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WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Friday, Daily on Energy, readers! We are wrapping up the first full week of 2026, and it's been a busy one.
President Donald Trump and administration officials are meeting with oil executives today at the White House, following the military operation in Venezuela 🇻🇪🛢️. Fundamental questions remain about how U.S. oil and gas firms can expand existing or new operations in the country, though Trump sought to provide safety assurances just minutes ago.
The meeting is still ongoing, though you can find our live updates on the meeting below ⬇️.
Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule to repeal the 2009 Endangerment Finding has advanced in the regulatory process and is now under White House review. Read on 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.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: As the Trump administration has escalated its withdrawal from international discussions and debate on climate change, one senior Democrat in the Senate is pressing his party to take a stronger stance on the issue and lambast the administration over its decisions.
“First, the public is ahead of us, but second, the Republican Party is in the pockets of the fossil fuel industry. Nobody would ever point that out. The Biden administration would not talk about a villain under any circumstances,” Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said on Bloomberg’s Zero podcast this week.
“They thought that being Officer Friendly and Mr. Nice Guy was going to get them through the climate crisis. Meanwhile, on the other side of the table is this gang of fossil fuel monsters running the biggest climate denial fraud campaign in history, running a huge dark money corruption operation, trying to undermine and destroy the clean energy industry,” he said.
BIG OIL AT THE WHITE HOUSE: President Donald Trump has promised to provide major oil and gas firms with “total safety” and “total security” to increase drilling operations in Venezuela, in an effort to continue lowering oil prices in the U.S.
Trump, alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, is currently meeting at the White House with executives from U.S. oil majors Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and ConocoPhillips. Executives with Continental, Halliburton, HKN, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Trafigura, Vitol Americas, Repsol, Eni, Aspect Holdings, Tallgrass, Raisa Energy, and Hilcorp are also in attendance.
At the top of the meeting, Trump said the administration would “cut a deal” with the companies to give them “total safety, total security” in order to operate in the country.
“One of the reasons you couldn't go in is you had no guarantees, you had no security. But now you have total security. It's a whole different Venezuela,” Trump said, adding that if companies move to expand existing or new operations, they will deal directly with the United States government, not Venezuela.
“We don’t want you to deal with Venezuela,” he said.
What’s being talked about: Venezuela is estimated to have the largest oil reserves in the world, around 300 billion barrels. The country extracts fewer than a million barrels of oil per day.
The Trump administration is looking to dramatically increase these production levels, potentially by 50% within the next 12-18 months. Friday’s meeting marked the first time that major oil executives have publicly acknowledged interest in expanding existing or new operations in the country. It is worth noting, however, that Chevron – the only U.S. energy firm operating in Venezuela – stopped short of committing to expanding their operations, saying they are “committed” to Venezuela’s present and future.
You can find all our updates on how the rest of the meeting unfolds here.
PLUS…ANOTHER TANKER SEIZED: U.S. forces have seized yet another vessel as part of the effort to control oil in and out of Venezuela, with members of the U.S. Coast Guard boarding the Olina tanker early today.
It marks the fifth vessel that has been seized by U.S. forces in recent days. The operation was conducted in the Caribbean Sea, near Trinidad and Tobago.
The ship, sailing under an East Timorese flag, had attempted to evade the U.S. blockade surrounding Venezuela and was suspected of carrying Russian oil. It last transmitted its position in November, showing it sailing near the oil-rich country. MarineTraffic, a global ship-tracking service, says it was sailing under a false flag.
Read more from the Examiner’s David Zimmerman here.
‘DRILL, BABY, DRILL’ UPDATE: While Trump eyes expanding his “drill, baby, drill” agenda internationally, domestic producers continue to be hit by low crude oil prices and high supply chain costs, with the number of active drilling rigs falling once again.
The details: Data released by Baker Hughes this afternoon shows that there are two fewer oil and gas rigs than last week. There are 40 fewer that are active compared to this time last year, bringing the total to around 544.
Broken down, Baker Hughes found that three oil rigs and one gas rig were dropped during the week, but two miscellaneous rigs were added, bringing the net number of rigs dropped to two. Both of those were located on land.
Where prices stand: Ahead of Trump’s meeting with the oil executives, domestic and international crude benchmarks were up for the week. Just after 2 p.m., West Texas Intermediate was up 2.79% and selling at $59.37 per barrel. Brent Crude was also up 2.55%, priced at $63.54 per barrel.
META EXPANDS NUCLEAR INVESTMENTS: Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is kicking off the new year announcing three major deals to boost the development of advanced nuclear energy and support their artificial intelligence advancements.
The details: Meta announced this morning that it secured agreements with energy companies Vistra, TerraPower, and Oklo to support the development of up to 6.6 gigawatts of new nuclear power by 2035. The projects developed by the energy firms are expected to support Meta’s Prometheus supercluster computing system, being built in New Albany, Ohio. One gigawatt is roughly equivalent to the amount of electricity needed to power approximately 750,000 homes.
Terrapower will specifically be focusing on the development of two smaller nuclear reactor units that will be capable of generating up to 690 megawatts of power. They could come online as early as 2032. The company will also be developing up to six other units producing 2.1 gigawatts by 2035.
Oklo will be focused on adding up to 1.2 gigawatts of nuclear energy for the regional PJM Interconnection grid in Ohio. Meanwhile, Meta has also agreed to purchase 2.1 gigawatts of energy from Vistra from two operating nuclear power plants in Ohio.
Key quote: “State-of-the-art data centers and AI infrastructure are essential to securing America’s position as a global leader in AI,” Meta’s chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan said. “Nuclear energy will help power our AI future, strengthen our country’s energy infrastructure, and provide clean, reliable electricity for everyone.”
HOUSE ENDS ENERGY EFFICIENCY STANDARDS FOR MANUFACTURED HOMES: This morning, House lawmakers passed a bill that would remove energy-efficiency standards for manufactured homes.
Lawmakers voted 206 to 57 to pass Indiana Republican Rep. Erin Houchin's Affordable HOMES Act. The bill would end the Department of Energy's energy-efficiency regulations for manufactured homes and eliminate its authority to establish new ones. Instead, the bill says the DOE may offer recommendations to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for revisions to energy standards.
In a statement, Houchin said the bill is meant to cut red tape and regulations that she argued have contributed to higher costs.
Yet, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) argued that the bill would actually raise energy bills for residents of future homes, increasing the average annual energy bill by $475.
Jennifer Layke, executive director of the ACEEE, said, "This gives the green light for manufacturers to pinch pennies on insulation and leave residents to pay the price month after month. It's a shortsighted giveaway, and it would hurt the affordability of this important type of housing."
Meanwhile, the House postponed a vote that had been scheduled this week on the SHOWER Act, which would enact Trump’s executive order weakening federal rules limiting the flow of water through showerheads.
ENDANGERMENT FINDING UNDER WHITE HOUSE REVIEW: The White House this week began to review the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule to repeal the 2009 Endangerment Finding.
The regulation was submitted to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs as of Wednesday, according to the website. It could take several weeks for the White House to conclude its review of the proposal.
As a reminder: The EPA’s proposed rule would withdraw the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which concluded that six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, pose a threat to public health and welfare. The finding allows the EPA to set greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicles.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has argued that the agency does not have the authority to regulate vehicle emissions and the finding has led to costly regulations on the automotive industry.
If the proposal is finalized, it would eliminate all emission standards for light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicles, as well as heavy-duty engines.
ICYMI – GM LAYS OFF WORKERS: General Motors will lay off more than 1,100 workers at its Factory Zero plant in Hamtramck, Michigan.
UAW Local 22, which represents the workers at Factory Zero, told Fox2 Detroit that the layoffs will be permanent. Factory Zero is where GM builds its GMC Hummer EV and Chevy Silverado EV among other products.
“I just want to see these guys come back to work, whether they find work with us or somewhere else, I would like to see them back working. That’s what the UAW is about,” UAW Local 22 President James Cotton told Fox2 Detroit.
The union noted that there is a possibility that some workers might find work in other parts of the company.
It was reported in October that GM plans to indefinitely lay off workers at plants dedicated to producing electric vehicles. Some of the workers are anticipated to be called back in mid-2026. GM’s layoffs are part of the automotive industry efforts to adjust to policy changes that no longer support EV production. Policy changes have forced auto companies to adjust their plants to support more hybrid vehicles or gasoline-powered cars.
RUNDOWN
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