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AEA Leads Coalition Letter Urging Congress to Stop Foreign Third-Party Litigation From Targeting the American Energy Industry

June 22, 2026 by Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON DC (6/22/26) – Today, a coalition of 21 organizations, led by the American Energy Alliance, sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune urging Congress to close the tax loophole that allows third-party litigation financiers to claim capital gains treatment on their profits. The letter highlights how this practice harms taxpayers, consumers, and American businesses, drives up costs, and is being weaponized against the U.S. energy sector. A copy of this letter was also sent to the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee and the U.S. Senate Finance Committee.

American Energy Alliance President Tom Pyle released the following statement:

“Third-party litigation funding has converted U.S. civil litigation into a high-yield alternative asset class, with the American energy sector now squarely in the sights of foreign adversaries. Under this model, outside investors supply capital to plaintiffs or their lawyers in exchange for a percentage of any settlement or judgment. The result is a multibillion-dollar industry.

“The structure rests on a clear tax loophole. By packaging deals as prepaid forward contracts, funders can report their returns as long-term capital gains rather than ordinary income. Foreign nationals and foreign corporations with no U.S. presence pay no U.S. withholding tax on these gains and are not treated as earning effectively connected income. Consequently, offshore investors can extract tax-free profits from American court outcomes, creating opportunities for foreign malign influence.

“Nowhere are the risks more acute than in the energy sector. High-stakes battles over climate claims, intellectual property in emerging technologies, mergers, joint ventures, and environmental regulations have surged in recent years. Courts, defendants, and the public seldom discover who is actually financing the lawsuits or shaping their strategy. Compounding the problem, foreign sovereign wealth funds and entities tied to geopolitical rivals have poured substantial capital into U.S. energy-related litigation, creating significant national-security vulnerabilities.

“Congress has an opportunity to close this loophole now and ensure that foreign entities that profit from litigation speculation can no longer exploit our tax system. Doing so protects American taxpayers and puts the interests of our citizens first.”

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THOMAS.PYLE@ENERGYDC.ORG

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Media Misleads on Rising Blue-State Power Costs Scapegoating Data Centers

June 21, 2026 by Leave a Comment

Over half of Americans are strongly opposed to a data center being built near their home, and over half also blame rising electricity prices on their construction and use. The Institute for Energy Research has shown that the relationship between data centers and electricity price increases is statistically insignificant, but a campaign first detailed in The Guardian in December of 2025, along with related media hype, has Americans on edge about data center buildouts and their contribution to electricity prices. Data center usage, however, can actually result in lower electricity prices as those prices are spread over more consumers—in this case, the additional consumers are data centers. That can occur if there is excess generating capacity at the utility or if new generating capacity is built when the data center is built.

That has not stopped policymakers from either wanting to ban data center construction or having developers build their own generating capacity next to their plant. Senator Bernie Sanders has sponsored a bill imposing a nationwide “moratorium” on data center construction, and New York lawmakers have passed a year-long moratorium on data center construction in the state. Some states, such as North Carolina, are considering ways to tighten restrictions on data center development. But restricting data center development kills jobs, loses revenue for communities, and decreases economic activity, as well as lowering the U.S.’s ability to compete with China.

Most data centers are currently powered by the electric grid, but some lawmakers want them to build their own on-site generating capacity that is not tied to the grid. Many projects plan to do so, thereby avoiding delays in obtaining permission to connect to the grid. A few states have passed laws to encourage off-grid data centers by loosening restrictions around who can build power plants and where. Senator Tom Cotton introduced the Decentralized Access to Technology Alternatives (DATA) Act of 2026, which would exempt off-grid data centers from federal regulations, making the entire process faster and cheaper.

Data Centers Need Reliable Power

Data centers need reliable power generation capacity that can supply power 24/7, as they run around the clock. In the short term, the fuel of choice tends to be natural gas. Other possibilities include restarting shuttered nuclear plants, building small nuclear reactors, and backing fusion energy. Microsoft, for example, is recommissioning the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania to generate 835 megawatts of energy for its data centers, with the plant expected to be operational in 2028.

In 2024, Musk’s xAI got a Memphis data center up and running in months, in part by powering the facility with dozens of portable gas generators. Meta is working with natural gas company Williams on a project called Socrates in New Albany, Ohio, that will install a pair of off-grid gas power plants, each covering 20 acres, which will be operational this year. Ohio has implemented a policy framework called “consumer-regulated energy” that allows owners of data centers and other major industrial facilities to purchase power from third-party providers rather than the centralized grid. Oracle and OpenAI are also developing off-grid power plants for their data centers, with construction underway at their Stargate Project Jupiter campus in New Mexico, which will be powered by natural gas.

It is important to note that even if wind and solar energy were reliable and could operate 24/7, which they cannot, their deployment would require thousands of acres, as more capacity is needed to obtain the same amount of power as fossil fuel units or nuclear reactors. To enhance reliability, expensive storage batteries would be required, increasing land use and costs. Often, that amount of land is not available, making wind and solar unlikely choices.

Continuing to connect to the grid would require new transmission infrastructure and additional generating capacity, which would take too long for the rapid construction of these data centers. Building a new transmission line in the United States now takes about 10 years, while generation projects are held up in interconnection queues, with more than 2,600 gigawatts of capacity now in queues nationwide. Another option is for power companies to build substations serving just a single data center or a series of centers, without affecting the overall power grid.

Conclusion

Media hype driven by a campaign has more than half of Americans strongly opposed to data centers being built near their homes, and almost as many Americans are blaming rising electricity prices on them. IER has shown that the relationship between data centers and rising electricity prices is statistically insignificant. While there are cases where electricity prices can be lowered through data center grid usage, as costs are spread across more consumers, most policymakers favor data center developers buying power from third parties or building their own power sources next to their data centers. Natural gas, which is reliable and abundant, is currently the fuel of choice, but small nuclear reactors and the restart of shuttered nuclear plants are also being considered. Most data centers do not have the land necessary for wind or solar power with battery backup to be considered.

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

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Governor Spanberger Hits Families Of Virginia With New Energy Tax

June 18, 2026 by Leave a Comment

Virginia is scheduled to formally reenter the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) on July 1, after newly elected Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed a budget bill including a provision mandating the state rejoin the program. Virginia’s previous governor, Governor Glenn Youngkin, withdrew the state’s participation in 2023 when he was governor. Following the commonwealth’s return to the program, Dominion Energy filed a request with the State Corporation Commission to reinstate “Rider RGGI,” a fee to cover the cost of Virginia’s participation. It is projected that residential customer bills could increase by about $13 per month for customers using 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month during the March 2027 through February 2028 rate year under the proposed carbon-trading rider. Spreading some of the recovery costs over two years would lower the projected monthly impact to about $10.36. The cost increase depends on auction prices for allowances that permit utilities to emit greenhouse gases.

The RGGI is a regional cap-and-trade program that requires power plants to purchase carbon allowances through quarterly auctions, which allow them to emit greenhouse gases. It includes a carbon tax and a cap-and-trade mechanism. The carbon tax is a price per unit of carbon dioxide emissions. The cap-and-trade mechanism sets the total level of permissible emissions for participating states and allows power plants to trade corresponding emissions allowances under that overall cap. Power plants must purchase one allowance for each short ton of emissions. The emissions cap for power plants declines each year, making it harder to meet and potentially increasing the auction price. The Rider RGGI Virginians were required to pay per month until Governor Youngkin left the RGGI in 2023; the amount was $4.40.

Virginia is set to participate in the September and December 2026 allowance auctions. Utilities can request to recover those compliance costs through customer rate increases. The most recent RGGI auction cleared around $35 per ton, significantly higher than prices during Virginia’s earlier participation from January 2021, when then-Governor Ralph Northam joined the program, to December 2023, when Governor Youngkin withdrew from the program.

Virginia generated about $825.8 million in RGGI auction proceeds from 2021 through 2023. Of that, $413.9 million went toward low-income energy-efficiency programs through the Department of Housing and Community Development, and $372.5 million supported community flood preparedness programs through the Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Power plants in Virginia are also subject to carbon-free electricity mandates under the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) that mandates that the state’s primary utility, Dominion Energy, deliver 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045. So layering RGGI on top of those costs will further increase electricity costs. Virginia’s renewed participation in RGGI assumes the state never left, subjecting it to much tighter emissions caps that mandate a 61% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and a 92% reduction by 2037 from 2027 levels. Its return to RGGI could create allowance supply shortages in the future, as participating power plants anticipate higher demand for allowances driven by the emissions generated from power plants associated with artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. Virginia and Texas currently lead all states in housing data centers. Virginia’s data center boom has generated nearly $40 billion in economic output and contributed to lower residential property tax rates in data center hubs.

Source: American Action Forum

Dominion projects that Virginia’s electricity demand will grow by 5% annually starting in 2025 and double by 2045 – mostly driven by data center demand. Most new energy sources in Virginia would need to be emissions-free, and some existing fossil fuel sources would need to be replaced to meet the emissions-reduction target. Dominion concluded in its 2025 annual report that fully retiring fossil fuels before 2045 would be prohibitively costly and impact grid reliability. A state-commissioned study confirms that fossil fuels would need to remain a critical component of Virginia’s power mix. Under RGGI, reducing emissions or controlling and capturing them will drive electricity prices higher.

Further, sources considered emission-free, such as wind and solar, are intermittent and weather-dependent. Maintaining reliability under renewable-heavy systems requires significant investments in transmission infrastructure and backup generation. Estimates indicate that to meet the growing clean electricity demand for 100% clean electricity by 2035 and a zero-emissions economy by 2050, transmission systems will need to expand by 60% by 2030 and could triple by 2050. Wind and solar, however, cannot provide the dispatchable power needed to sustain hospitals, military installations, manufacturing, and data center operations 24/7.

Conclusion

Under the new Virginia Governor, Spanberger, the state will be rejoining RGGI, effective July 1. Dominion Energy, Virginia’s primary utility, has filed for a rate increase that is expected to add about $13 per month to a typical residential electricity bill—up from about $4 or $5 a month when Virginia was previously in the program from 2021 to 2023. Ten other states are currently members of RGGI, and many of them have near the highest electricity prices in the nation, including Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Virginia, known as Data Center Alley, is also facing rising electricity demand, which Dominion estimates will grow 5% annually and double by 2040, adding to the difficulty of meeting the RGGI emissions reduction targets.

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

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Gavin Newsom’s Anti-Energy Policies Becoming A National Security Concern

June 17, 2026 by Leave a Comment

The Trump administration is considering creating a Strategic Petroleum Reserve in California to enhance national security and address the state’s energy isolation, according to Energy Secretary Chris Wright. The proposed reserve would initially store 370,000 barrels of oil, with a potential expansion to 30 million barrels, and would support military installations and refineries in the state. The action would undermine Governor Gavin Newsom’s goal to continue reducing the state’s dependence on fossil fuels.

A document that lawyers for Sable Offshore Corp. sent to the Energy Department shows that the company proposed a West Coast Strategic Petroleum Reserve “in response to the inquiries made by the Trump administration and in the furtherance of Sable’s ongoing discussions with the Department of War for the supply of oil and gas to California.” Sable began producing oil offshore Santa Barbara earlier this year as the Trump administration invoked national defense powers—an action opposed by Governor Newsom. Newsom has criticized Sable’s relationship with the Trump administration, accusing the company of defying court orders during its restart.

The document also states, “The storage facilities and the connected and adjacent pipelines would make any oil stored in the facility available to serve the military installations in central, northern, and southern California, the remaining refineries in California’s major population centers, and further available for maritime transport via the port facilities in both the San Francisco and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, for onward transport to the military installations in the Asia Pacific region.”

The U.S.’s current Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is located in a series of salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana and has been seriously depleted of oil reserves during the Biden administration in its quest to lower gasoline prices before the mid-term election in 2022. Oil prices had risen due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prompting the Biden administration to release over 400 million barrels from the SPR.

Due to the conflict in Iran, the Trump administration is in the process of releasing 172 million barrels of oil from the SPR to ease the higher oil prices that resulted from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. California, which is dependent on oil and petroleum imports, recently received oil from the SPR. About 460,000 barrels of Bayou Choctaw Sweet oil are moving to Chevron’s Richmond refinery in Northern California, while an additional 50,000 barrels were delivered to the company’s El Segundo refinery near Los Angeles.

It is unclear how effective a SPR in California will be, given the state’s closure of its refineries and its retooling of some refineries to produce expensive biofuels that the state heavily subsidizes. Two California refineries closed in the past year due to onerous regulations and policies from the Newsom administration. California lost about 17% of its refining capacity with the closure of the Phillips 66 refinery in Los Angeles and the Valero refinery near San Francisco. California now has 11 refineries, down from 42 refineries 40 years ago.

The state is increasingly dependent on gasoline imports from Asia, where it gets about 20% of its gasoline supply. Due to the conflict in Iran and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Asian refineries are unable to obtain oil imports from the Middle East and have had to scale back their petroleum exports, exacerbating California’s petroleum problems. With President Trump’s waiver of the Jones Act, California has received some gasoline shipments from Gulf Coast refineries.

California boasts the highest gasoline prices in the nation, about $1.70 higher than the national average due to its policies and regulations. California has the highest combined gas tax in the nation at $0.709 per gallon, plus numerous hidden fees resulting from a cap-and-trade program to lower greenhouse gas emissions, a low-carbon fuel program, underground gas storage fees, and a state and local sales tax, all of which add to the price of gasoline. While fuel tax revenues are typically used for road repair, California diverts some of them to subsidize “green” jet fuel production. Newsom has proposed a $1- to $ 2-per-gallon credit for every gallon of alternative jet fuel, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), “produced for use in California,” funded by the road repair budget.

Conclusion

The Trump administration is considering an SPR in California to enhance national security, as a number of military bases are located within the state, and to address the state’s isolation, since its fuel specifications differ from those of the rest of the nation, and few pipelines connect it to the rest of the country. The state is dependent on imports to supplement its declining oil and petroleum production, which, due to the conflict in Iran, have been limited. California, under Governor Newsom, has enacted anti-oil-and-gas policies and regulations, resulting in higher fuel prices than the rest of the nation, refinery closures, and declining oil production. However, the current SPR has frequently been used as a political tool, rather than a strategic asset, and there’s no reason to believe a Californian SPR would be handled much differently.

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

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The Unregulated Podcast #277: Even Stevens

June 16, 2026 by Leave a Comment

On this episode of The Unregulated Podcast Tom Pyle and Mike McKenna discuss the future of the Democratic Party and the net-zero agenda.

Links:

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Karen Bass Asks LA Voters To Give Copper Thieves A Raise With Solar Streetlights

June 15, 2026 by Leave a Comment

Everyone is talking about the June 2 primary election in California, especially the results in LA. But there was another election on June 2 that you might not have heard of, as you needed to own property to vote in it.

The election, known as a Proposition 218 Ballot Process, will determine whether LA property owners will pay a special tax assessment to raise money to replace broken streetlights with solar-powered ones.

Special ballots were mailed in April, and were due June 2. The vote count is ongoing, and results will be announced on June 26.

The issue has arisen because of rampant copper wire theft, which is disabling streetlights across the city.

Keeping the streets lit in America’s second-largest city is no easy task under normal circumstances. With upward of 223,000 streetlights, including an underground network of 9,000 miles of conduit and 27,000 miles of copper wire, the city of Los Angeles’s streetlight network illuminates the city’s roads and neighborhoods for its millions of residents.

Unfortunately, copper wire theft has risen to substantial levels, as a result of soft-on-crime policies and an overstretched police force that has plagued the City of Angels for years.

Instead of addressing the root of the problem, Mayor Bass and most of the LA City Council backed a Prop. 218 tax to raise $125 million to replace and update streetlights. Many of the new ones would be solar-powered. 

Updating public infrastructure is not bad; however, the current approach does not address the underlying problem of high rates of copper theft, which creates a strong incentive for people to commit the crime in the first place.

The tax would also raise property owners’ fees by up to 120% in an already extremely expensive place to live, given that Angelenos pay over 55% more than the national average for energy.

In 2023 alone, there were 6,842 reported cases of metal theft, leading to the creation of the LAPD’s “Heavy Metal Task Force,” which was tasked with combating the problem.

Unfortunately, in classic LA fashion, even though it was formed with good intentions and initially yielded promising results, it was disbanded by the omniscient leaders of the city in July of 2025 due to budget problems.

When copper wire thieves are caught, they have a high rate of reoffending. This high rate is driven by laughably low enforcement, low penalties, and the difficulty of catching offenders before they commit multiple crimes, given how easy it is to steal copper wire from streetlights.

Under California Penal Code § 487j, those who steal copper wire valued at more than $950 commit grand theft, which can be punished as either a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on the value of the stolen copper and the number of prior offenses the person has committed. 

However, with a local justice system operating more as a revolving door than anything else, even with a maximum penalty of a $10,000 fine and up to three years in state prison, many are likely to commit copper wire theft repeatedly before being stopped. And they are likely to do so again upon release from prison — if they are imprisoned at all. 

When a copper wire thief steals a few hundred dollars’ worth of copper, he or she causes thousands of dollars in damage. Each streetlight can cost up to $2,000 each to fix, costing taxpayers up to $20 million a year. 

When presented with a solution — a hardened cover for each streetlight at the cost of $300 each — the city of Los Angeles decided to ignore the practical and financially responsible choice and moved forward with pushing to convert thousands of streetlights to solar at upward of $6,000 per unit.

The solar decision was also political, designed to conform to the city’s LA100 Plan to achieve 100% carbon free power by 2035. But it won’t actually solve the underlying problem of theft.

Criminals have already demonstrated a willingness to scale streetlight poles to steal not only valuable core components, but the entire solar panel itself, which renders the streetlight useless.

Even solar panels that survive have inconsistent output due to weather conditions. They also require battery replacement every three to five years, costing an additional $150 to $1,000 per replacement.

June 26 is the day of the city’s final consideration, after the ballots have been counted, to determine whether the assessment passes.

The city of Los Angeles should take this time to develop real solutions to end its revolving-door-like criminal justice system, rather than converting 60,000 streetlights to solar power, which doesn’t solve the underlying problem of rampant crime. 

*This article was originally published by the New York Post.

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China Converting Coal To Liquid Fuel While Pushing Anti-Coal Agenda On America

June 11, 2026 by Leave a Comment

China has been the world’s dominant coal user and is consuming over half of the world’s demand, consuming more coal than every other country combined. The second largest coal consumer is India, which consumes less than a third of the amount of coal that China consumes. China uses coal to fuel its enormous fleet of coal generators, which is larger than the entire U.S. generating fleet of all fuel types, but also to convert coal into liquid fuels using Fischer-Tropsch — a process discovered in 1925, and used by the Nazis during World War II and by South Africa during the oil embargo of the 1980s. China is making liquid fuels from coal because it lacks natural gas and oil resources, but has a large coal base.

China consumes about 380 million metric tons of coal as a feedstock for chemical and liquid fuel production, representing about 8% of the country’s total coal consumption of 4,939 million metric tons. The International Energy Agency expects the sector to grow between 5% and 10% in the coming years, offsetting a decline in coal consumption to produce cement and steel in China.

Source: Bloomberg

China has been converting some of its coal into chemical products and liquid fuels in the “traditional” coal chemical industry, starting with metallurgical coal, converted into coke, and transformed into ammonia-based fertilizers and acetylene-based chemicals. Over the last two decades, however, China has employed new variations of the original Fischer-Tropsch process, along with other innovative methods, including methanol synthesis, to produce petrochemical goods such as olefins, which are used to make plastics. The new variations are typically referred to as the “modern” coal chemical industry.

In the new industry, coal is mined underground almost directly beneath the chemical facilities and carried by conveyor to the furnaces where it is gasified and transformed. Commercial-scale projects became popular in the 2010s, particularly in China’s heartland, where the bulk of the country’s coal fields are located. Erdos, a coal liquefaction plant located in Inner Mongolia, was the first plant of the type and has been operating since November 2010. It is the largest coal-to-liquids complex outside of South Africa, with a capacity of 20,000 barrels per day. The plant, which cost $2 billion, produced 866,000 tonnes of oil products in 2013. It uses 7-12 metric tons of fresh water per metric ton of product and generates 4.8 metric tons of wastewater and nine metric tons of carbon dioxide per metric ton of product.

The process enhances energy security for China due to its reliance on imported oil and gas. For example, last year, China accounted for nearly 50% of U.S. ethane exports (230,000 barrels per day out of a total of 492,000 barrels per day), primarily used to produce plastics. The Trump administration sees these exports as an unacceptable risk due to their potential use in military applications. As such, the United States is making American exporters of ethane or butane apply for export licenses if they plan to ship ethane to China.

Source: EIA

Ethane is a natural gas liquid that is primarily extracted from raw natural gas during processing. It is primarily used as a feedstock for ethylene production, a crucial building block in the petrochemical industry. Ethylene is used to produce a wide range of products, including plastics, resins, and synthetic rubber. The United States and Norway are the only countries with the infrastructure to export waterborne ethane; however, ethane has not been separated from the natural gas stream in Norway over the past few years due to high natural gas prices in Europe.

China Is the World’s Largest Emitter of Carbon Dioxide

With China’s vast coal use, it is the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, and converting coal to liquid fuels will only make the country emit more carbon, particularly as that industry grows. In 2023, China emitted 11,218 million metric tons of carbon dioxide — 32% of the total carbon dioxide global emissions in that year — and 6.1% higher than its carbon dioxide emissions in 2022.

China’s pledge to the United Nations is to have its carbon dioxide emissions peak by 2030 and then begin to reduce them, with net-zero emissions reached by 2060. Its quantitative targets for 2030 include cutting carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by more than 65% from 2005 levels and increasing the share of non-fossil energy to around 25%. But its actions regarding its coal industry and uses show an entirely different direction, despite adding solar and wind power and housing the electric vehicle (EV) firm with the most significant global sales, BYD, which has surpassed Tesla in EV sales. China turned to manufacturing solar panels, silicon, and electric vehicles to increase exports by marketing them to Western countries that had stringent goals for reducing carbon dioxide.

Conclusion

China is the world’s largest consumer of coal for generation and industrial uses, but its coal is also being converted to liquid fuels to supplement China’s oil and petroleum imports. China is the world’s largest importer of oil, importing 11.1 million barrels per day in 2024. China imported almost half of the total U.S. exports of ethane in 2024, prompting the Trump administration to issue new licensing rules requiring companies to seek approval before exporting ethane or butane to China. China, as the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, does not seem to be making inroads in reducing those emissions. Instead, it is finding new uses for its coal.

*This article was adapted from content originally published in June, 2025 by the Institute for Energy Research.

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America’s Grid Grows Stronger Under President Trump’s Energy Dominance Agenda

June 10, 2026 by Leave a Comment

According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), U.S. grid reliability will improve this summer as 75 gigawatts of capacity are being added to the grid, and power plant retirements are expected to slow by more than 50% to 8 gigawatts. The increase in capacity is the largest one-year increase in over a decade. With the added capacity, resources, and operating reserves are expected to be adequate in all NERC assessment areas under normal operating conditions. However, high temperatures and extreme weather events, such as low snowpack, continued drought, and wildfires, could strain the grid in certain areas. Low water levels are also expected to restrict hydropower generation in key regions, particularly in the Colorado River Basin, where about 4.5 gigawatts of hydroelectric generation could be affected by August.

According to FERC’s annual summer market and reliability assessment, the capacity additions include nearly 26 gigawatts in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas footprint, close to 13 gigawatts in the Western Electric Coordinating Council region, and 11 gigawatts in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator region. Even with the new capacity, three areas in the United States face risks of power supply shortfalls during extreme conditions: the Pacific Northwest, New England, and part of western Texas.

Source: Canary Media

Natural gas demand and production are both expected to increase, providing more generation. U.S. natural gas demand is expected to average 101.3 billion cubic feet per day this summer, 1.6 billion cubic feet per day more than summer 2025 levels and 8% more than the previous five-year summer average of 93.8 billion cubic feet per day. FERC expects gas-fired generators will provide 39% of capacity this summer, followed by solar at 14%, coal at 13%, wind at 12%, and nuclear and hydropower at 7% each. The new capacity consists of 7 gigawatts of gas, 30.5 gigawatts of solar, of which only 16.4 gigawatts contribute during peak summer demand due to its inefficiencies, and over 16 gigawatts of expensive battery storage capacity. The capacity additions are heavily weighted towards solar and wind as the subsidy schemes of the Inflation Reduction Act continue.

Natural gas production is expected to be slightly higher this summer than last, driven by continued strong production from major shale fields. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts U.S. dry natural gas production to average 109.3 billion cubic feet per day during summer 2026–a 1% increase from the summer 2025 average of 108.2 billion cubic feet per day and is 7% above the previous five-year average of 101.8 billion cubic feet per day.

Source: FERC

Total electricity consumption is projected to reach 1,587 terawatt-hours this summer. EIA forecasts that electricity consumption from June to September 2026 will increase by 106 terawatt hours from the summer of 2021–a 7% increase. Summer 2026 is projected to grow 3% year-over-year compared to summer 2025, the most significant year-over-year growth since summer 2022, and is 4.5% above the previous five-year average of 1,518 terawatt hours. EIA’s projections for monthly consumption this summer indicate demand will peak in August 2026, at 426 terawatt-hours, a 5% increase from August 2025.

In several regions, coal and natural gas-fired plants that were slated to retire, more than 4,300 megawatts, are continuing to operate pursuant to DOE Orders under section 202 (c) of the Federal Power Act (FPA).

NERC projects that summer peak demand across North America will grow by about 224 gigawatts over the next decade, a 69% increase over the previous year’s ten-year forecast and about a 24% increase from 2025 peak demand.  Most of the new load is due to an increasing number of new data centers.

More new generating capacity is coming as power pools are fast-tracking interconnection reviews to get power supplies online quickly. SPP is advancing about 13.3 gigawatts concentrated in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas, with 2029/2030 online targets, and MISO is advancing 20.9 gigawatts mainly in Louisiana, Indiana, and Wisconsin, with 2027/2028 in-service dates.

To speed up permit times, FERC has proposed expanding its “blanket certificate” program for certain types of “routine” gas pipeline projects deemed not to require project-specific authorizations. The program was last updated in 2006. Projects identified as high risk, however, will continue to undergo a comprehensive review. In addition to gas pipeline projects, FERC is advancing blanket authorization initiatives for liquefied natural gas and hydropower facilities.

Analysis

FERC’s summer assessment views the grid to be reliable this summer under normal conditions. Under extreme weather conditions, three regions in the United States (the Pacific Northwest, New England, and part of western Texas) face risks of power supply shortfalls. U.S. utilities are adding 75 gigawatts to the grid this summer, composed of solar, wind, natural gas, and battery resources. While that increase is the largest one-year increase in over a decade, caution is warranted given the intermittency of wind and solar power, which provide only a fraction of their design capacity because the wind and sun are unreliable energy sources. Further, storage batteries are expensive and are not generators in themselves; they store power generated by other sources and release it when needed. The Trump administration has also slowed the retirement of over 4.3 gigawatts of fossil fuel generators, which will help this summer if needed.

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

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Gavin Newsom Spends Millions On “Free” Solar Panels For Non-Citizens

June 10, 2026 by Leave a Comment

California’s Farmworker Housing Component provides solar technology and efficiency upgrades to low-income farmworker households at no cost to them. The program is funded from revenues that come from California’s “cap-and-invest climate program,” which taxes companies that emit carbon and redistributes approximately $3 billion per year to energy programs and left-wing social causes. It is part of the state’s Low-Income Weatherization Program. Critics have reframed it as “California Is Giving Free Solar Panels to Illegal Aliens” since participants do not need to be citizens. The state has earmarked about $49 million since 2019 for the farmworker component, serving about 2,000 families, resulting in an average cost of about $23,000 per household.

To qualify, at least one household member must be an agricultural employee, and the household must meet income guidelines. They may not earn above a certain threshold–$49,000 for a couple, $62,000 a year for a family of four. That is, they must be at or below 80% of the Area or State Median Income. The property must be located in one of the targeted California counties with the highest farmworker populations. The farmworkers program began in two counties in 2019 and has expanded to 18 of the state’s 58 counties.

Services are provided for single-family homes as well as small multifamily buildings (2 to 4 units) that are either owned or rented by the farmworker family. Depending on the home’s needs, upgrades may include solar panels, central heating/cooling, insulation, water heaters, window replacements, and energy-efficient appliances (refrigerators, freezers, washers, dryers).

The program so far has not covered the cost of storage batteries, which would allow homeowners to store energy from sunlight for later use when the sun goes down. Voters approved a $10 billion climate bond last year, and the program would like to use that money to fund batteries, allowing participants to run their appliances and homes with stored energy. Using stored energy, the household would essentially be off the grid unless the batteries provide insufficient backup power.

The state has heavily advertised the program to California’s nearly 900,000 agricultural workers, half to three-quarters of whom are illegal immigrants. California’s Department of Community Services and Development acknowledges that non-citizens are eligible for the program and that they even accept identification from foreign governments. That is, participants do not need “legal status” in the United States. An estimated 18% of California’s farmworkers own homes and could benefit from energy upgrades.

California’s Department of Community Services and Development selected La Cooperativa Campesina de California, a nonprofit that serves farmworkers, to administer the program through a competitive procurement and an initial funding award of approximately $10.7 million. La Cooperativa, in turn, has partnered with a for-profit, “minority owned” company, MAROMA Energy Services, to help run the program. Contractors do the work of installing solar panels and other appliances in homes.

Another California Solar Program for the Poor

The Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH) program began under Governor Jerry Brown, who signed legislation requiring a state commission to allocate up to $100 million per year from California’s cap-and-trade program (now cap-and-invest) to pay for installing solar panels on apartment buildings in low-income areas. California has allocated nearly $900 million to SOMAH in the hopes of obtaining 300 megawatts of solar power by 2030. Since 2015, the program has installed only 129 megawatts of solar power for approximately 65,600 residents—nowhere close to the target of 1 million “solar renters” that advocates wanted—at a cost of $131 million.

Customers were turned off by the paperwork, bureaucracy, and red tape. On average, projects take three and a half years to complete the program’s paperwork and inspections. More than 400 applications have been either canceled or withdrawn, or about a third of the total. Some projects that were fully installed have been waiting for permission to begin operating for a year or more. More than $700 million of the program’s budget has not been spent.

Some companies, however, are profiting. The managers of the SOMAH program have spent about $60 million on overhead, including salaries, conferences, and website development. And, San Francisco-based Sunrun Inc., a solar provider, has been the contractor for 78% of SOMAH projects. The company donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to political candidates—including $50,000 to Gavin Newsom’s campaigns—and has employed lobbyists in Sacramento. Newsom hired former Sunrun employees to work in his administration. The governor appointed the company’s public policy manager to the California Energy Commission and appointed its former chief policy officer to a regional water quality control board.

Analysis

California has solar and/or energy-efficiency programs that provide technology to low-income families at no cost to them. California’s Farmworker Housing Component and the Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing program obtain their funds from California’s cap-and-invest program, which taxes companies that emit carbon and redistributes those funds to projects that fund “clean” energy. The farmworker program provides free solar, heat pumps, and appliances to farming households that qualify based on location, income, and housing type. Participants in that program, however, do not need to be U.S. citizens to qualify. In the case of SOMAH, the program is run so inefficiently that most poor families lose interest and cancel or withdraw. Neither program is reducing greenhouse gas emissions appreciably. And some poor folks find it hard to justify poking a hole in their roof for a small amount of benefit.

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

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The Unregulated Podcast #275: Firing In A More Moderate Manner

June 8, 2026 by Leave a Comment

On this episode of The Unregulated Podcast Tom Pyle, Mike McKenna, and Alex Stevens cover the top stories of the week and later they are joined by Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a Distinguished Fellow at The Energy Policy Research Foundation, for a discussion on the future of America’s energy policy.

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