WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Friday, readers! In today’s Daily on Energy, we take a look at reactions to President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at boosting U.S. critical minerals production.
Callie and Maydeen also take a look at the Department of Defense’s efforts to remove “climate change” from programs and documents at the Pentagon. On World Glacier Day, we take a look at some data that shows glaciers are depleting at rapid rates due to climate change.
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.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Market concerns continue to swirl over international crude prices potentially falling below $50 a barrel this year as the Trump administration has put its full support behind increased domestic energy production. Members of the president’s cabinet, including Energy Secretary Chris Wright, have touted this agenda in recent days and weeks echoing the familiar “drill, baby, drill.” But not everyone in the industry is on board.
“A senior executive of an American oil company told me, he said, ‘we thought that Chris Wright, the energy secretary was our guy, someone from the industry. And here in Houston, we just realized that Mr. Wright is Trump’s guy. He’s not our guy. He’s going to do what the White House is telling him to do and that means $50 oil and bankruptcies in the oil patch, so be it,’” Bloomberg’s Javier Blas recounted on an episode of the Columbia Energy Exchange podcast released Tuesday. “And that’s why I think that the mood at CERAWeek was not as celebratory.”
TRUMP SIGNS ORDER TO BOOST DOMESTIC CRITICAL MINERALS PRODUCTION: President Donald Trump yesterday signed an executive order aimed at streamlining domestic production of critical minerals in an effort to enhance national security.
Critical minerals are used for technologies in the defense and energy sectors but many have raised concerns about relying on foreign entities for minerals.
The order invoked the Defense Production Act to provide finance, loans, and investments to new critical mineral projects and dedicate a critical minerals fund. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation in collaboration with the Department of Defense will provide the finance.
The order also called on the interior secretary to prioritize mineral production on federal land. Other agencies, including DOE and USDA, will also help to identify other sites for mineral production activities that can be permitted quickly.
What are they saying? National Mining Association CEO Rich Nolan said, “By encouraging streamlined and transparent permitting processes, combined with financing support to counter foreign market manipulation, we can finally challenge China’s mineral extortion. We applaud this strong action that confronts our mineral crisis head on and we look forward to working with the administration to ensure made in America increasingly means mined in America.”
GreenMet CEO Drew Horn said, “GreenMet has been at the forefront of supporting policies that increase collaboration between government and private businesses in the minerals and mining space. This Executive Order is an important step to unlocking US resources, reducing reliance on critical minerals from our adversaries and strengthening our domestic mineral supply chain.”
Sen. Todd Young said, “President Trump’s executive order on critical minerals is a long overdue wake-up call to enhance America’s supply chain resilience.”
U.S. SANCTIONS WON’T FULLY STOP CHINESE IMPORTS OF IRANIAN OIL: Traders now say that the Trump administration’s increased sanctions on Iran and China won’t have the fully intended effect of halting shipments of crude, but will still slow down some sales.
Some context: Yesterday, the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced new sanctions on a network the administration says is supporting exports of Iranian oil by purchasing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crude. The sanctions specifically targeted a “teapot” refinery in the Shandong Province of China, which the treasury said purchased millions of barrels of Iranian oil, worth up to $500 million.
The impact: The sanctions are part of the administration’s maximum-pressure campaign on Iran to reduce the country’s exports of crude oil to zero. However, traders in the industry have said the existing sanctions won’t have that desired effect just yet.
One Chinese trading executive involved in Iran’s oil business told Reuters that the sanctions were not a surprise as companies will swiftly find workarounds to keep the flow of oil. “But once companies re-adjust their business structures, imports would continue,” the executive said.
Another trader involved with Iranian oil told the outlet that some companies are completely unfazed by the new sanctions, saying, “Our regular client appeared nonchalant when I shared the sanction document translated into Chinese late last night and carried on asking for the latest Iranian oil quotes.”
While imports are not expected to stop fully, they will likely slow a bit as the sanctions are expected to raise supply chain costs for Chinese refiners.
DOD COMMITS TO REMOVING ‘CLIMATE CHANGE,’ WITH SOME EXCEPTIONS: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has continued to take aim at climate-related programs and documents at the Pentagon, but is willing to make a few exceptions, according to a new memo released this week.
The details: The memo, issued Monday and since obtained by E&E News, called on the Department of Defense to review both mission statements and military planning documents found within the department to remove any “references to climate change and related subjects.”
For weeks, Hegseth has likened climate change programs to “crap,” revealing that the Pentagon will be cutting all climate change-related policies. In the recent memo, Hegseth referred to the initiatives as the “climate distraction.”
The secretary is, however, allowing for some exceptions in the Pentagon’s preparedness and response to extreme weather, according to E&E News. While DOD will continue to move forward with removing climate language, Hegseth instructed the department to keep up with “assessing weather-related impacts on operations, mitigating weather-related risks (or) conducting environmental assessments.”
Some reaction: While Hegseth does appear to be making concessions, climate activists have insisted that the memo could hurt military officials’ ability to prepare for the effects of climate change – such as rapidly changing weather patterns or extreme weather conditions.
“We design military facilities and buildings to last 50 years,” Will Rogers, senior climate adviser to the secretary of the Army under former President Joe Biden, told the outlet. “The climate is going to be different 50 years from now. You don’t want to base it based on the weather tomorrow.”
CALIFORNIA LAUNCHES SATELLITE PROJECT TO DETECT AND REDUCE METHANE LEAKS: California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new satellite project to help detect and reduce methane emissions in response to the federal government seeking to undo climate policies.
Newsom said in a press release that the new satellite project is in response to the Environmental Protection Agency seeking to roll back climate policies, including the “endangerment finding,” which states that greenhouse gas emissions harm public health.
“Decades of progress to protect public health is on the line as the Trump Administration works to roll back critical environmental protections. California isn’t having it,” Newsom said.
The project involves satellite-mounted methane sensors that send data to the state to identify and mitigate large emissions of methane, the press release said. It added that the state will work with local agencies and industry to stop methane leaks.
It will be financed by a $100 million investment from California’s cap-and-trade program. The state has launched one of the satellites and seven more will be deployed.
“Thanks to our state investment, we’re using satellite technology to detect methane leaks as they happen. With this new data, we’ll be able to move faster to cut harmful methane pollution – protecting Californians and the clean air we’ve fought so hard for,” Newsom said.
UNITED KINGDOM TAKES STEP TO SAVE THE BEES: For the first time ever, the United Kingdom government has unveiled goals for reducing the use of pesticides in an effort to protect pollinators like bees.
The details: Today, all four governments that are part of the U.K. (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) released the U.K. Pesticides National Action Plan to reduce potential environmental and human harm caused by pesticides. The governments are agreeing to work with farmers to reduce the environmental risk from pesticides by 10% by 2030.
This reduction is expected to be achieved through nature-friendly farming techniques and alternatives to conventional pesticides. The governments have vowed to support farmers, growers, and other land managers in the U.K. over the next five years as they “voluntarily” opt into the reduction plan. Progress on the reduction target is expected to be monitored through a Pesticide Load Indicator.
Key quote: “Our goal is to minimise the risks and impact of pesticides to human health and the environment, while ensuring that our land managers have effective tools to manage pests and pesticide resistance,” Scottish Agriculture Minister Jim Fairlie said, noting that the program will target the use of traditional chemical pesticides while ensuring farmers and other consumers have access to information about alternative sustainable farming practices.
WORLD’S GLACIERS MELTING FASTER THAN EVER: Most of the world’s glaciers are melting at an alarming rate worldwide, according to the United Nations World Water Development Report 2025.
The report said that more than 2 billion people depend on glaciers and snowmelt for freshwater. It found that since the 1980s the Andes, which supply 50% of the water flowing into the Amazon River, have lost between 30% and 50% of their glaciers. The Mount Kenya, Rwenzori, and Kilimanjaro glaciers are projected to disappear by 2040.
It added that by 2100 the Hindu Kush–Karakoram–Himalayan system could lose 50% of its glacier volume. Meanwhile, the World Meteorological Organization released key data today which estimated that the world’s glaciers have lost 9,000 gigatons of mass since 1975, which does not include the Greenland or Antarctic glaciers.
The reports come out as part of the UN’s first World Day for Glaciers to spread awareness that glaciers are critical to life but are melting at accelerated rates due to climate change.
“Currently glaciers are contributing to sea level by about one millimeter a year. That sounds like nothing, one millimeter, right?” said Michael Zemp, director of the Switzerland-based World Glacier Monitoring Service. “But it has a huge impact. Every millimeter of additional sea level rise is going to flood another 200,000 to 300,000 persons every year.”
RUNDOWN
Los Angeles Times Meet the EPA’s new regional administrator in charge of California (and the rest of the Pacific Southwest)
Canary Media Cutting clean energy won’t lower New England utility bills, advocates say
ABC News Ocean dumping – or climate solution? An industry bets on the ocean to capture carbon
