WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Tuesday, readers! The World Series is officially set, with Maydeen’s Los Angeles Dodgers taking on the Toronto Blue Jays starting this Friday.
In today’s edition of Daily on Energy, we’re kicking things off by taking a look at the Fix Our Forest Act, which is one step closer to reaching the president’s desk to be signed into law. The bill, which has bipartisan support, is now headed to the Senate floor.
Keep reading to find out how the Department of Energy plans to refill domestic crude reserves and how the Interior Department is moving forward with increasing drilling in Alaska.
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.
SENATE AGRICULTURE ADVANCES ‘FIX OUR FOREST ACT’: The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee voted 18-5 this morning to advance the Fix Our Forest Act out of committee, sending it to the Senate floor.
The legislation was introduced in April by Republican Sens. John Curtis of Utah and Tim Sheehy of Montana, and Democrats John Hickenlooper of Colorado and Alex Padilla of California. It would streamline environmental reviews for forest management projects and limit legal challenges. The House earlier this year passed its own version of the bill.
Environmental concerns: The bill in the House and the Senate has received bipartisan support, but environmentalists have raised concerns about the legislation’s reforms to environmental reviews and conservation protections.
The bill reforms the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process for federal forest management projects. Specifically, the bill would expand NEPA’s categorical exclusions, which exempt specific actions from review. The bill increased the acreage of forest projects eligible for exemption from environmental review from 3,000 to 10,000 for actions such as wildfire prevention, fuel breaks, and pest and disease management.
The Sierra Club opposed the resolution, stating the bill “claims to address wildfires, but actually enables timber companies to pursue vastly increased logging activities in national forests.”
Judicial concerns: Some also raised concerns about the bill shortening the time to challenge projects in court from six years to 150 days.
Democrat Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey introduced an amendment to slash the judicial review reform and legal challenge timeline.
“While six years may indeed be too long, 150 days is too short, and could disenfranchise those communities who are most at risk for a wildfire,” he said. The amendment did not pass.
Read more by Maydeen here.
GOVERNMENT MOVES TO REFILL OIL RESERVES: Ten months after President Donald Trump vowed to fill the U.S.’s oil reserves “right to the top” during his inaugural address, his administration is finally taking action.
The details: The Department of Energy announced today that it is looking to buy 1 million barrels of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The agency intends to use part of $171 million for federal crude purchases meant to fill U.S. emergency stockpiles allocated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by Trump in July. The move was first reported by Bloomberg.
The Energy Department will accept bids for the crude purchase until Oct. 28. Once selected and purchased, the crude will be delivered to the SPR’s Bayou Choctaw site in central Louisiana between this December and January of next year.
“After the previous administration recklessly drained the SPR for political purposes, President Trump promised to refill and manage this national security asset more responsibly,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement. “Thanks to the President and Congress, we are able to begin the process of refilling the SPR. While this process won’t be complete overnight, these actions are an important step in strengthening our energy security and reversing the costly and irresponsible energy policies of the last administration.”
Some background: The SPR has a maximum capacity of around 700 million barrels, and currently only holds roughly 408 million barrels. U.S. crude reserves levels significantly declined under the Biden administration, particularly after Russia invaded Ukraine. In order to combat rising oil prices, the Biden administration sold around 180 million barrels.
INTERIOR TAKES NEXT STEP TO OPEN ALASKA FOR DRILLING: The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management is publishing a call in the Federal Register this week for nominations and comments on what areas in the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska should be made available in an oil and gas lease sale this coming winter. It’s a crucial step toward deciding what plots of land will be made available for oil and gas leasing.
The details: The lease sale is expected to be the first in the region since 2019 and is directed to take place under the Big, Beautiful Bill Act. Under the law, the agency is directed to hold no fewer than five lease sales in the NPR-A by 2035. As each sale is required to make at least 4 million acres available, this would make nearly the entire reserve open for oil and gas exploration and drilling.
About the region: NPR-A, a roughly 23 million-acre area in Alaska’s North Slope Borough, was first set aside in 1923 as an emergency oil supply for the U.S. Navy. Jurisdiction of the land was transferred to the Interior Department in the 1970s, opening it up to oil and gas leasing. Since then, only around 1.6 million acres have been leased in the region.
Read more from Callie here.
TOP SOLAR ADVOCATE STEPPING DOWN: The president and CEO of the solar energy’s industry main trade group is stepping down after nearly a decade at the helm.
The details: The Solar Energy Industries Association announced today that Abigail Ross Hopper would be leaving her position as president and CEO at the end of January next year. In an open letter to the industry, Hopper said it has been a “challenging year,” appearing to be referring to the Trump administration’s increased hostility toward renewables and Republicans’ successful efforts to roll back subsidies for wind and solar projects.
“Leading SEIA and serving this community has been one of the great honors of my professional life. But I feel that now is the time for my next chapter,” Hopper wrote.
Hopper reflected on the immense growth seen within the solar energy industry over the last nine years, expanding solar power from 36 gigawatts to more than 255 gigawatts in that time frame. In 2017, the U.S. was ranked 14th for solar manufacturing worldwide, now, the U.S. is ranked 3rd, she said.
She insisted that SEIA and the solar industry is “stronger than ever,” adding there is the talent, technology, market desire, and ‘moral clarity’ to continue to build out solar energy.
“This is not a goodbye, but a handoff. I will always be cheering this industry on, and I cannot wait to see the heights you’ll reach next,” Hopper said.
LEE SAYS U.S. NEEDS OTHER COUNTRIES’ HELP ON MINERAL SUPPLY CHAIN: Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah said the United States needs to work with its allies and others that have existing mining and processing capabilities to develop short and medium-term supply chains.
“We’ve got to reach out to our friends and develop these relationships in the short term, the short to medium term is going to require us to rely a lot on them,” Lee said at an event hosted by the National Center for Energy Analytics.
“We have to develop a strategy with our allied nations to deal with production, refining things like that in the near term, and while simultaneously pursuing the long-term reforms,” he said.
As part of the long term effort, Lee said the U.S. should look to develop its domestic supply chain, which requires permitting and regulatory reforms.
Lawmakers in recent months have been permitting reform legislation. Lee said the effort on permitting reform is “reasonably achievable,” in Congress.
Lee added that last year’s permitting proposal, introduced by Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming and former Independent Sen. Joe Manchin, will serve as the “foundational building blocks” but there will be a few adjustments. He did not provide additional information on those adjustments.
Lee’s comments come a day after the United States and Australia signed a deal to expand cooperation on the critical mineral and rare-earth supply chain. The agreement is part of the U.S. effort to reduce its reliance on China for minerals.
The senator said that developing short- and long-term development plans, both in the U.S. and with allied nations, is essential, as “China has a chokehold grip on this marketplace.”
China currently controls the majority of the critical mineral and rare earth supply chain.
EV ADOPTION LOWER THAN EXPECTED, MANUFACTURER WARNS: General Motors has warned its shareholders that it won’t be seeing as big a return on investment in electric vehicles as it had hoped – in a large part thanks to the end of federal subsidies.
The details: In a third quarter letter to shareholders sent this morning, GM defended its recent investments in the EV industry, particularly as the previous administration backed regulations incentivizing automakers to expand EV operations.
However, as the Trump administration has flipped the script – in both removing federal tax credits and walking back fuel and emissions standards – GM said “it is now clear that near-term EV adoption will be lower than planned.”
While it will not be ending its EV program, GM said it would be reassessing its EV capacity and manufacturing footprint. This move also appears to be driven by the company taking major losses of around $1.6 billion related to changes in its EV rollout. GM attempted to provide some confidence for its shareholders, saying it expects to reduce these losses next year “and beyond.”
GM again defended its EV program, with CEO Mary Barra saying these low-emission alternatives remain the “North Star” of the company.
“We believe their performance will improve, even in a smaller market,” Barra said. “At the same time, we will continue to invest in new battery chemistries, form factors, and architectural improvements to drive profitability.”
EUROPE WEIGHS SOFTENING DEFORESTATION BAN: The European Union has moved to soften the implementation of its deforestation ban, proposing delaying reporting requirements by six months to a year.
The details: The European Commission proposed softening the requirements earlier today, but stopped short of delaying implementation of the ban itself, according to Reuters. The executive branch said that the deforestation law should still go into effect Dec. 30 of this year, one year after it was originally supposed to be enforced.
Small operators and larger businesses in low-risk countries will receive some relief. Under the proposal, full checks and enforcement for large businesses in countries like the United States, India, China, and Australia, would not start for an additional six months. Meanwhile, full enforcement for smallholders and operators would not go into effect until December 2026.
The proposal also reportedly would allow these smaller operators to only produce a declaration proving their products did not cause deforestation one time. Plus, it would also allow EU companies that use those commodities for manufacturing within the EU to pass on a declaration from the importer rather than supplying the government with a separate document, Reuters reported.
The proposal must be approved by the EU governments and European Parliament before it can go into effect.
Quick reminder: The deforestation law was first approved by the EU in June of 2023, with the intent to reduce the number of products consumed in Europe that contribute to deforestation. The law also is meant to lower carbon emission and tackle deforestation on a global scale.
Under the law, any products made from commodities such as coffee, palm oil, soy, cocoa, cattle, wood, and rubber must not have been imported from recently cleared forests and must not have contributed to forest degradation.
ICYMI – EPA AND INTERIOR EMPLOYEE REDUCTION: Employees at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior are facing possible furloughs during the government shutdown.
The Environmental Protection Network said yesterday that members of the EPA began to receive furlough notices. The agency has already witnessed a deduction in staffing since Trump took office. The administration has warned that federal workers at agencies that do not align with the administration’s agenda will be let go if Democrats do not end the government shutdown.
Peter Murchie, senior director at EPN, said in a statement, “Today’s furloughs will give Americans a taste of the toxic consequences of the deliberate campaign to dismantle EPA piece by piece: stripping away critical safeguards, silencing scientists and inspectors, and leaving pollution unchecked.”
Meanwhile, NOTUS reported yesterday that the Department of the Interior plans to fire at least 2,000 employees across the agency.
According to a legal filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the DOI is prepared to lay off at least 189 people across the Park Service’s Northeast, Southwest, and Pacific West regional offices. The department also plans to fire more than 10% of employees responsible for managing mineral permits and oil leases.
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