WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Tuesday, readers! If you’re like us, you might have grown up reading C.S. Lewis’s Narnia series. Director Greta Gerwig is putting the series to screen starting next year, adapting the chronologically first book The Magician’s Nephew. The first trailer for the fantasy epic was released today. You can watch it here.
Today’s newsletter kicks off with an interview with the executive director of Environment America, the latest environmental nonprofit to speak out against the bipartisan Senate permitting bill, also known as the BAAJA. Keep reading to hear why the group told Callie they think the legislation should be scrapped completely.
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.
ENVIRONMENT AMERICA TALKS SENATE PERMITTING DEAL – ‘IT’S A BAD BARGAIN’:
Environment America is joining the many environmental and climate-focused organizations opposing the Senate’s bipartisan permitting reform package unveiled last month, calling for the legislation to be scrapped entirely.
“We are opposing the bill, and our view is that this bill posits that we have to destroy nature in order to save the planet, and that’s wrong-headed,” executive director Lisa Frank told Callie during an interview this morning. “We should not need to drive animals to extinction, remove states’ rights to challenge projects that could pollute their water in order to gain some environmental benefit from more clean energy. So in our view, it’s a bad bargain.”
Before today, Environment America had not publicly commented on the Senate deal and the group did not sign onto an Oct. 5 letter sent to Democratic leadership urging the caucus to prevent the bill from advancing out of Congress this year, claiming the concessions made in the bill outweigh the benefits. The letter was signed by more than 200 environmental and climate groups.
While the nonprofit did not sign the Oct. 5 letter, its positions regarding the permitting reform deal align closely with those listed by the other organizations.
Specifically, Environment America is taking issue with provisions reforming the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act. We won’t dive into each provision – you can read more about those here, but broadly the bill would limit timelines for legal challenges to environmental reviews, limit states’ abilities to block federally permitted projects, and give states more authority in making endangered species determinations.
For Environment America, these changes outweigh any benefit related to increased construction and buildout of clean energy projects due to the legislation.
“I think the basic premise that we need to rework and weaken our core environmental protections in order to achieve climate goals is wrong,” Frank said.
Opposing the permit certainty provision: Interestingly, the group is also challenging measures included in the bill handling permit certainty, which have widely been considered a win for Democrats.
This provision in the permitting legislation would block federal agencies from revoking approvals for projects with permits in effect on or after Sept. 16 of this year. It would also bar the agencies from taking any other action to interfere with or prevent construction or operations.
Frank explained that as written, the bill would “actually increase the risk of extinction” for some species if agencies are not able to pull back federal permits on a project causing more harm than previously predicted.
“If we’re building something that might make some animal go extinct, we better be damn sure that that’s not going to be the outcome,” she said.
Where to go from here? Environment America was not involved in discussions and negotiations regarding the bill text released late last month, Frank told Callie.
She confirmed that the group has begun conversations with the offices of some members of Congress regarding the legislation, but would not detail who.
As some on the Hill have suggested punting negotiations to the next Congress, Environment America would like to see the whole package scrapped.
“Our view is, I think there’s enough wrong with this bill that it’d be better to start fresh,” Frank said. “Asking – just asking the question what, if anything, do we need to do to make it easier to build clean energy without environmental review. I don’t think this bill is a great starting point for that conversation, given the breadth of harmful provisions that are in it.”
Where do other groups stand? Environment America’s positions align closely with groups like the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth US, and the Climate Justice Alliance, who all vehemently oppose the legislation.
Organizations such as the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions and Citizens Climate Lobby have offered their support.
Meanwhile, major groups including the Environmental Defense Fund and The Nature Conservancy have not issued any public statement on the matter.
You can find the full analysis of 25 environmental groups here.
All the rest:
WHO’S DRIVING UP OIL PRICES? TRUMP SAYS HOUTHIS: President Donald Trump accused the Houthis of intentionally increasing global oil prices through their strikes on Saudi Arabia’s energy infrastructure and the Riyadh airport in recent days.
The president suggested that the attacks, and the following spike in oil prices, were timed to influence global markets before the U.S. midterm elections.
“The Houthis are behaving very badly,” Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social this afternoon.
“They’ve been silent for a long time, but now they’ve emerged again, probably at the behest of Iran, which is a Failing Nation, with No Navy, No Airforce, the World’s Worst Economy, and 301% Inflation, in a very nasty way, hitting Saudi Arabia, and purposefully trying to drive up Oil Prices, probably prior to the U.S. Elections — NOT NICE,” Trump continued.
The Riyadh airport was struck in a series of missile and drone attacks over the weekend, causing at least 14 deaths and hundreds of other injuries. The attacks caused international and domestic oil prices to increase by around 2%, with Brent crude closing at more than $106 a barrel yesterday.
Just after 2 p.m. EDT, Brent dropped 0.83% and was selling at $105.76 a barrel. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate rose by 0.42%, priced at $94.10 a barrel.
EXPANSION OF A TEXAS REFINERY: Vice President JD Vance announced this afternoon that the administration is invoking the Defense Production Act to expand the Delek oil refinery in Tyler, Texas.
“We want millions of gallons of commercial grade and military spec fuel to come out of this refinery, in addition to what it’s already producing,” Vance said, while campaigning for Ken Paxton and other Republican candidates in the state.
“What that means for you and your families is lower costs to fly from one place to another. It means lower costs to drive your car into work every single day,” Vance continued. “It means a more reliable energy supply, but also a stronger national defense, and it will also mean hundreds of good-paying new jobs.”
You may have noticed that over the last few months, Trump administration officials have claimed that strain on global oil markets isn’t due to lower flows of product through the Middle East, but rather the decline in refining capacity worldwide. Trump and his cabinet members have blamed Ukraine for attacking Russian refineries.
Expanding the Texas refinery will not provide any immediate relief to higher gasoline and diesel prices, as it can take at least three years to significantly expand an existing facility.
Read more of the vice president’s remarks from the Examiner’s Christian Datoc here.
RHODE ISLAND WIND FARM UNDER THREAT AGAIN: The Trump administration is yet again attempting to kill the Revolution Wind farm located off the coast of Rhode Island, which completed construction last month and has been generating electricity since earlier this year.
A court filing reviewed by Bloomberg reveals that the Department of Justice has asked a federal court to remand the Department of the Interior’s approval of a construction and operations plan for the project. Interior has reportedly agreed with the request, saying it is necessary in order to “reevaluate its compliance with the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.”
Revolution Wind’s construction and operations plan was approved by the Biden administration in 2023. At its peak, the project is expected to produce around 704 megawatts, enough to power more than 350,000 homes. The first turbine was installed in September 2024 and the last was installed one month ago.
Some background: The project has been subject to the ire of Trump for over a year. In August of last year, the administration attempted to block the Rhode Island wind farm via a stop-work order, accusing developers of rushing through the permitting process and failing to reach an agreement with the War Department over national security concerns. The order was later overturned in federal court.
The administration attempted to stop construction again last December, halting offshore leases for Revolution Wind and four other under-construction offshore wind farms. In January, a federal judge allowed the project to continue.
SIX MORE REPUBLICANS SPEAK OUT AGAINST TRUMP’S RUSSIA DIESEL DEAL: Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Alan Armstrong of Oklahoma, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and John Cornyn of Texas sent a letter to the president asking him to to cancel his deal with Russia to supply the world with diesel.
They argued that it would provide Russian President Vladimir Putin with “more fuel to finance his war machine and enables Russia to continue its brutal attacks on Ukrainian civilians.”
The lawmakers added that the deal would offer “limited to no relief to American consumers.”
GOP senators were joined by Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Chris Coons of Delaware, and Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed of Rhode Island.
EPA PROPOSES REALLOCATING RENEWABLE FUEL OBLIGATIONS: The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard “Set 2” after exempting more small refineries than expected.
The RFS is a program under the Clean Air Act that requires a certain amount of renewable fuel to be blended into transportation fuel to reduce emissions. The agency typically issues RFS rules in multi-year sets. The agency earlier this year finalized RFS “Set 2” requirements for years 2026 and 2027.
However, when promulgating the rule, the agency granted more exemptions to small refineries than anticipated for their 2025 renewable fuel obligations. The EPA exempted renewable fuel obligations for 29 small refineries that argued the requirements would cause economic hardship.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin today announced in Iowa that the agency is proposing to reallocate 100% of those waived renewable fuel obligations to future years. The agency has proposed splitting the requirements between 2026 and 2027 or reallocating the full amount to 2027.
The EPA will take public comments on the proposal until Dec. 4. Farmers and renewable fuel groups argued that the additional exemptions reduced demand for ethanol fuel produced in the agriculture sector.
In a statement, Renewable Fuels Association president and CEO Geoff Cooper said, “While we believe most of the exemptions were unjustified, EPA’s reallocation plan—if finalized as proposed—will help offset the demand loss for ethanol producers and farmers.”
ICYMI – TOTALENERGIES TO EXPAND U.S. SOLAR: TotalEnergies yesterday entered into a joint venture with private equity giant KKR to add 700 megawatts of solar to its portfolio of 1.4 gigawatts.
The $1.2 billion deal includes three utility-scale solar assets in Texas and Ohio that are expected to reach commercial operation in the first quarter of 2027.
The electricity produced by these solar farms is already sold to third parties or will be marketed by TotalEnergies.
RUNDOWN
High Country News Watersheds near Río Frijoles bear the brunt of wildfire
Reuters As diesel prices soar, Bolivian farmer turns trash into tractor fuel
New York Times Fewer Buyers for Timber on Federal Land Raises Risk of Wildfires
Continue reading...
[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
