Congress should maintain Inflation Reduction Act clean energy tax credits to provide utilities with certainty about their investment decisions, Todd Brickhouse, CEO and general manager of Basin Electric Power Cooperative, said during a House hearing on Wednesday. “The immediate removal of [the production tax credit] will not allow utilities to plan for and avoid increased costs, and this will also immediately harm ratepayers,” Brickhouse said during a hearing held by the Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on energy on the challenges of responding to rising demand growth. Basin Electric, a generation and transmission wholesale cooperative based in Bismarck, North Dakota, is building 1,500 MW of solar, partly based on the assumption the capacity would be eligible for PTCs, according to Brickhouse. Congressional Republicans are looking for ways to trim federal spending to pay for their budget plans, potentially including changes to tax credits provisions contained in the Inflation Reduction Act. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, said the IRA’s tax credits can help spur the buildout of energy infrastructure to meet growing electric demand.  “Tax incentives like the tech-neutral clean energy credits under [sections] 45Y and 45E, and the 45Q carbon sequestration credit, and the 45X advanced manufacturing credit aim to strengthen American manufacturing capability and reduce the engineering procurement and construction risks that have plagued major energy projects,” Miller-Meeks said. She joined 17 other House Republicans in an Aug. 6 letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., supporting the IRA’s tax credits. Those tax credits are “incredibly helpful in ensuring that we can get those projects built and online in a manner that’s affordable for our customers,” said Noel Black, senior vice president of federal regulatory affairs for Southern Co., which owns utilities in the Southeast. Renewable energy can help meet electricity demand, in part because it can be built relatively quickly, according

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), increased by 3.6 million barrels from the week ending February 21 to the week ending February 28, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report. This report was released on March 5 and included data for the week ending February 28. The report showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 433.8 million barrels on February 28, 430.2 million barrels on February 21, and 448.5 million barrels on March 1, 2024. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 395.3 million barrels on February 28 and February 21, and 361.0 million barrels on March 1, 2024, the report outlined. Total petroleum stocks – including crude oil, total motor gasoline, fuel ethanol, kerosene type jet fuel, distillate fuel oil, residual fuel oil, propane/propylene, and other oils – stood at 1.600 billion barrels on February 28, the report showed. Total petroleum stocks were down 4.6 million barrels week on week and up 16.8 million barrels year on year, the report revealed. “At 433.8 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about four percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA stated in its latest weekly petroleum status report. “Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 1.4 million barrels from last week and are one percent above the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories increased, while blending components inventories decreased last week,” it added. “Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 1.3 million barrels last week and are about six percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories decreased by 2.9 million barrels from last week and are four percent below the five year average for this time of year,”

The future global economic exposure to fossil fuel assets that could become stranded by the energy transition has doubled in the past five years from $1.4 trillion to $2.28tn by 2040. The UK is expected to be the ninth country globally to experience the heaviest losses per capita from stranded fossil fuel assets, making it more exposed than the US, Italy or France. About $141 billion (£113bn) of that total could be wiped from the UK economy from stranded fossil fuel assets, according to a new study by UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF) and Transition Risk Exeter (TREX). Oil, gas or coal reserves, together with associated infrastructure and investments, are expected to lose economic viability before their operational lifetimes conclude due to climate policies, technological changes, and shifting market conditions. In a warming scenario between 2.5°C and 2.9°C, climate-intensified natural disasters may lead to $12.5tn in economic losses by 2050, the study predicts. The study estimates that the financial loss from stranded fossil fuel assets alone amounts to about $3,279 per UK adult. They warned that individual savers will shoulder the cost of the UK’s “outsized exposure” to fossil fuels. James Alexander, chief executive of UKSIF, said: “With asset stranding presenting a material risk to the long-term health of the UK economy, including the retirement savings of millions of people, it is clear that a carefully controlled transition away from fossil fuels is both an environmental and a financial imperative. “Too many oil and gas companies are betting on demand that will not materialise in a decarbonising world, and the public are at risk of paying the bill. The surest way to offset the risk of losses posed by stranded assets is to invest in industries that will thrive as fossil fuels decline.” Alexander called on the UK government to demonstrate global climate leadership by

Dive Brief: The U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday approved a liquefied natural gas export permit extension for Golden Pass LNG, a project owned by QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil and currently under construction in Sabine Pass, Texas. It is the third LNG-related authorization by DOE since President Trump took office, reversing a Biden administration “pause” on export approvals. Trump has said he wants the U.S. to achieve “energy dominance” and fossil fuel exports are a part of that strategy. Consumer and environmental advocates, however, warn that unrestricted gas exports could raise domestic gas prices by more than 30%, send electricity prices higher and stymie efforts to reduce emissions. Dive Insight: Golden Pass is expected to begin exporting LNG by the end of this year, making it the ninth large-scale export terminal operating in the United States, DOE said. Exporting natural gas “supports American jobs, bolsters our national security and strengthens America’s position as a world energy leader,” Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a statement. DOE’s decision follows two February actions: the agency approved an export approval for Commonwealth LNG, and issued an order on rehearing that removed barriers for the use of LNG as “bunkering” fuel used by the ships transporting it. “Golden Pass was the first project approved for exports to non-free trade agreement countries by DOE during the first Trump Administration, and it is gratifying that this project is so close to being able to deliver its first LNG,” Tala Goudarzi, acting principal deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, said in a statement. In December, DOE published a study concluding increased exports would contribute to higher electricity and natural gas prices for U.S. consumers, as well as increased greenhouse gas emissions and other costs. Then-Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm warned that U.S. LNG exports have tripled

Low-carbon solutions developer Storegga has submitted a planning application for a green hydrogen facility aimed at helping to decarbonise local distilleries. The proposed Speyside hydrogen facility at Ballindalloch, Marypark, will use a 70MW electrolyser and includes plans for associated infrastructure, water supply and a wastewater pipeline. It will use renewable electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis, and is scheduled to produce 25 tonnes of green hydrogen per day on average, running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The company envisions signing a power purchase agreement with a low-carbon power supplier to supply electricity to the site. In addition, the facility will use up to 17,600 cubic feet (500 cubic metres) of water per day for electrolysis. This will come from groundwater boreholes, supplemented with rainwater, which will be stored in detention ponds and storage units. The planning application is now under review by Moray Council, with a decision expected in the coming months. If approved, construction is expected to begin in 2026 with commercial operations starting in 2028. Storegga envisions expanding the facility beyond its initial phase, ultimately deploying about 200MW of electrolytic hydrogen production. While hydrogen would initially be supplied to customers, such as the numerous distilleries in the area, by road haul, the company said it could be supplied through a private pipeline or by blending the hydrogen into an existing gas network at a later date. In addition, it can help reduce carbon emissions within the distilling industry. In 2022, Scottish distilleries produced over 600,000 tonnes of CO₂ in scope 1 and 2 emissions. Storegga Speyside hydrogen opportunity manager Christina Smitton said: “The development of green hydrogen is a vital component of Scotland’s energy transition, and we are thrilled to be leading the charge in bringing this important technology to the

The Canadian province of Alberta is immediately halting purchases of US alcohol and changing its procurement rules to respond to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, while focusing longer-term efforts to export more oil and gas to other markets.  Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Wednesday that she still doesn’t support taxing or reducing oil and gas exports to the US, but that the province will work on building pipelines to Canada’s coasts to increase shipments to Asia and Europe. The province is home to the world’s third-largest crude reserves and supplies the vast majority of the 4 million barrels a day of oil the US imports from Canada.  Alberta’s resources are “significantly larger and far more accessible than the quickly declining oil and gas reserves located in the United States,” Smith said at a press conference Wednesday. “Whether the US president wishes to admit it or not, the United States not only needs our oil and gas today, they are also going to need it more and more with each passing year.” Canada’s federal and provincial governments have rolled out a series of countermeasures this week in response to Trump’s tariffs, with policies targeting US alcoholic beverages among the common options. Provincial governments in Canada have control over alcohol distribution and in some cases even run retail stores. Ontario and British Columbia have already begun pulling US products off those shelves.  Smith said she’s also pursuing longer-term measures to strengthen Canada’s economic position, including free trade and labor-mobility agreements with other provinces. Premiers of neighboring provinces have also shown some receptiveness in recent weeks to pipeline projects that would allow Canada to export energy to non-US markets, she said.  “There is a real spirit of collaboration among the premiers,” Smith said. Possibilities include a spur line off the Trans Mountain oil pipeline