WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Daily on Energy readers! 🍀🌈
We are kicking off the newsletter with remarks from the president’s top economic adviser, who acknowledged that a prolonged war in Iran could ultimately “hurt consumers.” Below, we break down his full remarks and the White House’s response.
We also take a look at President Donald Trump’s comments on Cuba, in which he said he would have the “honor” of taking the island. But the island has drawn solidarity from Russia following the president’s remarks. 🇨🇺🇷🇺
Meanwhile, much of the Southwest is bracing for summerlike weather this week, with millions facing 90 to 100 degree temperatures. 🥵🔥🌡️
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.
IRAN CONSUMER PRICE HIT ‘LAST’ OF THE ADMIN’S CONCERNS, HASSETT SAYS: President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser dismissed concerns about high oil prices raising costs for American consumers earlier today, opening a door for Democrats to berate the administration for its handling of the Iran war fallout.
The details: During an interview with CNBC this morning, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett admitted that a prolonged war in Iran would “hurt consumers,” but indicated that the administration isn’t too worried.
“We’d have to think about, you know, if that continued, what we would have to do about that,” he said. “But that’s, like, really the last of our concerns right now, because we’re very confident that this thing is going ahead of schedule.”
He insisted that the economy is “fundamentally sound,” and would not be disrupted if the war is extended.
However, that hasn’t stopped Democrats from pouncing on his framing. House Democratic Vice Chairman Ted Lieu claimed the Trump administration doesn’t “care” about consumers.
“I want the White House to send Kevin Hassett to every single TV channel and to every single swing House district, where you can tell the voters of America that hurting consumers is, quote, the last of their concerns,” Lieu told reporters soon after Hassett’s media hit.
The White House defended Hassett’s remarks later in the morning, with a spokesman telling the Examiner, “The economy will be stronger, and oil prices lower in the long run after Operation Epic Fury ends the Iranian threat to global energy markets.”
Read more on the Democratic pushback from Callie here.
Where prices stand: International and domestic benchmarks for crude oil prices saw some upward pressure today, after seeing a slight dip yesterday on the news of emergency oil reserves hitting the Asian markets.
At around 2:30 p.m. EDT, Brent Crude was up by 2.84%, selling at $103.06 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate also jumped by 2.34%, and was priced at $95.69 per barrel.
As of Tuesday, the national average price of gasoline was $3.790 per gallon, up nearly a dollar from just one month ago, according to AAA estimates. Diesel was also averaging more than $5 a gallon, the highest level seen since 2022.
Gasbuddy analyst Patrick De Haan is now tracking fewer than 1,421 stations that have gas prices that are below $3 per gallon. There are zero with prices below $2, he said. This comes just a few weeks after Trump bragged that most states were seeing gas prices of less than $2.30 per gallon. De Haan estimates that these price hikes are costing Americans more than $330 million more on gasoline than they were spending one month ago.
OIL AND GAS STATE DEPARTMENT EXPERTS CUT FROM AGENCY MONTHS AGO: Individuals at the State Department who would have been responsible for mapping out scenarios for if the Strait of Hormuz was closed during an Iran conflict were reportedly fired from the agency six months before the war began.
The details: Former State Department employees told NOTUS this week the cuts came during the administration’s reduction-in-force initiative last summer, resulting in the loss of oil and gas experts.
This included staffers who held close professional relationships with oil and gas companies in the Middle East, as well as those who were in charge of maintaining diplomatic relations with foreign energy bureaus, according to the outlet.
Ultimately, roughly 1,300 staffers who had been working at the State Department’s Energy Resource Bureau were cut from the agency. The only ones who remained were those who worked on critical minerals and clean energy.
Key quote: “You dismantled the framework that any other administration would have used to engage on these very issues,” one former State Department energy official told the outlet. “In a normally functioning administration, I don’t know that we would have gotten here, because there would have been a process that would have examined the derivative, second-order and third-order effects. You probably would have had a lot more forethought that would have gone into this situation.”
TRUMP CONSIDERING SETTLEMENT AGREEMENTS TO KILL EAST COAST WINDFARMS: The Trump administration is reportedly drafting agreements to pay an offshore wind developer nearly $1 billion to scrap its projects, in the latest attempt to prevent new wind mills from being built.
The deal: Documents reviewed by the New York Times reveal that senior administration officials are drafting a settlement agreement to pay nearly $1 billion to TotalEnergies in regard to its wind projects off the coasts of New York and North Carolina.
The settlement terms would allow the Interior Department to fully cancel the federal water leases for the two projects in exchange for $928 million. The funds would reimburse TotalEnergies for its winning bids in the lease sales submitted under former President Joe Biden. Additionally, the draft agreements would require the French energy company to abandon the projects and commit to natural gas investments in Texas.
It is unclear whether TotalEnergies will accept the terms, but the New York Times reported that if the company refuses to, the administration plans to cancel the leases regardless.
The projects: Neither of the two projects at risk are under active construction. The farm off New York, Attentive Energy, would be located roughly 54 miles south of Long Island. It is expected to produce enough energy to power more than one million homes and businesses by the early 2030s. However, the project was put on pause after Trump won the 2024 election.
Carolina Long Bay is the project located 22 miles south of Bald Head Island, North Carolina, with a projected capacity of enough electricity for 300,000 homes.
OKLO GRANTED CRUCIAL NRC LICENSE: Advanced nuclear developer Oklo has received a critical license from federal regulators as the firm works to build some of the first small modular reactors in the U.S.
Oklo announced today that its subsidiary Atomic Alchemy was granted a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to handle, process, and distribute isotope materials extracted from nuclear energy supply chains and later used for medical purposes.
This is Oklo’s first license from the NRC and will enable the company to begin commercial sales of isotope materials from its Radiochemistry Laboratory in Idaho. This will provide the company with another revenue stream, as it has yet to obtain commercial licenses for its reactor, the Aurora powerhouse.
Something else: The license does not directly contribute to the company’s ability to generate and sell electricity from its advanced reactors, but Oklo also announced today that it was making progress on that front with the Department of Energy.
Oklo is part of the agency’s Reactor Pilot Program, which aims to have several SMRs achieve criticality by July of this year. The company revealed that, for its reactor, which is being developed at the Idaho National Laboratory, it signed an “other transaction agreement” with the Energy Department supporting the design, construction, and operation of the reactor.
The agency’s Idaho Operations Office also approved the company’s Nuclear Safety Design Agreement, the first step in the program’s authorization licensing pathway.
Plus…something related: Support for nuclear energy is growing within the environmentalist movement, as the Natural Resources Defense Council has backed the restart of the Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa.
“This is unprecedented for us because it marks the first time in our history that we have taken action in support of an individual nuclear power plant,” Manish Bapna, NRDC president and CEO, told Axios.
Callie reported on this shift in favor of nuclear energy among environmentalists and Democrats last month. You can find her story here.
TRUMP ON CUBA: The president said he would have the “honor” of taking Cuba, a remark made as the island is dealing with an ongoing energy crisis and a nationwide blackout.
“All my life, I’ve been hearing about the United States and Cuba. When will the United States do it? I do believe I’ll be having the honor of taking Cuba,” Trump said in the Oval Office yesterday evening. “That’s a big honor … taking Cuba in some form.”
“Whether I free it, take it. I could do anything I want with it,” he added. “They’re a very weakened nation right now.”
The president said that Cuba is a “failed nation” with no money.
The Cuban government is currently working to restore power to the island. The blackout left nearly 11 million people without electricity.
Cuba’s energy crisis has become more severe as the Trump administration has blocked oil from entering the island and threatened tariffs on any country that helps to supply fuel.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has stated that the island has not received oil shipments for over three months.
Russian support for Cuba: Russia has expressed support for Cuba, following Trump’s comments on taking the island.
“Russia reaffirms its unwavering solidarity with the government and fraternal people of Cuba.” Russia’s foreign ministry said, according to Reuters. “We strongly condemn attempts of gross interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, intimidation and the use of illegal unilateral restrictive measures.”
Russia’s foreign ministry has noted it would continue to provide support to Cuba, including financially.
Read more about Trump’s comments by Washington Examiner’s White House reporter Mabinty Quarshie here.
WEST COAST HEAT WAVE: The Southwest has been hit with summerlike temperatures this week, placing millions under extreme heat warnings.
The heat wave in the Southwest is expected to last into the weekend or early next week, with temperatures reaching 90 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
For instance, Los Angeles will see record high temperatures, with highs in the upper 90s. AccuWeather said the hottest day in March in Downtown Los Angeles was a high of 99 degrees in 1879.
Then, in Las Vegas, temperatures are expected to reach 90 degrees or higher from Tuesday through next Monday. AccuWeather said if temperatures reach 100 degrees on Friday, it would surpass the city’s earliest 100-degree temperature by several weeks.
Meanwhile, in Phoenix, temperatures could reach a high near 106 degrees from Thursday through Saturday. The average temperature in Phoenix in March is in the 70s.
AccuWeather Meteorologist Elizabeth Danco said, “This heat is arriving far earlier than normal, with temperatures in parts of the Southwest running one to two months ahead of historical averages. Triple-digit heat in Phoenix and the Inland Empire of California in mid-March is a striking signal of how intense this heat dome will become later this week.”
ICYMI – TESLA AND LG ENERGY TEAM UP: Electric carmaker Tesla has signed a supply agreement with South Korea’s LG Energy Solution to build a $4.3 billion lithium iron phosphate prismatic battery cell facility in Michigan.
The Department of the Interior told Reuters in a statement that, “American-made cells will power Tesla’s Megapack 3 energy storage systems produced in Houston, creating a robust domestic battery supply chain.”
It is a three-year agreement and production is expected to start in 2027 at a factory in Lansing, Michigan. Reuters said the deal is part of a number of deals highlighted by the president from the Indo-Pacific Energy Security Summit.
China currently dominates the lithium iron phosphate prismatic battery cell market.
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