2 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Energy

America’s new era of energy imperialism is about more than oil 

Trump wants Venezuela’s oil, Greenland’s minerals, and above all — control.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Justine Calma
The US is after oil in Venezuela, but it won’t be so easy to grab.

Since his administration attacked Caracas and arrested President Nicolás Maduro, Trump’s been clear that he wants US companies to “go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken [oil] infrastructure” in Venezuela. That’s easier said than done with massive logistical challenges and political instability still weighing on the oil industry in the region.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Anker teases whole home battery backup.

These are the boxes that’ll make up its new Solix E10, aka “the world’s first smart hybrid whole home backup solution.” What that means, exactly, won’t be known until the launch event on January 12th. I’m seeing stackable battery expansion and an inverter as you’d expect, an inlet box and smart panel to tap directly into your home’s circuitry, and what looks like a gas-powered generator like EcoFlow sells.

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<em>From left to right: the gas-powered generator, an inverter stacked onto an expansion battery, and the smart panel.</em>
<em>Here we see some kind of inlet box.</em>
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From left to right: the gas-powered generator, an inverter stacked onto an expansion battery, and the smart panel.
image: Anker
Don’t expect Trump Media’s nuclear fusion power plant to generate electricity soon

The energy demands of AI are driving investment in futuristic fusion reactors from Big Tech and now Trump Media. Is it viable?

Justine Calma
The ‘mad rush’ to install solar panels before tax credits run out

The solar industry is pivoting to survive Donald Trump’s attacks on clean energy.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Justine Calma
The US is hiding more information about climate change.

The Trump administration has taken down content about the human causes of global warming — greenhouse gases from fossil fuels — from the Environmental Protection Agency website, part of a larger purge of science-backed information on federal websites.

“It’s clearly a deliberate effort to misinform,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain tells the Washington Post.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
AI reasoning models are even more energy intensive.

They used 30 times more electricity on average than other models according to research by the AI Energy Score project that included responses to 1,000 written prompts. “We should be smarter about the way that we use AI ... Choosing the right model for the right task is important,” Hugging Face research scientist Sasha Luccioni tells Bloomberg.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Bill Gates’ nuclear energy company gets initial stamp of approval for construction.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) completed its safety evaluation for the Kemmerer Power Station in Wyoming and determined that “there are no safety aspects that would preclude issuing the construction permit” for the plant. The NRC says it could take up to another 18 months to make a licensing decision on the advanced reactor.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Satya Nadella acknowledged that data centers are “putting a lot of pressure” on power grids.

The tech industry “needs to earn the social permission to consume energy” for AI data centers he says in an interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner. Nadella also called for faster permitting for new power infrastructure and “innovation” in energy efficiency and generation.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
The largest power grid system in the US is considering rolling blackouts because of energy-hungry data centers.
Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Trump’s ‘Genesis Mission’ is supposed to solve AI’s issues with more AI.

The goal is to speed scientific breakthroughs on key priorities including meeting soaring energy demand that’s raising electricity costs for Americans.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
A global roadmap for ditching fossil fuels hangs in the balance.

Negotiators are deadlocked in a tumultuous close to United Nations climate talks. A proposed roadmap for transitioning away from coal, oil, and gas has become a flashpoint. “We’re facing the reality of a no-deal scenario” EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said earlier today.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Meta’s becoming an electricity broker.

The company plants to start trading power, a move that could support the buildout of new power plants as grids try to keep up with rising electricity demand from data centers and generative AI, Bloomberg reports.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
UN climate talks were literally on fire.

A blaze broke out in the conference venue Thursday, just ahead of negotiations scheduled to come to a close today in Brazil.

The new silicon valley (literally)

Is the promise of jobs worth all the water and chemicals it takes to manufacture chips in the Arizona desert?

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Justine Calma
1 in every 25 attendees at the UN climate conference is a fossil fuel lobbyist.

More than 1,600 lobbyists for oil, coal, and gas have crowded into pivotal international climate negotiations going down in Brazil. They outnumber delegations from every country in attendance except for Brazil, according to an analysis by the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Utilities around the world pledged $1 trillion in grid and renewable energy investments by 2030.

The Utilities for Net Zero Alliance made the announcement Friday during the UN climate conference taking place in Brazil. Investment need to grow from $390 billion in 2024 to $670 billion annually between now and 2030 to update power grids, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Data centers are already influencing the global forecast for clean energy.

Growing electricity demand for AI and the Trump administration’s love of natural gas have influenced the International Energy Agency’s latest World Energy Outlook, Heatmap reports.

UN climate talks are getting weirdUN climate talks are getting weird
Justine Calma
How deep-sea mining could threaten a vital ocean food source

New industry-backed research shows how waste from deep-sea mining could have far-reaching effects on fish and their food.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Justine Calma
A nuclear energy startup and the Silicon Valley and MAGA bigwigs backing it are chipping away at federal oversight of new reactor designs.

“All these nuke bros who know nothing about operating a reactor, they just want a free pass,” Allison Macfarlane, former chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, tells Bloomberg. “They can have their free pass, but then they will have an accident.”

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Energy Star might survive after all.

The US Environmental Protection Agency is considering keeping it alive, following news earlier this year that the Trump administration would shutter the money-saving program as part of its efforts to roll back energy and water efficiency standards.