Daily on Energy: Milestone for natural gas-to-nuclear project, US to sell Venezuelan oil ‘indefinitely,’ and NEPA rolled back

Plus, the Trump administration finalized its plans to roll back decades worth of regulations on implementing the National Environmental Policy Act. Remember hearing about those plans last spring 🤔? Keep reading to find out more. 

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.

EXCLUSIVE – NUCLEAR STARTUP HITS KEY REGULATORY MILESTONE TO USE NATURAL GAS AS A ‘BRIDGE’ FOR NEW REACTORS: Nuclear startup company Blue Energy is one step closer to developing what it has described as the “world’s first gas-to-nuclear conversion,” a power plant that will use natural gas as a bridge to advanced nuclear energy. 

The details: Blue Energy confirmed with Daily on Energy that the company recently received approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for its licensing topical report, which supports its model to use natural gas to later deploy new nuclear power. 

As a result, Blue Energy now has improved methodology whereby it is able to begin building and installing all “non-safety significant components” of its power facility without an NRC construction permit. For CEO and co-founder Jake Jurewicz, that includes key components critical for energy production from natural gas, including the steam turbine and powertrain.   

“We can energize it early with gas and a combined cycle configuration, and then we can switch it over to nuclear steam at a later date, when the nuclear reactor is installed and ready to go and fully commissioned,” Jurewicz told Callie. 

Blue Energy said this approval from the NRC will cut at least five years off the conventional timeline to build a nuclear reactor, slashing the development timeline to just 48 months or less. The company is planning to begin construction on the Port of Victoria, Texas, plant during the second quarter of this year. 

It plans on applying for a construction permit for its nuclear reactor in 2027, with first power expected in 2030 – a full year ahead of when it first announced plans to build the facility in October. 

Key quote: “This represents, for the first time, truly using gas as a bridge to nuclear power that’s been talked about, I think, as a talking point for many years, even decades, but this is quite technically and from a financial structuring standpoint, we are using the gas as a bridge to a new nuclear solution,” Jurewicz said. 

WRIGHT SAYS US TO SELL VENEZUELA OIL ‘INDEFINITELY’: Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that the United States plans to sell Venezuelan oil “indefinitely” and then direct the revenue back to Venezuela. 

Wright spoke at Goldman Sachs’ Energy, CleanTech & Utilities Conference today, where he said the administration is going to let Venezuelan oil flow “to United States refineries and around the world to bring better oil supplies, but have those sales done by the U.S. government.”

The secretary added that proceeds from those sales would be placed into U.S. government-controlled accounts and then directed back into the country to “benefit the Venezuelan people.” 

Trump yesterday said the country would turn over 30 to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the U.S. that it would then sell, which is estimated to be worth up to $2.5 billion. 

Wright said, “We’re going to market the crude coming out of Venezuela, first this backed up, stored oil, and then indefinitely, going forward, we will sell the production that comes out of Venezuela into the marketplace.” 

Tankers seized: Wright’s comments come shortly after the U.S. this morning seized a sanctioned oil tanker it has been pursuing for the last month. 

The Coast Guard last month used a seizure warrant to stop the tanker, called Bella 1 and also known as Marinera, due to concerns it was not flying a valid national flag. The ship refused to be boarded and sailed into the Atlantic. It was registered under a Russian flag, with Russia deploying naval assets to protect it. 

The U.S. also seized a second tanker this morning, a Panama-flagged supertanker M Sophia, which the U.S. said was operating in international waters and conducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea. 

Read more about the pursuit by Washington Examiner’s Emily Hallas here. 

Plus…an update on discussions with oil executives: Wright was expected to meet with several oil and gas industry executives on the sidelines of the Goldman Sachs conference today, though new reporting reveals that conversations will continue later in the week. 

CBS News reported this morning that executives from oilfield service providers Baker Hughes, Weatherford, and Halliburton; producers Chevron and Exxon; and energy technology firm Schlumberger have been invited to a meeting at the White House on Friday. 

NEPA REGULATION ROLLBACK FINALIZED: The Trump administration has formally finalized its efforts to roll back decades worth of rules and regulations regarding the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act. 

The details: Earlier today, the Council on Environmental Quality issued a final rule affirming the agency’s removal of all existing regulations under the bedrock environmental law.

CEQ has been authorized to oversee the implementation of NEPA since 1977. That was called into question, however, last year, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that CEQ lacked the authority to issue binding regulations under NEPA.

In an effort to accelerate the federal permitting process, the Trump administration has since leveraged this court ruling and others, asking CEQ to rescind all existing regulations on implementing NEPA and to provide new, non-binding guidance for agencies.

CEQ published an interim final rule in February 2025, which went into effect later that April. The final rule, issued on Wednesday, responds to public comments received on the decision and reaffirms the agency’s move to remove the regulations. 

Key quote: “In this Administration, NEPA’s regulatory reign of terror has ended,” Council on Environmental Quality Chairman Katherine Scarlett said in a statement. “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, CEQ acted early to slash needless layering of bureaucratic burden and restore common sense to the environmental review and permitting process.”

Read more from Callie here. Plus, if you need a reminder on all things NEPA, check out our breakdown. 

NEW YEAR, SAME PERMITTING DELAYS: The administration’s finalization of the NEPA rollbacks comes as permitting reform discussions remain stalled in the Senate, as Democrats halted negotiations in December in response to Trump’s pause of five offshore wind leases. 

That hasn’t completely dampened some Republicans’ optimism however. Environment and Public Works committee chair Shelly Moore Capito spoke at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Permitting Reform Legislative Day of Action on Wednesday, citing the passage of the so-called SPEED Act and PERMIT Act as positive momentum for the bipartisan push to accelerate environmental reviews. To succeed in the Senate, the West Virginia Republican did warn, the slim majority will likely need more than the 60 required votes to pass meaningful reform. 

“Quite honestly, I think we need at least 65 or 70 to be successful,” she said. 

While negotiations are on pause, Capito told Callie, she still has a “very good relationship” with EPW ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse, who has been helping lead the Democratic negotiations and initiated the pause in discussions in December. 

“I’m going to keep talking to him about it, and the administration to try and help us with this,” Capito said, adding that Republicans are working to “figure out a way forward with the actions that the administration has taken.” 

Meanwhile, House Natural Resource Chairman Bruce Westerman held a presser in front of the Capitol today with industry heads, noting the importance of passing the SPEED Act. 

While Democrats have halted bipartisan talks on permitting reform, Westerman argued that the SPEED Act is “project agnostic” and “technology agnostic.”

“I think anybody who’s a fan of permitting for whatever kind of project should be urgently moving forward to get this legislation passed and signed into law,” he added. 

CALIFORNIA REPUBLICANS HAVE YET TO JOIN DEMOCRATS AGAINST TRUMP’S OFFSHORE DRILLING PROPOSAL: California Republican lawmakers have yet to join their Democrat counterparts in opposing the Trump administration’s offshore drilling plans.

E&E News reports that California’s 26 House Democrats and two senators sent a letter in December to the Interior Department opposing the administration’s plan that would allow new drilling off the state’s coastal waters. But California Republicans have yet to stand alongside their Democrat colleagues. 

California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock, who used to represent a coastal area when he was in the state legislature, told E&E News that he strongly supports the plan. 

“Oil production is a very important part of the economy,” he said, adding that fishermen have told him fishing is better near oil rigs.

In late November, the Trump administration released a proposed plan outlining as many as 34 possible offshore lease sales off the coasts of California, Alaska, and the Gulf of Mexico. The proposal would suggest six lease sales for an area off the coast of Southern California as early as 2027. The DOI also proposed lease sales in 2029 and 2030 in the eastern Gulf near Florida’s western shore. 

E&E News said that Florida’s entire congressional delegation has pushed against the plan, stating in a letter that, “The risks posed by new offshore drilling far outweigh any short-term gains.”

RUNDOWN 

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