The Department of Energy announced it is awarding $2.7 billion in funding to three companies to increase domestic uranium enrichment.

The announcement comes as President Donald Trump has sought to reinvigorate the United States' nuclear energy industry and move away from foreign sources of nuclear fuel.

And Axios writes there seems to be a common thread emerging with President Trump's aggressive stance towards Venezuela, Greenland and other Western hemisphere players: critical minerals.

Along with tapping Venezuela's massive oil reserves, administration officials say developing the country's rare-earth minerals could help stabilize Venezuela's finances and help the U.S. blunt China's mineral stranglehold.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters on Air Force One, Venezuela has "all the critical minerals. They have a great mining history that's gone rusty."

And turning back home, the U.S. is now exporting more LNG than any other nation ever, with exports jumping 25% just last year. With export capacity set to grow dramatically over the remainder of the decade, the impact on domestic natural gas prices and power prices is a dynamic to watch closely.