From THE DAILY CALLER

Audrey Streb
DCNF Energy Reporter

California Democrats are reportedly rushing to find a buyer for a refinery scheduled to shut down in 2026 as a potential gas crisis looms over the state, according to Reuters.

The California Energy Commission (CEC) is reportedly actively seeking buyers to stop the upcoming closure of the Valero refinery in Benicia, California, according to three people familiar with the matter that spoke to Reuters. Democrat officials are now reportedly scrambling to keep the refinery operating in California after enforcing stringent regulations that have helped prompt refineries to close across the state for years.

“CEC is engaging with market players to explore pathways for the continued operation of in-state refineries,” the agency told Reuters. (RELATED: Gas Crisis Looms Over California As Dems Continue To Impose Crippling Regs)

CEC did not specifically confirm that it is looking for a buyer to Reuters, but did say that it is working to ensure that the refinery stays open. Valero announced its Benicia, California, refinery closure in April, and Phillips 66 refinery is also scheduled to shut down by the end of 2025.

A spokesperson for Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom pointed the DCNF to Newsom’s recent comments about working with oil refiners and producers to help keep fuel supplies steady, as well as his April letter to CEC urging them to “redouble” efforts to cooperate with refiners.

Golden State residents already pay some of the highest prices at the pump across the U.S., though two major refineries scheduled for closure and strict regulations may spike gas costs to as high as $8 per gallon as soon as next year, according to one study from the University of Southern California.

Oil refineries have been closing in California for years, and the state hasn’t seen a new major refinery built in decades, according to the CEC. Programs like California’s “cap-and-trade” program combined with strict low-carbon fuel standards are contributing to regulatory pressures that are driving refineries out of the state, industry experts have previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Critics like Republican California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones also note that stringent regulations imposed by Democrats have pressured refineries to leave the state. The refinery closures, in tandem with more regulations going into effect, have led some California officials to worry about a potential gas crisis in the state.

CEC and Valero did respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

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By Gabriella Hoffman

As New Jersey families endure summer heatwaves, there’s growing support for practical energy policies that keep the lights on and air conditioning running. 

According to new polling from Independent Women’s Voice, 85% of likely voters in the 2025 New Jersey statewide elections worry about rising energy costs expected to result from existing state climate policies–including 83% of women. 

Garden State residents were expected to see a 20% spike in their utility bills commencing on June 1st, even as some ratepayers were already paying $500 a month. This is a consequence of the Murphy administration embracing a plan to force consumers into using 100% renewable energy. But the Board of Public Utilities bailed them out and delayed implementation of the rate hike until after September 30th. So New Jersey voters are spared enormous energy cost spikes for now, but not for long.

Governor Phil Murphy (D-NJ)’s Energy Master Plan, an executive order signed in 2023 mandating the state reach 100% clean energy by 2035 through solar, wind, electric vehicles, and batteries, is squarely to blame for higher utility bills. Murphy’s green transition plan is estimated to cost $1.4 trillion in lost income, or $140,000 per average New Jerseyan over  the next 25 years, while yielding no tangible environmental benefit. This isn’t sustainable for struggling families who already can’t pay their energy bills on time.

Overall, 80% of swing voters are concerned about energy reliability – including 81% of women. Upon learning the 20% electricity rate hike is attributed to Murphy’s agenda, 53% of women reported they are less supportive of New Jersey’s climate policies.

Since 2017, when Governor Murphy entered office, five coal plants and the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, which produced 20% of the state’s electricity capacity, have permanently closed down. Unsurprisingly, the Energy Master Plan has invited more energy insecurity into the Garden State – which is now a net-energy importer state. Unsurprisingly, New Jersey will never reach its clean energy goals, as it’s mostly powered by natural gas (49%) and nuclear (42%) for electricity generation. Renewables, like solar energy, barely account for 8% of New Jersey’s energy mix. States like New Jersey can’t run on part-time energy. 

PJM Interconnection, a grid operator servicing New Jersey and 12 other states, said that prematurely retiring power plants and replacing them with renewables like solar and wind could undermine grid stability this summer. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) equally warned in its 2025 Summer Reliability Assessment that solar and battery additions “introduce more complexity and energy limitations into the resource mix.”

Due to rising electricity demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, air conditioning, manufacturing, and transportation costs, energy is a top issue for New Jersey voters going into the fall. 64% of swing voters and 59% of women saying energy was among their top three issues, respectively.

After learning about the implications of Murphy’s 2035 net-zero target, swing voters decreased their support for the governor’s climate policies by 9% and women decreased their support by 11%, respectively.

New Jersey voters are equally worried that Governor Murphy’s climate policies are more extreme than California’s. Our polling found 72% of swing voters and 71% of women are concerned with the extreme direction their state is heading in.

New Jersey’s energy crisis is self-inflicted. After implementing this costly Energy Master Plan and closing down 6 reliable power stations, Governor Phil Murphy (D-NJ) now wants his constituents to conserve energy by setting their ACs to 76-78 degrees Fahrenheit, delaying appliance usage until 8pm, and making a plan for power outages. 

The late President Jimmy Carter famously called on Americans to set their homes “to 65 degrees in the daytime and lower at night” to reduce heating costs, which helped make him a one-term president. This strategy of sacrificing for less reliable energy, to be climate-friendly, isn’t a winning strategy for today’s New Jersey Democrats, either. 

New Jerseyans, like their fellow Americans, want abundant, reliable, and secure energy. There are two legislative remedies Trenton lawmakers can consider to achieve this: exploring the feasibility of small modular reactors (SMRs) and reforming the Energy Master Plan to deemphasize unreliable solar and wind energy. Since New Jersey already has two nuclear power plants, SMRs – smaller reactors that are portable and easier to construct – will supplement existing projects, produce more reliable energy, and help the state reduce its reliance on imported electricity. 

It’s imperative whoever succeeds Governor Murphy after November puts their constituents ahead of costly climate policies that reduce quality of life and do little to conserve the environment.

Gabriella Hoffman is director of Independent Women’s Center for Energy and Conservation. Follow her on X at @Gabby_Hoffman

This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.

Essay by Eric Worrall

“… ensures an uninterrupted and affordable supply of power …” – just not possible with renewables.

White House Unveils America’s AI Action Plan

The White House

July 23, 2025

The White House today released “Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan”, in accordance with President Trump’s January executive order on Removing Barriers to American Leadership in AI. Winning the AI race will usher in a new golden age of human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security for the American people.

The Plan identifies over 90 Federal policy actions across three pillars – Accelerating Innovation, Building American AI Infrastructure, and Leading in International Diplomacy and Security – that the Trump Administration will take in the coming weeks and months.

Key policies in the AI Action Plan include:

• Exporting American AI: The Commerce and State Departments will partner with industry to deliver secure, full-stack AI export packages – including hardware, models, software, applications, and standards – to America’s friends and allies around the world.
• Promoting Rapid Buildout of Data Centers: Expediting and modernizing permits for data centers and semiconductor fabs, as well as creating new national initiatives to increase high-demand occupations like electricians and HVAC technicians.
• Enabling Innovation and Adoption: Removing onerous Federal regulations that hinder AI development and deployment, and seek private sector input on rules to remove.
• Upholding Free Speech in Frontier Models: Updating Federal procurement guidelines to ensure that the government only contracts with frontier large language model developers who ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias.

“America’s AI Action Plan charts a decisive course to cement U.S. dominance in artificial intelligence. President Trump has prioritized AI as a cornerstone of American innovation, powering a new age of American leadership in science, technology, and global influence. This plan galvanizes Federal efforts to turbocharge our innovation capacity, build cutting-edge infrastructure, and lead globally, ensuring that American workers and families thrive in the AI era. We are moving with urgency to make this vision a reality,” said White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios.

“Artificial intelligence is a revolutionary technology with the potential to transform the global economy and alter the balance of power in the world. To remain the leading economic and military power, the United States must win the AI race. Recognizing this, President Trump directed us to produce this Action Plan. To win the AI race, the U.S. must lead in innovation, infrastructure, and global partnerships. At the same time, we must center American workers and avoid Orwellian uses of AI. This Action Plan provides a roadmap for doing that,” said AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks.

“Winning the AI Race is non-negotiable. America must continue to be the dominant force in artificial intelligence to promote prosperity and protect our economic and national security. President Trump recognized this at the beginning of his administration and took decisive action by commissioning this AI Action Plan. These clear-cut policy goals set expectations for the Federal Government to ensure America sets the technological gold standard worldwide, and that the world continues to run on American technology,” said Secretary of State and Acting National Security Advisor Marco Rubio.

Learn more at AI.Gov.

Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/07/white-house-unveils-americas-ai-action-plan/

Looking at the referenced AI Action Plan, the following caught my eye.

…

Develop a Grid to Match the Pace of AI Innovation

The U.S. electric grid is one of the largest and most complex machines on Earth. It, too, will need to be upgraded to support data centers and other energy-intensive industries of the future. The power grid is the lifeblood of the modern economy and a cornerstone of national security, but it is facing a confluence of challenges that demand strategic foresight and decisive action. Escalating demand driven by electrification and the technological advancements of AI are increasing pressures on the grid. The United States must develop a comprehensive strategy to enhance and expand the power grid designed not just to weather these challenges, but to ensure the gridøs continued strength and capacity for future growth. Recommended Policy Actions

ø Stabilize the grid of today as much as possible. This initial phase acknowledges the need to safeguard existing assets and ensures an uninterrupted and affordable supply of power. The United States must prevent the premature decommissioning of critical power generation resources and explore innovative ways to harness existing capacity, such as leveraging extant backup power sources to bolster grid reliability during peak demand. A key element of this stabilization is to ensure every corner of the electric grid is in compliance with nationwide standards for resource adequacy and sufficient power generation capacity is consistently available across the country.

ø Optimize existing grid resources as much as possible. This involves implementing strategies to enhance the efficiency and performance of the transmission system. The United States must explore solutions like advanced grid management technologies and upgrades to power lines that can increase the amount of electricity transmitted along existing routes. Furthermore, the United States should investigate new and novel ways for large power consumers to manage their power consumption during critical grid periods to enhance reliability and unlock additional power on the system.

ø Prioritize the interconnection of reliable, dispatchable power sources as quickly as possible and embrace new energy generation sources at the technological frontier (e.g., enhanced geothermal, nuclear fission, and nuclear fusion). Reform power markets to align financial incentives with the goal of grid stability, ensuring that investment in power generation reflects the systemøs needs.

ø Create a strategic blueprint for navigating the complex energy landscape of the 21st century. By stabilizing the grid of today, optimizing existing grid resources, and growing the grid for the future, the United States can rise to the challenge of winning the AI race while also delivering a reliable and affordable power grid for all Americans.

…

Read more: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Americas-AI-Action-Plan.pdf

If I’ve understood this correctly, every future federal approval for energy supply will be assessed on whether it advances the USA towards the goal of a reliable, dispatchable grid fit for ensuring US AI dominance.

Obviously renewable suppliers can try to play in this game by ensuring they co-install several days worth of battery backup, to lay claim to being dispatchable, but unless battery prices drop substantially it is difficult to imagine such efforts being affordable.