WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Thursday, Daily on Energy readers! If you’re chronically online like us, you may have seen the many videos and photos of the giant elephant seal known as Neil unleashing chaos on the people of Tasmania. 🦭 Well, according to Tasmania’s premier, the one-ton seal is headed back out to sea. Check it out here. Back in Washington, D.C., Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin headed to the Great American State Fair to announce that the administration was easing emissions restrictions for heavy-duty vehicles like school buses and semi-trucks. 🚛💨🚌💨 Maydeen was on the ground for the announcement, so keep reading for a closer look from the event. Plus, we dive into the European Union’s plans to accelerate its phase-out of fossil fuels and lean on electrification. 🛢️➡️⚡ Read below for everything you need to know!
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.ZELDIN PROPOSES TO EASE TRUCK POLLUTION RULES: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin attended the Great American State Fair on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., this afternoon, where he announced a proposal to loosen parts of the Biden administration’s emission controls on heavy-duty vehicles. What did he propose? Zeldin said the EPA would propose amendments to the Biden administration’s heavy-duty truck and engine standards for model year 2027. The agency is proposing to “scale back” emission system warranty requirements, reducing how long manufacturers must cover repairs to pollution-control equipment. The agency plans to maintain the Biden administration requirement for a 90% reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions. The EPA also proposes eliminating mandatory “deratements” for newly manufactured trucks and tractors. “Even if you’ve never driven a truck in your life, when it costs less to move goods, it costs less to buy them. Those savings get passed down to you at the grocery store and the hardware store on nearly everything a truck delivers,” Zeldin said at the state fair. Maydeen was on the ground at today’s event. Check out her story here.STRAIT OF HORMUZ TRAFFIC UPDATE: Ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has come to a standstill, following President Donald Trump’s statement that the ceasefire in Iran is over. Only one tanker has moved through the waterway. The lone tanker was a sanctioned crude carrier, Bloomberg reported. The only other vessel traffic was an Iranian container ship. There was zero traffic on the route closest to the Omani coast. Following the U.S. and Iran interim deal for an end to the war, about 24 tankers crossed each day. There were at least four oil and liquefied natural gas tankers that made U-turns out of the waterway after Iran attacked three commercial ships yesterday. Read more by the Washington Examiner’s Sophia Mandt here. WHAT’S HAPPENING TO OIL: Despite the escalation, traders appear confident that the latest military conflict between Washington and Tehran won’t last. “We expect the renewed tension in the Middle East between the U.S. and Iran to be relatively short-lived because both countries are constrained by practical economic and political realities,” Vikas Dwivedi of Macquarie Group said in a note obtained by the Wall Street Journal. As a result, oil prices dipped slightly today, falling by more than 2%. As of 3 p.m. EDT, Brent crude was down 2.56% and selling at $76.02 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate also dropped 2.41% and was selling at $71.75 a barrel. EUROPEAN UNION ELECTRIFICATION PLANS: The European Union plans to introduce a number of policies to shift its economy toward electrification and away from fossil-fuel energy sources as part of its response to the war in Iran. Reuters reports that the European Commission has drafted a proposal that is set to be published on July 17 that would set a target for a minimum percentage of the EU’s energy consumption to run on electricity by 2040. Reuters noted that the draft is still being developed and the percentage has yet to be included. The draft, according to Reuters, said that the commission would consider mandating the installation of heat pumps in public buildings and consider stronger public procurement targets for electric vehicles. It would also propose a measure later this year to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. NUCLEAR ENERGY RENAISSANCE PUSHES FORWARD WORLDWIDE: The nuclear energy revival isn’t just happening in the U.S., as the United Kingdom and Argentina are embracing the carbon-free technology. What’s happening in the U.K.? Yesterday, the U.K. government announced that it will be extending the life of its Sizewell B nuclear power plant in Suffolk by another 20 years. The life extension is supported by French utility EDF, which will invest around £800 million ($1.1 billion) to keep the plant running. The deal is also supported by U.K. energy company Centrica. Sizewell B, which has the capacity of supplying power to 2.5 million homes (around 3% of the country’s entire electricity needs), was poised to close in 2035. The agreement will now keep the facility open until 2055. What about in Argentina? Also this week, President Javier Milei announced the construction of a new nuclear reactor in Buenos Aires. The reactor is expected to be built with roughly $1.2 billion in private investment from U.S.-Argentine company Meitner Energy, according to the Buenos Aires Times. The reactor is set to have a capacity of around 300 megawatts and will be built entirely with private funding. EL NINO STRENGTHENS, NOAA SAYS: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said this year’s El Niño has an 81% chance of reaching the top category of strength by fall, the Associated Press reports. An El Niño is an unusual warming of the ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific, altering global weather patterns. This year’s El Niño is set to be one of the most intense since NOAA began tracking them in the 1950s. The weather phenomenon in some regions can increase rainfall or cause droughts and heat waves. This year’s El Niño began last month and is now considered moderate. ICYMI – ARIZONA SCRAPS ENERGY EFFICIENCY RULES TO SUPPORT DATA CENTERS: State regulators in Arizona that oversee electric utilities have voted to repeal energy efficiency standards they say had become a surcharge for ratepayers and did not support data center growth in the state. The details: The Republican Arizona Corporation Commission voted unanimously yesterday to repeal the electric energy efficiency standard rules. The regulations were first enacted in Arizona in 2010 and required electric utilities to reduce their cumulative energy use by 22% by 2020. This was meant to incentivize regulated utilities to use and promote energy-efficient appliances and create programs to lower costs for consumers. The commission ruled that the rules were no longer in the public interest, claiming utilities increased costs for consumers to “financially recover” from mandated programs. Data obtained by E&E News found that all regulated utilities and electricity cooperatives in the state met or exceeded the standards. Commissioner René Lopez also reportedly said that the standards could put utilities at risk as they increase their portfolio with large, less flexible customers like data centers. “When you bring on large load customers, there’s no way to be more efficient,” Lopez said, according to E&E News. While the standards have been scrapped, utilities and electric coops will still be able to implement energy-efficiency programs. RUNDOWN Politico The administration has a new climate change office. It’s headed by a climate critic.Washington Examiner America’s nuclear resurgence requires more than new reactorsLatitude Media An alternative vision of residential flexibility for data centers
