Opinion:
¶ “New Trump Nuclear Reactor Policy: ‘Trust Us'” • The Trump Administration is quietly dismantling safeguards for nuclear power and seeking to limit both transparency and public input. Trump’s Department of Energy wants us to blindly trust them to protect the public. But blind trust in federal agencies is in scarce supply these days. [Legal Planet]
Nuclear plant (Cüneyt Alan, Unsplash)
¶ “Trump Can’t Stop This: Renewable Energy Shatters World Records” • Renewable energy is not just surviving the second Trump presidency, it is racing ahead and setting records that would have seemed implausible a decade ago. The market shift toward cleaner power is proving far harder to reverse than the White House might have hoped. [MSN]
World:
¶ “Trump To Lower Tariffs On India After Modi ‘Agrees’ To Stop Buying Russian Oil” • US President Donald Trump said he plans to cut tariffs on goods from India to 18%, from 25%, after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to stop buying Russian oil. Trump had been pressing India to cut its reliance on cheap Russian crude for months. [Euronews]
Narendra Modi and Donald Trump (White House, public domain)
¶ “EU’s Climate Goals At Risk Without China’s Critical Raw Materials, EU Auditors Warn” • The EU is struggling to diversify its supply of critical raw materials by the end of the decade, risking a successful energy transition and continued high dependence on China, according to a recently published European Court of Auditors report. [Euronews]
¶ “Europe EV Sales: Record Month!” • EVs had another strong month in Europe, with a record 453,000 plugin vehicles being registered in December. The previous record was 412,000 units. Of the new plugins 327,000 were battery EVs, which jumped to 57% year on year. That was their highest growth rate in over two years. PHEVs were up 34%. [CleanTechnica]
Dacia Spring (Dacia image)
¶ “Ontario’s Nuclear Rate Shock Reveals A Deeper Affordability Problem” • Ontario Power Generation has asked the Ontario Energy Board to approve a sharp increase in regulated nuclear payment amounts, including a year over year jump of more than 40% in 2027. The increase will add about $8 to a typical electric bill in the province. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Lynk & Co 08 Achieves Guinness World Record by Reaching 293 Kilometers in 100% Electric Mode” • Lynk & Co has set a new Guinness World Records™ title with the Lynk & Co 08, achieving 293 km in fully electric driving mode, the longest distance by a plug-in hybrid SUV on record. The test was held at a racetrack in Toluca, Mexico. [CleanTechnica]
Lynk & Co 08 (JustAnotherCarDesigner, CC0 1.0)
¶ “Renewables Over 50% And Wholesale Prices Down – Is The Energy Transition … Succeeding?” • Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as last week’s record-breaker had hit the east coast of Australia, the power supply may well have buckled. This time, the system largely operated as we needed, despite some outages. It looks like success for clean energy. [The Conversation]
¶ “Prysmian Wins £2 Billion EGL4 Cable Contract” • Prysmian has secured a £2 billion contract to supply cable for the Eastern Green Link 4 subsea electricity project. The manufacturer will deliver over 640 km of cable for the 2-GW HVDC link between Fife in Scotland and Norfolk in England. The link is due to be operating in 2033. [reNews]
Cable workers (Prysmian image)
¶ “India Pours Over $10 Billion Into Rare Earths To Reduce Its Dependence On China” • India’s Finance Ministry has unveiled a budget proposal that will boost domestic rare earths mining and the clean energy sector as part of a broader effort to break global supply chain monopolies and achieve strategic self-reliance in critical minerals. [OilPrice.com]
US:
¶ “Another Judge Rejects Trump Effort To Block Offshore Wind, Says NY Project Can Resume” • Federal judge Royce Lamberth ruled that Sunrise Wind, an offshore wind project aimed at powering 600,000 New York homes, can resume construction, the fifth such ruling since the Trump administration halted the offshore wind projects in December. [ABC News]
Offshore wind farm (Karwin Luo, Unsplash)
¶ “Trump Goes Zero For Five Against Offshore Wind” • The Trump administration lost yet another legal battle in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. With this, all five of the stop-work orders for offshore wind projects were successfully challenged. Vineyard Wind was nearly 95% finished and already delivering power to the grid. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Renewable Energy Seized 99% Of New Capacity Additions In 2026” • The US energy sector is at an inflection point that few analysts predicted even a decade ago. FERC data shows that 99% of all generating capacity added to the US grid in 2026 will be renewable. It is what industry experts describe as a fundamental restructuring. [WebProNews]
Vineyard Wind project (Courtesy of Vineyard Wind)
¶ “Enlight Begins Build At 1.2-GW US Hybrid Giant” • Enlight Renewable Energy has reached final development milestones for the CO Bar complex in Arizona, clearing the way for full-scale execution of its largest project to date. The five-stage complex will total 1.2 GW of solar capacity and 4 GWh of storage. It has a 1-GW interconnection agreement. [reNews]
¶ “Gas Explosion In New Hampshire Sparks A Fire At A Mental Health Facility” • A natural gas explosion in a building for mental health services in southern New Hampshire sparked a fire and forced emergency crews to warn nearby residents to evacuate the surrounding area. People in the near vicinity were urged to to extinguish burners all flames. [ABC News]
Have a delightfully affordable day.
geoharvey 
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