Daily on Energy, presented by Americans for Fusion: EEI’s Drew Maloney speaks

Plus, we have some nuclear energy news for you as federal regulators undergo a “major reorganization” and the Energy Department prepares to ship nuclear waste across the country. Keep reading for more details ☢️.  

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.

A SIT-DOWN WITH THE EDISON ELECTRIC INSTITUTE: This morning, Callie sat down with Drew Maloney, the president and CEO of the Edison Electric Institute, to talk about one of the biggest issues on homeowners’ minds: soaring electricity prices. 

Addressing affordability will take a combined effort from utilities, the federal government, and the large-load facilities like data centers that are driving demand, and one thing they’ll all need is as many electrons as possible from all different resources, Maloney emphasized. 

“You look at a state like Iowa, a large percentage of their power comes from wind,” he said. “Texas has a good mix of wind and solar, but you need it all. And you see, like during a storm like this, you know, where we became very reliant on fossil fuel as sort of base load, you need that too. And we need more nuclear. So we need it all. We support it all. And you know, as we say, we need as many electrons on the grid as possible right now.” 

When pressed on the Trump administration’s efforts to block under-construction offshore wind projects, Maloney said that halting any energy project that has been years in the making just before it is able to come online will pass along more costs to consumers. 

“If you’re investing $5, $6, $7 billion into a new gas facility, new wind, new solar, and that gets stopped somewhere along the way, that’s going to be borne by the customer…once these projects start, they really need to be completed,” Maloney said. 

Stay tuned for the full sit-down interview, which will be published on the Washington Examiner’s YouTube page this week. 

If you don’t know: The Edison Electric Institute is a trade group that represents all U.S. investor-owned companies, including major utilities such as Dominion Energy, PG&E and PEPCO. Maloney has served as the president and CEO of the group since last summer, and previously led the American Investment Council and served at the Treasury Department under Trump 1.0.

‘DRILL, BABY, DRILL’ IN ALASKA’S NORTH SLOPE: The Department of the Interior has announced its first oil and gas sale to take place in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska under President Donald Trump’s second administration, offering hundreds of tracts of land next month. 

The details: Interior’s Bureau of Land Management announced the lease sale in the 23 million-acre reserve this morning, detailing that it will take place on March 9. The sale will offer over 600 tracts across 5.5 million acres. Currently, only around 1.6 million acres are leased in the region. The March sale will be the first in the NPR-A since 2019. 

“The National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska plays a vital role in advancing America’s energy independence, and Congress has repeatedly made clear their intent for timely leasing and responsible development in the region,” Acting BLM Director Bill Groffy said in a statement.

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, BLM is required to hold no fewer than five lease sales in the NPR-A by 2035. Each sale is required to make at least 4 million acres available, effectively making the entire reserve open for drilling and exploration. 

Quick reminder: The NPR-A was first set aside by President Warren Harding in 1923 as an emergency oil supply for the U.S. Navy. Jurisdiction of the land was later transferred to the Interior Department in the 1970s, opening the region to oil and gas development. 

The Biden administration sought to curb drilling in the area, increasing environmental protections and conservation regulations for roughly 13 million acres of the NPR-A. The Trump-led Interior rescinded these protections last fall. 

Some background: The lease sale announcement comes just days after BLM published a call for nominations and comments in the Federal Register, requesting feedback on what tracts of land should be made available in a lease sale in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, situated on the eastern side of the North Slope. BLM is required to hold no fewer than four lease sales in the Coastal Plain by 2035, each sale offering at least 400,000 acres. 

ENVIRONMENTAL ENFORCEMENT DROPS TO RECORD LOW UNDER TRUMP: The Environmental Protection Agency’s legal enforcement of environmental rules and regulations dropped to a record low last year, according to a new report.

A report released by the Environmental Integrity Project today shows that, in 2025, only 16 complaints were filed in civil court by the Justice Department on behalf of the EPA. This is a dramatic 76% decline from the first year of former President Joe Biden’s administration, an 81% drop from the first year of the first Trump administration, and an 87% decline from the first year of the second Obama administration. 

The EIP report also found that the number of settlements of lawsuits against polluting companies also significantly fell, from 186 under former President Obama in 2013 to just 40 last year. The organization said this suggests that the agency is moving very few cases through the “traditional enforcement pipeline.” 

“All this data suggests that EPA and the Department of Justice have all but abandoned pursuing complex, high-impact cases involving serious violations that threaten public health and the environment,” the report claims. 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION TO UNDERGO ‘MAJOR REORG’: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is going under a significant agency-wide reorganization in an apparent effort to meet Trump’s goals for accelerating nuclear reactor licensing. 

The details: The NRC announced a “major reorganization” this week, saying it would support efficiency and innovation within the independent agency. NRC Chairman Ho Nieh said the agency is in “one of the most consequential periods” in its history, adding that the reorganization would allow the NRC to “meet the moment with more efficient and timely decision making.” 

“This reorganization focuses the NRC’s structure around national priorities aimed at accelerating the safe deployment of nuclear technologies,” Nieh said. “This reorganization is also aimed at achieving greater consistency in the implementation of agency safety programs across the NRC regional offices.” 

The agency also said the reorganization will focus on business lines of new reactors, operating reactors, and nuclear materials and waste. This will include integrating licensing and inspection functions within each business line to create a “single point of accountability” and improve coordination between teams. It remains unclear if the reorganization will result in new hires or additional layoffs at the agency. 

Some background: Trump has sought to significantly boost the nuclear energy industry in the U.S., aiming to quadruple nuclear power capacity to 400 gigawatts by 2050. In order to accelerate regulatory timelines for new nuclear projects, the president ordered the NRC to make decisions on nuclear reactor safety designs within 18 months. 

DOE TO SEND NUCLEAR WASTE CROSS-COUNTRY IN 180-TON RAILCAR CASK: The Department of Energy will help ship nuclear waste across 13 states and over 2,500 miles, making it the first shipment of spent nuclear fuel from a commercial reactor in more than 20 years.

E&E News reports that DOE and the Electric Power Research Institute will help to ship nuclear waste from Dominion Energy’s North Anna nuclear plant in Virginia to the Idaho National Laboratory in Fall 2027. The DOE and EPRI designed a railcar that will carry a 180-ton cask made of lead and steel to hold the nuclear waste fuel.

A DOE official, who was granted anonymity by E&E News, told the publication that “Public trust and confidence are really essential to transporting this material, any radioactive material, safely and securely.”

DOE has sought to find a solution for nuclear waste while bolstering the sector. 

Last month, DOE issued a Request for Information to express state interest in hosting Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses. The proposed campuses would support the nuclear fuel lifecycle, including disposition of waste. E&E News said there are about 95,000 metric tons of nuclear waste.

RECORD NATURAL GAS STORAGE WITHDRAWAL: Consumers withdrew 360 billion cubic feet of natural gas in the week leading up to Jan. 30 amid Winter Storm Fern, making it the largest net withdrawal reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. 

EIA said the withdrawal exceeded the five-year average for the same week by 89%. One of the factors that contributed to the increased withdrawal was the winter storm.

There was also a reduction in natural gas supply because of the extreme cold, which froze some equipment. EIA said temperatures in the Gulf Coast were well below freezing on Jan. 25, causing the largest natural gas shut-in reported during the week. 

EIA said the increase in demand and decreased supply resulted in rising natural gas prices in many locations. 

“The U.S. benchmark natural gas spot price at the Henry Hub rose to $9.03 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) on January 28, exceeding the week-earlier price by $4.05/MMBtu and the year-earlier price by $5.60/MMBtu,” EIA wrote. 

ICYMI – ZELDIN TRAVELED TO LOS ANGELES TO DISCUSS REBUILDING EFFORTS IN WILDFIRE AREAS: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin visited Los Angeles yesterday, where he discussed fast-tracking rebuilding in areas hit by the Eaton and Palisades fire last January. 

The administrator traveled with Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, who met with Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger and Mayor Karen Bass to talk about permitting and water in the communities destroyed by the wildfires. 

“Many LA residents lost everything in these fires. It’s well past time to clear any remaining hurdles that have been adding to an already painful experience,” Zeldin said in a statement. 

Trump has put Zeldin in charge of helping homeowners get permits and rebuild after the destructive wildfires hit Los Angeles last January. The president has also signed an executive order aimed at expediting permitting and allowing victims of the Eaton and Palisades fires to bypass “unnecessary, duplicative, or obstructive permitting requirements…”

Following the executive order, Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that hundreds of homes are under construction, with more than 1,600 with permits. The governor said that the state’s permitting timelines are twice as fast as they were before the fire. 

“The Feds need to release funding not take over local permit approval speed — the main obstacle is COMMUNITIES NOT HAVING THE MONEY TO REBUILD,” Newsom wrote on X. 

RUNDOWN 

E&E News Trump cut science funding. Small businesses are paying the price.

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