WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Wednesday, Daily on Energy readers! We hope you all are staying warm as we are keeping an eye out for a winter storm expected to hit parts of the Northeast and South later this week – Washington, D.C., could soon see heavy snowfall this weekend. ❄️☃️
President Donald Trump took the stage today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he expressed support for fossil fuels over wind energy. We got all the details on what the president said below. ⬇️
Meanwhile, we are also keeping an eye on the House, which is set to vote on a bill that would undo and prevent a mining ban in northern Minnesota. 🪨⛏️
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TRUMP PUSHES ENERGY AGENDA IN DAVOS: President Donald Trump took the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this morning, advocating for fossil fuels and nuclear energy while making a diatribe against wind power.
Favoring nuclear: During his address, Trump issued a favorable endorsement of nuclear power, admitting he previously had concerns about the carbon-free source of energy.
“The U.S. is going heavy into nuclear,” Trump said. “I wasn’t a fan of nuclear, but the safety progress they’ve made with nuclear is unbelievable. We are very much into the world of nuclear energy.”
The Trump administration has made nuclear power key to its energy dominance and artificial intelligence agenda, making substantial effort to accelerate the development of new reactors on both the large and small scale. The administration has also continued to pay out a Biden administration-negotiated loan to restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant on Lake Michigan. The facility is expected to come back online early this year and will be the first decommissioned nuclear facility in the U.S. to do so.
Push for North Sea drilling: Trump also called on the United Kingdom to take up his “drill, baby, drill” agenda, calling for increased development of oil and gas in the North Sea.
“The United Kingdom produces just one-third of the total energy from all sources that it did in 1999 – think of that, one-third – and they’re sitting on top of the North Sea, one of the greatest reserves anywhere in the world, but they don’t use it,” Trump said, claiming that was one of the reasons why the U.K. has seen lower energy production levels while also seeing higher prices.
The U.K. aims to hit net-zero emissions by 2050. As part of this, it has lowered incentives for new fossil fuel development, including committing to not permitting any new oil and gas drilling licenses in the North Sea and increasing taxes on firms operating in the region.
Ranting on wind: In case anyone forgot, Trump made sure to take some time to remind foreign leaders of his hatred for wind energy. The president described windmills as “losers” during his address, claiming that, the more windmills a country has, “the more money that country loses.”
He went on to falsely claim that China, which dominates the global wind turbine manufacturing market, doesn’t have any wind farms.
“China makes almost all of the windmills, and yet I haven’t been able to find any wind farms in China. Did you ever think of that?” Trump said. “They put up a couple big wind farms but they don’t use them, they just put them up to show people what they could look like. They don’t spin, they don’t do anything.”
China is home to some of the largest wind farms in the world. Data released by the Energy Information Administration last May also found the renewable resource makes up about 16% of China’s electricity generation.
MINNESOTA MINING BILL: House lawmakers will vote later this afternoon on a Congressional Review Act resolution that would end the Biden administration’s 20-year mining ban in northern Minnesota and prevent future restrictions in the region.
As a reminder: Lawmakers will vote on Minnesota Republican Rep. Pete Stauber’s bill that would undo the Biden administration’s mining ban on 225,504 acres in the Superior National Forest. The area is home to a number of critical minerals, including copper, nickel, and cobalt.
Republicans and the administration initiated a plan to end the mining ban, claiming that the Biden administration failed to properly file the public land order in the Congressional Record. The Interior Department then issued a notice on the public land order, which Stauber’s CRA bill would reject.
Twin Metals, specifically, has been seeking for decades to create a mining development in the area and is currently in litigation. The Trump administration could reissue the company’s mining lease, but it would still need to undergo environmental review and permitting.
What are they saying: Twin Metals director of public affairs Kathy Graul said in a statement to Daily on Energy: “Twin Metals Minnesota is very appreciative of Congress for their efforts to overturn an unnecessary and detrimental action that locked out a significant domestic source of critical minerals, which are needed now more than ever to accomplish our shared goals of energy security, creating good paying jobs and strengthening our nation’s supply chains.”
“Minnesota is fortunate to have both world-class mineral deposits and a stringent regulatory framework that ensures mining projects are held to the highest environmental and labor standards. Twin Metals is committed to moving forward with the responsible development of our mineral resources for the benefit of Minnesota communities while also contributing to a stronger nation,” Graul added.
TRUMP TO BOLSTER DEEP SEA MINING: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration finalized a rule that would speed up licensing and permitting processes for companies seeking to mine critical minerals in international waters.
According to Reuters, the rule would combine licensing and permitting processes, resulting in a shorter review. The rule is aligned with the Trump administration’s goal of increasing the supply of critical minerals in the U.S. The ruling follows Trump’s executive order in which he directed the administration to expedite mining permits in the sea.
The deep seafloor of the Pacific Ocean contains polymetallic nodules, which are mineral concretions of metals like manganese, nickel, cobalt, and copper.
WRIGHT SAYS VENEZUELA OIL OUTPUT COULD RISE 30% IN THE NEAR TERM: Energy Secretary Chris Wright told oil company executives that Venezuela’s oil output could rise 30% from its level of 900,000 barrels per day in the near term, executives at the meeting told Reuters.
Following the U.S. military operation in Venezuela, capturing former dictator Nicolas Maduro, the Trump administration is seeking to bolster the oil industry there. The president has called on oil executives to invest $100 billion to fix Venezuela’s oil industry and increase output.
Wright held a closed-door meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. A person at the meeting told Reuters that an additional 300,000 barrels per day wouldn’t have a major impact on the global markets.
Another executive mentioned that the energy secretary noted that all energy resources, including renewables, would be needed to meet energy demand. The secretary’s comments come as the administration has paused wind energy projects and sought to bolster fossil fuel sources.
PLUS…INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY WARNS OF HEFTY SURPLUS: The International Energy Agency released its monthly oil report this morning, warning that the global oil market will see “significant surplus” at the start of this year.
IEA projected in its report that global oil supply will exceed demand by around 4.25 million barrels per day in the first quarter of 2026, a surplus that is equal to about 4% of current global demand.
The agency attributed this growth in supply to strong production worldwide, as well as rising inventories in storage tanks and at sea over the last year. In the report, IEA indicated that the excess in supply will offer needed support to the markets amid geopolitical uncertainties in Venezuela and Iran.
“While it is too early to assess the full implications for oil markets of these latest geopolitical developments, for now, bloated balances provide some comfort to market participants and have kept prices in check,” IEA said.
BUNDLE UP THIS WEEKEND: A massive winter storm will be making its way across the South and Northeast over the weekend, dumping several inches of snow in the Washington, D.C., region.
The details: The storm, nicknamed “Fern” is set to form from two disturbances in the north and south that are likely to combine to produce snow, sleet, or freezing rain. States such as Kansas and Oklahoma could see snowfall as soon as Friday, with the storm expected to travel into Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia on Saturday.
Several severe winter storm warnings have been issued for parts of Colorado, Michigan, and New York, with meteorologists urging residents to take precautions for frigid temperatures and heavy snowfall. For Washington, D.C., at least one model simulation is predicting that the city could see upward of 15 inches of snow.
Read more on the storm from the Examiner’s David Zimmerman here.
Gas prices already up: With the storm looming, prices of natural gas – which is used nationwide for home heating – shot up this week. Just before 1:30 p.m. EST, the Henry Hub natural gas spot price was up by around 21.89%, according to Business Insider’s markets tracker.
While up, it’s worth noting that current prices are still far lower than the highs seen in early December, the highest seen in over two years.
ANOTHER PUSH FOR A UNITED KINGDOM NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE: The United Kingdom is considering extending the life of its Sizewell B nuclear power plant.
The details: One source familiar with negotiations confirmed to the Financial Times that French utility EDF and U.K. energy company Centrica are holding discussions with the government about extending the plant’s operations by 20 years. The facility is currently poised to close in 2035, and the £800 million (more than $1 billion) deal could extend its life until 2055. The deal is expected to be agreed to in the coming months.
Why it matters: Extending the plant’s life could prove crucial to the U.K.’s efforts to hit net-zero by 2050, as nuclear units at Hinkley Point C in Somerset and Sizewell C in Suffolk are not expected to come online until the 2030s.
If Sizewell B closes before these facilities come online, it could leave the U.K. with a significant supply gap, as energy demands brought on by electrification, artificial intelligence, and manufacturing soar. Sizewell B, a pressurized water reactor, has a capacity of supplying power to 2.5 million homes, roughly 3% of the country’s entire electricity needs.
RUNDOWN
The Hill ‘An incredibly harsh environment’: Why seizing Greenland doesn’t mean securing its minerals
Washington Post Is Trump losing his war on wind power?
Washington Examiner How Trump’s oil tanker seizures add to the crackdown on Russian ‘shadow fleet’
