Daily on Energy: California fights back against wind project cancellation

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and Happy First Day of Fall! Today also marks a very special day: the official start of Fat Bear Week. If you’ve been reading Daily on Energy the last couple years, you’ll know this is a favorite week for Callie and Maydeen, when the chonkiest bears go head-to-head for the heavyweight crown. 🐻🍯 Over the next seven days you’ll be able to cast your vote for fattest bear of the year. Check it out 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. The Trump administration’s creative, and so far successful, tactic of using buyouts to stop offshore wind farms from being built is facing another state-led lawsuit. The state of California said today that it had filed a suit against the Trump administration over a deal struck with developer Invenergy earlier this summer to cancel an offshore wind project off its coastline, in exchange for millions of dollars and a promise to invest in fossil fuels elsewhere. In June, Interior announced that it struck a settlement agreement with affiliates of Invenergy to terminate four offshore wind leases in the New York Bight, the Central Coast of California, and the Gulf of Maine. For the California project, Invenergy paid over $111 million to purchase the offshore lease in 2022, with the intention of developing up to two gigawatts of wind power capacity. Attorney General Rob Bonta and the California Energy Commission filed the suit, calling the deal an “unlawful buyout.” They have also named Invenergy as a defendant. The Trump administration has defended this deal, and several others, as settlement agreements. However, California has called this characterization a “sham” to “bypass the rules that Congress set down for the offshore energy leasing program,” including stakeholder rights as well as a cap on how much the government can pay developers when canceling a lease.The state also argues that it cannot be described as a settlement, as it was not resolving an existing lawsuit. The suit claims the deal violates numerous laws, including the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Judgment Fund Act.The California lawsuit is separate from the suit filed by a coalition of seven other states against the Trump administration for similar agreements made to cancel the leases for future offshore wind farms. Read more from Callie here. TRUMP CALLS FOR COMPLETE ECONOMIC ISOLATION OF IRAN: This morning at the United Nations General Assembly, President Donald Trump called on allies to help enforce a complete economic isolation of Iran. Much of the president’s remarks were focused on the war in the Middle East. Trump said that he has “a big decision to make,” hinting at two possible paths for Iran. Trump said that a deal could be reached that would allow Iran to recover economically and rebuild. But without a deal, he said, he could “annihilate the Islamic Republic.” The president said that another deal could be reached after the November midterm elections, claiming that Iran is watching to see the outcomes. Once a deal is made, Trump said, oil prices will plummet.Oil prices have dipped under $100 per barrel since yesterday. Prices did rise a bit following the president’s speech, but remain under $100 a barrel. As of this afternoon, West Texas Intermediate is at $91.28 a barrel, while Brent crude is sitting at $99.97 per barrel. Carbon tax? The president also took a moment to tout his administration’s success in delaying a vote on a carbon tax on the international shipping industry. “Last year my administration was forced to intervene to stop an obscure UN body, the International Maritime Organization, from secretly establishing a first-ever global carbon tax …There is no global government and while I am President, there will be no global taxes,” the president said. If you forgot, last October, the Trump administration successfully blocked the International Maritime Organization from formally voting to adopt the tax, also known as the net-zero framework. The levy had already been approved in April of last year and all that was needed was a formal vote to adopt the proposal in order for it to go into effect in 2028. The U.S. delayed the vote by one year and has since upped pressure on the IMO to scrap the proposal entirely. All the rest: TRUMP CALLS FOR DIESEL EXPORT BAN: Trump said that he has called for a diesel export ban as his administration is weighing its options. “I’ve called for that too. I’ve said, let’s not send out the diesel,” Trump said at the UN as he sat next to some of his cabinet and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “We make a lot of diesel. It could have a little bit of an effect on regular automobile gasoline because when you do that, you know it’s a sort of a flow. It’s a balance,” he added. The president said a decision would come “fast, one way or the other.” Agricultural-state Republicans have been calling in increasing numbers for Trump to halt diesel exports. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that the administration is examining a ban and “whether it’s feasible in terms of the overall refining capacity and whether a full or partial ban would work.” Where are diesel prices? As of this afternoon, the nationwide average of diesel prices sit at $6.52 a gallon. Earlier today, GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan noted that there are three states remaining that have yet to see their statewide average price of diesel hit all-time record highs. Those states include Massachusetts (4 cents away), New York (3 cents away), and Rhode Island (9 cents away). TRUMP BRIEFED ON PERMITTING REFORM: We appear to be inching closer to a deal on permitting reform, as Trump administration officials confirmed today that the president was briefed on a deal from the Senate. During a New York Climate Week event today hosted by Axios, National Energy Dominance Council executive director Jarrod Agen confirmed that he spoke with Trump yesterday on the issue. “We talked to the president about it yesterday,” Agen said. “This has been a top priority of the administration. I know we’ve been working with our partners in the Senate on it, and we have some bottom lines of what we want to see in permitting.”He did not reveal whether Trump gave his blessing for the highly anticipated deal, but Daily on Energy alum Josh Siegel reported earlier this morning that two people familiar with the conversation said Trump was in favor of Republicans striking a deal with Democrats. Reports have circulated in Washington that negotiations are still stalling over Democratic concerns that the administration would not fairly implement a bipartisan permitting reform package for both fossil fuel energy and renewable energy projects. Agen did not assuage any of those concerns today, instead affirming the president’s lack of interest in supporting wind and solar power projects. “The issue the president has with wind and solar, it’s not going to be the solution for the power needs that we have,” Agen said, adding that due to the immense scale of demand coming online, “You’re going to need to look at other projects: hydro, nuclear, [liquefied natural gas]. We need more natural gas infrastructure here in the U.S. That is what is going to meet the demand, not wind and solar.”COP31 SUMMIT AGENDA LAID OUT: COP31 President Murat Kurum of Turkey has released the agenda for the climate summit, which will be taking place in November. Kurum presented the agenda today at the UN, Reuters reports. The summit will cover 10 topics, including clean energy, methane reduction, food security, and national climate implementation plans. The summit will also focus on measurable targets, such as reducing building energy-use intensity by at least 25% and cutting global emissions by 8.5 to 10 gigatons of carbon by 2035. FRANCE ASKS EUROPEAN UNION TO DELAY METHANE RULES: French President Emmanuel Macron has reportedly asked the European Commission to delay next year’s methane reporting rules. A letter from Macron, seen by Reuters, argues that the rules set to take effect in just a matter of months could spark legal risks for oil and gas importers, particularly as the bloc has been strained by global supply delays caused by the war in Iran. The rules are set to go into effect on New Year’s Day and would require foreign producers to comply with methane monitoring and reporting rules equivalent to those in Europe. Fines will be imposed on companies who fail to comply. France is asking for the rules to be delayed by one year. Some background: France isn’t the only country to push for a delay. More than a dozen other member states, including Germany, Italy, Poland, and the Netherlands, support punting the rules, U.S. ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder said this summer. The Trump administration has repeatedly lambasted the climate-related rules, claiming they will limit American producers’ ability to export oil and gas to Europe, calling the rules “regulatory overreach.” The administration has even threatened to send gas elsewhere if the rules go into effect as written.EU leaders have remained adamant that the reporting requirements will not be reopened for debate, but have asked member states to waive fines for three years. ICYMI – TEXAS ESCALATES DATA CENTER CRACKDOWN: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott expanded the state’s temporary ban on data centers yesterday, ordering the state’s environmental regulator to halt all data center-related permits. He specifically ordered the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to halt issuing data center permits until ERCOT can complete its audit on new projects. “Simply put, Texans must come first,” Abbott said. “Data centers must pay their own way, protect our grid and water, and complete the ERCOT and [Texas Water Development Board] audits. Until they do, TCEQ will issue no permits sought by data center projects.”The audits from ERCOT were first requested last month when Abbott first imposed the moratorium on grid approvals for new data centers. RUNDOWNCanary Media US utilities get failing grade on clean energy transitionWashington Post Bear encounters are rising across the United States. Here’s why.Inside Climate News Could Abandoned Mines House Pennsylvania’s Unwanted Data Centers? Washington Examiner Rural Republicans press Trump for relief as diesel prices surge