MDN’s Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Oct 28, 2025 [FREE ACCESS]

NATIONAL: Real public health threats vs. climate hysteria; Why Big Oil is missing out on the AI energy bonanza; The AI race is an energy race, and regions with natgas are winning; INTERNATIONAL: Crude pauses after sanction-fueled rally; Is subdued COP 30 a Trump effect?; Green delusionists attending COP30 are clueless of their renewable idealism; Venezuela suspends energy agreements with Trinidad, including gas projects.

NATIONAL

Real public health threats vs. climate hysteria
CO2 Coalition/Gregory Wrightstone
Australian physician Dr. D. Weston Allen argues that human ingenuity and adaptation are the best ways to ensure well-being, advocating for the repeal of the federal designation of carbon dioxide (CO2) as a pollutant. He contends that global rewarming and industrialization, powered by fossil fuels, have historically fostered unprecedented prosperity and public health, noting that past warm periods were beneficial while cool periods brought suffering. Dr. Allen asserts that higher CO2 has significantly boosted crop yields and that cold weather is far deadlier than heat. He concludes that focusing on CO2 and hypothetical climate harms prevents governments from addressing real threats like disease and hunger. [MDN: In other words, global warming from CO2, if it actually exists (we don’t think it does), is good for the planet, not bad. Flip the script. A warming planet is better than a cooling planet.]

Why Big Oil is missing out on the AI energy bonanza
The Economist
Faced with a gloomy future and downcast growth prospects, Western oil giants have prioritized returning cash to shareholders over expanding production. These companies, including Exxon, Shell, BP, and Chevron, paid out a record $120 billion last year, which represented 56% of their combined operating cashflow. To finance these massive payouts and conserve capital, big oil is simultaneously implementing significant cost-cutting measures and slimming down operations. This retrenchment includes major workforce reductions, such as Chevron’s plan to cut headcount by a fifth and Exxon’s announcement of a 3-4% reduction, signaling a fundamental shift in the industry’s strategy. [MDN: Kind of a misleading headline, as the article has nothing to do with AI. However, it does make a point, which is that Big Oil is downsizing right now. There are a lot of layoffs happening. The bust cycle is in full swing.]

The AI race is an energy race, and regions with natgas are winning
Forbes/Mark Le Dain
The global AI race is fundamentally an energy race, as AI data centers are driving the most significant new power demand growth in decades. This existential competition is prompting technology giants to invest heavily in securing power, causing a long-awaited capital expenditure boom in the physical economy. Governments and corporations view AI as a vital platform shift, guaranteeing continued massive spending regardless of immediate returns. Natural gas companies are poised to benefit most, especially in regions like Texas and Pennsylvania with cheap, reliable supply. Grid delays are making on-site gas-fired generation appealing, with major projects like OpenAI’s Stargate and xAI facilities utilizing it. Orders for small gas turbines and engines for North American data centers have surged to 3.2 GW in the past year, cementing natural gas as the crucial, fast-scale solution for AI’s explosive energy needs. [MDN: AI and natural gas are, like gas-fired power, joined at the hip. The M-U stands to reap big rewards from AI data centers.]

INTERNATIONAL

Crude pauses after sanction-fueled rally
Bloomberg/Staff
Oil prices stabilized after posting their biggest weekly gain since June, driven by US sanctions on Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil, which added supply risks. Despite the sanctions—one target of which, Lukoil, announced it intends to sell international assets—WTI slipped slightly, settling just above $61, as the US and China made progress on a trade deal. Market attention is now focused on a projected market surplus. Analysts expect the Russian sanctions to cause minimal long-term supply disruption but short-term volatility. The International Energy Agency predicts prices will moderate as ample supply from OPEC+ and the Americas is set to outpace demand growth, reinforcing a $60-$65 trading range for Brent. [MDN: We don’t trust a thing the IEA says, period. We remain firmly in the $60s. WTI for December delivery slid 0.3% to settle at $61.31. Brent for December settlement notched near 0.5% to settle at $65.62 a barrel.]

Is subdued COP 30 a Trump effect?
Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT)/David Wojick
The run-up to COP 30 is unusually subdued, lacking the usual call for “trillions of dollars” in climate finance, now reduced to “hundreds of billions.” The author largely attributes this to the “Trump effect,” citing the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Accord and the termination of climate spending through agencies like USAID. Since America will contribute no funds, and other developed nations face economic struggles exacerbated by climate policies, the financial flow has dried up. This caution is starkly demonstrated by the “Loss and Damage” program, anticipated to require “untold trillions” but currently possessing only about $250 million, allowing for only small initial projects. The author concludes that with other UN Climate Funds also lacking money, COP 30 “is going nowhere.” [MDN: Indeed, COP30 is going nowhere…fast. We LOVE the Trump effect! No more other nations raiding our taxpayers for their pretend climate programs—programs that are nothing more than theft of our money.]

Green delusionists attending COP30 are clueless of their renewable idealism
America Out Loud News/Ronald Stein P.E., Yoshihiro?Muronaka
The article argues that “green delusionists” attending COP30 are fundamentally mistaken in their belief that renewable electricity alone can replace fossil fuels. The central flaw is treating electricity as a material substitute, when in reality, it is only a utility that drives processes. The authors assert that hydrocarbons are indispensable not just as fuel, but as essential feedstocks for over 6,000 products, including steel, cement, plastics, fertilizers, and pharmaceuticals, upon which modern civilization depends. The article concludes that this ideological pursuit of eliminating fossil fuels, often driven by government mandates and subsidies, ignores economic realities and physical needs, calling it a “globalist suicide pact” and advocating for energy literacy and a balanced approach. [MDN: No one makes a better case for the FACT that fossil fuels are here to stay than Ron Stein.]

Venezuela suspends energy agreements with Trinidad, including gas projects
Reuters/Vivian Sequera, Deisy Buitrago
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro immediately suspended all energy-development cooperation with Trinidad and Tobago, including joint natural gas projects like the massive Dragon natural gas field. Maduro approved the proposal, sharply criticizing the newly elected Trinidadian Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for her perceived pro-U.S. stance and for allegedly threatening to turn her country into the “U.S. empire’s aircraft carrier against Venezuela,” a statement made after a U.S. warship recently docked in Trinidad. This decision jeopardizes the 4.2 trillion cubic feet of reserves in the Dragon field, which the previous government had sought as a lifeline for Trinidad’s energy-dependent economy. Despite the suspension, Persad-Bissessar has stated that her country does not need Venezuela’s gas and has independent plans to grow its economy. [MDN: Maduro is a dictator. He lost the last democratic election and yet has seized power and will not give it up. He needs to go. Trump may well help him go. Meanwhile, he’s screwing Trinidad by revoking a deal with that country. Trinidad and Tobago sit just off the coastline of Venezuela.]