Daily on Energy: FERC moves to accelerate LNG projects

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Thursday, readers! Several major new movies are hitting the theaters this weekend: Sense and Sensibility for the romantics, Whalefall for the thrill seekers, and Nathan Fielder’s documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, You Can See Everything, for everyone else who’s chronically online. 🎬🎥🍿 Which one will you be seeing? 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. Federal energy regulators are making it easier to develop liquefied natural gas infrastructure across the country, proposing a new blanket authorization program and removing certain environmental requirements for new projects. Earlier today, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission put forward the new policies, which will help deliver on President Donald Trump’s agenda to develop more natural gas projects and increase exports of LNG abroad.Blanket authorizations: The regulators unanimously proposed establishing a blanket program to authorize certain activities at LNG facilities. This will allow some projects to move forward at an accelerated pace without undergoing a case-by-case authorization process that can take months or even years. FERC is breaking up this blanket program into three tiers, meaning not all projects will be eligible to move forward without any federal review. The first tier is “automatic authorization,” allowing projects to proceed without advanced notice to the commission. Eligible projects must not increase an LNG plant’s authorization capacity, cannot expand authorized vertical or horizontal extension within the facility’s footprint, and cannot exceed design limits for flows, volumes, pressures, temperatures, and more.This second tier requires developers to provide a 60-day notice to the commission and provide an opportunity for the agency and stakeholders to protest against the action.Projects eligible for this tier are similar to those in the first; however, it also encompasses some projects that may increase the capacity of an LNG facility. Those activities must also be located within the LNG plant footprint, must not cause a significant adverse impact to reliability, risks, or public safety, and cannot cause any changes outside design limits of new and existing equipment.The third and final tier requires developers to provide a 90-day notice to the commission before moving forward and provide a protest period for staff and stakeholders. Projects that fall under this tier specifically involve the construction of new LNG infrastructure, including liquefaction trains, tanks, and marine berths.Softening environmental reviews: FERC is also aiming to speed up the development of LNG projects by reducing federal permitting requirements.Specifically, the agency is softening environmental reviews required under the National Environmental Policy Act. The regulators proposed to no longer request air dispersion modeling from applicants or rely on the modeling when assessing operating air quality effects under NEPA.The commission did not unanimously agree to this proposal, with Democratic commissioner Judy Chang dissenting.Chang said she is concerned that softening the requirements will leave FERC “without adequate information to meet its obligations under NEPA and the Natural Gas Act,” saying the air dispersion modeling is the “best tool” the agency has for understanding local and regional air impacts of projects.FERC Chair Laura Swett defended the proposed rule after the agency’s open meeting today, telling reporters it is “not a short cut” putting the environment and communities at risk. “This is simply a statement that we are, in my words, an economic regulator, not an environmental regulator, and we certainly are not an air expert, whereas other agencies on the federal level and the state level are,” Swett said. Read more from Callie here. All the rest: IEA TO RELEASE MORE THAN 400 MILLION BARRELS OF OIL: The International Energy Agency plans to release more than 400 million barrels of oil that was initially agreed upon in March. The IEA met today to discuss the scale and timing for releasing emergency reserves.The group said it would complete the release of the remaining 100 million barrels of oil it approved in March. It noted that the total would exceed 400 million barrels because some members have released more than initially agreed to. So far, the IEA said it has released 330 million barrels from emergency stock. Members have also agreed to expedite the release of the remaining volumes, which will also include more than 20 million barrels of diesel. However, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. was unhappy with the IEA’s current plan to release oil stock, arguing that it does not go far enough to stop rising fuel prices. It noted that U.S. officials were advocating for the group to release at least an additional 100 million barrels of oil, but did not formally make the proposal at today’s meeting. Read more by Maydeen here. VENTURE GLOBAL LOOKS TO POWER AI: LNG giant Venture Global is getting in on the race to power artificial intelligence, signing deals with GE Vernova and Baker Hughes this week. The agreements, announced this morning, are expected to support the development of 16 new power generation units as well as additional off-grid resources, according to Reuters. The initial “power-island” units will generate up to 720 megawatts of power each. They reportedly could also support up to 10 gigawatts of compute capacity by the end of 2034, Venture Global said. These units would be gas-fired and combined-cycle, and would not pull from any public electricity grid or water utilities – operating behind-the-meter. Venture Global plans to file its first permit applications this week and intends on ordering its first unit by the end of the year, according to Reuters. SENATE DEMOCRATS PRESSES EPA TO DROP ABORTION PILL WATER QUALITY STUDY: Senate Democrats are urging the Environmental Protection Agency to drop its study assessing the presence of abortion pill chemicals in the water. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington along with 45 other Democrats sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, urging him to remove the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol from the list of medications that the agency monitors in drinking water.The senators argued that the agency’s inclusion of mifepristone and misoprostol in the study is part of a “radical, anti-science campaign” from anti-abortion advocates seeking to restrict access to abortion drugs. Some background: The EPA in September announced that mifepristone and misoprostol would be included among a list of more than 1,400 other chemicals as part of a new water quality Non-Targeted Analysis study, an assessment method that can identify thousands of possible pollutants at a time.Read more by Washington Examiner’s healthcare reporter Gabrielle Etzel here. NUCLEAR REGULATORS APPROVE PLAN TO REMOVE DAMAGED FUEL RODS DELAYING PALISADES RESTART: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given Holtec International the greenlight to remove a damaged nuclear fuel assembly in its Palisades Nuclear Power Plant using a method never used before. If you forgot: Holtec is restarting the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in western Michigan, which has been closed since 2022. Shortly after Holtec started to load the nuclear fuel at the end of August, one nuclear fuel assembly – a group of fuel rods – tilted and tipped out of place. The incident damaged the assembly’s “upper tie plate,” which caps and secures the fuel rods. As a result, workers were not able to use traditional retrieval methods to remove the damaged assembly. The unusual fix: Holtec then asked federal regulators for an emergency approval, amending its license to allow the company to use special equipment to remove the assembly from the reactor cavity and to the facility’s spent fuel pool. The “first of a kind” process involves lifting the fuel assembly out of the water located in the reactor, which helps provide shielding from radiation and contain radioactive material from damaged fuel rods. The NRC approved the method this week, saying it is required to resume fuel loading activities. Holtec officials have insisted that the fuel rods within the assembly were not damaged in the incident. KEN PAXTON TARGETS DATA CENTERS OVER WATER USE: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a letter to 156 data center developments across the state, requesting information on water usage. Paxton, the Republican nominee in the Texas Senate race, said the requests are part of an investigation launched last month into hundreds of data center developments. He said some of those projects have yet to respond to a water use survey from the Texas Water Development Board. “Data center developers must follow the law and respect the Texans and communities affected by their operations,” Paxton said in a news release. “I am actively investigating data centers across Texas to make sure that Texans and our natural resources are protected.” SENATE MIDTERM CANDIDATES ON CLIMATE AND ENERGY: Democrats on the campaign trail have placed a greater focus on energy costs as a central issue amongst voters. At the same time, they have shifted away from climate messaging. In 2019, many Democrats championed federal climate initiatives like the “Green New Deal.” However, since 2025 Democrats have increasingly avoided using words like “climate change” or “global warming” in press releases. Key members of the party have also put forward energy security plans that include a role for oil and gas.Maydeen analyzed 13 Senate Democrats in competitive races and how they are campaigning on climate and energy issues. Take a look at the breakdown here. RUNDOWNVox The surprisingly hopeful quest to fix concretePolitico Trump’s Russian diesel deal draws GOP, European pushback — and industry shrugInside Climate News As Wildfires Intensify, Communities Have a Bigger Role to Play