The Trump administration continues its aggressive use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to stabilize surging oil prices and provide relief to American consumers amid ongoing global supply disruptions tied to the U.S.-Iran conflict. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the release of an additional 53.3 million barrels of crude oil from […]
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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 […]
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The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has issued a rare Level 3 Essential Action Alert—its highest-urgency notification—warning that the explosive growth of data centers, particularly those powering AI training, cryptocurrency mining, and traditional computing loads, is introducing new risks to the bulk power system. Issued on May 4, 2026, the alert highlights “customer-initiated large […]
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Maryland ratepayers are staring down an estimated $1.6 billion hit to their electric bills over the next decade—roughly $345 per household—to fund transmission upgrades driven largely by data centers in Northern Virginia. The state’s Office of People’s Counsel (OPC) has filed a formal complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), arguing that PJM Interconnection’s […]
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The U.S. nuclear fleet has seen dozens of reactors permanently shut down over the decades, driven by economics, aging infrastructure, regulatory decisions, and events like the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. As of 2026, the country operates around 94 commercial reactors with roughly 97 GW of net capacity. However, more than 40 commercial power reactors […]
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ENB Pub Note: This article was originally run on David Blackmon’s Substack, and we highly recommend subscribing. Ethonal needs to go away and have an organized move out of the market. This needs to be shut down, as it is worse for the environment, and ruins cars and shortens their useful life. Unless you are […]
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San Antonio is at the center of Texas’ booming data center surge, driven by AI and hyperscale computing. Roughly two dozen facilities in far western Bexar County already draw about 324 megawatts (MW) from CPS Energy. Projections show new centers could add another 2,700 MW by the end of 2028 and push total demand above […]
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On May 8, 2026, an explosion and fire rocked the Chalmette Refinery in Chalmette, Louisiana, just east of New Orleans. Operated by PBF Energy, the facility processes roughly 185,000–190,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and specialty products. The incident occurred around 12:50–1:00 p.m. CDT in an operating 17,500-bpd reformer […]
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In a candid interview at the Milken Institute Global Conference, Chevron Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth delivered a sobering assessment of the global oil market: the industry’s traditional “shock absorbers” — commercial inventories in tanks, oil on tankers (including shadow fleet vessels), and strategic petroleum reserves — have been significantly drawn down in recent months […]
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A massive hyperscale data center complex proposed for rural northern Utah has sparked intense debate among scientists, environmental groups, and local residents. Dubbed the Stratos Project, the development—backed by “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary—could become one of the largest data centers in the United States. Located in Hansel Valley in Box Elder County, at the […]
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