Federal Agency
Appears in 11 stories
Issued and now enforces the rule
Companies and universities that take Energy Department money now face a much bigger in-house fraud penalty. On July 13, 2026, a DOE rule raised the cap on administrative false-claims cases from $150,000 to $1 million per claim.
Updated Yesterday
Initiated the directive
For decades, the cost of upgrading the power grid was spread across everyone's electric bill. On June 18, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) acted on a rule that could put much of that cost on the data centers that trigger it.
Updated Jun 18
Federal projection authority for VPP capacity
For most of the twentieth century the U.S. power grid moved electricity in one direction: from large central plants to homes and businesses. A Pew Charitable Trusts report released April 28 documents how twelve states and Puerto Rico have now written rules letting aggregated rooftops, batteries, water heaters, and thermostats be dispatched together as a single power plant. The category is called a virtual power plant, or VPP, and for the first time, it's moving from utility pilots into mainstream state regulation.
Updated May 31
Coordinating domestic nuclear fuel supply chain expansion
For decades, the United States outsourced its nuclear fuel supply chain to Russia. President Biden ended that in May 2024 by banning Russian uranium imports, triggering a scramble to rebuild domestic capabilities before the waiver period expires in 2028.
Updated May 29
Authorizes LNG exports to non-free-trade-agreement countries
When Cheniere Energy shipped America's first LNG cargo from Louisiana in February 2016, the U.S. was a net gas importer. A decade later, the country leads the world in LNG exports, with capacity set to more than double by 2029.
Updated May 27
Primary regulator for Reactor Pilot Program
The Energy Department published its secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules on February 26, about a month after NPR first reported their existence. By early March, Aalo Atomics had completed its Critical Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory — assembled in 40 days, the first new reactor built at INL in 50 years — and said it would go critical within weeks.
Issuing emergency orders to keep fossil plants online
Between 1977 and 2000, the Energy Secretary used Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act exactly zero times; since May 2025, it has been invoked more than 40 times. On May 22, Secretary Chris Wright added another, directing Talen Energy to run a 54-year-old oil-fired unit outside Baltimore beyond its environmental run cap from now through August 19.
Updated May 22
Leading domestic nuclear fuel supply chain rebuilding
The United States performed less than 1% of global uranium enrichment when the Department of Energy announced $2.7 billion in contracts to three companies on January 21, 2026. Russia controls 44% of global enrichment capacity and supplied roughly a quarter of American reactor fuel until Congress banned imports in 2024. The last U.S.-owned enrichment facility shut down in 2013.
Lead agency for Genesis Mission
The White House mobilized America's 17 national laboratories and major tech companies—OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA. The Genesis Mission aims to double US research productivity in a decade by connecting supercomputers, quantum systems, and AI into one discovery platform. Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced 24 corporate partners at a January 11 summit.
Updated May 20
Partnering with DeepMind on Genesis AI-for-science platform
Science magazine named large language models doing frontier science a runner-up breakthrough of 2025. Within weeks, the prediction became reality: OpenAI's GPT-5.2 solved previously unsolved Erdős mathematics problems in 15 minutes, achieving 40% accuracy on expert-level mathematics that stumped earlier systems.
Updated May 19
Opening federal land for nuclear-powered AI data centers
Alphabet just paid $4.75 billion for a power company, securing 10.8 gigawatts of capacity—enough to power 8 million homes. Tech giants spent 2024 locking down nuclear reactors and signing multibillion-dollar energy deals because there's not enough electricity for AI.
Updated May 16
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