Energy & Fuel

"Standing alongside his son’s Ford pickup truck at a central Iowa gas station off Interstate 80, Francisco Castillo was not happy."

"World leaders have tried and failed to curb climate change by appealing to nations to act for the common good. Now, the Iran war and its costly energy crunch have some experts wondering if selfishness and nationalism may be a more likely way to save the planet, by boosting support for homegrown renewables over imported fossil fuels."

"As missiles and drones curtail energy production across the Persian Gulf, analysts warn that water, not oil, may be the resource most at risk in the energy-rich but arid region."

"Though high rates of the disease persist among the nearby Indigenous communities, the Canadian government is weighing rules that may allow energy giants to release treated mining waste into the river system."

"A new report finds that of 154 specific claims about how AI will benefit the climate, just a quarter cited academic research. A third included no evidence at all."

"Oil prices on Sunday crossed into triple digits for the first time since 2022 — a stark sign of how the Iran war is throttling global supplies and raising consumers' costs."

"West Virginia lawmakers in the Senate passed a bill to weaken drinking water protections by loosening regulations for certain aboveground storage tanks. It is the latest move to weaken the Aboveground Storage Tank Act, passed in 2014 after a chemical leak from Freedom Industries along the Elk River contaminated drinking water for nearly 300,000 West Virginians in the Charleston area."

"Two Utah Congress members have introduced a resolution that could end protections for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Conservation groups worry similar maneuvers on other federal lands will follow."

"In an effort to quell blowback on data centers, President Donald Trump announced at a White House roundtable on Wednesday the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge,” a set of nonbinding promises that Big Tech companies signed to keep household utility bills from skyrocketing."

"Each year around this time, the federal government releases its expectations for new power plant construction. The latest data drop shows clean energy is going to dominate this year, just as it has for many years running. Even as the Trump administration has employed novel and at times legally dubious means to block renewable energy growth, the power sector keeps choosing clean energy again and again — attracted by its low costs, speed to build, and climate and environmental benefits."