** The Trump administration moves to defund the Chemical Safety Board, which environmental and community advocates worry will leave a regulatory gap in the oversight of hundreds of petrochemical plants along the Gulf Coast.
** Ford’s vehicle sales rose 14% to more than 612,000 in the last quarter, according to earnings that bested analysts’ expectations. But EV sales dropped 31% to just 16,438.
** The White House nominated an executive from Southern Company to serve in the open seat on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Ho Nieh, who serves as the utility giant’s vice president of regulatory affairs, previously led the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
** Helion has started work on what could be the world’s first nuclear fusion power plant in Washington State. The Microsoft-backed startup broke ground on the facility, called the Orion plant, in Chelan County, east of Seattle, and set a goal to deliver power to the tech giant’s data centers in the state by 2028.
** New York just took a big leap toward zero-emissions buildings. On July 25, the State Fire Prevention and Building Code Council approved an all-electric building standard, making New York the first state in the nation to prohibit gas and other fossil fuels in most new buildings.
** EV charging startups say they’re more concerned about the Trump administration’s attempts to claw back funding for charging infrastructure than the One Big Beautiful Bill’s rollback of tax credits for EVs and charger construction.
** Exxon Mobil is looking at buying other oil companies, Chief Executive Darren Woods said, after losing its challenge to Chevron’s $53 billion deal for Hess. “I think there are opportunities out there for us,” Woods said in an interview this week. “We’re working to see if we can’t bring some of those to fruition.”
World
** An overnight Ukrainian drone attack on an oil depot near Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi sparked a major fire, Russian officials said Sunday, as the two countries traded strikes and the Ukrainian president announced a prisoner exchange. More than 120 firefighters attempted to extinguish the blaze, sparked after debris from a downed drone struck a fuel tank
** A new International Energy Agency report predicts renewables will overtake coal as the world’s largest power source this year or next, with nuclear power output also reaching record highs.
** A major step toward more affordable renewable energy recently occurred in Peru. Zelestra, a Spanish renewable energy company, has officially switched on the country’s largest solar farm. The solar farm, dubbed the San Martín project, consists of 450,000 solar panels and will generate over 830 GWh of clean energy annually, powering more than 400,000 homes.
** U.S. President Donald Trump‘s demand on India to halt Russian oil imports could threaten billions in Russian revenues, prompt Moscow to retaliate by stopping a major U.S.-led oil pipeline and potentially lead to a new global supply crisis.
** The state of Kerala in southern India has sued a shipping company for spilling oil into its marine ecosystem. The company’s boat sank and leaked fuel and cargo potentially containing hazardous materials into the Arabian Sea. As Republic World shared, Kerala sued the Swiss-based Mediterranean Shipping Company for $1.1 billion.
** The Scottish government has green-lighted one of the world’s biggest wind farms, just days after President Donald Trump ranted about “windmills” while visiting the country. The U.S. president was in Scotland to visit his golf courses in South Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire, the latter of which has a history with wind farms. While Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeen was still being built, Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group also started constructing a row of wind turbines that impeded the view at his course.