WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Thursday, readers! As the government shutdown continues in Washington, D.C., we are taking a look at new developments on Chinese rare earths.
Meanwhile, with the help of our editor Joe Lawler, we dive into the latest on U.S. sanctions on several oil markets.
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.
CHINA TIGHTENS GRIP ON RARE EARTHS: China announced today it would impose stricter export controls on rare earths, posing a risk to U.S. energy and artificial intelligence supply chains.
The Ministry of Commerce said that it had implemented additional export restrictions to “safeguard national security and interests.”
China said technologies related to “rare earth mining, smelting, separation, metal smelting, manufacturing of magnetic materials, and recycling and utilization of rare earth secondary resources and their carriers” cannot be exported without permission.
The restrictions could cause problems for key sectors like energy and defense, as the U.S. relies heavily on Chinese rare earths. The Trump administration has sought to bolster its domestic supply chain of rare earths through policy, regulations, and unusual deals, such as the one with rare earth producer MP Materials.
The announcement also comes as lawmakers earlier this week called for “dramatically” expanding countrywide restrictions on chipmaking equipment from China after a report revealed Beijing purchased $38 billion in advanced gear last year.
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are planning to meet in South Korea at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit later this month.
Read more by Maydeen here.
ORSTED TO CUT 2,000 JOBS AS TRUMP CRACKS DOWN ON WIND: Wind energy giant Orsted said today that it plans to reduce its workforce by a quarter, or 2,000 jobs, by the end of 2027, CNBC reports.
The company said that it would be refocusing its business on Europe, where it does not face the same policy headwinds that it does in the U.S.
“This is a necessary consequence of our decision to focus our business and the fact that we’ll be finalising our large construction portfolio in the coming years – which is why we’ll need fewer employees,” CEO Rasmus Errboe said in a statement.
The company has been caught up in the Trump administration’s efforts to stymie the development of offshore wind. The Interior Department ordered a stop to work on its Revolution Wind offshore wind farm off Rhode Island, a project that was 80% completed (a judge later said the project could continue).
Related: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum tweeted this morning that the agency has “canceled reckless offshore wind leases, eliminated subsidies & preferential treatment for unreliable energy,” and that the government shutdown has to end so that the work can continue.
RUSSIA ATTACKS SHRINK UKRAINE NATURAL GAS SUPPLY BY MORE THAN HALF: A Russian attack earlier this month targeting the Kharkiv and Poltava regions took out nearly 60% of the country’s natural gas production, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.
Bloomberg said the attack will likely force Ukraine to spend $2.2 billion on fuel imports to survive the upcoming winter. It added that, if Russian strikes continue, Ukraine will need to purchase about 4.4 billion cubic meters of gas by the end of March, which is equivalent to 20% of the country’s annual consumption.
“Russia will do everything to prevent us from extracting our gas,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday. “They will do everything. It will be difficult to protect all this. The task is to have money to import gas so that people have gas.”
Ukraine has urged the Group of Seven nations to help repair its energy system, as gas is essential in the brutal winter.
TREASURY ADDS IRAN SANCTIONS: The Treasury Department today has imposed sanctions on 50 individuals, entities, and vessels that have helped Iran’s oil and petrochemical trade.
The department said the sanctions targeted hundreds of millions of dollars of Iranian liquefied petroleum gas and nearly two dozen shadow fleet vessels.
Those sanctions were imposed on China’s Shandong Jincheng Petrochemical Group and Rizhao Shihua Crude Oil Terminal, claiming they accepted Iran’s “shadow fleet vessels.”
“The Treasury Department is degrading Iran’s cash flow by dismantling key elements of Iran’s energy export machine,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Under President Trump, this administration is disrupting the regime’s ability to fund terrorist groups that threaten the United States.”
The sanctions are the latest in a series imposed by the Trump administration targeting China-based refineries to stop them from buying energy from Iran.
More sanctions: The U.S. today has imposed sanctions on the Russian-controlled Serbian oil and gas supply company NIS.
According to Reuters, Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic said in a televised speech, “These are extremely severe consequences for our entire country. It’s not just about the functioning of one company.”
The company NIS is Serbia’s main oil supplier and is owned by Russia’s Gazprom. The U.S. initially placed sanctions on the refinery in January in response to the war in Ukraine, but the Trump administration granted a temporary waiver.
The waiver expired on Wednesday and the company was not given an extension.
Other sanctions news: Shell and the government of Trinidad and Tobago have been given a sanctions waiver to develop an offshore gas field in Venezuela meant to bolster the supply to Trinidad, Reuters reports.
FERRARI HALVES ELECTRIC VEHICLE PRODUCTION GOALS: The Italian luxury automaker Ferrari halved its target for electric vehicle production today as part of disappointing guidance that sent its shares down 15%, according to the Financial Times.
It said that 20% of its products would be EVs by 2030, down from a 40% target announced three years ago.
It also unveiled some of the technical details for its planned EV, the Elettrica, which InsideEVs describes as having “four electric motors producing 1,000-plus horsepower, four-wheel steering, 48-volt active suspension and a purpose-built 800-volt architecture.”
RUNDOWN
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