The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday ordered TransAlta, a Canadian independent power producer based in Calgary,to continue running its 730-MW, coal-fired Centralia Unit 2 in Washington past its planned retirement at the end of this month.
The DOE has issued a series of similar orders under the Federal Power Act section 202(c) to keep two power plants in Michigan and Pennsylvania from retiring as planned.
Lawsuits are pending in federal court to overturn those orders, which affectConsumer Energy’s majority-owned coal-fired 1,420-MW J.H. Campbell power plant in West Olive, Michigan, and Constellation Energy’s two 380-MW gas- and oil-fired units at its Eddystone power plant near Philadelphia. In part, the suits say DOE failed to show there are emergencies affecting the power systems in the Upper Midwest or the Mid-Atlantic region.
The reliability impacts of retiring the Campbell and Eddystone units was vetted by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator and the PJM Interconnection, respectively, before the grid operators approved the shutdowns.
The Trump administration is asking U.S. oil companies if they’re interested in returning to Venezuela once leader Nicolás Maduro is gone, four people familiar with the discussions told POLITICO.
And so far, the answer is a hard “no.”
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 — and how the world’s oil markets are both helping and hindering that goal.
The markets, glutted with supply and with prices at nearly five-year lows, are giving President Donald Trump an unusually free hand to tighten military pressure on the South American OPEC member, much the way they largely shrugged off U.S. and Israeli missile strikes on Iran in June. But those prices are also way too low to entice companies to take the risk of pouring huge investments into the crumbling Venezuelan oil facilities that former strongman Hugo Chávez seized decades ago, industry officials and analysts said.
The U.S. benchmark oil price was around $56 a barrel Wednesday afternoon, the lowest since January 2021. That means Trump has only limited reason to worry that an attack on Venezuela would send gasoline prices spiraling upward— but it also means U.S. oil companies have better investment options elsewhere.
“There has been the genesis of an outreach with the industry on the potential of reentering Venezuela,” one person familiar with the discussion said. “But frankly, there’s not a lot of interest from the industry, in light of lower oil prices and more attractive fields globally.”
Among the key points worth repeating – the price of fossil gas is a major driver, maybe THE major drivers of higher electric prices.
The alternative story about prices is that it comes from increased demand, but at least for now, the LBNL data does not show that – states that had more demand growth often had lower prices, or lower price growth.
Over the past 5 years, states with the highest load growth generally saw retail electricity prices decline in real terms – Ryan Wiser, Lawrence Berkeley Lab
Daniel Swain is one of our most valuable players – as a frontline atmospheric scientist who is also one of the most fluent communicators you will ever meet.
On Tuesday, after word that the Trump administration is ordering the closure arguably the world’s premier climate research center, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, Swain took to his YouTube channel, which he often uses for what he calls “Office Hour” Q and A sessions, and shared his reactions. He was a bit rushed, because ironically, at that moment, the area near his home was under threat of imminent Pre-emptive electric shut off due to the unseasonable warm, dry and windy conditions creating a fire threat.
At the moment, NCAR’s future is up in the air, and the reaction from scientist and lawmakers has been extremely negative toward the closure. With Trump’s personal influence rapidly fading, there is some hope this initiative will be turned back.
I have a friend with a long history of union activism with the UAW. I recall him shaking his head about the lack of awareness of the younger workers about the importance of the union, and the threat posed by the Trump administration to their jobs, pensions, health care, and security. A lot of those who voted for Trump have now lost their jobs.
The Trump administration’s turn away from EV competition and back to serving their Oil industry donors will cost US automakers whatever competitive position they might have had with the fastest growing auto markets in the world, now being served by China with EVs.
The lesson for the developing world of the Ukraine invasion, and now the US threats against Venezuela, is to shed their dependency on foreign fuel sources, and move toward EVs that can be powered with entirely homegrown renewable energy sources. Dagger to US global leadership.
Good work, MAGA, auto workers. Putting yourself out of a job. But at least you can hate EVs.
Ford trying to make lemonade by pivoting battery plants to serve energy storage markets, but meanwhile, thousands of workers will be laid off.
Ford is jumping into the battery energy storage business, betting that booming demand from data centers and the electric grid can absorb the EV battery capacity it says it’s not using.
Even with no hurricanes making landfall in the US in 2025, insured losses from global natural catastrophes surpassed the $100 billion mark for the sixth consecutive year, according to an analysis by Swiss Re Institute, the research arm of the reinsurance company.
The $107 billion estimate is 24% lower than last year, when Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit the US back to back. Nevertheless, it shows that extensive property damage from weather volatility, fueled by climate change, has become the new normal.
This year’s $100-billion-plus tally “reminds us that elevated natural catastrophe losses are no longer outliers but the new baseline,” Monica Ningen, Swiss Re’s CEO of US Property and Casualty, said in a statement. “It’s critical we double down on investing in resilience and adaptation so communities can be better prepared for the future.”
Although the US was spared hurricanes this year, the January fires that ravaged the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Altadena accrued $40 billion in insured losses, making them together the costliest-ever wildfire event globally
Following a multi-year trend, severe convective storms (thunderstorms) also racked up major losses, coming to roughly $50 billion. Europe saw damaging hail storms in the early summer. But most of the insured storm losses occurred in the US and were the result of tornadoes in March and May.
The US is the world’s biggest insurance market and experiences frequent extreme weather, and therefore saw the lion’s share of insured losses — $89 billion. Insured losses make up only a share of the total economic losses from catastrophes. Those came to $220 billion in 2025, according to Swiss Re.
The American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting is in progress, it’s time for NOAA’s annual Arctic Report Card, which is always a high point of the meeting.
Summary video above, 3 minutes.
Excerpts from the Executive Summary below, much more at the link.
Arctic surface air temperatures during the past year (October 2024-September 2025; the annual period that aligns with the natural water cycle) were the highest on record since at least 1900. This included the Arctic experiencing its warmest autumn, second-warmest winter, and third-warmest summer since 1900, reinforcing the now well-established pattern of amplified regional warming. Over the past 20 years, Arctic autumn and winter air temperatures have each increased by more than twice the corresponding increases in global air temperatures.
An intensifying hydrologic cycle, driven by increased evaporation, precipitation, and meltwater production, continues to emerge as a central expression of persistent Arctic heating. The 2024/25 water year saw record-high precipitation averaged for the entire year and for spring, and ranked among the top five wettest years for all other seasons since 1950. These patterns are consistent with a more moisture-laden atmosphere and an increasing frequency of extreme precipitation events, including atmospheric rivers that can deliver heavy amounts of rain or snow to large regions. For example, an atmospheric river was responsible for heavy precipitation in the Aleutians and across Alaska in January 2025, contributing to an overall Arctic winter with more extreme precipitation events than any other season.
Snow cover on land is directly influenced by the observed increases in Arctic precipitation, while at the same time the reduction in snow cover duration amplifies Arctic warming. The year 2025 was a clear example of this, consistent with conditions over the last 15 years. While the winter snowpack was above average across much of the Arctic, rapid melting in late spring caused June snow extent to drop below normal, continuing a six-decade decline. June snow cover extent is now 50% of what it was in the 1960s, altering river discharge, vegetation processes, animal behavior, and fire risk. The loss of reflective snow surfaces in June, when incoming solar energy reaches its annual maximum, results in more heat absorbed at the surface, contributing to further Arctic warming trends.
American Geophysical Union Fall meeting is ongoing in New Orleans.
I elected not to go again, for a number of reasons, but some of the sessions are showing up on line. This one caught my attention. You may remember that over the summer Fracking millionaire Chris Wright, now (after a half million dollar contribution to the Trump campaign) Secretary of Energy, called up some of the long forgotten climate cranks (Roy Spencer, John Christy, Judith Curry, Stephen Koonin) from the heroic age of Climate Denial (1990 to about 2012) and asked them to cut and paste a greatest hits album, which was released over the summer, and billed as “a fresh look at the alarmist claims”.
The publication has been roundly panned and thoroughlydebunked by the actual science community. One of the key claims was that US tidal gauge measurements reveal no acceleration in sea level rise. Oceanographer Chris Piecuch of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute thought that did not look right, and published his own assessment, which he described this week at AGU. (clip above)
American Geophysical Union (via email):
The study finds that the rate of U.S. coastal sea-level rise has more than doubled in the past 125 years, from a rate of less than 2 millimeters per year in 1900 to more than 4 millimeters per year in 2024, and that present rates are well above the historical average. This translates to a rise in U.S. coastal sea level of about 40 centimeters, or nearly 16 inches, over that time.
“Spirit, are they yours?” Scrooge could say no more.
“They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom,…. – Dickens, A Christmas Carol
———-
Future generations will not understand. The worst epidemic we face is not measles, it’s ignorance. Not just ignorance, but an absolute hatred for knowledge and expertise. This fills me with sadness and dread.
The US plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a key climate-science agency that the Trump administration is calling a source of environmental activism.
“This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country,” Russel Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget, said on X Tuesday evening. A review of the Boulder, Colorado-based center is underway, and vital functions such as weather research will be moved to other agencies.
The move advances the administration’s aggressive attacks on climate science, which President Donald Trump has repeatedly called “The Green New Scam.” He’s implemented policies to promote fossil fuels, taken steps to undermine existing programs that supported clean energy and curtailed important environmental regulations aimed at limiting carbon emissions.
— Climate scientist Chris Colose reacts to Budget Director Russ Vought’s tweet on the matter:
Just a reminder that you are a traitor and a fraud.
A selection of experts from a variety of fields presented on climate impacts in their area of expertise.
Professor Paul Behrens
Paul Behrens is a renowned sustainability scientist and British Academy Global Professor at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, where he leads research on the intersection of climate, energy, and food systems.
