Energy

1. DOE’s AI moves
2. BHP’s tariff calculus
3. Wood pellet scrutiny
4. Gas crunch
5. BYD’s new turf

Exxon sues California, and Budapest questions Trump’s Russia sanctions.

Bill Gates has a bone to pick with climate advocates, a group that he was nominally the deepest-pocketed leader of over the past decade.

In a lengthy essay today, Gates argues that some climate aid funding is being misspent on projects that try to cut back on emissions but make no tangible improvement in peoples’ health or livelihoods. And while he is strident that climate change is a “serious problem,” he is convinced that it “will not lead to humanity’s demise.”

For the world’s poorest people, their biggest problems will continue to be poverty and disease, not warming temperatures per se (although warming clearly exacerbates both problems). He points to a few examples where the well-intentioned pursuit of emissions cuts in developing countries led to negative consequences for health and well-being: Banning synthetic fertilizers pushed up crop prices; pressure on development banks to stop financing fossil fuels has made it harder to connect more people to reliable electricity.

The upcoming COP30 summit is a chance to rethink how the extremely limited pool of foreign aid available for climate purposes is spent, Gates argues. The most important takeaway here is that he believes climate advocates should focus less on being against fossil fuels and more for human welfare.

Critics will predictably argue that those two positions are inherently linked; on the opposite side of the political spectrum, oil and gas partisans could point to Gates’ essay as proof that climate hysteria was misguided all along and that fossil use should continue unimpeded.

Instead, I think we should take Gates’ cue that an obsession with long-term emissions targets doesn’t always serve its intended purpose, and has been cause for plenty of counterproductive political backlash. When we get to the Amazon in a couple of weeks, it may be time to focus on how to raise living standards for the most people in the shortest time, with all the technologies available, with the lowest feasible carbon footprint.

DOE’s AI moves

The US Department of Energy is taking new steps to power AI data centers — and to use AI to deliver energy tech breakthroughs. First, Secretary Chris Wright told federal regulators to consider a rule that would accelerate the connection of data centers to electric grids by granting priority access to large new power loads that can be quickly ramped up or down. The order was welcomed by industry groups and by former regulators in both political parties, and could be especially useful for data centers that aim to produce some of their energy on-site with natural gas. “This is exactly the type of step needed to build greater resiliency and flexibility in our electrical grid, with speed,” Brian Melka, CEO of the energy hardware manufacturer Rehlko, told Semafor.

DOE also said it will build two massive supercomputers powered by semiconductor firm AMD. The machines will run complex experiments that require an immense amount of data-crunching capacity, tackling problems ranging from nuclear power to cancer treatments, officials said Monday.

BHP’s tariff calculus

Tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on US imports of critical minerals aren’t enough to spur greater investment in new domestic mining, the CEO of the world’s largest mining company by market cap told Semafor. BHP’s Mike Henry said that tariffs pose a “key challenge” for the world’s transition to green energy, and that “nationalistic tendencies” are complicating dealmaking in the mining industry.

The company is forging ahead with the Resolution Copper copper mine in Arizona, a project Henry recently visited the Oval Office to tout. But for additional new mines, which take more than a decade and billions of dollars to start up, trade measures that stem only from executive orders, and not legislation, won’t do much to help make the US mining industry more competitive with China’s. BHP is used to operating in complex political conditions, but Henry admitted that the degree of volatility in his time as CEO — encompassing the pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and President Donald Trump’s second-term trade tariffs — had been “even more significant than any of us were expecting.”

Wood pellet scrutiny

Companies producing power from wood pellets are coming under increasing scrutiny by global regulators. UK regulators last week opened an investigation into Drax, questioning whether the British firm made misleading statements about where it sourced the wood for its biomass-fueled power stations. It’s not the only controversy facing a sector that has struggled to prove its bona fides, in both the climate and the financial sense.

In February, South Korea — the world’s third-largest importer of wood pellets for use in energy — announced it would no longer allow most woody biomass to be eligible for green subsidies due to deforestation and cost concerns. Pressure is also ramping up in Japan and the US.

New research has undermined the industry’s green claims, finding that wood pellet production has driven deforestation, biodiversity loss, and peatland degradation in the southern American, tropical Southeast Asian, and temperate Canadian forests. But the industry’s bigger challenge may be economic: So far, it has not been able to make woody biomass profitable without relying on subsidies.

Gas crunch

Growth in global demand for natural gas this year, compared with nearly 3% last year. The reason for the slowdown, the International Energy Agency reported, was a tighter supply balance drove up prices in major import markets, especially in Asia. But that trend is unlikely to last long: A record number of LNG export terminals in the US reached final investment decisions this year, which will unleash a wave of new gas supply and drive prices back down. By the end of the decade, the US could provide around one-third of global LNG supply, the IEA forecasts, up from around 20% in 2024.

Soaring costs, shrinking community services, workforce shortages, and shifting federal policies are pushing the US health care system to the brink. More Americans than ever are struggling with affordability, access, and quality of care. To examine what’s driving the crisis — and how to fix it — Semafor will convene leading experts for a forum on the future of US health care.

Speakers include Dr. Rahul Gupta, president of GATC Health and former US drug czar; Dr. Sharmila Makhija, founding dean and CEO of the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine; and Dr. Fritz François, executive vice president and vice dean at NYU Langone. Together, they’ll explore practical reforms that could transform how Americans experience health care.

Nov. 18 | Washington, DC | RSVP

BYD’s new turf

Chinese auto giant BYD said it will install 300 new charging stations in South Africa by the end of 2026 as it seeks a bigger slice of the country’s expanding electric-vehicle market. The Shenzhen-based firm — the world’s biggest EV maker — has been launching new models in South Africa this year including its lower-cost Dolphin Surf. “South Africa is a very important market,” BYD Executive Vice President Stella Li told TechCentral. “Once we start here, you can duplicate the story into other African countries.” South Africa, the largest car manufacturer in sub-Saharan Africa, is trying to incentivize local EV production. Volvo currently dominates EV sales in South Africa, followed by BMW, and Mercedes-Benz.

Fossil Fuels

• ExxonMobil sued California last week, claiming that two new state laws requiring large companies to disclose details about greenhouse gas emissions could violate the company’s free speech rights.

Finance

• Santee Cooper, a power provider in South Carolina, is nearing a deal to sell two dormant nuclear reactors to Brookfield Asset Management.

Tech

• Saudi Arabia is looking to leverage key assets — “cheap energy, deep pockets and open land” — for data centers, as it seeks to attract tech firms and diversify the kingdom away from oil.
• The drop in EV investment stemming from Washington’s decision to end EV subsidies and promote petrol engines puts the US at risk of “falling further behind China in the global electric car race,” the Financial Times wrote.

Politics & Policy

• Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is set to meet with US President Donald Trump next week to discuss Washington’s decision to sanction Russian energy giants, whose oil Budapest depends on heavily.
• EU countries are discussing more flexible options for industries to achieve climate targets as the bloc seeks backing for its 2040 emissions reduction goal, Reuters reported.

Minerals & Mining

• US-listed rare earth mining stocks dropped Monday after officials said China is likely to postpone export controls on critical minerals as part of a trade agreement.
• The Trump administration’s shift toward direct equity investments in critical minerals projects could benefit the sector through tax credits and permitting reform, potentially proving more effective in mobilizing private investment. But, by taking equity positions in specific firms, the US government also “implicitly signals that unsupported projects face higher risk,” an expert wrote in Columbia University’s SIPA blog.

EVs

• The drop in EV investments stemming from Washington’s decision to end EV subsidies and promote petrol engines puts the US at risk of “falling further behind China in the global electric car race,” the Financial Times wrote.

Personnel

• Siemens Energy appointed Matt Neal as its head of North America. Formerly the head of the company’s energy grid solutions business on the continent, he takes over on Nov. 15.