WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Tuesday, readers! In today’s Daily on Energy, Callie and Maydeen take a look at Alaska seeking to gain South Korean investors for energy projects in the state. Read on to see how many Californians are now living in areas with high wildfire risk.
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.
ALASKA SEEKING SOUTH KOREAN LNG INVESTORS: Alaskan Gov. Mike Dunleavy met with senior officials with the South Korean government today, discussing future energy and trade cooperation between the U.S. and the Asian nation.
The details: Dunleavy is currently on a two-day visit in Seoul, meeting with a number of South Korean officials, including acting President Han Duck-soo, Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun, and representatives from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, according to local outlet Yonhap News Agency. Liquefied natural gas projects in Alaska have taken center stage in the discussions, as representatives from partners with the Alaskan LNG project, Glenfarne Group and the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC), joined Dunleavy on the trip.
If advanced, the Alaska LNG project is expected to cost around $44 billion, building an 800-mile pipeline from Alaska’s Northern Slope to the southern part of the state, where it would be easier to export LNG to partners across the Pacific. Dunleavy has previously said the project could be operational by 2030 or 2031.
Alaska is seeking investments from a number of Asian countries, including South Korea, Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan – committing to purchase the LNG pumped through the pipeline. So far, Taiwan’s state-owned oil and gas company CPC Corporation has said it intends to invest in the project.
Where it stands: South Korea doesn’t appear to be too far behind, as trade officials indicated on Tuesday that the government is interested in further trade cooperation with Alaska. As Seoul exported around $1.17 billion to the state in 2024, government officials have expressed interest in boosting bilateral relationships, according to Yonhap News Agency. However, Industry Minister Ahn reportedly told Dunleavy and his team that the country needs to see more “consistency” in U.S. policies before offering up further investments.
SHELL SLASHES CLEAN INVESTMENTS: British oil and gas giant Shell’s clean energy investments are taking a hit in the company’s latest efforts to reduce costs and spending.
The details: Shell is looking to dramatically cut its annual expenses by upward of $7 billion by 2028 compared to 2022, largely to increase the amount of money returned to shareholders. CEO Wael Sawan told the Financial Times that the investment cuts are intended to close the valuation gap with U.S.-based rivals of Shell, including ExxonMobil and Chevron.
Shell is specifically planning to increase the share of operating cash flow returned to shareholders to 50%. While this is 10% above current levels, it is still lower than what competitors like Exxon offer (around 65%).
“We would like to do more over time, but we need them to be investable,” Sawan told the outlet, adding that Shell will be focusing more on delivering “sustainable returns.”
A part of its strategy change, Shell is also looking to increase its sales of LNG by around 4-5% annually to 2030. The company is also looking to keep its oil production at a steady 1.4 million barrels a day.
What people are saying: As a result, clean investments are taking a back seat, with Shell expected to spend only around $1 billion to $2 billion a year on green projects. Experts have indicated that the shift in focus is great news for investors. “For energy producers in today’s world, the name of the game is to have the money-making machine on full pelt. Shell has its toes dipped in the renewable energy pool but hasn’t jumped face first into all things green. It’s clear that oil and gas remain the primary profit engines,” AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould told This is Money.
SENATOR GRILLS TULSI GABBARD FOR EXCLUDING CLIMATE CHANGE AS A NATIONAL THREAT: Maine Independent Sen. Angus King hammered Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard today for excluding climate change in the intelligence agency’s annual threat report.
Gabbard and other intelligence chiefs testified before the Senate Intelligence committee today on the threats facing the United States. Prior to the hearing, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence published its Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community, which outlines current national security threats.
King noted that the agency did not include climate change as being a threat to national security as it has in previous reports.
In the past 13 years, King said, “every single one of these reports that we have had has mentioned global climate change as a significant national security threat, except this one.” The senator asked Gabbard why climate change was excluded from the report.
“Obviously, we’re aware of occurrences within the environment and how they may impact operations, but we’re focused on the direct threats to American’s safety, wellbeing and security,” Gabbard answered.
King noted that the first Trump administration included climate change as a national threat and how it would impact “mass migration, famine, dislocation, and political violence.”
Gabbard said she directed the agency to “focus on the most extreme and critical national security threat.”
REPUBLICAN HELPED ELECTRIC BUS PROGRAM AVOID DOGE CUTS: While a number of climate and environment related programs across the federal government have faced funding cuts driven by the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to shrink government spending, a top Republican helped save one electric vehicle program.
The details: Environment and Public Works Chair Shelley Moore Capito revealed to E&E News this week that she called Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin to ask him to distribute some funds for electric school buses.
The EPA’s electric school buses program, funded through the bipartisan infrastructure law, is primarily focused on reducing diesel-related emissions. It is one of many Democratic-driven programs that has gone on to benefit Republican-led districts, including Capito’s.
In October of last year, Capito toured the facility for the GreenPower Motor Company, which manufactures electric school buses in West Virginia. At the time of the visit, Capito praised the company’s efforts, saying it boosts economic development and children’s education.
Key quote: “This administration realizes that a lot of school systems would want them,” Capito told E&E News. “Us weighing in, I think, had some effect.”
UNITED KINGDOM COULD FALL BACK IN SMR RACE, DEVELOPER WARNS: Following a burst of development deals for small modular reactors in the United States and elsewhere in the last year, at least one company in the United Kingdom is encouraging the government to open more pathways for the country to get ahead.
The details: Rolls-Royce CEO Tufan Erginbilgiç is warning that the U.K. faces major risks of falling behind in the race to build SMRs as the country has yet to select companies to lead domestic development. In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Erginbilgiç said that if the U.K. delays any further, it could cause developers to take their business to other countries.
Rolls-Royce is one of the four companies shortlisted by the British government. The company’s current designs would support an SMR with a 470 megawatt capacity – fairly larger than other traditional SMRs. State-owned Great British Energy was expected to select two companies to support SMR development by this spring, but that will likely not come until June.
“Why do you think the wind supply chain didn’t happen in the UK? These supply chains, once they are developed somewhere, it is hard to change them because external economies happen there, economies of scale happen etc, etc,” he told the outlet.
Other options: While Rolls-Royce awaits the British government’s decision, the company has also been selected as a preferred developer for the Czech Republic and plans to build a reactor in the mid-2030s. Erginbilgiç told the Financial Times that the company would complete both projects if also selected in the U.K.
A reminder: Compared to larger nuclear facilities that can generate upward of 4 to 7 gigawatts of power, SMRs are, as their name suggests, much smaller. Typically, these reactors generate up to 300 megawatts of power and have a much smaller physical footprint. This allows SMRs to be built closer to local grids and come online sooner. There are currently no SMRs operational in the U.S.
STATE FIRE MAPS SHOW THAT ONE IN 8 CALIFORNIANS LIVE IN WILDFIRE RISK AREAS: One in eight Californians live in areas highly prone to wildfires, according to a Washington Post analysis of recently released state fire maps.
Cal Fire released updated maps yesterday that show areas in high risk of wildfires. The map is categorized into three fire severity zones: moderate, high, and very high. The map factors in topography, past fire history, vegetation, and other elements when determining the severity of an area.
The Washington Post’s analysis found that nearly 5.1 million people live in the two highest fire severity zones in the state, equivalent to one in 8 Californians.
The release of the updated maps comes just months after Los Angeles witnessed some of the largest and most destructive wildfires in the state’s history that ripped through the Palisades and Altadena communities. The Washington Post found that in older maps, 80% of homes damaged in the Altadena community were outside of Cal Fire’s “very high” severity zones.
In the new map, about 33% of homes that burned in the wildfire have been placed under “very high” or “high” severity zones, the outlet said. It added that those planning to rebuild in high severity zones will need to comply with the state’s building and real estate disclosure rules.
ICYMI- SUPREME COURT REJECTS CLIMATE CHANGE LAWSUIT: The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday rejected a case brought by young activists alleging that the government’s energy policies violate their rights to be protected from climate change, Reuters reported.
The high court rejected a request by the activists to hear their appeal against the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ordered a lower court to dismiss the case due to the lack of legal standing. The justices’ decision ends the Juliana v United States case, which Reuters said is one of the longest-running climate change lawsuits brought by youth activists.
“The Supreme Court’s decision today is not the end of the road and the impact of Juliana cannot be measured by the finality of this case alone,” Julia Olson, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at Our Children’s Trust, told Reuters in a statement.
RUNDOWN
New York Times As Trump’s Policies Worry Scientists, France and Others Put Out a Welcome Mat
The Guardian ‘Protect our future’: Alaskan Indigenous town fights ‘destructive’ uranium mine project
Bloomberg The Device Throttling the World’s Electrified Future
