Daily on Energy: Westinghouse nuclear deal, Gates changes tune on climate, and a gubernatorial permitting push

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.

U.S. STRIKES $80B DEAL TO BUILD NUCLEAR REACTORS: The Trump administration is continuing to put its support behind the resurging nuclear renaissance, securing an $80 billion deal with Westinghouse to build a fleet of nuclear reactors. 

The details: Early this morning, Westinghouse announced the deal with the U.S. government, Canadian uranium firm Cameco Corporation, and Brookfield Asset Management, detailing that it will generate tens of thousands of jobs across the country. 

The investments will be enough to fund eight AP1000 power plants built by Westinghouse. These plants typically consist of large reactors that generate more than 1,000 megawatts of power. However, the deal could also result in a mix of larger facilities and small modular reactors, which would be able to come online faster. 

Some of the funding reportedly will come from a $550 billion trade agreement struck with Japan, which President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi signed today. 

“This historic partnership supports our national security objectives and enhances our critical infrastructure. Together with Westinghouse we will unleash American energy,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said. “This partnership embodies the bold vision of President Trump – to rebuild our energy sovereignty, create high-paying jobs, and drive America to the forefront of the nuclear renaissance.”

Read more from Callie here. 

PLUS…ANOTHER DECOMMISSIONED PLANT TO COME BACK ONLINE: We’re just weeks away from the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan becoming the first decommissioned nuclear plant in the U.S. to restart, and it certainly won’t be the last, as more utilities are getting in line. 

Yesterday afternoon, Google announced it was partnering with NextEra Energy to restart the Duane Arnold Nuclear Plant in Iowa. 

The details: NextEra Energy has signed two agreements with the tech giant, promising to sell power from the 615-megawatt plant to Google once the facility is back in operation. This energy will be used to directly power Google’s AI operations in the state for at least 25 years. Any remaining energy will then be sold to Central Iowa Power Cooperative on similar terms. 

The Duane Arnold nuclear plant was shut down in 2020 and is expected to come back online and pump electricity into the grid by early 2029.  

NextEra Energy has said the restart of the plant will generate more than 1,600 direct and indirect jobs, as well as over $340 million in annual economic output for the state. 

“Restarting Duane Arnold marks an important milestone for NextEra Energy,” John Ketchum, chairman and CEO of NextEra Energy, said in a statement. “Our partnership with Google not only brings nuclear energy back to Iowa — it also accelerates the development of next-generation nuclear technology.”

NVIDIA TEAMING UP WITH ENERGY DEPARTMENT: Tech giant NVIDIA has announced plans to build the largest artificial intelligence supercomputer for the Department of Energy and its efforts to advance scientific discovery. 

NVIDIA announced today that it is collaborating with Oracle and the Energy Department to build the high-tech system, which will feature a record-breaking 100,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. The tech major will also be building a second system, known as Equinox, that will include 10,000 Blackwell GPUs. This system will be online in 2026. 

In total, NVIDIA will be supporting seven new systems at two DOE facilities: Argonne National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

This is the second major partnership between the administration and private sector to advance AI developments, as Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced a $1 billion supercomputer deal with Advanced Micro Devices yesterday. 

You can read more about that deal in Callie’s reporting from yesterday. 

BILL GATES SHIFTS HIS ‘DOOMSDAY’ VIEW ON CLIMATE CHANGE: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has changed his previous “doomsday” perspective on the effects of climate change and called on those attending the United Nations climate summit to focus on helping those living in poverty. 

Gates released a memo today, where he said the “doomsday outlook” on climate change is the wrong perspective and approach, arguing that it diverts attention away from effective policies that could help those living in the world’s most vulnerable countries. 

He called on those who will be attending the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Brazil next month to change the approach to not only address reducing emissions and temperature but also focus on improving lives. 

Key quote: “Unfortunately, the doomsday outlook is causing much of the climate community to focus too much on near-term emissions goals, and it’s diverting resources from the most effective things we should be doing to improve life in a warming world,” Gates wrote. 

“​​So I urge everyone at COP30 to ask: How do we make sure aid spending is delivering the greatest possible impact for the most vulnerable people? Is the money designated for climate being spent on the right things?” Gates wrote. “I believe the answer is no.” 

The memo was released just a week before world leaders gather in Brazil for COP30. Gates, who has attended the climate summit in the past, will not participate this year. Meanwhile, Republican-led states have called on the Trump administration to not attend this year’s summit. The administration has been opposed to international gatherings focused on climate issues. 

Gates’s recent visit to the White House was more than a month ago, where he joined other tech leaders for a dinner in the newly renovated Rose Garden. 

Read more about Gates’ memo by Washington Examiner’s Emily Hallas here. 

GOP AND DEMOCRATIC GOVERNORS UNITE ON PERMITTING: More than a dozen Republican and Democratic governors have joined forces to encourage Congress to pass meaningful permitting reform, outlining their own priorities and recommendations in a new letter. 

The details: The letter, led by Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, outlines five key areas where the governors would like to see major reform: streamlining across agencies, the National Environmental Policy Act, interstate energy transmission, nuclear energy regulation, and the Clean Water Act. 

For NEPA specifically, the governors have proposed requiring the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to serve as the lead agency for all federal transmission reviews, expand categorical exclusions, reduce timelines associated with environmental assessments, and reduce the statute of limitations for filing a NEPA related lawsuit to one year or less. 

The governors acknowledged that while they all might not agree on every single proposal listed, as a whole the list “represents areas of potential common ground and would reduce barriers to developing critical energy infrastructure at the pace needed to win the AI race, lower costs for consumers, and responsibly develop the advanced energy sources of the future.”

“We are encouraged by recent discussions in Congress on federal permitting reform. We hope your committees will consider the proposals in this letter and continue to move bipartisan permitting reform efforts forward,” the letter reads. 

In total, 13 governors signed on, including Jared Polis of Colorado, Ned Lamont of Connecticut, Mike Braun of Indiana, Jeff Landry of Louisiana, Wes Moore of Maryland, Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, Dan McKee of Rhode Island, Bill Lee of Tennessee, Spencer Cox of Utah, and Mark Gordon of Wyoming. 

You can find the full list of recommendations here. 

TRUMP SIGNS CRITICAL MINERAL AND RARE EARTH DEAL WITH JAPAN: Trump met with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi today in Tokyo, where the two signed an agreement on rare earths and critical minerals. 

Trump and Takaichi signed a critical minerals and rare earths deal to boost cooperation efforts between the two countries to support domestic industries and technologies in the mineral sector. 

Both countries agreed to support investment in mining and processing projects. The two nations will, within six months, provide financial support to selected projects to manufacture mineral products for buyers in the United States, Japan, and other like-minded countries. 

Japan and the U.S. will also look to accelerate the permitting process for mineral projects and address unfair trade practices, work together to consider a complementary stockpiling arrangement, and implement many other agreed-upon provisions. 

The minerals deal today is part of Trump’s trip to Asia this week. The president yesterday also signed two reciprocal trade agreements with Malaysia and Cambodia. The two countries, as well as Thailand, also signed a memorandum of understanding to increase critical mineral exports to the U.S.

The mineral deals are part of the U.S. effort to enhance access to critical minerals and rare earths as a way to reduce reliance on China. Recently, Beijing placed stricter restrictions on rare earth exports, which are essential for key sectors of the economy like defense and energy. 

Trump is set to meet with President Xi Jinping later this week to address trade tensions between the two nations. Trump is now heading to South Korea. 

NEW YORK’S LARGEST BATTERY PROJECT CANCELED: The largest battery storage project slated for the state of New York has reportedly been canceled, though no one is entirely sure why. 

The details: According to a new Heatmap report, developer Fullmark Energy is no longer pursuing the Swiftsure battery project that was set to be built in Staten Island. News of the cancellation was not publicly announced by the developer, which instead submitted a one-page withdrawal note to the New York State Department of Public Service in August.  

While Fullmark Energy pulled the plug on the project two months ago, it wasn’t formally reported until local outlet SI Advance flagged the change late last week. 

The withdrawal letter reportedly did not provide any reason for the project cancellation, simply saying plans to construct the eight-acre battery energy storage system “have been terminated.” As of August, no part of the project had been constructed. 

Nearby residents have vehemently opposed the project, and several similar ones, for months, as the facility was poised to be built right next to a number of local businesses and homes. Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa has also come out against battery storage facilities, saying during a May protest that the construction of the sites was setting up New York for a “mini-Chernobyl” over the risk of lithium battery fires near residences. 

“I’m involved in stopping these sites in Queens and Brooklyn and when I tell residents there that Staten Island is slated to get 38 of them, no one can believe it,” Sliwa said at the time, according to SI Advance. “But it’s no big surprise because the city has treated this borough as a literal dumping ground for years.”

HURRICANE MELISSA UPDATE: Hurricane Melissa has made landfall today in Jamaica and is now considered the strongest Atlantic hurricane of the year.

The hurricane is a Category 5 storm as it made landfall in New Hope, Jamaica, around 1 p.m. Eastern Time with maximum winds of 185 mph. There have been at least seven fatalities reported as the storm passed through the Caribbean. The storm is expected to make its way toward Cuba. 

Key quote: On CNN yesterday, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said, “If we are hit by a Category 5 hurricane it will take a lot more resources than Jamaica has … but the long term and medium term recovery will need support.” 

“If we get this Category 5 hurricane, there will be major damage to our road infrastructure, bridges, drains, and possibly some damage to ports and airports,” he said. 

Check out the eye of Hurricane Melissa here, which was captured by meteorologist Matthew Cappucci. 

ICYMI – OPENAI URGES RAPID BUILD OUT OF ENERGY FOR AI: Sam Altman’s OpenAI is urging the Trump administration to dramatically increase investment in expanding energy capacity for artificial intelligence and language learning models like ChatGPT to get ahead of China. 

The details: In a letter sent to White House advisor Michael Kratsios yesterday, OpenAI’s chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane warned that China had built “real momentum” for scaling energy production for AI. Lehane explained that, last year, China added around 429 gigawatts of new power capacity – more than just one-third of the entire U.S. grid. By comparison, the U.S. only added 51 gigawatts. 

In order to get ahead of China and close that “electron gap,” OpenAI is recommending the U.S. build 100 gigawatts of new energy capacity each year. To achieve this, the company recommended creating a fast track for shovel-ready projects, including those involving storage or “repowerings” of energy facilities. OpenAI also pushed for meaningful permitting reform under NEPA and the Clean Water Act, as well as using AI to accelerate the permitting process. OpenAI also advocated for both natural gas and solar energy projects, breaking away from the administration’s crackdown on renewable energy. 

Key quote: “For the US, unlocking electrons will unlock our greatest national economic opportunity since electricity drove the latter half of the Industrial Age,” the letter reads. “Electricity is a strategic asset—it underpins the US AI advantage and in turn, our economic competitiveness, technological leadership, and national security.” 

You can read the full letter here. 

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