Why AI companies are paying a premium to go off the grid (and what this costs the rest of us). The race is on to train the next generation of frontier AI models. Staying competitive in this race is…

Does a Data Center In Your Hood Make Your House Worthless? Like most people, I have a few rules in my life that keep me sane. Like “choose the route that minimizes the number of left turns.” And I …

Transitory gasoline and diesel price increases are unlikely to stimulate widespread adoption of electric transportation. Since the Iran War began on February 28, 2026 the war’s effects have been fe…

The Iran and Ukraine wars have exposed the world’s reliance on the Middle East and Russia for diesel.

The current approach to financing local electricity infrastructure undermines safety and decarbonization. Many of our Energy Institute bloggers have at some point written a post that discusses the …

China joined the WTO in 2001 and has dominated air conditioner manufacturing ever since. It’s been a very hot summer and one of the surprising themes in media coverage has been the focus on Chinese…

The decision comes after a federal regulator alleged he made more than $17,000 by placing bets on his attendance at the State of the Union address.

Oil companies and governments are consuming their once vast stockpiles as Iran and the United States continue to struggle for control over the Strait of Hormuz.

The cost of the fuel, used in farm machinery, trucks and other heavy equipment, has surged because of the war in Iran and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries.

Podcast Episode · Front Burner · August 24 · 36m

This cost allocation fight is not a zero sum game On January 7, 2025, sparks from arcing electrical lines ignited dry brush in a canyon above Altadena. Powerful Santa Ana winds fanned flames that r…

This year, the federal government requires that more than 10% of diesel used in the US be biofuel. To meet this requirement, Americans will have to use almost 7 billion gallons of biomass-based die…

A closer look at $3.9 billion in lease buyouts suggests they are bad policy but probably irrelevant to deployment Climate headlines often nudge me toward despair. Heat waves, wildfires, and melting…

The president called out ExxonMobil and Chevron for record profits amid high oil prices.

America’s fuel-makers are maxed out as they try to fill in the gaps of the global fuel supply crunch.

Recently announced projects include a 3.2-GW OpenAI data center near Savannah, Georgia. The contract includes 1 GW of “flexible demand response” for peak shaving — the first such flexibility provision...

Podcast Episode · Columbia Energy Exchange · August 4 · 1h

In this program, we explore how the U.S.-Iran conflict and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz impact global oil, gas, and energy security, including in the United States, analyzing maritime blockages...

Trump has lashed out at U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro after she dropped vandalism cases and blamed damage at the pool on rushed and flawed work by a contractor.

About half of the largest emissions reduction in California’s cap-and-trade program came from clean power that already existed. One of the central challenges in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) …

No one has tried operating a commercial one a mile down—until now in Parsons. “It’s great that it’s here. It’s kind of bad that we’re the guinea pigs,” says one local leader.

Breaking down more than two decades of the state’s gasoline price premium. The war is back on, crude oil prices are back up, and the cost of gasoline has reversed its declines of a few weeks ago. H…

Contango for two

Old rules, new pipes, and a shrinking customer base. Our natural gas distribution system is aging. Chances are, there’s an aging gas main under a street near you that will pose some leakage risk in…

From 2023-2025 there was a $2,000 U.S. income tax credit for heat pumps. Not anymore. The last few years were a great time to buy a heat pump. U.S. households installing a heat pump during 2023, 20…

Ukraine drone strikes have hammered Russia’s refineries

Project to supply Asia with 1mn barrels per day comes amid trade hostilities with southern neighbour

New research finds no evidence of negative health impacts from wind turbines Maybe it’s because I am currently in Portugal (which is totally next door to Spain) and re-reading Don Quixote, that I a…

A lively march to the World Cup’s round of 16 reaches a familiar end versus an extra-motivated contender. Where does U.S. men’s soccer go from here?

Some of the generating units have operated during tight grid conditions and may have contributed to reliability. Keeping them running costs about $550 million a year, the Sierra Club says.

Negative energy prices reveal opportunities for markets and consumers. US consumers have experienced rising prices for most of this decade. Energy bills have climbed at an even faster rate – partic…

Supply and demand likely play an important role, but so do market expectations. When Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in early March 2026, the media carried some pretty scary predictions of what wo…

Alternative ways to see California’s record-breaking April 2026. April 2026 was an all-time record for renewables curtailment in California. 1.46 million MWhs. That’s a lot. Equivalent to 18% of al…

Clean energy transition, Aussie rules. I’m visiting the University of Melbourne. Lucky me. During the first week of our visit, my son and I got to watch an AFL “footy” match at the Melbourne Cricke…

The Golden State depends more on crude-oil shipments from the Middle East than any other U.S. state.

Even Silicon Valley EV owners mostly say no to letting the utility schedule their charging. Most of the public attention paid to electric vehicle (EV) policy has focused on getting them on the road…

Blockade in Strait of Hormuz has removed up to 13mn barrels a day from global markets and drawn down ‘shock absorbers’

Households could see around £145 a year in policy costs cut from energy bills in April under measures announced in the Chancellor’s Budget.

Refiners maximise production and increase imports from US and Africa to offset loss of Middle Eastern supplies