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Politics correspondent
United States desk
Sienna Brook is The Gold Standard's United States correspondent. Brook covers Washington, energy policy and the federal politics of the day.
Monday night the White House named the company, the 35 percent stake, and the 20 percent at-cost offtake under Trump's Venezuela oil headline. Here's the structure, the fields, and the years the analysts won't delete.
Sienna Brook · 2 Sept 2026
On Sunday Trump said Venezuelan crude will refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The stockpile was about 290 million barrels on 21 August, against 714 million of capacity.
Sienna Brook · 31 Aug 2026
President Trump ordered a nuclear-industrial rebuild: fuel cycle, uprates, a target of moving U.S. nuclear from about 100 gigawatts toward 400 by 2050. In January the Energy Department put $2.7 billion into domestic enrichment. In August 2025 it named the first eleven reactor-pilot projects.
Sienna Brook · 30 Aug 2026
On 20 January 2025 President Trump signed E.O. 14154. The Energy Department, the same day, ended the Biden-era pause on non-FTA LNG export applications. Commonwealth LNG in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, got the first post-pause license on 14 February 2025.
Sienna Brook · 30 Aug 2026
Southern Illinois Multimodal Station opened 28 August 2026. $26 million. Amtrak, Greyhound, FlixBus and JAX under one roof, plus four more providers for 28 counties.
Sienna Brook · 30 Aug 2026
TRISO-X dated 24 August 2026 as the next construction phase at TX-1 in Oak Ridge. 19,900 square metres. 700,000 pebbles a year. Clark Construction stays on the job.
Sienna Brook · 30 Aug 2026
Janus microreactors will be licensed by the Army Reactor Office, not the NRC, on a defense-only path built to line up later commercial approvals.
Sienna Brook · 30 Aug 2026
Five Army posts from Bragg to Drum will host commercial microreactors, with vendors named and a 2028 clock.
Sienna Brook · 30 Aug 2026
On 26 August the Army selected five companies to own, build and operate commercial microreactors at five posts, drawing on up to $2.2 billion from fiscal 2027 through 2031. The first Army-regulated machine is supposed to run by 30 September 2028.
Sienna Brook · 30 Aug 2026
The 2026 Economic Report wants NRC time cut toward a year and nuclear grown toward 400 gigawatts by 2050. Day-one energy policy ended the LNG pause. The MAGA years, in office, are an energy file: nuclear that can get a yes, gas that can get a dock.
Sienna Brook · 30 Aug 2026