Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Wednesday June 17, 2026
Asterisk (*) denotes news stories that may be inaccessible because portions are behind a paywall
Good morning! Here are today’s Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Sinking crude prices on news that Iranian fuel may soon hit global markets heralded inflation relief and pushed bond yields lower on Wednesday, while stocks and currencies were quieter ahead of Kevin Warsh’s debut meeting as Federal Reserve chair.
WTI was was down to $75.43 as of 3:55 am CDT Wednesday.
Top Stories
ProPublica – June 16, 2026
Trump Plans to Protect Methane-Leaking Stripper Wells. This Billionaire Donor Will Benefit.
It was before dawn on a Friday in January when a Gulfstream G600 with the burnt-orange Texas Longhorns logo on its tail landed at Dulles airport outside Washington, D.C. Its owner, a little-known oil billionaire named Jeffery Hildebrand, had been summoned to the White House. By mid-afternoon he was in the East Room, just three seats from President Donald Trump, who had recently ordered the military raid that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Now Trump wanted Hildebrand and two dozen other energy executives to commit to investing $100 billion in Venezuela’s decrepit oil industry.
Many couched their enthusiasm with caveats. ExxonMobil’s CEO called Venezuela “uninvestable” without changes to its legal system. The head of ConocoPhillips wanted U.S. government financing. But Hildebrand, a major Trump donor whose wife had been named ambassador to Costa Rica, had already seen how loyalty could be rewarded. Even though he had no notable operations outside the U.S., he hunched toward a microphone and said in a halting voice, “Hilcorp is fully committed and ready to go to rebuilding the infrastructure in Venezuela.” “That’s good,” Trump said. “You’ll be very happy.”
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Semafor – June 16, 2026
Hormuz will never really be open again: Tim McDonnell
Related: Oil and gas leaders: Trump Iran deal is good news, normalization to take months — Center Square
The US-Iran de-escalation deal may bring oil tanker traffic back to something resembling the pre-war norm, but the global energy trade will never be the same. Oil prices will very likely fall — Goldman Sachs lowered its fourth-quarter Brent forecast from $90 to $80 per barrel on Monday. But with so much uncertainty ahead, no one believes oil prices are fully out of the woods yet: Assuming a real ceasefire actually holds, it will take time, possibly months, to clear out trapped tankers and bring in new empty ones, and to rebuild and restart damaged production and export facilities. There will also be demand for oil to refill heavily depleted reserves in the US and elsewhere (China’s reserves, conversely, remain robust, and its restocking appetite unknown).
Still, the crisis was remarkable in that, despite the 1-billion-plus barrels yanked from the market since February, US and European benchmark crude prices didn’t top the spike following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. US “energy dominance” definitely helped, as did the strategic reserves that were made for this moment, alongside the global clean energy transition. More long-term changes are coming. The race to electrification is being redoubled, especially in Asia, which took the most painful hits in the past few months. In a survey last week of 2,000 global executives, 91% agreed switching from fossil fuels to electric alternatives would improve their company’s energy security. “The countries that succeed will electrify, while diversifying supply chains and investing in resilience,” Meghan O’Sullivan, a former senior US energy security official, told me. “Energy geopolitics is shifting from barrels and tankers to minerals, grids, batteries, and technology.”
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Financial Times – June 16, 2026
Iran’s government thinks it has won the war*
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X – June 16, 2026
Oil’s Last Boss: Common Sense Investing
Here is the thing that should stop every oil bear cold. When Hormuz effectively closed and 10+ million barrels a day of Gulf supply got stranded, the world did not get the price shock the textbook demanded. People credit diplomacy, “tanker traffic resuming,” news-cycle noise. That’s wrong. The shock was absorbed by a single deliberate act: China simply stopped showing up to buy.
The Wall Street Journal – June 16, 2026
On Energy, Democrats Can Learn From Texas: Rahm Emanuel, former Obama chief of staff*
Years ago, the shy, demure White House chief of staff suggested to President Obama that America “should never let a good crisis go to waste.” And while that humble counselor was referring to the 2008 financial meltdown, the same wisdom applies to today’s energy crisis. Public resistance to data centers reflects an everyday reality: Energy prices rose at nearly twice the rate of inflation in 2025. But if the growing schism between the tech industry and the broad public is generating bad blood, it also opens a path to reforms that would have been unthinkable a few months ago. To make the most of the opportunity, Democrats need to do something that doesn’t come naturally: spread the gospel of Texas.
Texas has long been associated with the oil and gas industries. But after Winter Storm Uri took more than 200 lives in 2021, the state diversified its energy portfolio and created a more resilient transmission system through market and regulatory incentives. It also kept utility rates down. While President Trump tries to undermine the clean-energy sector, wind and solar are supplying about 40% of Texas’ power. It also leads the nation in battery storage. Ratepayers pay between 10% and 30% less for electricity than the national average. Earth to Democrats: We need to supersize this.
Today’s data-center wars descend from shortsighted decisions made by the first Trump administration. Rather than maintain Mr. Obama’s “all of the above” approach to energy, Republicans neglected energy innovation and embraced a “drill, baby, drill” mentality. How did that go? The Chinese now produce roughly 4 out of 5 of the planet’s solar panels and battery cells while we ask ordinary ratepayers to foot the bill for electricity demand fueled by tech billionaires and hyperscalers. You don’t need to be a political genius to realize these hunger games aren’t politically sustainable. Fortunately, America boasts all the ingredients to develop a clean, abundant energy sector that could employ millions of Americans here at home. We needn’t be hemmed in by our reliance on fracked natural gas. To diversify our energy portfolio—to ensure this crisis doesn’t go to waste—Washington will need to embrace a three-part strategy that demands every major player in the electricity sector have skin in the game.
Exxon Mobil Corp. struck a preliminary deal to bring liquefied natural gas to South Africa, which will use the fuel to bolster its coal-reliant power grid, according to people familiar with the matter. The agreement will enable state utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. to import gas at the proposed Zululand LNG terminal in Richards Bay, an industrial city on the country’s east coast, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the accord hasn’t been officially announced. The fuel will be used at a 3,000-megawatt power plant nearby that has yet to be constructed, the people said. Exxon and Eskom declined to comment.
Plagued by years of blackouts, South Africa is attempting to improve the reliability of its electricity supply. It’s also trying to reduce emissions by transitioning away from burning coal, which is used in about 80% of the country’s power generation. Importing LNG is an opportunity to solve both those problems, but typically comes at a higher price.
The deal helps Exxon toward its strategic goal of doubling LNG supplies to more than 40 million tons a year in the decade through 2030. The company recently started up its Golden Pass export terminal on the US Gulf Coast and plans to make final decisions later this year on whether to proceed with the construction of similar facilities in Mozambique and Papua New Guinea.
The Latest TERse Tips
Verified videos posted online captured a coordinated drone attack on sites in Moscow and the surrounding region early on June 16. Among the targets was the Kapotnya oil refinery, which was seen in flames — Kyiv has intensified its attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure as it attempts to disrupt the flow of funds driving Russia’s war effort — see the video
The world oil market will recover gradually from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz before tipping into a significant surplus in 2027, the International Energy Agency said in its monthly oil market report on Wednesday — Reuters*
The Middle East crude market weakened sharply this week, slipping into discounts, Reuters data showed, after the United States and Iran agreed a framework deal to reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz, brightening the global supply outlook — Reuters*
A tropical storm was expected to form off the Texas coast by Wednesday morning from a system labeled Potential Tropical Cyclone One, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Tuesday, warning of heavy rainfall and dangerous flash flooding along the energy corridor that includes major offshore drilling and onshore refineries — Reuters*
Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell USA, bp America, ConocoPhillips, Occidental PetroleuCorporation and Continental Resources are asked by Democratic Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Elizabeth Warren about “windfall profits” during the Iran war — Senators ask oil companies whether they had any discussions with the Trump administration about Iran, the Strait of Hormuz and potential military action before the war began — Senators also ask for a “war-period profit analysis”; “price relief analysis”; “shareholder returns during the war period”; and “forward-looking profit projections,” among other inquiries — Bloomberg*
Major Wall Street Banks Cut Oil-Price Forecasts on Faster Gulf Supply Recovery — Goldman expects Gulf exports to return to prewar levels as early as late July — The Wall Street Journal*
The war in Iran and the subsequent oil price changes are now affecting the price of oil changes, and the peace deal won’t change that soon — Marfa Public Radio NPR
A little less than two years after joining Winston, Kevin Brophy and Ming Lei are on the move again; this time to Bracewell as partners in the oil and gas transactions group in Houston — Texas Lawbook
Remarks by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent before the Petroleum Club of Houston — see the press release
Northern Natural Gas Company has filed an application with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission seeking authorization for its Permian Basin Expansion Project — Gas Compression Magazine
Technology group Wärtsilä has secured a contract for 452 MW of power generation equipment and a long-term Operation and Maintenance (O&M) agreement with the Pecos Power Plant, owned by Mercuria Americas and Continental Resources. This milestone project, located in Pecos, Texas, USA, is designed to deliver flexible generation to maintain grid reliability in a power system with rapidly growing renewable penetration — see the press release
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Oil & Gas Texas
Texas Tribune – June 16, 2026
Texas Railroad Commission race pits oil field engineer against energy trader running on culture wars
After a Republican primary that focused on fighting Sharia law and diversity policies, the general election for a seat on Texas’ oil and gas regulatory agency is shaping up as a partisan brawl with more talk of issues unrelated to its core functions. Bo French, a scion of the Texas GOP’s hard-right flank, is now turning his attention to a November matchup with state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, D-Houston, after French ousted incumbent Jim Wright in last month’s runoff. Rosenthal, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, is aiming to upset French and win a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission by touting his two decades of experience as an oil field engineer, betting he can win crossover support from voters turned off by French’s emphasis on the culture wars.
French, a longtime conservative activist who recently chaired the Tarrant County GOP, and whose family runs an oil business in Midland, has said in interviews with conservative media that he’s campaigning on social issues because they resonate with his supporters. “I ran a campaign because I had to win a Republican primary,” he told right-wing podcaster Jack Posobiec on the heels of the runoff. “Talking about the Islamification of Texas, talking about DEI, talking about LGBTQ issues … I think my victory is a testament to the grassroots folks in Texas who are tired of electing people who aren’t fighting for them on any of these issues.”
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Oil & Gas 360 – June 16, 2026
US natgas prices at Waha turn positive for first time since February as pipeline constraints ease
Electric companies burn more gas as homes and businesses crank up their air conditioners during the summer. About 40% of U.S. power generation comes from gas-fired plants. Before Tuesday, next-day prices at Waha had remained below zero for a record 90 days in a row as pipeline constraints from spring maintenance trapped gas in the Permian Basin, the nation’s biggest oil-producing basin in West Texas and eastern New Mexico.
Analysts have long said negative prices, which force some energy firms to pay others to take gas associated with their oil production, were a sure sign that the Permian region needs more gas pipes. More pipes are on the way later this year, but not soon enough to handle all the gas currently coming out of the ground. Analysts expect energy firms to boost Permian output as those new pipes enter service and as soaring oil prices from the Iran war encourage producers to pull more oil and the gas associated with that oil production out of the ground.
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Baird Maritime – June 16, 2026
Chevron expands Greek offshore partnership with Helleniq Energy
Chevron has signed an agreement to acquire a 70 per cent participating interest in the Block 10 concession located offshore the Kyparissiakos Gulf in Greece from Helleniq Energy. Under the agreement, which was announced on June 16, Helleniq Energy will retain a 30 per cent stake while Chevron will assume the role of operator.
The transaction, which marks the fifth offshore concession that Chevron participates in alongside Helleniq Energy, remains subject to customary approvals. Block 10 is currently in its second exploration phase, where both two-dimensional and three-dimensional seismic studies have already been completed to evaluate potential future drilling targets.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – June 16, 2026
TXOGA: Upstream employment grew to 193,300 in March*
Nearly 200,000 Texans were employed in the upstream oil and natural gas segment in March, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. When oil and natural gas extraction and related support activities, refining, petrochemicals, pipelines and equipment manufacturing are included, the state’s oil and natural gas industry supports just over 495,000 direct jobs.
“Behind every job number is a family, a paycheck, and a community that depends on it,” the Texas Oil and Gas Association said. In its latest Energy & Economic Impact Report, TXOGA found those jobs paid an average salary of about $133,000. Taxes and royalties tied to that work — more than $27 billion in a single year — helped pay for schools, roads and emergency services in communities across the state. The TWC reported that upstream oil and gas employment increased by 1,800 jobs in March compared with February, bringing the total to 193,300 jobs. Upstream employment is down 7,100 jobs or 3.5% compared with March 2025.
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Jerusalem Post – June 16, 2026
Chevron completes Tamar Optimization Project, boosting Israeli gas capacity
Chevron Mediterranean Limited and its partners in the Tamar natural gas field have completed the Tamar Optimization Project offshore Israel, the company said Tuesday, June 16, 2026. The project aims to strengthen domestic and regional gas supply by expanding flow capacity from the reservoir to Israel’s transmission network.
The project included the construction of a new 150-kilometer pipeline from the Tamar field, located about 90 kilometers west of Haifa, to the Tamar platform about 24 kilometers west of Ashkelon. It also included the reinstatement of three booster gas compressors at the Ashdod Onshore Terminal, Chevron said.
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The Texan – June 16, 2026
Oil & Gas Workers Association Founder Matt Coday Faces Arrest Warrant
Matthew Coday, the founder of the controversial Oil & Gas Workers Association (OGWA), had a bench order issued for his arrest on June 3 after he was held in contempt of court. Coday had been ordered to appear before state District Judge John Shrode in Ector County for a show cause hearing concerning his refusal to comply with discovery orders in an ongoing lawsuit against him by former OGWA board member Wallace Dunn. However, Coday failed to appear at the hearing, citing his work with the White House’s National Energy Dominance Council and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry’s office as the reason.
Dunn, who helped Coday start OGWA, sued Coday in September 2024 after leaving the nonprofit amid concerns alleging that Coday was mismanaging it by failing to hold proper meetings and adhere to record-keeping norms. Dunn, who is an elected member of the Ector County Hospital Board, said that Coday immediately retaliated against him after leaving his position on the board by launching a years-long defamation campaign, including allegations that Dunn was under investigation for leaking patient information protected under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Oil & Gas National & International
S&P Global Platts – June 16, 2026
Oil benchmarks test new floors on promise of US-Iran deal
International oil benchmarks have lost almost all their increases linked to the conflict in the Middle East amid growing optimism for a preliminary peace deal expected to be signed by the US and Iran on June 19. After almost two months of sell-offs in anticipation of a deal, markets have been in freefall since the US and Iran confirmed a breakthrough agreement on June 14, lifting expectations for a rapid rebound in Middle Eastern shipping traffic.
On June 16, ICE Brent crude futures dropped to as low as $78.5/barrel in intraday trade, no more than than $8/b above pre-war levels. The contract has not settled below $80/b for over three months and peaked near $108/b on May 4. Dated Brent crude prices fell $7/b to $81/b after the weekend announcement, taking the physical benchmark to its lowest since March 2. Before the war began, the price was $71/b, and levels had hit $85/b within two days of the first US-Israeli attacks.
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The Wall Street Journal – June 16, 2026
Equinor Doubles Share Buyback to $3 Billion Under New Plan Targeting Fossil Fuel Growth*
plans to spend more on oil and gas projects as it seeks to grow production and increase shareholder returns, including a doubling of its 2026 share buyback to $3 billion. The Norwegian energy major said Tuesday that the strategy reflects a higher for longer demand outlook for oil and gas. The plan mirrors similar efforts by its peers: focusing spending on higher-returning fossil-fuel assets in a bid to grow cash that can be funneled into returns for shareholders. Equinor is seeking to capitalize on rising energy demand stemming from artificial intelligence and electrification efforts, while conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine highlight the importance of energy security.
The company said it would target production of 2.3 million barrels of oil equivalent a day by 2030, with output from the Norwegian continental shelf driving much of the growth. In 2025, Equinor produced a record high 2.14 million barrels of oil equivalent a day. More than half of its capital expenditure will be spent on the Norwegian shelf, production from which has become a lifeline for Europe as it weaned itself off Russian gas in the wake of the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The company will allocate around a third of its capital expenditure to international exploration and production. It currently holds positions in the U.S., Brazil, Angola, U.K. and Canada.
Equinor is the first energy major in recent times to formally increase upstream spending, with medium-term expenditure slightly higher than market watchers had expected, RBC Capital Markets Analysts Biraj Borkhataria and Adnan Dhanani write. It will also expand its marketing and trading activities in a bid to grow the division’s adjusted earnings by 25% by 2030. It comes as some of its European peers reported bumper first-quarter profits after traders capitalized on the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and subsequent volatility across energy markets. Equinor hopes the plan will help deliver an annual share buyback of between $2 billion and $4 billion from 2027. The actual payment will be dependent on oil and gas prices, as well as macroeconomic conditions and the strength of its balance sheet.
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The Wall Street Journal – June 16, 2026
Olin, Huntsman to Combine in Stock Swap*
Olin has agreed to acquire Huntsman in roughly $2.43 billion stock swap, creating a North American chemicals company that generated combined revenue of about $12.5 billion last year. The companies on Tuesday said Olin will issue 0.5476 share for each share of Huntsman, resulting in Olin shareholders owning roughly 54.5% of the combined company and Huntsman investors owning about 45.5%. Based on Olin’s closing share price of $25.30, the deal values Huntsman at about $13.85 a share, nearly 13% below Monday’s close of $15.89.
Huntsman and Olin said they agreed to an at-the-market exchange ratio using volume-weighted average prices over the 30 days through June 12, which they said smoothes out a recent drop in Olin’s stock price and delivers a premium to Huntsman’s shareholders relative to the historical averages while reflecting current market conditions. Shares of Huntsman, based in The Woodlands, Texas, fell 10% to $14.25 in premarket trading, while shares of Clayton, Mo.-based Olin, which ended Monday’s session with a market capitalization of about $2.88 billion, slipped 1% to $25.05. The combined company will be known as OlinHuntsman upon completion of the deal, which is slated to close in the first half of 2027.
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
The Conversation – June 16, 2026
How Wall Street is shifting electric utilities toward consolidation and profit
A corporate merger that would form the largest electric utility in the United States is underway. It’s just one of many recent utility mergers and acquisitions as electric utilities enter a period of rapid growth. On May 18, 2026, NextEra Energy announced it would buy Dominion Energy for US$66.8 billion. What’s driving this deal and others like it is not an increase in residential electricity demand. Rather, it’s based on rising demand for power to data centers for artificial intelligence systems and a desire to increase corporate profits.
As a scholar of the electricity industry, I seek to understand how and why the electricity grid and the companies that run it are changing. In my book “Brokers of Power” I explain that a primary force in the industry is not the desire to improve service for the rate-paying public, nor even for industries that want to use more electricity. Rather, stock market investors and Wall Street businesses are changing how electric utilities make money in the U.S.
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RTO Insider – June 15, 2026
Texas RE: Large Loads, IBRs Challenged Reliability in 2025*
The Texas Reliability Entity said the spread of large loads and inverter-based resources created a challenging climate for reliability in 2025. It identified the rapid, “disorganized integration of large loads” —such as massive AI and computational data centers—and the increasing volume of inverter-based resources (like solar and battery storage) as the most significant, escalating risk factors for the Texas electric grid
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KPRC – June 16, 2026
Your electric bill is rising — here’s how CenterPoint Energy turns that into investor profit
CenterPoint Energy made $1 billion in 2025; but the investor-owned utility says it doesn’t profit from the rates customers pay on their electric bills. If that’s true, how does the Fortune 500 company actually make money? Start with this real electricity bill below: $354 total. Of that, $150 — about 42% — went directly to CenterPoint just to carry the electricity across its wires. On most bills, those fees are labeled “TDSP” or “TDU,” short for Transmission and Distribution Utility.
The rates change frequently. Currently, all CenterPoint ratepayers pay a flat $4.90 plus 5.1 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity used. The Texas Public Utility Commission approves those fees. Each time CenterPoint needs to build new infrastructure, it submits a request to the PUC to raise rates and cover the cost of the capital improvement. When the PUC approves a rate increase, it includes what is called an allowed return on equity — the percentage of profit that flows directly to investors. That structure is advantageous to investors because it guarantees returns when they buy CenterPoint shares.
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The lives of Jim Jaska, the 80-year-old mayor of Ross, Texas, and Mayor Charles Wilson, 65, of the nearby town of Lacy Lakeview, have long been deeply intertwined. Wilson’s mother worked alongside Jaska for years in the local public schools. Their ancestors are buried in the same cemetery in Ross. Jaska was even Wilson’s football and baseball coach at Connally Junior High. “Hard worker, decent athlete, good kid,” he said of his former student, who went on to serve overseas in the CIA before returning home. But now the two men, who both grew up in these central Texas towns outside of Waco, find themselves on opposite sides of the fierce debate around AI data centers that is roiling their communities as well as much of the nation. Last summer, Infrakey, a newly established AI data center developer, purchased a 520-acre plot of unincorporated farmland next to Ross for a proposed $10 billion AI data center campus with a power capacity of nearly 1 gigawatt—enough to power a midsize city.
Jaska and Wilson see the project very differently. For their neighboring communities, one rural and one suburban, the data center represents both an enormous opportunity and a profound risk. That’s because Texas municipal law has created a stark divide between the two towns. Ross, with a population of just 200 and no taxing authority, sits right next to the site of the project’s industrial footprint, with some residents directly bordering the parcel. Lacy Lakeview—seven miles south but legally positioned to claim the land—is moving to annex the site of the data center, and stands to collect up to $50 million a year in taxes. This has created growing tensions between the neighboring communities over who gets the benefits, who absorbs the consequences, and who ultimately gets a say.
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Yahoo! News – June 16, 2026
40+ Texas lawmakers back effort to pause major transmission lines
A coalition of Texas lawmakers (including nine state senators and 34 state representatives) are backing a legal motion against a controversial transmission line project. On Monday, State Representative Brad Buckley announced the legislators had signed an amicus brief asking to delay decisions related to proposed 765kV transmission lines, including projects like the Bell County East to Big Hill line.
The brief also asks for the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) to stop evaluating projects on a case-by-case basis for now and to determine if the lines are needed at all. “The motion is intended to seek limited relief and would allow more time for route studies, environmental reviews, landowner concerns, or other project-specific issues,” a statement from Buckley’s office said.
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Spectrum News – June 16, 2026
Texas county reacts to Greg Abbott’s proposed regulations for data centers
Residents across Texas have been pushing back against data centers coming to their communities, citing concerns over water and power. Gov. Greg Abbott has shown support for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers coming to the state, but he is now calling for regulations ahead of next year’s legislative session. In November, Abbott uplifted data centers, saying the Lone Star State is the epicenter for AI development. However, data centers have been extremely unpopular in dozens of counties such as Hays, with people wanting tighter regulations on these projects.
Last week, the governor released a letter outlining recommended regulations and making discussions about data centers a priority for the 2027 legislative session. His aide told Spectrum News this is not a switch-up in his stance on data centers, but Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra believes the upcoming November election has played a part in the release of this letter. Becerra also said the proposed regulations don’t go far enough.
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June 16, 2026
Gov. Greg Abbott took a positive first step toward an appropriate balance between modern society’s demand for data center capacity and the strain such facilities can put on local and state resources. Going forward, two key state regulators — the Public Utilities Commission and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas — and the Texas Legislature must act swiftly to implement commonsense measures. And Abbott must continue to exert his considerable authority and political influence in keeping the issue at the top of everyone’s list of priorities.
Abbott issued a letter to PUC Chairman Thomas Gleeson and ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas calling for various regulatory measures to manage the unprecedented number of proposed data centers. More than 480 data centers that would be large electricity users, those consuming as much or more power as 18,750 households, have asked to connect to the grid through 2032, according to ERCOT. Abbott said in the letter that he seeks to “guarantee” that data center development “does not come at the cost of Texans and our local communities.” Abbott directed the PUC to require data centers to pay all costs for their electric infrastructure to ensure residential ratepayers bear none of them. Moreover, he wants the PUC to take action so that data centers’ interconnections reduce residential electrical bills.
Regulatory
Inside Climate News – June 15, 2026
Trump Administration Abandons Fight Against Wind Energy as Clean Energy Output Surges
The Trump administration has abandoned its effort to halt wind energy projects across the United States and dropped its challenge to the court ruling that tossed President Donald Trump’s order freezing federal permitting and leasing for wind projects. States that challenged the order hailed the development as one of the most significant legal victories against the Trump White House’s campaign against the energy transition.
On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit dismissed the appeal after the Justice Department filed a motion for its voluntary dismissal on June 10. The case against Trump’s executive order was filed in May, 2025 by a coalition of attorneys general from 17 states and Washington, D.C., led by New York Attorney General Letitia James.