For five days, the equivalent of 350 Olympic-sized pools’ worth of sewage flooded into the Potomac River in a suburb of Washington, D.C. The cause? A clear failure in our permitting systems.
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End the Penalty on Prescribed Burns
With respect to addressing America’s wildfire crisis, the CAA can ironically penalize states for conducting prescribed burns, which are among the most effective tools for preventing catastrophic wildfires and the harmful air pollution they produce.
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The Texas Energy Reference Design: Stress-Testing Load Growth Challenges for an AI Century
Texas has long stood apart from national energy policy—its own grid, its own rules. In 2026, that independence has made it the top destination for AI-driven electricity demand. While Washington grapples with the pressures of building data centers, ensuring reliability, and controlling costs, Texas is tackling everything at once. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market is solving for speed-to-power by surmounting transmission bottlenecks, phantom load growth, buying down residential rate increases, and more.
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Iran war reality check: Global markets still dictate American energy prices
After the Iran war ends and the Strait of Hormuz opens, gas prices will fall. But when the next crisis comes, we’ll be happy for every nuclear reactor we have, large and small. So let’s build.
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America Needs to Fix Nuclear Economics, Not Just Go Smaller
When President Trump stood before Congress in February 2026, he delivered a stark message to America’s technology leaders: “You have an obligation to provide for your own power needs.” His call to action on behind-the-meter nuclear power for data centers wasn’t mere rhetoric. It was a recognition that the energy demands of artificial intelligence and modern computing require a fundamental shift in how we power our economy.
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Small Refinery Exemptions Will Help Drivers at the Pump
With seemingly no end to the Iran War in sight, the Trump administration has several actions to soften the economic blow, including waiving the Jones Act and releasing 172 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. One sensible solution to help consumers is to grant exemptions for the small refineries that are critical to US energy security and affordability.
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The Iran War and the Long-Term Risks to Energy Affordability
As the Iran war continues, oil prices keep rising. Gasoline has climbed to over $4 per gallon for the first time in four years. The ripple effects are spreading across the economy as markets that depend on affordable crude begin to absorb the disruption of roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas that normally passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Everything from airline tickets to groceries is seeing upward pressure as the prices of jet fuel, diesel, and fertilizer all rise.
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What CERAWeek 2026 Says About Energy’s Next Chapter
The conversation at CERAWeek shifts each year. In 2026, the focus was on surging demand, disruptions to energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz, infrastructure bottlenecks, and a more pragmatic energy posture. The conference showed an industry and policymakers increasingly focused not on abstract narratives about the future of energy, but on the harder questions of security, buildout, reliability, affordability, and competitiveness.
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Louisiana’s Coastal Crisis Won’t Be Solved in Court
Louisiana has lost over 2,000 square miles of coastal land since the 1930s, an area the size of Delaware. Wetlands continue to disappear at an alarming rate, threatening communities, infrastructure, and one of America’s most productive fisheries.
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America’s Grid Is More Fragile Than Politicians Admit. Here’s How to Fix It.
America has an infrastructure problem hiding in plain sight. Too often, when a storm rolls through, millions of homes dark. Politicians hold press conferences, utility companies apologize, and nothing fundamentally changes. The U.S. power grid is not a modern system under routine stress. It is an aging, fragile patchwork operating well past its design life, and the consequences are landing squarely on ordinary Americans and the natural environment around them.