WASHINGTON— U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright testified today before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on the Department of Energy’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget request. Earlier this month, Secretary Wright testified before the U.S. House Energy Subcommittee to outline the department’s FY2026 request. He also appeared last month before both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittees on Energy and Water Development to outline department priorities and provide a comprehensive overview of the budget. The FY2026 Budget delivers on President Trump’s directive to restore American energy dominance, unleash every American energy advantage, and bring commonsense back to Washington. It returns non-defense discretionary spending to the most disciplined levels since 2017 and redirects over $15 billion away from the Green New Scam— a reckless Biden-era agenda that drives up costs, weakens reliability, and undermines U.S. energy strength. The department remains committed to being responsible stewards of American taxpayer dollars while protecting the affordable, abundant, and reliable energy our nation depends on. For more details, view the budget toplines here. Secretary Wright’s opening remarks: Thank you, Chairman Lee, Ranking Member Heinrich, and Members of the Committee, it is an honor to appear before you today as Secretary of Energy to discuss the President’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget request for the Department of Energy. Under President Trump’s leadership, our priorities for the Department are clear—to achieve American energy dominance, bolster our national security, meet our Cold War legacy cleanup commitments and unleash historic innovation, including AI, for our nation and world. We are driven by a bedrock conviction that an affordable, reliable, secure energy supply is the foundation of a strong and prosperous nation. When America leads in energy, we lead in prosperity, security and human flourishing. We are committed to advancing our critical missions while cutting red

WASHINGTON— The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the start of a new pilot program to expedite the testing of advanced nuclear reactor designs under DOE authority outside of the national laboratories. In accordance with President Trump’s Executive Order, Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy, DOE issued a Request for Application (RFA) and is seeking qualified U.S. reactor companies interested in constructing and operating their test reactors outside of the national laboratories using the DOE authorization process. Today’s action represents an important step toward streamlining nuclear reactor testing and ensuring at least three reactors achieve criticality by July 4, 2026.   “For too long, the federal government has stymied the development and deployment of advanced civil nuclear reactors in the United States,” said Energy Secretary Chris Wright. “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we are expediting the development of next-generation nuclear technologies and giving American innovators a new path forward to advance their designs, propelling our economic prosperity and bolstering our national security.”  President Trump is committed to re-establishing the United States as a global leader in nuclear energy and securing a reliable, diversified, and affordable energy supply to drive American prosperity and technological advancement. The new reactor pilot program will help to unleash American nuclear energy capabilities, support U.S. jobs and strengthen American innovation.  The pilot program builds on current efforts to demonstrate advanced reactors on DOE sites through microreactor testbeds and other projects led by the Department of Defense and private industry. It is specifically designed to foster research and development of nuclear reactors and not demonstrate reactors for commercial suitability. Seeking DOE authorization provided under the Atomic Energy Act will help unlock private funding and provide a fast-tracked approach to enable future commercial licensing activities for potential applicants.    DOE will consider advanced reactors that have

Oil edged higher after a volatile session as President Donald Trump fanned speculation that the US may join the Middle East conflict. West Texas Intermediate rose 0.4% to settle above $75 a barrel, the highest closing price since January. Markets swung between gains and losses in a $3 range amid sharp reactions to developments in the Israel-Iran conflict. “Implied volatility continues to climb, signaling that underlying market anxiety remains elevated — even if that’s not fully reflected in price action,” said Rebecca Babin, a senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Group. Trump said Iran squandered the chance to make a deal over its nuclear enrichment, but declined to say whether the US plans to join Israel’s offensive aimed at destroying the program. “I may do it. I may not do it,” Trump told reporters Wednesday at the White House when asked if he is moving closer to bombing Iran. “I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.” Earlier, Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said his country won’t surrender to Israel after Trump called for the Islamic Republic’s capitulation as the conflict enters its fifth day. Trump had demanded Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” and warned of a possible strike against its leader in social media posts Tuesday. The US is also moving more military assets into the region, including the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group, which is sailing there ahead of schedule. The oil market’s main concerns are flows from Iran and the threat to vessel traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a quarter of the world’s crude shipments flow. Early data from TankerTrackers.com Inc. show that Iran increased its exports significantly since the attacks began, and there has been no major disruption to the strait. The risks to prices have permeated the oil derivatives

The Department of Energy’s May order directing Consumers Energy to delay retiring a 1,560-MW, coal-fired power plant in Michigan was illegal and based on a nonexistent emergency, Earthjustice and other groups said in a rehearing request filed on Wednesday at DOE. “The order represents an effort to replace the market- and state-led planning process provided by statute with an ill-advised and misinformed exercise in federal command-and-control,” the public interest groups said in their request that DOE rescind its decision. If DOE does not respond to the request within a required 30 days, the groups plan to challenge the 90-day emergency order in court, they said. The Federal Power Act’s section 202(c) gives the DOE secretary the authority to temporarily order power plants to operate during wars and emergencies. In a May 23 order, DOE Secretary Chris Wright said parts of the Midwest faced an “energy emergency” and that Consumers’ J.H. Campbell power plant in West Olive, Michigan, should run until Aug. 21, past its planned May 31 shutdown. DOE cited two reports in finding that an emergency exists in MISO: NERC’s 2025 Summer Reliability Assessment issued on May 14 and the grid operator’s capacity auction results released in late April. Those reports fail to show Michigan faces an emergency that requires the Campbell power plant to keep running, according to the public interest groups. MISO and the Michigan Public Service Commission have said the state and broader Midcontinent system have adequate power supplies this summer, the groups said. Also, MISO and the PSC approved retiring the Campbell power plant, and Consumers acquired replacement power supplies, they noted. “MISO has made clear time and again that the vast region over which it has balancing authority is resource adequate for summer 2025,” the groups said. “This means that MISO is not facing

Canadian companies could help Mexico reduce its lopsided dependency on imported US natural gas by maximizing its own domestic supplies of the fuel, according to the head of Canada’s top business group. While Mexico has for decades been a major oil producer, local natural gas output has failed to keep up with demand as it instead favored imports from US suppliers, mostly across the border in Texas. But Canadian firms see opportunities to increase investment in Mexican energy, said Business Council of Canada CEO Goldy Hyder after meeting with President Claudia Sheinbaum. Executives from major pipeline builders ATCO Ltd and TC Energy Corp were present at the sit-down with the Mexican president at the Group of Seven summit in Kananaskis, Canada. “There was a general feeling that it’s in Mexico’s interest to diversify more its sources of energy. It’s dependent on natural gas in the United States. And so obviously Canada can be very helpful in that regard,” Hyder said. “We have projects that are already taking place there that are going to allow Mexicans to have energy security because the gas is in Mexico and it’s being extracted.” State-owned Petroleos Mexicanos, known locally as Pemex, has struggled for years to boost its natural gas output at home. But due to a growing network of pipelines, Mexico’s reliance on gas from Texas sharply scaled up beginning around 15 years ago as US shale projects took off. More than 70% of the Latin American economy’s demand for the fuel is now satisfied via cross-border imports. Sheinbaum met with the business council on Monday prior to her meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday. US President Donald Trump’s unexpected return to Washington late on Monday led to the cancelation of what would have been his first in-person meeting with Sheinbaum.

Sales are still growing, but policy changes in the United States are significantly slowing the country’s adoption of electric vehicles, BloombergNEF said Wednesday in its annual global outlook for the sector. This “is the first year where we have reduced both our near-term and long-term passenger EV adoption outlook,” BNEF said in its 2025 Electric Vehicles Outlook. “Policy changes in the US are the biggest factor, with national fuel-economy targets being rolled back, supportive elements of the Inflation Reduction Act either being removed or under threat, and the potential removal of California’s ability to set its own air quality standards.” Electric vehicles set global sales records last year, and adoption rapidly increased in emerging markets across Asia and Latin America, according to Colin McKerracher, lead author of the report and BNEF’s head of clean transport and energy storage. “Despite these positive tailwinds, we see slower EV adoption in the short and long-term due in large part to the changing landscape in the US,” McKerracher said in a statement. “This shift in global adoption will also have major impacts on the battery industry, leading to overcapacity in manufacturing.” BNEF now expects passenger EV sales in the United States to rise from 1.6 million this year to 4.1 million in 2030, to make up 27% of total passenger car sales by the end of the decade. In last year’s report, the firm had anticipated EVs would make up 48% of sales by that time. “It results in cumulative EV sales between now and 2030 being 14 million units lower,” according to the report. The impact on battery supply is significant, according to BNEF. The firm’s global battery demand outlook between 2025 and 2035 “fell 8% compared to last year’s, equating to 3.4 [TWh] fewer batteries — a majority of which (2.8 TWh) can be attributed