposal to keep up,” Rickenmann said. “A lot of these projects allow us to get power on the grid much faster than traditional fossil fuel plants.”

POWER OUTAGES IN NEW YORK AMID HEATWAVE: New York’s utility company is asking  residents to conserve energy as it prepares to face high demand from this week’s heat wave. 

Today is expected to be the hottest day of the heat wave hitting the East Coast and Midwest. Utility companies have been warning their customers to conserve energy as they brace themselves to face some of the hottest days of the year so far. 

New York’s utility company, Con Edison, experienced some power outages yesterday across the five boroughs of NYC. 

“Our crews have been working around the clock in sweltering temperatures, and have restored service to more than 34,700 customers in the Bronx since the heat wave began. We urge customers to use energy wisely during the heat and conserve where they can,” Con Edison tweeted today. 

WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT RULING ALLOWS EARLY CLEANUP OF PFAS: Wisconsin’s Supreme Court sided with environmentalists in a ruling regarding the clean-up of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or “forever chemicals,” the Associated Press reports. 

The court ruled 5-2 that state regulators can require landowners to clean up emerging PFAS pollutants before they are classified as hazardous substances. The decision is a setback for business groups, which argued that the state could not enforce rules without the designation. 

PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, are a group of chemicals found in various industrial and consumer products. They do not break down easily in the environment, hence the name “forever chemicals.” 

The federal and state governments have moved to regulate these chemicals, which can now be found in the water, soil, and air. The chemicals have also been linked to a variety of health harms, such as cancer and infertility. 

The case: In 2021, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce filed a lawsuit against the state’s Department of Natural Resources on behalf of Leather Rich, a dry cleaning business, with known PFAS contamination. The DNR ordered groundwater testing but did not specify which PFAS to test for and at what levels. 

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce argued businesses need to know which substances are regulated before spending on clean-up. The lower court sided with the dry cleaning business. But, the DNR appealed, arguing the lower court’s decision would undermine the state’s “spill laws.” 

“Wisconsin’s Spills Law safeguards human health and the environment in real time by directly regulating parties responsible for a hazardous substance discharge,” Justice Janet Protasiewicz wrote for the majority.

ICYMI – TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO END PROTECTIONS ON NEARLY 60 MILLION ACRES OF NATIONAL FORESTS: Yesterday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said her department would be moving to end protections that have prevented logging on more than 58 million acres of National Forest lands for decades. 

The details: The Department of Agriculture is moving to rescind the Roadless Rule, issued by the outgoing Clinton administration in 2001 to prohibit road construction, road reconstruction, and timber harvesting on undeveloped forest lands across the country – though primarily in the West. 

The Trump administration dubbed the rule “outdated,” and “overly restrictive,” and said it posed “real harm” to national forests over what it described as the inability to properly manage for fire risk. The administration also claimed that the rule has hurt job growth and economic development in western states like Utah. 

“Once again, President Trump is removing absurd obstacles to common sense management of our natural resources by rescinding the overly restrictive roadless rule,” Rollins said Monday. 

Some reaction: Several environmental and conservation groups, such as the Wilderness Society and Sierra Club, have lambasted the administration’s intentions, saying removing the rule could increase risk of wildfires in protected areas. Meanwhile, the logging industry has praised the move, with Harold White Lumber and Millworks telling the New York Times that it will give the industry more opportunity to “get to a large part of these forests.” 

RUNDOWN

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