WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Wednesday, readers! If you were following the multiple House reconciliation markups last night into this afternoon, you may just be as bleary-eyed as we are today. But, the news never stops! 

In today’s edition of Daily on Energy, Callie and Maydeen pull together some highlights from the Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees’ markup hearings, looking at the numerous amendments proposed by Democrats that failed. 

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Plus, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee to discuss the agency’s fiscal year 2026 budget. He is also scheduled to appear before the House tomorrow. 

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.

MARATHON MARKUPS COME CLOSER TO A CLOSE: The marathon markups in the House Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees continued well into Wednesday as Republicans tried to advance a massive fiscal overhaul aimed at enacting much of President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda.

Ways and Means: At around 8 a.m. ET this morning, after its markup stretched over 17 hours, the Ways and Means Committee advanced sweeping cuts to Democratic renewable energy and climate tax credits as part of the tax portion of the budget reconciliation. 

The bill would terminate or amend a number of clean energy and manufacturing tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act. Altogether, it would eliminate $560 billion in subsidies over the next 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. The cancellation of the credits would help partially offset a range of Republican tax cuts in the bill, most notably the extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts.

The cuts included in the bill went further than some in the Republican Party expected, and could be watered down on the House floor or in the Senate. Dozens of GOP lawmakers and industry groups have echoed support for keeping many of the subsidies for weeks. Some Republican members of the committee, like New York Rep. Claudia Tenney, even expressed concern about how far the cuts went during the hearing. 

Democratic California Rep. Mike Thompson introduced an amendment to remove the clean energy-related provisions from the bill late Tuesday night, saying the GOP cuts would be devastating for American workers and manufacturing if approved. The committee did not pass the amendment.

Energy and Commerce: Meanwhile, the House Energy and Commerce hearing continues, as lawmakers have been debating the committee’s legislation for over 24 hours. 

The GOP bill consists of funding cuts to climate initiatives implemented during the Biden administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. 

That includes repealing grants from the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and environmental justice programs. The bill also includes terminating the “unobligated balance” of IRA funding to the Energy Department’s Loan Program Office and establishes what Democrats describe as a “pay to play” permitting provision. 

Democrats have proposed at least 299 amendments related to energy, environment, communication, and health sections of the bill in an attempt to delay and weaken the provisions. So far, Republicans have successfully defeated the Democrats’ efforts. 

The bill is expected to pass later today or tomorrow. 

EPA SENATE BUDGET HEARING: Democratic senators criticized Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin’s efforts to claw back approved grants for specific climate projects during his appearance today before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the agency’s fiscal year 2026 budget.

Georgia Democrat Sen. John Ossoff asked Zeldin why the EPA slashed grants to help build a new health clinic and upgrade wastewater infrastructure in Thomasville, Georgia. 

Zeldin noted that it was part of the Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant program. 

“Is a new health clinic for Thomasville, Georgia, woke?” Ossoff said. 

Zeldin said, “There must be some aspects of this applying the last administration’s priorities on environmental justice.” 

Earlier this week, a report from Energy Innovation and the University of New Hampshire found that the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund program could save consumers $52 billion and create up to 41,000 jobs. 

Maryland Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen cited the analysis in arguing that the program would create jobs and save money for consumers, and urged Zeldin to read the report. 

Van Hollen said Zeldin has “made some wild and untrue and reckless statements to justify your illegal freezing of these funds.” Zeldin has sought to take back the grant money issued through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund program. He claimed the previous administration mismanaged the funding and shielded it from oversight by routing it through Citibank. 

Zeldin will be testifying before the House Appropriations Committee tomorrow. 

MORE EPA NEWS: Late Tuesday night, the EPA said it plans to reconsider four per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as ‘forever chemicals,’ under the agency’s drinking water regulations. 

PFAS are synthetic chemicals that can be found in clothing, cleaning products, and other consumer goods. There are thousands of different types of PFAS, which do not break down naturally in the environment. The chemicals have also been linked to various health problems, such as immune system disorders and cancers. 

The agency said it would rescind and reconsider the regulations of four types of PFAS contaminations, particularly PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA and PFBS. The EPA also announced that it would extend the compliance deadline for PFOA and PFOS. The agency plans to maintain the current rules on the two chemicals. The EPA last month announced it would begin to take action on PFAS contamination. 

EIA SAYS RESIDENTIAL ELECTRICITY PRICES COULD INCREASE: The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a new analysis that those living in the Pacific, Middle Atlantic, and New England regions – who already pay high electricity prices –  could see larger electricity price hikes this year than those in other states with lower prices. It added that residential electricity prices in 2026 could be 18% higher than in 2022. 

WYOMING DATA CENTER TO DEPLOY FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM: Data center developer Prometheus Hyperscale is building a massive one-gigawatt facility in far southwestern Wyoming, and will be using unique battery storage to power the large project. 

The details: Traditional battery storage systems require lithium minerals to operate, guaranteeing American reliance on foreign imports, as the domestic critical mineral industry looks to catch up. But, the Wyoming data center might demonstrate an alternative. 

Prometheus is working alongside battery startup XL Batteries to install an “organic flow battery,” according to Bloomberg. This battery system does not require lithium minerals and instead stores and releases energy by using salt water to pump electrolytes through power cells. The company has touted this technology as a way to support the energy transition to cleaner forms of power while reducing reliance on foreign materials. 

But it will take some time to see results. The Wyoming data center is starting as a small pilot project in 2027 and will continue to add 25 megawatts of energy storage the following two years, according to Bloomberg. Prometheus is planning to power the large facility with natural gas, using carbon capture and storage technologies alongside the battery storage. 

“We need batteries that offer performance at or above lithium, without the risk of overheating to deploy at our data halls,” Prometheus CEO Trenton Thornock said in a statement obtained by the outlet. “XL Batteries’ organic flow battery technology offers a scalable, long-duration, non-toxic energy storage solution.”

DENMARK WEIGHS LIFTING 40-YEAR BAN ON NUCLEAR ENERGY: The acceptance of nuclear energy continues to grow worldwide, as Denmark considers bringing the source into its energy mix. 

The details: Traditional nuclear reactors have been banned in Denmark since 1985, as the Scandinavian country has instead heavily leaned on renewable alternatives like biofuels, wind, and solar. It joins several European nations now expressing interest in adding nuclear into their energy mix in the wake of the mass blackout that hit Spain and Portugal late last month. Both countries that suffered the power outage have accelerated their use of renewable energy sources in recent years, sparking concerns about available baseload power to prop up the grid amid planned or unexpected interruptions. 

Lars Aagaard, the minister for climate, energy, and utilities in Denmark, told local newspaper Politiken that the government has grown more interested in advanced nuclear energy, like small modular reactors, as a solution to the baseload question. 

“We can see that there is a development under way with new nuclear power technologies – small, modular reactors,” Aagaard said. “But it’s not enough that they have potential. We also need to know what it means for Danish society if we are to enable these technologies.”

Growing support: Lifting the 40-year-ban appears to have support from other Danish politicians as the country’s former prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen described the ban “ridiculous” during an interview with the Financial Times. 

Rasmussen pointed to intermittency issues guaranteed with wind and solar power, saying it is “ridiculous” to exclude nuclear power from the country’s baseload when it is already not relying on fossil fuels. 

“My guess is that this is a process [from the government] towards lifting the ban,” he said.  

ICYMI – INTERIOR DEPARTMENT EXPEDITES PERMITTING FOR URANIUM MINE: Earlier this week, the Department of the Interior announced it would be fast-tracking the permitting process for a Utah uranium mine in order to meet urgent energy demands, just weeks after accusing the Biden administration of rushing reviews for other power projects. 

The details: The Interior Department plans to slash what would typically be a year-long environmental assessment for the Velvet-Wood mine project to just 14 days. The expedited permit is being issued under the president’s national energy emergency, declared on his first day in office. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has since said the emergency was necessitated by the Biden administration’s “climate extremist policies.” 

“The expedited mining project review represents exactly the kind of decisive action we need to secure our energy future,” Burgum said in a statement Monday. 

If approved, the mining project is anticipated to produce uranium and vanadium, and later convert uranium ore into uranium concentrate, helping reduce American reliance on foreign imports. Uranium is typically used as fuel for nuclear reactors, while vanadium is often used as a strengthening agent for steel. 

Speedy reviews for me, not thee: The fast-tracked permit announcement comes one month after Burgum said the Biden administration rushed the permitting process for a massive offshore wind farm off the coast of New York. This project, also known as Empire Wind, took just under four years to complete the permitting process, according to research firm BloombergNEF. The firm also found that the average permitting time frame for federally approved projects is just under 3.5 years.  

RUNDOWN 

Associated Press ‘All kinds of nutty about climate.’ New York’s Rochester draws residents fleeing extreme weather

Grist The government just killed an essential way to assess climate risk

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