A key US Senate ally of President Donald Trump said he has the commitment of 72 colleagues for a bill that would enact “bone-crushing” new sanctions on Russia and tariffs on countries that buy its oil, gas and other key products if Vladimir Putin doesn’t engage in serious negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. “The goal is to help the president,” Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told reporters Wednesday, on the same day that the US and Ukraine announced an agreement over access to the latter country’s natural resources. The deal offered a measure of assurance to officials in Kyiv who had feared that Trump might pull back his support of peace talks with Moscow. The punishments would include a 500% tariff on imports from countries that buy Russian oil, petroleum products, natural gas or uranium, according to a draft of the bill seen by Bloomberg News. Other sanctions would also prohibit US citizens from buying Russian sovereign debt, according to the draft.  “He talked about being frustrated,” Graham said. “I want a negotiated end to the war, honorably and just. I think Trump’s the best person to achieve that goal, but these sanctions represent the Senate’s view that we see the primary bad guy being Russia.” Graham added that Russian leader Putin, “would be making a huge mistake to try to play Trump, so this bill is a tool in President Trump’s toolbox,” he said. “When President Trump believes that we’ve reached an impasse, then watch for action.” Graham said he has enough support in the House to bring the sanctions bill to the floor there as well. He predicted that Putin would eventually have to choose between sitting down with Trump to end the war or have the Russian economy be “crushed.”  The White House did

US oil futures broke a three-day string of losses as equity markets strengthened and President Donald Trump threatened broader sanctions against buyers of Iranian crude. West Texas Intermediate settled 1.8% higher, at $59.24 a barrel after Trump said that any nation or person who buys oil or petrochemicals from Iran will be subject to secondary sanctions. It was the biggest one-day increase for US oil futures in more than a week. The gains come after prices have fallen sharply since OPEC+ last month rocked the market with its surprise decision to pump more than expected, just as other producers including Guyana also ramp up output. Reuters reported Wednesday that Saudi officials have told allies the kingdom can endure a period of depressed prices, reinforcing expectations it will steer OPEC+ to another supply surge at a meeting May 5. “We’ve been oversold the last few days and there’s a lot of speculation about Saudi flooding the market next week,” said Joe DeLaura, global energy strategist at Rabobank. “Traders are taking a breather and pulling off some risk before the weekend and OPEC meeting.” Despite the pressure on prices, the market faces supply risks. Trump’s Senate ally Lindsey Graham said he had the commitment of 72 colleagues for a bill that would enact “bone-crushing” sanctions on Russia, and tariffs on countries taking its oil, if Vladimir Putin didn’t engage in serious talks to end the war in Ukraine. The US has also been repeatedly sanctioning entities involved in the transportation of Iranian crude, and targeting Venezuelan shipments, too. Yet on the demand side, data Wednesday showed the US economy shrinking for the first time since 2022, while factory activity in China slipped into the worst contraction since 2023. That overshadowed more bullish figures showing US crude and gasoline inventories dropped last week.

PJ Wilson is president of the Solar and Energy Storage Association of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico’s electric grid has long struggled with reliability, high costs and vulnerability to natural disasters. In response, the island is experiencing a surge in distributed energy: about 4,000 homes are connecting new rooftop solar and battery systems to the grid each month. This rapid adoption is not only providing relief to families — it’s actively improving grid stability, thanks to smart inverter standards now required for all systems installed since Jan. 1. Yet, the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico (FOMB) is pursuing a lawsuit that could undermine the net metering policy driving this transformation. Legal uncertainty threatens distributed energy progress The FOMB’s legal challenge targets Puerto Rico’s law extending net metering through 2030. Net metering is the policy that ensures solar households are fairly credited for excess energy sent to the grid — a key incentive that has enabled more than 10% of Puerto Rican homes to install solar and batteries. Instead of focusing on grid modernization, the FOMB’s lawsuit risks stalling a policy that has broad support from lawmakers, regulators and the public. For many, net metering is essential to making solar affordable and accessible, especially as the centralized grid remains unreliable. Smart inverters: distributed solar as a grid asset A frequent concern about rapid rooftop solar adoption is the potential for grid instability. In Puerto Rico, the opposite is unfolding. Since Jan. 1, all new solar installations must use advanced smart inverter settings, enabling these systems to help regulate voltage and frequency. This ensures that as more distributed resources come online, they contribute to grid stability rather than undermine it. With thousands of new smart-enabled solar homes joining the grid each month, Puerto Rico is building a distributed, responsive network

Dive Brief: Public Service Electric & Gas is open to owning generating assets as one solution to ensuring New Jersey has adequate power supplies, according to Ralph LaRossa, chair, president and CEO of Public Service Enterprise Group, the utility’s parent company. Other options include attracting independent power producers to New Jersey or adding transmission lines to import electricity from other states, LaRossa said Wednesday during an earnings conference call. With electricity bills set to rise roughly 20% in New Jersey, mainly because of the PJM Interconnection’s last capacity auction, New Jersey lawmakers and its governor are exploring pathways to add power supplies to the state’s system, including by allowing utility-owned generation. Dive Insight: Affordability is a major concern in New Jersey and across the country, according to LaRossa. “It goes from eggs to energy,” he said. “From our standpoint, we want to do our part.” PSE&G has about 2.4 million electric customers. The utility’s residential customers face a 17% rate increase on June 1, but the New Jersey Bureau of Public Utilities has asked the state’s utility to propose options for buffering the rate hike, LaRossa noted. Near-term options include connecting customers to assistance programs, such as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, energy efficiency programs and bill-payment programs, according to LaRossa. In the long term, more power supplies are needed, LaRossa said. “We’d be more than willing to do it in rate base … or it could show up by new wires being built and bringing in generation from another location,” he said. “What I hear from policymakers in the state is that they would like to have more control over their destiny, and that would lead me to believe that we would want to have more generation in the state.” However, building new power plants will take

Dive Brief: Corning Inc. announced plans on Tuesday to invest another $600 million in its upcoming solar component facility in Richland Township, Michigan, aiming to accelerate advanced manufacturing operations. The additional funds will create 400 more jobs, bringing the total to 1,500 roles. The money builds on its February 2024 announcement through a $900 million investment. Production at the now $1.5 billion factory, which will be operated under Corning’s subsidiary Solar Technology, is expected to come online in the second half of the year, Chairman and CEO Wendell Weeks said in an earnings call Tuesday. Dive Insight: The solar industry experienced unprecedented growth in domestic capacity in 2024, accounting for 66% of the energy-generating segment space — which includes wind, natural gas and coal — in the United States, according to a U.S. solar market insight report from Wood Mackenzie and the Solar Energy Industries Association.   The increase was due to investments in capacity that were driven by the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as more resilient supply chains and growing interest from utility and power companies, the report stated.  Corning is experiencing increased demand for its solar products as well, which Weeks said makes the company’s solar assets “even more valuable.” Corning sold out its solar wafer capacity for the year, including from the Michigan facility under construction, EVP and CFO Edward Schlesinger said in the earnings call. Furthermore, the company sold 80% of its planned capacity for the next five years, Weeks said last month at the company’s investor event. Corning also launched a new solar market access platform, which it expects to generate $2.5 billion in revenue by 2028, Weeks said last month at the company’s investor event. The company expects to see a “positive incremental impact” on its sales, profits and cash flow in the second half

Former Shell integrated gas and upstream director Zoë Yujnovich is set to become the next chief executive of UK gas and electricity utility operator National Grid. In a statement, National Grid said Yujnovich will succeed current chief executive John Pettigrew from 16 November. The leadership transition comes as the grid operator embarks on an “unprecedented” £35 billion upgrade programme in its electricity transmission business over the next six years. National Grid is also investing up to £59bn in high-voltage cable projects, including the Eastern Green Link 4, Sealink and Lionlink. John Pettigrew and Zoë Yujnovich Pettigrew has spent almost ten years leading National Grid, and the company said he and its board had agreed it is the “right time to transition leadership”. After joining National Grid as a graduate in 1991, Pettigrew held a variety of senior roles before taking on the CEO position in 2016. © Supplied by National GridNational Grid chief executive John Pettigrew will retire in November 2025. Meanwhile, Shell announced Yujnovich would step down from her role at the supermajor in March after more than a decade. The Australian joined Shell in 2014 after more than a decade at mining company Rio Tinto, and is also on the board of Unilever as a non-executive director. National Grid said Yujnovich will join its board on 1 September before becoming chief executive on 17 November. National Grid leadership National Grid chair Paula Reynolds thanked Pettigrew for his “invaluable contribution” to the company over three decades. “His leadership as chief executive has been exemplary, driving the group’s strategic transformation, enabling the energy transition and delivering significant shareholder value,” Reynolds said. © Supplied by National GridOffshore construction of the National Grid North Sea Link HVDC cable project linking the UK and Norway. “He will leave the group in a strong