A major grid-tech company is asking the Trump administration to fund a project it says could significantly boost the nation’s ability to move power around — without building a single new transmission tower or line. Open Access Technology International (OATI) is a Minneapolis-based firm whose software is used by nearly every North American transmission grid operator to manage the flow...
Wildfires Are Reversing Years of US Air Quality Gains, Study Finds
Wildfires have worsened ozone levels across the United States so much over the last decade that they have reversed around four years of progress, a new study has found. Surface ozone levels, or smog concentrations, steadily increased from 2015 to 2024, deteriorating air quality across the Midwest and Western U.S., researchers at the University of...
Growing Grid Strategy: Undergrounding Power Lines to Withstand Weather
Electric utilities and power grid operators increasingly are looking at ways to diminish and avoid disruptions from extreme weather. The power sector also has experience with the financial impacts of wildfires, both with damage to assets and losses incurred when equipment is found liable for causing those events. Undergrounding lines, in addition to enhancing safety,...
Energy Department says advanced nuclear reactor first to reach critical milestone
The Energy Department says a small nuclear reactor under development at a national lab has reached a crucial milestone that could allow it to produce electricity within a few years. The microreactor being developed by Antares Nuclear Inc. at the Idaho National Lab reached “criticality” on Thursday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said. The milestone occurs when...
Trump administration in ‘active dialogue’ on strategic petroleum reserve in California
The Trump administration is in “active dialogue” on creating a petroleum reserve in California, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told POLITICO on Friday, a move that would boost oil infrastructure in the state and undermine Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s bid to shrink the state’s fossil fuel footprint. A June 2 document that lawyers for Sable Offshore...
America’s Only Commercial Uranium Enricher Is Privately Building a New Plant Amid a Widening Nuclear Fuel Supply Gap
Urenco USA, operator of the only U.S. commercial-scale uranium enrichment facility, will expand low-enriched uranium (LEU) capacity at its National Enrichment Facility (NEF) in Eunice, New Mexico, by nearly 50% through a privately funded, multibillion-dollar investment that includes construction of a new enrichment plant. The project will add 2.1 million separative work units (SWU) of...
Trump auctions off rights to drill in Alaska wildlife refuge, but gets few bidders
The Trump administration on Friday auctioned off rights to drill in a pristine wildlife refuge in Alaska, but the lease sale attracted only two bidders on a few tracts of land. Of the about 60 tracts of land opened up for leasing by the Trump administration, only five received bids. Only Hex Energy and the...
America Doubles Down on a New Nuclear Energy Future
A year ago, President Donald Trump issued four executive orders aimed at restoring America’s lost global leadership in nuclear energy—a worthy goal. Over 80 years ago, the United States unlocked the secrets of atomic fission through the Manhattan Project and then, pursuant to President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s historic Atoms for Peace vision, harnessed that awesome power...
US announces science and AI partnership with Japan
The U.S. has announced a new partnership with Japan on science and artificial intelligence. Energy Department Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil told reporters Thursday that each country would invest $500 million in the joint venture. “This is the defining moment for the next era of science,” he said. “We’re linking our brightest minds and...
US set to hold latest oil and gas lease sale for Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
The Trump administration’s push to expand oil and gas development in Alaska faces a new test Friday, with the latest lease sale set for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Opponents of drilling in the refuge’s coastal plain have pointed to a lack of industry interest in the prior two sales held there and ongoing changes in Alaska’s arctic region due to...









