Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Monday December 22, 2025
Asterisk (*) denotes news stories that may be inaccessible because portions are behind a paywall
Good morning! Here are today’s Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Oil prices rose on Monday after officials said the U.S. had intercepted an oil tanker in international waters off the coast of Venezuela, raising fresh supply uncertainty.
West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 46 cents, or 0.8%, to $56.98.
Brent crude futures rose 46 cents, or 0.8%, to $60.93 per barrel by 0400 GMT.
“The market is waking up to the fact that the Trump administration is taking a hardline approach to the Venezuelan oil trade,” said June Goh, senior oil market analyst at Sparta Commodities.
“Oil prices have thus been supported by this geopolitical news alongside the simmering Russian-Ukraine tensions in the background in an otherwise very bearish market fundamentally,” said Goh.
The U.S. Coast Guard is pursuing an oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela, in what would be the second such operation over the weekend and the third in less than two weeks if successful, officials told Reuters on Sunday. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Top Stories
The Wall Street Journal – December 21, 2025
U.S. Coast Guard Chasing Another Tanker Involved in Shipping Venezuela Oil*
The U.S. Coast Guard is pursuing an oil tanker involved in transporting oil from Venezuela, according to three U.S. officials, part of an accelerating effort by the Trump administration to block ships from moving the country’s crude. The attempted interdiction comes a day after the U.S. apprehended an oil tanker that wasn’t on its sanctions list and after President Trump in a social-media post last Tuesday ordered a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned tankers going into and out of Venezuela. One of the officials said the tanker under pursuit was previously sanctioned and part of the so-called dark fleet of vessels involved in moving oil from Venezuela. The ship was flying a false flag to disguise the country where it is registered and is subject to a judicial seizure order, the official said.
Two other officials identified the ship as the Bella 1, a very large crude carrier, or VLCC, which was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2024. The flurry of moves against tankers signaled the Trump administration was escalating its pressure campaign against Venezuela. Trump has demanded President Nicolás Maduro stop sending gang members and migrants to the U.S., halt drug trafficking and the return of former U.S. assets nationalized decades ago. He has also privately pressured the Venezuelan leader to step down. Venezuela has rejected the U.S. demands, calling the moves against ships serving its oil sector illegal. About 70% of Venezuela’s oil exports rely on the fleet of sanctioned vessels that is increasingly being targeted by the Trump administration, and the U.S. actions strike at the heart of Maduro’s grip on power by threatening oil revenue vital to the regime.
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Rigzone – December 19, 2025
‘Significant’ Undiscovered Resources in GC Haynesville
n a statement sent to Rigzone late Wednesday, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Director Ned Mamula said there are “significant” undiscovered resources in the Gulf Coast’s Haynesville Formation. “The U.S. economy and our way of life depend on energy, and USGS oil and gas assessments point to resources that industry hasn’t discovered yet,” Mamula noted in the statement.
“In this case, we have assessed there are significant undiscovered resources in the Haynesville Formation of the Gulf Coast,” he added. A fact sheet posted on the USGS website on Wednesday stated that, “using a geology-based assessment methodology”, the USGS “estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 152 million barrels of oil and 47.9 trillion cubic feet of gas in reservoirs of the Haynesville Formation within the onshore United States and State waters of the Gulf Coast Basin”.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – December 20, 2025
First hybrid natural gas-battery project in the Permian cuts fuel costs 96%*
A first-ever hybrid natural gas and battery project has been deployed in the Permian Basin. Aggreko recently completed the milestone deployment, a system that features a 350 kilowatt natural gas generator paired with a 500 kilowatt/250 kilowatt hour battery to power a remote water transfer operation. The project, located near Midland, achieved a 96% reduction in generator runtime, from 167 hours to just six hours, and 96% savings on fuel costs.
“We were looking for sustainable options. The batteries fill a need to provide reliable energy, and they’re a good fit moving forward with sustainability,” Casey McMullin, product lead, battery energy storage systems with Aggreko, told the Reporter-Telegram. Aggreko had designed and installed a dual generator solution — two natural gas units — that provided redundancy and reliable energy for about a year. But as energy storage technology evolved, the company saw an opportunity to enhance the system’s efficiency, reduce emissions and streamline operations. Fuel expenses were the customer’s largest complaint, according to Jeremy Hedrick, account manager.
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Politico – December 19, 2025
New lawsuits challenge Gulf Coast LNG terminals*
Environmental and Indigenous groups are heading back to the courtroom to oppose reissued state and federal approvals for planned liquefied natural gas export terminals in Louisiana and Texas. The two new legal challenges claim state and federal officials failed to comply with court orders instructing them to do a more thorough review of the environmental risks the projects pose to vulnerable local communities.
The latest challenge came on Thursday when the Sierra Club, Louisiana Bucket Brigade and Turtle Island Restoration Network filed a state court challenge opposing a newly reissued coastal use permit from the Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy’s Office of Coastal Management for Commonwealth LNG. Eric Huber, a managing attorney at the Sierra Club, said Louisiana officials did not change the terms of the permit or mitigation measures after a state court struck it down. The earlier ruling prevented the project’s developer from beginning construction in Cameron Parish.
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The Latest TERse Tips
Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative will return more than $11 million in capital credits in 2025, an increase of $747,000 over last year — Bluebonnet’s members will see a reduction on their May electric bill as a result of the capital credits approved by the Board of Directors during its April meeting — Brenham Banner Press
Fitch Ratings has affirmed the Long- and Short-Term Issuer Default Ratings of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (CNP) at ‘BBB’/’F2’, CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, LLC at ‘BBB+’/’F2’, and CenterPoint Energy Resources Corp. (CERC) at ‘A-‘/’F2’. CEHE’s Rating Outlook has been revised to Stable from Negative — the Outlooks for CNP and CERC are Stable — Fitch
The House passed a bill Wednesday that would give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sweeping authority to review and potentially block energy-related rulemakings issued by other federal agencies — Politico*
The American Clean Power Association is yanking its support for a bill aimed at speeding up the federal permitting process after House GOP leaders acceded to demands from hard-liners who wanted more power to kill offshore wind projects — Politico*
The Trump administration has ordered another aging, costly coal plant to keep operating past its long-planned retirement date, this time in Centralia, Washington — Canary Media
PJM capacity prices hit record high as grid operator falls short of reliability target — a 6.6-GW shortfall could trigger a backstop procurement to bolster PJM’s reserve margin, according to Jefferies analysts — Utility Dive
Trump admin asking US oil industry to return to Venezuela but there are no takers — the administration’s outreach to the industry, previously unreported, is the latest sign the White House is dreaming of a post-Maduro future for Venezuela — Politico
Entergy Mississippi demolished key large structures at the retired Baxter Wilson Steam Electric Station near Vicksburg Dec. 17, and once cleared, the site will become the home of the new Vicksburg Advanced Power Station, an advanced natural gas power plant under construction and expected to be operational in August 2028 — see the press release
Oil & Gas Texas
Oil Price – December 19, 2025
US Oil Drillers Slow Activity In Tough Price Environment
The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell by 6 this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, bringing the total rig count in the US to 542 this week, down 47 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs fell by 8 in the reporting period, according to the data, after US drillers added 1 rig in the week prior.
Oil rigs are now at 406, which is 77 below this same time last year. The number of gas rigs stayed the same at 127, which is 25 more than this time last year. The miscellaneous rig count rose by 2 to reach 9. The latest EIA data showed that weekly U.S. crude oil production fell by 10,000 bpd in the week ending December 12 to 13.843 million bpd on average, just 9 million bpd under the all-time high.
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The Wall Street Journal – December 21, 2025
How Chevron Secured Its Place as Venezuela’s Largest Foreign Investor*
The oil company is clinging to its role as the largest foreign investor in Venezuela, where it has operated for more than a century, as President Trump ratchets up his effort to squeeze strongman Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. has amassed the biggest American military buildup in the Caribbean since the 1980s to exert pressure on Maduro, who Washington says is running a drug cartel financed by stolen oil. Trump ordered a blockade Tuesday of all sanctioned tankers moving crude in and out of Venezuela, leaving Chevron as one of last big shippers of the country’s oil.
Chevron and its chief executive, Mike Wirth, are familiar with the risks of operating in an authoritarian state in Washington’s crosshairs. Maduro’s regime has taken and released several American hostages over the years, including two Chevron executives for two months in 2018. Yet Wirth has calculated his company has the means and resilience to outlast changing governments—in Caracas and Washington alike. The potential reward is huge. Venezuela’s government says its proved oil reserves top 300 billion barrels, which, if true, would make its bounty the world’s largest.
“We play a long game,” Wirth said last month at the U.S.-Saudi investment summit in Washington. “We are committed to the people of the country and would like to be there as part of rebuilding Venezuela’s economy in time when circumstances change.” Even Venezuela’s democratic movement led by María Corina Machado—which has criticized Chevron’s presence in the country—says the oil pumped by the company will play an important role in the country’s future.
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Fox News – December 20, 2025
Trump’s Venezuela oil blockade puts Chevron in the middle of a high-stakes sanctions crackdown
The Trump administration’s escalating crackdown on Venezuela’s sanctioned oil shipments has thrust Chevron into an unusually precarious position. As the last U.S. oil company left in Venezuela, Chevron is operating in the high-tension space between Washington’s pressure campaign and the world’s largest oil reserves.
That campaign was on full display on Dec. 10, when U.S. authorities seized a nondescript tanker that had been quietly moving Venezuelan crude, just one ship in a shadow fleet that keeps sanctioned oil flowing. — And while Chevron isn’t the target of the blockade, the order still introduces fresh uncertainty for the company’s operations in Venezuela’s tightly controlled oil sector. “In the case of Chevron, the U.S. government allows that oil to move, but it’s certainly a very sensitive place to be,” explained Vanda Felbab-Brown, senior fellow at the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy and Technology at Brookings.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – December 19, 2025
Vision Oil and Gas buys LDF Energy in 10th deal of the year*
Vision Oil and Gas has announced its most recent acquisition, the 10th operator buyout in 2025. Vision, which merged with Azure Holding Group this year, acquired LDF Energy, whose assets include 135 active wellbores in Winkler County, a fully rebuilt workover rig and more than 50 barrels of oil equivalent per day. “Our model is the opposite of private equity,” said Josh Cohen, chief executive officer.
“Our vision is to revitalize and rewrite the script to help emerging independent operators accomplish their dreams delayed by a lack of liquidity. By combining resources and expertise, we create purpose for anyone who wants to be their own oilman,” he told the Reporter-Telegram. “I want to provide professional help, encouragement and uplift people who have been beaten down.” Beyond that, he said he plans to support local nonprofits, beginning with childcare and hopefully expanding into supporting low-cost housing. The LDF acquisition brings Vision’s total producing and shut-in well count total to 1,062 oil wells. Cohen said it also brought Dwayne Forga from Kermit, whom he called a powerhouse foreman.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – December 20, 2025
West Texas pilot project uses carbon credits to plug leaking well*
A pilot project in West Texas may open a new approach to plugging marginal and orphaned wells. Sendero Energy Solutions and BCarbon recently completed the pilot that used carbon credits to offset the cost of plugging a leaking well for Seaboard Operating Company. The two companies issued 10,475 verified methane elimination credits under BCarbon’s MEEWP protocol. The project gives Seaboard a path to close the well without divestiture or long-term idle status while reducing methane emissions and other future liabilities.
“We did this as a pilot project, dipping our toe into the water,” said David Stewart, president and co-founder of Sendero. The goal, he told the Reporter-Telegram, is to reduce liabilities and lower plugging costs. The carbon credits were issued by BCarbon, a nonprofit carbon registry, which would sell the credits to the buyer through its registry. The value of the credits will be issued to Sendero, which has an agreement to reimburse Seaboard a portion of the plugging costs. Stewart noted that carbon credits are used by a number of large companies like Microsoft and Meta. He also sees an emerging market from data centers, which want to be carbon neutral but can’t because they utilize natural gas to power their centers.
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Houston Chronicle – December 19, 2025
Big Oil lives here: These are Houston’s 10 largest energy firms*
If Houston’s title as the nation’s energy capital were ever disputed, it earned extra merit this year when Chevron Corp. called the city home. Previously based in California, the oil giant joined Exxon Mobil in migrating to Houston. Exxon moved its headquarters to Houston from Irving in 2023. But Exxon and Chevron are far from the only big oil companies in Houston. And after a steady stream of company takeovers, fluctuating oil prices, and layoffs, who makes the list of Houston’s biggest oil and gas companies?
The Houston Chronicle compiled a list of the city’s 10 largest public oil and gas companies based on their estimated market value. Market cap, short for market capitalization, is calculated by combining the number of shares and their stock price to determine the estimated value of a publicly-traded company. We cited values provided last week by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
1. Exxon Mobil ($493 billion) — Exxon is by far the largest American oil company and is the world’s second-largest oil company, trailing only Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Saudi Aramco. The Spring-based oil giant focused heavily in 2025 on deepening its portfolio off the coast of South America, accelerating operations off the coast of Guyana and exploring offshore drilling operations near Brazil and Trinidad and Tobago.
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Houston Chronicle – December 19, 2025
Trump’s offshore Gulf of Mexico drilling plans find political pushback*
Opposition is growing to the Trump administration’s plan to expand offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, including from some unlikely quarters. The conservationist nonprofit Friends of the Everglades sent a letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Interior Department agency that controls offshore energy leases, outlining the potential consequences of drilling so close to the nation’s largest wetlands ecosystem.
“After decades of pollution and alterations to the region’s hydrology, the Everglades already exist in an imperiled state, in need of ongoing work to restore the flow of abundant and clean water into the ecosystem’s wetlands. Oil drilling off the coast of the Everglades further threatens the restoration of this ecosystem,” the letter to acting BOEM chief Matthew Giacona said. The nonprofit news outlet National Parks Traveler first reported the news of the letter.
Oil & Gas National & International
The Wall Street Journal – December 21, 2025
U.S. Oil Blockade of Venezuela Pushes Cuba Toward Collapse*
Cubans are going hungry, suffering from spreading disease and sleeping outdoors with no electricity to power fans through the sweltering nights. A quarter of the population has fled during the island’s most prolonged economic crisis. And it’s about to get worse. The U.S. is ratcheting up pressure on Havana’s key benefactor, Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro’s regime, which has kept the Communist-ruled nation afloat with cheap oil. Now Venezuelan oil exports are at risk thanks to a partial blockade targeting sanctioned tankers—the kind that carry about 70% of the country’s crude.
One tanker that the U.S. has already seized was en route with almost two million barrels of Venezuelan oil. The blockade adds to a U.S. pressure campaign on Maduro that also includes a major military buildup in the Caribbean, airstrikes on boats allegedly connected to Venezuelan drug trafficking and threats of bombing the country itself. Were Venezuela’s oil shipments to stop, or sharply decline, the Cubans know it would be devastating. “It would be the collapse of the Cuban economy, no question about it,” said Jorge Piñón, a Cuban exile who tracks the island’s energy ties to Venezuela at the University of Texas at Austin.
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S&P Global Platts – December 19, 2025
US tanker seizure in extraterritorial waters hinges on Venezuela’s terrorism designation: experts
The oil tanker the US seized near Venezuela was a unique test case for the Trump administration and could signal key considerations for future seizures, a pair of maritime experts said Dec. 19. The US’ seizure of the Skipper crude tanker on its way to Venezuela on Dec. 10 was unique, according to maritime lawyers Carmella O’Hanlon and David Tannenbaum, as it has the potential to enable broader enforcement actions against an estimated 150 tankers operating outside US sanctions licenses in Venezuelan waters, the lawyers said at an industry webinar.
“Absent the context, Skipper would just be a blip,” Tannenbaum said. “But given everything [else], it is a major escalation,” referring to a ramp up of US-applied pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by way of “designations, airstrikes, and seizures.” US President Donald Trump’s administration preceded the tanker seizure by designating Venezuela’s government as a foreign terrorist organization and, more recently, threatening a naval blockade, marking the most aggressive US action yet to oust Maduro.
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News from the States – December 19, 2025
US Army Corps says oil should keep flowing through Dakota Access Pipeline in long-awaited study
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Friday issued a long-awaited Dakota Access Pipeline environmental impact statement, recommending that the pipeline keep operating but with some new conditions for its Missouri River crossing in North Dakota. The pipeline has been operating since June 2017, carrying crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken oil field to Illinois. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has opposed the project and challenged it in court, citing concerns about impacts to the tribe’s Missouri River water supply.
A judge ordered the Army Corps to conduct the study in 2020 after he found the federal government unlawfully had granted an easement allowing the pipeline to pass underneath the Lake Oahe reservoir on the Missouri without taking a full account of the potential environmental impacts. The pipeline has been operating without the easement for the past five years.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Dallas Innovates – December 18, 2025
Dallas’ DirectH2 To Bring Its Solar-to-Green Hydrogen Tech to India Market
Dallas-based hydrogen technology company DirectH2—a startup backed by HL Energy Ventures, the Hunt Energy spinout—has set its sights on expansion in India. DirectH2 is developing what it calls “game changing” modular direct solar-to-green hydrogen technology. The company holds exclusive rights to Rice University’s IP for modular hydrogen production, and aims to reshape clean energy in the U.S. and beyond with the solution.
It now plans to do that in India after signing a letter of intent with Shree Tuljabhavani Sugar Private Limited (STSPL) for India business development and early funding to enable “lowest cost, high-efficiency hydrogen production at the point of use.”
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Texas Monthly – December 19, 2025
In the yard behind her home, to the south of Laredo, Luz Castillo keeps a ’93 Chevy pickup in a tin-roofed shed. The truck has one job, and one job only: It hauls water. The pickup bed is filled with a five-hundred-gallon tank that Castillo refills once a week (or twice, when her kids visit), which is the only way she gets water to her house. Like almost all of her neighbors, Castillo has gone decades without running water. In the shed next to the truck is a pump system she and her husband built to pull water out of the tank and into their home’s pipes. As Castillo grabbed the inflow hose to show me how it worked, she gestured with her chin to a fence line at the end of her yard. “My neighbors have it worse,” she said. “They don’t have electricity.” I wiped my forehead; it was a September day in Laredo, over a hundred degrees. Castillo lives in a community known as La Presa, a neighborhood other South Texans call a colonia. While there’s no one good definition for colonias, they’re generally distinguished by what they don’t have: They lack reliable or universal running water, sewage, electricity, or trash pickup. About 500,000 Texans live in communities like this all along the border. In Webb County, home of La Presa, some 15,000 residents live in colonias.
A community like La Presa rewards self-sufficiency. Castillo and her husband built their handsome, high-ceilinged house with their own hands. But the colonia also has a strong culture of neighboring—residents help one another put up roofs or lay drainage. They’re also politically organized, thanks to neighbors like Castillo. It took Castillo more than a decade to get electricity in her house, and today, she’s still fighting Webb County and the state to get electric hookups for her neighbors. She collects signatures on petitions and shows up to county meetings. Local commissioners know her by name.
Yahoo! News – December 19, 2025
Major rate increases on the horizon for New Mexico-Texas utility
Significant energy expansions in Eastern and southeastern New Mexico to meet needs of data centers, electrification of Permian Basin oil, and gas drilling and other commercial endeavors could lead to major rate hikes for residential customers of the region’s electric utility, according to reports made to regulators.
In total, the resulting energy needs could increase the average monthly bills of residential customers of Southwestern Public Service Co. by almost $100 in the coming years, according to early calculations submitted to the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.
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pv magazine – December 19, 2025
Rural electric co-ops form engineering group to evaluate smart inverter standards
More than 100 rural co-ops have joined an engineering standards interest group formed by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, focused on the IEEE 1547 series of standards that specify requirements for smart inverters for distributed solar and battery storage.
When distributed solar installations use smart inverters meeting the IEEE 1547-2018 standard, those inverters can regulate voltage on a distribution circuit, allowing more solar to be installed on each circuit without utility-supplied voltage regulation hardware.
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Associated Press – December 21, 2025
Power restored to most in San Francisco after massive outage
Power was restored Sunday to the bulk of the 130,000 homes and businesses in San Francisco impacted by a massive outage a day earlier that caused major disruptions in the city. About 17,000 customers remained without power as of noon Sunday, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said. PG&E said earlier its crews were working to restore electricity in several neighborhoods and small areas of downtown San Francisco following Saturday’s outage.
PG&E in a statement said it expects to restore power to remaining customers no later than 2 p.m. Monday. “The damage from the fire in our substation was significant and extensive, and the repairs and safe restoration will be complex,” the utility said, referring to the substation at 8th and Mission streets. That fire has been blamed for some of the blackouts. The outage remains under investigation.
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CNBC – December 21, 2025
Alphabet-owned Waymo has resumed its driverless ride-hail service in the San Francisco Bay Area after a temporary pause during blackouts that plagued the city beginning on Saturday afternoon. “Yesterday’s power outage was a widespread event that caused gridlock across San Francisco, with non-functioning traffic signals and transit disruptions,” a Waymo spokesperson, Suzanne Philion, told CNBC in an e-mailed statement Sunday afternoon.
“While the failure of the utility infrastructure was significant, we are committed to ensuring our technology adjusts to traffic flow during such events,” she added. As power outages spread yesterday, videos shared on social media appeared to show multiple Waymo vehicles stalled in traffic in different parts of the city.
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Futurity – December 19, 2025
Batteries lose charge when they ‘breathe’
Researchers have identified a key reason why the batteries used to power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles deteriorate over time. The work is a critical step toward building faster, more reliable, and longer-lasting batteries.
The research team from The University of Texas at Austin, Northeastern University, Stanford University and Argonne National Laboratory found that every cycle of charge and discharge causes batteries to expand and contract, similar to human breathing. This action causes battery components to warp just a tiny amount, putting strain on the battery and weakening it over time. This phenomenon, known as “chemomechanical degradation,” leads to reduced performance and lifespan. The findings shed new light on an issue that has puzzled scientists and engineers worldwide.
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Politico – December 17, 2025
Most Americans know little about data centers, poll finds*
Data center politics are becoming inescapable across the country — but most ordinary people are barely paying attention, a new poll has found. The findings suggest that even as electricity costs turn into a major campaign issue for both parties, the politics around energy-hungry data centers remain fluid.
A majority of Americans have heard little to nothing about data centers, according to a nationwide poll released Tuesday by Navigator Research, a Democratic-aligned firm that focuses on message testing. And only about one-quarter of the public has heard even a little about a data center coming to their community. That has left the public split over whether to support more data center development. Data center development in people’s own communities even drew mixed opinions, with 36 percent supporting it, 32 percent opposed and 32 percent unsure. “The building of new data centers doesn’t yet evoke strong feelings nationally,” the Navigator Research pollsters wrote in a report analyzing their findings.
Regulatory
Politico – December 19, 2025
Bondi is urged to probe climate groups for China ties*
Republican attorneys general escalated their efforts to thwart an array of climate lawsuits against the oil and gas industry by asking the Department of Justice to investigate whether a group involved in the litigation is aiding China. In a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Pam Bondi, 26 attorneys general asked the department to investigate the Center for Climate Integrity and another group for “potential violations” of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The 1938 law requires lobbyists and other advocates to notify the Justice Department if they’re working on behalf of foreign entities or governments to influence policy.
The attorneys general asserted that both groups are registered as U.S.-based charitable organizations focused on climate activism, and argued that there is “substantial evidence that both have acted within the United States as unregistered agents of foreign principals.” The Center for Climate Integrity, which supports lawsuits against the industry, called the complaint a “false and baseless smear.” Its president, Richard Wiles, said the group “has never received a single cent of foreign funding.”
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Politico – December 19, 205
FERC delivers firm guidance on electricity to AI industry*
Federal energy regulators on Thursday opened new pathways for data center developers to tap into electricity from “co-located” power plants — putting artificial intelligence companies on more sure footing as they seek to build infrastructure. The order approved unanimously by the five-member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission applies only to PJM Interconnection, the grid operator that coordinates electricity flows to 67 million customers in 13 states. Observers viewed FERC’s action as a critical start of a process designed to ease the way for electricity contracts to power the booming AI industry.
“It has become persistently difficult and expensive to build new grid infrastructure in this country, both generation and transmission,” said Commissioner David Rosner. “A business-as-usual approach will not work to meet growing demand while also keeping prices reasonable and power reliable.”
“Today’s order will help break the logjam,” Rosner said. The co-location issue erupted in November 2024, when FERC rejected PJM’s request to allow an Amazon data center in Pennsylvania to increase the power it pulls from the nearby Susquehanna nuclear plant. The proposal raised fears that major power plants will divert electricity to serve technology giants, shrinking supply available to the public and raising utility bills.
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Politico – December 19, 2025
Enviros sue Interior, alleging NEPA violations on energy projects*
Environmental groups sued the Trump administration Thursday over an interim Interior Department rule for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act, arguing that a hard look at environmental impacts required by the landmark 1970 law is being squelched as energy projects advance. The lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California accuses the department of cutting public input long required under NEPA and violating the Administrative Procedure Act by advancing its interim rule for NEPA.
The White House Council of Environmental Quality unveiled an interim rule in February scrapping roughly a half-century of rules interpreting NEPA. The office’s voluntary guidelines shifted the responsibility for interpreting NEPA to the agencies to comply with an executive order President Donald Trump signed on Inauguration Day, directing the government to boost U.S. energy production and revoke a 1977 order authorizing CEQ to make NEPA rules.