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Phillips 66 will begin shutting down its 139,000 bpd Los Angeles-area refinery as soon as next week , sources told Reuters, moving forward on a closure plan announced last year. Units at the plant will idle in phases through Q4 2025, with the facility permanently offline by year-end. The decision isn’t a surprise—Phillips 66 said in October it would exit the site, citing “market dynamics.” But it comes with fallout about 600 employees and 300 contractors will lose their jobs by December, with only a handful reassigned to the company’s marine terminal. The company insists it will support workers through...

The Department of the Interior (DOI) is immediately halting all activity on a massive offshore wind farm project that was established by the Biden Administration, according to a report from the Daily Caller. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM, which falls under the DOI, is halting activity on the “Revolution Wind” project off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut effective immediately. President Donald Trump has long criticized wind farm projects, pointing to their notoriously unreliable output, foreign control of key components for wind projects and environmental concerns. In recent weeks and months, the DOI has dealt a number...

Trapped in underground rocks, a potential energy resource has eluded generations of British politicians. It's called shale gas and the method of getting it out of the ground, known as fracking, has proved politically difficult. Fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, has been banned many times by different prime ministers since 2011 over concerns about earthquakes and environmental impacts. And yet despite this, Reform UK - which is leading in national opinion polls - believe it's worth going after the gas again. "We've got potentially hundreds of billions of energy treasure in the form of shale gas," Richard Tice, the party's...

According to letter to Bondi, emails show seminars were conducted by experts who were ideologically motivated in favor of the plaintiffs in these cases. An energy advocacy group is asking Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine the involvement of the Federal Judiciary Center, a research and education agency of the judicial branch of the U.S. government, in educating judges involved in climate litigation. According to a letter to Bondi from Power the Future, the Federal Judiciary Center (FJC) is engaged in a secretive effort to bias judges as part of a “coordinated, national lawfare campaign” against oil companies and...

Wyoming and 10 other states’ claims that giant investment companies conspired to drive coal production down and drive prices up — increasing people’s energy costs — are at least plausible enough to keep a lawsuit alive, a judge has ruled. Wyoming filed suit in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Texas in late November against Blackrock Inc., State Street Corp. and Vanguard Group Inc. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led the litigation. Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, West Virginia and Wyoming also signed the complaint. The states allege the three massive investment companies acquired substantial stockholdings in...

Summary Radioactive, fissile plutonium from Cold War a headache for US US wants to halt disposal of it, use 20 metric tons for fuel Trump administration sees it as potential fuel for new reactors Critic points out similar program failed due to costs WASHINGTON, Aug 22 (Reuters) - The Trump administration plans to make available about 20 metric tons of Cold War-era plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads to U.S. power companies as a potential fuel for reactors, according to a source familiar with the matter and a draft memo outlining the plan. Plutonium has previously only been converted to fuel...

The return of a pro-energy Republican to the White House has corresponded with the bursting of the “ESG” bubble. ESG stands for “environmental, social, and governance,” and ESG funds invest with those principles in mind, not merely to maximize shareholder returns. Through the first quarter of 2025, U.S. ESG funds have seen ten consecutive quarters of net capital outflows. That’s a promising start, but we need to stay vigilant—ESG activism reduces economic growth, shrinks our tax base, and weakens our national security. ESG funds do more than just invest in companies that meet environmental, social, and governance goals. They often...

Work has begun to lay the underwater cable for the first electricity interconnector between Ireland and mainland Europe. It marks a major milestone in the €1.6 billion ($1.9 billion) Celtic Interconnector project, which will link the electricity grids of Ireland and France to ensure security of power supply. A specialist marine vessel Calypso, from Norway, has begun cable-laying along an 84-km (52-mile) section of the route. Once fully installed, the entire 575-km (357-mile) interconnector will run from east Cork to the northwest of Brittany. It will allow for the exchange of 700 MW of electricity, enough to power some 450,000...

Earlier this week, he called for stopping windmill operations due to an energy crunch. President Donald Trump on Wednesday vowed that his administration would not approve wind or solar projects, calling the alternative energy sources part of the "scam of the century!"Trump has long criticized the alternative energy forms, notably pointing to the impact of wind turbines on the bird population. Earlier this week, he called for stopping windmill operations due to an energy crunch."Any State that has built and relied on WINDMILLS and SOLAR for power are seeing RECORD BREAKING INCREASES IN ELECTRICITY AND ENERGY COSTS," Trump posted on...

Sometimes you can’t help but marvel at how much we’re all willing to pay for the illusion of “green progress.” New Jersey decided—like half the country—that climate purity would be achieved by wind turbines, solar panels, and endless press conferences declaring victory against bad old fossil fuels. But someone forgot to run the numbers, and now the bill arrives, with a little note attached: “Due immediately. No refunds. See: your monthly utility statement.” Let’s start with the latest funhouse mirror: PJM’s capacity auction. You’ll see the acronym “PJM” all over any story about electricity markets, grid drama, and ratepayer headaches...

Indian refiners, the top importers of Russian crude oil, are searching for alternative suppliers ahead of Friday’s summit between President Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. India, the world’s third-largest oil consumer, is looking to switch up its procurement process after Trump imposed a total 50% tariff rate on New Delhi, accusing the country of effectively fueling Russia’s war machine. Oil importers are hedging their bets that even harsher punishments are in store for anyone who purchases petroleum from Moscow once Trump meets with Putin, with India’s state processor buying large bulk quantities of non-Russian crude this week to...

The Texas General Land Office (GLO) has formally objected to a plan by Pilot Water Solutions LLC to drill three new saltwater disposal wells in the Permian Basin, warning the project could contaminate state-owned crude reserves in North America’s top oil field, according to the Dallas Morning News. Founded in 1836, the GLO manages 13 million acres of state land and generates billions of dollars for Texas public schools through oil and gas leasing. It argues the proposed disposal sites in Loving County near the New Mexico border pose “significant risk” to mineral interests under its control. Bloomberg reports that...

It was in July 2019 that New York State adopted its Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Our Legislature and Governor (it was Andrew Cuomo at the time) had officially designated us as the climate “leader,” here to show the unsophisticated rubes and provincials in the rest of the country how a small application of political will could transform our electricity system from majority fossil fuels in 2019 to 70% “renewables” by 2030 and 100% “zero-carbon” by 2040. Now six years into the eleven available to meet the 2030 mandate, we actually get less of our electricity from zero-carbon sources...

The Department of the Interior (DOI) is moving to expand a mine in Wyoming to unlock up to 14.5 million tons of coal. The DOI approved a mining plan Friday for the Antelope Mine in Converse County, Wyoming, that will expand coal mining across more than 850 federal acres and extend the mine’s life through 2037, according to the DOI. The Antelope Mine expansion is the latest move by the Trump administration to boost the American coal industry and clear the way for conventional and reliable energy sources, contrasting with the nation-wide Biden-era assault on the resource that also hit...

Forced electric load reduction and possible rolling blackouts in Maryland. Electric system in crisis. Got Coal?

When my friend Rebecca in Highland Park, NJ, opened her PSE&G gas and electric bill last month, she almost fell out of her seat: It had tripled. It’s now costing her more than $1,000 a month to keep her modest home running. “It’s been creeping up for months, in spite of the fact that nothing about our house has changed,” she told me. “In years past, it was averaging about $300 a month.” “I don’t know how we’re expected to absorb these new bills,” she posted on Facebook. Her neighbor Felix Urman wondered the same as he ticked off his...

PARIS, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Four reactors at France's Gravelines nuclear power plant were shut down late Sunday due to a swarm of jellyfish in the cooling systems, operator EDF said on Monday, likely due to rising water temperatures because of global warming. The plant in northern France is one of the largest in the country and cooled from a canal connected to the North Sea. Its six units produce 900 megawatts of power each, or 5.4 gigawatts in total.

Ireland’s 40-year-long era of burning coal — the dirtiest fossil fuel imaginable — to generate electricity came to an end in June. That was when ESB announced it had ceased burning coal at its Moneypoint power station in County Clare, six months ahead of schedule. Throughout those 40 years, the coal was transferred on noisy conveyer belts through what must surely have been the longest, ugliest, sequence of brown tunnels in the country. They ran from the jetty at Moneypoint, where the coal ships pulled up, to a huge coal storage yard and then right into the powerplant and furnaces...

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, along with 22 other AGs, sent a letter demanding answers from the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) over its Financial Institutions Net-Zero Standard. The letter, addressed to SBTi CEO, David Kennedy, demands documents on member commitments, funding sources, and insurer actions tied to the Financial Institutions Net-Zero Standard, which may violate the law, and have harmed consumers. Bird posted on social media: “Making net-zero a goal actively harms Americans, creates risk for energy independence, and increases the cost of safe, healthy, nutritious food." ... Specifically, the AGs argue that SBTi's Standards are unlawful and raise...

Florida Power and Light will face considerable opposition next week when it goes before a typically utility-friendly Florida Public Service Commission with a request that board members approve what would be the biggest rate hike in Florida and U.S., history. ... FPL's rate hike, requested in February, will pull in $1.545 billion in 2026 and tack on an additional $927 million every year thereafter through 2029. That total additional revenue of $8.9 billion would likely rise if the company gets, as also requested, authority to further increase customer costs when it brings new solar and battery projects online in 2028-29....