Story by Melissa Lawford, 7/27/2025

Bobby Helmers used to be an oilman.

For years, he worked leasing land for petroleum companies and at one point had as many as nine oil wells on his ranch in West Texas.

But those wells have long been plugged up.

Now, instead, the 84-year-old Trump voter has six wind turbines spinning on his ranch.

Standing 300ft high, they make up the north-eastern end of a 76-turbine farm that stretches into the distance and is owned by French utilities company Engie, which pays Helmers handsomely for the privilege.

“If you’re talking about bottom-line dollars, the wind turbines make more for the ranch than the cattle do,” says Helmers. “They’re a blessing.”

“It’s not that I was dissatisfied with the oil,” says Helmers. “It’s just that production was depleting. They became no longer economically feasible.”

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Companies pursuing new market in energy-storage systems

By Christopher Otts, July 21, 2025 7:00 am ET

Big U.S. EV battery makers are stepping back from the market that got them started and betting on a new set of customers in an entirely different business.

Instead of carmakers, these companies have started making batteries for utilities, wind- and solar-power developers, and massive data centers that train artificial intelligence.

Selling large, stationary batteries for “energy storage systems,” or ESS, used to be a niche market that wasn’t worth much attention, said Jaehong Park, an executive at the battery arm of South Korean conglomerate LG.

“ESS was the ugly duckling for a long time within our organization,” Park said.

Five years ago, automakers and battery companies raced to build multibillion-dollar electric-vehicle battery plants across the U.S. South and Midwest, based on EV forecasts that proved too optimistic. Now, many of these plants are underused, delayed or stuck in limbo. Energy storage has emerged as an alternative, helping to compensate for the slowdown in electric vehicles.

Tesla generates billions of sales from batteries for energy storage. Revenue from the storage segment, which also includes solar panels, grew 67% last year to $4 billion, partially offsetting a $6 billion fall in revenue from EV sales.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY AT THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The GOP tax bill guts subsidies for the fastest-growing sources of U.S. electricity, solar and wind. Meanwhile, China races ahead with a broad energy strategy.

July 3, 2025

By Evan Halper

Republicans in Congress produced a surprise winner this week when they axed hundreds of billions of dollars in federal clean-energy subsidies: China’s artificial intelligence industry.

China is pouring money into energy production to support its bid to dominate AI. America’s tech industry, meanwhile, has been scrounging for more energy to run power-hungry AI data centers and strongly urged Congress not to wipe out solar and wind tax credits.

Solar panels and windmills are the fastest-growing sources of power in the United States, accounting for 80 percent of new energy being added to the grid. Yet Republican lawmakers and Trump administration officials remain intent on stifling clean energy progress in America, calling it Biden-era folly.

Now the consequences of the massive cuts in the GOP tax and budget bill are coming into focus. Modeling of the package by energy economists shows they will substantially reduce the amount of electricity added to the U.S. power grid in the coming years, even as China races ahead.

READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON POST HERE: https://wapo.st/46NzYJi

Aaron Zubaty recently spoke at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington DC during Real Clear's Energy Future Forum, and explained that building battery storage at grid-critical locations in the U.S. can unlock 30-50 GW of untapped spare transmission capacity, making more effective use of the infrastructure we already have built and paid for, and boosting efficiency of power plant operations without waiting for new generation. The first step of exercising energy dominance should be better use of what we have already built, and not letting outdated regulatory models stand in the way any longer.

WATCH MORE ON YOUTUBE HERE: https://www.youtube.com/live/79muWat5G8w?t=24324s

The administration blocked an electricity plant in Michigan from closing, overturning a plan by a utility and local officials.

June 1, 2025

By Evan Halper and Jake Spring

An emergency order last month from Washington rattled Michigan regulators: The Trump administration reversed the state’s plan to retire an aging power plant, forcing it to remain open and continue burning coal.

Michigan and the plant’s operator have mounds of evidence that closing the 63-year-old J.H. Campbell plant on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan won’t create a shortage of electricity. But the Trump administration adopted a different view, claiming the Midwest is overly dependent on intermittent wind and solar power. Energy Secretary Chris Wright exercised rarely used federal authority to block the closure, which had been scheduled for May 31. His order requires the plant to continue operating for three more months — and possibly longer.

The move will collectively increase electric bills forratepayers in the Midwest bytens of millions of dollars, according to Michigan officials. More broadly, it wasseen as an opening salvo in President Donald Trump’s effort to reverse America’s transition to clean energy and restore the nation’s dependence on burning fossil fuels.The administration’s strategy includes using federal power to overturn the plans of local utilities and regulators.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE AT THE WASHINGTON POST