|
WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Friday, Daily on Energy readers! With Thanksgiving around the corner, some of you might be hitting the road or airport this weekend – if so, we are wishing you safe travels! ✈️
In today’s newsletter, with the help of our editor Joe Lawler, we are keeping an eye on whether delegates at the United Nations annual climate summit or COP30 in Brazil reach a deal on how nations will meet their greenhouse gas emission targets as the conference wraps up.
Meanwhile, we take a look at where oil prices stand after the Trump administration reportedly has prepared a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine.
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: Lithium Americas CEO Jonathan Evans told lawmakers on the House Select Committee on China earlier this week that permitting reform needs to address the judicial process, as it is crucial to building a domestic supply of critical minerals.
Evans called permitting a “real barrier,” adding that, “Our [projects] process was five years, and I was sued. I was permitted by the Trump administration, and one week later I was sued, and I was stuck in court for four and a half years.”
On the groups challenging projects, Evans said, “They know they're not going to win. They just want to slow you down and hopefully bankrupt you because you're not going to get any financing. And this faces our whole country.”
“Can you imagine building the interstate highway system today in this country? It would never get done,” he said, adding there would be more overseas investments flowing into the country if there was certainty around the legal process.
IONEER EXECUTIVE TALKS CRITICAL MINERALS LANDSCAPE: Ioneer Vice President Chad Yeftich told Maydeen earlier this week that the United States is shaping an evolving industrial policy aimed at diversifying its supply chain for critical minerals and rare earths.
Whether they be tariffs, new trade structures, or the government taking equity stakes, Yeftich said, “there are tools in the toolkit.” He noted that large mineral projects require significant capital to advance.
As part of the Trump administration’s effort to build a domestic mineral supply chain, the government partnered with several mining companies and took direct stakes in some of them.
Ioneer, an Australia-based mining company, owns the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in Esmeralda County, Nevada. Earlier this year, the Biden administration’s Energy Department approved a $996 million loan for the project. Yeftich said the loan reviews conducted under multiple administrations have helped validate the project—and the private sector has taken notice.
Yeftich said that clear federal direction can help unlock additional private-sector investment, adding that the company has off-take agreements with Ford, Toyota, Panasonic, and EcoPro Innovation.
“Signals that the government can provide – however it wishes, for the industrial policy it wants to support,” he said. “So if you want to reshore these minerals and the processing of them, it is interesting to have different tools in the toolkit.”
“Equity is one option, when it makes sense and can sort of induce that private sector funding that we all need to get these industries going, then that's an interesting option. But again, it's one of several tools in the toolkit,” he added.
Rhyolite Ridge aims to process and refine lithium and boron used in both the energy and defense sectors. Over its first 25 years, the operation is expected to produce roughly 24,500 tonnes per year of lithium carbonate equivalent and 135,000 tonnes per year of boric acid.
The project has taken several years to get permitted, with the company beginning to work with the first Trump administration and throughout the Biden administration.
Yeftich said the permitting process is certainly part of the reason that projects take a while to build, but he added that any large projects, even after they are permitted, take two or three years to build.
He added that building a supply chain cannot happen in a “very short period of time,” but said consistent federal policy could help accelerate domestic production.
“But if you align the private sector to invest and…they have an understanding that our policies will be relatively consistent so that to support these endeavors, if you have sensible permitting reforms, potentially judicial reform, then you can get these stuff, these projects, going, and get that reshoring of production,” he said.
COP30’S FINAL HOURS: It is the last day at the United Nations annual climate summit in Brazil, where delegates are scrambling to reach a deal on how nations can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago told delegates in a public plenary session at the conference before releasing them for further negotiations, "This cannot be an agenda that divides us," adding that "We must reach an agreement between us."
A draft text of the deal was released to delegates today, Reuters reported, but it did not include references to fossil fuels.
Reuters said that Panamanian negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey told a press conference before the plenary on Friday morning that excluding fossil fuels from the deal may turn the talks into a "clown show".
"Failing to name the causes of the climate crisis is not compromise. It is denial," he said.
Some countries have pushed for a stronger roadmap to reach the targets set two years ago at COP28 to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Meanwhile, negotiators told Reuters that Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing countries are opposing the deal because it includes a shift from fossil fuels to clean energy.
The draft has called for tripling global financing from 2025 levels to help countries adapt to climate change by 2030. But it did not specifically say where the money would come from.
The summit will end today, but previous COP summits have gone past their deadlines before to reach a deal. The deal would need to be approved by 200 countries to be adopted.
OIL PRICES DOWN ON UKRAINE PEACE PLAN TALK: Oil prices fell this morning as investors reacted to the news that the Trump administration has prepared a peace plan that would put pressure on Ukraine to bring an end to the war.
Brent International crude fell more than 2% to just above $62 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate fell 2.5% to under $58. Prices recovered in the early afternoon a bit, though.
The peace plan came even as sanctions on Russia's two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, came into effect.
"Signs that the US is still trying to work on a deal eases some concerns over further sanctions against Russia and also how strongly current curbs will be enforced," ING head of commodities strategy Warren Patterson and commodities strategist Ewa Manthey wrote in a note.
MILESTONE – JAPAN CLOSE TO RESTARTING WORLD’S LARGEST NUCLEAR PLANT: Japan is nearing the restart of the world’s largest nuclear plant, which would mark a major turnaround from the government’s decision in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster to shut down all the country’s nuclear plants.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, located in the port city of Niigata on the west coast of Honshu, Japan’s biggest island, got the go-ahead from the prefecture’s governor, according to the BBC, meaning that all that is left is for it to get the green light from the prefecture’s government assembly and the nuclear regulator.
In recent times, Japan has moved to embrace nuclear power once more as demand has increased, and 14 reactors have come back online.
TESLA BEWARE – NEW XIAOMI ‘QUANTUM LEAPS’ PREVIOUS ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The YU7, the new model from Chinese vehicle manufacturer Xiaomi, is “quantum leaps” ahead of previous models, according to Bloomberg’s David Welch, and better than Tesla’s offerings.
“The new EV is quicker than the Model Y, goes farther on a charge and tops up in less time. It has a small refrigerator in the back, like you’d find in much pricier Cadillac Escalade or Land Rover models,” Welch writes. “At $46,000 for the long-range Max version, it’s around $11,000 cheaper than Tesla’s equivalent SUV.”
The YU7 outstrips the Model Y in terms of power, range, and charging time.
Why this matters: This review is one further sign of China apparently taking the lead on EV technology.
DRILL, BABY, DRILL UPDATE: The number of active oil and gas rigs in the U.S. grew by five in the past week to 554, Baker Hughes reported this afternoon, down 29 from a year ago.
For oil, specifically, the number of rigs was down by two to 419, down 60 on the year.
There are 254 rigs active in the Permian Basin, up one on the past week and down 49 on the year.
ICYMI - CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS AND GOVERNOR REACT TO OFFSHORE LEASE PLAN: The Interior Department yesterday released its five-year plan for oil and gas development, proposing as many as 34 offshore lease sales off the coasts of California, Alaska, and the Gulf of America.
The proposal recommended six lease sales off the coast of California as early as 2027. However, several California lawmakers yesterday evening held a press conference quickly after the proposal was released, opposing the administration’s plan.
Key quotes: “California and nearly every other coastal state across this nation is here to say ‘we’re not interested,’” said California Rep. Jared Huffman, the ranking member on the House Natural Resources Committee.
“California and every state joining us today will fight this with everything we've got, in federal court, in Congress, in state legislatures, and we will win because we've won before, and we know how to protect what's ours,” Huffman added.
Democrat California Sen. Alex Padilla said the Trump administration is “playing games again and threatening not just our environment, but our very economy with this misguided proposal to reopen the coast of California to offshore oil drilling, we're not going to stand for it.”
Meanwhile, Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the plan “idiotic” stating it would harm the coastal economy and communities. There has not been new oil drilling in California waters for several decades since a big oil spill occurred off the coast of Santa Barbara in the late 1960s.
“This reckless attempt to sell out our coastline to his Big Oil donors is dead in the water,” Newsom said. “For decades, California has stood firm in our opposition to new offshore drilling, and nothing will change that. We will use every tool at our disposal to protect our coastline.
RUNDOWN:
The Associated Press Fighting bugs with bugs: How Maine’s Midcoast is defending its hemlocks
The New York Times A Colossal, Hidden Pile of Trash Ignites Outcry in Britain
Canary Media Trump wants new nuclear power. So far, it’s all restarts.
|
