DOE Delays Three Biden-Era Appliance Rules As Republicans Push To Overturn Them

Energy News BeatDOE Delays Three Biden-Era Appliance Rules

DOE delays three Biden-era appliance rules, including energy standards for air conditioners and freezers, with the GOP using the CRA to cancel them.

​The Department of Energy (DOE) announced Monday it would delay the effective date of three Biden administration home appliance rules.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Energy is taking critical steps every day to help American families prosper,” DOE Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement. [emphasis, links added]

“By removing burdensome regulations put in place by the Biden administration, we are returning freedom of choice to the American people, ensuring consumers can choose the home appliances that work best for their lives and budgets,” Wright added. “This power should not belong to the federal government.”

The department is pausing the effective date of three rules, including one that updated testing procedures for central air conditioners and heat pumps, which was finalized in January.

It requires manufacturers to use an amended test to comply with energy conservation standards.

The DOE also postponed efficiency standards for walk-in coolers and freezers and for instantaneous gas water heaters, which were finalized in December and require the products to use less electricity while operating.

House lawmakers are expected to vote this week on overturning the energy conservation standards for walk-in coolers and walk-in freezers. Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK) is sponsoring the legislation.

In recent weeks, Republicans have been using the Congressional Review Act to overturn many of the Biden administration’s climate and energy regulations.

The CRA is a special legislative process to bypass the filibuster. It allows a simple majority vote in both chambers to cancel regulations.

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Global Investment Growth

Energy News Beat

Daily Standup Top Stories

Who, How much, and what are coutries investing in the U.S. since President Trump took office?

If you have any questions about how regulatory actions can kill an economy or investments, look at what is happening in the United States after President Trump took office. Confirmed Foreign Investments Since January 20, […]

New Study Shows Biden’s EPA Overstated Climate Costs, Confirms CO2 And Warming Benefits

The ‘Social Cost of Carbon’ shouldn’t have been set so high by Biden’s EPA, because plants do just fine with more carbon and warmer temperatures. ​One of the major issues I have had with “climate […]

Alaska Seeks South Korean Investors for Its $44-Billion LNG Project

On Tuesday, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy discussed the Alaska LNG project and other potential energy and trade cooperation with South Korean Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun, as the U.S. Administration is looking to attract Asian investors in the […]

With BP’s Megadeal Approved, Is the West Back in Iraq?

Iraq approved BP’s $25B contract to develop key Kirkuk oil fields. The Western megadeals may stabilize Iraq’s oil ambitions and play a role in softening Baghdad–Erbil tensions. The BP deal signals a potential resurgence of […]

States Using Climate Lawfare Are Undermining Federal Energy Push

States and localities are using lawsuits to shape national energy policy by targeting companies the federal government wants to see prosper. ​Throughout the presidential campaign, Donald Trump made no secret about his priority of bringing […]

Highlights of the Podcast

00:01 – Intro

02:18 – Who, How much, and what are coutries investing in the U.S. since President Trump took office?

05:38 – New Study Shows Biden’s EPA Overstated Climate Costs, Confirms CO2 And Warming Benefits

07:44 – Alaska Seeks South Korean Investors for Its $44-Billion LNG Project

08:57 – With BP’s Megadeal Approved, Is the West Back in Iraq?

12:15 – States Using Climate Lawfare Are Undermining Federal Energy Push

16:49 – Markets Update

21:53 – API Crude Oil Inventories


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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.


Michael Tanner [00:00:00] Now, I would go back and say SoftBank has pledged to spend $100 billion. And as Elon Musk said, they don’t have half that money. So yes, there is a commitment. If anybody, Mase Oda’s son loves to spend big. So I would, he’s famously had the WeWork investment after spending 12 minutes with Adam Newman. So I do agree that there is lot of money getting thrown around. You know, I would be interested to see… You mentioned that Nippon Steel, it’s bid for US Steel. Now that’s under regulatory review right now via the FTC. 

Michael Tanner [00:00:42] What’s going on, everybody? Welcome into the Wednesday, March 26, 2025 edition of the Daily Energy Newsbeat Standup. Here are today’s top headlines. First up, who? How much and what countries are investing in the U.S. since Trump took office? Interesting one here. Next up, new study shows Biden EPA overstated climate costs, confirmed CO2 and warming benefits. In the most obvious headline of 2025. Who would have thought that? We’re going to fly up to Alaska. Alaska seeks South Korean investors for its $44 billion LNG project. Best be calling Greece Energy Consulting to help out with that. Absolutely. Next up, BP’s mega deal approved and is the West back in Iraq. Super interesting here about what’s going on with BP and Iraq. Finally, in the news segment, states using climate lawfare are pushing and undermining federal energy push. Super interesting. Stu will then toss it with me. I will cover what happened in the oil and gas markets today and touch a little bit on the API. surprising draw in their crude oil inventory guesstimates. As always, I am Michael Taylor, joined by Stuart Turley in the flesh. Great to see you as always. Hey, and tomorrow we’re on field. Yes, tomorrow’s gonna be great. We are on site. If you’ve ever wanted to become Billy Bob Thornton from Landman, we’re gonna be out showing off a little bit at one of our great. great investments place. So we are excited to be there, but excited to have you here in the flesh. Let’s go ahead and kick this. Where do you want to begin? 

Stuart Turley [00:02:20] Hey, let’s start with President Trump. My buddy, Mr. President Trump, who, how much, and what countries are investing in the U.S. since President Trump took office. Michael, today we’re talking about money, regulatory issues, and investments. Investments are critical. Yes. Let’s take a look at Japan. Japan put in SoftBank, $100 billion, Taiwan, $ 100 billion, Japan, Nippon Steel. 14.1 billion but the country’s Michael Saudi Arabia 600 billion bucks UAE you ready for this one 1.4 trillion dollars of it’s with a T that’s with that big T I thought you were doing a timeout I’m like oh let’s go Batman and then you had the UAE for 20 billion or up to 40 billion in some But some of the biggest news comes from Peter St. John Jones. He is a… I follow him on X. Please go follow him. He has pointed out that the key… to the Trump’s tariff success is a carrot and not a club. And why are all these people jumping in? Because of the regulatory things going on. When you invest in manufacturing in China, they steal your technology and then they rob you blind. That’s why everybody’s lining up to come to the United States, because we’re not going to rob you blind anymore. This is pretty cool. 

Michael Tanner [00:03:51] These are some big numbers. Now, I would go back and say SoftBank has pledged to spend $100 billion. And as Elon Musk said, they don’t have half that money. So yes, there is a commitment. If anybody, Massey Oda’s son loves to spend big. So I would, he’s famously had the Wheatwork investment after spending 12 minutes with Adam Newman. So I do agree that there is a lot of money getting thrown around. You know, I would be interested to see… you mentioned that Nippon steel, it’s bid for US steel. Now that’s under regulatory review right now via the FTC. It was not looked favorably upon by the old FTC, I think what’s interesting though is this new federal trade commissioner is not actually that far to the right of where Lena Conn was. And on something like this, you could argue there are national security implications with having one of our… fewest homegrown manufacturers being bought out by a foreign country. Now, obviously it’s Japan. Japan is not an adversary when it comes to that, but I do think it will be interesting there. We will see where that comes down. I think some of these other numbers that you mentioned, 600 billion from Saudi, 1.4 trillion from the UAE. Holy smokes, South Korea and the UAe, again, specifically for real estate, that’s a little bit different. I some of the Saudi and UAE money is not all pegged for energy, but the investment is coming in heavily. And I think that’s a signal that at least America is going to be a place of deregulation. You’re going to able to invest very easily. Now, the question is, are the returns in the United going to be relative to some of the other global markets, I think that remains to be seen. Thanks a lot. 

Stuart Turley [00:05:39] Let’s go to the next story here. You know, this all goes around the Biden’s EPA overstated climate cost and confirmed CO2 warming benefits. I’m shocked. Really, holy smokes. This is on the edge of our great Secretary Wright discovering that they buried the report from President Biden and saying, wait a minute, we’re. the LNG exports were banned and he didn’t even know about it. This is on top of that interesting reanalysis of the larger data set yielded significantly different results in previous studies. The study found adaptations from CO2 fertilizer have a beneficial effect on crop yields, which I had noted before. This is an amazing turn of events and people are tired of faulty reporting, burying reports, and hiding it for investment reasons. This is playing on big time. 

Michael Tanner [00:06:40] Yeah, well, I’m shocked. Actually, what’s funny is, you know, Biden claimed he didn’t know about it, yet he read it three times and actually was hosting a show about it. He just, he forgot that he was… But, again, I do… Again, I do think it’s interesting, you mentioned this extended crop yields, absolutely unbelievable. I mean, I think that’s the dirty little secret about increased CO2 is the increase of greenery that happens. Now, obviously, there’s a place of, you know, we talk about economics, the amount of large-hand returns, not quite sure if any of that stuff is necessary. But, you, know, it is interesting, am I shocked that they’re overstating the costs and underplaying the significance of CO2? No, absolutely. 

Stuart Turley [00:07:22] But here’s the thing, and that is when you go by and you define CO2 as a pollution, that’s where Lee Zeldin is getting most of his regulatory pull from because the Obama administration plugged that in and said CO2 is a pollutant and you must mandate it and you must wipe it out. Well, is it plant food or is it a pollutent? I have no idea. All right, let’s jump to the next one. Alaska seeks South Korean investors for a $44 billion LNG project. This is huge. Dunleavy and other Alaska state representatives, energy officials, have been touring American North Asian allies, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea to pinch the benefits of Alaska’s LNG. This is just another great story of investing in the United States LNG march that we see going on. 

Michael Tanner [00:08:13] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, I find it unfortunate that we’re having to go to other countries to pitch this. We should be, you know, we should be investing in the United States in this type of stuff. But you know there is strong support from the Trump administration. who, you know, this article does point out, has been pressing Japan and South Korea to buy more LNG, which is really a way to reduce their trade deficit with Asian allies. So, I mean, I see what the thing is there. Now, the time when state held oil and gas could be CPC corporation, has gone ahead and signed a letter of intent to invest in the LNG project and buy from it, which is also part of the move to kind of, which is huge because, you now, we know how important Taiwan is to China and the implications surrounding that. So you better. 

Stuart Turley [00:08:57] So, hey, let’s go with some really good geopolitical stuff around here. With BP’s mega deal approved is the West back in Iraq. Here is, there’s a couple key points here. Iraq approved BP’s $25 billion contract to key Kirk oil fields. The Western mega deal may stabilize Iraq’s oil ambitions. Michael, here’s something most people don’t realize. Iraq is one of the biggest oil fields and natural gas fields, but they’ve had to install a floating natural gas LNG import facility because they don’t have the technical skills to develop their own wells. So this is a gigantic thing. This follows on yesterday’s news that Shell may be delisting and they’re having some serious doubts about being in the UK with all of the serious problems. So if you had Shell and BP leave the UK, holy smokes, Batman, that’s good. Where are they gonna go? Oh, the US. 

Michael Tanner [00:10:06] And then there’s some real interesting minute details about what it takes to operate in Iraq. It’s basically a huge water flood. And if you know anything about water flood, you need a lot of water to move oil. You need a lot of to move a little bit of oil. And when you’ve got a lot of oil down there, it is a technical deal. Yeah. So I think there is a, somewhere someone was saying in this article that the water injection basically needs to for about two percent of the combined flow of the Tigris and the Euphrates River which is which is pretty unbelievable and about six percent during the low season so this does require a lot of water like you said the technical requirements of this is crazy it’s why they’ve had to resort to some offshore stuff but yeah I do think this is 

Stuart Turley [00:10:53] This is very interesting, you know. And one bit of hypocrisy while you catch your breath there. Are you ready for this? You ready? California imports from Iraq. And this is absolutely hilarious. 

Michael Tanner [00:11:06] So, so question here. It’s long been talked about that BP would consider moving their main listing from the London Stock Exchange to somewhere in the United States, whether I assume the New York Stock Exchange, maybe the newly, the yet to be created Texas Stock Exchange. Which I promise you, if that comes to fruition, Energy News Beat’s listed. We’re taking Energy News Beats public via the Texas Stock exchange. I promise, you guys, that we will do that. But my question to you is, let’s just say they go through with really diving deep into Iraq. Is that gonna hurt them when they try to look to list on the stock exchange here in the United States? Are they gonna get penalized? Maybe not by investors, but obviously by the government. 

Stuart Turley [00:11:51] That one is a good question because the United States buys from sanctioned countries anyway. So, you know, you sit back and kind of go, they may be a sanctioned country. Take a look at California and New York and everybody else. They’re buying outside the sanctions. So the answer is… 

Michael Tanner [00:12:07] I don’t think it would matter. You heard it here second, guys. US buys sanctioned oil. Who would have thought? Yes. 

Stuart Turley [00:12:14] to the last one here. Okay. United States states using climate lawfare are undermining the federal energy push. This lawfare stuff has just got to stop. This is absolutely nuts. Congress is on board with the Senate and the House passed budget package include to unlock. However, the federal government gives states and localities in partnership that trial bar advocacy groups may take away. There are several in here, like Bucks County, Pennsylvania, filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil. Then we have the one filing in New York. against them. If I was a large oil company, I would seriously look at not doing business in New York. 

Michael Tanner [00:12:59] Well, I mean, obviously, because you’re just going to become a target for political retribution. Yeah, which which is clear here, again, and a lot of these advocacy groups, as this article mentioned, are based there. So trying to navigate not just governmental pressure, but then this this private sector pressure, which hopefully with the with with what Doge is doing in the end, tightening up with the federal budget. You don’t have some of these non federal federal organizations going after you. 

Stuart Turley [00:13:25] advocacy groups. Right. And take a look at Texas and Oklahoma. Texas enacted a law prohibiting political subdivisions from entering into contingent fee contracts for legal services. And then you have Oklahoma legislator is is considering a bill that would amend the state’s public nuisance law to clarify the legal meaning of marketing and selling of products not to be a public nuisance. That you really get after it. Hey Sandy, so as everybody gets ready to listen to your part of the day, make sure that you read this to your pets, hug your kids, and then really share this. 

Michael Tanner [00:14:02] Yeah, absolutely. And even Sandy’s getting fired up over here about what’s going on with these, with what’s going on. It’s unbelievable. But let’s go ahead and jump over to finance. But before we do that, let’s do ahead and pay the bills. As always, thank you for checking us out here on the world’s greatest website, dotEnergyNewsB.com. The best place for all your energy and oil and gas news. Stu and the team do a tremendous job making sure that website stays up to speed. Everything you need to know to be the tip of the spear when it comes to the energy and the oil and gas business go ahead And hit that description below for all links to the timestamps links to be articles Be sure to check us out on Spotify. We are now starting to upload the video to all of our podcasts So thank you to the team for getting that fired up I know I’m I’m a you know a resident Spotify podcast guys So the fact that we cannot get those videos up on there are is really awesome So go check us out there. Also go check this out on Substack, theenergynewsbeat.substack.com. A great, great place to support the show. Go ahead and subscribe there. If you do feel so inclined, we’d love you to sign up for one of our paid subscriptions. Stu is doing a great job dropping a bunch of paid for articles there. And we’re steaming up a bunch of other stuff to our growing subscriber base there. So go ahead. And if you wouldn’t mind, give us a shout there. We’d also like to thank friend of the show, Reese Energy Consulting for their support, guys. If we talk a lot about the show about LNG, these guys are the LNG and natural gas experts in the field, whether you’re designing and looking at investing in the Alaska LNG project, which you are, I’d highly recommend going and connecting with Reese. They will get you all the information you might need, whether you think about planning a new LNG facility from the operation side of things, whether you are in the upstream space and you aren’t working with an oil or gas marketing company, not Twitter marketing, I’m talking oil and gas, crude oil and natural gas, liquids marketing, meaning you’re probably overpaying by 15 to 20% from a fee standpoint with your first purchasers. They come in, they negotiate down those contracts and ultimately put more money back into your pocket. So go ahead guys, go check out Lease Energy Consulting, tell them, Energy Newsbeat said that. And finally, guys, as always, invest in oil, energynewsbeat.com. If you are interested in becoming Billy Bob Thornton for Landmade, we are gonna be out in the field tomorrow, talking about a bunch of stuff. I think we’re gonna be doing a live show from the field, so that’ll be great. Highly recommend you guys go to, again, investingoil.energynews beat.com, again. The benefits of investing in oil and gas, tax deductions, portfolio diversification, a little bit of monthly dividends, and then you can show up to every single party They basically say, yo, guess what? I am Billy Bob Thornton. So let’s jump over here real quick though and cover the markets. Stu, S&P 500 was only up about a 10th of a percentage point. NASDAQ was actually up a lot more mainly because of the swing back on Tesla. Tesla has been down about 33% year to date. They swung back about six percentage points today. So being a massive overweight in the NASDAq is one of the reasons why that spread was so much. Two and 10-year yields. I continue to fall about six tenths of a percentage point for the two-year yield, about four-tenths of a percentage point for the 10-year-yield. Dollar index was basically flat. Bitcoin was up to about $87,000. We’re actually over $88,000 since settle here at about $8,700, $800. Crude oil sitting at basically $69 even. That’s basically flat on the day. It was up over $69.50. It’s fallen a little bit, mainly due to some stuff we’ll talk about from Russia and Ukraine, which I want to get Stu your thoughts on. But natural gas has fallen about 1.8 percentage points. It’s now sitting at $3.84, so not great for any of your natural gas producers. The XOP contract was actually extremely flat. What are we looking at here? It’s basically flat, up 0.03 percentage points, $132.54. I do, Stu, want to quickly talk about oil prices because really what caused the swing was this energy C-spire. that Russia and Ukraine signed. Basically, there was a maritime and energy truce that was stricken between Ukraine and Russia, which offset most of the concerns about glowing, tightening oil supply, mainly due to those tariffs on countries that are buying Venezuelan production. Basically, this was United States, which he deals with both Ukraine and Russia to pause attacks in the sea and against energy targets, with Washington then agreeing to about lift some sanctions that it had against Moscow, not energy related sanctions, more financial related sanctions. But both Kiev and Moscow came out and said that they’re going to rely on us to enforce these deals while, you know, expressing some skepticism that either side is going to actually be able to withhold. Talk us a little bit through what you’re seeing out there. Does this have a chance of actually holding through? Where do you think, you know, that was one of the big goals of the Trump administration was to bring… 

Stuart Turley [00:19:06] this war doing and it’s still raging. It is still raging and part of the problem is President Trump is dealing from a standpoint, Michael, of not having all the information that he needs. Right now, as George McMillan has said, all President Putin has to do is nothing. Because of the weaponization of the sanctions, he’s moved all of his business to Asia. He does not… Russia had a 4%… You’ve heard me say this before. 4% GDP growth last year. Why? Because of energy. Energy is about 40% of his exports. So when you sit back and take look, the left. Germany has again won. But right now in this energy pause, who has violated the last one on these things? Zelensky. When they said, by the way, we’re going to stop, Zelenski started lobbing all these drones over there. I don’t know if we trust Zelenske to stop that yet. I don’t if President Trump trusts Zelenskey after that White House thing. So I think that there is hope that the death will stop. Right now, President Putin, in fact, even Bloomberg had on their article yesterday, President Putin is in no rush to end the war. And it’s because he’s not enticed by money. He has found a way around it. Now, the LNG dark fleet is being shut down, but that’s not where he’s making his money. His money is in oil and gas, and now this Venezuelan issue cropped up. China had a Scooby Doo moment yesterday. Oh, by the way, we’re going to add another 25% on top of that. So, I think that we’re in a wait-and-see mode for about another two to three weeks while we figure out how we get President Putin to the table. He is really not interested. He’s got to have a carrot. Just like President Trump is doing with his carrot and getting people to invest in the United States, he’s got figure out what carrot to get President Putin off that table. 

Michael Tanner [00:21:19] Yeah, I mean, maybe since you accidentally got added to that energy group chat on signal, you could just drop in there that unbelievable. That was the 

Stuart Turley [00:21:29] I mean, it’s just, I had to make a little bit of a joke about that. When the group keeper comes out and Hillary Clinton makes a joke that’s actually funny, that’s frightening. She goes, you’ve got to be kidding me. I mean Hillary Clinton needs to go away, but that was funny. 

Michael Tanner [00:21:46] I just couldn’t go on there. Signal group chat, our nation’s brightest, still using Signal, that’s completely unbelievable. Finally, Stu, last thing we’ve got here is API crude oil inventories. That was the only other thing that I think pulled prices up. 4.6 million barrel draw is estimated by the API. As you guys listen to this on Wednesday morning, you will be seeing at 10 a.m. the crude oil inventory report in EIA. So if it’s anything bigger or smaller, that will move markets. But that’s only about the only other thing I saw today, Stu. I think on the oil side, it’s a little bit all quiet the Western Front, you know, we covered the royalty sell by Oxy, you know, I think they’re gearing up for a lot of different changes, as we talked about, but you know don’t really not really see anything too scary on that front. So we will keep you guys abreast. This was fun. It’s always fun getting together, seeing you in person. What else? What are we missing today? What do you think? 

Stuart Turley [00:22:43] about. Oh, I’m just trying to take a look and see about how we can export energy and really take the United States to his. President Trump’s looking at energy and taking control of the nuclear power plant in Ukraine caused me to start thinking about this from a really whole new level of, oh, by the way, energy is a service. That’s a whole new paradigm shift. I think it could be a very good thing for the United Sates. 

Michael Tanner [00:23:11] Yeah, no, absolutely, guys. Well, hey, we appreciate you guys checking us out here on the world’s greatest podcast. As always, energynewsbeat.com. For Stuart Turley, I’m Michael Tanner. We’ll see you tomorrow, folks. 

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Oil Prices Surge to Three-Week High on Supply Concerns

Energy News BeatOil And Gas

  • Crude oil prices have risen to a three-week high due to a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. oil inventories reported by the American Petroleum Institute.
  • President Trump’s threat of tariffs on countries importing Venezuelan crude has led to a slowdown in loadings at Venezuelan ports, further tightening the global supply.
  • While sanctions are pushing prices up, potential deals between the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine regarding hostilities and sanctions relaxation are introducing counterpressure and uncertainty to the oil market.

Crude oil prices earlier today touched a three-week high, driven by the latest U.S. oil inventory report by the American Petroleum Institute and expectations of tighter supply on Washington’s double-down on oil sanctions against Iran and Venezuela.

Brent crude was trading at $73.13 per barrel at the time of writing, with West Texas Intermediate at $69.12 per barrel, after the American Petroleum Institute reported on Tuesday that oil inventories in the county had fallen by 4.6 million barrels in the week to March 21. This was a bigger than expected draw, with expectations being for a draw of 2.5 million barrels. Inventory figures from the Energy Information Administration are due out later today.

Earlier in the week, President Donald Trump threatened any country importing Venezuelan crude would be subjected to a 25% tariff on all trades with the United States, with the new regime set to begin next month. As a result, loadings of crude at Venezuelan ports immediately slowed, according to a Reuters report, suggesting a tighter supply situation on the horizon, especially in heavy crude.

Citing TankerTrackers.com data, Reuters said there were three supertankers loading at Venezuela’s largest oil port, Jose, but there was an empty berth there as well. No loadings were detected at the port of Bajo Grande. At the port of Jose, there were also tankers waiting to load, although two vessels that had completed loadings were sitting in Venezuelan waters, TankerTrackers.com told Reuters.

While the Venezuela sanction news is having a bullish effect on prices, there is counterpressure coming from the geopolitical world, where the U.S., Russia, and the Ukraine appear to have struck a deal for a suspension of hostilities over the Black Sea and on energy infrastructure although reports did not say when the suspension would enter into effect. As part of the deals, negotiated separately with Russia and the Ukraine, the U.S. has committed to lobby for a relaxation of sanctions on Russia.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

 

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MPC Container Ships offloads seven vessels

Energy News Beat

ContainersEurope

Oslo-listed tonnage provider MPC Container Ships (MPCC) said in a stock exchange filing that it sold five vessels en bloc, involving three 1,300 teu vessels and two 2,000 teu vessels.

According to Greek media reports, the five vessels were bought by Nikolas Pateras-owned Contships Logistics. The vessels in question are the 2010-built AS Alexandria and AS Anita, as well as the 2008-built AS Filippa, AS Fabrizia, and AS Floriana. Delivery to the Greek firm will take place between April and June 2025.

Two more vessels were sold separately to unrelated parties. The average age of the seven sold vessels is 17 years, and the transactions imply a net asset value of NOK 30 ($2.86) per share.

The five vessels will be sold with the existing charters attached, which will reduce the revenue backlog by approximately $40m, subject to the respective handover dates. Of the total amount, $24m relates to the backlog for 2025.

Consequently, MPCC reduced its financial guidance for 2025. The updated guidance for 2025 revenue is between $485m and $500m, down from the previous revenue guidance of $515m and $530m.

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Climate Crusade Crumbles As Public Skepticism Grows

Energy News Beat

The climate movement is collapsing as policies unravel, public skepticism grows, and the ‘social cost of carbon’ is exposed as economic flim-flam.

protest climate sea levels
Our friend Steven Hayward, late of the great Power Line blog, university professor and incisive thinker, wrote a compelling essay last week about “The Nadir of the Climate Change Movement.” [emphasis, links added]

If anyone should know about the state of global warming hysteria, it would be Hayward. Here’s how he begins his argument:

The prevailing winds are blowing not toward more windmills but toward common sense on energy.

It is possible that the Trump administration is going to deal the death blows to the long-running climate change hysteria and government hostility to fossil fuels, not just in the United States but around the globe.

The Trump administration has moved well beyond merely supporting increased oil and natural gas production.

It has also launched steps to dismantle the foundations of anti-energy climate policy, in particular, a proposed reversal of the so-called ‘endangerment finding’ that gave the EPA jurisdiction to regulate greenhouse gases, which were never explicitly included in any of the various Clean Air Acts passed over the last 50 years.

Trump’s EPA is also proposing to revise the EPA’s flawed ‘social cost of carbon’ analysis, which is used to justify costly green energy schemes.

Is this the moment we’ve been looking for for nearly three decades? Is climate virtue signaling finally wearing out?

Are the activists who have blocked traffic, shut down international airports, vandalized priceless artworks, slashed tires, set fires, clashed with police, nagged, ranted, and harassed going to fade into the background, maybe even do something productive rather than destructive?

Is the litigation slowing? Are politicians looking for another grift instead? Will the media drop its constant harping and screeching? Can we expect some honesty from researchers?

Hayward doubts “the climatistas know what’s about to hit them” as “the new Trump team” goes “straight at the heart of the entire climate change framework.”

He points out the “economic flimflam” of the social cost of carbon and reminds us that “fossil fuels are responsible for launching” modern medicine, telecommunications, air and rail travel, and automobiles, innovations that are critical to the functioning of an advanced existence.

Read rest at Issues & Insights

 

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DOT Greenlights Floating LNG Terminal Off Louisiana After 4 Years Of Biden Delays

Energy News Beat

DOT’s Maritime Administration authorized a floating natural gas export terminal off Louisiana after being stonewalled by the Biden admin.

floating lng facility
Maritime Administration (MARAD), a subagency of the U.S. Department of Transportation, issued a license Friday authorizing Delfin LNG to construct a floating liquefied natural gas export terminal approximately 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana. [emphasis, links added]

The facility will connect four floating LNG units to existing onshore pipelines, according to Natural Gas Intelligence, and transport the gas to the global market from U.S. federal waters.

According to a letter sent in September from the government watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust to the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the first Trump administration had issued a record of decisions conditionally approving the project in 2017, but it had not yet granted it a license.

The congressionally mandated timeline to approve or deny a license was 356 days, but MARAD delayed it for seven years.

Former President Joe Biden issued a moratorium on LNG export permits to countries without a free trade agreement with the U.S. in January 2024.

The Washington Free Beacon reported in September that MARAD informed Delfin that the agency wouldn’t issue the final license due to changes in Delfin’s “ownership, design, financing and operations.”

The Department of Energy approved an export permit extension for Delphin LNG earlier this month.

“While the previous administration pursued a strategy of energy subtraction, I am proud to be working with President Trump to advance a strategy of energy addition — embracing all forms of energy that are affordable, reliable and secure,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement.


Top image of a floating LNG terminal/YouTube screencap

Read rest at Just The News

 

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Venture Global LNG seeks Calcasieu Pass approval from FERC

Energy News Beat

Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass requests authorization to place in-service the remainder of the facilities for the project, and the TransCameron pipeline project, according to a filing dated March 25.

These include the power island, pre-treatment, LNG storage, boil-off gas (BOG), and marine facilities.

“With this submittal, Calcasieu Pass believes it has filed all required documentation demonstrating readiness to commence service of the remainder of the facility, as requested herein,” it said.

Calcasieu Pass requests approval of this in-service request by no later than April 1, 2025.

In February, Venture Global said it expects to launch commercial operations at its Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana in April, some 68 months from its final investment decision and 38 months after production start.

Venture Global announced that it has notified its long-term customers that its Calcasieu Pass facility will start commercial operations on April 15, 2025.

“The facility will achieve its commercial operation date, or COD, in under 68 months from its August 2019 final investment decision, despite substantial impacts including two hurricanes, the Covid-19 pandemic, and major unforeseen manufacturing issues, such as with the heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) forming part of the facility’s power island,” the company said.

Calcasieu Pass produced its first LNG on January 19, 2022, moving from FID to LNG production in 29 months, and the first commissioning cargo left the facility on March 1, 2022.

In February last year, Venture Global asked FERC to extend the in-service deadline for the facility for one additional year, or by February 21, 2025.

The 10 mtpa Calcasieu Pass facility consists of 18 modular units configured in 9 blocks.

Customers of the Calcasieu pass facility include Shell, BP, Repsol, Edison, Galp, PGNiG, now part of Orlen, Sinopec’s unit Unipec, and CNOOC.

BP’s CEO Murray Auchincloss recently said he expects a ruling on an arbitration dispute with Venture Global to be delivered in the second half of this year.

BP has a 20-year LNG contract for volumes for the Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana, the same as Shell.

The two firms and other Calcasieu Pass customers are in a dispute with Venture Global over the launch of commercial operations at the facility, and they previously launched arbitration proceedings against Venture Global.

 

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Crowley’s carrier delivers US LNG cargo to Puerto Rico

Energy News Beat

“After 492 safe LNG unloadings over 25 years of operation, today EcoElectrica’s LNG import terminal has received and unloaded the American Energy, the first US LNG cargo imported to Puerto Rico,” EcoElectrica said in a social media post on Tuesday.

“Currently, EcoElectrica’s LNG terminal handles about 30 percent of the fuel imported for electricity production on the island, playing a key role in Puerto Rico’s infrastructure and positively impacting the economic and energy sectors,” the firm said.

American Energy’s AIS data provided by VesselsValue shows that the LNG carrier delivered the shipment from Cheniere’s Corpus Christi LNG export plant in Texas.

EcoElectrica is owned by Spain’s Naturgy, France’s Engie, and Japan’s Mitsui.

It has a 540 MW combined-cycle power plant that includes the LNG terminal with one 160,000 cbm tank located in Penuelas.

US shipping and logistics company Crowley recently said it will deploy the first US-flagged LNG carrier, American Energy, to transport US-sourced LNG to Naturgy’s operating facility in Penuelas.

According to Crowley, the milestone will provide Puerto Rico with increased access to the supply of US mainland-sourced LNG, helping address the island’s ongoing power demands.

Crowley and Naturgy have entered into a multi-year agreement that provides for the regular delivery of US LNG to Naturgy’s operating facility in Penuelas, Puerto Rico.

The Crowley-owned carrier American Energy, which has a capacity of 130,400 cubic meters (34.4 million gallons) per voyage, will operate in accordance with the US Coast Guard Authorization Act of 1996.

VesselsValue data shows that Crowley bought this steam LNG vessel from Stena’s Northern Marine Management in January this year.

Built by Chantiers de l’Atlantique in 1994, the vessel, previously known as Puteri Intan, and then renamed to just Intan, was previously part of MISC’s fleet.

 

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U.S. Cybersecurity Weakness Benefits China

Energy News Beat

The Trump administration’s group chat breach underscores that Beijing might have the edge in information warfare.


China Brief
A weekly digest of the stories you should be following in China, plus exclusive analysis. Delivered Tuesday.

U.S. Cybersecurity Weakness Benefits China

The Trump administration’s group chat breach underscores that Beijing might have the edge in information warfare.

Palmer-James-foreign-policy-columnist20
Palmer-James-foreign-policy-columnist20
James Palmer
By , a deputy editor at Foreign Policy.
From left: National Security Agency Director Timothy Haugh, FBI Director Kash Patel, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Jeffrey Kruse appear during a Senate hearing on Signalgate in Washington on March 25.
From left: National Security Agency Director Timothy Haugh, FBI Director Kash Patel, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Jeffrey Kruse appear during a Senate hearing on Signalgate in Washington on March 25.
From left: National Security Agency Director Timothy Haugh, FBI Director Kash Patel, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Jeffrey Kruse appear during a Senate hearing on Signalgate in Washington on March 25. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.

The highlights this week: The Trump administration’s group chat breach reflects how the United States could lose ground to China on cybersecurity, Beijing may stall purchases of Venezuelan oil as Trump threatens more tariffs, and China’s large language model development booms in the wake of DeepSeek’s debut.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.

The highlights this week: The Trump administration’s group chat breach reflects how the United States could lose ground to China on cybersecurity, Beijing may stall purchases of Venezuelan oil as Trump threatens more tariffs, and China’s large language model development booms in the wake of DeepSeek’s debut.


Does Beijing Have the Cybersecurity Edge?

The accidental inclusion of Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg in a Signal group chat of top U.S. officials discussing strikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen offers another sign that U.S. cybersecurity is at a low point.

U.S. cybersecurity weakness benefits Beijing, as Washington’s main opponent online, and it could give China a critical edge as it pursues targeted hacks against U.S. entities. Beijing has always had advantage in information warfare over Washington simply because the United States is an open society and China is a closed one.

No Chinese official would accidentally add a journalist to a group chat, not least because they wouldn’t have the journalist in their contact list. If they did, the journalist would be afraid to report the story. Chinese leaders steer clear of electronic communications about sensitive matters, fearing both U.S. spying and internal surveillance, and prefer in-person talks when possible.

But the so-called Signalgate episode goes beyond the necessary weaknesses of an open society. It’s not just adding Goldberg to the chat that is the problem—it’s that officials were discussing highly sensitive information on a third-party app and possibly on unsecured personal devices. (Signal, which is encrypted, is not banned on government devices, but it is frowned upon.)

The United States suffered critical intelligence losses in China a decade ago because the CIA underestimated China’s capabilities. Against a highly skilled peer opponent that routinely breaches foreign telecommunications, security failures such as Signalgate essentially hand China the ball and an open net.

After all, the “Houthi PC small group” might not be the only chat out there that is being held on third-party apps but should be confined to internal, heavily secured channels. The Trump administration is very leaky, including the president himself.

The Trump administration has also dismantled U.S. cybersecurity capacity, including cuts at key agencies and a seeming retreat from online conflict with Russia. Before President Donald Trump took office, the Chinese hacking operation known Salt Typhoon was causing panic in Washington, but the president quickly abolished the board that was investigating it—likely because he feels threatened by probes into disinformation and foreign influence.

U.S. intelligence services have not escaped the Trump administration’s assault on civil servants. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has also compromised sensitive intelligence information and created numerous weaknesses for foreign intelligence collection to exploit. (The breaches to come might make the 2015 Office of Personnel Management hack look small.)

The Trump administration’s attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives also threatens efforts to address discrimination against Chinese Americans in national security. Chinese Americans have a harder time getting security clearance and are often blocked from working on China. That is a problem because they are more likely than other candidates to have the language skills and cultural understanding that greatly help in intelligence analysis.

To be sure, China has its own challenges. Many Chinese citizens speak English and have spent time in the United States, but espionage paranoia means that having foreign contacts can easily get officials branded as untrustworthy. The close guarding of information also makes knowledge-sharing among different agencies difficult.

Yet all this counts for very little if the officials in charge of U.S. cybersecurity are blatantly and incompetently breaking the rules. China already had an edge; it might soon be in a different weight category than its main opponent.


What We’re Following

China weighs tariff response. On Monday, Trump threatened a 25 percent tariff on any country that buys Venezuelan oil, to be implemented on April 2. That will likely prompt a stall in purchases from China, one of Venezuela’s biggest oil importers.

As with many details of Trump’s ever-shifting tariff plan, it’s unclear whether the 25 percent levy would come on top of the existing tariffs on Chinese goods, but it seems likely. Trump has hinted at “flexibility” in dealing with China.

For the moment, China is largely keeping its powder dry—making limited responses and waiting to see how much pain U.S. consumers can suffer. Beijing has pushed back and is trying to ensure that big companies such as Walmart pass their increased costs on to U.S. shoppers rather than applying pressure on Chinese suppliers to absorb them.

Leishuei River crisis. The contamination of a river in China’s Hunan province with high levels of thallium, a heavy metal that is a byproduct of many industrial activities, is receiving an unusual amount of press coverage. The Leishuei River supplies water to more than 4 million people in the city of Chenzhou.

Such media attention usually means that a disaster has reached a scale that is impossible to cover up, signaling a brief round of claims that the event is under control before heavy censorship kicks in. The official emergency response came a week after the crisis was first noted on social media.

China’s water pollution is a serious problem, and thallium contamination in rivers has been a recurring issue. Environmental issues used to be a rare area where the government somewhat tolerated protest and activism, but that ended in the early years of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s rule.


FP’s Most Read This Week


Tech and Business

Beijing’s AI boom. The sudden rush of large language model (LLM) development in China continues after artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek released an advanced model in January. New models appear seemingly every week. There seem to be two roads that China could go down—assuming that LLMs are a genuinely transformative technology and not another Silicon Valley bubble.

The first is the technique that China successfully used to develop internet giants such as Alibaba: letting champions emerge from intense market struggle and then taking a strong role in controlling the firms that win. The second (and less successful) technique involves the direct government control that has characterized China’s largely failed attempts at boosting chip manufacturing.

Beijing now seems to be taking the first approach, but as AI is talked up even more, the political leadership might feel that it needs to take a stronger hand in planning it, leading to a slowdown.

Crypto ripple effects. The United States has lifted sanctions against Tornado Cash, a firm that specialized in obscuring cryptocurrency transactions, making them even harder for authorities to trace. Crypto advocates have a powerful voice in the White House, but China is likely to see the move as aggressive—even if the Trump team was unaware of the geopolitical consequences.

First, people relied on cryptocurrency to evade China’s tight currency controls before Beijing enforced its ban on crypto mining and trading; one common technique was to pay for the energy costs of mining in Chinese yuan and then sell the mined bitcoin in U.S. dollars. China has a vested interest in tracing those transactions.

Second, Tornado Cash was used in so-called pig butchering scams orchestrated by online con artists who are largely based out of Southeast Asia and often rely on coerced labor. China and Thailand recently carried out another joint crackdown on organized crime syndicates that run such scams, and Beijing won’t be happy to see Washington hand a key tool back to gangsters.

James Palmer is a deputy editor at Foreign Policy. X: @BeijingPalmer

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America Is Listing in a Gathering Storm

Energy News Beat

Alarms are clanging at the U.S. geographic military commands around the globe.

Argument

By , a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress.

President Donald Trump has talked a lot about restoring strong U.S. leadership in an increasingly unstable world, but in its first two months, his administration has mostly sown chaos at home and doubt abroad about the reliability of the United States as an ally.

Geopolitical storm clouds are gathering at the far reaches of Pax Americana, and yet there is remarkably little sign that the U.S. government or the American people have awoken to the mounting dangers. The threat posed by China and Russia and their rogue nation allies rated only passing mention in last year’s presidential campaign, for instance, which in typical fashion revolved around domestic issues such as the economy and inflation. Asked to choose among five issues in an NBC exit poll, only 4 percent of the voters surveyed during last year’s presidential election named foreign policy as a priority.

President Donald Trump has talked a lot about restoring strong U.S. leadership in an increasingly unstable world, but in its first two months, his administration has mostly sown chaos at home and doubt abroad about the reliability of the United States as an ally.

The administration’s ready-fire-aim approach to national security and world affairs stands in stark contrast to the sense of very real urgency felt at the United States’ geographic military commands, which are positioned forward around the globe.

In essence, these military headquarters are sentries on the far battlements of the U.S.-led, post-World War II international order. From their vantage point, Washington’s military and security forces already find themselves stretched thin by intense combat operations, hybrid and proxy warfare, and tense military standoffs with an increasingly cohesive “axis of autocracies” that is spread out over six time zones that span the globe.

Listen closely to the warnings from these outposts, and you can detect the sound of alarms clanging while the United States continues listing even as geopolitical storm clouds darken.


From the hillside headquarters of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Honolulu, commanders can gaze down on the tranquil waters of Pearl Harbor, where the surface of the water has an oily sheen resulting from persistent leakage from the once mighty battleship USS Arizona, sunk by Japanese bombs more than 80 years ago. The locals refer to the sheen as “black tears,” in memory of the 1,102 U.S. service members still entombed in the wreckage below.

Pearl Harbor is a place for quiet contemplation, and from the nearby vantage point of Indo-Pacific Command, it is impossible not to reflect on the dangers that accumulate when rising powers—such as 1930s-era Japan and Germany—confront status quo powers—such as that era’s Great Britain and the United States.

Today, the Indo-Pacific Command is consumed by the meteoric rise of another superpower in Asia—one whose bullying and provocations toward the United States and its regional allies have increased in rough proportion to a military expansion that recently retired leader of the command Admiral John Aquilino characterized as “the largest military buildup that we’re seeing in history, both conventional and nuclear.”

China’s massive defense manufacturing base now churns out weapons systems at a pace estimated at five to six times as fast as its anemic U.S. counterpart. Beijing already boasts not only the world’s largest navy, but also a shipbuilding capacity roughly 230 times that of the United States, according to Office of Naval Intelligence estimates.

Not coincidentally, in the past year alone, China’s armed forces have held live-fire exercises bracketing Taiwan, a democratic country that the Chinese Communist Party considers a breakaway province. Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army also regularly attacks the ships of the Philippines—a U.S. treaty ally—near contested islands. According to the Pentagon, since the fall of 2021 there have been more than 180 incidents of Chinese warplanes performing “coercive and risky” maneuvers targeting U.S. military aircraft in international airspace.

In congressional testimony in May 2024, Aquilino, then the head of Indo-Pacific Command, said that “all indications point to” the Chinese military meeting leader Xi Jinping’s deadline of being ready for a potential invasion of Taiwan by 2027.

Given that three of China’s standing war plans are built around that Taiwan scenario, the Pentagon has held classified war games testing the U.S. military’s readiness for such a contingency dating back a decade. Many Americans are not even aware that those secret war games consistently indicate that U.S. forces would not only lose that war, but also that they would lose it fast.

Contemplating the growing disparity in defense industrial capacity and Beijing’s aggressive claim of hegemony over the entire South China Sea, then- U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall III summarized conventional wisdom in September 2023 while speaking at a conference: “China is preparing for war, and specifically for a war with the United States.”

Remarkably, the theater-wide view from the village of Mons, Belgium, home to NATO’s sprawling Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), is equally alarming.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 set off the largest conflict in Europe since World War II, is now in its fourth bloody year. During that time, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates that Putin has transitioned the Russian economy to a near-total wartime footing, spending an estimated 7.1 percent of the country’s GDP on defense in 2024.

Despite mounting a large military resupply mission to help keep Ukraine in the fight, the United States and its NATO allies have been continually deterred from more decisive support by a level of nuclear weapons saber-rattling and brinkmanship by Moscow that the world has not seen since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. That brinksmanship escalated dramatically in November 2024, after Russia attacked Ukraine for the first time with a new type of intermediate-range ballistic missile that is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead as well as conventional ones.

The virulently anti-Western axis of autocracies that has come to Russia’s aid in its aggression against Ukraine and its challenge to the supposed U.S.-led, rules-based international order is increasingly alarming to U.S. security officials. China has lived up to its “no limits” partnership with Russia, which was announced just before the invasion, rescuing it from the isolation of Western sanctions with bilateral trade that soared to a record $240 billion in 2023. Beijing acts as a willing buyer for Russian oil while supplying Moscow with subcomponents such as drone and missile engines as well as the semiconductors that are critical to its burgeoning defense industry.

Despite its own conflict with Israel, the theocratic regime in Iran has also stepped in with shipments of ballistic missiles and thousands of lethal Shahed drones for Moscow’s war against its democratic neighbor.

The rogue regime in the so-called hermit kingdom of North Korea, a de facto nuclear weapons state and the most insular dictatorship in the world, has likewise provided Russia with short-range ballistic missiles and what South Korean authorities have estimated as 8 million artillery shells. And in a dramatic escalation of the conflict, U.S. intelligence officials revealed in late 2024 that Pyongyang had also sent an estimated 12,000 special forces troops to fight alongside their Russian counterparts against Ukraine. U.S. officials believe that in return, Moscow is sharing advanced air defense systems with Pyongyang.

In response to Western support for Ukraine, Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency has also greatly intensified its hybrid war against Europe, resulting in what Western intelligence officials characterize as a “an unprecedented rise” in acts of sabotage, arson, cyberattacks and attempted assassinations on NATO soil. In an article in Financial Times, the heads of the CIA and Britain’s MI6 described Russian intelligence activity as a “reckless campaign of sabotage across Europe.”

Western efforts to keep Ukraine supplied, even with fundamental war materials such as standard munitions and low-tech drones, have also revealed glaring deficiencies in industrial capacity in the once-vaunted U.S. “arsenal of democracy.” According to NATO intelligence estimates, Russia is on track to annually produce nearly three times as many artillery shells as the United States and its European allies combined (with 3 million shells versus 1.2 million, respectively). Russia has also dramatically increased its production of relatively cheap drones. Its close ally Beijing already dominates the worldwide market for commercial drones, with just one Chinese company accounting for approximately 70 percent of global production.

The view of the Middle East from the U.S. Central Command Forward Headquarters at al-Udeid Airbase in Qatar is no more reassuring. The war against Israel that the Gaza-based Hamas militant group launched to devastating effect on Oct. 7, 2023, quickly revealed itself as a coordinated attack on the United States’ closest ally in the region by Iran-led proxies that constitute Tehran’s so-called axis of resistance, which comprises Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria, and Houthi rebels in Yemen. The resulting war thus rapidly spread throughout the volatile region, including in the form of rare direct attacks between Israeli and Iran proper.

From the outset of the conflict, the U.S. military surged forces to come to Israel’s defense, with the Biden administration dispatching two aircraft carrier battle groups beginning in fall 2023. As a result, U.S. warships and aircraft were involved in the most intensive combat operations at sea since World War II, helping to protect Israel from missile attacks by Iran and its proxies, responding to attacks on U.S. bases and ships in the region, and engaging with Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen in an attempt to thwart their attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

While Iran and its axis of resistance have been seriously weakened by the conflict, the intense strains of recent combat deployments on a historically small and overstretched U.S. military have been exposed for all to see. Defense Department officials have admitted struggling to find sufficient air defense systems to protect their allies in both the Middle East and Europe, and they are running short of key munitions such as surface-to-air missiles.

In late 2024, the Pentagon also announced the withdrawal of the last U.S. aircraft carrier deployed in the region. Asked about the redeployments and the gaps in presence they represent, Gen. Charles Brown Jr., the recently sacked chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted that the Defense Department had no choice but to “step back and take a look” at spiking demand and the impact of extended deployments on U.S. forces, “not just in the Middle East, but really around the world.”


Back home, the Trump administration continues to signal a realignment away from the United States’ traditional role as the so-called leader of the free world, even recently voting with Russia and North Korea at the United Nations against resolutions condemning Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. For its part, Congress continues in its nearly unbroken, decadelong streak of failing to pass a defense budget on time, severely curtailing efforts to stabilize acquisition programs and reorient the Pentagon’s strategic direction to confront rapidly growing threats.

In a report published in December and titled “Restoring Freedom’s Forge,” Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, the new chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, took note of the urgency of this moment. “Over the last four decades, the defense acquisition system has ground to a virtual halt, buried under a mountain of statutes and regulations from Congress and the Pentagon,” he wrote.

And a congressionally mandated Commission on the National Defense Strategy (NDS) report released in July 2024 backed that conclusion with its own stark warning: “The threats the United States faces are the most serious and most challenging the nation has encountered since 1945 and include the potential for near-term major war,” the report began, noting that the United States has not fought such a global conflict since World War II, nearly 80 years ago, and last prepared for such a contingency during the Cold War, 35 years ago. “It is not prepared today,” the authors added.

Retired Rep. Jane Harman, the former chairwoman of the House Intelligence Committee, also served as the chair of the recent NDS Commission review.

In the event of a conflict with China or Russia, Harman noted in a recent interview with the Defense Writers Group, “there will be a major cyberattack on our critical infrastructure. When the lights go out in our cities, and our ports close, and our transportation systems melt down, people will start to pay attention. So maybe we can help them pay attention” ahead of what would surely be a catastrophe.

This article was excerpted from a recent CSPC report titled “The Gathering Storm: A Moonshot for National Defense.”

James Kitfield is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress and three-time recipient of the Gerald R. Ford Award for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense. He is the author of Twilight Warriors: The Soldiers, Spies, and Special Agents Who Are Revolutionizing the American Way of War.

 

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