WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Tuesday, Daily on Energy readers! Up on the Hill this morning, House lawmakers held a hearing on weather modifications like geoengineering. Read below to find out why Democrats pushed back on whether the hearing at all fell under the oversight subcommittee’s jurisdiction.
Plus, today’s newsletter dives into why Russia could be forced to cut its output of crude oil and potential new investments from the U.S. in a foreign critical minerals fund.
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.
DEMOCRATS PUSH BACK AGAINST MTG HEARING ON WEATHER MODIFICATIONS: House Democrats questioned Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia’s decision to hold a hearing today on weather modifications rather than government oversight issues.
The House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, held a hearing on weather modifications, particularly in relation to cloud seeding and geoengineering. Greene has maintained theories that weather modifications like these are linked to extreme weather events like hurricanes and floods.
Democrats on the committee, however, questioned Greene’s decision to hold a hearing in the DOGE subcommittee regarding weather control technology.
Subcommittee ranking member, New Mexico Rep. Melanie Stansbury said, “We want to acknowledge that the purpose of this subcommittee, and why it was created in the first place by the majority, was to root out waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Still, theories surrounding the link between weather control technology and extreme weather events have heightened amongst Republicans, following several recent events like the flash flood that hit central Texas in July. Greene has been a strong critic of weather controlling technologies.
“Remember, if you even question that someone could control the weather, you were labeled a conspiracy theorist or crazy,” Greene said in the hearing.
What is weather modification? The hearing focused on weather modification technology like geoengineering and cloud seeding.
Geoengineering is the manipulation of the Earth’s natural systems to counteract the effect of climate change. Some of the methods include removing carbon dioxide and managing solar radiation.
Cloud seeding is a technology that has been used for decades on a localized scale. Specifically, it modifies the weather by introducing tiny particles, typically silver iodide crystals, into clouds to increase rainfall.
Greene said there is “absolutely no way to measure the effectiveness of cloud seeding.” She added that there is “little regulation and rules” over weather modifications, which she said was “extremely concerning.”
Click here to read more from Maydeen.
POTENTIAL MULTIBILLION DOLLAR FUND TO BOOST US CRITICAL MINERAL SUPPLY: The Trump administration is reportedly in talks to fund a multi-billion dollar mining initiative abroad to reduce China’s dominance over the market.
The details: Sources familiar with the talks confirmed to the Financial Times that the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is considering investing $600 million or more into a fund that would invest in extracting critical minerals overseas. DFC already has some investments in foreign critical minerals and rare earth companies and projects, including in Ireland and South Africa.
New York-based investment firm Orion Resource Partners is considering matching the government investment. Discussions between Orion and DFC reportedly began last year and have been delayed primarily by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, according to the outlet. However, questions from Lutnick have reportedly been largely addressed, meaning a deal could soon be announced.
RUSSIA WEIGHS CUTTING OIL OUTPUT: As President Donald Trump looks to cut off Russian energy imports to end Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, he just might be delivered a solution from Russia itself.
The details: Industry sources confirmed to Reuters today that Russian oil giant Transneft is warning producers that they might have to cut back on output as a result of Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. Transneft, which controls more than 80% of all oil produced in Russia, has reportedly begun to restrict producers’ ability to store crude in its pipeline system due to the Ukrainian attacks.
Russian officials have not detailed how damaged its energy infrastructure is following the drone strikes, however, Reuters reported that Ukraine hit at least 10 refineries in the country. The latest attacks reportedly slashed Moscow’s refining capacity by nearly one-fifth.
Sources familiar with Russian oil operations, told the outlet that the recent attacks could ultimately force Russia to cut output. This would effectively cut off a major funding source for Putin’s war, and would prove Ukraine’s own strikes as more effective than Trump’s push for sanctions.
Market reaction: With possible supply disruptions looming, both international and domestic prices of crude inched higher this afternoon. Just after 3 p.m. EST, Brent crude increased by 1.41% and was priced at $68.39 per barrel. Similarly, West Texas Intermediate was up 1.82% and selling at $64.45 per barrel.
SHUTTERED NUCLEAR PLANT RECEIVES MORE FEDERAL FUNDS FOR RESTART: The Palisades Nuclear Plant in western Michigan has received another wave of federal funding from the Trump administration assisting its efforts to restart the shuttered plant later this year.
The Department of Energy announced today that it released the sixth loan disbursement to Holtec International, totalling more than $155 million. Under the Biden administration, Holtec secured a $1.52 billion loan guarantee to support its restart of the Palisades Nuclear Plant.
The Trump administration has continued to support that agreement, distributing the loan in installments throughout this year. To date, the agency has disbursed over $491 million for the project.
“Under President Trump’s bold leadership, the United States is taking unprecedented steps to bring about the next American nuclear renaissance,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement. “With projects like the Palisades Nuclear Plant, the Department of Energy is committed to lowering energy costs and increasing domestic energy production, delivering reliable, affordable and secure energy to the American people.”
JP MORGAN OPTIMISTIC ABOUT CLEAN ENERGY TRANSITION: Months after Wall Street’s mass exodus from the global climate banking alliance, one firm still firmly believes the markets can stay on track with climate goals.
The details: JP Morgan Chase released a report this week outlining a “new map” for energy and geopolitics, as they said the global economy is moving into a “new energy security age.” The bank argued that in this age, energy dominance will not just depend on fossil fuels but also green infrastructure, nuclear deployment, critical mineral supply chains, electric grids, and artificial intelligence.
JP Morgan is not expecting the power of oil and gas to disappear entirely, as it advocated for an “all of the above” energy strategy. It urged the U.S. to fully take advantage of all energy sources like solar, geothermal and wind, saying this could make the nation “unrivaled” in this new age for energy dominance.
“As a bank, some of the things that we’ve taken for granted about energy over the last few decades are changing,” Sarah Kapnick, one of the authors of the report, told Semafor. “The rug has been pulled out from under us, and we need to think about how to have growth under this different regime.”
Surprising confidence: JP Morgan’s endorsement for the energy transition comes after the bank, and dozens others, publicly stepped back from global climate commitments established under the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. Environmentalists voiced concerns that the departures indicated the investment firms and banks were conceding to right-wing criticism of ESG priorities.
However, as we noted in Daily on Energy last month, these same banks saw their financing for oil, gas, and coal projects drop within the last year. This trend appears to be an indication that most firms are more interested in hitting net-zero goals than widely thought, but may keep it more under the radar.
CHAIR OF CARB SET TO RETIRE: California Air Resources Board Chair Liane Randolph will be retiring at the end of the month, as the state and Trump administration continue to battle over climate policies.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom made the announcement yesterday, stating “Liane stepped into this role at a moment of deep uncertainty and never flinched.”
“For five years, she’s led with vision and resolve — expanding California’s work to clean the air in our hardest-hit communities while charting the course for California to become the world’s largest economy committed to net-zero carbon,” he added.
Laura Sanchez, who is senior adviser to the governor on climate, will be the next chair of CARB.
Some background: The leadership change comes at a time when the state and the Trump administration battle in court over a number of changes to climate-related policies. For instance, in June, Trump signed three resolutions that prevent California from implementing vehicle emission rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote electric vehicles. Shortly after Trump signed the bills, California announced it has filed a lawsuit against the administration’s actions.
ICYMI – TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BACKS FUSION ENERGY: The United States will be able to harness fusion energy for commercial use within the next ten years, Energy Secretary Wright said this week.
The details: Yesterday, Wright told Bloomberg Television that the Trump administration is confident it will be able to establish a pathway to developing and producing fusion energy as an alternative source of electricity before the president leaves office.
“I believe we will know the commercial pathway to fusion during the Trump administration,” Wright told the outlet. “Commercial electricity from fusion energy could be as fast as eight years and I’d be very surprised if it’s more than 15.”
While the U.S. has backed research for fusion energy for decades, there has been little progress on making it a commercially viable form of energy. Researchers have primarily been looking for ways to sustain fusion reactions and generate more energy than the amount needed to create the reaction in the first place.
Quick reminder: Nuclear fusion can generate electricity by fusing two atomic nuclei to form a single heavier one, releasing energy in the process. It has come to be known as an attractive carbon-free source of energy that also does not produce large amounts of radioactive waste like nuclear.
RUNDOWN
Reuters How a Texas refinery turns Amazon-destroying cattle into ‘green’ jet fuel
Inside Climate News Challenge to Maryland Offshore Wind Project Stokes Concerns Among Legal Scholars
New York Times It Isn’t Just the U.S. The Whole World Has Soured on Climate Politics.
