With help from Jordan Wolman, Catherine Morehouse, Kelsey Tamborrino and Daniel Lippman

PROGRAMMING NOTE: We’ll be off for Thanksgiving this Thursday and Friday but back to our normal schedule on Monday, Nov. 29.

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— The Biden administration officially announced the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in conjunction with several other countries.

— The Energy Department is letting the National Coal Council’s charter lapse as it reconfigures the advisory board’s mandate.

— Republicans on the FTC are asking for proof of wrongdoing after President Joe Biden requested the commission probe around the oil and gas industry.

WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I’m your host, Matthew Choi. FTI Consulting’s Chris Tucker gets the trivia for knowing Dammam’s King Fahd International Airport is the world’s largest by surface area (“The gates are all a quarter-mile apart from one another, and there aren’t exactly any moving walkways,” he recounts to ME). ME is going to take a little trivia pause today and instead ask for your favorite Thanksgiving recipe! Best one will get a recipe in return. Send your tips and answers to [email protected]. Find me on Twitter @matthewchoi2018.

Check out the POLITICO Energy podcast — all the energy and environmental politics and policy news you need to start your day, in just five minutes. Listen and subscribe for free at politico.com/energy-podcast. On today's episode: Biden pulls the trigger on oil release.

RELEASE THE RESERVES! The Biden administration officially announced the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve after weeks of teasing the move. And while the White House took credit for the recent pullback in crude oil prices from the highs near $84 a barrel by foreshadowing its decision, the oil market was less impressed once the announcement was made, with January crude futures rallying more than 2 percent to $78.50 a barrel.

The U.S. release of 18 million barrels and exchange of 32 million barrels will take place in conjunction with releases by China, India, the U.K., Japan and South Korea from their national crude oil stockpiles, making it the largest ever cooperative release.

And Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm encouraged other countries to join in on the effort Tuesday, though she recognized not every country has a national petroleum reserve and none are as large as the U.S. holds. Granholm also stressed that the precedent-setting coordinated release was not a sustainable strategy to keep prices low, acknowledging it won’t have a lasting impact and may not be immediately visible.

But she pivoted to tout the Biden plan to develop renewables like wind and solar to try to avoid the type of swings that Americans have faced for decades from oil prices. “Relying upon volatile sources or relying upon fuel from countries that may not have our best interests at heart hurts the American people in the long-end and the short-run,” she said at a White House briefing on Tuesday.

Other Democrats including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and environmental groups also called on the administration to lean into efforts to move off the global fossil fuel markets to domestically produced renewable energy. Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, said in a statement that “price volatility will always be part of Big Oil’s playbook.”

Granholm also hinted that the administration is exploring other measures to bring down retail fuel prices, but left it to Biden to announce those himself.

Meanwhile, Republicans and industry groups panned the move as a quick political salve. Senate Energy Ranking Member John Barrasso stuck to his talking points and said the administration and congressional Democrats were “waging a war on American energy” by temporarily pausing new federal oil and gas lease sales earlier this year.

That message was amplified by Christopher Guith, senior vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute. “America’s real strategic petroleum reserve is in places like the Permian Basin and the Gulf of Mexico,” he said in a statement. “The Department of Energy’s reserve should only be used for supply disruptions. Instead of ineffectual band aids, the White House should focus on policies that will encourage domestic production of oil and natural gas."

Republicans’ criticism comes despite the fact that it was legislation passed under the GOP-controlled House during the Trump administration that helped pave the way for the sale, since it had ordered the government to sell more than 100 million barrels from the SPR by between 2022 and 2027 to raise money to cover tax cuts and other items. Ben has more on the release for Pros.

Granholm points finger at industry: When asked why the U.S. hasn’t returned to its pre-pandemic oil production levels, Granholm pointed to oil companies’ reluctance to spend on new output.

“Oil production is lagging behind as the economy roars back to life after the shutdown,” she said. “[Companies] have not rehired. They have not turned on the rigs. They have not taken advantage of the permits that they have on the land that they have,” Granholm added.

COAL COUNCIL GETS A RESET: The Energy Department is letting the National Coal Council’s current charter lapse as it eyes a revamp to the advisory body’s portfolio to put it more in line with the administration’s push for a clean energy transition.

Jennifer Wilcox, who serves as the principal deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, notified NCC Chair Randall Atkins last week that the department was looking at a new charter “revised to reflect matters currently faced by the coal industry, workers, and communities, including priorities established by the Energy Act of 2020 as well as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law enacted this week, and to generally modernize the advisory committee.”

Atkins, who is also the founder of met coal producer Ramaco Resources, Inc., was disappointed by the administration’s decision to let the charter lapse, saying the new objectives under consideration seem “afield from the technical and policy industry related areas for which the NCC has traditionally provided expertise.” Pro’s Kelsey Tamborrino has more.

SHOW YOUR PROOF: Two Republicans on the Federal Trade Commission are asking the White House for any proof of illegal activity by the oil and gas industry to raise gasoline prices, which Biden asked FTC Chair Lina Khan to investigate last week. Commissioners Noah Phillips and Christine Wilson requested evidence “so that we might consider how to proceed,” Reuters reports.

Biden’s request had pointed to the price difference between unfinished gasoline and the prices at the pump, saying the two had diverged over the previous month, which the White House said could indicate market manipulation. Energy analysts, however, have said those type of fluctuations have happened fairly regularly, and that the short time frame cited indicated that there was little cause to suspect wrongdoing.

WARREN TURNS TO NATGAS EXPORTS: Fresh from criticisms that energy companies are gouging drivers at the pump and poultry companies were illicitly driving up turkey prices, Sen. Elizabeth Warren is now pressing natural gas majors on whether they are neglecting American consumers to sell to natural gas abroad, driving up home heating costs as winter approaches.

Citing reporting from The Wall Street Journal showing that record natural gas exports are raising home heating costs in the U.S., Warren wrote to ConocoPhillips, EQT, Exxon Mobil, Coterra, BP, Antero Resources, Chesapeake Energy Corporation, Ascent Resources, Southwestern Energy Company, Range Resources Corporation and Occidental Petroleum Corporation to cough up details on their export rates and profits for the last 10 years. She also asked about any bonuses the firms’ C-suite may have gotten and what measures they have taken to alleviate spiking domestic gas prices.

“This corporate greed is inexcusable, and represents the results of a rigged system that enriches energy company executives and investors, and leaves American families struggling to pay the bills,” she writes.

An Exxon Mobil spokesperson confirmed to ME that the company had received Warren’s letter and would respond to her office. Spokespeople for Range Resources and ConocoPhillips also confirmed receipt and declined to comment. EQT rebuffed Warren's letter in a statement to ME, pointing out that natural gas exports could help counter global emissions by replacing overseas coal consumption and "the lowest natural gas prices on record occurred during the period when we were an exporter."

"The attempt to scapegoat LNG and the tried-and-true oil and gas executive “boogeyman” for the current inflationary environment is without merit and reckless," the statement said.

None of the other firms immediately responded to requests for comment. Warren gave the firms until Dec. 7 to respond. Read her letter here.

BILL TARGETS RETROACTIVE CHANGES TO RVOs: A bipartisan group of Midwestern lawmakers is taking aim at the potential for EPA to retroactively lower biofuel blending mandates under the Renewable Fuel Standard. Reps. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), Angie Craig (D-Minn.) and Ron Kind (D-Wis.) introduced the Defend the Blend Act on Tuesday that would prevent the agency from retroactively reducing previously finalized renewable volume obligations.

EPA sent its proposed annual blending targets to the White House for interagency review in late August. A leaked document emerged in September that signaled the agency planned to retroactively reduce the blending mandates for 2020 — setting off alarm bells for farmers and ethanol advocates. The proposed legislation "will hold the Administration accountable for maintaining the integrity of the Renewable Fuel Standard and give biofuel and ethanol producers the certainty they deserve," Hinson said in a statement.

MAINE HITS THE BRAKES: Maine Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Melanie Loyzim suspended the permits for the New England Clean Energy Connect, a controversial 145-mile transmission project that would deliver hydropower from Quebec into New England. The suspension of the permits comes after 59 percent of Maine voters rejected the project in a ballot referendum earlier this month.

The permit suspension means that all construction must stop for the $950 million project that was set to come on line in 2023.The suspension order does state that permits can be reinstated if the project prevails in its existing legal challenges, including one that asserts the referendum was unconstitutional.

Thorn Dickinson, the president and CEO of NECEC, said at a DEP hearing on Monday that 139 miles of the 145-mile corridor have already been cut and that suspension of the permit would result in the laying off of 400 workers. NECEC became the most expensive ballot campaign in Maine state history and forged some strange political alliances. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, former Republican Gov. Paul LePage and Granholm all supported the project, but some environmental groups and major energy companies — along with a majority of every town along the corridor — opposed NECEC. Though Mills backed the project, she wrote to NECEC on Nov. 19 prior to DEP’s ruling that she wanted the project to voluntarily pause all construction to respect the will of Maine voters, which NECEC agreed to do temporarily. A recent Beacon Research poll released after the Nov. 2 referendum found that 64 percent of Maine voters said they wanted to stop all clearing and 61 percent supported DEP suspending the project’s permit.

KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON: The rapidly evolving resource mix behind the U.S. power grid requires a new approach to ensuring there is enough power supply to meet demand, according to a report released Tuesday by Grid Strategies that was prepared for the American Council on Renewable Energy.

The report lays out nine recommendations for FERC, states and regional grid operators to consider as they assess how to address “resource adequacy” and keep the lights on while the nation transitions to cleaner power, particularly in the wake of rolling blackouts in California and Texas. Providing non-discriminatory capacity values to clean energy resources, increasing regional planning, and avoiding federal policies that undermine state clean energy goals -- in particular any repeats of FERC’s controversial minimum offer price rule expansion -- are among the strategies the report advocates for.

The issue is top of mind for FERC, which is reassessing resource adequacy as power producers develop new sources of electricity generation, and as the grid faces new stresses caused by extreme weather events across the country. “We all need reliability to be achieved ... to continue this rapid march towards cleaner and cleaner energy,” said Rob Gramlich, author of the report and founder and president of Grid Strategies, during a webinar hosted by ACORE Tuesday.

— Kristen Averyt has been named senior climate adviser for Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak. She most recently was climate policy coordinator for the State of Nevada.

— “Here’s the Next Animal That Could Go Extinct,” via The New York Times.

— “‘Snowball effect’: The global reasons why you can’t buy what you want right now,” via NBC News.

— “Carney Says Carbon Offsets Must Be Limited to Residual Emissions,” via Bloomberg.

THAT’S ALL FOR ME! SEE YOU AFTER TURKEY DAY.