WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Tuesday, readers! We are starting off Daily on Energy with coverage of testimony by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin.
Callie and Maydeen also take a look at the Senate’s plan to move forward with repealing California’s vehicle emission waiver despite the Governmental Accountability Office and Senate parliamentarian finding that the waiver was not subject to repeal.
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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.
DOUG BURGUM APPEARS BEFORE HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum appeared before Congress today to defend his agency’s 2026 fiscal year budget, which calls for billions of dollars worth of cuts.
During today’s hearing with the House Appropriations subcommittee on interior, environment and related agencies, Burgum was pressed several times by lawmakers across the aisle on cuts to programs relating to tribal nations, public safety, school infrastructure, and the National Parks.
National Parks: Republican subcommittee chairman Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho honed in on cuts to the National Park Service, pointing out that the White House’s proposed budget suggested the Interior Department would shift the responsibility of managing National Park lands to the states. Burgum was quick to clarify that this wouldn’t affect any National Parks themselves.
“There’s, I think, zero intention of transferring any actual national parks,” the secretary said. “I mean, the 64 crown jewels that we have…there’s zero thought about that.”
Burgum went on to explain that the National Park Service manages over 400 other notable locations that require maintenance, repairs, or upgrades. This includes birthplaces of past presidents, battlefields, archeological sites, and many more small-scale sites that require support from the federal government and often don’t receive enough. Burgum said the proposed budget would allow the government to transfer responsibility of these sites to states, which would then be able to allocate their own resources to support, as long as they are able.
“I think they could be well served, sometimes better served from a budget standpoint, working with our states in partnership…It’s going to have to start with a process that hasn’t even initiated yet, to take a look at what would be possible and who would be interested, because we don’t want to hand over resources to states that aren’t going to take care of stuff,” he said.
Congressionally approved funds: Burgum was also pressed on whether he would acknowledge Congress’s authority to appropriate funds for the Interior Department, over the administration’s desires and requests.
Subcommittee ranking member Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine pointed to funds for groups from her state allocated by the continuing resolution for 2025, which still had yet to be obligated by the Interior Department.
Burgum insisted that the department was pressing the White House’s Office of Management and Budget to release the funds, saying Interior has “every incentive…to get these dollars out the door.”
When pressed further on his communications with OMB, Burgum offered little detail but said his office was “pushing” the White House on the appropriated funding.
ZELDIN TESTIFIES BEFORE THE ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin spoke today at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the agency’s 2026 fiscal year budget.
Several lawmakers asked about Zeldin’s effort to claw back grants from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The program was established by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and meant to fund clean energy projects nationwide.
Zeldin has attempted to terminate $20 billion of grants from eight program recipients. He’s been in a legal battle with Climate United, Power Forward Communities, and Coalition for Green Capital over releasing the funds.
California Democrat Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán questioned Zeldin on whether the EPA has evidence of fraud or conflict of interest by the recipients of the program. Barragán asked for “hard proof” of evidence of any fraud or criminality.
Zeldin referred to the sting video last year in which a former EPA employee said the Biden administration was trying to disburse promised funds as quickly as possible before the end of the term.
“I’ll start with a Biden political appointee saying, quote, ‘now it’s how to get the money out as fast as possible before the Trump administration comes in, it’s like we’re on the Titanic and we’re throwing gold bars off the edge,’” Zeldin said.
Barragán stopped Zeldin, saying that the employee was not speaking about the program or evidence of fraud.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the full committee, Rep. Brett Guthrie, asked Zeldin to speak about the grantees that were politically connected.
Zeldin claimed that “the Biden EPA criticized Power Forward Communities for its lack of planning, for ‘proactive oversight.’” He added that the Biden EPA provided grants to Power Forward Communities despite being concerned that the entity was not going to provide proper oversight.
In court, judges have questioned whether the EPA has sufficient evidence of fraud or mismanagement within the program. The New York Times last week reported that the EPA has failed to provide evidence of criminality by EPA officials that oversaw the program.
SENATE TO VOTE ON ROLLING BACK CALIFORNIA VEHICLE EMISSION WAIVER: Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the Senate will move forward this week to repeal California’s vehicle emission waiver, despite the Governmental Accountability Office and Senate parliamentarian finding that the waiver was not subject to repeal.
The waiver, which was granted during the Biden administration, allows California to set stringent vehicle emission standards, requiring all new car sales to be net-zero by 2035.
“This debate is not about destroying Senate procedure, or any other hysterical claim that Democrats are making. And I have to say that my colleagues’ newfound interest in defending Senate procedure is touching — if a touch surprising,” Thune said on the Senate floor.
GOP lawmakers have been using the Congressional Review Act in attempts to undo the Biden administration’s energy and climate regulations. The CRA allows Congress to bypass a filibuster and vote in a simple majority to repeal a regulation. Lawmakers will use the CRA to repeal the California waiver this week.
California Democrat Sen. Alex Padilla announced today he would place holds on EPA nominees until Republicans back away from overruling the Senate parliamentarian’s decision regarding California’s vehicle emission waiver.
“If this attempt is successful, the consequences will be far-reaching, not only for our clean energy economy, the air our children breathe, and for our climate, but for the future of the CRA and for the Senate as an institution,” Padilla wrote.
Read more by Washington Examiner’s David Sivak here.
ITC APPROVES STEEP TRUMP TARIFFS ON ASIAN SOLAR IMPORTS: The International Trade Commission has paved the way for the Trump administration to impose steep tariffs on solar panel makers in southeast Asia, with duties hitting as high as 3,500%.
The details: The commission, which is responsible for establishing the legal basis for anti-dumping tariffs, issued an “affirmative determination” this morning that four countries in southeast Asia have been receiving subsidies from China to dump products into the global market, hurting domestic solar panel makers.
The decision came roughly one month after the Department of Commerce unveiled tariff rates it intended to impose on Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam in an effort to boost domestic solar manufacturing.
The tariffs will vary depending on company and country, with Cambodia seeing the highest tariffs, approximately 3,521%. Jinko Solar products from Malaysia are set to see some of the lowest tariffs announced, with rates around 41.56%. Other modules from Vietnam and Thailand are facing rates between 120% and 400%.
The impact: Many U.S. solar developers have long relied on Asian imports to meet demand, meaning they could face pressure from the tariffs.
Some analysts, though, have said the new tariffs won’t be detrimental to solar energy development and deployment in the U.S.
“We had seen [solar] module and cell imports already started to decline from a lot of these regions and pick up elsewhere,” senior research analyst on Wood Mackenzie’s Power and Renewables team, Sagar Chopra, told Callie.
“So instead of Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, we see cell imports or module imports increasing from places like India, Indonesia, and Laos,” he added.
Read more from Callie here.
DOE POISED TO AX SEVERAL CONDITIONAL LOANS FOR GREEN PROJECTS: The Department of Energy is reportedly planning to cancel seven loans or loan guarantees conditionally approved by its Loan Programs Office under former President Joe Biden.
The details: A former DOE official close to the process confirmed the plans to Semafor this week, saying the cancellations will amount to approximately $8.45 billion.
At least two of the projects set to be hit by the loan cancellations are reportedly still on track to be completed, including a New Jersey utility transmission project and a low-carbon ammonia factory in Nebraska. A third project, focused on rooftop solar panel installations, said in March that it no longer planned to utilize the funds and is reportedly having discussions with DOE on de-obligating its loan guarantees. Companies behind the remaining four green projects, which focused on batteries and plastic recycling, have already moved to cancel their conditional agreements with the department.
When pressed for comment, a DOE spokesperson told Semafor that no formal decisions had been made on any of the loans.
EV CHARGING INSTALLATIONS DROP UNDER TRUMP: The number of installations of high-speed charging stations for electric vehicles dropped by nearly a quarter during the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2024.
The details: A Bloomberg analysis of Energy Department data shows that charging installations fell by over 21% earlier this year, as the president and Republicans sought to remove government support for the EV industry. Installations had been steadily increasing over the last six years, though analysts say it has been at too low a rate to hit 2030 goals.
The slowdown seen in the first quarter can be directly attributed to growing uncertainty within the domestic EV industry. The Trump administration has moved to reverse auto emission standards in recent months and House Republicans are seeking to repeal EV tax credits created by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Bloomberg BNEF previously estimated the U.S. would see cumulative installations of 360,000 in 2025. That prediction has since dropped to 285,000.The U.S. currently has around 208,000 public charging ports installed nationwide, according to DOE data.
Key quote: “The uncertainty has automakers scaling back EV investments,” BloombergNEF analyst Ash Wang said, adding that BNEF estimates its outlook for annual charging installations in 2030 could drop by 30% or more.
ICYMI – NEW YORK OFFSHORE WIND PROJECT GETS SECOND WIND: Yesterday evening, the Trump administration lifted its stop-work order on the Empire Wind project in New York, which was on the brink of being canceled after construction was paused last month.
Norwegian energy company Equinor confirmed that the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management informed the company that the stop-work order was lifted and construction activities were permitted to resume. Just days prior, the company said it was considering terminating the project, as it was costing Equinor roughly $50 million per week.
Some background: The Empire Wind project comprises two offshore wind farms: Empire 1 in New York and Empire 2 in New Jersey. The two projects are expected to be operational in 2026 and 2027, respectively, and will provide more than 2 gigawatts of power combined. That is roughly equivalent to the amount needed to power around 700,000 homes.
In mid April, Burgum directed BOEM to halt all construction activities on Empire 1, saying the Biden administration rushed the permitting process.
Equinor first secured the lease to build the wind farm project in 2017 and received its final permit under the Biden administration in 2024. In April, Burgum said a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report showed the approval process for the project was rushed. The report was never released by the secretary.
Read more from Callie here.
RUNDOWN
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