On the sidelines of ACORE’s Grid Forum yesterday, Long told reporters that there is “no reason” the legislation should be stalled and suggested the bill could be tweaked down the line.

“There is no good reason to wait on this any longer. We should pass this bill and move forward,” he said, adding that “if there are changes that need to be made later, and people are convinced that they can pull together all the elected officials to reach a bipartisan compromise, do a technical corrections bill down the line someplace. But don’t hold up this bill right now.”

HELIUM SUPPLY CHAIN UNDER PRESSURE:

The war in the Middle East has disrupted not only the fuel supply chain, but also the supply of another critical resource: helium.

Helium is essential to a range of industries. It is used in making semiconductor chips and MRI machines, and in rocket fuel systems, leak detection, welding, and scientific research.

One-third of the world’s supply comes from Qatar. But the war in Iran has caused extensive damage to Qatar’s Ras Laffan facility, a major natural gas operation where helium is produced as a byproduct.

“A third of the supply is missing,” Richard Brook, a former executive at Air Liquide, told Maydeen.

“Not everybody can get all the helium that they need, and this is causing prices to spike, and then a lot of scrambling for people to develop new projects,” said Brook, who is now CEO of the consulting firm Garrison Ventures.

The supply crunch has drawn the attention of the federal government.

The Department of Energy this morning announced it would designate helium as a critical material, which means increased federal government monitoring and possibly funding.

DOE noted that designating helium as a critical material is essential for safeguarding domestic manufacturing for semiconductors and other advanced technologies. Currently, 25% of helium demand comes from the semiconductor industry.

In a news release, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said: “By designating helium as a critical material, we are taking another step toward securing our supply chains, creating American jobs, and ensuring the United States leads the world in energy and technological innovation.”

Helium is the second gas on the critical materials list. The last material DOE added to the list was metallurgical coal, which is used in steelmaking. The U.S. supplies about 40% of the world’s helium, with many exports going to countries in Asia.

Brook noted that a material being designated as critical by the government has its benefits.

“If you’re raising money for your project, and you can point to your investors that it’s on the critical materials list, there is some advantage of being able to show investors that that demand is such that the government has deemed it as a critical material,” Brook said.

Brook said that the U.S. has a large number of natural gas producers that have a certain amount of helium in their gas.

However, financing is a significant challenge for helium producers due to the high costs of separation equipment, difficulties raising capital, and lack of transparent price benchmarks.

“I’ve been monitoring maybe 35 different companies around the country that are all in one form or another trying to get themselves into the helium production business,” he said. “Unfortunately, the success rate is very, very low. It’s very complicated.”

All the rest:

RUSSIAN DIESEL ON ITS WAY TO NEW YORK: The first round of Russian diesel supply is on its way to New York.

Reuters reported that the Malta-flagged medium-sized tanker Agioi Fanendes was loaded yesterday with 40,000 metric tons ⁠of ultra-low sulphur diesel in Russia’s Baltic port of Primorsk.

It is expected to arrive in the U.S. on Nov. 7. This would be the first U.S.-bound shipment of Russian fuel since former President Joe Biden issued an import ban in 2022.

More on diesel… The Trump administration’s $8 billion fuel aid program will not reach the pockets of farmers until after the November midterm elections.

US Department of Agriculture official Richard Fordyce told Reuters the exact timing ​of ​payments ⁠is still to be determined.

“It’s going to ​be close to the ​end ⁠of the year, would be my guess,” Fordyce said. “That ⁠is ​a little unclear ​at this point.”

TRUMP INVOKES DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT FOR OIL: President Donald Trump announced last night that he plans to use the Cold War Defense Production Act to prop up domestic oil refining, in his latest effort to lower diesel and gasoline prices.

He revealed he would be invoking the DPA during a campaign rally in Sioux City, Iowa, saying the administration would be releasing $150 million to increase refining capacity in the U.S.

Experts are skeptical over whether using the national defense authorities will put any significant downward pressure on prices at the pump.

“I don’t think that’s really going to have any impact,” GasBuddy expert Patrick De Haan told CBS News.

Tom Kloza, chief energy adviser for Gulf Oil, told the outlet that there is very little wiggle room to expand refining capacity in the short term, meaning “production can’t be added regardless of political will.”

As of today, the average price of diesel was at $6.31 per gallon, just over $2 more than the national average price of gasoline, which sits at $4.29 per gallon, according to AAA.

Quick reminder: Trump signed multiple executive orders in April allowing agencies to use DPA funding, declaring the development, manufacturing, and deployment of large-scale energy infrastructure as critical to national defense. The administration has since utilized the authorities to accelerate the development of fossil fuel projects, such as pipelines, as well as transmission infrastructure in Alaska.

HOUSE MEMBERS SEEK TO INCLUDE FIX OUR FOREST ACT IN NDAA: A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is asking leadership to include the Fix Our Forest Act in the fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act to ensure it becomes law.

Twenty-eight House members sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama and ranking member Rep. Adam Smith of Washington.

They argue that wildfire seasons pose a “significant – and growing – hazard to our military readiness and national security, endangering the safety of the American people, as well as the National Guard, Reserve forces, and other servicemen across the country.”

The letter was led by Californian Democratic Reps. Scott Peters and George Whitesides, along with Republican Rep. Jeff Crank of Colorado.

As a reminder, the Fix Our Forest Act is a bill that is aimed at speeding up forest management and reducing wildfire risks. The bill passed the House, but has yet to pass the Senate.

FORMER REGULATOR URGES CAUTION AMID PALISADES RESTART: If you’ve been keeping up with Daily on Energy over the last few weeks, you know the efforts to restart the shuttered Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Michigan were delayed once again this fall, amid a refueling blunder.

If you didn’t know: Shortly after Holtec International began loading the nuclear reactor with fuel at the end of August, one nuclear fuel assembly – a group of fuel rods – tilted and tipped out of place. And last week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave the company its approval to remove the damaged fuel assembly using a technique never done before. You can read more about that here.

A warning: Around the same time regulators gave Holtec the green light to move forward, the NRC also issued a “chilling effect” letter to the company. Regulators said that during a recent inspection “a chilled work environment” existed in Holtec’s supply chain and quality assurance department at the nuclear power plant. Essentially this means inspectors found that some employees are hesitant to raise safety concerns due to fears of retaliation.

Holtec has never operated a nuclear plant before, but would make history in restarting Palisades, as it would become the first decommissioned nuclear power plant in the U.S. to come back online. One former NRC commissioner has suggested that Holtec is under pressure to achieve this goal.

“The situation at Palisades is that you have a power plant operator newbie in Holtec trying to restart a nuclear reactor, and they may be under a lot of financial and political pressure to get this done speedily,” Allison Macfarlane, who chaired the NRC from 2012 to 2014, told the Financial Times.

Macfarlane said the issuing of the “chilled work environment” letter appears to reflect a “new culture” within part of the nuclear energy industry today, one that aims to “move fast and break things.”

“But to ensure safety, nuclear needs a culture based on going slowly and carefully,” she said.

IN OTHER NUCLEAR NEWS…AN APPROVAL FOR THE WORLD’S FIRST PERMANENT WASTE VAULT: Finland is making history as the first country in the world to grant a license for a permanent nuclear waste repository – a decision that comes at a crucial time for the expanding industry.

Waste management company Posiva announced yesterday that the Finnish government granted an operating license for the spent nuclear fuel facility, which is located in Southwest Finland. The site will have space to hold around 6,500 tons of uranium and will be the permanent storage facility for the country’s five nuclear reactors. The spent fuel will be stored in copper canisters that will be placed in holes drilled deep into bedrock that are later filled with clay and concrete.

The decision does not mean the storage site will immediately begin operations, as there are still some inspections and tests to complete. Posiva has not yet announced a date for when the facility will officially be open.

Our take: The lack of a permanent nuclear waste storage solution has long been one of the biggest reasons why the industry saw a significant drop in public support over the years. In some states, such as California, it is the main obstacle to the development of new nuclear energy.

The Trump administration has attempted to solve this issue by establishing nuclear lifecycle innovation campuses in several states, where waste could be stored long-term. As those plans develop, Finland may very well become a model for similar repositories around the world.

ICYMI – REGULATORS SIMPLIFY RULES FOR GOVERNMENT-TESTED NUCLEAR REACTORS: The NRC has made it easier for nuclear start-ups that are developing advanced reactors through government pilot programs to apply for commercial licenses.

Yesterday, the NRC finalized a rule allowing applicants to use relevant analyses, test data, and other information from reactor demonstration programs run by the Department of Energy or Pentagon to support their applications for licenses.

The NRC said the rule aims to make reviews for licenses “more efficient” as it will allow regulators to make decisions on existing technical evidence and reduce duplicative studies.

This rule does not rubber-stamp designs developed in pilot programs, and developers will still need to demonstrate that their designs are in compliance with NRC-specific requirements. They must also identify differences between their demonstration reactors and their proposed commercial projects.

Several nuclear companies are developing advanced small and microreactors through pilot programs with the Energy Department and Pentagon, including Antares, Deployable, Aalo Atomics, and Valar Atomics. All four of these companies have achieved criticality status with their reactors, with some hoping to start producing electricity as early as next year.

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