WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Thursday, readers! House lawmakers have left D.C. to hit the campaign trails ahead of the midterm elections, which are just 47 days away. 
But senators are still in town and are wrapping up some business before they head back to their constituents.
The Senate is racing to tackle several major priorities before breaking ahead of the midterm elections, including permitting reform and preventing homeowners from feeling the cost of data centers. We dive into both below. 
Plus, Trump administration officials are dismissing the idea of a ban on diesel exports, even as prices soar. Keep reading to see what Energy Secretary Chris Wright had to say.
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.
SENATE SHOWDOWN:
Getting closer to a permitting deal: We’re almost to the end of the week, and still no hard news out of the Senate on whether a deal streamlining the federal permitting system will be reached before the midterm elections.
Key negotiators have said over the last couple of days that we should know where things stand by the end of this week.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright told reporters that he was feeling “relatively good” about the Senate being able to strike a deal. He revealed that he was set to attend a meeting on permitting reform this afternoon.
“I think we have a time in history right now to do some common sense reforms that’ll make it easier to build things in our country,” Wright said, adding that he would “feel a lot better” after seeing details of a draft bill and confirmation that there is an alignment of votes.
“But fingers crossed that we’ll get something done this year,” the secretary said.
This afternoon’s meeting with the secretary is a sign that the negotiators have come to an agreement on most of the text for a Senate bill and are awaiting clarity from the administration on how a deal could be implemented.
This has been a sticking point for Democrats, as several fear that the Trump administration would not fairly apply faster permitting timelines to renewable energy projects as well as fossil fuels.
While much of the administration’s attempts to halt or roll back permits for wind and solar projects have been reversed in federal court, Democrats note that certain agencies have still failed to issue new permits.
For example, in August, a federal judge in Oregon ordered the Pentagon to resume reviews of onshore wind projects, determining if the turbines would impact military operations.
However, legal documents obtained by Politico reveal that while the Pentagon has said it “resumed” wind project applications, the agency has not identified a single project that has moved forward through its review process.
Meanwhile, Heinrich objects to the Ratepayer Protection Act: Energy and Natural Resources Committee ranking member Sen. Martin Heinrich blocked the passage of the Ratepayer Protection Act.
Republican Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio earlier today called for a unanimous consent vote on the Ratepayer Protection Act.
The bill was voted out of the House yesterday evening with strong bipartisan support, with only a few Democrats in opposition.
Heinrich on the Senate floor objected to the unanimous consent vote, arguing that the bill “falls short.” He added that “Congress needs to pass real legislation with real teeth.”
His own bill, the GRID Savings Act, would require large load customers to pay for their grid updates.
Quick reminder: Republican Rep. Gabe Evans of Colorado introduced the bill and it was co-sponsored by Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida.
The legislation would require state regulators to consider standards for new data centers and hyperscalers that consume over 100 megawatts of electricity to cover the costs of new generation, transmission, and infrastructure upgrades. The bill does not have a federal mandate.
The Trump administration has championed the buildout of data centers in the country.
Wright said this morning that there needs to be “common sense guardrails on building energy, on constructing data centers, and even the deployment of AI,” referring to the Ratepayer Protection Act.
Read more by Maydeen here.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION STANDS FIRM AGAINST DIESEL EXPORT BAN:
Republicans have been looking for every possible solution to bring down soaring diesel and gasoline prices, but there’s one the Trump administration still won’t go for: an export ban.
Secretary Wright shot down the possibility of the administration endorsing any type of ban on fuels this morning, saying that while the U.S. is a net exporter of products like diesel, the country does still import gasoline.
“We consume a larger percent of gasoline out of each barrel of oil than a barrel of oil yields,” Wright said.
He explained that if the U.S. were to stop exporting diesel, refineries would slow down their operations, as they would run out of places to sell that product. As a result, refineries would start producing less gasoline, leading to higher prices at the pump.
“It’s a globally interconnected system,” Wright said. “The thing we need when prices are high is more supply. We need to do everything we can to grow supply, and if you start putting barriers on flows, pretty quickly you will reduce the production, and you’ll have less supply.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune expressed interest in a diesel export ban earlier in the week, saying that if it were to take pressure off prices, he was “open to exploring it.” The idea, however, has also been shot down by other administration officials, including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
Wright’s remarks come as experts warn gas and diesel prices will spike even higher in the coming days.
As of today, the national average price of gas was $4.43 per gallon, according to AAA, while the average diesel price was $6.39 a gallon.
GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan warned yesterday that average diesel prices could hit a new high of $6.50 a gallon before the weekend.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has adopted a rather laissez-faire attitude to surging prices.
“It’s a very inexpensive price to pay for what we’ve done,” Trump said during a rally last night, referring to the U.S.’s efforts to degrade Iran’s nuclear capabilities. “Remember that. It’s a little more. Frankly, even if it was a lot more.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed that oil and gas prices will “come tumbling down,” but admitted last week that might not happen until after the midterms.
All the rest:
WHAT’S GOING ON WITH OIL: Oil prices have retreated from the highs earlier in the week as market fears over greater supply disruptions have eased slightly, in large part due to the fact that Saudi Arabia has been able to increase oil shipments via the southern Oman route through the Strait of Hormuz.
As of 2:30 p.m. EDT, international benchmark Brent crude was down 1.10% and selling at $104.67 a barrel. Similarly, West Texas Intermediate had fallen 0.49% and was priced at $101.93 a barrel.
With prices still above $100, markets are not out of the woods just yet.
How about the East-West Pipeline? Saudi Arabia has yet to resume transporting oil through its East-West Pipeline, which has been shut down since it was attacked by pro-Iranian militias last week.
Some analysts have said repairs to the oil infrastructure could take as long as a month or two, though Wright said earlier this week that the closure of the pipeline would be an issue of just “days” not weeks.
When asked about a new assessment on the shut-down pipeline, Wright told Callie today that he does not have any recent update.
Wright said his analysis came from directly talking with the Saudis in the hours after the attack happened.
“I don’t have a recent update…I need to get that final assessment,” he said.
ENVIRONMENTAL ORGS SUE TRUMP OVER POWER PLANT POLLUTION ROLLBACK: Environmental and public health groups are suing the Trump administration over the Environmental Protection Agency’s rollback of pollution standards for fossil fuel power plants.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, American Lung Association, American Public Health Association, Clean Air Council, Clean Wisconsin, and Environmental Defense Fund filed the lawsuit today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, arguing the EPA violated its obligations under the Clean Air Act by repealing the standards without replacing them.
Read more from the Examiner’s Rena Rowe on the lawsuit here.
Quick reminder: The EPA issued a final rule this week repealing regulations on carbon and toxic emissions from fossil fuel power plants. The rules, finalized under the Biden administration, required new and existing plants to reduce carbon pollution by installing carbon capture, sequestration, and storage technology.
TRUMP TO FURTHER REDUCE ENDANGERED SPECIES PROTECTIONS: The Trump administration has removed a key protection from the Endangered Species Act regarding the killing or injuring of an endangered animal.
An internal memo indicated that accidentally killing or injuring an animal would no longer be considered illegal unless the actions are purposeful targeting of a certain species.
The memo addresses the ESA interpretation of what it means to “take” an animal, which means “to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.”
As a reminder: Over the summer, the Interior Department took action to slash the federal definition of “harm” under the ESA. The definition of harm means any action that hurts or kills an imperiled species is illegal, including modifying or destroying a species’ habitat.
ICYMI – EXXON’S INTEREST IN VENEZUELA GROWS: When Callie was in Caracas earlier this month for the signing of several oil agreements with five energy companies, there was one notable name not in the room: Exxon Mobil.
Publicly, Exxon has been one of the more hesitant oil majors to jump back into producing oil in Venezuela. The company pulled its operations from the country back in 2007. And in January, CEO Darren Woods called Venezuela “uninvestable” due to legal and political risks.
Over the last few months, reports have floated that Exxon was negotiating a deal to resume producing heavy crude oil, though the company was absent from the major signing that featured direct competitors Chevron and Eni.
New reporting from Bloomberg, however, now reveals that Exxon does still want to get in.
The company reportedly held talks this week with the interim Venezuelan government, with executives flying to Caracas on Tuesday night for the negotiations. Exxon is specifically interested in taking control of two fields it previously operated on in the Orinoco Belt. The company also wishes to secure rights to two other fields in the Carabobo region.
It’s important to note that any negotiations are not guaranteed to lead to a deal, as Exxon will have to invest a significantly larger amount of capital than Chevron, as the company is not currently operating in Venezuela. Chevron, which has been the only U.S. company producing oil in the country for the last couple of decades, said earlier this month that it was investing about $7 billion to double its production by the early 2030s.
RUNDOWN
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