Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Monday July 6, 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
Oil prices inched lower on Monday after OPEC+ agreed to further increase its output targets from August while exports from key producers via the Strait of Hormuz are recovering, potentially adding to global supplies.
West Texas Intermediate crude was at $68.49 a barrel, down 20 cents, or 0.29%. There was no settlement for WTI on Friday as U.S. markets were closed ahead of the Independence Day holiday on Saturday.
Brent crude futures fell 34 cents, or 0.47%, to $71.78 a barrel by 0408 GMT after settling 0.45% higher on Friday.
Both contracts were little changed last week, after mostly falling over the past few weeks, as investors kept a close eye on talks between the United States and Iran over the fate of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz while keeping tabs on the recovery in Gulf oil exports.
“Coming off the U.S. long weekend, traders are sitting tight and waiting to see whether U.S.-Iran relations will be cordial or volatile this week,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies including Russia agreed on Sunday to further increase output targets by 188,000 barrels per day from August, on top of similar increases for June and July.
Top Stories
The Wall Street Journal – July 5, 2026
OPEC, Allies Hike Output Again as Hormuz Traffic Starts Recovering*
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies agreed to raise oil output again as shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz gradually recovers and Persian Gulf producers restore production. After a virtual meeting on Sunday, seven members of the broader group called OPEC+ said they will raise production by about 188,000 barrels a day in August, marking a fifth straight monthly increase as the cartel continues to unwind production cuts introduced in recent years. The countries participating in the increase include Saudi Arabia–the group’s de-facto leader–along with Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria, Kazakhstan and Oman.
The group’s most recent production increases were seen as largely symbolic as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz–a vital waterway that normally carries about a fifth of the world’s oil–and damage to key energy infrastructure in the region forced major exporters to curb output and shipments. Shipping began recovering after Washington and Tehran signed an interim agreement in mid-June to halt hostilities and reopen the waterway. As of July 2, daily traffic through the Strait of Hormuz had stabilized at between 30 and 60 crossings over the previous week, averaging about 40 vessels a day, according to ship-tracking company Kpler. Still, uncertainty remains over key issues, including the future governance of the strait.
Many Gulf producers are now racing to recoup lost revenue, potentially setting the stage for a battle over market share as the war redraws the region’s energy map. Oil prices were broadly stable Friday, after recent losses, as markets appear to move toward a short-term supply glut.
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Stock Titan – July 3, 2026
Energy Transfer LP; Sunoco LP; SunocoCorp LLC; and USA Compression Partners, LP jointly announced on Thursday that each will change its state of formation from the State of Delaware to the State of Texas. The redomiciliations will be effective in each of the State of Delaware and the State of Texas as of 12:01 a.m. Central Time on July 6, 2026; however, in accordance with NYSE guidelines, the redomiciliations will be considered effective for market purposes on July 13, 2026
The CUSIPs for the registered securities of Energy Transfer LP, Sunoco LP, SunocoCorp LLC and USA Compression Partners, LP, and their associated NYSE ticker symbols, will remain unchanged as a result of the redomiciliation. The economic and governance rights of the unitholders in the organizational documents of each converting entity will be preserved in the redomiciliations.
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Texas Public Radio – July 3, 2026
Judge rules against CPS Energy in $400 million 2021 winter storm gas contract dispute
State District Judge Laura Salinas has ordered the municipally owned utility CPS Energy to pay nearly $400 million to two Energy Transfer subsidiaries after ruling it breached contracts for natural gas purchased during the February 2021 winter storm. In a final judgment signed July 2, Salinas awarded Houston Pipe Line Company and Oasis Pipeline nearly $264 million in unpaid contract amounts, about $119 million in prejudgment interest and more than $9.3 million in attorneys’ fees. The ruling also requires CPS Energy to pay court costs and post-judgment interest.
The ruling follows a 12-day bench trial that ended in April. The case stems from the February 2021 winter storm, when widespread power outages and record demand for electricity and natural gas sent fuel prices soaring across Texas. CPS Energy spent about $850 million on fuel during the storm. Customers are continuing to repay a portion of those storm-related fuel costs through a monthly surcharge that adds about $1.26 to the average residential bill and is expected to remain in place for about 21 more years.
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Houston Chronicle – July 3, 2026
Report: $1 trillion needed to meet growing U.S. energy demand*
With the rise of data centers and various municipalities either pushing back or welcoming them with open arms, energy conservation in Texas and beyond has become a concern, especially for politicians during election season. According to a new study from the University of Houston, that growth will lead to serious financial repercussions. The study found that more than $1 trillion in new midstream energy infrastructure investment will be needed by 2052 to meet the country’s energy demand properly. According to researchers, there is a strategy to meet energy requirements, with the majority of the focus on midstream infrastructure.
The demand will also create a need for jobs, according to the study. An estimated 12 to 24 million cumulative jobs will be required over 25 years to meet the demand, or roughly “414,000-828,000 jobs annually throughout the period.”
“Meeting energy demand is a critical challenge right now, and this report quantifies the necessary midstream infrastructure and corresponding development dollars needed to meet that demand,” said Hebe Shaw, executive director of the INGAA Foundation, who worked in collaboration with UH for the study. “Meeting the energy needs of North America will require sustained investment and development, which must begin now to ensure a safe, reliable and affordable energy system.”
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KERA NPR – July 2, 2026
Proposed Texas AI power plants could emit 287 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, report says
Texas is poised to become the nation’s leader in natural gas power plants built specifically to serve artificial intelligence data centers — a move that could lead to the release of hundreds of millions of tons of greenhouse gases, according to a new environmental report. The report, released Wednesday by the Environmental Integrity Project, identified 32 proposed gas-fired power plants in Texas, the largest concentration in any state, as technology companies race to meet growing electricity demand from generative artificial intelligence.
Researchers estimate the projects could collectively emit more than 287 million tons of greenhouse gases each year, along with thousands of tons of particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and other pollutants linked to respiratory illness. “It makes no sense for a technology of the future to be powered by the dirty fossil fuels of the past,” said Jen Duggan, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project.
The Latest TERse Tips
Texas Stock Exchange to launch trading on Monday in test of upstart’s challenge to Wall Street — Texas Tribune
Russia planning attack on Poland to test Nato resolve, US warns — critical infrastructure could be targeted by missiles and drones, with soldiers potentially crossing the border from Kaliningrad or Belarus — The Telegraph (UK)
US considers proposal to cut Colorado River water use, Arizona says — Yahoo! News
Governor Greg Abbott has appointed Don Huffines as Texas Comptroller — Texas Tribune
Vendors sought for voluntary well plugging program — The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality received $134.1 million under the Inflation Reduction Act’s Methane Emissions Reduction Program and developed the Texas Voluntary Marginal Conventional Well Plugging Program — The program has issued a request for proposals from vendors to perform necessary plugging and abandonment of marginal conventional wells — Midland Reporter-Telegram*
Glenfarne Group, LLC says it’s subsidiary Texas LNG Brownsville LLC that’s developing the Texas LNG export terminal at the Port of Brownsville, has provided the project’s Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Contractor, Kiewit Energy Group Inc., with a Limited Notice to Proceed — see the press release
More oil-related revenue flowed into state coffers in the wake of the Iran conflict, with New Mexico estimating a $500 million boost and Texas reporting record-high collections from its oil production tax in June — Bond Buyer*
America just trucked a complete 100-megawatt hydrogen plant to West Texas on skids — Auto Notion
A Texas man faces manslaughter charges after the Tesla he was driving crashed into a Houston-area home in June, killing a woman inside — he told investigators that the car was in auto-drive, but they found that the driver actually pressed the accelerator pedal several times during the incident, overriding the car’s automated driving assistance mechanism — KTRK
Does Houston have too many gas stations? One local lawmaker thinks so — council Member Edward Pollard says it’s time to hit pause on building more gas stations around Houston — Houston Chronicle*
BKV Corp., Denver, has begun operations at its Eagle Ford and Cotton Cove carbon capture and sequestration plants in Texas, expanding the company’s commercial CCS footprint as it advances toward a 1.5‑million tonnes/year CO2 injection target by 2028 — Oil & Gas Journal
Oil & Gas Texas
Reuters – July 2, 2026
US energy firms add rigs for third week in a row, says Baker Hughes*
U.S. energy firms this week added rigs for a third week in a row, energy services firm Baker Hughes (BKR.O), opens new tab said in its closely followed report on Thursday. The total oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, rose by 7 to 580 in the week to July 2, its highest since May 2025. Baker Hughes released the rig count report a day earlier than usual due to the U.S. July 4th holiday, which is being recognized on Friday, July 3.
Baker Hughes said this week’s increase puts the total rig count up 41 rigs, or 7.6% above this time last year. Baker Hughes said oil rigs rose by five to 445 this week, their highest since late May, 2025, while gas rigs rose one to 126, their highest since mid-May 2026, and other miscellaneous rigs rose by one to nine. The oil and gas rig count declined by 7% in 2025, 5% in 2024, and 20% in 2023 as lower U.S. oil prices prompted energy firms to focus more on boosting shareholder returns and paying down debt rather than increasing output.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – July 4, 2026
Kinder Morgan places Gulf Coast Express expansion in service*
Kinder Morgan has completed expansion of its Gulf Coast Express Pipeline and placed it in service late last month. The expansion increases natural gas transportation capacity by approximately 570 million cubic feet per day from the Permian Basin to South Texas markets, bringing total system capacity to approximately 2.59 billion cubic feet per day. According to East Daley Analytics, the startup of the compressor expansion sparked a rally of nearly $3 per MMBtu at the Waha hub.
“For Waha, these prices are actually pretty good when you look at how abysmal they’ve been for the past 18 months,” Jack Weixel with East Daley told the Reporter-Telegram by email. “For Waha, +$2 outright isn’t necessarily a bad price, but it also isn’t great when compared to other basins like Haynesville, for example.” Kinder Morgan began flowing natural gas through the expanded pipeline to two pipelines at the Agua Dulce hub: Tennessee Gas Pipeline and Natural Gas Pipeline of America. Gulf Coast Express previously only delivered into Texas intrastate pipelines at Agua Dulce, including KM Tejas and Enterprise, which are difficult to monitor, according to East Daley.
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gasworld – July 3, 2026
XRG increases Rio Grande LNG stake, strengthens US-UAE energy ties
UAE-headquartered investment firm XRG has acquired 7.6% stake in Trains 4 and 5 of Rio Grande LNG in Brownsville, Texas, which have an expected combined liquefied natural gas (LNG) production capacity of around 12 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). XRG, the international branch of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), said its continued investment in US LNG company NextDecade’s Rio Grande project will strengthen its presence in the US LNG market and support energy security on a global scale.
The acquisition gives XRG equity interests across all five trains under construction at Rio Grande LNG, which are expected to have a combined liquefaction capacity of around 30 mtpa. XRG first invested in Rio Grande LNG by acquiring an indirect 11.7% stake in Phase 1, covering interest in Trains 1, 2, and 3.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram – July 3, 2026
Enverus acquires PDS assets, expanding into operational data flow*
Enverus acquired four exchange platforms from PDS Energy Information: the Frac Interference Exchange, Well Data Exchange, Production Data Exchange and AquaTrade. Enverus already operates two of the energy industry’s largest commercial exchange networks. EnergyLink and OpenInvoice collectively support more than 500 operators, 40,000 suppliers and 250,000 receivers, with more than $500 billion in annual transaction activity across revenue, joint interest billing and procurement. With the transaction, Enverus expands from commercial workflows into operational data flows that drive completions, well data, production and water logistics.
The acquired platforms serve as operating infrastructure for the U.S. upstream industry. An estimated 80% of U.S. completions, production and drilling data is exchanged through the PDS network, connecting nearly 800 participants, including 95% of Fortune 500 energy companies. The Frac Interference Exchange alone has more than 400 operators coordinating completions activity in major U.S. basins.
What the exchanges do:
- The Frac Interference Exchange helps operators coordinate completion schedules, identify frac hit risk, manage temporary shut-ins and improve wellsite safety across shared operating areas.
- The Well Data Exchange automates secure distribution of drilling, completion and other well files to working interest owners, partners and other authorized stakeholders.
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Bloomberg – July 3, 2026
America Runs on Natural Gas: Fuel Set to Surpass Oil as US Top Energy Source by 2030*
For 75 years, petroleum has been the energy source that has powered the US more than any other. That’s about to change. By the end of the decade, natural gas will likely surpass oil for the first time after the gap all but disappeared in 2025. This seismic shift will end a chapter that began in 1950, when petroleum ended the longstanding reign of another fossil fuel: coal. “I say we probably cross that threshold within the next couple years, and by 2030, we will have a big lead on petroleum,” Toby Rice, chief executive of a top US gas producer EQT Corp., said in an interview.
The transition from America being a nation powered by oil to one running primarily on gas shows how much the economics of cheap gas has reordered parts of the energy sector and pushed out competing fuel sources. In 2025, natural gas comprised 36% of US energy consumption, just shy of the 37% made up by petroleum, according to a recent Energy Information Administration report. The gap between oil and gas has narrowed in the last decade as the shale revolution supercharged natural gas output. Over the same period, the US economy electrified and the largest source of demand for domestic oil — gasoline — flatlined. The sea change comes as electric vehicle use and data center development boosts electricity demand from gas-fired power plants, putting additional strain on the US grid. According to EIA data, the grid generates more than 40% of its power by burning natural gas. EVs have also, in part, contributed to waning demand for gasoline that is unlikely to return to highs reached prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, even as Americans drive more each year.
Oil & Gas National & International
CBS News – July 3, 2026
U.S. says it is monitoring oil markets for price-fixing as it urges states to do the same
U.S. antitrust regulators said Friday they are closely monitoring oil markets for potential price-fixing or market monopolization, and they urged state attorneys general to assist in investigating unlawful conduct. “Recent volatility in crude oil prices does not suspend either the antitrust laws or state consumer protection laws, and it does not authorize companies to manipulate retail prices or collude with their competitors,” said officials from the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission in a letter to states reviewed by CBS News.
“Business may not use market volatility as cover for anticompetitive practices, fraud, or any other lawlessness that harms Americans,” they added. In the letter, Justice Department Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, who oversees the Antitrust Division, and FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson also suggested that states could assist with policing price-gouging — an area in which the federal government does not have any enforcement authority.
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CNBC – July 5, 2026
UK and France agree with Oman to ensure safety of its territorial waters
Oman has agreed to work with the U.K. and France to ensure the Gulf country’s territorial waters are safe for navigation, the U.K. said on Saturday, as oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz pick up since the U.S. and Iran signed an agreement last month to reopen the crucial sea lane.“The U.K. and France also stand ready to deploy the wider Multinational Military Mission to support freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a joint statement with French President Emmanuel Macron.
“The Strait of Hormuz is a vital artery for the global economy. Restoring safe transit for ships of all nations through the Strait is a matter of global concern,” the statement read. France said it has deployed mine countermeasures to the Middle East, including two mine-hunting ships.
“Accompanied by two frigates and a maritime patrol aircraft, these assets are ready to contribute, alongside our partners, to the full resumption of navigation and to ensure the safety of traffic in the Strait of Hormuz,” Macron said in a statement on X.
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CNBC – July 5, 2026
Cargo vessel in Red Sea reports coming under attack, UK maritime body says
A cargo vessel in the Red Sea has reported coming under attack, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre, a British maritime security alert service, said Sunday, amid a fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran. The body said it received a report of the incident 30 nautical miles (56 km) southwest of the port city of Al Hudaydah in Yemen.
“A cargo vessel has triggered a distress alert stating that they are under attack by unknown assailants,” the UKMTO said in a post on X, adding that authorities are investigating the incident. It urged vessels to “transit with caution”. Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea from 2023 through 2025 in retaliation for Israel’s war in Gaza but have largely stayed out of the U.S.-Iran war.
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The Wall Street Journal – July 5, 2026
A Sudden Glut of Oil Threatens to Weaken Iran’s Hand in Talks*
Oil prices have fallen to prewar levels. Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is recovering fast. Gulf producers are already restarting idled wells. But one thing will take much, much longer—refilling the world’s oil coffers. Speed matters. The amount of oil in storage around the world is playing a central role in the U.S.-Iran power dynamics. The faster countries restock their buffers of crude, the weaker Iran’s ability to threaten the world economy by holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage.
Vice President JD Vance explicitly connected oil storage and negotiating leverage last week. He said in an interview with media personality Michael Knowles that the U.S. signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran to allow the world to “refill some stocks and then to see where the hand is,” referring to Tehran’s position at the table. Oil storage is a mix of commercially owned tanks that sit near refineries, ships kept laden at sea and government-run strategic reserves. Inventories in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of mostly wealthy countries, fell by 163 million barrels from March to May to their lowest level since December 1990.
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S&P Global Platts – June 3, 2026
US LNG exports to Latin America surge to three-year high
US LNG exports to Latin America and the Caribbean in May hit a 37-month high, increasing around 55% from May, S&P Global Energy CERA data showed July 3. The US exported around 48.84 billion cubic feet of LNG to the region in June, up from 31.44 Bcf in May. June export volumes were nearly 10% higher than the 44.44 Bcf exported in June 2025, and nearly 3% higher than the 47.59 Bcf recorded in the same month in 2024. The previous highest monthly export level was 51.49 Bcf in May 2023.
US LNG export volumes in June were shipped to the US territory of Puerto Rico and seven other countries: Brazil, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, El Salvador, Chile, and Colombia, the data showed. The number of Latin American destinations was unchanged from May.
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Reuters – July 1, 2026
US LNG exports to Europe decline as Asia prices surge
For the first time in nearly two years, less than half of U.S. LNG exports last month went to Europe as stronger prices in Asia and record imports by Egypt diverted cargoes, according to preliminary ship-tracking data from LSEG. The shift marks the first time since July 2024 that Europe has not taken the majority of monthly U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas. European buyers, who still need to refill storage ahead of the next winter season, have been waiting for better prices.
Asian spot prices traded at a premium to Europe last month, encouraging exporters to redirect shipments eastward. The Asian benchmark JKM averaged $17.33 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) in June, compared with the European TTF benchmark at $13.19 per mmBtu, LSEG data showed. Egyptian buyers, meanwhile, paid premiums of up to $1 per mmBtu over TTF-linked prices. Supply constraints from the Middle East, linked to regional geopolitical tensions, and softer European demand widened the price gap and created arbitrage opportunities for U.S. exporters.
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Oil Price – July 2, 2026
Shell Offloads 50% Stake in Na Kika Platform for $1.7 Billion
Shell has struck a deal to sell a 50% stake in the Na Kika oil platform and related assets to Talos Energy and Ridgewood Energy, with the price tag at $1.7 billion, the supermajor said. According to Shell’s partner in Na Kika, BP, the deepwater platform off the Louisiana coast is one of the most prolific production hubs in the Gulf, linked to eight fields, and can produce up to 130,000 barrels of crude daily.
Along with Shell’s 50% interest in Na Kika, Talos and Ridgewood will also buy the company’s interests in associated fields and the Coulomb tieback, which Shell owns fully. “The Gulf of America is one of our highest-value basins, and we are actively shaping our portfolio to ensure our Upstream business continues to be resilient and increasingly competitive,” Peter Costello, president of Shell’s Upstream division, said in the company’s news release. “We remain focused on sustaining our material liquids production into the next decade.”
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Business & Industry Connection – July 1, 2026
The gigawatt clash: How digital infrastructure is siphoning industrial labor
The Gulf Coast has always competed for talent. But the competition used to be between refineries and petrochemical plants, between contractors chasing the same turnaround windows, between LNG terminals and pipeline builders pulling from the same craft workforce. That was a manageable kind of competition. Everyone knew the rules. What is happening now is different. Digital infrastructure is arriving in Texas and Louisiana at a GW scale, drawing from the same pool of journeyman electricians, pipefitters, instrument technicians and welders this region’s industrial sector has relied on for decades.
Microsoft is in exclusivity negotiations with Chevron on a 2.6-GW gas-fired power campus in the Permian Basin. ExxonMobil is aggressively pursuing large-scale power generation paired with carbon capture, targeting AI and data center demand. A single project in Pecos County has received the largest air pollution permit in Texas history for a complex that could eventually generate 7.65 GW. During 2025 alone, the pipeline of gas power projects in development in Texas grew by nearly 58 GW, more than the peak power demand of California.
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electrek – June 29, 2026
The US’s largest transformer factory is coming for the AI power boom
Hitachi Energy has broken ground on a major expansion of its South Boston, Virginia, campus that will become the largest power transformer factory in the US – one of the most in-demand pieces of equipment for the country’s aging, overloaded electric grid. The $457 million project will create around 825 new jobs in Halifax County and nearly double the site’s workforce. Hitachi Energy already employs about 850 people at the campus, where it has manufactured transformers since 1968.
The new facility will produce large power transformers used for high-voltage transmission, power generation, industrial facilities, and data centers. The expansion is part of Hitachi Energy’s previously announced investment of more than $1 billion to expand US grid equipment manufacturing. Demand for power transformers has surged as utilities race to upgrade the grid to connect new renewable energy projects, electrification, and AI data centers. Transformer shortages have become one of the biggest bottlenecks slowing new power projects across the US.
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The Wall Street Journal – July 4, 2026
EV Batteries Are Defying Expectations After Hundreds of Thousands of Miles*
Richard Symons recently took his five-year-old Tesla Model 3 on a 260-mile road trip across England without having to stop for a charge. A new electric vehicle could make the trip no-problem. But Symons’s car—which he has affectionately nicknamed “Miles”—has logged 247,000 miles and is still up for frequent long-distance drives. Symons, the owner of a U.K.-based used-car sales company that specializes in EVs, has found that the batteries that power these cars continue to perform well even after several hundred thousand miles. This has come as a welcome surprise to him and other EV enthusiasts.
“They are proving themselves to be exceptionally reliable,” Symons said. After five years on the road, the average EV will still be able to drive up to 95% of its original range, according to Recurrent, a data-science company that provides a battery-monitoring tool for EVs—better than many in the auto industry expected. Consumers in the mass market have yet to develop trust in EV batteries, according to Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at car-shopping resource Edmunds. “There still is a lot of trepidation amongst buyers,” she said.
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pv magazine – June 27, 2026
The virtual power plant era has arrived
Homeowners are earning cash just for letting their home battery or smart thermostat assist the local electric grid during a heatwave or data center demand surge. This technology is scaling up fast, turning standard household gadgets into serious utility infrastructure through systems known as Virtual Power Plants (VPPs).
Instead of building expensive fossil-fuel peaker plants that sit idle most of the year, grid operators can tap into these decentralized networks. When electricity demand spikes, a virtual signal instantly tells thousands of coordinated home batteries to export spare power while smart thermostats slightly dial down cooling, dropping peak load in real time.
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World Nuclear News – June 18, 2026
Fusion plant clears regulatory milestone
The receipt of two licences from the Washington Department of Health marks a major milestone for fusion company Helion in its project to build its Orion nuclear power plant. Washington State-based Helion says it is the first company in the world to have the regulatory approvals needed to build and operate a fusion power plant.
The Radioactive Materials licence and Radioactive Air Emissions licence confirm that Helion has the facilities, trained personnel, and safety programmes in place at the Orion facility to meet the rigorous safety standards required for fusion operations. … The Washington Department of Health (DOH) is the licensing body for fusion power in the state, following the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) decision to regulate fusion under the byproduct material framework, alongside particle accelerators and hospitals, unlike fission reactors which are regulated by the NRC itself. This distinction “reflects fusion’s fundamentally different safety profile and enables a right-sized path to deployment”, Helion said.
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San Antonio Express-News – -July 5, 2026
Rise of renewables: A $10 trillion industry sprang up while we weren’t looking: Mark Gongloff*
An old knock on renewable energy and other planet-friendly endeavors is that they can’t stand on their own without financial props from the government. Ironically, it took the second presidency of Donald Trump, in which those supports have turned to mule kicks, to kill this trope once and for all. Not only can the green economy sustain itself, but it trounces many other sectors. A recent report from the London Stock Exchange Group PLC, or LSEG, found that “green economy” companies — those that derive a significant portion of their revenue from stuff like clean energy, efficiency and water management — now have a total stock market value of $10 trillion. If this were a standalone sector, it would be bigger than healthcare and third in the world only to technology and industrials.
Since 2008, valuations for these companies have grown 18% a year, compared with 12% for the broader market, the report found. Their stocks have outperformed global equities by 133%. A representative sample of these companies, the FTSE Environmental Opportunities All Share Index, topped the FTSE Global All-Cap Index by 12% last year. In fact, this stealth sector just had one of its best years on record despite many of the world’s governments and the corporate sector abandoning their pre-Trump pledges to zero out carbon emissions to stave off the worst of global heating. Green revenues grew 5.3% last year, the fastest since 2022, the year of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Evidence keeps mounting that the green economy has entered a new phase, one where its rapidly improving economics give it lasting immunity from fickle political sentiments. Even as the dreams of the 2015 Paris Agreement, net zero, the Inflation Reduction Act and more have crumbled, the technology with the power to make some of those dreams come true has only gained momentum.
Regulatory
The Hill – July 2, 2026
The Trump administration is apparently departing from a landmark Biden-era report that detailed human health risks including cancer from farms contaminated with “forever chemicals.” The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week issued a draft guidance document criticizing a draft Biden administration risk assessment detailing health hazards from applying contaminated sludge to farmland.
The Biden-era assessment detailed the risks posed by forever chemicals that are spread across farmland in a type of fertilizer known as “sewage sludge.” If finalized, it could have laid the groundwork for eventual restrictions on the practice of applying contaminated sludge to farmland. However, the Trump document, from EPA water chief Jessica Kramer, said that the Biden-era assessment “exhibited a number of serious flaws that have caused confusion.”