From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By David Blackmon

Is the push and pull in the energy and climate regulatory environment hurting the ability for companies to finance and complete energy projects in the United States? The head of Shell in the United States, Colette Hirstius, said she believes it is in a recent interview.

“I think uncertainty in the regulatory environment is very damaging,” Hirstius said, adding, “However far the pendulum swings one way, it’s likely that it’s going to swing just as far the other way.”

Hirstius was addressing the moves made by the Trump administration to slow the progress of the offshore wind industry, which was the crown jewel of the Biden administration’s headlong rush into a government-subsidized energy transition. Trump’s regulators, led by Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, have taken a series of actions in compliance with executive orders signed by Trump since January to halt several projects that were under construction, roll back federal subsidies, and review permits they believe were hastily issued in non-compliance with legally required processes.

That hope seems discordant, coming as it does amid Shell’s ongoing effort to step back from offshore wind and refocus more of its capital budget back to its core oil and gas business following years of unprofitable ventures into renewables. It also seems fair to point out that the political pendulum about which Hirstius warns already swung wildly in favor of offshore wind and other wind and solar projects in the Biden administration. It is odd that Shell only now decides to roll out that particular warning.

Shell was pulling back from its major offshore wind investments while Trump was still fighting off efforts by an array of Democratic prosecutors to put him in prison. In June 2023, for example, the company announced its intent to offload its 50% share in the Southcoast project offshore Connecticut amid Biden era high inflation and supply chain challenges that were already rocking the industry at the time. Nine months later, Shell sold the interest to another party.

The company announced last December that it was “stepping back from new offshore wind investments” as part of a company-wide review implemented by then-new CEO Wael Sawan in mid-2023. A month later, it cancelled its interest in the Atlantic Shores project, writing off $1 billion in investments in the process. Shell’s ventures into the U.S. offshore wind arena had run head-long into economic reality long before the second Trump presidency came along.

That Atlantic Shores project has become an item of special interest inside the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in recent days. In a court filing last Friday, BOEM Deputy Director Matthew Giacona said the Bureau plans to conduct a full review of the process that went into approving Atlantic Shores during the Biden presidency. He also said the review would likely expand to other offshore wind projects given the administration’s concerns that Biden’s regulators failed to properly assess the true environmental impacts these major industrial installations create.

In addition to that, the Daily Caller’s Audrey Streb reported on Monday that Biden regulators gave the go-ahead to some of these offshore projects despite internal concerns expressed as early as 2021 that granting long delays in their decommissioning processes “increases risk to the federal taxpayer.” Offshore developers are normally required to provide financial assurance to pre-fund such costs, but big Danish developer Orsted and others were requesting delays as long as 15 years in that requirement to make their project economics work.

Hirstius’s concerns about regulation are absolutely valid: Having such certainty is a crucial element for any company to be able to plan its future business endeavors. But every presidency has a duty to ensure that actions by prior administrations meet the mandates of prevailing laws. It has long been feared that the Biden regulators cut important corners related to environmental and marine mammal protections to speed some offshore wind projects through the process.

As this current review process plays itself out, Shell might well find itself glad it cut its losses in this failing offshore wind sector when it did.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Hailey Gomez

President Donald Trump said Wednesday on Fox News’ “Hannity” that the hostages, both dead and alive, held by Hamas since Oct. 7, 2023, are expected to be released by Monday.

Trump announced earlier Wednesday evening on Truth Social that Israel and Hamas had formally agreed to the first phase of a U.S.-backed peace plan. Fox’s Sean Hannity asked the president to expand on what could come in the next stages for Israel and Hamas, noting the ongoing aggression and destruction in Gaza.

“I think you’re going to see all of that disappear. I think you’re going to see people getting along, and you’ll see Gaza being rebuilt.  We’re forming a council, the Council of Peace, we think it’s going to be called, and it’s going to be very powerful. I think to a large extent it’s going to have a lot to do with the whole Gaza situation,” Trump said. “People are going to be taken care of. It’s going to be a different world. I think really the Middle East came together. Amazingly, they came together.”

“They have some countries with extraordinary wealth, and just spending a small portion of that wealth can do so much for that area. We’ll be involved in it, but the big thing is hostages are going to be released. It’s probably our time — [which] would be probably Monday. They’re terribly —[it’s] a terrible situation,” Trump added. “They’re deep in the earth, and they’re being gotten, and a lot of things are happening right now. As we speak, so much is happening to get the hostages freed, and we think they’ll all be coming back on Monday.”

Prior to the second anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war, Hamas announced Friday that it would tentatively agree to release all remaining hostages and relinquish power under Trump’s proposed ceasefire agreement.

While hostages have slowly been released since Trump returned to office, reports indicate that 48 remain in Gaza, with 26 publicly confirmed dead, according to ABC News.

Trump stated that the release will include the bodies of the deceased, noting that he has spoken to many of the victims’ parents. Trump added that the parents of the deceased are “equally intent” as the parents of the living to get their children back.

“I’ve talked to so many of them, but the parents are more, almost more intent, but equally intent as getting their, in just about all cases, their son’s body back than they are, as though the young man was alive. It’s just the same intensity. They want their baby’s body back. That’s what one woman said,” Trump said.

“‘I want my baby’s body back,’ and, you know, the son is 25, 26 years old. So that’s a very big part of it, getting all of the — it’s about 28. The number is 28. We’ll be coming back, but, unfortunately, dead,” Trump added.

The deal is expected to go before Israel’s cabinet for approval on Thursday, according to CBS News. If approved, the Israeli military will withdraw to an agreed-upon line in the Gaza Strip, a process expected to take less than 24 hours. Hamas would then have 72 hours to release the hostages, the outlet reported.