North Carolina’s Republican-controlled Utilities Commission has drawn a rare line in the sand.

September 18, 2026, the North Carolina Utilities Commission denied Duke Energy Progress a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for a new natural-gas simple-cycle combustion turbine at the Sherwood H. Smith Jr. Energy Complex in Richmond County. The denial is without prejudice, meaning Duke can refile. The message, however, is clear: data-center load forecasts and […]

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President Trump’s 2026 Jones Act waivers moved tens of millions of barrels of U.S. energy that the domestic fleet could not carry. Freight savings are real but modest on a national scale; the larger story is avoided shortages, reopened domestic routes, and a live stress test of a 1920 law that left the United States with too few ships.

On March 17, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security issued the longest and broadest Jones Act waiver since at least 1950, covering energy commodities and fertilizer inputs. The waiver was extended twice and now runs through November 15, 2026, with a narrower product list and voyage-by-voyage review after August 17. The Cato Institute’s Jones Act […]

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DOE Kicks Off a Huge Investment into America’s Electric Grid

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity announced on September 24, 2026, that it intends to help fund 31 grid-improvement projects across 26 states under the Speed to Power through Accelerated Reconductoring and other Key Advanced Transmission Technology Upgrades (SPARK) initiative. The package totals $5.25 billion—$1.9 billion in federal funding and $3.35 billion in […]

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Why Are Global Diesel Prices So High? Exhibit A: Ukraine Drone Hits Novoshakhtinsk Refinery

A Ukrainian drone strike on Friday forced Russia’s Novoshakhtinsk refinery in the Rostov region offline, according to regional governor Yury Slyusar. The plant, which processes about 110,000 barrels per day (roughly 5–5.6 million tons per year), is not one of Russia’s giants. It is, however, a clean illustration of why diesel—the workhorse fuel for trucking, […]

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NatGas Spikes As Major West Virginia Pipeline Declares Force Majeure

TC Energy’s Columbia Gas Transmission (TCO) declared force majeure Thursday after an unexpected mechanical issue on the Mountaineer XPress (MXP) system forced an immediate pressure reduction on Line 100 between the Mt. Olive Compressor Station in Jackson County and the Saunders Creek Regulator Station in Cabell County, West Virginia. The restriction takes the MXPSEG MA42 […]

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