New York Post June 27, 2025 “How the Big Beautiful Bill will lower energy costs, shore up the electric grid — and unleash American prosperity” By Chris Wright How much would you pay for an Uber if you didn’t know when it would pick you up or where it was going to drop you off? Probably not much. Yet this is the same effect that variable generation sources like wind and solar have on our power grids. You never know if these energy sources will actually be able to produce electricity when you need it — because you don’t know if the sun will be shining or the wind blowing. Even so, the federal government has subsidized these sources for decades, resulting in higher electricity prices and a less stable grid. . . . President Donald Trump knows what to do: Eliminate green tax credits from the Democrats’ so-called Inflation Reduction Act, including those for wind and solar power. The One Big Beautiful Bill seeks to do that: Along with other proposals, like canceling billions in Biden Green New Deal money and making much-needed investments in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, it aims to set an aggressive end date for these subsidies and build on the president’s push for affordable, abundant, and secure energy for the nation. . . . As Secretary of Energy — and someone who’s devoted his life to advancing energy innovation to better human lives — I, too, know how these Green New Deal subsidies are fleecing Americans. Wind and solar subsidies have been particularly wasteful and counterproductive. One example: The Renewable Electricity Production Tax Credit was first introduced in 1992, when wind energy was a nascent industry. This tax credit, originally set to phase out in 1999, was sold on a promise of low-cost energy with

The ability of Midcontinent and East Coast grid operators to narrowly handle this week’s extreme heat and humidity without blackouts reflects the urgent need to ensure the United States has adequate power supplies, according to Mark Christie, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. “We’re simply not building generation fast enough, and we’re not keeping generation that we need to keep,” Christie said Thursday during a media briefing after the agency’s open meeting. “Some of our systems really came close to the edge.” The PJM Interconnection, the largest U.S. grid operator, hit a peak load of about 161 GW on Monday, nearly 5% above its 154 GW peak demand forecast for this summer and the highest demand on its system since 2011. The grid operator had about 10 GW to spare at the peak, according to Christie. At that peak, PJM’s fuel mix included gas at about 44%, nuclear at 20%, coal at 19%, solar at 5% and wind at 4%, according to Christie. Also, PJM told Christie that demand response was “essential” at reducing load, he said. PJM used nearly 4,000 MW of demand response to reduce its load, according to FERC Commissioner Judy Chang. “I see load flexibility as a key tool for grid operators to meet the challenges that we face,” Chang said. PJM called on demand response resources on Monday in its mid-Atlantic and Dominion regions, on Tuesday across its footprint and on Wednesday in its eastern zones, according to Dan Lockwood, a PJM spokesman. PJM was within its reserve requirements, but used DR to provide additional resources for the grid, he said in an email. Resource adequacy is the “central issue” facing the U.S., according to Christie, who said blackouts during the extreme heat could have been deadly. “You never know about the next time,

Dive Brief: New York could take a page from Ontario’s playbook and deploy multiple reactors to reach and possibly exceed the 1-GW target Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Monday, analysts with Clean Air Task Force said in an interview. Whether the New York Power Authority ultimately selects a large light-water reactor like the Westinghouse AP1000 or multiple units of a small modular design like the GE Hitachi BWRX-300, lessons learned on recent and ongoing nuclear builds could translate to lower final costs, said John Carlson, CATF’s senior Northeast regional policy manager. That could enable a “fleet-style approach” to deployment similar to Ontario Power Generation’s plan to build four 300-MW BWRX-300 reactors in sequence, lowering the final cost per unit, said Victor Ibarra, senior manager for CATF’s advanced nuclear energy program. On Monday, Hochul said the plan would “allow for future collaboration with other states and Ontario.” Dive Insight: Gov. Hochul on Monday directed NYPA and the New York Department of Public Service “to develop at least one new nuclear energy facility with a combined capacity of no less than one gigawatt of electricity, either alone or in partnership with private entities,” in upstate New York. As governor, Hochul has considerable influence over NYPA, the state-owned electric utility. In February, for example, she “demand[ed]” NYPA suspend a proposed rate hike. Hochul’s announcement made no mention of specific reactor types or designs, but the suggestion that multiple plants could be in the offing suggests NYPA could consider small modular designs alongside a large light-water reactor, Ibarra said. “It’s good that they’re taking a minute to explore both options,” Carlson said. “I don’t think they know which one is most beneficial yet.” Hochul said NYPA would immediately begin evaluating “technologies, business models and locations” for the first plant. The preconstruction process will

Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, plans a stock listing for his Nigerian crude oil refinery by the end of next year to widen the company’s investor base. The billionaire also plans this year to list the group’s urea plant, which has a capacity to produce 2.8 million tons of the crop nutrient per annum, Dangote told the African Export-Import Bank’s annual general meeting in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, on Friday.  The oil facility can processes 650,000 barrels of crude a day, making it the continent’s biggest refinery. Nigeria’s downstream regulator and fuel marketers have accused Dangote of seeking to become a monopoly with his new refinery.  A listing — through an initial public offering — could help woo investors including state-owned pension funds. The $20 billion Dangote Refinery outside the commercial hub Lagos, which became operational last year, currently produces aviation fuel, naphtha, diesel and gasoline. Monopoly Accusation It’s “important to list the refinery so that people will not be calling us a monopoly,” Dangote said. “They will now say we have shares, so let everybody have a part of it.” The tycoon, who had planned to start construction of a 5,000 ton steel plant after completing the refinery, last year scrapped the proposal because of the allegations.  Dangote earlier this year said his group is on track to generate total revenue of $30 billion in 2026. On Friday, he said that the company plans to surpass Qatar as the world’s biggest exporter of urea within four years.  The facility currently exports 37% of its output to the US. WHAT DO YOU THINK? Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

WASHINGTON— U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright today announced that the Department of Energy in coordination with the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the Departments of Commerce and the Interior and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has officially withdrawn from the Columbia River System Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Today’s action follows President Trump’s Memorandum directing the federal government to halt the Biden Administration’s radical Columbia River basin policy and will ensure Americans living in the Pacific Northwest can continue to rely on affordable hydropower from the Lower Snake River dams to help meet their growing power needs. “The Pacific Northwest deserves energy security, not energy scarcity. Dams in the Columbia River Basin have provided affordable and reliable electricity to millions of American families and businesses for decades,” said Energy Secretary Chris Wright. “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, American taxpayer dollars will not be spent dismantling critical infrastructure, reducing our energy-generating capacity or on radical nonsense policies that dramatically raise prices on the American people. This Administration will continue to protect America’s critical energy infrastructure and ensure reliable, affordable power for all Americans.” BACKGROUND: On June 10, 2025, President Trump signed the Presidential Memorandum, Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Generate Power for the Columbia River Basin, revoking the prior Presidential Memorandum, Restoring Healthy and Abundant Salmon, Steelhead, and Other Native Fish Populations in the Columbia River Basin, part of the radical green energy agenda calling for “equitable treatment for fish.” The Biden-era MOU required the federal government to spend over $1 billion and comply with 36 pages of costly, onerous commitments aimed at replacing services provided by the Lower Snake River Dams and advancing the possibility of breaching them. Breaching the dams would have doubled the region’s risk of power shortages, driven wholesale electricity rates up by as much

Russia’s oil product exports dropped in June to the lowest in eight months amid extended work at refineries supplying Baltic ports, coupled with efforts to stabilize domestic fuel supplies before the upcoming seasonal surge in agricultural and holiday consumption. Seaborne shipments of refined fuels totaled 2 million barrels a day in the first 20 days in June, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from analytics firm Vortexa Ltd. That’s the lowest monthly tally since October and an 8% decline compared to both the previous month and last year in June. Flows from Baltic ports recorded the sharpest drop of more than 15% from May levels. Russian seaborne oil flows are closely watched by the market to assess its production since official data has been classified. Crude outflows slid to the lowest since mid-April led by maintenance-related disruptions at a key Pacific port, compounded by a decline from the Baltic. Oil processing rates have ramped-up this month as refineries wrap up seasonal maintenance. However, volumes available for export may be curbed by government initiatives to boost stockpiles to meet growing fuel demand from agricultural activity and summer travel. Diesel exports were largely flat, while flows of refinery feedstocks like vacuum gasoil, used by secondary units like the fluid catalytic crackers, jumped this month. Outflows of all other major fuels slumped. Most of the decline in fuel flows were concentrated in the Baltic ports, indicating extended turnarounds at refineries that usually supply these terminals. “Drone strikes earlier this year could have extended the turnaround time for both primary and secondary units,” according to Mick Strautmann, a market analyst at Vortexa. The spike in vacuum gasoil flows out of Ust-Luga in the Baltic, a feedstock used in secondary units like the fluid catalytic cracking units, suggests more serious disruptions at downstream units in the region, he