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Regulator Clears Environmental Review For Dow And X-energy Reactor Project

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has completed its environmental assessment for the Long Mott Generating Station, a proposed four-reactor Xe-100 project at Dow’s Seadrift, Texas site.

📆 #NRCNews: We've completed our environmental assessment of the proposed Long Mott Generating Station ahead of schedule. https://t.co/aQ2Lf548Lx pic.twitter.com/MznwpfQjTz

— NRC (@NRCgov) May 18, 2026

A Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) was issued after the review wrapped up in under a year.

The NRC has dramatically shortened review timelines across multiple advanced reactor projects in recent months. We have previously covered how the agency has cut license renewal times by roughly half and completed several first-of-a-kind reviews well ahead of historical norms.

"6–12 Months For Construction Permits" - The Nuclear Regulation Overhaul https://t.co/Zrsj6FTvy6

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 29, 2026

The Long Mott project is backed by the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). The four reactors are intended to supply power to Dow’s large chemical manufacturing operations, with the potential for high-temperature process steam to be explored at a later stage. 

If completed, it would be among the first grid-scale advanced reactors dedicated to serving an industrial site in North America.

The project still faces a recent regulatory nuisance. In February, the NRC granted intervention to the San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper on a contention that Long Mott Energy, the Dow subsidiary developing the project, has not sufficiently demonstrated its financial qualifications.

The assertion is hard to take seriously. Dow is one of the largest chemical companies in the world, and X-energy counts Amazon among its major backers. Yet the financial qualifications issue will now proceed to a hearing.

Other contentions raised by Waterkeeper, including challenges related to the reactor design and environmental impacts, were rejected by the Board.

For now, the Long Mott project has cleared one of the more visible early hurdles. The financial qualifications hearing will likely result in dismissal, but not until after Waterkeeper has made every attempt possible to delay the project.

Tyler Durden Wed, 05/20/2026 - 14:00

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Sin City is about to be "Dynamite."

One of America’s once-dominant beer brands is being discontinued after more than 175 years.

Video showed the massive funnel of smoke twisting high into the sky above the blaze burning near Verona Road and Juniper Springs Road.

Castro and five co-defendants are also charged with four counts of murder and additional counts of destruction of aircraft in the Feb. 24, 1996, shootdown.

Kevin Canaan, 28, and Yennifer Tavarez-Cepeda, 25, are accused of abusing their newborn son in a private room at the Tower Health Reading Hospital in Pennsylvania.

Southern Californians ready to swap traffic jams for splash zones this Memorial Day weekend are in luck.

The driver reportedly heard a woman's horrified screams outside the couple's front door and saw a woman covered in blood and a man holding a hammer inside.

Jet off to your next oasis — without getting ripped off.

Bezos Torches AOC, Says Billionaires "Earn Every Penny"

Jeff Bezos sat down for a wide-ranging interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning at a Blue Origin facility in Merritt Island, Florida - where he rattled off lots of thoughts, including how billionaires are made, slammed AOC, and opined on the relative impact of for-profit innovation versus charity, taxes, and bureaucratic inefficiency. 

On Wealth Creation and "Unearned" Billionaires

Bezos directly responded to criticism from figures like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), who has argued that accumulating $1 billion is inherently “unearned.” He rejected the notion with a straightforward analogy:

“Let me give you a simple example. Let’s say you start a burger joint, and you have 10 employees, and you make a little bit of money… Until you have - this is just one outlet. And by the way, these are the most delicious burgers in the world. People love your burgers, Andrew. And so then you open a second outlet… and now you’re making a little bit more money, and you have 20 employees. And you open a third outlet. By the time you’ve opened a thousand outlets, you are a billionaire… This is a real life story. It happens all the time. It’s In-N-Out Burger, it’s Raising Cane’s Chicken… The way you make a billion dollars, or a hundred million dollars, or 10 million dollars, or anything, is you create a service that people love. And if millions of people choose your service, you’re going to end up with a billion dollars… But your chicken has to be good.”

Jeff Bezos explains to @AOC how billionaires are created: providing at least a billion dollars in value to society -- the opposite of exploitation.

Bezos: "Let me give you a simple example. Let’s say you start a burger joint, and you have 10 employees, and you make a little bit… pic.twitter.com/qGjGdoJcbr

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 20, 2026 For-Profit Companies vs. Charitable Giving

Bezos argued that the societal impact of successful businesses far outweighs traditional philanthropy when done right:

“If I do my job right, the value to society and civilization from my for-profit companies will be much, much larger than the good that I do with my charitable giving.”

He pointed to customer testimonials, including letters from new mothers who relied on Amazon as an essential service—especially during the pandemic—and noted that innovations like fast delivery and broad access create broad-based value that philanthropy alone cannot match. Bezos added that he plans to give away the vast majority of his wealth during his lifetime.

Jeff Bezos: "If I do my job right, the value to society and civilization from my for-profit companies will be much, much larger than the good that I do with my charitable giving." pic.twitter.com/3svJ1onmAr

— CNBC (@CNBC) May 20, 2026 A Sharp Critique of Government Efficiency

In one of the most quoted lines of the interview, Bezos drew a stark contrast between Amazon’s operations and public-sector bureaucracy, using New York City’s school system as an example:

“If we ran Amazon the way New York City runs their school system, the packages would take 6 weeks to arrive, we would charge you a $100 delivery fee and when the package did finally arrive, it would have the wrong item in it anyway.”

Jeff Bezos said higher taxes on billionaires will not fix America’s fiscal problems arguing real issue is government spending.

He joked that if $AMZN ran like New York City schools then packages would take six weeks, cost $100 to deliver and still arrive with the wrong item. pic.twitter.com/CLCK4AgDU7

— Shay Boloor (@StockSavvyShay) May 20, 2026 Taxes, the “Tale of Two Economies,” and Fixing Root Causes

Bezos touched on tax policy and inequality, noting that the bottom half of earners pay only about 3% of all federal income taxes and arguing it “should be zero.”

“We shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens [making $75k] to send money to Washington. They should be sending her an apology.”

He described the current economy as a “tale of two economies,” where some thrive while others struggle, and urged policymakers to focus on root causes and skills development rather than “picking villains.”

🚨 Jeff Bezos just said what a lot of people are thinking.

💬 “It’s kind of absurd that we’re doing this… We shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington.”

The world’s wealthiest man calling out the tax burden on working Americans, on CNBC.

Whether you… pic.twitter.com/nLpg1W0tHn

— Invest Alpha Pro (@InvestAlphaPro) May 20, 2026

He criticized crony capitalism, corporate welfare, and loopholes, saying the system needs fixing at its foundation. On his own taxes, he noted he pays billions and that even doubling that wouldn’t solve broader fiscal issues.

Other Notable Takes

• AI and Innovation: Bezos expressed optimism, saying he’s not overly concerned about an AI bubble because even a correction would still drive healthy investment and productivity gains that could lead to abundance and address labor shortages.

Jeff Bezos says that AI will "elevate" people at work, not replace jobs. pic.twitter.com/sbtiSkvLXD

— CNBC (@CNBC) May 20, 2026

• The Washington Post: He defended recent changes at the paper, stressing it must be run as a profitable business, not a charity.
• Space and the Future: He highlighted Blue Origin’s work on data centers in space and lunar missions as realistic and exciting.

Bezos came across as measured and optimistic about American ingenuity while acknowledging real struggles for many workers. He repeatedly stressed accountability, customer value, and practical solutions over rhetoric.

Full interview here.

Tyler Durden Wed, 05/20/2026 - 13:30

The Department of Homeland Security is coming under pressure to sequester shipments of Labubu dolls coming into the US due to forced labor concerns.

The Utah mom was sentenced last week to life in prison for fatally poisoning her husband.

The Trump administration is planning to tell NATO allies that it will shrink the pool of US military capabilities available to assist the alliance's European nations in a major crisis, according to a report.

Vladimir Putin visited Xi Jinping in China at a summit in Beijing Wednesday, just days after Xi hosted President Trump.

Bill Belichick's 25-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson took another shot at CBS' Tony Dokoupil over his interview with the UNC football coach that went off the rails last April.

Solid 7Y Auction Prices "On The Screws" With Solid Foreign Demand

Today's lone coupon auction, the sale of $16BN in 20Y notes, took place at 1pm, just an hour ahead of the FOMC Minutes release, and the auction was generally very strong, with maybe a one glitch. 

The sale stopped at a high yield of 5.122%, up from 4.883% in April, and the second highest in the history of the 20Y auction with just the 5.257% in October '23 printing higher. The yield stopped on the screws with the When Issued 5.122%, and followed two stopping through auctions, and 11 of the past 12). 

The bid to cover was 2.55, down from 2.68 in April and arguably the only weak spot in today's auction, as it was the lowest since February. 

The internals were solid, with Indirects awarded 67.67%, up from 67.39% and the 63.5% recent average. And with Directs taking 22.9%, unchanged from the previous month, Dealers were left with 9.4%, down from 9.7% and one of the lowest Dealer awards on record.

Overall, this was a solid 7Y auction and one which had no problem finding buyers despite, or perhaps because of the recent surge in yields which today has reversed modestly thanks to lower oil prices.

 

Tyler Durden Wed, 05/20/2026 - 13:20

The system, called WhaleSpotter, scans the bay around the clock for whale blows and heat signatures up to two nautical miles away, alerting mariners to slow down or reroute when whales are nearby.

The implications go beyond aesthetics.

"Seniority can't be a senility shield. It's endangering America because they refuse to pass the torch."