Oil execs hesitate on Trump’s Venezuelan dreams, and more headlines

This roundup of U.S. energy news headlines is part of our Canary Media Daily newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each morning.

OFFSHORE WIND

• Billions of dollars and thousands of jobs are at stake in President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to suffocate the offshore wind industry. (New York Times)

VENEZUELA

• Executives from Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and other companies respond tepidly to Trump’s takeover of the Venezuelan oil industry, raising doubts about his claim that producers will spend $100 billion to rebuild the country’s crude-oil infrastructure. (Politico)

• Trump says he might block Exxon Mobil from investing in Venezuela after its CEO refers to the country as ​“uninvestable” during a meeting at the White House. (Reuters)

CLEAN ENERGY

• The Navajo Nation approves a lease for an Indigenous-owned developer to build a 750-MW solar-plus-storage installation and associated transmission line, raising concerns from some residents. (Arizona Republic)

• California regulators say they blocked the planned shutdown of the 386-MW Ivanpah solar thermal plant to help meet rising power demand driven by data centers. (Los Angeles Times)

OIL & GAS

• The federal Bureau of Land Management issued 5,742 drilling permits during the first 12 months of Trump’s second term, a 55% increase over the previous year. (E&E News)

POLLUTION

• The U.S. EPA rejects Colorado’s regional haze plan, saying a provision that would shutter polluting coal plants goes too far and violates the Clean Air Act. (Colorado Sun)

• Duke Energy seeks approval from South Carolina regulators to build a $3.2 billion, 1.4-GW gas-fired power plant that’s received significantly less public attention than Dominion Energy and Santee Cooper’s plans for a larger gas plant. (South Carolina Daily Gazette)