WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Happy New Year, Daily on Energy readers! 🎆 Our team hopes you had a very restful and joy-filled holiday season with family and friends, and are feeling ready to dive right back into the “real world.”
🛢️And speaking of, it’s all about oil in today’s newsletter as we follow the aftermath of the removal of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro on Saturday. We have everything you need to know about the impact on prices, the United States’ history of drilling in the country, and how Venezuela’s crude reserves may have helped greenlight the operation🛢️.
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Plus, Congress is rushing to avoid another shutdown at the end of the month. House lawmakers have released three final, bipartisan bills to fund the Interior and Energy Departments as well as the Environmental Protection Agency 💲. To keep Democrats on board, the spending bills don’t include some of the drastic cuts requested by the Trump administration. Keep reading to find out more.
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.
VENEZUELA WATCH – ALL ABOUT THE OIL: The U.S. military captured former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro from Caracas on Saturday and, while he faces criminal charges of narco-terrorism, it was made clear over the weekend that the country’s oil reserves played a role in President Donald Trump’s decision to move forward with the operation.
On Saturday, Trump repeatedly pointed to Venezuela’s oil riches, telling reporters that the U.S. will be “taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground.”
“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” Trump said.
His emphasis on the opportunity for increased oil production comes as Trump has attempted to fulfill his “drill, baby, drill” agenda in the U.S., which some producers say is stalled by low prices and supply chain constraints.
Trump faces an uphill climb to revitalize Venezuela’s oil industry, which has seen steady drops in production over the last few decades. Still, Trump projected confidence over the weekend that oil majors would invest “billions” for new production.
He even claimed that oil majors were aware of the administration’s operation to seize Maduro, which Congress was not even notified of in advance. On Sunday, Trump told reporters that he spoke to oil companies “before and after” the operation.
This has since been disputed by some industry sources, with four oil industry executives familiar with the matter telling Reuters that the administration did not consult with companies like Exxon, ConocoPhillips, or Chevron. The sources did say that meetings are planned for later this week.
For more on the criminal case against Maduro, you can read more from the Examiner’s Kaelan Deese here.
Something to watch: The U.S. military has plans to interdict a sanctioned oil tanker known for carrying Venezuelan crude, CBS News now reports. Two U.S. officials told the outlet that the military has been tracking the vessel, known as the Marinera and plans to seize the ship.
The Marinera, formerly known as Bella 1, could be seized in a similar operation to the one seen last month involving the crude tanker known as The Skipper. The operation could happen as soon as this week, CBS News reported.
Oil prices and stocks up: Oil prices rose today as traders digested the effects of the strike on the market. West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude prices were both up by a dollar, or about 1.6%-1.7%, to roughly $58 and $62, respectively, by midafternoon.
Meanwhile, stocks for U.S. oil producers were up. Chevron led the way with gains of more than 4%. Chevron is the only U.S. firm permitted to export crude oil from Venezuela at the moment, and it also has major interests in neighboring Guyana, which now faces a much reduced threat from Venezuela.
ExxonMobil was up more than 2% and ConocoPhillips was up more than 3%.
The historical background: Trump has justified the capture of Maduro in part by claiming that Venezuela stole from U.S. oil producers.
Joe and Callie have a story looking at the basis for those claims and the history of U.S. oil companies in Venezuela here. In one sentence, American oil firms have faced challenging conditions and, arguably, expropriations over the decades.
Former Chevron executive answering Trump’s call to invest: Ali Moshiri, the former president of Chevron Africa-Latin America, said that he is raising $2 billion for Venezuelan oil projects, a response to Trump’s call for American companies to invest in the country’s oil industry.
Moshiri, now the head of Amos Global Energy Management, told the Financial Times that he has already identified assets for purchase. “I’ve had a dozen calls over the past 24 hours from potential investors. Interest in Venezuela has gone from zero to 99 per cent,” he said.
ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT SPENDING BILLS UNVEILED: New, bipartisan spending bills for the Interior Department, EPA, and Energy Department were released today, as House lawmakers rush to avoid another government shutdown at the end of the month.
The package of the three final budget bills is expected to go before the House Rules Committee tomorrow and could see a vote on the House floor later in the week.
In total, the “minibus” provides $63.3 billion for DOE, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and several other energy-related agencies and programs.
It also provides $38.6 billion for the Interior Department, EPA, Forest Service, and more. Additionally, the package would provide $6.2 billion for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The text has been touted by both Republicans and Democrats, as it rejects severe cuts previously proposed by the Trump administration such as zeroing out funding for solar, wind and hydrogen research programs as well as dramatic cuts to environmental justice programs.
“There is not a single Republican poison pill provision in this bill,” House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut said. “Despite their efforts to include over 140 hyper-partisan line items that would have weakened gun safety regulations, expanded oil and gas leasing on federal land, diminished investments in renewable energy, and imposed cruel culture-war constraints on LGBTQ+ Americans, none of these provisions was ultimately included.”
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AWARDS $2.7B FOR URANIUM ENRICHMENT: The Department of Energy announced three awards of $900 million to domestic firms to produce enriched uranium used in nuclear power, as part of a larger effort to wean the country off Russian imports.
The awards to create domestic capacity to produce High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) will go to American Centrifuge Operating, a subsidiary of Centrus; General Matter, which is backed by Peter Thiel, and Orano Federal Services.
DOE also awarded an additional $28 million to Global Laser Enrichment.
The agency said the awards would be given via a “strict milestone approach.”
NEW YEAR FOR NEW NUCLEAR: While we’re just five days into 2026, it’s clear nuclear energy isn’t going anywhere. Holtec International, which is on track to reopen the first decommissioned nuclear plant in the U.S. this year, has reached a major milestone for developing advanced small modular reactors in western Michigan.
Quick reminder: Holtec is in the process of reopening the Palisades Nuclear Plant along the shore of Lake Michigan. Once that is completed, Holtec is planning to build several SMRs on the same site. These SMRs, named Pioneer 1 and 2, would have a capacity of around 300 megawatts.
What’s new: There are currently no large-scale commercial SMRs in operation or under construction in the U.S., but that could soon change, as Holtec has submitted its first major licensing application for the project.
The utility confirmed today that it submitted the first part of its construction permit application, requesting a limited work authorization and multiple exemptions to authorize some construction activities. Holtec has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to make a decision by Dec. 31 of this year.
“This is a monumental day for the Holtec SMR-300 project, this culminates nearly 15 years of hard work and precision execution to make the deployment of new nuclear in the United States a reality,” Holtec CEO Kris Singh said in a statement.
ICYMI – OFFSHORE WIND DEVELOPERS CHALLENGE TRUMP IN COURT…AGAIN: Two of the largest offshore wind developers in the world are again challenging Trump’s crackdown on the industry in court, taking aim at the administration’s decision to suspense leases of five major offshore wind projects along the East Coast.
The details: On Friday, Danish developer Ørsted said that it, alongside its project partner Skyborn Renewables, filed a complaint against the administration in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia over the actions taken against its Revolution Wind project in Rhode Island.
Norwegian offshore wind developer Equinor also announced Friday that it filed a civil suit in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia challenging the administration over its treatment of its Empire Wind project in New York.
Both projects were stalled by the Trump administration in December when the Interior Department paused offshore leases for these nearly complete projects, along with three others. The move was the latest attempt from the administration to block the development of offshore wind, while getting around past legal challenges and court losses faced last year.
Empire Wind is estimated to be more than 60% complete, while Revolution Wind is over 80% complete.
Key quote: “While Empire continues to work closely with Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the other relevant authorities to find a prompt resolution to the matter, the order is in Equinor’s view unlawful and threatens the progress of ongoing work with significant implications for the project,” Equinor said in a release Friday.
Read more from Callie here.
GERMAN AUTHORITIES BLAME LEFTWING EXTREMISTS FOR BERLIN OUTAGES: Authorities are blaming leftwing activists for outages in Berlin that have left 45,000 households without power in the middle of freezing weather.
“[S]uspected leftwing extremists knowingly put human lives at risk, especially those of patients in hospitals, elderly people, children and families,” Berlin mayor Kai Wegner said, according to the Financial Times.
A far-left group known as Vulkangruppe has claimed responsibility for the attack, which involved a fire damaging a power and heating station.
Berlin authorities also said that a September outage was caused by arson.
A LOOK AHEAD:
Jan. 7 The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Energy is hosting a hearing titled “American Energy Dominance: Dawn of the New Nuclear Era.”
Jan. 7 The U.S. Chamber is holding a legislative day of action event on the Hill focused on permitting, permitting, and permitting.
Jan. 7 The Electrification Coalition is hosting a webinar taking a closer look at the latest market data for electric vehicles.
Jan. 8 The House Natural Resources subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries is holding an oversight hearing titled “Fix Our Forests for Affordable and Reliable Water and Power Supplies.”
Jan. 8 The Center for Strategic and International Studies is hosting a discussion on energy trends across the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation region, featuring the latest results from the 9th outlook report from the Asia Pacific Energy Research Centre.
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