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WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Monday, readers! Looking for an excuse to play hooky tomorrow? The National Park Service is holding a fee-free day for all national parks across the U.S. in honor of Teddy Roosevelt’s birthday.
In today’s newsletter, we take a look at the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest efforts to reduce “forever chemicals” contamination.
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.
EPA LAUNCHES NEW EFFORTS TO TACKLE ‘FOREVER CHEMICALS’:
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin unveiled a new initiative in Colorado to boost technologies to address PFAS contamination in the environment.
Zeldin made the announcement today in Commerce City alongside Republican Rep. Gabe Evans. Zeldin has been traveling to key battleground states and districts in the lead-up to the November midterm elections.
The agency’s new PFAS Technology Evaluation, Coordination, Innovation, and Harmonization strategy would prioritize research and development of emerging technologies to treat PFAS contamination.
As a reminder, PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, can be found in consumer products such as clothing, kitchenware, cosmetics, and more. Some research suggests that PFAS exposure can cause cancer or harm victims’ reproductive systems. They are also referred to as “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down in the environment.
The initiative: The EPA would partner with industry, states, local government, and universities to test methods to remove PFAS from water systems. The agency highlighted two technologies: foam fractionation, which separates PFAS from water, and supercritical water oxidation, which uses high temperatures and pressure to break down contaminants.
They plan to conduct pilot-scale initiatives at sites with PFAS, such as Superfund sites and military facilities, to identify the effectiveness of these technologies. The agency will also provide grants for research related to breaking down PFAS.
PFAS level higher than reported? The EPA’s announcement comes as a report published Friday found that the estimated PFAS concentration in drinking water could be higher than levels reported in federal monitoring data.
Cell Reports Sustainability reported that federal data often classifies concentrations as “below the laboratory reporting limit.” It noted that treating these results as zero can underestimate how often these contaminants occur at low levels in drinking water.
The study’s author, Gehendra Kharel, told Inside Climate News that about 98% of the nearly 1.86 million individual PFAS test results in the EPA’s January 2026 data fell below reporting limits.
These results don’t provide exact concentrations, Kharel said, but offer important information that PFAS contamination of drinking water is more prevalent than generally acknowledged.
The Biden administration established the first-ever limit on PFAS in drinking water. However, in May, the Trump EPA proposed to revisit and rescind some of those limits, arguing that the previous administration failed to follow statutory requirements when setting limits on four types of PFAS.
All the rest:
OIL SEES SOME RELIEF, BUT REMAINS ABOVE $100: The week has kicked off with slightly lower oil prices, as investors reacted to the news that Saudi Arabia’s defense minister met today with Iranian leaders. However, traders appear to still be wary of the Middle Eastern conflict escalating once again, as prices are staying above the $100 threshold.
Just before 3 p.m. EDT, international benchmark Brent crude dropped 0.87% and was selling at $115.71 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate also fell 1.41%, priced at $101.83 a barrel.
“At its core, this is a binary outcome: war, or no war, and the market has not resolved which way it falls,” Sparta Commodities analyst Aaron Kildow said in a note obtained by the Wall Street Journal.
HOW MUCH OIL IS LEFT IN RESERVES: The Trump administration is continuing to release crude oil from the nation’s emergency reserves as part of its spring commitment to release around 172 million barrels in an effort to lower oil and gas prices.
As of the end of last week, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve held about 282.6 million barrels of oil, the lowest amount since October 1982, according to data from the Department of Energy.
The large drawdown was first announced in March, in coordination with similar reserve releases by the International Energy Agency and its members. Between March and September, the U.S. released more than 133 million barrels under exchange agreements, requiring the companies receiving the oil to replace the amount awarded entirely and add 25% more barrels to the reserve.
A NEW REPORT ON TRUMP’S OIL AND GAS HOLDINGS: A new report from Democrats on the Congressional Joint Economic Committee asserts that President Donald Trump’s personal stocks in oil and gas companies have soared over the last year by tens of millions of dollars.
The report, based on the president’s financial filings and first obtained by CBS News, found that Trump’s oil and gas holdings are worth between $22.5 million and $81.6 million. At the end of last year, these stocks were worth between $12.6 million and $46 million.
Trump’s stocks have increased in value by an average of 43% over the last year, according to the report. The number of stocks has also increased, with the report finding Trump purchased between $4.7 million and $17.5 million in oil and gas stocks between March and August. In the same time frame, Trump reportedly sold between $2 million and $5.4 million in oil and gas stocks.
The defense: The White House said that Trump does not directly manage his stock and bond portfolio, saying it is “independently managed by third-party financial institutions,” according to CBS News.
“Neither President Trump nor any member of his family has any ability to direct, influence, or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested or when investments are bought or sold,” spokesman Davis Ingle told the outlet. “All investment decisions are made entirely by independent managers. There are no conflicts of interest.”
LAWMAKERS SAY THEY MAY INVESTIGATE BANKS AND PORTS FOR RUSSIAN DIESEL IMPORTS: Democrats and Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina may investigate banks and ports regarding imports of Russian diesel.
Lawmakers sent letters to major banks and U.S. port authorities, warning that any importation of Russian diesel into the U.S. “raises significant legal questions and may be subject to legal action, as well as congressional investigations.” They added that the import of Russian diesel also raises national security concerns.
The lawmakers urged the banks and ports “not to facilitate the purchase, transportation, importation, unloading, storage, financing, or distribution of Russian-origin diesel in the United States, or any other transaction involving Russian diesel…”
In the letter, the lawmakers also asked banks and ports to preserve all records relating to any proposed or actual importation of Russian diesel. The letter comes as a vessel of Russian diesel is currently making its way to New York as part of the president’s deal with the Kremlin. The diesel is expected to arrive in New York by Nov. 7.
EU TAKES A PAGE OUT OF TRUMP’S CRITICAL MINERALS PLAYBOOK: Members of the European Parliament voted last week to establish an agency with the power to take stakes in raw material companies to safeguard that supply chain, the Financial Times reports.
Mohammed Chahim, the social democratic Dutch lawmaker leading the proposal, said that the measure is aimed at reducing Europe’s reliance on China for minerals needed for batteries and green technologies.
The EU’s Critical Raw Materials Centre would be funded with around €2 billion under its next-long term budget. It is modeled after Japan’s Organization for Metals and Energy Security, aimed at securing a stable and reliable supply of minerals and other essential commodities.
HASTA LA FISSION, BABY! Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is pushing the Golden State to lift its longstanding moratorium on nuclear energy.
During a recent interview with the Financial Times, Schwarzenegger said nuclear power is necessary if California wishes to achieve its climate change goals and become carbon-neutral by 2045.
“We need to build nuclear plants in California. There’s no two ways about that,” said Schwarzenegger, a long-time advocate for clean energy.
California policymakers have indicated interest in reconsidering nuclear power, but the state’s 50-year ban on new licensing and construction remains in place. As written, the 1976 moratorium will stay in effect until the federal government establishes a permanent solution for radioactive waste disposal.
What to expect with the next governor: Xavier Becerra, the front-runner to be the next governor of California, has stayed away from spelling out a clear stance on developing new nuclear power.
Becerra has said he would support extending the lifespan of the only existing nuclear plant in the state, Diablo Canyon, but added that safety must come first.
You can read more about where Becerra stands on nuclear power, and what his opponent Steve Hilton believes in this August article from Callie.
ICYMI – TRUMP BRAGS ABOUT OIL AND GAS PROFITS DRIVEN BY IRAN WAR: If you remember, in August, Trump publicly criticized oil and gas majors including Chevron and Exxon Mobil for profiting off high oil and gas prices driven up by the war in Iran. As of this weekend, however, the president has changed his tune and is now bragging about how much money the fossil fuel industry is making off the conflict.
From this weekend: During a campaign rally in Georgia Saturday night, Trump again said that oil prices would be “falling dramatically in a short period of time” as soon as the war in Iran ends. Until then, Trump said, “the United States oil and gas business is making hundreds of billions of dollars.”
The president said the markets are turning to producers and refiners in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and elsewhere in the U.S. for oil. And combined with oil profits associated with increased production in Venezuela and potentially Greenland, Trump said, “we’re making hundreds and hundreds of billions, trillions of dollars.”
Trump indicated that advisors did not want him to tout the surge in oil and gas profits, saying, “my people said, ‘Please don’t mention that sir because people are paying a little higher.’”
But Trump insisted that oil and gas prices will “come way down.”
A quick reminder: At the end of summer, Trump lambasted oil majors Chevron and Exxon for profiting off the war in Iran, saying the companies were “making too much money.”
“Chevron, too much money. Exxon Mobil, too much money,” he said. “They’re going to give some of that back to the public and they better cut the retail prices, the consumer price.”
His comments came as oil prices were sitting above $90 a barrel, and gasoline averaging around $4.10 per gallon. The remarks also coincided with Chevron and Exxon’s second-quarter earnings reports. At the time, Chevron reported its earnings soared nearly 400%, while Exxon’s profits doubled. The companies are expected to release their third-quarter earnings reports on Friday.
A LOOK AHEAD:
Oct. 26 – 27 HData’s Let’s Go! 2026 energy conference is taking place in Denver, Colorado.
Oct. 27 The World Resources Institute is holding a webinar titled “The State of Forests and Land.”
Oct. 27 The Henry L. Stimson Center is hosting an event exploring the impact of unregulated mining along rivers in mainland Southeast Asia, focusing on contamination and pollution caused by the mining boom.
Oct. 27 – 29 The PowerUp Data Centers – Investment Summit is being held in McLean, Virginia.
Oct. 28 The Electrification Coalition is holding a quarterly electric vehicle market insights webinar.
Oct. 31 Happy Halloween!
Nov. 1 is Dia de los Muertos.
RUNDOWN
WHYY News Hundreds of rain gardens and ‘green’ projects later, what is Philly’s next plan to stop raw sewage from spilling into local waterways?
Politico ‘We don’t need 50 more data centers.’ Arizona AG declares war on AI.
The Guardian Sunlight at night: US startup’s demonstration of lighting Earth from space draws criticism
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
