In a major boost for America’s energy security and domestic coal industry, President Donald J. Trump today invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) to direct nearly $700 million in federal support for coal-fired power plants, new construction, restarts, and critical export infrastructure. The announcement, made during an Oval Office event focused on “Beautiful, Clean Coal,” […]
Continue Reading
President Donald Trump is set to announce a $700 million federal funding initiative to bolster U.S. coal-fired power generation and establish a dedicated American coal export terminal, according to a Bloomberg report published June 3, 2026. The funding will be channeled through the 1950 Defense Production Act, a Cold War-era tool repurposed for domestic energy […]
Continue Reading
China’s power sector delivered a clear reminder in April 2026 that even the world’s fastest-growing renewable energy giant still leans heavily on coal when the wind doesn’t blow or nuclear plants go offline for maintenance. According to data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, thermal power generation (overwhelmingly coal, with a smaller share of natural […]
Continue Reading
A new analysis from the Energy Institute at Haas at UC Berkeley quantifies what many in the energy sector have long known: the shale gas revolution, powered by hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, has delivered extraordinary savings to American consumers. According to Lucas Davis’s May 2026 working paper and accompanying blog post, shale gas has […]
Continue Reading
As the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran disrupts key Middle East energy routes and chokes global liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies, Asia’s top LNG importers are turning back to coal to keep the lights on. Spot LNG prices have roughly doubled, while Asian LNG imports have fallen sharply—the biggest drop since 2022—prompting utilities across the region […]
Continue Reading
PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest regional transmission organization, is confronting a historic shift from electricity surplus to structural scarcity. A new special report released by PJM on May 6, 2026, titled Powering Reliability Through Market Design, details how unprecedented demand growth—fueled largely by hyperscale data centers and AI infrastructure—combined with accelerated retirements of dispatchable generation […]
Continue Reading
One thing you can say about this energy news cycle is that there is no shortage of topics, so the Energy Realities Team of David Blackmon, Irina Slav, Dr. Tammy Nemeth, and Stu Turley is bringing the biggest news stories of the week to help get your week rolling. We had way too much fun […]
Continue Reading
The AI boom is rewriting the rules of U.S. electricity demand, and the numbers don’t lie. BloombergNEF’s latest analysis, highlighted in a widely shared post by energy analyst David Blackmon (@EnergyAbsurdity), projects that data centers will drive massive incremental power needs through 2035. The stacked bar chart from BNEF is crystal clear: combined-cycle gas turbines […]
Continue Reading
The United Kingdom’s vaunted renewable energy fleet delivered a stark reality check over the recent weekend. Despite boasting approximately 32 GW of installed wind capacity—onshore and offshore combined—actual output plummeted to just 0.6 GW, less than 2% of nameplate capacity. This collapse occurred overnight, when solar generation was zero, leaving Britain functionally reliant on dispatchable […]
Continue Reading
The standard Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) has dominated energy policy discussions for years. Policymakers, media, and even some industry reports cite it to claim that wind and solar are now the “cheapest” forms of new electricity generation. But as Germany’s Energiewende and certain U.S. states demonstrate, this metric is dangerously incomplete. It ignores the […]
Continue Reading