The official line since the energy crisis has been simple. Families and businesses are exposed because fossil-fuel prices are set internationally. After the latest Middle East shock, ministers said Britain had to “get off the fossil fuel rollercoaster” and that “when global gas prices spike, people here shouldn’t be picking up the tab.” Ofgem and […]
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On March 17, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security issued the longest and broadest Jones Act waiver since at least 1950, covering energy commodities and fertilizer inputs. The waiver was extended twice and now runs through November 15, 2026, with a narrower product list and voyage-by-voyage review after August 17. The Cato Institute’s Jones Act […]
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If the latest Colorado Public Utilities Commission findings surprised anyone, they have not been watching the grid. On September 26, 2026, The Denver Post reported that Xcel Energy’s Colorado customers are losing power more often and for longer periods than they did from 2015 through 2023—and that the pattern continued through the first half of […]
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Diesel prices in the United States have smashed records, topping $6 per gallon nationally and exceeding $7 on the West Coast, while inventories sit well below five-year averages. Truckers, farmers, freight operators, and industrial users feel it first. The pain is global: European and Asian markets have also hit or approached records as middle-distillate supplies […]
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A Ukrainian drone strike on Friday forced Russia’s Novoshakhtinsk refinery in the Rostov region offline, according to regional governor Yury Slyusar. The plant, which processes about 110,000 barrels per day (roughly 5–5.6 million tons per year), is not one of Russia’s giants. It is, however, a clean illustration of why diesel—the workhorse fuel for trucking, […]
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Mercedes-Benz is no longer talking about “transformation.” It is talking about survival in Germany. WirtschaftsWoche, citing three people familiar with the talks, reports that Mercedes wants about €800 million in German labor-cost savings — roughly $911 million at current rates. Options on the table include longer hours without extra pay, cuts to holiday and Christmas […]
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On Thursday, September 24, 2026, Bloomberg reported that Oracle sent a force majeure notice to the developer of Project Jupiter — the 1,400-acre AI campus in Doña Ana County, New Mexico — in an effort to defer payments if the facility misses its planned 2028 in-service date. Shares of Oracle fell about 4–5%. Blue Owl […]
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A diesel export ban is the kind of policy that polls well and trades poorly. With the AAA national average at about $6.53 a gallon as of September 22, 2026 — a record — and California well above $8, the political impulse is obvious: keep more barrels at home. That impulse misunderstands how U.S. refining […]
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Ineos, the chemicals giant owned by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, is idling all three of its world-scale acetyls plants in Hull, northern England. The facilities—Europe’s last remaining plants of their kind—produce essential feedstocks for pharmaceuticals, clothing, cosmetics, detergents, construction materials, and military explosives. Two have already stopped production; the third will follow in days. The site […]
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The market got a supply headline it has been waiting for. Saudi Arabia has restarted the East-West Pipeline and could resume loadings from Yanbu on the Red Sea as soon as Tuesday, according to sources briefed on the matter. The line is still pumping at a low rate after drone strikes forced a shutdown around […]
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