WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Wednesday, readers! Feeling tired today? If you stayed up to watch the longest-ever State of the Union address, you’re not alone – we are right there with you. 😴 But with that being said, Callie and Maydeen break down key takeaways from the president’s speech last night.
We also have an exclusive poll that takes a closer look at how Americans are feeling about electricity prices, with many expressing concerns about rising prices. ⚡🔌💰
In other news, the Department of Energy has announced its largest loan package ever, to go toward building and upgrading several gigawatts of power on grids in the South 🍑🐊.
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.
TAKEAWAYS FROM THE STATE OF THE UNION: President Donald Trump set the record for the longest State of the Union last night with his 108-minute address. While the president hit on the economy, crime, and immigration throughout the speech, his remarks on energy were few and far between. Here’s our takeaways:
Data center deals: As expected, Trump unveiled “rate payer protection pledges” between his administration and data center developers, requiring the Big Tech firms to pay higher electricity costs where their AI facilities are being built.
“We’re telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs,” Trump said. “They can build their own power plants as part of their factory so that no one’s prices will go up, and in many cases, prices of electricity will go down for the community.”
He did not offer any specific details on what firms have already agreed to the pledge.
Earlier this morning, Energy Secretary Chris Wright confirmed that the administration has been in direct dialogue with “all” data center developers. He also did not name names, but said “all of the hyperscalers are on board,” pointing to announcements from firms like Microsoft and Google.
“Every name you know that’s developing a data center has been in a dialogue with us,” and they understand their interests are aligned with ours,” Wright told Callie during a briefing with media.
Little mention of electricity prices: Trump’s only direct mention of rising electricity prices came during his announcement on the data center deal. He said that the agreements would lower electricity prices as hyperscalers add more generation to the grid. But there were no further policy ideas on how to address affordability and high electricity bills.
Instead, Trump appeared to downplay the broader affordability crisis, saying “the roaring economy is roaring like never before.” Trump also said that energy prices are significantly down, saying “when they see energy going down to numbers like that, they cannot believe it. It’s like another big tax cut.”
Earlier this month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics did find that energy prices overall were slightly down in January year-over-year, dropping by just 0.1%. This is primarily driven by significant declines in gasoline and oil prices. However, electricity and utility gas service prices continue to soar, rising by 6.8% and 9.8% respectively.
Gas prices get the focus: Lowering gas prices has been one of the focal points of the Trump administration, as the president has vowed to get prices under $2.
The president said that in most state gas prices are $2.30 and in some places $1.99 a gallon. Although gas prices have declined, according to AAA, as of today there is no state that averages below $2.30.
Meanwhile, the administration has also sought to prop up domestic oil supply both at home and abroad as part of the “drill baby drill” agenda. The president said American oil production is up by more than 600,000 barrels a day, and the U.S. received more than 80 million barrels of oil from Venezuela.
The oil from Venezuela comes one month after the U.S. military captured and ousted former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and took control over the country’s oil supply.
“American natural gas production is at an all time high because I kept my promise to drill, baby, drill,” the president said.
EXCLUSIVE POLL – A CLOSER LOOK AT RISING ELECTRICITY PRICES: A new survey first obtained by Daily on Energy shows that most Americans are already feeling pressure on their electricity bills, with many others fearful that their bills will continue to rise.
The survey, conducted by Lot Sixteen and Mercury Analytics among 1,108 participants, found that 64% of participants have already seen recent increases in their electricity bills. The largest increase was seen among independent voters, 66% of whom reported their bills rising, followed by 65% of Democrats and 61% of Republicans.
While some have been quick to blame rising electricity prices on increased demand from data centers, the survey found that 45% of the bill hikes were attributed to external factors, such as inflation, weather, or state and federal policies. Roughly 15% blamed actions from local utilities, such as rate hikes or increased fees.
Out of those who haven’t seen higher bills, around 37% said they were concerned about future increases due to inflation, rising natural gas or coal prices, or unexpected fees.
When considering ways to tackle electricity affordability, the survey found that 55% of participants believe investing in modernizing the grid will help achieve long-term cost savings.
ENERGY DEPARTMENT UNVEILS LARGEST LOAN: The Department of Energy has finalized a $26.5 billion loan package to build and upgrade several gigawatts’ worth of power on electrical grids in the South, marking the largest loan in the agency’s history.
The details: The loan package will support two wholly owned subsidiaries of gas and electric utility Southern Company, and is expected to deliver over $7 billion in electricity cost savings across Georgia and Alabama.
The funds from the loans will go toward building or upgrading over 16 gigawatts of what the agency described as “firm reliable power,” including 5 gigawatts’ worth of new gas generation, 6 gigawatts’ worth of nuclear energy, renewables and capacity upgrades, one gigawatt in hydropower modernization, and 3.5 gigawatts worth of battery energy storage systems. The loans will also support over 1,300 miles of transmission and grid enhancement projects.
EDF director Greg Beard told reporters following the announcement that the funds will support hundreds of separate projects over the next eight years, supporting thousands of jobs.
“Each project will be individually reviewed by the EDF team at DOE to assure that the project dollars are going to result in lower cost for ratepayers, including projects related to hyper-scaler data centers,” Beard said.
Read more from Callie here.
Related: The Energy Department has also announced its intent to spend $171.5 million on expanding domestic geothermal energy.
The agency announced the funding opportunity this morning, saying the funds would go toward next-generation geothermal field-scale tests for both electricity generation and exploration drilling. There will be a total of six topics with varied levels of funding and awards anticipated as part of the opportunities.
Letters of Intent for the funding are due March 27, with full applications due April 30.
US FIRMS TO RESELL VENEZUELAN OIL TO CUBA: The Trump administration is allowing some fuel shipments to Cuba after weeks of a fuel shortage that has caused an energy crisis on the island.
The Treasury Department today released guidance allowing for U.S. companies to apply for licenses for the resale of Venezuelan oil for use in Cuba. The guidance does not allow the resale of oil to Cuban government or military affiliated entities.
“This favorable licensing policy is directed towards transactions that support the Cuban people, including the Cuban private sector (e.g., exports for commercial and humanitarian use in Cuba),” the Treasury wrote.
Following the U.S. military operation to oust Nicolas Maduro, the administration halted oil shipments to Cuba. Venezuela was the primary oil supplier to Cuba. The Trump administration has gone further, even threatening to impose tariffs on any other countries that provide Cuba with oil.
The administration has placed intense pressure on Cuba as a way to push the regime out of power. But as a result, the people of Cuba have faced rolling blackouts, high food prices, and trash piling up due to the lack of fuel.
BLM NOMINEE HEARING: Stevan Pearce, who has been nominated to be director of the Bureau of Land Management, faced a number of questions from several Democrats over his background and past efforts to sell off public lands during his Senate confirmation hearing.
If confirmed to his new post, Pearce would oversee more than 244 million acres of federal land and over 700 million acres of sub-surface minerals.
Pearce was a Republican representative from New Mexico. Yet, some have raised concerns about his statements on public lands. For instance, he has criticized former President Theodore Roosevelt‘s “big ideas of big forests and big national parks,” which primarily exist in the West. He has pushed to “reverse this trend of public ownership of lands” and return public lands to the states or private entities.
During the hearing, the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, said it will be challenging for him to support Pearce’s tenure at the BLM because of his call to sell public lands.
Pearce told the ranking member that the Secretary of the Interior does not envision large sales of public lands and noted that the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) prohibits such sales.
He said, “The isolated parcels [of land], I would look to members of this committee to identify those… from my time in office, I know that I would’ve understood better than any director of BLM the sensitivity of this piece of land or that piece of land.”
The New York Times reports that hunters, military veterans, and environmental activists have opposed Pearce’s nomination.
For instance, the Vet Voice Foundation, a military veterans advocacy group, has created an online campaign against Pearce’s nomination, in which it calls him “Sell-Off Steve.”
Democrat Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado noted that there has been a huge outpouring of concern about Pearce’s nomination due to his statements about selling public lands.
Pearce reiterated that the Secretary of the Interior has been clear that the FLPMA prohibits large-scale public land use, adding, “I would intend to follow his lead on that.”
The nomination hearing also included Kyle Haustveit for undersecretary of energy and David LaCerte to remain on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
HOUSE PASSES BILL TO REPEAL CLEAN ENERGY PROGRAMS: Earlier today, the House passed a resolution that would slash several provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act related to energy efficiency for homes and commercial buildings.
The House voted to pass Texas Republican Rep. Craig Goldman’s Homeowner Energy Freedom Act.
The bill would repeal and rescind unobligated funds from three programs: The Home Electrification and Appliances Rebate program, the State-Based Home Energy Efficiency Contractor Training Grant program, and the Assistance for Latest and Zero Building Energy Code Adoption program. All three programs were established by the Inflation Reduction Act.
In a statement, Goldman said, “The American Dream has always included homeownership – but Biden-era green energy mandates on home appliances have pushed that dream out of reach for many Americans.”
He said the bill would repeal costly regulations and lower the price of a new home by up to $31,000.
It is the second bill to pass the House this week related to energy efficiency standards for homes. Yesterday, the House passed a bill that would limit the Department of Energy’s authority to set energy conservation standards for household appliances.
These bills are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration and Republicans to repeal or reduce energy efficiency standards, which they claim would lower consumer costs and regulatory burdens for businesses.
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy said the rebates program would help to lower Americans’ home energy bills through energy savings upgrades.
In a statement, Jennifer Layke, executive director of the ACEEE, said “These rebates are beginning to help families around the country make home energy upgrades that cut their utility bills.”
“Pulling the rug out from under this program as so many face rising energy costs is callous. It is a blow to affordability,” Layke added.
U.S. REPORTEDLY RESTARTS TECH TRADE TALKS WITH U.K.: Officials with the Trump administration have reportedly restarted negotiations with officials in the United Kingdom regarding the multi-billion dollar tech deal paused by Trump last year.
Sources briefed on the talks confirmed to the Financial Times this week that the discussions have restarted with a focus on nuclear technologies, with officials planning to host a joint summit on nuclear fusion. Officials have not yet restarted discussions on other aspects of the deal, such as AI and quantum computing.
The deal is expected to accelerate the construction of new nuclear power facilities in both countries, slashing the time it takes for a project to receive certain technology licenses by up to two years.
RUNDOWN
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