China talks oil
** The White House says that Chinese President Xi Jinping, in his meeting with President Trump, “expressed interest” in buying more U.S. oil to reduce reliance on the Strait of Hormuz.
Ship sunk
** “In the latest incident on the trade route, an Indian cargo vessel carrying livestock from Africa to the United Arab Emirates was sunk on Thursday in waters off the coast of Oman,” reports Reuters. All 14 crew members were rescued.
Cubans protest blackouts
** Rare demonstrations erupted across Havana over repeated power blackouts, which have worsened since the US tightened its energy embargo on Cuba. The country relies on imported fossil fuels for the vast majority of its power, and economic activity has ground to a halt since the US blocked energy shipments. Havana faces blackouts for up to 22 hours a day.
Environmental harassment
** A record number of people faced judicial harassment, intimidation, surveillance, and physical violence in 2025 for speaking out against businesses, a new report found — and most cases were tied to the energy sector. The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre documented nearly 800 incidents drawn from publicly available sources.
Data centers
** Data centers are driving a far larger share of power growth in the United States compared to the world as a whole, according to the International Energy Agency.
US Energy
** Higher oil prices fueled by the Iran war are the main driver behind inflation, with the Consumer Price Index rising 3.8% in April, new data out this week shows.
** Researchers for the U.S. Energy Information Administrator are forecasting that annual electric power generation from utility-scale solar will surpass that from coal for the first time in 2026 within the electricity grid that covers most of Texas. Solar generation is expected to reach 78 billion kilowatthours (BkWh) in 2026 in the electricity grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) compared with 60 BkWh for coal.
** President Donald Trump signs a bill that will let FERC give recently relicensed hydropower projects more time to start construction, a move that could aid facilities across the Northeast.
** A University of Texas study finds the state’s growing data center industry could account for up to 9% of statewide water use by 2040, further straining an already limited resource.