WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Thursday, readers! The Trump administration’s efforts to block disbursements from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund got a boost today, as an appellate court stayed a federal judge’s decision from earlier in the week to order the release of money.
Plus, today’s edition of Daily on Energy takes a look at the administration’s latest hit to the offshore wind industry, as well as where the Tennessee Valley Authority stands in its quest to develop small modular reactors.
Recommended Stories
- Daily on Energy: ‘Gold bars’ update, NEPA changes, and Trump eyes endangered species overhaul
- Daily on Energy: Net Zero alliance eases rules, oil demand downgraded, and EU tries to ditch Russian gas
- Daily on Energy: A plea for LPO to be spared from cuts, BP makes a discovery off Louisiana, and China plans more coal
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.
THE LATEST ON THE GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTION FUND LAWSUIT: The D.C. Circuit last night blocked a federal judge’s ruling that would have allowed climate groups to gain access to federal grant money being held in Citibank.
The appellate court’s ruling is the latest in the legal battle brought by Climate United, Coalition for Green Capital, and Power Forward Communities, which are challenging the EPA’s efforts to cancel $20 billion in funding awarded by the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The fund is a program meant to finance climate projects across the country, specifically in low-income communities.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday night to prevent the EPA from withholding the climate groups’ funds in Citibank. However, the appellate court’s decision pauses Chutkan’s preliminary injunction, allowing itself time to examine the case.
“Despite a robust and clear decision from a federal judge, the appeal is no surprise. We stand firm on the merits of our case and will press forward to deliver on our promises to communities across America,” Beth Bafford, the CEO of Climate United, said in a statement.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has claimed that the grant money was improperly distributed by being routed through Citibank. The EPA has attempted to cancel $20 billion in grant money from the fund but was met with litigation by the three climate groups.
The D.C. Circuit set several deadlines for later this month for parties to file an emergency motion for stay pending appeal and to file a response or reply.
Read more from Maydeen here.
FERC PREPARED FOR NEW PIPELINE PROJECTS TO BE CHALLENGED IN COURT: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said today that it is preparing to face a slew of legal challenges on all new pipeline projects being considered. The warning comes as the Trump administration has moved to remove existing regulations on how to follow the National Environmental Policy Act when issuing required permits or environmental reviews for new energy-related infrastructure projects – a move heavily criticized by climate activists.
The details: FERC Chairman Mark Christie told reporters this morning that the agency was beginning the process of establishing new NEPA guidance, as the White House Council of Environmental Quality instructed agencies to replace existing regulations with nonbinding rules. The chairman did not explicitly say if the independent agency received recent instructions from CEQ on this matter, but did confirm past NEPA regulations that agencies had been previously instructed to follow were “no longer operative.”
Christie said FERC will likely put together an initial guidance document regarding NEPA reviews and permits, with the intention of revising further, as the agency is still considering many permit applications filed under the Natural Gas Act.
“We want to make sure those are handled fully in accordance with law, because why? Every single one is going to be challenged in court,” Christie said, adding that CEQ has dropped all the guidance the agency had been following for 20 years.
“We have to replace that, obviously, with some new guidance. So we’re working through it,” he continued, saying the goal is to avoid harming any of the existing applications being processed currently.
NIH TO STOP FUNDING RESEARCH RELATED TO CLIMATE CHANGE: The National Institutes of Health will stop prioritizing and funding research on climate change’s effects on human health, the New York Times reports.
The New York Times obtained internal documents that it was the agency’s new policy “not to prioritize” research regarding climate change’s impacts on health. The document added that NIH would not fund research on gender identity, vaccine hesitancy, or diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Spokeswomen for NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services told the newspaper that they are prioritizing research that “directly affects the health of Americans” aligned with the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
The Trump administration has taken action to remove climate change initiatives within federal agencies.
ProPublica reported last month about NIH looking to end its funding for research on the effects climate change has on public health. ProPublica said that NIH has funded hundreds of grants and programs to research how extreme weather like wildfires, heat waves, and floods affect human health.
TARIFFS MAY HIKE COSTS FOR SMALL NUCLEAR PROJECTS: President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs could lead to higher electricity prices for consumers, as developers of small modular reactor projects are anticipating increased costs to build more power.
The details: Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. is poised to build two SMRs on the same site as the Palisades Nuclear Plant in western Michigan. While the company is seeking to bring these two reactors online by 2030, it may face some unexpected hurdles brought on by Trump’s tariffs.
Chanho Ahn, Hyundai’s energy division director, told Bloomberg today that the company had been planning to use suppliers in South Korea – where they are headquartered. However, Hyundai is now switching gears, as a 25% tariff from Trump has been put on pause for 90 days. If imposed, Ahn said they could result in higher costs for the developer, leading them to set higher electricity prices.
“Tariffs will have an influence on the total price,” Ahn told the outlet, adding that Hyundai is “carefully considering various options to avoid passing additional costs on to the project owner or US consumers.”
As part of this, Hyundai is reportedly looking into suppliers in the U.S. that could offer high quality materials at competitive prices.
Quick reminder: SMRs are known for having a smaller physical footprint than large traditional reactors, allowing SMRs to be built closer to local grids. The small facilities also historically take less time to build and are able to come online and supply energy sooner. At the moment, no SMRs are operational in the U.S., and only three are operational in the world. Typically, these reactors generate upward of 300 megawatts of power. A rising number of technology and energy firms have expressed interest in using SMRs or other forms of advanced nuclear power to support their artificial intelligence developers and data centers.
LARGEST PUBLIC ENERGY PROVIDER HITS MILESTONE FOR SMR DEVELOPMENT: The Tennessee Valley Authority, the largest public utility provider in the U.S., has taken a critical step toward bringing the first domestic SMRs online, in what the company has described as a “new heyday” for nuclear energy.
The details: This morning, the utility submitted a notification of intent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of its plans to submit a construction permit application (CPA) with the regulators by June of this year. This application is poised to serve as the blueprint for the utility’s project design for its Clinch River Nuclear Site, just over 30 miles outside of Knoxville.
The TVA had held an early site permit for the site since 2019, the first for any SMR in the country. With today’s notice of intent, the utility is on track to continue leading in advanced nuclear. The utility told Callie that unless someone beats them to it, their expected CPA will be the first submitted to the NRC since the last nuclear reactors were built at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia.
A place for nuclear: This is the latest move in TVA’s broader effort to fully embrace advanced nuclear as a way to reach net-zero by 2050. Jeff Lyash, TVA’s president and CEO, previously told Daily on Energy’s Jearmy Beaman that the utility is hoping to support roughly 20 potential SMRs.
Officials with the Clinch River Project have described the latest SMR buzz as a “new heyday” for nuclear energy.
“It reminds me of when I graduated from college and I got my first job in nuclear. It was in the early ’80s. At the time, there were maybe 10 to 12 nuclear plants under construction or in the startup phase – brand new plants, boiling water reactors, pressurized water reactors,” said Bob Deacy, senior vice president of the Clinch River Project. “There was just so much excitement and so many jobs to be had. Now I look at all the excitement for SMRs and it reminds me of back then.”
BURGUM STOPS CONSTRUCTION OF EMPIRE WIND PROJECT IN NY: Interior secretary Doug Burgum ordered for the construction of the Empire Wind project in New York to be paused, allowing for the department to review the project’s permits, which were approved during the Biden administration.
Burgum said Wednesday on X that, in consultation with the Commerce Department, he is directing the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt immediately all construction activities on Empire Wind, a major development south of Long Island. Burgum added that the project would undergo further permitting review because the Biden administration seemed to have rushed through the approval.
Equinor, a Norwegian company, is building the Empire Wind project, which was supposed to start providing power in 2026 and be fully operational by 2027. The Biden administration approved the project in November 2023, and BOEM approved construction in 2024.
“Approval for the project was rushed through by the prior administration without sufficient analysis or consultation among the relevant agencies as relates to the potential effects from the project,” Burgum wrote in a memo obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
“This halt is to remain in effect until further review is completed to address these serious deficiencies,” Burgum added.
Trump has been a strong critic of the wind industry. On his first day back in office, he signed an executive order pausing offshore wind lease sales and any new approvals, permits, leases, or loans for wind projects, both on and offshore. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency also revoked the air permit for a 1.5-gigawatt wind project in New Jersey.
Read more from Maydeen here.
PUERTO RICO SUFFERS TOTAL BLACKOUT: The entire island of Puerto Rico suffered a complete blackout Wednesday, leaving more than one million customers without electricity.
The details: The outage, which stretched into Thursday for hundreds of thousands of customers, began at around noon yesterday. It was not immediately clear what caused the blackout, though energy company LUMA Energy said in a post to X that it was investigating what role the “fragility” of the existing electrical system might have had in the incident. Officials have said a failure along a transmission line likely caused the outage.
At its peak, roughly 1.4 million customers were left without power and 400,000 were without water. Just before 2 p.m. EST, LUMA said it restored power to more than 56% of its customer base (around 826,572 customers). LUMA is the primary power distributor across Puerto Rico, serving individual households, hotels, airports, water and sewer facilities, hospitals, and even prisons.
Growing trend: Puerto Rico has been subject to a growing number of power outages in recent months, with the last complete power outage occurring on New Year’s Eve. In its final days, the Biden administration announced it could be committing more than $1 billion to help boost grid reliability and new clean energy systems for the island. In the fall out of this week’s outage, Puerto Rican Gov. Jenniffer Gonzalez is expected to cancel the government’s contract with LUMA over the continuing outages.
“We cannot become used to blackouts,” Gonzalez said during a press briefing, adding, “we will not get used to a system that collapses just because a branch touches a line.”
RUNDOWN
The Guardian ‘All of his guns will do nothing for him’: lefty preppers are taking a different approach to doomsday
Forbes A Declining Dollar Could Be A Tailwind For Energy Investors
The Hill How Trump orders seeking shortcuts in the regulatory process could expand presidential power