WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Tuesday, readers! The Bureau of Land Management’s bat beauty contest will return this Saturday, in which the public will be able to vote on the best-looking bat. The BLM will be posting photos of the competitors on its social media profile, with the winner being announced on Halloween!
President Donald Trump announced billions of dollars in aid to farmers facing record-high diesel prices. We spoke with experts about how much it might help. Check it out below.
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.
TRUMP’S FARM AID MAY FALL SHORT OF COVERING RISING DIESEL COSTS:
The Trump administration is offering billions of dollars in farmer relief for high diesel costs, but it may not directly compensate farmers for what they are paying at the pump.
David Ortega, professor in food economics at Michigan State University, told Maydeen that the $8 billion Harvest Fuel Relief Program does not explicitly state that it would reimburse farmers for their high fuel costs.
Instead, the Department of Agriculture noted that its Farm Service Agency would use economic modeling to pay out money to farmers proportionally based on losses they are expected to suffer on their crops.
“There’s no mention of fuel in any of this,” Ortega said.
“It’s not a reimbursement for high diesel prices, and so it’s not really going to match what any individual producer actually paid for at the diesel pump,” he said. “So some of them might be overpaid, others may be underpaid.”
GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan wrote that farmers, truckers, and construction workers will have spent $55 billion more on diesel since March 1st.
He noted that any relief will likely impact farmers in the top farming and diesel states, including Texas, Iowa, and California.
Ortega said that farmers just want “more certainty” when it comes to export markets, trade, and conflicts abroad.
“You can’t fault farmers for taking these payments because they are getting squeezed,” Ortega said.
He added that it is essential to address the root cause of high diesel prices, which means ending the war in the Middle East, improving refiner capacity, and providing greater certainty on trade policy.
The president announced USDA’s Harvest Fuel Relief Program at a campaign rally in Kansas just two weeks away from midterm elections.
The administration has recently taken several actions to try to lower diesel prices ahead of the election. Those steps include allowing for greater access to tax-exempt dyed diesel, pressing Europe to release emergency stock, and reaching a deal with Russia to supply fuel to the international markets.
However, Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, told Maydeen that prices will remain high because none of the administration’s steps actually increase the supply of diesel fuel from refineries around the world.
Reuters reported today that the Department of Energy has started to work with refiners on ways to produce more diesel in order to curb prices.
DOE official Kyle Haustveit told a conference in Pennsylvania that “We are working with our friends… to find new and innovative ways to get more throughput” of the fuel through refineries.
As of today, the national average price for diesel sits at $6.31 per gallon.
De Haan said that Americans have now cumulatively spent $138.8 billion more on gasoline and diesel since March 1st.
All the rest:
MORE NUANCE FROM GREEN GROUPS ON PERMITTING: The Natural Resource Defense Council and Earthjustice, two major environmental organizations, have offered a bit more of an explanation as to why they are calling for significant changes to the Senate’s bipartisan permitting reform bill, even as they praise portions of the legislation.
In the last few weeks, the NRDC and Earthjustice have avoided signing on to letters sent to members of Congress that lambaste the permitting bill (BAAJA) as a whole. The green groups have also avoided clearly endorsing the package.
Yesterday, the NRDC released a broader analysis of the more than 400-page bill, saying it “combines critically important transmission and grid reforms with significant and concerning changes to federal environmental laws, permitting standards, and judicial remedies. ”
The NRDC specifically praised measures of the bill that would make it easier to build out the U.S. electrical grid and connect renewable energy resources to existing transmission infrastructure. The group called the proposed changes “needed and overdue.”
However, the group said there are other measures that are “deeply flawed” and need to be changed, including those regarding permit certainty, limited environmental reviews, the Clean Water Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, and the Endangered Species Act.
In its assessment, the NRDC did not take a formal position on whether it would endorse the bill if any or all of those changes were made, but said it would take a position before a floor vote.
Today, Earthjustice released its overarching review of the BAAJA. Like the NRDC, Earthjustice did not detail its official position regarding the legislation, but instead chose to highlight “very positive provisions” as well as those that would “limit the ability of future administrations to craft sound policy.”
Similarly, Earthjustice described measures regarding transmission and grid as “positive,” and criticized those tackling project certainty, the National Environmental Policy Act, the NHPA, ESA, and CWA.
“For those reasons and others, nothing in this analysis reflects a final or binding view of Earthjustice or its clients, particularly for purposes of future litigation,” the group said.
U.K. EXPECTED TO ALLOW NORTH SEA DRILLING PROJECT TO ADVANCE: The United Kingdom is expected to allow a proposed gas drilling project in the North Sea to move forward this week, a major reversal in the country’s climate change policy, which previously banned fossil fuel drilling in the region.
The project, Jackdaw, is one of two major proposed drilling projects off the coast of Scotland that the fossil fuel industry has been pressuring Prime Minister Andy Burnham to approve. The two projects, Jackdaw and Rosebank, saw their license approvals overturned by the Court of Session in Edinburgh in early 2025.
The court said these approvals, issued in 2022 and 2023, were unlawful and failed to fully assess the environmental impacts of the projects – such as the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the burning of any oil and gas produced.
Burnham has faced intense pressure from the oil and gas industry as well as the Trump administration to allow these projects to move forward, and even overturn the U.K. drilling ban for the North Sea. This ban specifically applies to new oil and gas drilling licenses.
The U.K. government is expected to approve Jackdaw for a second time as soon as tomorrow, according to Politico. We’ll be sure to provide all the latest for you this week.
MORE FUNDING FOR THE GRID: The Department of Energy is investing nearly another $1 billion for grid resiliency programs across the country, with the funds going toward modernizing infrastructure and lowering electricity costs.
The agency said earlier today that it has approved $967 million in additional funding for states, territories and tribes through its Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grant program (info here, if you’re interested).
If you forgot: The Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grant program was first established under the Biden administration, through the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The law authorized up to $2.3 billion for the program, spread over five years.
STRAIT OF HORMUZ MAY BECOME ‘REDUNDANT’ AS NATIONS LOOK FOR ALTERNATIVE ROUTES: The months-long disruption of oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz has been forcing countries reliant on exports from the Persian Gulf to secure oil through different routes.
Before the war, roughly 20% of the global oil trade passed through the Strait of Hormuz. Transit disruptions have caused crude and petroleum product prices to surge. Even if pre-war levels resume long-term, one bank is now estimating that the strait will not be relied on as heavily as before, because of the investments being made now to get around the waterway.
“We do see this region being able to recover and then continue growing. It will mean a lot of investment,” HSBC Group CEO George Elhedery said during an event in Dubai today, according to Reuters. “Of course, we do wish and hope to see a resolution to the conflict…But Hormuz, probably in five years’ time, may become redundant.”
Some investments we’re seeing: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are currently working to expand their pipeline network, in order to significantly increase their land-based export capacity for oil. In Saudi Arabia, state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco is seeking to raise its crude export capacity to as much as 10 million barrels per day by repurposing a domestic gas pipeline.
Iraq has also explored reviving an old pipeline that hasn’t been used in decades, which would allow the country to ship crude to Syria’s Mediterranean coast, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz. That project, however, is estimated to take at least four years to complete.
ICYMI – TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ‘CONVERTING’ SHADOW FLEET OF TANKERS: The Trump administration plans to use hundreds of sanctioned oil tankers to carry more crude through the Strait of Hormuz.
Yesterday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright offered the first public details on the government’s plan to convert part of the global “shadow” or “dark” fleet of tankers. The shadow fleet is the name given to the hundreds, if not thousands, of illegal tankers that Iran, Russia, and Venezuela operate in trying to evade Western sanctions and legal requirements.
The exact number of ships currently part of this fleet is unknown, but during a Citadel Securities event in New York, Wright estimated there are about 1,600 of these vessels transporting oil and other commodities in violation of Western sanctions.
These tankers are often older and beyond their expected shelf life, with crews attempting to distort information about their location, activity, where they’re coming from, and their intended port.
Wright said the administration is now working with investors who buy these older ships and refurbish them, so they can be used to carry non-sanctioned products.
“We’re going to move some of the ships from what I call the ‘bad-guy fleet’ to the ‘good-guy fleet,’” Wright told Bloomberg during the event. “They will not carry sanctioned oil anymore.”
He emphasized that this plan does not amount to the removal of sanctions. Instead, the U.S. is simply “converting dark tankers to legitimate tankers.”
PHILLIPS 66 BARS UNION WORKERS FROM NEW JERSEY REFINERY AFTER CONTRACT EXTENSION EXPIRED: Phillips 66 locked out union workers from its refinery in Linden, New Jersey, after a labor contract extension expired, Reuters reported.
The facility produces about 275,000 barrels per day. The refinery said in a statement that the contract extension covering union-represented employees at Phillips 66 Bayway Refinery and Linden Terminal expired at 4 p.m. Eastern yesterday.
“In the absence of a further extension and to meet our commitment to safe and reliable operations, Phillips 66 has now locked out union-represented employees at those facilities,” the company said.
Phillips said it plans to maintain operations at the Bayway Refinery and Linden Terminal with trained and qualified personnel.
RUNDOWN
Reuters How (and why) we developed ‘The Age of Heat Storms’
Inside Climate News With a Trifecta, Pennsylvania Democrats Would Pass Energy Reforms and Rein in Data Centers
Axios How the energy crisis could become a food security crisis
Associated Press Can larger batteries safely power residential buildings? A project in New York aims to show how
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
