Oil edged lower as signs of a softening crude market undercut broader strength across risk assets. West Texas Intermediate futures dipped 0.2% to settle above $66 a barrel, extending a three-day losing streak. The commodity followed broader markets off its lows after President Donald Trump denied a plan to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Still, that rebound wasn’t enough to fully undo a slide driven by government data showing falling distillate demand and rising inventories at the key storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma. “We are in a rangebound market here, with upside risk capped from waning geopolitical risk, while peak seasonal demand gives us some support,” said Frank Monkam, head of macro trading at Buffalo Bayou Commodities. Traders and analysts remain preoccupied with the prospect of an oversupply later this year as global demand growth cools, the OPEC+ alliance fast-tracks the return of halted supplies and output rises across the Americas. Oil has ticked higher this month — building on the upward trend since May — despite concerns that Trump’s tariff onslaught will hurt demand. Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its Brent forecast for this half, although it remained cautious about 2026. Key market gauges also are signaling reasonably tight near-term supplies. US benchmark crude’s current contract was trading at a $1.22 premium to the next month, a bullish structure. Overall crude inventories fell 3.86 million barrels in this week’s data and US distillate stockpiles, which include diesel, remained at the lowest since 1996 seasonally. While global crude inventories have been swelling in recent months, the bulk of the accumulation has come in markets that have relatively little effect on futures prices, according to Morgan Stanley. The premiums traders are paying for more immediate supplies, a pattern known as backwardation, signal strong short-term demand. “The Brent futures

The US may depart the International Energy Agency without changes to forecasting that Republicans have criticized as unrealistically green, President Donald Trump’s energy chief said. “We will do one of two things: we will reform the way the IEA operates or we will withdraw,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said during an interview Tuesday. “My strong preference is to reform it.”  The Paris-based IEA, established in response to the 1970s oil crisis to enhance energy security, stirred controversy in recent years as long-term forecasts began to factor in more active government policies to shift away from fossil fuels. The agency has predicted that global oil demand will plateau this decade as electric-vehicle fleets expand and other measures are adopted to reduce emissions and combat climate change. “That’s just total nonsense,” Wright said on the sidelines of the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He added he’s been in a dialog with the Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director. The IEA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In the past, it has defended its forecasting and said in a March 2024 statement that its scenarios “are built on different underlying assumptions about how the energy system might evolve over time.” Wright’s criticism of the agency that gets millions of dollars in US funding is in line with Trump’s broader pro-fossil fuels thrust, and his skepticism about climate change and some environmental measures adopted under previous administrations.  The energy group came under fire in the US last year from critics such as Senator John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, who said the IEA has become an “energy transition cheerleader” and that its modeling of long-term energy demand was skewed and “no longer provides policymakers with balanced assessments of energy and climate proposals.” WHAT DO YOU THINK? Generated

Dive Brief: Utility regulators on Tuesday approved Georgia Power’s 2025 integrated resource plan, which calls for keeping coal plants online to serve anticipated data center demand. It also includes up to 4,000 MW of renewable energy, 1,500 MW of battery storage and a smaller amount of new gas capacity. Georgia Power said it anticipates approximately 8,500 MW of load growth over the next six years. The IRP allows for the Public Service Commission to monitor that growth, with the utility updating its load forecast and making quarterly filings regarding large load developments. Clean energy and consumer advocates were critical of the plan’s reliance on coal and gas, and an energy savings target that has not been updated in years. Positive aspects of the IRP around solar, storage and customer programs “are sadly blunted by the continued investment in fossil fuel infrastructure,” said Heather Pohnan, senior energy policy manager with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, in a statement.  Dive Insight: The Atlanta metropolitan area is one of the hottest data center markets in the country right now, and Georgia Power’s long-term plan aims to meet the growing demand. But growth projections remain uncertain and critics of the IRP say it could leave customers on the hook for higher bills if the demand doesn’t materialize. Approval of the plan “locks in major investments based on uncertain assumptions about future data center demand, while failing to deliver meaningful benefits or cost relief to existing residential and small business customers,” said Patrick King, Georgia policy advocate with the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a statement. “The plan prioritizes speculative growth.” Data centers are driving U.S. electricity demand rapidly higher, but observers say final construction of new facilities is likely to be a fraction of what has been proposed.  Astrid Atkinson, a former Google senior director of

Linda Margison is technical advisor, Emerging Energy Resources at Hoosier Energy. Ryan Henderson is senior manager, Emerging Energy Resources at Hoosier Energy. Linda Stevens is chief strategy officer, Smart Grid and Smart City at OATI. School buses are the backbone of public transportation in the United States, with about 500,000 carrying half the nation’s children to and from school daily. In 2024, the number of those buses being converted to electric school buses (ESBs) grew to about 12,000 — or 2.5% of the total fleet — including those funded, ordered, delivered or in operation. Early adopters of ESBs in rural areas have identified five actions or insights that would have drastically improved their experience. Whether you are exploring fleet electrification or are ready to move forward, this article aims to inform your decisions about where to start, what equipment and software are necessary, and whether selling stored energy back to the electric grid is feasible. Getting the utility involved early Before considering the adoption of electric school buses, engage with the local utility early to assess the readiness of the bus depot’s electrical infrastructure. A key factor is whether the existing transformers can support the increased electrical load required to charge the buses. Charging large-capacity batteries imposes significant demands on the grid, and in many instances, the infrastructure may only be adequate with upgrades. Collaborating with the utility from the onset helps prevent unplanned expenses and aids in strategic planning for a clearer understanding of total project costs, necessary permits and timelines. Insight #1. Partner with your local utility provider as early as possible. Having the utility identify your infrastructure capacity and any improvements needed is the basis for purchasing appropriate equipment and budgeting the project cost. The utility also may offer rebates or incentive programs. Insight #2. Consider using

As the eastern half of the United States baked under record heat late last month and electricity demand reached multi-year peaks, it looked like the grid might succumb.  Grid operators and public officials scrambled to avoid a disaster, ordering generators to defer maintenance and customers to conserve energy. The PJM Interconnection served about 161 GW of load on June 24, its highest demand since 2011 and not far off its all-time high of 165.6 GW. But aside from scattered outages caused by heat-damaged electrical delivery equipment in parts of the New York City area, Eastern U.S. grids largely weathered the heatwave.  Grid experts — and at least one grid operator — say at least some of the credit goes to distributed energy resource aggregations and flexible loads dispatching at higher rates than ever before. Those “virtual” or distributed power plants helped keep the lights on as generator reserve margins plummeted. “PJM said that demand response was essential,” Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Mark Christie said in a June 30 press conference focused on the need for resource adequacy amid rising load forecasts. “That 161-GW peak would have been higher without DR, so DR is an important part of the mix too.” Major virtual power plant operators matched near-record peak loads with unprecedented dispatch activity. Sunrun dispatched more than 340 MW from customer-sited batteries on the evening of June 24. The same day, EnergyHub shed 900 MW of peak load and shifted 3.5 GWh of energy away from the highest-demand periods. Uplight managed about 350 MW of flexible load in 45 dispatch events across 16 utility programs over the course of the heat dome week.  Supportive state policy, expectations for rising power demand and simple economics are pushing once-skeptical utilities to embrace VPPs, said Hannah Bascom, chief growth officer at Uplight.

Three oil fields in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq were attacked by drones on Wednesday, adding to a spate of hits on energy installations in the area this week. Two drones attacked the DNO ASA-operated Peshkabir field around 6am local time, the Directorate General of Counter Terrorism in Kurdistan said in a statement. Another drone hit the Tawke project about an hour later, it said. A third attack was reported at a field in Ain Sifni in the north, the Kurdistan Ministry of Natural Resources said, adding the strikes caused significant damage to infrastructure. DNO suspended output at its projects, and would restart once an assessment is completed, the company said. Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd., which operates the Shaikan field that produced a little over 40,000 barrels a day last year, shut operations as a precaution even though the assets haven’t been hit, the company said. The Kurdistan region hasn’t been shipping any crude to global markets since an export pipeline to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast was shut over two years ago following a payments dispute. The vast majority of Iraq’s oil production comes from the country’s south.  Attacks on energy infrastructure aren’t uncommon in the north, which the Kurdistan administration often links on Iran-affiliated groups. No one has claimed responsibility for the latest spree. On Tuesday, the Sarsang field operated by US firm HKN Energy was shut after a strike caused an explosion and fire, while another project called Khurmala was targeted by two drones earlier.  The US embassy in Iraq condemned the attacks in a statement on Tuesday. The Tawke field produced 29,153 barrels a day last year and Peshkabir’s output was 49,462 a day, according to DNO’s website.  The Sarsang field pumped about 30,000 barrels a day of oil on average in the first quarter, according