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Category: Renewable energy/fossil fuels

Trump says U.S. has entered deal with Venezuela to take control of 65 billion barrels of oil reserves

Trump says U.S. has entered deal with Venezuela to take control of 65 billion barrels of oil reserves

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump said Friday that his administration has entered a sweeping agreement with Venezuela that, if realized, could give the U.S. access to vast amounts of the South American country’s untapped oil reserves, at cost. Trump in a social media post announcing the agreement said it was negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez. “The United States of America has just entered into an Agreement…

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Trump seeks vast, potentially costly U.S. stake in Venezuelan oil industry

Trump seeks vast, potentially costly U.S. stake in Venezuelan oil industry

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration is negotiating a long-term stake in a vast share of Venezuela’s oil fields, according to three people close to the discussions, a costly and legally precarious proposal that aims to nudge reluctant energy companies to drill in the risky region. The contours of the plan, which is still evolving and could change or fall apart, would involve the United States taking more direct control over Venezuelan reserves as crime and steep logistical challenges…

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New tariffs and expired tax credits put a dent in U.S. solar panel sales, but there’s reason for optimism

New tariffs and expired tax credits put a dent in U.S. solar panel sales, but there’s reason for optimism

By Dan Gearino August 27, 2026 This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. Rooftop solar installers feel like a dog that’s been repeatedly kicked. President Donald Trump has made solar more expensive—or at least slowed the long-term decline in costs—by imposing tariffs on imported photovoltaic panels and other parts. Trump also signed a measure last year that phased out the main…

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Depleted strategic oil reserve nears level that raises concerns about damage to storage caverns

Depleted strategic oil reserve nears level that raises concerns about damage to storage caverns

CNBC reports: The caverns that hold the U.S. strategic oil reserves could get damaged by the rapid release of stockpiles in response to the Iran war, experts warned this week as inventories hit a four-decade low. Damage to the caverns would make it more difficult to respond to future energy emergencies, the experts said. The oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is stored at 60 salt caverns thousands of feet underground at four major sites along the Gulf Coast…

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The real reason why data center gas power plants are so dirty

The real reason why data center gas power plants are so dirty

Wired reports: Amazon has acquired a massive off-grid power plant being built in Texas for one of its data centers that could be one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the US. But size isn’t the only reason its climate toll will be so high. The plant will rely on a much less efficient set of gas turbines than regular power plants use; these kinds of turbines are also increasingly being put to use at other data…

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Samuel Alito gained up to $2.9m from oil and gas assets since joining Supreme Court, analysis shows

Samuel Alito gained up to $2.9m from oil and gas assets since joining Supreme Court, analysis shows

The Guardian reports: The supreme court justice Samuel Alito gained up to $2.9m from his fossil fuel interests between 2005 and 2024, a new review of financial disclosures shows. The analysis from the non-profit advocacy group and judicial watchdog Court Accountability, shared exclusively with the Guardian, found that even at the lowest range of estimates, Alito gained almost $400,000 from his oil and gas interests since being tapped for the high court by George W Bush in 2005. The findings…

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How AI will accelerate climate change by boosting fossil fuel production

How AI will accelerate climate change by boosting fossil fuel production

The Guardian reports: AI-driven productivity gains enable more planet-heating pollution from fossil fuels than they avoid from renewables, a study has found. Researchers modelled the technical potential for AI to boost clean power generation along with projections for how it can help produce coal, oil and gas. Across 64 scenarios, they found net yearly carbon pollution rose by 0.47-1.8 gigatonnes, or about 1-5% of the energy sector’s annual emissions. The study is the first to quantify the climate impact of…

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Iran insists Strait of Hormuz will stay closed until U.S. complies with demands

Iran insists Strait of Hormuz will stay closed until U.S. complies with demands

The New York Times reports: Iran said on Monday that any deal with Oman on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz would not lead to the waterway being fully reopened and that the route would remain closed until the United States agreed to demands including lifting a naval blockade. The comments were the latest sign that Iran sees its grip on the strait — which has driven up global energy prices, creating a political headache for President Trump — as…

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Iran issues list of demands, complicating efforts to reopen Strait of Hormuz

Iran issues list of demands, complicating efforts to reopen Strait of Hormuz

The New York Times reports: A top Iranian national security official delivered a sweeping set of demands on Saturday that he said the United States must meet before the Strait of Hormuz can reopen to maritime traffic, throwing the fate of the critical trade waterway into question. Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, issued a statement carried by state media laying out multiple requirements for reopening the strait. He called for the United States to…

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Greenland issues ‘strong warning’ as Trump-linked oil firm prepares to drill

Greenland issues ‘strong warning’ as Trump-linked oil firm prepares to drill

The Guardian reports: An American oil company connected to Donald Trump is preparing to sink wells in remote Greenland despite not having received permission from the local authorities. As the US president renews his threats to claim the vast Arctic territory, materials to prepare for drilling were brought ashore in recent days on Greenland’s eastern coast. That has prompted Greenland’s government to issue a “strong warning” that no approval had been granted to land the kit. “All future logistical matters…

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Iran plots to deal Trump a blow in midterms by keeping him entangled in war

Iran plots to deal Trump a blow in midterms by keeping him entangled in war

Patrick Wintour writes: Tehran has set out a protracted negotiating timetable designed to keep Donald Trump embroiled in the Iran conflict until the midterm elections, in the hope of inflicting the same ruinous blow on his presidency as Jimmy Carter suffered over the 1979-81 US embassy hostage crisis. For many inside Iran, inflicting meaningful revenge on Trump is a legitimate and self-standing war aim, reflected in the mood of those attending the funeral of the supreme leader Ali Khamenei where…

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An emerging deal with Oman could cement Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz

An emerging deal with Oman could cement Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz

The New York Times reports: Iran and Oman are closing in on an agreement to reopen shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian and American officials, but if the accord goes into effect it could come at a high price — ratifying Tehran’s control over what, before the war, was an open, international waterway. As described by officials familiar with the emerging accord, vessels heading into the Persian Gulf will transit a channel controlled by Iran, and…

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Data centers become the new frontlines of global power

Data centers become the new frontlines of global power

Henrique Schneider writes: Data centers have emerged as a crucial element in the realms of geopolitics, energy security and industrial strategy. On the morning of March 1, 2026, three coordinated Iranian drone strikes hit Amazon Web Services facilities in the Gulf, disrupting regional cloud services for days to weeks. The episode crystallized a transition that had been building for years: The quiet warehouses of the digital economy are now contested strategic assets. The scale of what is being built is…

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Oman presents Iran with Gulf-backed plan for voluntary fees to use Strait of Hormuz

Oman presents Iran with Gulf-backed plan for voluntary fees to use Strait of Hormuz

Reuters reports: Oman has presented Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz, including collecting voluntary fees for using it, ​a Gulf source and a Western diplomat told Reuters on Tuesday. The plan could serve as a basis to end the disruption to trade through the strait caused by the ‌U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. President Donald Trump, who abruptly called off a two-week U.S. bombing campaign over the weekend in his latest strategic U-turn,…

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Millions of farmers around the globe are contending with scarcity and higher prices for fuel

Millions of farmers around the globe are contending with scarcity and higher prices for fuel

The New York Times reports: For three days, he waited at the gas station in a crush of hundreds of villagers, as the temperature rose to 104 degrees. People tried to cut the line, and fights broke out, drawing police officers wielding batons. This, Dulal Hossain endured for the chance to buy diesel fuel. He was tormented by worries about his rice plants, the source of most of his livelihood. The diesel he eventually carried home by bicycle, in a…

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Data center forecasts keep climbing and so does public opposition. Something has to give

Data center forecasts keep climbing and so does public opposition. Something has to give

Dan Gearino writes: Forecasts of U.S. data center growth defy belief—and common sense. “The math isn’t mathing,” as many observers have said. Growth forecasts continue to climb, but there is little evidence that AI data center developers have profitable, sustainable business models. And nearly every major project is facing local opposition over concerns about land, power and water use. On Tuesday, BloombergNEF revised its estimate for data center electricity demand to 194 gigawatts by 2035, an 83 percent increase from…

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