Trump Inks Even More Critical Minerals Deals

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THE TOP FIVE

1. The climate races to watch this Election Day

Zohran Mamdani with New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Andres Kudacki/Getty Images

It’s Election Day. Not every race has significant implications for climate change, but at least a few do. As Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo wrote, those races include:

• Georgia’s “Supreme Court of energy,” otherwise known as the Public Service Commission in a state that has built the only new nuclear reactors in decades.
• Governor of New Jersey, where Democrat Mikie Sherrill has vowed to fight against the nation’s largest grid operator, PJM Interconnection, for raising rates.
• Governor of Virginia, where one of the nation’s largest offshore wind projects is moving forward.
• A ballot measure in Charlotte, North Carolina, on whether to approve a new 1% sales tax to fund transportation projects in the fast-growing city.

One other race I’ll add, since it’s one of the most closely-watched elections in the nation, is the one for New York City mayor. While frontrunner Zohran Mamdani has so far said little about energy besides opposing a controversial gas pipeline into the five boroughs, the left-wing Democratic nominee said he would support construction of new nuclear power plants upstate at the last debate. City Hall has limited say over state energy policy, but the mayor does control the contracts the city government writes with the state-owned utility, the New York Power Authority, which is currently working on building a new nuclear plant. If his remarks at the final debate are any indication, Mamdani may endorse contracts to buy power from nuclear power plants as well as the wind and solar he vocally supported as a state lawmaker. “If he can buck the trend of the environmental left’s hostility to nuclear, he could demonstrate to New York City — and to democratic socialist supporters nationwide, who already view him as a likely successor to (notoriously antinuclear) Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders — that the left can think rationally about the energy system, its affordability, and the wide scope of the climate problem,” the writer Fred Stafford wrote in an op-ed for Heatmap this morning. “That would truly be charting a new path.”

2. The Trump administration charges ahead with minerals deals

On stage at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference yesterday, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced the United States’ support for a critical minerals “club” of countries that will trade the metals needed for energy and weapons without relying on China. “In the last few weeks, the United States has announced a framework for creating a club of nations to be able to trade … [and for] refining and processing critical minerals,” Burgum said at the Adipec conference, according to E&E News.

As Heatmap’s Katie Brigham put it recently, “everybody wants to invest in critical minerals startups,” including the Trump administration. The U.S. military’s Office of Strategic Capital put up a $620 million loan for Vulcan Elements’ efforts to build a factory to produce 10,000 metric tons of rare earth magnets, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Department of Commerce is chipping in another $50 million, while private investors contribute $550 million to a deal that involves ReElement Technologies, a startup that purifies and recycles rare earth metals. Meanwhile, the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. signed onto a letter of interest promising to provide as much as $191 million in financing to Locksley Resources’ rare earths project in California’s Mojave desert.

3. China taps one of the world’s biggest iron ore mines

Bloomberg Businessweek has a sweeping new dispatch from the rainforests of Guinea, where China recently completed a railroad that allows mining companies mostly controlled by Beijing to tap one of the world’s largest and richest iron ore deposits. At $23 billion, the project is Africa’s biggest ever mining project and could make the tiny West African nation the continent’s No. 2 mineral exporter. “Never before has China held this level of pricing power over the seaborne iron ore trade,” Tom Price, head of commodities strategy at Panmure Liberum, told the magazine. “Expect it to start calling the shots here.”

The U.S. has largely struggled to get a leg up on China in critical minerals. As I wrote here last month, the world’s leading commodities traders have urged Western governments to focus on refining metals, not just mining them. In September, I broke news in Heatmap about an Ohio startup called Xerion extending its novel approach to processing mineral ore from cobalt to gallium.

4. Southern Company inks deals for 7 gigawatts of large power users

Utility giant Southern Company has signed deals for at least 7 gigawatts of data centers and other large power users, but has a pipeline of more than 50 gigawatts in the works, the company said in its third-quarter earnings last week. The company, which controls some of the largest utilities in the Southeast, is requiring “strong customer protections and credit provisions” to protect against rate increases to serve the new loads, Chief Financial Officer David Poroch said on the call, according to Utility Dive. “Our pipeline of large load data centers and manufacturers continues to be robust across our electric subsidiaries. The total pipeline remains more than 50 gigawatts of potential incremental load by mid 2030s.”

Poroch’s price caveats track with a trend Matthew Zeitlin wrote about recently, of utilities bending over backward to convince even their investors that ratepayers won’t be on the hook for the cost of serving the artificial intelligence buildout. With opposition to data centers high and rising, they’re trying to avoid a popular backlash.

5. Democrats push to delay New York’s gas ban

Nineteen Democrats in the New York State Assembly want Governor Kathy Hochul to reject a mandate for electrifying new buildings. The signatories to a letter calling on the governor to halt plans to ban gas hookups in new construction include lawmakers from New York City, Long Island, and upstate, along with Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes. The letter was sent to the governor Monday, but Hochul already said she’d consider the request, Politico reported.

Another key test Mamdani's likely election will set up is how highly he prioritizes opposition to the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline designed to carry gas from Pennsylvania's fracking fields to stoves and furnaces in the outer boroughs. Hochul supports the project, which backers say will bring down the cost of a fuel that -- even in the most ambitious decarbonization scenarios -- New York will continue to need for many years. After running a campaign laser-focused on affordability, his approach to the project may reveal how important opposing fossil fuel infrastructure remains for the left wing of the Democratic Party.

THE KICKER

It’s not your typical kind of media deal. The Cool Down, a climate and sustainability website known for its explainers about sustainable lifestyles and how-to guides, sold itself to the clean-energy company Palmetto. The North Carolina-based company, which leases solar panels, batteries, heat pumps, and other electrified technologies to consumers, has been expanding in recent months, as Heatmap’s Robinson Meyer wrote in a scoop on the acquisition yesterday. “By bringing our companies together, we’re pairing trusted consumer education with real, accessible energy solutions. Together we intend to empower households to take control of their energy future and benefit from the transition that’s already underway,” Chris Kemper, the founder and CEO of Palmetto, said in a statement.