Katherine Blunt and Jennifer Hiller of The Wall Street Journal report on utility companies’ efforts to shore up the power grid. “Duke in June announced plans to sell about 3,400 megawatts of wind, solar and battery projects to Brookfield Renewable for $2.8 billion. Brian Savoy, Duke’s chief financial officer, said the sale would help the company...

"EDF Energy’s current fleet of operating AGR plants includes the two-unit Hartlepool in Durham, the co-located two-unit Heysham 1 and two-unit Heysham 2 in Lancashire, and the two-unit Torness in East Lothian. This March, EDF Energy announced that it intends to keep the Hartlepool and Heysham 1 stations in operation to March 2026—two years past their previously scheduled 2024 retirement dates. The estimated March 2028 closure dates for Heysham 2 and Torness remain unchanged."

"Mineral-related initiatives are coming in droves. China’s dominance, says Australia’s resources minister, Madeleine King, is a 'strategic challenge.' On June 20th her government unveiled a critical-minerals strategy to address it. Australia is the biggest producer of lithium, the third-biggest producer of cobalt and fourth-biggest of rare earths—yet a processing minnow. It aims to become, by 2030, 'a globally significant' producer of processed critical minerals. It can 'play its part in making sure we build secure supply chains', says Ms King."

"Occidental in March announced it had leased 55,000 acres for carbon sequestration in three Texas counties, including Chambers, where Dugat’s ranch is located—part of at least 287,000 acres it has secured for the purpose across Texas and Louisiana. Chevron and two partners said the same month that they had leased 100,000 acres to store carbon in Chambers and neighboring Jefferson counties alone—more than a 10th of the counties’ total land area."

"Baker Hughes, which is more equipment-focused than its peers, therefore seems to have a head start: Orders in its new energy business were substantial enough to be noted on earnings calls. It booked more than $400 million of orders in the segment last year and said it is on track to exceed that amount this year."

"Centrus’s American Centrifuge cascade uses gas centrifuge machines, which feed uranium hexafluoride (UF6)—heated to a gaseous state—into a rotor inside the centrifuge machine. A rotor spinning at high speed inside a steel casing uses centrifugal force to concentrate the heavier U-238 isotopes at the outer wall of the rotor and the lighter U-235 isotopes toward the rotor center. The streams are then fed to the next machines in a 'cascade' to achieve the desired level of enrichment. Centrus will use a 4.95% LEU feed material for its planned HALEU 16 AC100M-centrifuge cascade. It suggests roughly 85% of the separative work units (SWU)—a measure of enrichment needed to produce HALEU—is already contained in the LEU feed material."

"The footprint of the mine would be small — only about 60 to 80 acres. No ore would be processed on site; it would be taken by covered rail cars to the drier environment of Mercer County in western North Dakota, where all the waste would be sealed in concrete for storage. All water from mine operations would be collected and treated before being returned to the environment. Access from the surface to the high-grade ore body around 500 to 2,000 feet (150 to 600 meters) below the surface would be through sealed, concrete-lined tunnels to limit seepage of groundwater."

"The Fund’s founding investor group included Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund which anchored the Fund, IMAS Foundation, Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Harvard Management Company, the Imprint Group of Goldman Sachs as well as Hall Capital Partners and its clients."

"Technological innovation rather than government mandates is what will ultimately drive consumers to buy electric vehicles. Toyota seems to understand this as it unveiled new batteries this week that it says it plans to introduce in new vehicles in 2026 that would extend the vehicle range to 620 miles and reduce costs by 20%. This would be an industry breakthrough if and when it happens. Meantime, consumers deserve a choice of cars to buy."