POLITICO’s Energy &

Ministers defend government-backed energy company against forced labor claims

LONDON — The U.K. government has defended its publicly-owned energy company, days after POLITICO revealed Great British Energy was still funding firms that could not rule out exposure to slave-made goods.  “We are tackling forced labor where we find it in global supply chains, and we want to go further,” Energy Minister Michael Shanks told MPs when questioned in the House of Commons Tuesday.  The Department for Energy Security and Net...

Brussels to Big Tech: Embrace sustainable AI or go away

BRUSSELS — The European Union’s energy chief says companies that want to profit off the artificial intelligence boom are welcome in Europe — but only if they demonstrate they are committed to the bloc’s energy, climate and environmental goals. That means supporting renewable and nuclear power sources rather than fossil fuels, and recycling the amounts of excess heat from data centers to heat Europeans’ homes and businesses, EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen told POLITICO in an...

Trump administration in ‘active dialogue’ on strategic petroleum reserve in California

SANTA BARBARA, California — The Trump administration is in “active dialogue” on creating a petroleum reserve in California, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told POLITICO on Friday, a move that would boost oil infrastructure in the state and undermine Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s bid to shrink the state’s fossil fuel footprint. A June 2 document that lawyers for Sable Offshore Corp., which owns a trio of oil platforms off the California coast, sent to the Energy Department and seen by...

Poland criticizes ‘insane’ EU climate policy

The speed at which the EU is pushing its industry to cut carbon emissions under the Emissions Trading System is “insane,” according to Poland’s deputy climate and environment minister. Speaking at the POLITICO Energy & Climate Forum in Brussels Monday, Secretary of State Krzysztof Bolesta said the EU was moving too fast to take away free pollution permits for heavy industry — in some cases reducing them by as much as half. And it’s not one industry branch, it’s...

Europe’s race to secure its energy supplies — live updates

The fallout from the U.S.-Israel war in Iran is already rippling through global markets. But the worst may still lie ahead for Europe. As oil and gas supplies tighten and prices spike, the shock is seeping into every corner of the economy, from manufacturing to borrowing costs to demand shifts.

European companies flee Cuba as US sanctions go into effect

European companies from Spanish hotels to German shipping lines are ending their Cuban operations as Washington on Friday moved to intensify its decades-old embargo, expanding its focus from the regime in Havana to EU business ties to the island.  Among the hardest hit are Spain’s Meliá and Iberostar hotel groups. For decades, the lush resorts they operated on Cuba’s most idyllic beaches were the crown jewels of their global portfolios. But over the past few weeks, the hospitality...

EU wants households to cut electricity use as demand from industry and AI soars

BRUSSELS — The European Commission wants households to use less energy at peak times in preparation for an explosion of power demand from artificial intelligence data centers and electrification of the economy. The EU executive said Wednesday it will propose a new law later this year to accelerate the roll out of AI-powered smart meters, which give consumers “greater control over when they use electricity, allowing them to shift consumption to cheaper hours and lower their...

Cyberkrieg & Drohnen: Wie digitale Abwehr schützt. Mit T-Systems-Chef Ferri Abolhassan.

Hundreds of thousands of EU jobs at risk, Commission to warn

BRUSSELS — EU countries risk mass job losses in the coming years as high energy costs, industrial restructuring and the green transition weigh on the economy, the European Commission is set to warn. The figures, seen by POLITICO, will appear in the European Semester Spring Package, which sets out the Commission’s economic and policy recommendations for EU countries and is due to be presented Wednesday. They underscore growing concern in Brussels about the scale of the economic challenges...

The back-channel bid to go soft on Maduro

When Marco Rubio was named secretary of State, many in both South Florida Republican circles and the American energy industry exulted. But one man who bridged both worlds knew he had a problem. A longtime investor in Venezuela, the main source of crude oil needed to produce the asphalt that had made his family rich, Harry Sargeant III kept relations with top officials in Caracas even as they seized most foreign oil holdings.