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ClearPath Action Rundown 
November 21st, 2025

Happy Friday! The Rundown will not publish next week. See us back at the top of your inbox on Friday, December 5th.

Congratulations to Ho Nieh, who will now serve as the fourth Commissioner on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission!

1. House Natural Resources Committee advances key bipartisan permitting legislation

The House Natural Resources Committee advanced key bipartisan permitting bills, marking progress toward speeding up energy project approvals. 

“America needs to build more energy projects to counter China, win the AI race, and keep pace with rising demand,” said ClearPath Action CEO Jeremy Harrell.

The Committee advanced three ClearPath Action-endorsed bills:

• The Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act, sponsored by Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR);
• The ePermit Act, sponsored by Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD); and 
• The Studying NEPA's Impact on Projects Act, sponsored by Rep. Rudy Yakym (R-IN).

What’s clear: America can’t meet rising power demand or expand domestic manufacturing without a modern permitting system. Post-shutdown, Republicans in Congress have reinvigorated permitting reforms and are continuing to attract Democrats who want to see more clean energy built in America. 

2. Time to fix America’s permitting problems and let America build

Projects across sectors take an average of four to five years to move through the permitting system, and delays cost $100-140 billion a year in the form of jobs, revenue and capital returns.

A full scope of permitting reforms that cross committee jurisdictions can include:

• Modernizing NEPA;
• Addressing NEPA litigation by reducing delay tactics;
• Increasing transparency by requiring updated data tools; 
• Fixing grid bottlenecks by deploying advanced grid technologies; and 
• Improving interconnection processes to make it easier to build new transmission lines. 

Momentum is building on the Hill. The House Natural Resources Committee’s markup showed growing bipartisan interest in tackling permitting challenges. 

Plug in: Read Lisa Epifani’s new blog on why fixing permitting is key to America’s energy and economic leadership here.

3. DOE provides $1 billion LPO loan to restart Three Mile Island

The DOE’s Loan Programs Office approved a $1 billion loan to Constellation Energy to restart the Three Mile Island Unit 1 reactor in Pennsylvania. The project is backed by a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft, and Constellation plans to bring the plant back online by 2027. 

Restarting Three Mile Island will:

• Power the equivalent of 800,000 homes;
• Help keep electricity prices stable as demand rises from AI data centers and manufacturing; and
• Create 600 American jobs.

What’s clear: Restarting Three Mile Island is one of the fastest ways to add reliable power to the grid, and similar efforts are underway at the Palisades plant in Michigan and the Duane Arnold plant in Iowa. These efforts also support the Trump Administration’s goal to quadruple U.S. nuclear capacity by 2050. 

4. Expanding America’s critical minerals production

DOE announced $355 million to boost U.S. production of critical minerals and materials needed for energy, manufacturing and national defense. These investments will help deploy next-generation mining technologies, strengthen supply chains and reduce reliance on adversaries for critical minerals. 

The funding comes from two new projects at DOE to rebuild domestic mining and processing capacity, which will:

• Deliver up to $275 million for pilot projects at U.S. industrial and coal-based facilities to recover critical minerals from existing byproducts and waste;
• Deliver up to $80 million to establish Mine of the Future proving grounds for real-world testing of next-generation mining technologies; and
• Advance DOE’s plan to invest $1 billion to increase domestic mineral production and reduce reliance on foreign suppliers.

Plug in: Read more about the importance of domestic mining to U.S. security and energy here.

5. Net Power partners with Entropy to expedite clean gas projects

Net Power struck a partnership with Entropy Inc. to expedite the rollout of natural gas power plants with carbon capture in the U.S. This partnership will support the build-out of reliable energy at a critical moment of rising electricity demand, helping meet new load growth while strengthening U.S. energy security.

This partnership will:

• Support Net Power’s one gigawatt clean-power hub in West Texas;  
• Advance a 300 megawatt project in the northern region of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), which manages the power grid across much of the central U.S.; and 
• Provide more dependable, lower-carbon power options.

What’s clear: Natural gas paired with carbon capture is one of the most practical ways to deliver clean, reliable power. This partnership helps move these projects from concept to construction.

Plug in: Read more about Net Power’s influence on clean energy development here.

6. X-energy starts construction for advanced nuclear fuel facility

X-energy started vertical construction on its TX-1 fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The facility will be the first in the U.S. to manufacture TRISO fuel, a durable ceramic-coated fuel designed for high-temperature advanced reactors.

This achievement is a result of bipartisan legislation supporting DOE innovation programs, such as: 

• The Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, which partially funds both the demonstration reactor in Texas and the fuel facility in Tennessee; 
• The Advanced Fuels Program, which researched and qualified TRISO fuels; 
• The Advanced Nuclear Fuel Availability Program, which is establishing new enrichment facilities in the U.S.; 
• The Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act, which reduces allowed Russian uranium imports from 24% of total U.S. consumption in 2024 to 0% in 2028; and 
• The ADVANCE Act, which is modernizing regulations at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

What’s clear: Today’s many nuclear commercial announcements come from decades of Congressional support, and the 400 jobs created by this facility are just the tip of the iceberg on near-term nuclear deployments.

7. The Circuit

8. ICYMI

• Writing in Real Clear Energy, House Science Committee Chair Brian Babin (R-TX) warned that China is moving quickly to lead in fusion energy and urged stronger U.S. leadership to stay competitive.

ClearPath believes America must lead the world in innovation over regulation…markets over mandates…providing affordable, reliable, clean energy. 

That's all from us. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

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