Daily on Energy: Notes from Callie’s reporting trip to Caracas

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Thursday, readers! Sticking around in Washington for Labor Day? This year’s DC Jazz Fest is taking place this week through Sunday, featuring dozens of jazz artists down at the Wharf. 🎶🎷🎹 You can find more information here. 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. As we touched on yesterday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright traveled to Caracas, Venezuela, for the signing of several agreements with energy companies to rapidly expand oil production and bolster the country’s electrical grid. And Callie had a front-row seat. The deal with the U.S. government dominated conversations: While the focus of Wright’s trip was on the deals made with private companies, the secretary and interim Venezuelan government were inundated with questions about President Donald Trump’s deal to secure 65 billion barrels of crude reserves. The deal involves the U.S. government taking a 35% equity stake in private oil and gas exploration and production company North American Blue Energy Partners, which is led by controversial businessman Alejandro Betancourt. Betancourt, who faces accusation of money laundering, was not in attendance at the signing ceremony. However, Wright later told reporters that the Venezuelan was present at the palace and attended a high-level lunch meeting. Shortly after that lunch, Wright and acting president Delcy Rodriguez held a press conference at the Miraflores Palace with local and international media, where they offered their support for Betancourt. “In business, when you pick a partner, it’s not about who says the right thing,” Wright said. “It’s who’s demonstrated their ability to deliver. NABEP has demonstrated a highly successful track record of producing large volumes of oil in Venezuela. That’s a business partner you can believe in.”Rodriguez criticized members of the press for the general coverage of Betancourt, saying “Many times a person can be judged by the media before it gets to court.” As we touched on earlier in the week in Daily on Energy, Betancourt has often been referred to as a “Bolichico,” or a businessman who built his fortune through government contracts under the former Hugo Chavez or Nicolas Maduro regimes.He has been criticized for making billions of dollars at his firm, Derwick Associates, where he secured contracts without competitive bidding to build power plants during the Chavez era after a severe power crisis in the late 2000s.Rebuilding Venezuela’s electrical grid: One of the deals signed yesterday was with GE Vernova, which is investing in bolstering the Venezuelan electrical grid, which faces daily blockouts of up to eight hours. When asked how long it will take to reduce these power outages, Wright told Callie that there is a five-year plan in place through the deal. He explained that there is a lot of existing infrastructure that the U.S. aims to repair and improve in the next 12 months. The Department of Energy said in a readout that GE Vernova plans to bring an additional gigawatt of power to the local grid in the first 24 months, with another five gigawatts in the following four years. Refilling U.S. crude reserves: While on the flight back to Washington, Callie had the chance to sit down with Wright to get some clarity on how exactly increased imports of Venezuelan crude will be used in the U.S. Trump has touted the 65 million barrel reserve deal as a way to bring down gasoline prices and refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But experts have been quick to point out that the SPR facilities were not made to hold heavy Venezuelan crude. Wright explained that these facilities mostly hold what is called “medium grade crudes.” “We hold a little bit of the very light crude we produce from shale…and so we want to keep some variety of crude in [the SPR], but it’ll be medium grades,” Wright said. “It won’t be the ultra heavy Venezuelan crude.” So, what will actually happen to these barrels? Wright told Callie that the crude will go directly to U.S. refineries, which will then sell the refined product to companies also in possession of light and medium grades. And from there, that heavy crude can be swapped for barrels that can be stored in the SPR. Callie is back in Washington now, and will have more from her sit-down interview with Wright on the flight back to the U.S. soon. Stay tuned! All the rest VENEZUELA’S OPPOSITION LEADER QUESTIONS U.S. DEAL: Maria Corina Machado, the leader of the Venezuelan democratic opposition, came out in support of the Trump administration’s further involvement with increasing crude oil production in Venezuela, but still has questions about the recently announced deal. In a video shared to social media this morning, Machado called the U.S. the “principal partner” that Venezuela needs to develop the country’s “strategic potential.” “It reflects the values our two countries share and it is something I have defended throughout my life,” she said.However, Machado pointed out that there are still many questions regarding the deal struck with NABEP late last week. “We still do not know the true scope of this agreement,” she said. “Who is signing it? What exactly is being signed? Who is putting up the money? Who is providing the guarantees? How will this benefit the Venezuelan people?”Machado carefully did not criticize the Trump administration at all in her remarks, instead directing her ire at Rodriguez, saying the wealth of Venezuelan oil “does not belong to an illegitimate regime.” The opposition leader is not calling for the agreement to be abandoned, instead advocating for more open bidding moving forward. You can watch her full remarks here. JUDGE BLOCKS EPA EFFORT TO SEND CALIFORNIA EMISSION WAIVERS TO CONGRESS FOR REPEAL: A judge in Washington yesterday blocked the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to repeal California’s emission standards waivers through Congress. Some background: The EPA in June reclassified three California emission rules waivers granted between 2023 and 2024 as rules under the Clean Air Act, making them subject to the Congressional Review Act. The waivers allowed California to set stringent emission standards for cars, trucks, lawn mowers, and other equipment. EPA argued that the previous administrations failed to send them to Congress for review. Trump last year signed three resolutions to prevent California from implementing vehicle emission rules through waivers granted by Biden’s EPA. The three measures were passed using the CRA. What did the court say? “EPA’s action in reclassifying prior waiver orders, one of which was issued over fifteen years ago, to now treat those waivers as ‘rules’ is a slippery slope in the use of the CRA,” U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell wrote in the preliminary injunction ruling. “Such gamesmanship may seem like a clever policy move, but undermines honest compliance with the law, which is what Americans should expect from executive branch agencies,” Howell added. THUNE SAYS DATA CENTERS SHOULD BE ‘SELF-SUFFICIENT’: Senate Majority Leader John Thune told a South Dakota TV station that data centers should be “self-sufficient” when it comes to obtaining their own energy. “They ought to be able to take care of their own utilities, their own power, and that ought to be a given any place they go in the country. But they shouldn’t be going places where there isn’t support for them at the local level,” he added. This is the first time the Senate Majority Leader is addressing the data center issue.While the Trump administration has pushed for the rapid expansion of data centers, some Republican candidates have shifted toward supporting stricter restrictions or bans. ICYMI – CONSERVATIONISTS ASK COURT TO REOPEN CASE AGAINST TRUMP’S NATIONAL MONUMENT REDUCTIONS: The Conservation Lands Foundation and its co-plaintiffs asked a federal court this week to reopen their lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s reduction of two national monuments in Utah. Some background: In 2017, the plaintiffs brought a case against the first Trump administration for reducing the size of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah. The plaintiffs are now asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to reopen that same case. As a reminder: The Trump administration in July issued a proclamation under the Antiquities Act to reduce the size of the Bears Ears National Monument from 1.36 million acres to 121,100 acres and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument from 1.87 million acres to 181,500 acres. The argument: The conservationists argue that the Antiquities Act gives the president the power to create national monuments but does not give him the power to reduce or undo one. State officials have pushed for mineral development on the land, which contains uranium and coal deposits. It was reported last month that two mining companies filed several claims for land from both of the national monuments. After 60 days from the signing of the proclamation, which is Sept. 11, the lands removed from the monument will be available for public land entry, leasing, and mining. RUNDOWNThe Associated Press EPA proposal could leave the public in the dark on data center plansPolitico Why Trump’s ‘golden shares’ are enticing progressivesLatitude Media What comes after the data center backlash?Reuters Big Oil’s new playbook: How BP’s US refinery lockout signals a shift in corporate labor battles