WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Wednesday, readers! We are halfway through a packed week in the energy sector – and it doesn’t look like things are slowing down anytime soon. But that’s okay, we have you covered with the latest. 📰
Big Tech companies have signed onto a pledge this afternoon at the White House, committing to secure their own power for their energy-intensive data centers so the costs don’t land on ratepayers. 🔋💰
In other news, we continue to track the war in Iran and what it means for oil, gas, and the price at the pump. 🇮🇷⛽ We’ve got all the details 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.
BIG TECH SIGNS ‘RATE PAYER PROTECTION PLEDGE,’ SECURING THEIR OWN POWER FOR DATA CENTERS: Several major technology companies signed onto President Donald Trump’s “ratepayer protection pledge” at the White House just moments ago, promising to build, bring or buy new energy for their power-hungry data centers in order to prevent costs from being borne by everyday Americans.
Who has signed on: The Big Tech firms signed onto the pledge during an event at the White House this afternoon. So far, executives from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI, and Amazon have signed on.
What it entails: The pledge is broken up into five main sections.
- Companies will build, bring or buy new energy for data centers and pay the full cost of infrastructure upgrades needed to support their operations
- Companies will pay for all new power delivery infrastructure upgrades required to service their data centers
- Companies will voluntarily negotiate new separate rate structures with utilities and states
- Companies will invest in local communities where they build data centers by hiring locally and establishing programs to develop relevant skill sets
- Companies will coordinate with grid operators to make available backup generation resources during times of scarcity
Read more from Callie here.
OIL AND GASOLINE PRICE WATCH: Oil price hikes have extended yet another day, despite the Trump administration’s efforts to provide assurances for tankers unable to travel through the Strait of Hormuz as the Iran war continues.
Where oil stands: International and domestic crude oil benchmarks saw relatively modest price increases today – compared to Monday and Tuesday – rising by less than 1%. At around 1:30 p.m. EST, Brent Crude had risen by 0.28% and was priced at $81.63 per barrel. Similarly, West Texas Intermediate was up 0.56% and selling at $74.98 per barrel.
The effect at the pump: The gains this week are the greatest since March 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. As a result, gasoline prices are also rising at record levels.
As of 11:35 a.m. EST today, GasBuddy reported that the national average price of gasoline stood at $3.201 per gallon, up more than $0.21 last week and roughly $0.10 higher than this time last year. The greatest increases (of more than $0.30 per gallon) are being seen in states such as Indiana, Louisiana, Iowa, Ohio, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin.
As increase in prices at the pump put a greater strain on drivers’ wallets, GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan estimated that the hikes should slow soon.
“While gasoline prices have surged quickly over the past week, the pace of increases should begin slowing by the weekend as wholesale gasoline prices stabilize and stations complete their pass-through of recent cost increases,” he said. “In addition, new attention on the Strait of Hormuz could lead oil prices lower with remedies to offset risk of Iranian attack.”
THOUGHTS FROM THE EU AMBASSADOR TO THE US: Earlier this morning, Callie sat down with Jovita Neliupšienė, the European Union’s ambassador to the U.S., for a wide-ranging interview in her office at the Delegation of the EU to the U.S. in Washington, D.C.
During the discussion, Neliupšienė highlighted how the fallout of the Iran war has been “extremely painful” for European markets, sending natural gas prices soaring by nearly 40%.
“This is the price you pay, you pay for the war,” Neliupšienė said. “Any volatility of the prices in the Middle East will have that effect.”
The ambassador did note that it is still “early” to determine lasting effects on gas prices in the EU, adding that the bloc’s priority is to keep the Strait of Hormuz open to allow for the flow of energy products.
The interview came just hours after Reuters reported that Qatar would be fully shutting down its gas liquefaction production. In 2024, Qatar shipped roughly 10 million tons of LNG to the EU, about 12.1% of the bloc’s total imports, according to data from S&P Global Energy.
However, Neliupšienė is not worried about EU supply.
“We have other suppliers,” she said. “So I think that it’s overall – the situation is stable.”
The European Commission echoed that sentiment this morning as well, releasing a statement that EU countries do not observe any immediate security of supply risks.
QATAR ENDS GAS LIQUEFACTION: Qatar has completely shut down gas liquefaction and it would take several weeks to return to normal production, Reuters reports.
Qatar’s state-owned energy giant Qatar Energy earlier this week suspended its gas production after an Iranian drone hit its facilities at Ras Laffan and Mesaieed. Today the energy giant declared force majeure on exports.
“Force majeure” is a provision that exempts a company from fulfilling its obligation due to uncontrollable events.
Sources told Reuters that when Qatar’s main Ras Laffan shuts down today, it won’t be able to restart turning gas into super-chilled fuel for at least two weeks and it would take another two weeks to reach full capacity.
The war in Iran has caused the price of natural gas in Europe to soar in the last two days, but today futures dropped 8.3% to €49.76, or about $58, per megawatt hour. The drop follows the Trump administration touting a plan to protect ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
Gas shortage impact: Due to natural gas shortages, Qatari aluminum smelter Qatalum began to shut down.
The smelter began the shutdown yesterday and will complete it by the end of March. The company said a full restart could take six to 12 months. Its shareholder Norsk Hydro also declared a force majeure to customers.
DOUG BURGUM HEADS TO VENEZUELA: Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum is headed to Venezuela today in an effort to prop up oil and mineral production.
Burgum is expected to meet with Venezuelan acting President Delcy Rodriguez, along with mining and oil executives. The secretary is expected to announce an oil deal aimed at boosting crude production, Bloomberg reports.
Since the U.S. military operation to oust former dictator Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration has sought to bolster the oil industry in Venezuela and control of the oil sales.
Last week, the Treasury Department released new guidance allowing U.S. companies to apply for licenses for the resale of Venezuelan oil for use in Cuba, which is undergoing an energy crisis as the administration blocks fuel shipments.
OFFSHORE LEASE SALE IN ALASKA SEES NO BIDS: The Trump administration has run into a major hurdle in its efforts to expand oil and gas drilling in Alaska, as its first offshore lease sale in the state’s Cook Inlet failed to receive a single bid this week.
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management revealed today that the agency received no bids for the lease sale. The sale, which took place from Feb. 2 to March 4, was the first of at least six to take place between 2026 and 2032, as required by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Roughly 1 million acres in Alaska’s Cook Inlet were offered in the sale.
“In accordance with OBBBA, we will continue to hold leasing opportunities for Cook Inlet so that industry has a regular, predictable federal leasing schedule that ensures we achieve President Trump’s American Energy Dominance Agenda,” the agency said.
The last lease sale held in the Cook Inlet by BOEM was in 2022. At the time the agency only received one bid.
The failed sale mimics the last oil and gas lease sale held in Alaska under the Biden administration. That sale offered up 400,000 acres in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas development.
BLM NOMINEE CLEARS COMMITTEE VOTE: Stevan Pearce’s nomination to be director of the Bureau of Land Management cleared a committee vote today, sending his bid to lead BLM to the full Senate.
Pearce, a former Republican congressman from New Mexico, has received some pushback from Democrats, who have raised concerns about his past calls for shifting ownership of public land to state or private entities.
In his new role, he would oversee more than 244 million acres of federal land and over 700 million acres of sub-surface minerals. During his nomination hearing, Pearce attempted to reassure Democrats that there are laws in place that prevent a large sale of federal land.
However, ahead of the committee vote, the top Democrat on the panel, Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, released a statement opposing Pearce’s nomination.
Although Pearce has vowed to not recommend rolling back national monuments designations and that laws prevent BLM from conducting large sales of public lands, Henirich said that “commitments to follow the law by prior nominees have proven unreliable.”
“And while Congressman Pearce has said that his past actions opposing national monument designations and calling for public land sell-offs are in his rearview mirror, they remain in the memory of every New Mexican who faced his opposition in order to protect the lands they cherish,” he added.
FEDERAL REGULATORS APPROVE BILL GATES-BACKED NUCLEAR REACTOR: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given its approval for a nuclear energy company backed by Bill Gates to build the first commercial nuclear plant in the U.S. that uses advanced reactor technology.
The details: The company, TerraPower, announced today that it received a notification from federal regulators in favor of awarding a construction permit for its Natrium plant’s Kemmerer Unit 1 reactor. This is the first commercial-scale advanced nuclear reactor to receive the permit from the NRC.
TerraPower president and CEO Chris Levesque said the company plans to start construction on the facility in just a matter of weeks. It will be built in Wyoming, where non-nuclear parts of the project are already under construction. It is expected to be completed in 2030.
Rather than using water as a coolant, like traditional nuclear power plants, TerraPower’s 345-megawatt design uses molten salt to cool its reactor. Its design also features storage technology that can boost the system’s output to 500 megawatts as needed.
RUNDOWN
The Guardian Trump has launched an unprecedented assault on the environment. Where’s the pushback?
Reuters There is little US LNG producers can do to immediately replace lost Qatari cargoes
Politico Trump wants to ease voters’ worries on data center costs. Iran may get in his way.
