Nothing has been decided yet. That is worth saying plainly, because the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Request for Information and Interest (RFI) published June 23 is an early-stage process step, not a lease award or even a decision to hold a lease sale. But it opens the door to something that has no precedent in...
Interior moves to relax rules for drilling on public lands
The Trump administration is proposing to relax rules to make it easier for companies to drill for oil and gas on public lands. The Interior Department, which oversees federal lands, said that it would propose to loosen two Biden-era regulations that sought to rein in planet-warming methane and ensure that energy companies are on the...
Regulators greenlight plan for quick AI data center grid connections
Federal regulators on Thursday took steps aimed at both speeding up the buildout of AI data centers and reducing costs. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) directed regional electric grid operators to reform various processes related to the connection of these and other large sources of power demand to the grid. “We are charting new...
The next step in strengthening America’s farm economy is passing ‘Farm Bill 2.0’
America’s farm economy is facing significant challenges. Agriculture depends on certainty, predictability, access to capital and policies that reflect the realities producers face every day. That’s why the agriculture provisions in the Working Families Tax Cuts package were so important. Congress recognized what farmers and ranchers have been saying for years: we need more farm...
The Future of the Great American Outdoors
In the 154 years since, the world has followed America’s lead, establishing national parks in over 100 countries. The United States now has 63 federally protected national parks, and hundreds of other National Park Service sites including battlefields, trails, seashores, and rivers. Often called “America’s best idea”, all play an incredible role in the preservation of some of the country’s most treasured landscapes.
Closing the Local Project Loophole: the Case for Competitive Transmission
The surge in AI and data centers risks driving up electricity demand faster than we can deploy the power lines needed to carry it. The high-voltage transmission that this expansion, and economic growth more broadly, relies on is slow and expensive to develop, and stuck in an outdated regulatory system that often hands the work to local utilities without competition. New analysis from the R Street Institute shows what this costs us, finding that, when transmission projects are open to competitive bidding, they get built cheaper and faster.
An urgent message to Congress: Refill the Great Salt Lake
The Great Salt Lake is in decline. Shorelines that once defined northern Utah’slandscape have receded dramatically over the past two decades, exposing thousands of acres of dry lakebed and intensifying concerns over dust pollution, ecosystem collapse, and long-term water scarcity across the Wasatch Front. Scientists have warned repeatedly that if current trends continue, the consequences will extend...
EPA won’t set nationwide standards for data centers
The Trump administration is not going to set nationwide environmental requirements or recommendations for the rapidly growing data center industry, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said Wednesday. While there are technologies and practices that reduce air pollution and water usage, states and communities know what works best for them, Zeldin said at the POLITICO Energy Summit...
DOE reinstates $57M American Battery grant
Last October, DOE canceled $700 million worth of battery and manufacturing projects grants, including American Battery’s grant, saying the projects either didn’t meet certain milestones, were not economically viable or would not “adequately advance the nation’s energy needs.” American Battery says it was one of “hundreds” of grants that were canceled in that process. In 2022,...
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...









