National
• El Paso, Texas’ municipal electric utility seeks a rate increase from state regulators to pay off $1.55B in capital investments, while gas and water utilities also seek rate hikes that could lead to city residents paying an additional $45 in monthly utility bills.
• Washington state regulators fine BP $3.8M over a 2023 gasoline spill from its Olympic Pipeline.
• California regulators approve Crimson California Pipeline’s proposed rate increase for transporting Los Angeles Basin oil to area refineries to preserve refining capacity.
• First Solar formally opens a $1.1B, 3.5 GW Louisiana solar panel factory that began production in July.
• Texas officials announce a planned $617M, 455 MW gas-fired power plant in Houston will become the sixth gas plant to receive money from a state loan program.
• CenterPoint Energy trains more than double the usual number of line workers in Houston as it goes on a hiring spree and moves to restore a workforce that’s long been outsourced.
• Mississippi residents complain of noise and voice concern about pollution after Elon Musk’s xAI artificial intelligence company deploys 59 natural gas turbines in their community to power two data centers up the road in Memphis.
• T1 Energy’s solar photovoltaic module factory near Dallas, Texas, hits its stride and is running fast enough to produce 5 GW per year, even as the Trump administration targets clean energy and leans toward fossil fuels.
• U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., proposes legislation aimed at protecting consumers and the power grid from rising data center-driven electricity demand.
World
• Uganda’s state-owned oil company has announced a breakthrough that could reshape the country’s energy future. The Uganda National Oil Company confirmed it has identified nine potential oil wells in the Kasuruban block containing “significant new crude oil deposits,” estimated at about 600 million barrels of recoverable crude.
• Iranians in the capital and many other cities across the country are breathing in toxic fumes as authorities resort to burning dirty fuel to produce electricity and cope with multiple ongoing crises. At 14 power plants, authorities for years have burned mazut, a dark residue of petroleum high in sulfur and other impurities, whenever they run out of natural gas to feed the electricity generators.
• China is rapidly cornering the market on nuclear power, building reactors at a pace that is stunningWestern nations while leaving the U.S. looking befuddled. According to The New York Times, China has nearly as many reactors under construction as the rest of the world combined. It’s on track to surpass U.S. nuclear capacity by 2030.
• Russia could boost its crude oil exports to China, extending existing agreements, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said, specifically noting a deal for the export of Russian crude via Kazakhstan that could be extended by 10 years until 2033.
• COP30 climate talks ended with a tempered agreement that boosts funding for climate adaptation but no roadmap to phasing out fossil fuels or measures to strengthen emissions reduction goals.
• India’s solar module exports fell to their lowest level this year amid U.S. trade restrictions, reversing a short-lived export surge as the U.S. sought alternatives to Chinese products.