Trump Energy Cabinet Testifies Before Congress on Permitting, Regulations and National Security as House Votes on E15

All three of President Donald Trump’s energy and environment cabinet members testified before Congress on May 13, 2026. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright faced questions on regulatory changes, permitting policy and national security as the House prepared to vote the same evening on legislation allowing year-round sales of the E15 fuel blend.

Zeldin testified before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on environmental policy.

Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen asked him why the agency is no longer considering the cost of pollution to public health. The EPA issued a rulemaking earlier in 2026 stating it would no longer consider the monetary value of health benefits when setting regulations on fine particles and ozone.

“As we update the modeling, working with our dedicated career scientists at EPA, rather than setting an arbitrary number to it, we look forward to being able to put a number to it that has the support of the Science Advisory Board and the scientific community,” Zeldin said.

” Burgum appeared before the House Natural Resources Committee on May 13, 2026. A district court issued a ruling in April 2026 ordering Interior to end policies delaying permits for wind and solar.

Burgum confirmed that the administration will appeal the April 2026 district court ruling on wind and solar permits. “The idea that a single judge could decide what the process that we’re supposed to go through internally to make sure that we’re complying with the law through a complex permitting process is absurd,” Burgum said.

” Burgum defended the administration’s approach to energy reliability.

“When the sun goes down, [solar projects] produce zero electricity,” he said. He added that the nation over-rotated towards intermittent forms of energy and that adding intermittent energy while shutting down baseload put the grid at deep risk. Ranking Member Jared Huffman requested unanimous consent to enter information into the hearing record on battery technology.

Several Democrats criticized the administration’s crackdown on renewable energy projects, arguing it allows nations like China to gain ground in artificial intelligence development. Wright spoke before the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 13, 2026. He said Iran is a small number of weeks away from enriching uranium to weapons-grade.

“They are a small number of weeks away to enrich that to weapons-grade uranium. There’s still a weaponization process that happens after that, but they’re quite close,” Wright said. The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on May 13, 2026 on a bill to allow year-round sales of the E15 fuel blend.

The House passed a farm bill last month that reauthorized food and agriculture programs for the next five years but did not include the year-round E15 provision. 5% to 15% ethanol blended with gasoline. The EIA released an analysis on May 13, 2026 estimating solar generation in Texas will reach 78 billion kilowatt hours in 2026.

The EIA forecasts that roughly 40% of new solar capacity additions across the country in 2026 will be installed in Texas, including an 837-megawatt solar and battery energy storage system project southeast of Dallas. The EIA is not tracking any new coal plants to be built in ERCOT.

Natural gas made up around 44% of electricity generation in ERCOT between 2021 and 2025. Solar’s share of ERCOT generation increased from 4% to 12% between 2021 and 2025 while coal’s share decreased from 19% to 13%. The International Energy Agency released its May oil market report on May 13, 2026.

8 million barrels per day in April 2026 according to the IEA. The IEA projects global oil demand will drop by 420,000 barrels per day in 2026, revising up from its previous forecast of an 80,000 barrel per day decline.

2 million barrels per day in 2026. 4 million barrels per day. 7 million barrels per day since the war began, roughly equivalent to 30%.

The United Arab Emirates announced it was exiting OPEC several weeks before May 13, 2026. Washington Examiner reported the hearings, the E15 vote, the EIA projections and the IEA findings.