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The U.S. Energy Department said it will remove the calculation known as the fuel content factor , which had given electric vehicles added weight in regulatory fuel-efficiency accounting. The move, prompted by a federal appeals court ruling, comes as part of a wider reworking of vehicle efficiency rules and could shift the balance of incentives toward market and state-level measures.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has proposed eliminating a waiver and raising the domestic-content threshold for federally funded EV chargers from 55% to 100%, a change that could delay installations funded through the NEVI program. Advocates and state plaintiffs say the move undermines a court order protecting NEVI funding and will slow deployment, while proponents argue it advances onshoring of manufacturing.
A senior U.S. energy official publicly challenged the IEA’s emphasis on low-carbon technologies at a Paris meeting and warned of funding consequences; the UK simultaneously pledged additional support to the agency’s clean-energy work. The clash spotlights a shifting geopolitical contest over how international energy data and strategy balance fossil fuel monitoring with clean-energy transition planning.
The annual budget includes targeted tax relief and other incentives to accelerate downstream rare‑earth refining and magnet production, backed by a larger capital‑expenditure push. Success will hinge on clear eligibility rules, performance‑linked conditions, coordinated state corridors for processing, and investments in reagents, power and skilled labour.
The EPA has revised a 2012 rule that limited mercury and other toxic-metal emissions from large power plants, reducing federal compliance requirements and giving coal-fired operators near-term regulatory relief. The change is part of a broader deregulatory push that includes delayed enforcement on coal-ash cleanup and proposals to rescind greenhouse-gas legal findings, raising prospects of litigation, patchwork state responses and heightened public-health monitoring near affected facilities.
China is accelerating power capacity, transmission and grid-side firming to remove a major bottleneck for hyperscale AI training — lowering marginal electricity costs and shortening project lead times. That advantage comes with trade-offs: risks of underutilized capacity, supply‑chain distortions, and near‑term emissions consequences that complicate geopolitics and climate commitments.
A federal judge determined that an advisory group convened by the Department of Energy breached the Federal Advisory Committee Act by operating without public records and balanced membership, after plaintiffs showed the group kept communications private. The DOE had disbanded the group during litigation; the court nevertheless found the statutory violations established as a matter of law.
Washington and Taipei agreed to a trade deal that cuts tariffs, expands market access for U.S. goods and binds Taiwan to over $44 billion in purchases of U.S. LNG and crude. Implementation — through memoranda, procurement timetables, verification and domestic approvals — will determine whether headline commitments translate into sustained shipments, investment and measurable geopolitical effects.