$6 gas and refinery fears collide with California’s climate ambitions By Alejandro Lazo, CalMatters The Chevron refinery in Richmond is located behind a nearby neighborhood on Feb. 21, 2024. Photo by Loren Elliott for CalMatters This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. California is considering handing oil refineries and other […]
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Power prices on the largest electric grid in the United States — PJM Interconnection, which serves 13 states and the District of Columbia — jumped a staggering 76% in the first quarter of 2026. Wholesale power averaged $136.53 per megawatt-hour (MWh), up from $77.78/MWh in the same period of 2025, according to the grid’s independent […]
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Two and a half months after the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut down amid the escalating Middle East conflict, India—the world’s third-largest crude oil importer—is grappling with a deepening energy shock that is rippling through its economy. What began as a geopolitical standoff has now cut off more than 40% of India’s crude oil flows, […]
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Canada’s manufacturing and industrial base is in freefall under Prime Minister Mark J. Carney’s leadership. A viral X post from @wealthmoose on May 14, 2026, lays out the stark reality with receipts: over $50 billion in planned investments have been canceled, moved, or evaporated in key auto, battery, and manufacturing projects across Ontario and Quebec. […]
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While global oil markets grapple with the fallout from the Strait of Hormuz disruptions and seek a path toward price recovery, one player is quietly rewriting the rules: China. Through years of deliberate, long-range planning, Beijing has transformed its strategic petroleum reserves into a powerful tool for energy security—and, unintentionally or not, a distorting force […]
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The International Energy Agency (IEA) has delivered a stark warning: global oil demand is now on track to contract sharply in 2026 amid the ongoing Strait of Hormuz supply shock triggered by the Iran war. What began as a geopolitical disruption has morphed into a full-blown demand destruction event, with high prices, scarce supplies, and […]
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Australia’s own Treasury has run the numbers on a nightmare escalation of the Iran conflict — and the result is a doomsday scenario that would send global oil prices to $200 a barrel, throw the world economy into chaos, and expose just how fragile Australia’s energy position has become. In its annual budget papers released […]
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The European Commission has just proposed handing out billions more in free carbon emission permits to European industry under its flagship Emissions Trading System (ETS). According to Bloomberg, the updated benchmark values for 2026–2030 would deliver roughly €4 billion ($4.7 billion) worth of additional free allowances to manufacturers covered by the cap-and-trade program. The official […]
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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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