Climate, in brief

Senators from both US parties said on Wednesday they had agreed a bill to speed up permits for energy projects, which now face years of delay. [1]

The 417-page bill is the biggest rewrite of US federal permit rules since the 1970s, the New York Times reports. [2]

There will be no vote before the 3 November midterm elections. [3] The US House of Representatives, which must also pass it, is in recess until then. [3]

The bill limits court challenges under NEPA, the US law that makes government agencies study a project's harm to nature before they approve it. [1]

Republicans pushed to make it harder for environmental groups to sue to stop gas pipelines, oil drilling and mines. [2] The bill also puts new limits on the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. [2]

Democrats pushed to make big power lines easier to build, which could carry far more wind and solar power. [2]

Data centres would have to pay all the costs of the power lines built for them, so those costs are not passed on to families or businesses. [1]

Talks stopped last December, when the Trump administration paused five nearly finished offshore wind farms on the US East Coast. [3]

Democrats added words meant to stop a president blocking projects on his own. [2] Senator Sheldon Whitehouse says the treatment of wind and solar is still unresolved. [3]

A study for C2ES, a climate research group, estimates the power-line changes could cut the cost of delivering electricity in four big regions by about $7bn by 2035. [4]

Clean energy trade groups and a trade group for power-plant owners, whose plants mostly burn gas, both back the bill. [4] The Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental group, calls it a fossil-fuel wish list. [1]

Why it matters. Watch whether the Trump administration commits to letting already-approved wind and solar projects go ahead before November, which Democrats say the deal still needs. [1][3]

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees US power markets, on Wednesday delayed a one-off power auction run by PJM, the biggest US grid operator. [5] PJM runs the grid for 13 states from the Mid-Atlantic to the Midwest, where data centres have pushed up demand faster than new supply connects. [5] The region is now more than 6,800 megawatts short. [5] The regulator accepted most of the plan but paused it for five months. [5]

Why it matters. It told PJM to make sure data centres pay the costs of the extra power, so existing customers do not. [5] The US Senate bill in the lead story asks the same of data centres for power lines. [1]

Iran said on Wednesday it had received an official US response to its offer to end the seven-month war, without saying what it said. [6] Iran had offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the sea lane that normally carries a fifth of the world's oil, within a week. [6][14] In return the US would lift its blockade of Iranian ports and release frozen Iranian money. [6] President Trump rejected that offer days ago, and Qatar kept carrying messages. [6] An official briefed on the talks says the two sides disagree mainly about the order of the steps. [7]

Why it matters. Oil prices have swung widely for months on doubts about when the war will let oil flow freely again. [8] Brent, the world oil benchmark, was at $97.69 a barrel early on Thursday. [8]

The owners of LNG Canada, led by Shell, decided on Tuesday to double their plant at Kitimat in British Columbia, from 14 million to 28 million tonnes of gas a year. [9] The plant chills natural gas into a liquid so that ships can carry it overseas. LNG Canada is the country's first large gas export plant. [9] The same day, TC Energy said its Coastal GasLink pipeline, which feeds the plant, will nearly double what it can carry. [9]

Why it matters. Four of the five owners are Asian companies, Petronas, PetroChina, Mitsubishi and Korea Gas, alongside Shell. [9] TC Energy says tight world gas markets and countries replacing coal with gas are driving new plants like this. [9]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the US nuclear safety regulator, on Tuesday gave the Tennessee Valley Authority a permit to build a small reactor at its Clinch River site, west of Knoxville. [10] The TVA is the largest US power company owned by the US federal government. [10] It is only the second US permit to build a next-generation commercial reactor; the first went to a Wyoming project backed by Bill Gates in March. [10] The TVA has not set a date to start building. [10]

Why it matters. The TVA has estimated that its first small reactor could cost about six times as much as a gas plant of the same size. [10] It expects costs to fall as it builds more, and it is considering up to four. [10]

The Trump administration said on Wednesday that South Korea would invest up to $200 billion in US power projects, including eight nuclear power plants and a gas export plant in Alaska. [11] The Alaska project is meant to carry gas from Alaska's North Slope to buyers such as Japan and South Korea. [11] It has been discussed for years, and its developer has not formally approved it. [11] The Trump administration is announcing projects like this to strengthen its economic record before the November elections. [11]

Why it matters. The money comes from South Korea's pledge, in last year's trade deal, to invest $350 billion in the US, and many experts question whether it can be met. [11] South Korean investment in the US totalled $95 billion as of 2025. [11]

Oil rose 40% over the three months to the end of September and is up 70% this year, Reuters reported on Wednesday. [12] Reuters says it is Brent crude's second-biggest jump in a quarter since the second quarter of 2020. [12] Over the same months, the interest rate on 10-year US government loans passed 5%, the highest since just before the 2007 financial crash. [12] Investors expect central banks to raise interest rates to fight price rises driven by dear energy. [13]

Why it matters. Higher interest rates make borrowing dearer, and new power lines and power plants, like those in the lead story, are mostly built with borrowed money.

Dan Jorgensen, the EU's energy commissioner, wrote to energy ministers last Friday warning of an energy price crisis caused by the Iran war. [14] He asked them to consider cutting gas and electricity use, for example by lowering heating in public buildings, banning outdoor heaters and switching off unneeded public lights. [14] EU gas storage was about 70% full, 12 points lower than a year earlier. [14] Foreign suppliers cover about 80% of the EU's gas. [14]

Why it matters. Europe has not run short of gas, but high prices mean some countries are struggling to fill their stores before winter, when heating demand peaks. [14]

Sheikh Khaled, Abu Dhabi's crown prince, chairs L'imad, a $300 billion state wealth fund that is building ports and routes so the UAE depends less on the Strait of Hormuz. [15] The fund plans to take Abu Dhabi Ports private at a value of nearly $9 billion, and is expected to spend tens of billions more on ports outside the strait. [15] ADNOC, the UAE's state oil company, is building a second oil pipeline to double exports through Fujairah, a port beyond the strait. [15]

Why it matters. Fujairah is still within reach of Iranian drones and missiles, and debris from a drone started a large fire there in March. [15] Saudi Arabia's own bypass pipeline to the Red Sea was shut for a time after militia attacks. [15]

Rezolv Energy, a power company based in Prague, has signed loans of up to 561 million euros for a 1.3-gigawatt solar farm in western Romania. [16] The Dama project will be the largest onshore renewable energy project in the EU, making about 1.8 terawatt-hours a year, enough for over 280,000 households, Rezolv says. [16] Fourteen lenders, anchored by the European Investment Bank, signed after Romania's energy regulator gave final approval last month. [16] Power is due in the second half of 2028. [16]

Why it matters. The loans rest on two fixed-price contracts the project won in a Romanian government auction, covering 520 megawatts, plus a deal to sell power to an unnamed company. [16]

Indian refiners expect less Russian oil in October and November, four trade sources told Reuters on Monday. [17] India has been the biggest buyer of Russian oil shipped by sea since 2022, when Russia began selling it cheaply after Europe stopped buying. [17] Now China is paying more and booking cargoes earlier, because the Iran war cut its supply from the Middle East. [17] Russian oil arriving in India is set to fall to about 1.75 million barrels a day in September, the lowest since April. [17]

Why it matters. Indian refiners are turning to dearer oil from the UAE, Iraq and Angola. [17] Shipments from Novorossiysk, Russia's Black Sea oil port, have roughly halved as drone attacks keep stopping loading. [17]

The Financial Conduct Authority, Britain's financial regulator, on Wednesday dropped its plan to require listed companies to report their climate risks to investors. [18] It had proposed in January that they follow a new UK climate reporting standard. [18] Instead, companies can keep the rule in place since 2020: report, or explain why they have not. [18] Companies had complained about the cost and about competing with firms abroad. [18]

Why it matters. The EU has already weakened its own climate reporting rules, and the Trump administration dropped plans for any in the US. [18] The regulator found that 92% of the UK's 350 biggest listed companies followed the existing climate reporting rules in their 2025 annual reports. [18]

Eni, Italy's state-controlled oil company, said last Friday it would cap pump prices at its stations for at least a month from Monday 28 September. [19] Diesel costs no more than 2.19 euros a litre and petrol no more than 1.99 euros, about 17 cents below average prices. [19] Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government has spent about 2.8 billion euros on fuel tax cuts in recent months. [19] Its diesel tax cut shrank to about 6 cents a litre until 5 October. [19]

Why it matters. Eni blamed crises abroad and too little refining in Europe for the prices. [19] A consumer group said the cap could persuade Italy's government to drop a possible extra tax on energy companies' profits, which the economy minister has not ruled out. [19]

The Southwest Power Pool, which runs the grid across parts of the central and western US, says its new western area is short of power. [20] Plants there can make 9.2 gigawatts, but only 4.7 gigawatts was offered to the market from April to August, against 6.5 expected. [20] The grid operator issued three energy emergency alerts in that time. [20] Under rules federal regulators approved, the area has no requirement to keep enough power on hand until June 2027. [20]

Why it matters. SPP wants to fine companies that do not bring enough power from 11 November. [20] Its own market watchdog asked federal regulators to reject the plan, and three power suppliers say it needs changes. [20]

A classified US intelligence assessment given to Congress says Saudi Arabia has left open the option of building a nuclear weapon, US officials told the New York Times last Friday. [21] Lawmakers are reviewing a Trump administration deal to help Saudi Arabia build nuclear power plants for electricity. [21] The deal would let US companies help develop nuclear power projects there. [21] The officials said Saudi Arabia has not decided to seek a weapon. [21]

Why it matters. Some lawmakers from both parties fear a civilian nuclear programme would make a weapon easier to build. [21] Saudi Arabia has threatened before to build one if Iran did. [21]

Russia's President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday limiting what can be published about Russia's energy exports. [22] It covers their price, sellers, buyers, routes and destinations, and customs data too. [22] Such data may be published only if a company in the deal reveals it. [22] Russia had already stopped publishing figures such as its crude oil output after Western sanctions began in 2014. [22]

Why it matters. The decree's stated aim is to make Western sanctions harder to enforce. [22] It comes as India, Russia's biggest sea buyer, is getting less Russian oil. [17]

Saudi Aramco, the state oil company and the world's biggest energy firm, has hired the bank Evercore to plan a separate gas division, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday. [23] The split could bring in outside investors or lead to a share sale valuing the gas business at more than $100 billion. [23] The new division would develop gas in Saudi Arabia and build a business selling liquefied gas abroad. [23] Aramco did not comment. [23]

Why it matters. Aramco is looking for outside money to pay for Saudi Arabia's plans to rely less on oil, while the Saudi government's finances are under pressure. [23] Gulf oil companies have sold parts of their businesses before while keeping their main oil operations closed to outsiders. [23]

BP is weighing a bid for Devon Energy's oil fields in the Eagle Ford area of south Texas, six people familiar with the matter told Reuters last week. [24] BP spent years putting money into renewable energy and has turned back to oil and gas, now under Meg O'Neill, its chief executive since April. [24] Analysts at TPH Research value the fields at about $4.5 billion; people close to the sale put them at $3.5 billion to $4 billion. [24]

Why it matters. US oil fields have become more attractive because they keep pumping whatever happens in the Middle East. [24] Looking at the sale's papers does not mean BP will bid. [24]

The two US senators behind a permanent ban on Chinese cars will not seek a vote until the US Senate returns in November, aides said on Wednesday. [25] The bill would stop companies more than 15% owned by Chinese investors from selling vehicles in the US. [25] Republican Senator Rand Paul held it up because it would catch Mercedes-Benz, which is nearly 20% owned by Chinese investors. [25] Chinese electric cars already face US tariffs above 100%. [25]

Why it matters. A rule from early 2025 already keeps Chinese carmakers out, but President Trump said this month he would accept them building cars in the US, which alarmed US carmakers. [25]

Petronas, Malaysia's state energy company, said on Thursday that the Songkhla Export Pipeline has been shut for now after a routine inspection found a problem. [26] The pipeline is run by a joint company of Petronas and PTT, Thailand's state energy company. [26] It is part of a system that brings gas from fields under the Gulf of Thailand to processing plants and buyers in Thailand and Malaysia. [26] It will restart only once it is confirmed safe. [26]

Why it matters. Petronas called the shutdown a precaution and gave no date for restarting. [26]