Author: Erick Parel

Trump demands rare-earth metals from Ukraine

Energy News Beat In exchange the US would continue to provide Kiev with support in its conflict with Moscow Kiev will have to supply Washington with rare-earth minerals if it wants to continue receiving American assistance, US President Donald Trump told journalists on Monday. Ukraine will need to enter a new agreement with the US, […]

Rubio says he is in charge of USAID

Energy News Beat The agency’s work should align with the “national interest and foreign policy” of the US, the secretary of state has said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Monday that he has assumed the role of acting administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Earlier in the day, it […]

New EPA Chief Lee Zeldin Targets Anti-Trump Bureaucrats, Vows to Fill Key Roles

Energy News Beat New EPA chief Lee Zeldin vows to cut bureaucrats undermining Trump’s agenda and ensure key agency roles are filled with committed staff. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin told reporters at agency headquarters Friday that bureaucrats resisting or undermining President Donald Trump’s EPA agenda have no place at the agency. [emphasis, […]

Governors In Bloomberg-Backed Climate Alliance Double Down On Paris Agreement

Energy News Beat Governors in the US Climate Alliance are upholding the Paris Accord despite voter rejection, driving up energy costs and prioritizing costly green schemes. Despite a red wave sweeping across America last November, a green wall is descending over part of the country. [emphasis, links added] As President Trump took the oath of […]

What DeepSeek Revealed About the Future of U.S.-China Competition

Energy News Beat Washington faces a daunting but critical task. The Chinese start-up DeepSeek stunned the world and roiled stock markets last week with its release of DeepSeek-R1, an open-source generative artificial intelligence model that rivals the most advanced offerings from U.S.-based OpenAI—and does so for a fraction of the cost. Influential tech investor Marc […]

Hapag-Lloyd wraps up financing for 24 LNG-powered containerships

Energy News Beat Hapag-Lloyd said on Tuesday that the financing will be carried out on the basis of its “green financing framework” for the order placed in October last year. Yangzijiang Shipbuilding will build 12 vessels each with a capacity of 16,800 teu, while New Times Shipbuilding will build 12 ships each with a capacity of 9,200 […]

China to impose tariff on US LNG

Energy News Beat China’s Ministry of Finance said in a statement on Tuesday that the US government announced on February 1 the imposition of a 10 percent tariff on all Chinese goods exported to the US, citing fentanyl shipments and other issues. “The unilateral imposition of tariffs by the US is a serious violation of […]

South African minister calls for halt to mineral exports to US

Energy News Beat   South Africa’s minister of mineral and petroleum resources, Gwede Mantashe, has called on African countries to withhold mineral exports to the US. The comments come after US President Donald Trump announced plans to cut aid to South Africa over its land expropriation policies. Speaking on Monday at the Investing in African […]

Iran working on faster way to create nuclear bomb – NYT

Energy News Beat   Iranian scientists are working on a faster method to develop nuclear weapons, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing US intelligence sources. According to the report, a covert team of Tehran-based scientists has been tasked with finding a new way to produce an atomic bomb to deter potential US or […]

European shipowners helped build Russia’s shadow fleet, investigation says

Energy News Beat   Shipping companies from Western countries sold off discarded oil tankers that became part of Russia’s shadow fleet, according to a joint report by investigative news media from several European countries. According to the cross-country investigation “Shadow Fleet Secrets” published by news outlets from Germany, Belgium, Norway, Denmark and the United Kingdom […]