From the Caribbean to the Black Sea, the high seas are increasingly dangerous territory for autocratic petrostates. www.semafor.com/article/12/1...

Join me in the Ukraine pavilion tomorrow to talk about finding capital for its very unique energy transition! #cop30 cop.ukrainian-climate-office.org/program/de-r...

The global press has turned out in force to cover the world’s biggest story #COP30

I’m at the function, hmu

Bleakly poetic finale for one of Europe’s big green industrial hopes: there’s now a homepage auctioning off the entire Northvolt factory in Sweden - complete sell-off, right down to the parking signs and bike racks. nvx.psauction.com?gad_source=1...

🟡 SCOOP: The US Department of Energy plans to cancel seven major loans and loan guarantees that had been conditionally approved under the Biden administration, @timmcdonnell.bsky.social‬ reports.

Scoop, per a source close to the process: LPO will cancel 7 conditional loans/guarantees, the projects are listed here and include Monolith, Sunnova, and others www.semafor.com/article/05/1...

😲 “We built our last gas-fired facility in 2022, at $785/kW. If we wanted to build that same gas-fired combined cycle unit today…$2,400/kW" - NextEra CEO John Ketchum gasoutlook.com/analysis/cos... 🔌💡

Yesterday Donald Trump said he was going to keep Cholla Generating Station, a coal plant in Arizona, open. The utility that owns it, Arizona Public Service, told that it had already stopped generating and they had procured enough resources to replace it heatmap.news/energy/coal-...

This just in: IEEFA analysis suggests LNG is unlikely to play a major role in displacing coal (or oil) in China. Notes that "volatility in global markets and escalating tensions with suppliers like the U.S. have only weakened the case for LNG in China"; global oversupply incoming.

This story is now free for all to read: www.politico.com/news/2025/04...

My queen! www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2025/04/0...

Reaching out for comment to a number of well-placed energy sources in Ukraine about possibility of energy ceasefire discussed by T & P, all think it’s too soon to mark any notable breakthrough and point to the massive attack happening right now on Kyiv as the sign T has so far achieved very little

Hands down best interview of CERA Week has been with Charlie the conference’s official emotional support pup. Her third birthday is coming soon and she is an absolute delight

I have been collecting these the last few weeks - they are timely once again:

"What we don’t want to do is drive ourselves to only one solution — that being a gas-fired solution — that’s now more expensive than it ever has been in its history,” NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum told @timmcdonnell.bsky.social: www.semafor.com/newsletter/0... 🔌💡

NET Power's first full scale project with Oxy appears to have doubled in cost and been delayed. #energysky subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...

In today’s @semafor.com Net Zero, does Big Oil regret backing Trump? A scooptastic dispatch from CERAWeek in Houston, featuring NextEra CEO John Ketchum, the latest on Equinor’s renewables calculus, and more www.semafor.com/newsletter/0...

Ontario will impose a 25% export tax on the electricity it sends to Michigan, Minnesota, and New York. www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

Trump admin kills US support for Ukraine’s energy security www.nbcnews.com/politics/sta...

Journalist Mstyslav Chernov's BAFTA-winning and Oscar-winning documentary is an unflinching inside look at the suffering that Russia's invasion has unleashed upon the Ukrainian people. Available on @channel4tv.bsky.social www.channel4.com/programmes/2...

Coming to CERA Week in Houston in a couple of weeks? Make sure to join our Monday night cocktail party featuring NextEra CEO John Ketchum and United CSO Lauren Riley, among others. events.semafor.com/accleratinge...

another great example along with Wired and Teen Vogue of how real journalism these days can be a lot braver at outlets where no one is trying to get in good with the White House press secretary they’re out here with us, reporting on what’s happening to us all, instead of trying to get inside access

In today’s @semafor.com Net Zero, looking at the risks of Trump’s possible energy deal with Putin. Ukraine fears a repeat of Biden’s deal to lift Nord Stream 2 sanctions, which “has been haunting us for many years.” www.semafor.com/newsletter/0...

One key piece of the geopolitical puzzle of U.S.-Panama relations is this mine, unpopular in Panama but which Trump could push to open, maybe with the kind of mineral swap he tried to push on Ukraine last week www.semafor.com/article/12/2...

Departures starting to pile up at DOE in a way that seems completely counter productive to the Admin's professed goals of "energy dominance", reliable electricity, and rebuilding defense nuclear capabilities. -325 from NNSA including Defense Programs (what happened to the natsec exemption?) (1/x)

Loosening the methane standards "could be something that [the EU] can offer as a negotiation point on these tariff threats," CGEP scholar Anne-Sophie Corbeau tells @semafor.com reporter @timmcdonnell.bsky.social.

In today's @semafor.com Net Zero: An exit interview with @jigarshahdc.bsky.social, who shares what really has him worried about the Trump transition (it's not Chris Wright) www.semafor.com/newsletter/0...

Representation without taxation for a handful of billionaires, taxation without representation for the rest of us.

Scoop in today's @semafor.com Net Zero: Senior Democrats worry Trump's foreign aid freeze and chaos at USAID pose an urgent threat to Ukraine’s energy security and will harm efforts toward it reaching a peace deal with Russia www.semafor.com/newsletter/0...

"This is a... harmful, dangerous, killer bluff. But they don't have the law on their side. If we are going to push back on this kind of autocratic behavior, it's not just members of Congress who have to stand up, & we will, it is all of us together" [email protected] in front of USAID just now

Confirmation that distribution of already contracted funds have been frozen: "EPA cuts off IRA solar money already under contract. Recipients of the $7 billion Solar For All program were locked out of an online portal that’s used to distribute federal funding."

In today’s @semafor.com Net Zero: NET Power CEO Danny Rice explains why he’s not spooked by DeepSeek, humanitarians on why they are spooked by Trump’s aid freeze, and @nathanielbullard.com on his faves from his huge new chart collection www.semafor.com/newsletter/0...

🟡 SCOOP: The CEO of the company running one of the world’s largest and most embattled copper mines wants Trump to help rescue the project before the legal battles over its future turn uglier, @timmcdonnell.bsky.social reports.

In the last @semafor.com Net Zero of 2024, a scoop about how one of the world’s largest and most embattled copper mines, First Quantum’s Cobre Panama, is turning to Trump for help www.semafor.com/newsletter/1...

This column sucks. Doesn’t name a single suggestion for how to “fix it” other than being better at explaining rationale for unpopular coverage decisions www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/o...

In today's @semafor.com Net Zero, Exxon's new plan to eat OPEC's lunch, and a look at why the latest auction for federal geothermal drilling leases was a bust www.semafor.com/newsletter/1...

In today’s @semafor.com Net Zero: the best way to keep LPO, a powerful weapon in Biden’s climate arsenal, from being gutted by Trump is to get as many projects financed as possible. Shuttering LPO won’t be as easy this time as it was in Trump’s first term www.semafor.com/newsletter/1...

Interesting story which shows some of the challenges we will face in scaling up electricity grids to move renewable power around www.bbc.com/future/artic...

In today’s @semafor.com Net Zero, dissecting Northvolt’s bankruptcy for clues about how to tweak industrial policy counter China, & texting @thenewyorktimes.bsky.social ‘s Moscow chief about bathing in crude oil at COP29 www.semafor.com/newsletter/1...

The bankruptcy of Northvolt has huge symbolic and strategic importance: @timmcdonnell.bsky.social digs into them in the latest edition of @semafor.com's Net Zero newsletter www.semafor.com/article/11/2...

The headline number from COP29 — $300 billion — isn't great. But the critical fine print is even more disappointing. www.semafor.com/newsletter/1... @semafor.com

Privately, European diplomats called the package “empty,” “not helpful,” “unserious” and, in one instance, “shit.” Things did not get much better from there. subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...

BREAKING #COP29 FINAL (?) TEXTS A new package of texts has been published as "draft decisions" – usually means final, but given all we've seen here, who knows – $300bn finance goal – "Baku to Belem roadmap to $1.3tn" – no stocktake progress tracking, just a 2yr chat www.carbonbrief.org/...#COP291/3

#COP29 just wrapped up "part 1" of the closing plenary, where a series of less contentious matters were formally adopted Notably, this included carbon trading under Articles 6.2 & 6.4 But now, meeting is suspended until "later on this evening" to, in theory, agree key issues: climate finance etc

How's #cop29 going? On Twitter, Panama's negotiator Juan Carlos Monterey just posted that two big developing country groups, LDCs and AOSIS, have walked out of consultations…

Chair of the African Group of Negotiators on new texts on climate finance, adaptation and just transition. Note "totally unacceptable" on #NCQG and "not happy with the inclusion of transformational adaptation" #COP29

Signs of disappointment and frustration among developing countries on the $250 billion target in latest COP29 draft agreement, with at least some still considering the "nuclear option" of walking out without a deal www.semafor.com/article/11/2...

Meanwhile, @timmcdonnell.bsky.social reports from #COP29 Baku and @tomraftery.com debate the future of COP on our latest episode, coming soon to a pod platform near you but available now: open.substack.com/pub/wickedpr... 🔌💡 #GreenSky #ClimateSky