2025-09-03 20:02

Pressure high on nuclear regulators after Trump orders Trump wants to quadruple nuclear power capacity by 2050 Commissioner: hard to make safety calls if more staff leave WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Two of the three remaining commissioners at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U.S. nuclear safety watchdog, told a Senate hearing on Wednesday they feel President Donald Trump could fire them if they obstruct his goal to approve reactors faster. Trump signed executive orders in May that set goals of fast-tracking new reactor licenses and quadrupling U.S. nuclear energy capacity by 2050 to boost the power grid, while also reducing staffing at the NRC. Sign up here. Trump later fired Commissioner Chris Hanson, a Democrat, while Commissioner Annie Caputo, a Republican, left in July, saying she wanted to more fully focus on her family. That brought the traditionally five-member panel down to three. Commissioner Matthew Marzano, a Democrat, told the hearing he felt he could be fired by the administration if he decides a new reactor design is unsafe and declines to license it. Commissioner Bradley Crowell, also a Democrat, said he felt on "any given day I could be fired by the administration for reasons unknown." The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. NRC Chairman David Wright, a Republican, said the agency has five applications from so-called advanced nuclear reactors that it is reviewing and it expects another 25 to 30 soon. Wright declined to say whether he felt he could be fired, saying it would be "speculation." But he said NRC should not approve incomplete applications from companies looking to build new nuclear plants, even if it means missing an 18-month approval deadline set in Trump's executive orders. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat who supports nuclear energy for its potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said about a dozen senior level managers at the NRC have left or announced they will leave since January, and that 143 staff departed between January and June. "It’s a personnel bloodbath," Whitehouse said. "The industry stands or falls on the NRC’s gold-standard reputation for nuclear safety. It’s now in jeopardy." Crowell said if the agency lost any more staff, it would be tough to credibly make safety cases on the timeline in Trump's orders. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-nuclear-safety-regulators-say-their-jobs-could-be-risk-under-trump-2025-09-03/

2025-09-03 19:59

Sept 3 (Reuters) - Venezuela's oil exports surpassed 900,000 barrels per day in August, the highest level since November, after energy producer Chevron (CVX.N) , opens new tab received a license that has allowed the OPEC country's crude to return to the U.S. market after a four-month pause, shipping data showed. The U.S. Treasury Department last month issued a restricted authorization for Chevron, one of the main partners of Venezuelan state company PDVSA, to operate in the sanctioned South American country and export its oil. Sign up here. The resumption of Chevron flows to the U.S., coupled with larger cargoes to Venezuela's primary destination of China, led to a 27% increase in exports last month to an average of 966,485 bpd, according to data based on tanker movements. Stable output and no outages at crude upgraders and blending facilities in the Orinoco Belt - Venezuela's main producing region - also contributed to higher oil inventories and exports, according to an internal PDVSA document. Exports to China, both direct and indirect after ship-to-ship transfers, represented 85% of last month's total flows out of the country, a reduction from almost 95% in July. Some 60,000 bpd of Venezuelan oil reached the U.S., while Cuba received about 29,000 bpd of crude and fuel. Several cargoes of Venezuelan methanol went to Europe. Venezuela exported some 275,000 metric tons of oil byproducts and petrochemicals in August, an increase from the 227,000 tons shipped during the previous month and the highest amount since May. The country ramped up imports of much needed light oil and naphtha to dilute its extra heavy oil output and produce exportable crude grades, reaching 99,000 bpd versus 58,000 bpd in July, the data showed. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/venezuelas-oil-exports-rise-9-month-high-cargoes-return-us-2025-09-03/

2025-09-03 19:21

Trump frustrated by lack of progress in Ukraine talks European leaders to discuss Ukraine security support Trump to speak with Zelenskiy on Thursday France hosts virtual meeting with 30 countries on Ukraine WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he plans to hold talks about the war in Ukraine in coming days after his Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in August failed to achieve a breakthrough. Trump has been frustrated at his inability to get a halt to the fighting, which began with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, after he initially predicted he would be able to end the war swiftly when he took office last January. Sign up here. Trump said he would be holding talks in the next few days. A White House official said Trump is expected to speak on the phone on Thursday with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The French presidency said earlier on Wednesday that several European leaders, including Zelenskiy and France's Emmanuel Macron, would call Trump on Thursday afternoon. That call was expected to follow a mostly virtual meeting on Thursday, hosted by France, of some 30 countries to discuss their latest efforts to provide Ukraine with security support once there is a peace agreement with Russia. The European leaders were also expected to denounce Moscow's unwillingness for negotiations. Putin has shown little interest in ending the war after he and Trump voiced optimism about making progress during their meeting in Anchorage on Aug. 15. "I have no message to President Putin," Trump told reporters at the White House as he met Polish President Karol Nawrocki. "He knows where I stand and he'll make a decision one way or another. Whatever his decision is, we'll either be happy about it or unhappy about it and if we're unhappy about it, you'll see things happen," he said. Trump did not explain what he meant, but he has talked about the possibility of imposing more sanctions on Russia. Trump also said the war would be resolved "one way or the other" but that he had not realized it would be so difficult to end. "I thought that that would be much easier," Trump said. "I thought that would be in the middle of the pack, maybe one of the easiest. Sometimes you never know with war," he said. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/trump-says-he-plans-hold-talks-ukraine-coming-days-2025-09-03/

2025-09-03 19:18

BRUSSELS, Sept 3 (Reuters) - The United Nations urged countries on Wednesday to set more ambitious climate plans during this month, seeking to pressure major economies including the EU and China ahead of this year's U.N. climate summit. The U.N. had asked countries to submit their plans, called Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs, within September so that their efforts can be assessed before the COP30 summit in November in Brazil. Sign up here. Most countries have yet to do so despite agreeing to submit them this year under the 2015 Paris Agreement. The updated NDCs should describe how each country plans to cut emissions by 2035. In a letter to nearly 200 countries, U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell described the NDCs as "the cornerstone of humanity's fight against the global climate crisis." "These national climate plans... are among this century’s most powerful engines of economic growth and rising living standards," said the letter, which the U.N. published. China, today the world's biggest polluter, has said only that it will upgrade its target in the autumn. The European Union is struggling to agree on its plan, and this month countries including France and Poland called for a delay in approving the bloc's proposed 2040 goal, which would have informed the 2035 target. The U.N. assessment will help indicate whether countries are on track to hold global warming to safe levels or if they need to step up their plans. How governments respond will serve as a test of their climate commitment at a time when the United States - the world's biggest economy and biggest polluter historically - pulls away from the effort. Last year was the world's hottest year on record, and the 10 hottest years on record all happened in the last 10 years. Climate change is worsening extreme weather across continents - from torrential storms, to wildfires and heatwaves. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/cop/un-pushes-countries-new-climate-targets-this-month-2025-09-03/

2025-09-03 19:16

Some 2,500 staff left FEMA, including 24 senior leaders, GAO report says FEMA faces skills gaps, reduced volunteer capacity for disaster response Trump plans to wind down FEMA post-hurricane season WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Recent staff losses at the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, including the departure of two dozen senior leaders, could compromise the agency's ability to respond to natural disasters this year, according to a report by a government watchdog agency. Disaster experts and FEMA employees have warned that understaffing, inexperienced leadership and a prolonged hiring freeze could hobble this year's hurricane and wildfire response. President Donald Trump has said he plans to wind down FEMA and shift the responsibility for disaster response to states after this hurricane season, which lasts through November. He has criticized FEMA for being inefficient and overly bureaucratic. Sign up here. Roughly 2,500 staff left FEMA between January 25 and June 1, including 24 top career officials, said the Government Accountability Office report dated September 2 and seen by Reuters on Wednesday. About half of those staff, and 20 of the career officials, left as part of the Trump administration's voluntary incentive programs meant to slim the federal workforce, the report said. FEMA officials told the GAO that the agency is facing "significant skills gaps in its leadership cadre" and that staff losses could reduce its capacity to adequately train its workforce, the report said. FEMA officials also told the GAO they anticipate deploying fewer volunteers from other federal agencies to support with disaster response due to widespread federal workforce reductions. In 2024, FEMA deployed almost 1,300 federal volunteers during the response to hurricanes Milton and Helene, but officials anticipate only having the capacity for 600 such volunteers this hurricane season, the report said. "Should the U.S. experience a similarly catastrophic peak hurricane season in September and October 2025, as it did in 2024, meeting response needs could be a major challenge," the report said. "The staffing and resource gaps are damning and could cost lives," said Democratic Senator Andy Kim, who had requested that GAO assess FEMA's hurricane season readiness, in a statement on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which contains FEMA, said the agency had successfully responded to recent disasters in Texas and New Mexico and that FEMA was now leaner and had a ready workforce. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also anticipates some impact to its disaster response capacity from a roughly 10% workforce reduction, the report said. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/staff-losses-fema-could-compromise-disaster-response-says-watchdog-agency-2025-09-03/

2025-09-03 17:06

LONDON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Wednesday that the future pace of quantitative tightening remained an "open decision" for its policymakers later this month. The BoE bought 875 billion pounds ($1.18 trillion) of British government bonds between 2009 and 2021 to help support the economy and since 2022 has reduced this stockpile to 558 billion pounds through a mix of outright sales and gilts maturing. Sign up here. The BoE sets the annual pace of QT once a year in September through a Monetary Policy Committee vote at the same time as a regular interest rate decision. Over the past year the BoE has reduced its holdings by 100 billion pounds, but a BoE survey of investors last month showed a median expectation that the central bank will slow the pace over the next 12 months to 72 billion pounds. However, there have been some forecasts and calls for the BoE to halt gilt sales entirely, including by one lawmaker on the House of Commons' Treasury Committee, which Bailey appeared before on Wednesday. "Just to reassure you, the decision we're going to take in the next few weeks is an open decision, very clear, nothing closed about that decision," Bailey said. The BoE estimates that net losses from QE and QT - which are underwritten by taxpayers - are likely to total around 115 billion pounds. Some critics say the BoE's approach to gilt sales is increasing these costs. Bailey said the 115 billion pound estimate did not take into account the benefit the government received from lower borrowing costs in the 2010s and early 2020s. Long-dated gilt yields rose to their highest since 1998 on Wednesday, increasing the losses which are crystallised when the BoE sells these gilts. Bailey repeated previous remarks that the BoE viewed the impact of QT on yields as low but would look "very seriously" at the "interaction" between higher long-dated gilt yields and its sales programme. Such comments have made some analysts predict the BoE will skew QT away from sales of the longest-dated bonds in its portfolio. ($1 = 0.7402 pounds) https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/bank-englands-bailey-says-september-qt-decision-is-open-2025-09-03/