Reform leader Nigel Farage has branded the debate around net zero as the “next Brexit” after his party stormed to unprecedented success in English local elections last week. Farage’s party seized control of ten local authorities, alongside defeating Labour in the Runcorn and Helsby Westminster by-election. Reform candidates also won two newly created mayoral positions in Greater Lincolnshire and Hull and East Yorkshire, where there are billions expected to be invested in clean energy schemes. Former Tory MP Dame Andrea Jenkyns becomes Greater Lincolnshire’s first mayor, while former boxer and Olympic gold medallist Luke Campbell won in Hull and East Yorkshire. The Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority (GLCCA) is host to the £2 billion Humber Zero project led by VPI and Phillips 66. North Sea operator Harbour Energy leading the £7bn Viking carbon capture and storage scheme (CCS) in the region. In addition to CCS and hydrogen investments, the offshore wind sector is also having a transformative effect in places like Hull and Grimsby. Reform takes aim at net zero ‘lunacy’ The victory for Reform in the northern regions, which comes amidst a growing political backlash against net zero policies, could pose significant challenges for the energy sector. In the wake of its electoral wins, Reform deputy leader Richard Tice said the party will use its newfound council powers to use “every lever” to block renewable energy projects including solar farms and electricity pylons. “Whether it’s planning blockages, whether it’s judicial reviews, whether it’s lawsuits, whether it’s health and safety notices, we will use every available legal measure to an extreme way in order to frustrate these people,” Tice said. Similarly, Farage told reporters that any council staff in Reform-controlled authorities who work in roles related to climate change should be looking for “alternative employment”. The Reform leader has made

Venture Global Inc. has secured $3 billion in syndicated borrowings to help fund the under-construction CP2 LNG in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. “This new capital, on top of the more than $4 billion we have already invested to date, will enable continued fabrication, manufacturing and procurement at an accelerated pace, similar to Plaquemines”, Venture Global chief executive Mike Sabel said in an online statement. Sabel was referring to another Venture Global liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Louisiana that dispatched its first cargo about two years earlier than the normal Energy Department timeframe. In March the Department of Energy (DOE) granted a conditional permit for CP2 LNG to export to countries with no free-trade agreement (FTA) with the United States. The project has already secured authorization for its export volume, the equivalent of about 1.45 trillion cubic feet a year of natural gas, when it won FTA export approval April 2022. A final permit for the non-FTA portion has been withheld pending a DOE review of permitting considerations concerning greenhouse gas emissions, environmental impact, energy prices and domestic gas supply. “DOE expects to issue a final order to CP2 LNG in the coming months”, the department said in an online statement March 19. The loan from a group of 19 banks follows the launch of CP2 LNG’s FID (final investment decision) process in March. SMBC served as left lead arranger and sole bookrunner. Caixabank and LBBW served as right lead arrangers. Bank of America, BBVA, Deutsche Bank, ING, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Mizuho, MUFG, NBC, RBC, Santander, Scotiabank and Wells Fargo served as coordinating lead arrangers. ICBC, NordLB and Regions served as joint lead arrangers.   Last month Venture Global closed a two-tranche offering of senior secured notes with a principal amount of $2.5 billion for the Plaquemines LNG facility in Plaquemines

Commonwealth LNG has roped in an unnamed “major” Asian customer with the signing of a deal for the supply of 1 million metric tons per annum for 20 years. “This offtake agreement marks another important milestone for Commonwealth as we work toward a final investment later this year and first offtake planned for 2029”, Ben Dell, managing partner of project owner Kimmeridge, said in an online statement. “We look forward to working with this Buyer, a longstanding leader in LNG, as we further our integrated wellhead-to-water strategy in delivering LNG to critical markets around the world”. “This Buyer is one of the world’s leading energy corporations, operating comprehensively across the oil and gas value chain from upstream to downstream”, added the statement by Kimmeridge and Commonwealth. “In the liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector, this Buyer is currently one of the largest global suppliers of LNG”. Located along the Calcasieu River on the Gulf Coast near Cameron, Louisiana, the project has a planned capacity of 9.5 MMtpa, equivalent to about 441.4 billion cubic feet per year of natural gas according to Commonwealth. “Commonwealth’s phase 1 development is expected to bring an investment of more than $11 billion to Louisiana and generate an estimated $3.5 billion in annual export revenue”, the statement added. “The project is expected to employ approximately 2,000 workers at the peak of construction and provide approximately 275 high-paying jobs when the facility begins operations in late 2029”. In February the Department of Energy (DOE) granted the project a conditional permit to export to countries with no free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States. This was the first LNG-related order issued by the DOE under Donald Trump’s second non-consecutive administration, which immediately ended ex-President Joe Biden’s pause of pending decisions on LNG export to countries with no FTA

Golar LNG Ltd. and its partners in the Southern Energy project have reached a positive FID (final investment decision) and fulfilled the conditions precedent for the 20-year redeployment of FLNG Hilli, the first of two vessels for the Argentine natural gas export project. The floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, fully acquired by Golar last year, will be chartered to the project consortium, Southern Energy SA (SESA), under a contract that is expected to start up 2027. Hilli began operation 2018 and has been deployed in Cameroon for Perenco SA under a contract that expires July 2026. Concurrently the Southern Energy partners penned definitive agreements for the 20-year charter of MKII FLNG, which is being converted in China. They expect to make an FID this year and deploy the unit in 2028. Under agreements that Golar signed last year with Pan American Energy SL (PAE), the Bermuda-registered developer of maritime LNG infrastructure has obtained a 10 percent stake in the consortium. Local producer PAE owns 30 percent, Argentina’s state-backed YPF SA 25 percent, Argentine player Pampa Energia SA 20 percent and London-based Harbour Energy PLC 15 percent. “The project has received the full support of the National and Provincial Governments in Argentina that granted all necessary approvals including the first ever unrestricted 30-year LNG export authorization in Argentina; qualification for the Incentive Regime for Large Investments; and provincial approval by the province of Río Negro for the offshore and onshore Environmental Impact Assessments for FLNG Hilli”, the companies said in an online statement. “The FLNGs will be located in close proximity of each other, offshore in the Gulf of San Matias Gulf in the province of Rio Negro, Argentina. The vessels will monetize gas from the Vaca Muerta formation, the world’s second largest shale gas resource, located onshore in the

Dive Brief: Restrictions on wind and solar development in Texas could increase wholesale power prices by 14% over the next 10 years and cause capacity shortfalls resulting in up to 3.1 GW of load shed in an extreme weather event, Aurora Energy Research said in an April 16 report prepared for the Texas Association of Business. In a “fully restricted renewables” scenario, where no further wind and solar development occurs in Texas once today’s late-stage projects are deployed, a typical 100-MW industrial customer would pay $6.3 million more for power each year by 2035, Aurora said. The typical household’s electricity costs would increase $225 per year, or about 10%. The report highlights the importance of the Texas renewables industry in meeting expected load growth this decade while keeping prices in check and that “renewables can make the system more reliable as opposed to less reliable … [which] tends to be overshadowed” in discussions of the role they play on the grid, Aurora’s Head of US Central Olivier Beaufils said in an interview. Dive Insight: The biennial Texas legislature is considering several bills this session that would benefit new natural gas and other firm generation resources at the expense of renewables. In the past few weeks, the state Senate passed one bill imposing new fees and regulatory requirements on wind and solar projects and another requiring new renewables to be matched megawatt-for-megawatt with new “dispatchable” resources other than batteries. A third bill under consideration, but not yet passed, would retroactively require firm backup generation at wind and solar facilities. The 2025 bills build on previous legislative efforts to blunt renewables’ rapid advance and incentivize dispatchable generation in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas’s territory. Though several proposals similar to those under consideration this year failed to advance out of the 2023

Matt Welch is the state director of Conservative Texans for Energy Innovation, a non-profit advocacy organization that works to advance clean energy with free market solutions. Texans have long championed free enterprise and competition. Over 25 years ago, our state was one of the first to deregulate most of our electricity market, unleashing billions in private investment and innovation. We know that when businesses compete, consumers win. Yet today, one critical part of our electric system that was competitive is now shielded from competition.  When it comes to building high-voltage transmission lines — the “interstate highways” of our electric grid — Texas was a leader in using competition to reduce costs.  But in 2019, Texas lawmakers quietly erected a barrier to competition in the transmission market. Senate Bill 1938 granted incumbent utilities a Right of First Refusal, or ROFR, for new transmission projects — banning new entrants from the Texas market.   The law now mandates that if a new power line will connect to a utility’s existing equipment, only that same utility can build and operate it​. This isn’t just bad policy — it’s antithetical to Texas’ free-market principles. The time has come to restore the competitive, free-market spirit to our transmission sector, ensuring reliable power at the lowest cost for Texas families and businesses. Defenders of the ROFR say it ensures reliability by letting familiar local utilities build needed lines. But Texans know better: competition and accountability drive performance, not a complacent monopoly. Under the ROFR regime, a handful of transmission utilities dictate project terms, timelines and costs — all recovered from ratepayers — without facing any competing bids. This lack of competition reduces the incentives for efficiency and transparency. It’s economics 101: when there’s no alternative provider, customers (in this case, all of us who pay electric bills)