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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Energy Secretary Chris Wright spoke yesterday at the United States Energy Association’s State of the Energy Industry Forum about how energy sources like wind and solar are unreliable. 

“The only thing that’s helpful in the electricity grid is if you can increase the supply of peak output that you have to meet demand at peak output,” Wright said. “If you’re not reliably there to meet peak output, you’re just a parasite on the grid.” 

TRUMP TEAM OUTLINES PLAN TO SHIFT POWER COSTS TO DATA CENTERS: Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced a plan at the White House today to require technology companies to pay for the construction of new power generation in the region managed by PJM Interconnection. 

Wright and Burgum were joined by governors from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia to outline a new plan that would require PJM to undertake an emergency wholesale electricity auction, requiring technology companies to pay for new electricity generation. 

What’s in the plan? It would require PJM to hold a power auction for tech companies and data centers to bid for 15-year contracts for new electricity generation capacity. It would limit the amount existing power plants can be paid in the PJM capacity market. 

It would require data centers to cover the cost of new power unless they build their own capacity or agree to reduce usage when needed, so costs are not allocated to customers. PJM was not at the White House announcement, but Burgum said it had been briefed on the matter. 

Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was at the event, warned that if PJM does not change, the state would be “forced to go its own,” adding that the state is the second-largest net energy exporter in the country.

“[M]ake no mistake, if PJM, this faceless bureaucratic organization that is driving prices up on the American people, does not change and does not reflect what we are putting forth here today, Pennsylvania will be forced to act, and forced to go at it alone,” Shapiro said.

The announcement is part of a larger Trump administration effort to address rising energy demand and prices, especially as the midterms near. 

Read more about the administration’s plan here.  

TRUMP OFFICIALS TOUR CAR PLANTS: Today, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were at the Ford plant in Avon Lake, Ohio, where the three touted the administration’s efforts to roll back regulations to lower costs for both manufacturers and consumers. 

The tour follows President Donald Trump‘s remarks earlier this week in which he alluded to having Chinese companies come to the U.S. to build automobiles. 

“Let China come in,” Trump said in Detroit on Tuesday. 

In an interview on CNBC, Duffy said the president’s point is to bring more manufacturing back to the U.S. There are currently 100% tariffs on Chinese-imported cars to protect domestic manufacturing.

Meanwhile, the EPA has been rolling back policies over the past year that favor the transition to electric vehicles. Republicans have argued that specific policies that favor EVs over gasoline-powered vehicles limit consumer choice and raise costs. 

Zeldin told CNBC that the administration will continue to “promote consumer choice.” He added that the EPA is currently working on finalizing the repeal of the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which would result in the termination of all vehicle emission standards. The proposed rule is currently under review at the White House. 

“We’re heeding the calls with the American public,” Zeldin said. “Where the American public wants to be able to afford their cars, they want to have consumer choice. President Trump has heeded those demands, and he’s empowering us, directing us to make sure that we’re fighting for the American public.” 

DEMOCRATS PROBE BANKS OVER VENEZUELA INVOLVEMENT: A group of high-ranking Senate Democrats have launched an inquiry into major banks regarding any involvement in the Trump administration’s efforts to control and sell Venezuelan oil. 

The Democrats noted a line in a White House fact sheet on its plans saying that it has “engaged… key banks to execute and provide financial support for” Venezuelan oil sales and that the sales will be routed through U.S.-controlled accounts. 

They noted that they don’t have information on any such sales, and are asking banks for more information. They contacted most of the major banks in the world. 

Who are the Democrats? They are Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, Finance ranking member Ron Wyden, Environment and Public Works ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse, Peter Welch, and Brian Schatz.

The same senators also announced last week that they are probing oil companies regarding their communications with the administration about the capture of Nicolas Maduro and plans for Venezuela’s oil sector.

ADMINISTRATION EYES SWAPPING VENEZUELAN CRUDE FOR SPR OIL: The administration is looking at a plan to swap heavy crude oil seized from Venezuela for medium, sour crude to put in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Reuters is reporting, citing two anonymous sources. 

The Venezuelan crude would be put in storage and shipped to refineries, which would provide medium sour crude that could go into the SPR. 

JUDGE SAYS DOMINION OFFSHORE WIND PROJECT CAN PROCEED: A federal judge in Norfolk issued a preliminary injunction today stopping the Trump administration from enforcing its stop-work order for Dominion Energy’s $11 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, Bloomberg reports. 

The order means that the wind industry went 3-3 this week in cases against the administration’s efforts to halt offshore wind projects. 

Yesterday, Equinor got a ruling that it can resume construction on the Empire Wind project off New York. 

And on Monday, a separate federal judge allowed construction on the Rhode Island-based Revolution Wind project to resume. 

A CRACK IN THE NORTH AMERICAN WALL AGAINST CHINESE ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada announced today that he has reached a deal to cut the 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles in exchange for relief from Chinese tariffs on agricultural products. 

There would still be quotas on imports, however, starting at 49,000 a year and rising to 70,000. 

Why it matters: The deal threatens to shake up the North American auto market and put distance between Canada and the U.S. Canada had implemented the tariffs in 2024 to follow the lead of the U.S., with which it has integrated auto manufacturing supply chains. 

The underlying problem is that Chinese EVs are a threat to the competitiveness of the North American auto industry. For instance, the BYD Seagull would have a price point of well under the equivalent of $15,000, way below the competition. 

Negative reaction: “Make no mistake: China now has a foothold in the Canadian market and will use it to their full advantage at the expense of Canadian workers,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford posted on social media. “Worse, by lowering tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles this lopsided deal risks closing the door on Canadian automakers to the American market, our largest export destination.”

It’s worth noting that Mexico, where BYD and other Chinese models are already on the streets, is going in the other direction, imposing 50% tariffs on Chinese imports as of this year, bringing Mexico closer into alignment with the Trump administration. 

Administration reaction: U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC today that the plan is “problematic “ for Canada. 

“In the long run, they’re not going to like having made that deal. All that being said, American cars are still going to be sold into Canada. We have a huge market share there,” Greer said. “I think that the Canadians’ dependence on the United States for their GDP, the United States is always going to have an outside role in that economy.” 

‘DRILL, BABY, DRILL’ UPDATE – THE RIG COUNT: The U.S. rig count fell by one this week, Baker Hughes reported this afternoon, and is now down by 27 on the year to 543 total. 

Oil prices were up about 1% today after yesterday’s steep drop, but West Texas Intermediate was still hovering just below $60 as of the early afternoon. 

WARNING LIGHT? HAMM TO STOP DRILLING IN BAKKEN: Famed oil driller Harold Hamm said that he was pausing drilling in the Bakken formation in North Dakota because operations are not worthwhile at the current price of oil. 

“This will be the first time in over 30 years that Harold Hamm has not had an operation with drilling rigs in North Dakota,” the 80-year-old founder of Continental Resources told Bloomberg. “There’s no need to drill it when margins are basically gone.”

The comment is especially notable given Hamm’s status as a pioneer of fracking and an ally of Trump. Could it be a warning sign that production will suffer as prices drift below $60 a barrel? 

RUNDOWN: 

Reuters New map reveals hidden landscape under Antarctica’s ice sheet

Inside Climate News Will Trump’s Push to Drill on California Public Lands be More Successful This Time Around?

Bloomberg How the US Is Abandoning Joint Climate Action Under Trump