WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Tuesday, Daily on Energy readers! We are on day seven of a government shutdown, with no clear resolution from ongoing negotiations between lawmakers.
While the government shutdown remains unsolved, we take a look at some other developments, including the closure of the last remaining operating coal plant in New England. Granite Shore Power, the owner of Merrimack Station in southern New Hampshire, confirmed it shuttered the coal plant in mid-September.
Meanwhile, crude production hit record highs in July. Read on for the full breakdown on the numbers below.
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NEW ENGLAND SAYS GOODBYE TO COAL: There are officially no more operating coal plants in New England, with the last open plant shutting its doors last month.
The details: Granite Shore Power, the owner of Merrimack Station in southern New Hampshire, confirmed in recent days that it closed the coal power plant in mid-September, three years earlier than expected.
“For nearly three quarters of a century, Merrimack Station has reliably served the energy needs of families and businesses across New Hampshire,” the company said in a statement obtained by New Hampshire Public Radio.
The facility is not fully shutting down, as it will continue to run two kerosene-fired generators. Granite Shore Power is reportedly considering all options for redevelopment. Previously, the company said it was planning to redevelop the site into a clean energy center.
The plant’s closure is not expected to dramatically affect the reliability of New England’s energy grid, as coal only reportedly made up 0.22% of power in the region in 2024. Plus, Merrimack Station was only operating a few weeks out of the year, during peak hours of demand.
Mixed reaction: The closure of the plant has been widely celebrated amongst environmentalists and climate advocates who have pushed for reduced reliance on coal and an accelerated transition to cleaner sources of power, such as renewables.
While the coal plant was on track to be closed, the accelerated shutdown came as a surprise for many in the region who relied on tax revenue from the facility. Granite Shore Power confirmed to the Concord Monitor that most of the staff has been transferred to other units owned by the company, or was laid off.
“I know that this is hard on people who work there, and I know that the town of Bow may also be a little caught off guard by it closing at this moment, so I hope that lots of things can be done for those folks,” Kendra Ford, from climate advocacy group 350 New Hampshire, told NHPR.
RECORD CRUDE PRODUCTION IN JULY: Domestic oil production hit record levels in July, more than 13.6 million barrels per day, according to the Energy Information Administration.
This is a major win for the Trump administration and its “drill, baby, drill” agenda, as President Donald Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright have remained confident in the ability to pump more oil as prices drop.
While July’s record was higher than the EIA estimated, the agency still remains fairly bearish on production levels through the end of the year. In its October Short Term Energy Outlook released today, the EIA said it expects crude production will decline from this recent peak. Still, it slightly increased its forecasts for the average production levels in 2025 and 2026 to 13.5 million barrels per day in both years.
EIA still expects prices to fall by the end of this year and next, estimating that International benchmark Brent Crude will hit $52 per barrel in 2026. Just before 2 p.m. EST, Brent was trading at around $65.23 per barrel, down 0.37% from yesterday.
IEA LOWERS GLOBAL RENEWABLE FORECAST: The International Energy Agency is projecting slower growth in global renewable energy capacity between 2025 to 2030, reflecting recent policy changes.
IEA released its latest outlook today, forecasting that global renewable power capacity will double between now and 2030, growing by 4,600 gigawatts. But the forecast is 5% lower than last year’s, reflecting changes to policy, regulations, and markets since last October.
It added that the U.S. forecast dropped nearly 50%. This is due to several policy changes, including the repeal of federal tax credits, restrictions on imports, pause on offshore wind leasing, and crackdown on permitting for renewables.
The forecast noted that China’s shift from fixed tariffs to auctions has impacted project economics and lowered growth expectations. Still, IEA said China accounts for nearly 60% of global renewable capacity growth.
THOUGH…RENEWABLES OUTPACED DEMAND IN THE FIRST HALF OF THIS YEAR: While forecasts for renewable deployment have dropped, wind and solar generation has soared so far this year, outpacing demand and overtaking coal as the primary source of electricity worldwide.
The details: New data released today by energy think tank Ember show that new solar generation continues to dominate electricity grids and the efforts to meet growing demand. The report found that solar alone met 83% of the increase in demand seen in the first half of 2025, with the renewable energy source growing by a record 306 TWh (31%) in the same period. Solar now holds a 6.9% to 8.8% share in the global electricity mix.
When combined with wind power, renewables now have a greater generation share than coal. During the first half of this year, coal’s share in the global mix dropped by 33.1%, while renewables together soared by 34.3%.
Małgorzata Wiatros-Motyka, a senior electricity analyst with Ember, described the data as evidence of a “crucial turning point” for global energy markets. It appears to suggest that nations are able to wean off traditional fossil fuels and implement more intermittent sources of power, even as electricity demand from artificial intelligence increases.
“This marks the beginning of a shift where clean power is keeping pace with demand growth,” Wiatros-Motyka said. “As costs of technologies continue to fall, now is the perfect moment to embrace the economic, social and health benefits that come with increased solar, wind and batteries.”
ENERGY DEPARTMENT TO CANCEL DIRECT AIR CAPTURE HUB FUNDS IN RED STATES: The Department of Energy is reportedly moving to cancel funds for two direct air capture hubs funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in Republican-led states.
The details: A new internal agency project list obtained by Heatmap this week revealed that the agency is terminating $26 billion worth of grants, including for two projects located in Louisiana and Texas. Much of the list reportedly overlaps with the list of grants canceled for projects in primarily Democratic-led states released last week.
The projects set to lose the funding are Occidental Petroleum’s South Texas DAC Hub and Project Cypress, which is being developed by startups Climeworks and Heirloom. Heirloom told the outlet that it was not aware of any decision from DOE regarding the status of its grant, adding it was planning to continue engaging with the administration in a project review.
Combined, the two projects were expected to generate more than 2,000 local jobs. Carbon management analysts have warned that terminating these grants will ultimately result in startups and investors taking these projects and jobs out of the U.S.
Notable quote: “The United States, up to this point, was the direct air capture leader and the place where top innovators in the field were choosing to build facilities as well as manufacture the actual components of the units themselves,” Jack Andreasen Cavanaugh, a global fellow with Columbia University’s Carbon Management Research Initiative, told the outlet. “The cancellation of these grants to high-quality projects ensures that these American jobs will be shipped overseas and cede our broader economic advantage.”
FEMA QUIETLY DELAYS $11B IN DISASTER FUNDS: The Trump administration has reportedly delayed $11 billion in disaster funding set to be distributed among 45 states in the last two months of the fiscal year.
The details: The fund cancellation was first reported on by E&E News this week, but initially was detailed in a monthly report from the agency published on Sept. 15. The funds were expected to be sent to the states in order to reimburse them for emergency costs related to the coronavirus pandemic.
In the monthly report, the withheld funds are only referenced once, as FEMA said it shifted the planned reimbursements to “fiscal year 2026.” It offered no additional explanation as to when these funds would be distributed or if they would be held indefinitely.
The decision to repay states for certain emergency costs related to COVID using FEMA disaster aid was first approved under Trump’s first administration.
Impact on 2026 budget: By punting the reimbursements to FY 2026, E&E News reported, could essentially slash FEMA’s disaster budget in half. The Trump administration requested around $26.5 billion for FEMA aid in its 2026 budget request. If the $11 billion is delivered next year, only $15.5 billion in disaster funding would remain.
Withholding the $11 billion has left many confused, including Michael Coen, a former FEMA official during the Biden and Obama administrations.
“It’s not something that we ever did in the past,” he told the outlet. “It’s highly irregular.”
CALIFORNIA OIL REFINERY FIRE UPDATE: Chevron has confirmed it is working to restart some of its processing units shuttered last week because of the fire at its El Segundo crude refinery.
The oil and gas giant told Reuters this morning that the refinery “continues to operate and create transportation fuels,” but noted that the facility is operating at “diminished rates.”
The El Segundo oil refinery is the second largest in California, processing as much as 290,000 barrels of crude per day. Most of its refined product is used for transportation fuels, including gasoline, jet, and diesel.
While some analysts warned the fire could cause gas prices to jump nearly $1 per gallon on the West Coast, Chevron appeared more optimistic about current market conditions. The company told Reuters it does not predict market activity, but said there are heavier inventories of oil products in storage around the West Coast than usual.
As of Tuesday, gas prices in California, Oregon, and Washington were well all above $4, with California reporting the highest at $4.655, according to data collected by AAA.
ICYMI – LABOR UNION SUES EPA FOR REPEALING SOLAR FOR ALL FUNDS: The Rhode Island AFL-CIO filed a lawsuit yesterday against the Environmental Protection Agency for its move to cancel funds from its Solar for All program.
The trade union represents more than 80,000 people, solar businesses, nonprofits, and individual homeowners that applied to participate in the Georgia Bright rooftop solar program launched last summer. The group filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island.
Solar United Neighbors also joined the legal challenge. It is a nonprofit group that works in several states that created solar-powered homes.
The plaintiffs are represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) and Lawyers for Good Government. SELC said in a press release that the union argues that the EPA’s attempt to terminate the Solar for All funding would “deprive their members of opportunities for apprenticeships and job training that would have been crucial for a clean energy future.”
As a reminder: The Solar for All program helped low-income communities install solar panels. The program is part of the Biden administration’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was established by the Inflation Reduction Act. It awarded 60 states and nonprofit groups funding to help install solar energy and storage across the nation. The EPA announced in August it would cancel $7 billion from the Solar for All program.
RUNDOWN
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