Electric cooperatives' top lobbyist Jim Matheson thinks the incoming Trump administration will help utilities tackle rising power demand, Nick and Daniel write.

Why it matters: The co-ops are influential with Republicans from rural states. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and its members could play a big role in swaying debates about permitting and EPA rules.

• The cooperatives provide power to 42 million people across 48 states.

Matheson, a former House Democrat from Utah, outlined the association's policy priorities in a letter last month to President-elect Trump. He took some time yesterday to elaborate to us on those priorities.

Power demand: Matheson said skyrocketing power demand driven by AI and new manufacturing only adds more urgency to the permitting negotiations that fell apart at the end of last year.

• "We've been beating this drum for a while, and what I'm excited about is, I think other people are getting it," he said. "Our discussions with the various landing teams in the incoming administration, they get it."
• One thing he argues will help: rolling back the Biden EPA's greenhouse gas rules for power plants.
• NRECA has sued EPA over the rules, and Matheson said the litigation "may address that issue before that regulatory process plays out."

Permitting: NRECA waded into the thorny debate over transmission last year to oppose a provision on Manchin-Barrasso that it thought would extend FERC jurisdiction over its members.

• Still, he said that bill offers a good baseline for the permitting debate headed into this year.
• "I think transmission does need to be part of it.… The fact that you had something come out of a committee in a bipartisan way is at least one indicator that there's some interest in this."

Reconciliation: Co-ops are focused on maintaining more than $10 billion established by the IRA for rural development: the New ERA program and PACE program, he said.

• NRECA members also support keeping the energy production and investment tax credits, which the IRA allowed public power utilities and rural co-ops to directly access for the first time.
• Matheson doesn't expect direct pay provisions to be a target in GOP reconciliation talks.
• But he's preparing to "talk about the importance of a level playing field for us to make investments in our community.… The for-profit sectors had all the benefit of that over the years, and we have not."

The Energy Department sees potential challenges to finding a second spot to bury nuclear waste from weapons plants — including proving the need for one to Congress, a new report says.

Why it matters: New Mexico officials required DOE in 2023 to study finding a new waste repository located outside the state, Chuck writes.

• New Mexico already hosts the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the nation's first deep geologic burial site for radioactive rubbish, in its southeastern corner.

Context: Discarded tools, gloves and other plutonium-contaminated materials have been buried 2,150 feet underground at WIPP since 1999.

• The state has authority to regulate "mixed" hazardous and radioactive waste under RCRA.

Driving the news: The department issued its report late last month summarizing work toward finding a future home for "transuranic," or TRU, wastes.

• It said that based on its 2023 inventory across the nuclear weapons complex, WIPP has enough capacity to store all known and potential waste.
• As a result, it said, "effectively demonstrating the need to receive [congressional] authorization and funding for a second TRU waste repository at this time may be challenging."

The department conducted a more recent inventory and said in a statement that it "remains confident that WIPP has adequate statutory capacity for defense TRU waste needs."

• In fact, the 2024 numbers showed a decrease in the amount of waste expected to head to WIPP.

The other side: Don Hancock of Albuquerque's Southwest Research and Information Center faulted the report for not more broadly involving entities outside the agency's Environmental Management program.

• "The report is inadequate because all of the appropriate DOE actors weren't involved," Hancock told Chuck.

👀 1. Hearing fireworks: Senate ENR Chair Mike Lee formally scheduled a confirmation hearing next week for DOE nominee Chris Wright, drawing another condemnation from Ranking Member Martin Heinrich.

• Heinrich said in a letter that Democrats had yet to receive Wright's ethics forms. He raised similar objections about Interior nom Doug Burgum.

🗣️ 2. Hill confab: Republicans look no closer to resolving their reconciliation strategy dispute after Trump met with the Senate GOP last night, Axios' Stef W. Kight and Hans Nichols report.

• Senators are still pitching him on a two-bill reconciliation strategy that could separate energy and tax provisions.

💻 3. Flatline: U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2024 were "nearly unchanged" from the previous year, an unusual bump in a multi-decadal downward trend, according to an annual report from the Rhodium Group.

⚡️ 4. Fleischmoves: Rep. Chuck Fleischmann is starting a new bipartisan energy caucus focused on promoting more domestic energy production across the board. He said Rep. Marc Veasey will be involved on the Democratic side.

🪑 5. Have a seat: House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman announced today that Rep. Harriet Hageman will lead the water, wildlife and fisheries subcommittee, while several other chairs will return from last Congress.

• He also tapped Rep. Rob Wittman for vice chair.