WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Tuesday, readers! The Daily on Energy team is excited to announce that we are going fully sustainable, offering our newsletter only on locally sourced and recycled leaves. Any delay in distribution can be attributed to lack of wind in your state.
We are kicking off the newsletter with some news on the Environmental Protection Agency, which announced plans to reduce its federal leases in Washington, D.C., In other news, the Trump administration is considering an order on deep-sea mining to obtain critical minerals.
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.
EPA TO CONSOLIDATE WASHINGTON D.C. HEADQUARTERS: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced today that the agency intends to consolidate its downtown Washington, D.C., footprint in order to save roughly $18 million in federal leases each year.
The details: The EPA plans to reduce the amount of space it currently leases in the nation’s capital by roughly 323,000 square feet. In this morning’s announcement, Zeldin said the decision was the result of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce “wasteful federal spending.” The funds are expected to be reallocated for infrastructure improvements to other agency buildings.
“With this consolidation, we will save taxpayers $18 million in annual lease costs while ensuring the agency has enough space for staff to fully return to in-person work and make long-needed improvements and repairs to EPA buildings that languished empty for the past four years,” he said in a statement.
The decision to consolidate does not come as a surprise, given the administration’s efforts to cut back on spending, though similar plans were also floated under President Joe Biden. In July 2024, an internal email obtained by E&E News revealed that Dan Coogan, a deputy assistant administrator in the EPA’s mission support office, recommended the agency end the leases for multiple buildings that failed to meet a 60% occupancy rate. Coogan estimated that the EPA’s footprint in downtown D.C. costs around $90 million a year.
“Whatever the appropriate threshold is for our space use, as good stewards of taxpayer dollars, we cannot continue operating with so much of our space underused,” Coogan wrote at the time.
Something related: Zeldin announced more cost-cutting measures at the EPA yesterday, saying he would be shutting down a museum located inside the Washington D.C. headquarters. The one-room museum, known as the National Environmental Museum and Education Center, has been open since 2021.
Zeldin explained that the museum saw fewer than 2,000 external visitors between May 2024 and February 2025. He claimed that the exhibit costs roughly $600,000 a year to operate. While the museum was completely free to visitors, the administrator claimed that this then cost taxpayers nearly $315 per person for each external visitor. He criticized the Biden administration’s curation of the museum, which placed attention on environmental justice.
“Gone are the days of funding partisan pet projects at the detriment of the American taxpayers and the agency’s mission of protecting human health and the environment,” Zeldin said.
SAFE SUMMIT: The 2025 SAFE Summit is kicking off today in D.C., featuring key lawmakers, leaders in the private sector, investors, and others within the energy and national security industries.
Today’s conference began with a talk from Colorado Democrat Sen. John Hickenlooper, in which he discussed China’s dominance over critical minerals.
“A national rival at a very high level, is a terrible thing to waste, and it has proven to be a very useful tool to get Republicans and Democrats to sit down together and say, ‘Yeah, we all agree that China is out ahead of us, that they have already established, not just controlling the access to the minerals in terms of extraction, but processing,” Hickenlooper said.
“They are so far ahead of us in terms of processing that we just got a lot of work to do to make sure that we can create supply chains that we can depend upon,” he added.
Michigan Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the Select Committee on the CCP, also raised concerns about national security when it comes to China controlling rare earth and critical mineral supply and processing.
“Our military has become dependent on our foremost adversary. Our manufacturing has become dependent, and they are willing to cut off access to these metal minerals,” Moolenaar said. “It’s important that we rely on our own ingenuity, our own manufacturing capabilities, to develop more mining and extraction and processing and then work with allies, like minded allies, that we can trust and work with that give us the economies of scale that we might need.”
MAJOR UTILITY SEEKING TO RAISE ENERGY PRICES: One of the largest utilities in the United States is looking to increase energy prices for consumers in 2026.
The details: Dominion Energy, which provides energy services to roughly 3.6 million homes and businesses across Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, has proposed increasing its costs for the first time in more than 30 years. The price hike is not yet in effect, as it must be approved by the Virginia State Corporation Commission. The increase is tied to the rising costs for labor, materials and infrastructure upgrades, the company said today.
What it would look like: If the proposal receives approval, Dominion Energy plans to implement a base rate increase of $8.51 a month in 2026 and $2 per month in 2027 for the typical residential customer, starting on Jan. 1 of the next two years.
The company is also proposing to move power capacity costs from the base rate to the annual fuel rate – which are set by the regional grid operator PJM. This change, driven by extreme cold weather in January and an expected jump in commodity prices, would result in a monthly fuel rate increase of $10.92 for typical residential customers. It would also include a $3.99 fuel credit expiration. If approved, this fuel rate would go into effect on July 1.
Amid the potential increase, Dominion Energy executives have said the company is willing to offer assistance. “We know our customers are feeling the impact of inflation in other areas of their lives, and some of our customers may need assistance with their power bills. We’re here to help,” Ed Baine, President of Utility Operations and Dominion Energy Virginia, said in a statement.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CONSIDERS DEEP-SEA MINING ORDER: The Trump administration is considering an executive order to streamline deep-sea mining in international waters for critical minerals like nickel and copper, Reuters reports.
Two sources with direct knowledge of the deliberations told Reuters the order could allow mining companies to bypass the International Seabed Authority, an organization established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea to regulate mining activities in the sea.
Trump’s order could also allow miners to seek permitting through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s mining code, the outlet added. A source familiar with the matter confirmed the executive order to Maydeen.
Critical minerals like nickel and copper are essential for industries like electric vehicles, batteries, and construction.
The Trump administration has been seeking to increase production of domestic critical minerals as a move to become less reliant on foreign entities like China. Last month, the president signed an executive order to fast track U.S. production of critical minerals used in energy and defense production.
WHERE OIL PRICES STAND WITH TARIFFS LOOMING: Oil markets remained stable this afternoon as President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, as well as his secondary tariffs on Venezuelan oil, are set to go into effect tomorrow.
The details: Just before 3pm EST today, international benchmark Brent Crude sat at a comfortable $74.47 per barrel, down by roughly 30 cents. Similarly, West Texas Intermediate was priced at $71.20 per barrel, a drop of 28 cents.
Industry experts have warned that the anticipated tariffs on the European Union and other nations could slow global economic growth, thereby reducing energy demand and lowering prices further. The president is also imposing secondary tariffs on Venezuelan oil and considering ordering similar tariffs on Russia and Iran. Increased restrictions on the flow of oil on the global market likely will have the opposite effect, causing prices to rise.
As a result, some investors and analysts are waiting to see the immediate effects the “Liberation Day” tariffs will have on the market.
“[B]etting on a clear direction for the market has been – and remains – challenging,” SEB analyst Ole Hvalbye told Reuters.
WORLD’S LARGEST WILDLIFE CROSSING HITS MAJOR MILESTONE: Construction on the largest wildlife crossing in the world hit a critical milestone yesterday as workers began laying down soil on the bridge.
The details: The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing spans all 10 lanes of the habitually busy 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills, California, and is expected to be fully completed next year. The bridge – said to be the largest of its kind globally – is expected to stretch over 200 feet long and 165 feet wide once it is fully completed.
Workers on the project are nearing the end of Stage 1 of construction as they began adding roughly 6,000 cubic yards of soil this week. The soil will be contoured at different depths along the bridge to create a more natural and varied landscape. Once that step is completed, workers will seed the top of the bridge and plant native vegetation and flowers. Workers will also be installing several large volcanic rocks to help the bridge match regional geology. Robert Rock, the landscape architect overseeing the project, told the Los Angeles Times that this stage should be completed by the end of the summer.
The second stage of the project will focus on connecting the concrete bridge towering above the freeway to the hills on either side of it. This will consist of pouring soil on either side, planting native vegetation, grasses, and trees, and creating a smaller tunnel over a neighboring road.
Some background: The massive bridge will be connecting two natural landscapes on either side of the busy highway that traverses through California, Oregon, and Washington, allowing wildlife to cross over without encountering dangerous vehicles. Construction has been funded by both the private and public sector, as the state provided around $58.1 million and private investors have supplied over $34 million.
BYD Q1 SALES UP: China’s electric vehicle company BYD sales are up 58% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, Bloomberg reports.
The company delivered 371,419 passenger vehicles last month. BYD in total for the first quarter delivered 986,098 vehicles, and of those cars, 416,388 were electric vehicles, the outlet said. The Chinese company sells both electric vehicles and hybrid cars.
BYD is China’s leading electric vehicle company. BYD and other Chinese electric vehicle companies have been leading the charge in the industry by offering affordable and innovative vehicles. Bloomberg said analysts estimate that U.S. electric vehicle company Tesla’s Q1 sales could be as low as 340,000.
JAPAN’S TOP SHIPPING LINE WORRIES TARIFFS WILL SLOW CARGO MOVEMENTS: The president of Japan’s largest shipping line, Nippon Yusen, raised concerns about how Trump’s tariffs could raise prices for consumer goods, resulting in less consumer demand and slowing down the shipping industry.
Takaya Soga told Reuters “The tariffs are not directly borne by consumers, but the burden ultimately falls on them, which in turn reduces the actual flow of goods. That’s our biggest concern.”
Trump has recently imposed 25% tariffs on vehicles, which are set to go into effect tomorrow. He is also expected to impose “reciprocal” tariffs on a range of products. The president has deemed tomorrow “Liberation Day.”
“Tariffs could have a considerable impact on the economy,” Soga told Reuters, noting that the impact of shipping will depend on cargo movements.
RUNDOWN
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