Last week, President Donald Trump's administration turned its chainsaws on the Department of Energy (DOE), cutting, canceling, or pausing a handful of onerous regulations set to hobble household and commercial appliances. Anyone who's coughed up a small fortune for a barely functional machine lately knows the stakes. 

The Energy Department has identified thousands of federal workers it deems “nonessential” and would not be protected if there is another round of large-scale firings, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.

The jobs at risk include more than 8,500 positions across the Energy Department and the National Nuclear Security Administration — which upgrades and maintains the nation’s nuclear warheads. The department identified them as eligible to be cut to meet the goals of President Donald Trump’s executive order for mass reductions in federal employees.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has laid off about 1,200 to 2,000 workers at the Department of Energy, including employees at a power grid office, the nuclear security administration and the loans office, three sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.

Democratic lawmakers also said the layoffs include workers at national labs and hydroelectric plants, and Cold War legacy nuclear sites that pose safety risks. The DOE has about 14,000 federal employees and 95,000 contractors.

The Biden administration closed on a more than $6.5 billion loan to electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian. The move comes after some questioned whether the deal announced on Tuesday, Jan. 14, could get done before the Trump administration takes over.

The closure on Thursday, Jan. 16, comes just days before President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to scale back on climate-related spending, is inaugurated on Monday, Jan. 20.

Wright is a fossil fuel executive, and at the confirmation hearing, he pledged to support all forms of "reliable" energy – including solar, wind, nuclear and geothermal.

But Wright's past social media posts drew controversy. In a 2023 Linkedin post he wrote, "The hype over wildfires is just hype to justify more impoverishment from bad government policies."

The Biden administration announced on Tuesday that it would sell off one million barrels of gasoline over the coming weeks from a strategic reserve in the Northeast, a move it said was designed to keep gasoline prices in check for consumers ahead of the July 4 holiday.

President Joe Biden's administration will sell nearly 1 million barrels of gasoline in the U.S.-managed stockpile in northeastern states as required by law, the Department of Energy said on Tuesday, effectively closing the near decade-old reserve.

The department created the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve in 2014 after Superstorm Sandy left motorists scrambling for fuel. But storing refined fuel is costlier than storing crude oil, so closing the reserve was included in U.S funding legislation signed in March by Biden, a Democrat.

The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it will sell off 1 million barrels of gasoline held in case of emergencies — with the Energy Department explicitly citing an interest in keeping gas prices low over the summer driving season ahead of the November election.

The fuel will be released from the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve, a component of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that was established in 2014 after Superstorm Sandy disrupted gasoline supplies in the New York City area.