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President Trump Takes An Axe To Biden’s Green New Deal

September 3, 2026 by Leave a Comment

President Trump has cut much of the Biden administration’s funding for its green new deal agenda, except for about $600 billion in Congressionally approved spending—about one-third of the $1.6 trillion set aside by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for Biden’s pet projects. President Trump and Congress have eliminated more than $540 billion in Biden-era tax subsidies for electric cars, wind and solar power, and other “clean” technology. Politico says about another $275 billion has been spent. Out of nearly $1 trillion in grants, contracts, and other direct federal outlays provided by Biden’s climate and infrastructure laws, Politico found approximately $600 billion available to recipients or for federal agencies to award. Attempts by the Trump administration to cut around 6% of the $1 trillion — about $60 billion — have largely stalled in court challenges.

Source: Politico

Impact of the Cuts

With the EV tax credit having expired at the end of September 2025 due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, EV sales in the United States fell 4% that year, despite spiking last summer before the credit went away. That compares to global EV sales, which increased more than 20% as other countries either reconstituted their EV subsidies or continued them. With less consumer interest, automakers have canceled plans for electric vehicle factories that the Biden administration supported. In 2024, for example, the Biden Administration gave over $1 billion to General Motors and Stellantis to build electric vehicles, with GM receiving $500 million to convert its Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant to manufacture electric vehicles. In 2026, GM laid off 350 employees at two Lansing plants as part of a previously announced $1.25 billion investment for gas-powered Cadillac CT5 production.

Power companies have traded wind projects for natural gas plants — in some cases, after the Trump administration agreed to repay offshore wind developers $1 billion or more for leases they had purchased to stop development of expensive offshore wind facilities. The Trump administration reached a nearly $1 billion agreement with French energy giant TotalEnergies to cancel its offshore wind leases off the coasts of New York and North Carolina. As part of the agreement, the Interior Department would terminate the leases for TotalEnergies’ Attentive Energy and Carolina Long Bay projects, worth $928 million — lease sales that occurred during the Biden administration. In return, TotalEnergies would invest the value of those leases into oil and natural gas production in the United States, after which the United States would reimburse the company dollar-for-dollar for the amount it paid for the offshore wind leases. TotalEnergies plans to redirect the funds toward the Rio Grande LNG plant in Texas and the development of upstream conventional oil in the Gulf of Mexico and shale gas production. The Trump administration made several similar deals, saving ratepayers from higher energy bills and reducing taxpayer expenditures on tax credits that operators would have received if the projects had gone forward.

In just one year, the number of natural gas plants planning to come online by 2030 nearly tripled to about 66 gigawatts, equivalent to adding the combined generating capacity of Pennsylvania and Maryland, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. Investments in clean energy manufacturing for factories making EV batteries, solar panels and other “clean” technologies fell 17% to $41 billion in 2025, according to tracking from the Rhodium Group and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Other projects continued because of demand or state renewable power mandates. For example, a 400-megawatt solar project in Pennsylvania and a 578-mile transmission line connecting Kansas to Missouri are both moving forward, despite losing a $90 million DOE grant and a $4.9 billion loan guarantee, respectively.

EPA canceled a $1 million grant to create a community and cultural center in the Town of Bluff, Utah. The award was initially made under the IRA’s $3 billion environmental justice block grant initiative. Court documents show the Trump administration canceled it after announcing that redressing social and economic disparities in environmental policy was no longer a priority. The grant illustrates the wide latitude the government felt it had in distributing large sums of taxpayer money under the justification of the environment or climate.

The Trump administration, however, is keeping some Biden-era funding. In April, the Energy Department published a list of more than 1,900 projects it planned to keep after a year-plus review of Biden-era awards. The list included reinstating some awards the department previously terminated — mainly for grid-related projects. The Energy Department retained or modified 86% of the projects it reviewed.

On the cancellation side, the Energy Department terminated a $500 million grant for a California company looking for “cleaner” ways to make cement, and another $500 million grant for an Indiana cement plant looking to install technologies to capture and store carbon dioxide. It also canceled a $316 million grant for a company building a factory for manufacturing components for EV batteries in Kentucky—a company (Ascend Elements) that later declared bankruptcy. One company that was to make green hydrogen, which was awarded a $1.6 billion Energy Department loan guarantee days before Biden left office, subsequently suspended the work related to it.

Conclusion

The Trump administration has cut much of the Biden administration’s climate program funding. About one-third — $600 billion of the $1.6 trillion in Congressionally approved funds — is still available, according to Politico. President Trump and Congress have eliminated more than $540 billion in Biden-era tax incentives for electric cars, wind and solar power, and other “clean” technology. Biden’s climate and infrastructure laws provided nearly $1 trillion in grants, contracts, and other direct federal outlays, and the Trump administration has tried to cut about 6%—about $60 billion—of that, but court challenges have largely stalled those funds.

*This article was adapted from content originally published by the Institute for Energy Research.

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AEA Joins With 13 Free Market Groups In Urging The Trump Administration to Prevent Chinese-controlled Battery Companies from Accessing American Manufacturing and Tax Incentives

September 2, 2026 by Leave a Comment

On Tuesday, September 1, 2026 the American Energy Alliance joined with Consumer Action for a Strong Economy, and 12 other free market advocacy groups, in sending a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and key members of Congress, Representative John Moolenaar, Representative French Hill, and Representative Warren Davidson. The letter urges Secretary Bessent to take action and close a legal loophole currently allowing Chinese-owned battery component manufacturers to receive taxpayer funded incentives.

More information regarding the dangers of reliance on Chinese mineral processing can be found in this article from the Institute for Energy Research. The full text of the letter is available below:

AEA-Letter-to-Secretary-BessentDownload
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Governor Shapiro Caves To Chinese Disinformation Campaign With New Innovation Stifling Regulations

August 31, 2026 by Leave a Comment

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed an executive order to curb the growth of AI data centers in his state, which mandates four minimum standards. It requires companies to pay for their own energy, minimize noise, air pollution, and water use, hire local workers, and give back to communities through negotiated benefit agreements. Developers must sign a legally binding order to that effect. If the municipality does not formally agree to all those standards, the state will back the town in blocking the data center.  Earlier, Shapiro encouraged data center development, but now claims he flip-flopped because of concerns from Pennsylvania residents.

NBC reports that Shapiro is removing all data center projects from his state’s fast-track permitting program, and going forward, they would be ineligible for those measures. He also said nondisclosure agreements for data center projects will not be allowed in the state under his new order. Opponents have raised concerns about rising electricity bills, environmental impacts, and fears about the growth of AI technology, among other issues. According to Shapiro, there are only about five projects that have even received permits to go forward, but there are “100 projects or so that are wreaking havoc on our communities that are never going to be built.”

In western Pennsylvania, a Las Vegas developer wants to convert an abandoned 400-acre former racetrack in Big Beaver into a three-building, 600,000-square-foot data center complex. But neighbors oppose it, concerned about noise, pollution, water use, and rising electric bills. The borough planning committee will hold its first review of the application from Switch Data Centers later this month, but towns like Big Beaver are rushing to write data center ordinances. With Shapiro’s executive order, residents would now have the power to stop or modify the projects.

While Shapiro is still allowing data centers under strict rules, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a one-year moratorium on data center development, and Texas Governor Greg Abbott paused data center projects, pending an audit.

To address rising electric bills, President Trump has promoted the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge,” in which developers who sign on fund the cost of increased power generation and infrastructure for the developments. President Trump has touted the benefits of data center development, including potential job growth, increased tax revenue for localities that accept the developments, and potential property tax cuts, among other incentives. Leaders have also argued that environmental concerns have been overblown or are based on faulty data.

Virginia, known as Data Center Alley, has the most data centers of any state. Loudoun County, home to about 250 data centers, is also one of the wealthiest counties in the country, where the typical homeowner receives roughly $5,800 a year in tax benefits from lower rates tied to data centers that now supply roughly half of the county’s property tax revenue. According to county officials, for every dollar data centers consume in county services, the county gets back $26 in tax revenue. Property taxes on data centers and a tax on their computer equipment are expected to generate $1.3 billion next year, accounting for 40% of the county’s total tax revenue, according to the county’s 2027 fiscal year budget. Those data centers have also helped pay for a $102 million recreation center with multiple pools and hydro-massage chairs; a $22 million conversion of former President James Monroe’s estate into a park; and the construction of two new schools with a third on the way; the expansion of fire and emergency services, roads, bridges and recreational facilities; and 15,000 jobs.

The opposition to data centers is fueled by misinformation, much of it spread by China, which is in a race with the United States to lead the industry, which America needs to win for national security reasons. Data centers also enable Instagram and Waze, streaming movies, online banking, hailing an Uber, and conversing with A.I. chatbots, among many other future uses that could open frontiers in defense and medicine. As of April, there were more than 3,000 operational data centers in the United States with more than 1,500 new centers in development. McKinsey predicts that by 2030, data centers worldwide will require nearly $7 trillion in capital outlays to meet the demands for computer power.

Job opportunities abound around data centers. For example, according to an opinion piece in the N.Y. Times, a decade ago, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 26 in the Washington, D.C., region worked about 14 million hours annually. In 2025, they worked 28 million hours and will likely top 33 million hours this year with good-paying jobs. Job growth occurred because of growth in data centers in Northern Virginia, with associated jobs in construction and maintenance. Data centers are not single projects; they are built in phases over years and continually upgraded, expanded, reconfigured, and maintained as technology evolves, creating steady, local, long-term employment.

Conclusion

Pennsylvania became the latest state to clamp down on data center development, but unlike New York and Texas, it did not impose a moratorium or pause; instead, it mandated strict rules to follow. Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro said he did so because residents worry about noise, water use, and rising electric bills. Misinformation about data centers has raised concerns among Americans, but benefits also exist, including job growth, increased tax revenue, and property tax cuts, among other incentives. Loudon County, Virginia, is an example of a wealthy area reaping huge benefits. Property taxes on data centers and a tax on their computer equipment are expected to generate $1.3 billion next year, accounting for 40% of the county’s total tax revenue.

*This article was adapted from content originally published by the Institute for Energy Research.

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Without Biden Mandate And Tax Credits America Bucks Global EV Trend

August 28, 2026 by Leave a Comment

Global demand for electric vehicles rose for a fifth consecutive month in July, driven by growth in Europe despite weakening sales in China and North America. Sales of battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles rose 9% from a year ago to 1.85 million units in July, bringing year-to-date volumes to 11.5 million vehicles. High gasoline and diesel prices, driven by the conflict in the Middle East, pushed many drivers to electrify. China’s EV sales declined 5% to 980,000 vehicles in July, while its electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid exports grew 147.8% year-on-year.

EV sales in Europe rose 33% to ‌450,000 units, pushing year-to-date growth to 28%, as Europe continued its EV subsidies. Several of Europe’s largest auto markets brought back or expanded EV subsidies over the past 18 months. For example, Spain, where EV sales are up 34% this year, opened its new Auto+ incentive program on August 4. Buyers can receive up to €4,500 ($5,190), and they can apply retroactively for purchases dating back to January 1. In July, EV growth in Europe’s larger economies, France, Germany and Britain, was ​81%, 46% and 43%, respectively.

​The fastest growth in EV sales came from what the IEA calls the “Rest of the World (every place except the United States, China and Europe),” where July sales nearly doubled to 280,000 vehicles. Sales in those markets reached 1.7 million through July – up 96% year over year. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), growing EV markets include Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. Altogether, Rest of World EV sales growth has outpaced other markets for several years.

North America’s EV sales dropped 27% to 140,000 vehicles in July, following the end ⁠of ​U.S. EV tax credits, which the United States ended on September 30, 2025, as part of the legislative actions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed earlier in that year. Sales through the first seven months reached 900,000, down 18%. July sales fell more than 30% year over year due to the loss of the federal EV tax credit, reduced Biden-era regulations that forced sales of electric vehicles, and elevated sales last summer before the Trump administration ended the federal EV tax credit.

The impact of the Iran war on EV sales is more constrained in the United States than in Europe and the Rest of the World because fuel prices are lower in the United States than in Europe and other regions, due to the country’s domestic production and comparatively low fuel taxes. U.S. hybrid vehicle sales, however, have risen since February, peaking at 17.4% in May, up from 13.9% in February before the war began.

Canada may see an increase in EV sales from Chinese automakers as it lowered steep import taxes on tens of thousands of Chinese electric vehicles and is allowing a limited number of those vehicles to enter its market. Mexico, at the Trump administration’s urging, imposed a 50% tariff on Chinese autos. While the tariff took effect on January 1, Chinese brands accounted for 17% of new vehicle sales in Mexico in the first half of the year, up from 14% a year earlier, with sales increasing to 137,525 from 107,712. According to Mexico’s Deputy Foreign Trade Minister Luis Rosendo Gutierrez, the sales data is misleading because Chinese automakers began the year with sizable inventories in Mexico after front-loading shipments ahead of the ​tariff increase. In reality, imports of Chinese-brand vehicles fell 43% during the first five months of the year compared with the same period last year.

China’s Auto Market

China’s car sales fell for a 10th straight month in July, though the rate of decline eased, contrasting with strong export growth as Chinese automakers use overseas expansion to offset competition in China — the world’s largest auto market. China’s car sales dropped 21.1% in July from a year earlier to 1.47 million vehicles, while exports rose 88.2% to 923,000. Electrek’s breakdown of China’s July sales found that battery electric vehicle sales actually rose 6% year over year while plug-in hybrid sales fell 21.1%, extended-range EV sales dropped 16.5%, and gas car sales dropped 44%. Elevated fuel prices hurt demand for gasoline-powered vehicles more than for other vehicles. In the ​first half of this year, China’s domestic car sales fell by 2.3 million vehicles from a year earlier, a 20% drop.

Chinese automakers are using exports to offset lower domestic sales. They are able to find growth outside of China due to their excess manufacturing capacity spurred by government incentives, highly competitive ​supply chains, and increasingly sophisticated products, often tailored to the market sought. BYD, the world’s largest manufacturer and seller of electric vehicles, for example, has offset a 35% drop in domestic sales during the first seven months of the year with overseas sales surging 79% year-on-year. Brazil and Britain are BYD’s largest country markets outside China in 2026. Chinese brands account for nearly a quarter of Europe’s EV shipments, and Chinese automakers are even moving beyond exports and building factories in Europe.

Conclusion

Global EV sales rose 9% in July as higher oil prices from the conflict in the Middle East have given electric vehicles a boost over gasoline-powered vehicles. Despite their overall rise, North America and Chinese auto markets saw a decline in battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. North America’s EV sales dropped 27% to 140,000 vehicles in July, following the end ⁠of U.S. EV tax credits. July sales in North America fell more than 30% year over year due to the loss of the federal EV tax credit, a weakened regulatory environment, and elevated sales last summer before the federal EV tax credit was ended by the Trump administration. EV sales in Europe rose 33% to ‌450,000 units, pushing year-to-date growth to 28%, as Europe continued its EV subsidies. China’s domestic EV ⁠sales declined by 5% to 980,000 vehicles in July, while its electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid exports grew 147.8% year-on-year.  Chinese brands account for nearly a quarter of Europe’s EV shipments, and Chinese automakers are even moving beyond exports and building factories in Europe.

*This article was adapted from content originally published by the Institute for Energy Research.

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Under President Trump U.S. Oil Production Sets New Records

August 27, 2026 by Leave a Comment

According to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) August Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), U.S. oil production is expected to reach a record 13.8 million barrels per day this year. The EIA projects the Lower 48 states will contribute 11.36 million barrels per day, the Gulf of America 1.98 million barrels per day, and Alaska 450,000 barrels per day—all higher than their 2025 production. Projected 2026 U.S. oil production of 13.8 million barrels per day would account for 18.4% of projected 2026 global oil production of 74.89 million barrels per day. Total U.S. oil production of 13.59 million barrels per day in 2025 made up 17.2% of global oil production of 78.89 million barrels per day last year. The EIA forecasts global oil production in 2026 to be down 4 million barrels per day from last year.

Source: EIA

Of the total global projected figure in 2026, OPEC+ is expected to contribute 28.99 million barrels per day (38.7%)—down from a 42.4% share last year– and non-OPEC+, excluding the United States, is expected to produce 32.11 million barrels per day (42.9%)—up from a 40.6% share last year. EIA assumes that constraints on Strait of Hormuz transits will continue through August with flows slowly increasing in September. EIA expects most oil production in the region to return to near pre-conflict averages in early 2027, with ongoing disruptions of about 0.6 million barrels per day continuing through the end of next year.

EIA estimates that crude oil and petroleum liquids transported through the Strait of Hormuz averaged 4.9 million barrels per day in the second quarter of 2026, down from an average of 21.6 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter of 2025 before the conflict in the Middle East began. It estimates that total volumes of crude oil and liquids through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait averaged 8.1 million barrels per day in the second quarter of 2026, up from an average of 5.4 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter of 2025 as Saudi Arabia re-routed crude oil flows away from the Strait of Hormuz through the East-West pipeline to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea. EIA projects that production shut-ins averaged 5.5 million barrels per day in July.

According to EIA, reduced oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz are expected to lower global oil inventories further in the coming months and keep oil prices near levels seen in the first week of August. EIA expects the Brent oil spot price to average around $85 per barrel in the third quarter of 2026 and to gradually fall to an average of $69 per barrel in 2027 as inventories rebuild, with most Middle East production expected to recover by early 2027. U.S. commercial crude oil inventories are expected to remain below the five-year (2021–2025) low through the end of 2026 with weekly declines since mid-April due to increased oil exports, reduced imports, and high refinery runs.

EIA sees ongoing tightness in global petroleum product markets, thereby supporting refinery margins for U.S. refiners through the end of the year. U.S. refinery margins in July increased because of lower global market activity due to lower refined product exports from Russia as a result of the war with Ukraine, the resumption of the conflict around the Strait of Hormuz limiting refined products from refineries in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and reduced crude oil runs from refineries in China due to its ban on petroleum product exports until its recent gradual lifting of the ban. EIA expects U.S. retail gasoline prices to average $3.78 a gallon this year, dropping to $3.29 a gallon next year, and U.S. retail diesel prices to average $4.85 per gallon this year, dropping to $4.07 a gallon next year. California’s significantly higher prices skew the national average because of its anti-oil and gas policies.

Conclusion

EIA’s August Short-Term Energy Outlook expects U.S. oil production this year to set a record at 13.8 million barrels per day, accounting for 18.4% of projected global oil production totaling 74.89 million barrels per day–4 million barrels per day less than last year’s global oil production.  EIA assumes constraints on Strait of Hormuz transits will continue through August, with flows slowly increasing in September, and that most Middle East oil production will return to near pre-conflict averages in early 2027. It expects ongoing disruptions of about 0.6 million barrels per day to continue through the end of next year. The Brent oil spot price is projected to average around $85 per barrel in the third quarter of 2026 and to gradually fall to an average of $69 per barrel in 2027 as inventories rebuild. EIA expects U.S. retail gasoline prices to average $3.78 a gallon this year, dropping to $3.29 a gallon next year, and U.S. retail diesel prices to average $4.85 per gallon this year, dropping to $4.07 a gallon next year.

*This article was adapted from content originally published by the Institute for Energy Research.

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UK Tax Policies Hampering Oil & Gas Production As Energy Crisis Intensifies

August 26, 2026 by Leave a Comment

BP is selling off its offshore oil and gas assets in the North Sea due to punitive UK taxes. BP pays an effective 78% tax rate on profits from oil and natural gas production in the North Sea, among the highest worldwide. In comparison, U.S. oil companies generally pay combined federal, state, and local corporate tax rates of about 25% to 30% on U.S. profits. As a result, they have substantially more capital to reinvest in new energy. Andy Burnham, the UK’s new prime minister, in his first days in office, pledged to tackle the nation’s cost-of-living crisis, including high energy costs. Industrial energy in Britain is four times more expensive than in the United States and is twice as expensive as in France, “despite” all the wind turbines that the UK operates. Burnham told President Trump that he will adopt a more pragmatic approach to North Sea drilling than his predecessor, Keir Starmer.

Scottish First Minister John Swinney called on UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham to scrap the country’s windfall profits tax – known as the Energy Profit Levy (EPL) – saying, “It is crystal clear that the UK Government’s destructive tax regime is harming investment and jobs in Scotland – and the new Prime Minister must look at this issue as a matter of urgency.” UK’s “windfall” tax was first launched by Boris Johnson’s Conservatives at a rate of 25% in 2022. The Tories increased it significantly, and then Labor raised it still higher and extended it until 2030 at a rate of 38%. At the time, the government described the levy as:  “Money raised from these measures will support the transition to clean energy, improving energy security and independence, while providing sustainable jobs for the future and helping protect energy bills against future price shocks.”

BP pioneered North Sea exploration by conducting seismic surveys in 1963 to search for oil and gas resources and obtained one of the earliest leases auctioned by the British government in 1964, marking the birth of the British offshore oil and gas industry and leading to major gas and oil discoveries over the next decade. In 1965, it hit its first offshore well, leading to the discovery of the West Sole gas field. In 1970, BP made its largest discovery to date in the UK North Sea, the giant Forties field, a multi-billion-barrel oilfield, 160 kilometers (99 miles) from the nearest shore. BP operates five major production hubs in the region, including the Clair oilfield, the largest on the UK continental shelf. Over time, production has declined, and taxes have increased as the U.K. government has pursued net-zero and other climate policies.

The North Sea accounted for 5% of BP’s oil and gas production last year–around 117,000 barrels out of a total of ​2.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. Rystad Energy estimates BP’s UK upstream portfolio to be worth ⁠about $2.6 billion on a risked basis, with the most likely bidders including current North Sea producers. Others said the portfolio might fetch around $2 billion because of decommissioning liabilities.

In 2020, BP announced it wanted to be a net-zero company by 2050 or sooner and would help the world get to net zero. The company bowed to political pressure from politicians and activist investors who demanded it move away from oil and natural gas and become a green-energy company. That ambition led the company to shift away from its primary business model toward technologies that are “carbon-free.”  It allocated a significant share of its capital base to less-profitable wind, solar, carbon capture, and biofuels projects. That strategy cost BP billions of pounds in unnecessary spending and produced disappointing financial returns. Last year, BP management acknowledged the failure of that strategy, announcing a complete reversal and a renewed focus on its core business of oil and natural gas production. BP is selling off major portions of its renewable and low-carbon energy assets.

Other mistakes that BP has made over the past two decades include investment in Russian oil and gas and its costly Deepwater Horizon accident in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. BP invested heavily in oil and natural gas assets in Russia and was forced to dispose of those assets at well below their market value when Russia invaded Ukraine. BP management failed to exercise adequate oversight of its offshore drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico, leading to the Deepwater Horizon accident and ultimately costing the company more than $65 billion.

Conclusion

The UK’s tax rate is forcing BP to sell its North Sea oil and gas assets, valued at over $2 billion. BP pays an effective tax rate of 78% on profits from oil and natural gas production in the North Sea, compared with U.S. oil companies, which generally pay corporate tax rates of about 25% to 30% on U.S. profits. BP pioneered oil exploration in the North Sea in the early to mid-1960s and produces about 5% of its oil and gas from the North Sea today. Besides the punitive taxes from the UK government, BP management made mistakes, including moving into renewable and low-carbon energy technologies, investing in oil and gas assets in Russia, and mismanaging the Deepwater Horizon project, which resulted in a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

*This article was adapted from content originally published by the Institute for Energy Research.

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Texas Joins With New York In Data Center Slowdown

August 20, 2026 by Leave a Comment

Texas is poised to become one of the world’s largest AI data center hubs, with plenty of land, decent energy supplies, and a business-friendly atmosphere. But amid public concerns about energy and water use, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has paused all new data center construction while the state audits current plans. That pause puts 20% of the U.S. pipeline at risk of delay, affecting almost 49.8 gigawatts of projects.

Governor Abbott called for an audit of all data centers in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) interconnection queue, which led the grid operator to delay its review of the first set of projects from the state’s new load interconnection process. According to Abbot, the ERCOT large load interconnection requests consist of about 474 gigawatts, of which about 90% are for data centers, which is more than five times ERCOT’s peak demand record. An all-time hourly peak of 91,089 megawatts was set on July 22, 2026. Abbott’s audit will examine whether data centers provide their own power or rely on the grid; their water use; and which data centers use state or federal assistance such as tax incentives, grants, or abatements.

Source: Powermag

According to ERCOT, 70% of generation capacity in the interconnection queue consists of solar and battery storage. Batteries are not an electricity-generating source, but a storage device that relies on generation sources to overproduce and store electricity. Natural gas facilities make up less than 17% of the interconnection queue, but their capacity is higher than three years ago, when fewer than 10 gigawatts of gas power plants wanted to connect. However, Texas legislators and grid operators indicate that the current level of planned gas facilities would not be enough to sustain reliability and resilience. They are contemplating requiring a minimum level of natural gas plants to increase dispatchability—plants that can be ramped up or down on demand by the system operator, unlike intermittent wind and solar power sources.

Through 2030, about 8.25 gigawatts of additional data center capacity will come online in ERCOT, bringing total capacity to more than 17 gigawatts, according to an analysis by Bloomberg NEF. Assuming 60% of the delayed capacity is AI-related, BNEF calculates that data center revenue losses could reach $8 billion by the first quarter of 2027. Delays could also put billions of dollars of data center leasing revenue at risk. Bloomberg NEF estimates AI computing capacity can earn around $1.76 billion per gigawatt per month.

Texas has followed N.Y. State in pausing data center development. In July, New York halted new data center approvals for up to a year while the state creates new development rules.

Benefits of Data Centers

According to the Data Center Map, there are currently 4,677 data centers in the United States. Virginia leads the states with 674 data centers across 25 markets. The majority of those data centers are located in Northern Virginia, around Data Center Alley in Ashburn. Texas follows Virginia with 537 data centers across 44 markets.

Some residents near data centers have raised concerns such as losing drinking water during construction, or continuous low-frequency “infrasound” from cooling fans and gas turbines — with claims linking the “sound” to negative health effects like headaches, insomnia, nausea, and anxiety. Infrasound is inaudible to humans but can be felt. These issues have resulted in local lawsuits, moratoriums, and pauses on construction, as in New York and Texas.

Data centers, however, often use less water than traditional industries like agriculture, rock quarries, and poultry processing. A data center will “evaporate into the air about as much water as a municipal golf course” over the course of a year. Data centers can cool heat by evaporating water, reducing electricity use by 20% to 25% annually. Data centers can also help lower electricity rates by absorbing the fixed costs of grid infrastructure built to power them, keeping prices stable or even reducing them over time. An IER study showed no meaningful relationship between data center concentration and higher electricity prices.

Data centers also bring economic benefits, such as tax revenues that can fund schools, road infrastructure, and sewer systems. The property tax paid by a data center “often exceeds the budget of a small rural county.” For instance, according to the Loudoun County, Virginia, website, “for every $1 in services that Loudoun County provides to data centers, the county receives $26 in tax revenue.”

Data centers also create jobs, particularly construction jobs. For example, the Trump administration announced a plan to develop a former nuclear enrichment site in Kentucky to build an AI data center, the most recent in a series of similar conversion plans. The initiative is expected to create around 8,000 construction jobs and 600 permanent jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.  Data centers have high-paying jobs, especially in construction, averaging around $81,000 a year.

A new peer-reviewed study published in a Nature journal finds AI could help produce more oil and natural gas by finding new resources and recovering more from existing fields. It can also help renewable energy by improving forecasting and operations. Furthermore, AI may improve water-use efficiency in many ways, helping address problems it currently faces.

Conclusion

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas and ERCOT to conduct a comprehensive audit of every data center advancing through the state’s interconnection queue, warning that projects that fail to disclose ownership, financial, water, and community-impact information could be denied grid access. ERCOT’s large-load interconnection queue totals 474 gigawatts—about 90% of which are for data centers. Communities worry about electricity prices, water usage, and “infrasound” from data centers. But industry and lawmakers dispute those claims and indicate other benefits, including job creation, tax revenues, and productivity gains.

*This article was adapted from content originally published by the Institute for Energy Research.

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Trump Administration Brings Relief To American Families By Extending Jones Act Waiver

August 18, 2026 by Leave a Comment

The Jones Act of 1920 requires that ships engaged in domestic U.S. maritime trade be built, owned, crewed, and flagged in the United States. While defenders cite national security benefits, it is primarily a protectionist law that shields a shrinking U.S. shipping industry from foreign competition, raising shipping costs and making goods more expensive for all Americans.

The Trump administration extended the Jones Act waiver for another 90 days but limited its scope. The waiver leaves fewer U.S. shipping restrictions in place to keep fuel flowing amid the Iran conflict. The latest extension, however, will be narrowed to apply only to vessels hauling certain energy resources. The extension will also require the Pentagon to consult with the U.S. Maritime Administration and determine if the waiver applies to each individual shipping voyage. The Jones Act is a 1920 law requiring that goods be transported between American ports by U.S. vessels with U.S. crews. It was intended to grow the domestic shipping industry after World War I. However, it raised prices on all consumer goods, especially energy, by limiting the mobility of U.S. products between U.S. ports.

President Trump issued his first 60-day waiver of the Jones Act on March 17, less than three weeks after the U.S.- Iran conflict started. The Trump administration extended the waiver in mid-May for another 90 days. The latest 90-day extension should last until mid-November. Since Trump first waived the law, 210 voyages have been completed that otherwise would have been deemed unlawful, according to Maritime Administration data – a 50% increase in domestic shipments between U.S. ports. The majority of these vessels were hauling gasoline and crude oil. Cato, citing that data, calculates that nearly 55 million barrels of cargo in total have been shipped by utilizing the waivers.

The waiver has helped California, which, due to its anti-oil and gas policies and regulations, has become dependent on foreign oil and petroleum products. To get petroleum products from U.S. refineries without using Jones Act-approved tankers, more than 40% of California’s gasoline imports came from the Bahamas, where they were shipped first before being transported to California. That contributes to California’s high gasoline prices—the highest in the nation. There are only 92 Jones Act-compliant ships today, of which only 55 are tankers. Even U.S. flagged ships cannot carry cargo between American ports if they were not built in the United States.

Middle East Conflict Continues

The conflict in the Middle East continues as Houthi missile strikes on a cargo ship in the Red Sea killed at least six people, and U.S. forces fired on a Panama-flagged ship trying to transit to an Iranian port in defiance of the U.S. blockade on those ports. The Houthis imposed a naval blockade on Saudi ⁠Arabia in the Red Sea and attacked a Saudi ship they claimed was carrying military equipment in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The fatalities aboard the Egyptian-owned Tihamah would be the first deaths on shipping by Yemen’s ​Iran-aligned Houthis since the Iran war began.

According to the U.S. military, a U.S. Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles to disable the steering gear of a Panama-flagged cargo ship. The ship ignored repeated warnings to stop violating a naval blockade on Iranian ports, the U.S. Central Command said. ​The ship was hit off Pakistan while sailing into the Gulf of Oman.

Oil and Petroleum Product Prices

Oil prices are climbing as talks for a ceasefire and peace agreement with Iran remain deadlocked amid Iran’s list of demands on the United States for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, hovered near $89 a barrel after climbing as high as $90. Even if oil prices remain fairly stable, disruptions across the Middle East and Russia have tightened refined-product markets and raised refining margins, which affect gasoline and diesel prices. China has added to the supply problems by banning petroleum product exports for much of the Iran conflict and has only recently started to slowly lift the ban. Despite the effective closure of the Street of Hormuz limiting supplies and constraining exports, refiners have secured enough oil to keep refineries operating with emergency releases from strategic reserves and a rearranging of global trade flows. Those reserves, however, are at very low levels.

Existing refineries have had to operate at very high levels as the United States and Europe have closed a number of refineries due to high operating costs and shifts toward low-carbon energy production. Many refineries are running at very high utilization rates to meet demand while compensating for disruptions in the Middle East and Russia, leaving little spare capacity. Refinery margins are expected to remain high for the remainder of the year, and seasonal maintenance beginning in September is expected to tighten the market even further, leading analysts to believe petroleum product prices will remain high for a while, regardless of what happens with oil prices.

Conclusion

The Trump administration extended the Jones Act waiver for another 90 days but limited it to vessels carrying certain energy resources and introduced voyage-by-voyage eligibility reviews by the Pentagon in consultation with the U.S. Maritime Administration. President Trump’s extension of the Jones Act will ensure petroleum fuels reach U.S. regions that need them, keeping prices in a more stable range. Oil prices are climbing as talks for a ceasefire and peace agreement with Iran remain deadlocked. Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, is hovering near $89 a barrel. Refinery margins are expected to remain high for the rest of the year, so gasoline and diesel prices are likely to stay high regardless of what happens to oil prices.

*This article was adapted from content originally published by the Institute for Energy Research.

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AEA Joins With 24 Free Market Groups In Commending The Trump Administration For Extending The Jones Act Waivers

August 14, 2026 by Leave a Comment

On Thursday, August 13, 2026 the American Energy Alliance joined with 24 other free market advocacy groups in sending a letter to key members of the Trump administration, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Department Of War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, commending the administration for extending the Jones Act waivers.

Enacting Jones Act waivers for the transportation of liquified natural gas was a key part of the American Energy Blueprint which the Institute for Energy Research (IER) published when President Trump took office. More information regarding the harms the Jones Act has for American families can be found in this article from IER. The full text of the letter is available below:

Dear Secretary Mullin, Secretary Hegseth, Secretary Wright, and Secretary Rollins:

 The undersigned individuals write to commend President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend enforcement of the century-old Jones Act for covered commodities for an additional 90 days rather than allow his waiver to expire. 

The Jones Act requires cargo shipped domestically over water to be carried on vessels that are U.S.-built, owned, and crewed, even if more affordable and efficient options are available. However, U.S. law allows the Secretary of War to request a waiver of the Jones Act when “necessary in the interest of national defense to address an immediate adverse effect on military operations. 

The U.S.-Iran engagement and resulting energy disruptions underscore the ongoing importance of Jones Act waivers. President Trump’s actions have permitted more than 200 voyages since March, allowing vessels to deliver goods Americans rely on, including gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel, crude oil, and fertilizer. Allowing this beneficial waiver to end would not have been in the national interest. Although the extended waiver adds a new requirement for consultations between the Maritime Administration and the Pentagon, we applaud the Administration for not allowing it to expire. 

Thank you for your leadership. 

Sincerely,  

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President Trump Working To Unleash America’s Refining Capabilities

August 14, 2026 by Leave a Comment

Oil majors warn of a continuing tight market for petroleum products due to a lack of global refinery capacity as the Ukraine and Iran wars have reduced the operations of refineries in Russia and the Middle East. In both Europe and the United States, refineries have shuttered due to onerous regulations and government policies. The Trump administration is considering reopening closed oil refineries, including the St. Croix refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands, to address high gasoline and diesel prices. The St. Croix refinery, which was shut down in 2021, is of interest because of its strategic location and its ability to refine Venezuelan oil. U.S. refining capacity has dropped by nearly 5% from a high of about 19 million barrels a day in 2020.

U.S. refineries have been producing at high margins to keep gas stations supplied and respond to the global demand for petroleum product exports due to declining fuel stockpiles combined with curtailed petroleum exports from China and refinery outages in Russia  Nearly 10% of the world’s ability to refine crude oil is effectively offline due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, continued Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries and China’s export ban. At current high operating margins, U.S. refineries would be unable to produce more fuel even if oil were available. Recently, U.S. refineries were operating at more than 97% of their capacity, processing 17.3 million barrels of oil, the highest level since September 2019. Retail gasoline prices at over $4 a gallon are 10% below this year’s peak in May, even though West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is down 26% from its 2026 high.

Prices for middle distillates, diesel, jet fuel and heating oil are a concern. Retail diesel prices are 6% below their highs this year even though the drop in WTI has been four times as much. The market is likely to tighten further as countries restock heating oil ahead of winter. Despite oil being the largest price component of gasoline, gasoline prices are beginning to disconnect from oil, trading instead on storage levels (inventories). Refined product inventories “are approaching historical lows.” ExxonMobil, which operates the world’s largest refinery network outside China, sees this trend continuing for the foreseeable future because about 5 million barrels per day of refining capacity cannot reach the global market.

The Trump administration has taken steps to make it easier to restart shuttered refineries. Last year, the EPA stopped a policy that required refineries and other industrial sites to obtain a new round of permits when resuming operations after two or more years of inactivity. Two recent U.S. refineries have shuttered. Phillips 66 halted operations at its refinery in Los Angeles last fall, and Valero did likewise at its Benicia, California, facility this spring. Both companies cited long-term regulatory and market pressures in the state. California officials tried to broker deals with other oil companies to keep the facilities running after closures were announced but were unsuccessful.

Trump has also announced plans for the first major new U.S. refinery in five decades, a proposed facility in Brownsville, Texas, that may begin construction this year.  America First Refining will build a 168,000-barrel-per-day refinery, supported by investment from India’s Reliance Industries. The facility will operate on light shale oil and help reduce the U.S. trade deficit with India by $300 billion. Many Gulf Coast refineries ‌are unable to process light, sweet oil from ⁠fracking shale fields because they were configured in the last 40 years to run on lower-cost heavy, sour oil, which has higher density and has been readily available from Canada, Venezuela, and Mexico.

The St. Croix Refinery

The St. Croix refinery, which operated from 1966 until 2012 and briefly in 2021, houses billions of dollars in refining equipment and infrastructure and is located at a strategic point along Atlantic shipping lanes. To revive the facility, investors would need to overcome a troubled operational and environmental history, including the first Trump administration’s restart attempt. In 2021, just months after the plant reopened, Biden’s EPA ordered it shut down after a series of operational incidents. Biden’s EPA used emergency powers to shut it down, supposedly to protect the surrounding community, which is “predominantly made up of people of color and low-income populations.” The plant, then owned by Limetree Bay Ventures LLC, filed for bankruptcy.

Two years later, a federal court overturned EPA’s order requiring the plant to undergo a lengthy and expensive permitting process before restarting operations. Last year, Trump’s EPA Administrator, Lee Zeldin, cited that court decision in ending the agency’s policy of requiring power plants, refineries and other industrial sources to obtain a new round of permits if resuming operations after two or more years of sitting idle.

The owner of the St. Croix refinery estimates that a restart would cost approximately $686 million and take 18 months to bring the facility back to the 180,000 barrels-per-day capacity it reached under its previous owners in 2021. That is well below the 650,000 barrels per day it produced at its peak in the 1970s when it was one of the world’s largest refineries. Others believe that the cost estimate is high and, based on a different scope of work and methodology, estimate the cost of the restart at about $402 million.

Analysis

President Trump’s initiative to reopen shuttered refineries and to construct new ones could help lower fuel prices and strengthen national security. The Trump administration wants to expand fuel production closer to home and stem a wave of refinery closures in recent years, driven by disruptions in global fuel supplies caused by the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. The administration also wants to increase oil production in Venezuela, which previously supplied the bulk of the oil processed by the St. Croix plant under a joint venture with its original owner. Venezuela’s oil production and exports have rebounded to around 1.2 million barrels per day, but its aging refineries remain far below capacity and may require at least $20 billion to restore to full capacity. Investors are more likely to prioritize upstream projects and exports than refinery upgrades in Venezuela because low domestic fuel prices, earthquake recovery needs, and uncertain commercial terms weaken the case for major downstream spending.

*This article was adapted from content originally published by the Institute for Energy Research.

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