WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Wednesday, readers! Callie and Maydeen kick things off today with a fair bit of agency news, as a federal judge blocked the Environmental Protection Agency last night from clawing back millions in climate grants.
Plus, the Department of Energy revealed today that it has given approval to Venture Global for its liquefied natural gas export project in Louisiana that had been put on pause for over a year by the Biden administration.
And keep reading to find out which top oil executives were scheduled to meet with the president at the White House today in a seeming victory tour for the fossil fuel industry.
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.
VENTURE GLOBAL SECURES LNG EXPORT APPROVAL: The Trump administration approved Venture Global’s liquefied natural gas export project in Louisiana more than a year after the project was stalled by a controversial pause on approvals by the Biden administration.
The details: The Department of Energy announced this morning that Secretary Chris Wright approved the LNG export authorization for the Calcasieu Pass 2 LNG export terminal along the Gulf Coast in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Once built, the project is expected to export up to 3.96 billion cubic feet per day of LNG and upward of 20 million tons each year.
A dramatic pause: The approval built on President Donald Trump’s executive order, signed on his first day in office, that ordered the restart of the review of applicants for new LNG export project approvals. In January 2024, then-President Joe Biden initiated the pause on new LNG export approvals to countries without free trade agreements with the U.S. to conduct a study on LNG exports’ environmental and economic impacts.
Venture Global’s CP2 LNG project was at the center of discussions when the pause was first put in place, as the company sought approval to build the $10 billion facility that would dramatically increase U.S. LNG exports. Critics accused the administration of imposing the pause to block the project, given the amount of downstream emissions associated with increased exports.
‘Vital’ for the U.S.: Industry players and conservatives have advocated for using LNG to replace coal worldwide, accelerating the transition to cleaner sources of energy. Venture Global itself claims their new terminal could replace 33 coal-fired power plants, preventing the release of around 140 million tons of greenhouse gases each year. Today, CEO Mike Sabel described the CP2 LNG export project as “vital” for the U.S. economy, global energy security, and trade. “This will enable us to provide our allies around the world with American LNG in just a few years and for decades to come,” he added.
Read more from Callie here.
JUDGE BLOCKS EPA FROM CANCELING CLIMATE GRANTS: A federal judge issued a restraining order last night temporarily blocking the Environmental Protection Agency from canceling billions in grant money from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin last week ordered the cancellation of $20 billion in grant money from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund that was issued as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Zeldin has claimed that the previous administration had improperly distributed the funds, while routing the money through Citibank to avoid oversight.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington wrote in the opinion that the EPA had not provided sufficient evidence to back claims that the grants issued to Climate United, Coalition for Green Capital, and Power Forward Communities were fraudulent and mismanaged.
Chutkan said that the Trump administration failed to provide sufficient notice or opportunity to respond to claims of corruption. She added that the three organizations may face “irreparable harm” without a temporary block. Chutkan did not release the fund, but said the money is to be held in the organizations’ accounts at Citibank and the EPA may not move or claw it back.
Zeldin has called the funds “gold bars,” referencing a video from last year in which a former EPA employee said the Biden administration was trying to distribute the promised funds before Inauguration Day.
“It truly feels like we’re on the Titanic, and we’re throwing like gold bars off the edge,” the former employee said in the video.
The EPA has since paused grant money from being distributed. The three nonprofits suing the EPA and Citibank to release the funds include Climate United, Coalition for Green Capital, and Power Forward. In total, the three organizations were granted $14 billion by the Biden administration.
The other $6 billion went to five other organizations to invest in clean energy projects in low-income communities.
“I will not rest until these hard-earned taxpayer dollars are returned to the U.S. Treasury,” Zeldin said in a statement on X.
TRUMP HOSTS OIL EXECUTIVES AT WHITE HOUSE: Akin to a sports team’s victory tour, a number of oil and gas executives met with the president at the White House today, further solidifying the administration’s support for the fossil fuel industry.
The details: The meeting, which took place at around 2 p.m., is the first time Trump sat down with oil and gas leaders after issuing a number of executive orders and actions favoring the industry. Rather than focusing on one particular issue, the meeting was expected to tackle ways to achieve broad American energy dominance.
A source familiar with the planning of the event told Reuters that the meeting would include members of the American Petroleum Institute’s executive committee, Hess Corp CEO John Hess, Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance, Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, and Marathon Petroleum CEO Maryann Mannen. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, as well as Wright, was also expected to attend, according to The Hill.
Ahead of the meeting, API spokesperson Bethany Williams said the industry appreciated the opportunity to speak with the president about “how American oil and natural gas are driving economic growth, strengthening our national security and supporting consumers.”
Wright also said the meeting sent a message to the oil and gas industry that emphasized “America is open for business.”
The White House did not immediately respond to Daily on Energy’s inquiry regarding the meeting.
UK GOVERNMENT URGED TO CREATE TIDAL LAGOONS FOR ENERGY: Amid the United Kingdom’s efforts to secure more low-carbon energy to meet growing power demand, an independent commission is encouraging the government to harness power from the tides.
The details: In a report released today, the Severn Estuary Commission detailed that the U.K. and Wales have a unique opportunity to implement tidal range energy solutions in the Severn Estuary between south-west England and Southern Wales. Tidal range energy traditionally requires an embankment across a waterway (such as a barrage or lagoon) to capture energy from the ebbing and flowing of the tides in generators that then generate electricity.
There have been discussions about installing a vast barrage across the Severn Estuary for decades, as it has been estimated to have energy potential of around 8 to 12 gigawatts – roughly 7% of the U.K.’s current electricity consumption, according to The Guardian.
The commission, however, is recommending against one barrage to harness this energy and instead is urging the government to create a number of lagoons in the estuary. They opted for this recommendation primarily due to potential disruptions for commercial shipping as well as environmental impacts caused by a large barrage. In their report, the experts claimed it could create between 30,000 – 200,000 jobs and generate upwards of £12 billion (roughly $15 billion) GVA with construction alone.
Some reaction: While industry players in the UK have noted tidal energy will be needed in the near future for the country to meet power demands, some politicians have since slammed the commission recommendation. Former Labour Welsh secretary Lord Peter Hain told BBC Wales he thought the recent report was “very underwhelming, disappointing, and confused” as he insisted the lagoon option would be too expensive.
“You’d need 50 lagoons cluttering up the estuary to rival a barrage which remains by far the best option: delivering cheap electricity with new bi-directional turbines which are fish friendly and generate baseload electricity because its lunar based and therefore predictable and almost constant,” Hain said.
CLIMATE CHANGE ‘REACHED NEW HEIGHTS’ LAST YEAR – WMO: The World Meteorological Organization said in its annual weather and climate impacts report that last year was the warmest year in the 175 years of observation.
The report provided new points showing that “human-induced climate change has reached new heights.” The report said that 2024 was likely the first year to be more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Climate experts believe that the global temperature should stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid irreversible impacts of climate change.
The report added that atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is at the highest levels in the last 800,000 years. The high temperatures last year were in part because of the rise in greenhouse gas emissions but also the El Niño weathering events, the WMO said. El Niño involves weather patterns that typically warm waters and leads to a rise in global average temperatures. The report said the ocean was the hottest it’s been in 65 years of observational record.
Other key findings include that the rate of sea level rise has doubled since 1993 to 4.7mm per year. Glaciers also lost more mass in the last three years.
POLLEN LEVELS ON THE RISE: As many people across the country are beginning to enjoy the spring-like weather, pollen levels are on the rise, with some forecasting a long allergy season ahead.
Accuweather reports that tree pollen is the first allergen to emerge in the spring and is already on the rise in southern states. The Gulf Coast, central Plains, northern Rockies, and Pacific Northwest are expected to experience the worst of the tree pollen.
After tree pollen, the grass begins to grow in April, bringing grass pollen throughout the summer and into early fall. Accuweather said Northeast and Pacific Northwest will face the worst grass pollen allergens, especially in June and July.
Amid the grass pollen season, the weed pollen season begins, with the Tennessee Valley likely to experience the worst of the weed pollen due to a surge in moisture late summer, Accuweather said.
RUNDOWN
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