Daily Caller
Energy Will Play A Vital Role In Any Deal To End Russia’s War With Ukraine

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
With President Donald Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin now in the rear-view mirror, the question becomes what, if anything, was agreed to related to the war in Ukraine.
In his post-meeting interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, President Trump indicated that he and Putin agreed on many aspects of what an ultimate settlement might look like, setting the stage for a second meeting to include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the coming weeks.
Indeed, Mr. Trump spent the entire 7-hour flight back to the nation’s capital on a series of calls with Zelenskyy and other European leaders, already focused on ensuring the follow-up meeting happens and is productive. On their one-on-one call, the New York Times reports that Zelenskyy committed to traveling to Washington, D.C. on Monday for a face to face meeting with President Trump.
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Trump already executed a big hit on Russia’s economic future by insisting on a pledge from the EU countries to purchase $750 billion in U.S. oil production in the years to come as part of the framework for a comprehensive trade deal. Those volumes would displace hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of crude that would have been purchased from Russia instead.
When pressed by Hannity on the question of secondary sanctions hitting India and China, the President said, “Because of what happened today I don’t think I have to think about that right now,” adding, “I might in a few weeks, but not now.”
In an interview with Fox’s Bret Baier conducted on Air Force One on the flight from Washington, D.C. to Anchorage, President Trump indicated India had already stopped buying Russian crude, saying, “Well he (Putin) lost an oil client, so to speak, which is India, which is doing about 40% of the oil.”
That was a reference to the fact that India’s state-owned refineries halted their large spot purchases of Russian crude as of July 28, after Mr. Trump threatened to hit that country with an additional 25% tariff. However, private refineries owned by companies like Nayara Energy and Reliance Industries have continued buying Russian oil under long-term contracts. So, there is leverage still to be had related to India.
As negotiations on a potential global settlement of the Russia/Ukraine war continue in the coming weeks, the possibility remains for other energy-related issues to play a role. One example relates to exploration of vast reserves of oil known to exist beneath the Arctic region, where Russian companies have gained a great deal of expertise in dealing with the harsh conditions in recent years. President Trump has hinted at the possibility of allowing Russian companies to partner with American companies on oil projects across that region, and in the Bering Sea, where Russia and Alaska come within a few miles of one another.
Such joint operations would not be unprecedented or even unusual. Before Putin’s invasion of Russia, western companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Shell were engaged in a variety of joint projects with Russian oil companies. Indeed, such joint operations have been carried out in many regions of the world for many decades.
Though largely unexploited, Ukraine’s own energy wealth could also be used as part of the negotiations. Ukraine is known to be rich in energy minerals, including large stores of lithium, titanium, graphite, uranium, oil and natural gas. A good portion of those resources lie beneath the Donbass region, one of Putin’s main war objectives. The country’s reserves of both coal and uranium rank among the largest on earth.
Oil and energy considerations have always played a role in the starting and settling of wars in modern times, because energy security is national security. The array of such matters swirling today shows the Russia/Ukraine conflict is no different.
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.
Daily Caller
Offshore Wind’s Mask Finally Comes Off

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
The green fairy tale now seems to be unraveling faster than a faulty wind turbine blade in a Nantucket storm.
On Monday, Aug. 11, 2025, Danish offshore wind giant Ørsted dropped a bombshell, notifying the market it plans a massive rights issue worth up to 60 billion Danish kroner (about $9.4 billion) to prop up its flailing offshore U.S. operations. The plan, which amounts to almost 50% of Ørsted’s market cap, is a desperation move driven by the forces of reality and President Donald Trump’s no-nonsense energy policies.
Ørsted’s stock took a nosedive in the wake of Monday’s announcement, cratering as much as 31.2% in Copenhagen trading, erasing billions in value overnight.
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Translated to plain English, this means Ørsted, whose normal business model would have involved selling a large minority share to investors to raise needed capital, has been unable to find any buyers as Trump’s energy policy revolution takes hold.
President Trump has made no bones about his disdain for the wind industry in general and offshore wind specifically. He promised repeatedly during his 2024 campaign to gut the offshore wind industry, citing its bogus environmental claims and visual pollution, and boy, has he delivered.
His Day One executive orders targeted both onshore and offshore wind, freezing new leases and issuing stop-work orders. That has been followed by more executive branch actions targeting wind, along with language in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to phase out Biden’s heavy subsidies and other preferences for the wind business.
As a result, Ørsted found itself unable to offload a stake in Sunrise Wind because no sane investor wants in on a venture that’s now politically radioactive and never had a business model capable of surviving without heavy government subsidies. Farm-down deals like the one Ørsted had planned now lie dead in the water in the new energy policy reality.
But the truth is that Ørsted has struggled to make a go of U.S. offshore wind for years. Back in 2023, under the Biden administration’s subsidy-fueled frenzy, the company ate $5.6 billion in impairments on projects like Ocean Wind 1 and 2, leading to cancellations and a CEO ouster. Inflation, supply chain woes and unreliable subsidies turned what was supposed to be a green gold rush into a black hole for cash. Now, with Trump at the helm, the mask is off.
CEO Rasmus Errboe, who took over the job from Mads Nipper earlier in 2025, called the situation “extraordinary.” But let’s be honest: Under Mads Nipper, this company made a habit of demanding higher and higher subsidies from governments everywhere it operates in recent years. If anything, calling for more subsidies anytime the going gets rough seems to be a part of Ørsted’s core business planning.
Another reality most will miss where Ørsted is concerned is that the subsidies provided by Biden and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s government were just the tip of the iceberg. The Danish government owns a controlling 50.1% stake in the company, meaning Danish taxpayers are footing the bill for the majority of its operations in any event. If Sunrise Wind goes belly up, the Danish people take the biggest part of the hit.
Amazing, isn’t it?
Meanwhile, back in the U.S., Trump’s suspension of new wind leases is a breath of fresh air for fishermen, whales and anyone tired of seeing their coastlines industrialized for intermittent power that costs a fortune and delivers peanuts.
Ørsted’s latest fiasco is emblematic of the entire renewable scam. Offshore wind is hyped by virtue-signaling politicians as the savior of the planet, but it’s riddled with problems: soaring costs, environmental havoc (just ask the Nantucket folks suing over blade failures), and total dependence on subsidies that vanish when real leaders take charge.
Now, the truth is staring us in the face: the offshore wind fantasy is crumbling, and it’s about time. It’s an industry that richly deserves to be put out of its misery.
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.
Daily Caller
US Judge Deals Devastating Blow to Climate Lawfare Campaign against Oil and Gas Producers

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
The long-running climate lawfare campaign targeting “big oil” suffered another major blow in South Carolina on Wednesday when State Judge Roger Young dismissed a case brought by the city of Charleston against Chevron, Colonial Pipeline, ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and an array of additional oil companies whose deep pockets city officials and their trial lawyers had hoped to plumb.
Judge Young granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss without wasting time and money on a trial, ruling that the city had no authority to pursue the specious claims of ill-defined harm caused by worldwide carbon emissions from the use of oil and gas. “Plaintiff does not (and cannot) predicate its claims under South Carolina law on Defendants’ allegedly wrongful conduct only in South Carolina, since this State accounts for a negligible share of the global emissions that Plaintiff alleges have caused its damages,” Young wrote in his decision, which adds to a growing list of similar rulings made by judges in at least nine other cases around the country.
The reason why these rulings are all so similar is that claims from the grasping local policymakers who’ve signed up for this cynical money grab are equally similar, and that the longstanding principles of law are so unambiguously clear. Regardless of how cleverly the trial lawyers attempt to mask their claims in various unrelated state laws or local ordinances, the practical impact of a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs would be to enable every state and local government to write and enforce their own regulations. In the end, companies trying to conduct nationwide business would be faced with trying to comply with a patchwork of hundreds of competing sets of regulations, making it almost impossible to continue to do business in the United States.
This inevitable reality is why the federal government has always asserted primacy to regulate interstate commerce in general and to specifically regulate emissions and air quality under the Clean Air Act. Judge Young addressed that longstanding principle of law in his decision, writing, “The U.S. Constitution makes certain matters the exclusive domain of federal law for good reason. If all fifty states, let alone the tens of thousands of political subdivisions therein, were permitted to apply their own laws to such federal issues as interstate and international emissions, the result would be conflicting state standards that would be impossible for energy companies to navigate.’”
Chevron’s lead counsel, Ted Boutrous, Jr. of Gibson-Dunn, applauded Judge Young’s decision, saying, “This ruling adds to a ‘growing chorus’ of climate lawsuit dismissals by federal and state courts…Judge Young rejected Plaintiffs’ ‘artful’ attempts to frame its claims as solely about consumer deception, holding that ‘Plaintiff cannot avoid that its claims turn on emissions.’ ‘These lawsuits promise to create a chaotic web of conflicting legal obligations for Defendants as each state . . . imposes its own de facto regulations on the worldwide production, marketing, transport, and sale of fossil fuels. Neither federal nor South Carolina law permits such a result.’”
So, will this latest ruling against the plaintiffs end this cynical lawfare? Unfortunately for the defendants, the answer is no. The Supreme Court had a chance to do that in the case brought by the City and County of Honolulu in January, and took a pass after the Biden-era Justice Department weighed in on the side of the trial lawyers. Given that it is safe to assume the Trump DOJ won’t be taking a similar posture, we can always hope for the highest court to do the right thing whenever another case rises to that level.
Until then, the baseless wasting of time and money will continue. It brings to mind an old saying about “the beatings will continue until morale improves.”
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.
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