** The Trump administration says it will release 172 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — about 40% of its supply — in an attempt to curb rising prices.
** Climate advocates file a lawsuit accusing New Mexico energy regulators of endangering residents’ health by failing to address thousands of unplugged, inactive oil and gas wells and related sites.
** A U.S. Justice Department legal opinion finds the Trump administration could invoke the Defense Production Act to overrule California regulators and restart Sable Offshore’s proposed drilling project off the state’s coast.
** The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity (OE)announced an approximately $1.9 billion funding opportunity to accelerate urgently needed upgrades to the nation’s power grid. These investments will meet rising electricity demand and resource adequacy needs, while lowering electricity costs for American households and businesses. Projects selected through the Speed to Power through Accelerated Reconductoring and other Key Advanced Transmission Technology Upgrades (SPARK) funding opportunity will deliver fast and durable upgrades to the grid with real results.
WORLD
** Two oil tankers were struck Wednesday night in the Gulf as Iran intensified its attacks on foreign ships across the region. The vessels were reportedly hit by Iranian remote-controlled boats laden with explosives while in Iraqi waters, with footage showing one of the tankers ablaze.
** The International Energy Agency said its member countries would unlock 400 million barrels of oil from their reserves to ease the impact of the Middle East war, the biggest such release ever. The IEA-coordinated release exceeded the 182 million barrels of oil that member countries of the Paris-based global energy body released in 2022 when Russian leader Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.
** Kharg Island, a scrubby stretch of land in the northern Gulf, handles almost all of Iran’s crude exports and any attempt to seize it would mark a major escalation in the conflict, analysts say. The US and Israel have so far treaded carefully around the island, but an Axios report over the weekend cited Trump administration officials saying capturing Kharg was on the table as the war in the Middle East persists.