Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a package of West Coast infrastructure projects centered on expanding oil and gas export capacity to Asian markets. The plan includes a new pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia’s southern coast near Vancouver, multiple LNG terminals on B.C.’s northern coast to triple Canada’s LNG production, and expansions at the ports of Prince Rupert and Vancouver. Carney said the initiatives aim to reduce reliance on the United States and would “unlock” C$150 billion ($105 billion) in new investments.

Extreme heat in the eastern United States is pushing the PJM grid, which spans from Chicago to Virginia Beach, toward what it expects to be its highest electricity demand in 20 years on Thursday. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has told grid operators to require data centers to run on backup power if needed to relieve pressure on the system. The region’s backup generators largely run on natural gas and diesel, lifting near-term demand for gas-fired generation and highlighting PJM’s limited buildout of energy-storage batteries.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a sweeping rewrite of radiation safety rules, arguing current requirements are too costly and exceed what is needed to protect health. The agency would keep existing annual dose limits for workers and the public, but eliminate the decades-old “as low as reasonably achievable” (ALARA) principle. It also proposed changes to simplify siting and licensing for new nuclear reactors, a shift that could reduce costs and speed approvals to support U.S. nuclear expansion.

The Trump administration will pay Duke Energy $129 million to abandon an early-stage offshore wind project planned off North Carolina, with construction not yet started. The company will relinquish its federal waters lease and reinvest the reimbursement in energy sources favored by the administration, including potential new nuclear and natural gas projects. The move marks the administration’s fourth intervention to curb offshore wind development and prioritize what it describes as more reliable traditional energy.

Iran attacked a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, raising concerns about the security of a key energy-shipping route. Data the next day showed traffic through the strait had rebounded markedly, and the United States and Iran agreed to a 60day period of talks while pledging to cease hostilities. Brent crude fell 4.3% to $71.99 a barrel and WTI dropped to $69.23, while the U.S. national average gasoline price slipped to $3.90 a gallon. The latest flare-up did not result in a material supply disruption.

A preliminary ceasefire deal in the U.S.-Iran war has helped push oil prices sharply lower, easing gasoline costs and potentially taking pressure off airfares and shipping. But underlying inflation has shown limited improvement, and forecasters expect May core PCE inflation to rise to a 3.4% annual pace, the highest since 2023, with overall PCE at 4.1% year over year. The outlook suggests the Federal Reserve may need to keep interest rates higher for longer, delaying any policy pivot.

The U.S. National Security Agency has been forced to stop using Anthropic’s latest AI models, Mythos 5 and Fable 5, after the Trump administration imposed export controls on the startup. The models had shown unusually strong capability in internal NSA testing to uncover software vulnerabilities. In a congressional hearing this month, Sen. Mark Warner said NSA Director Gen. Joshua Rudd told him Mythos broke into “almost all of our classified systems” within hours, comments later cited by The Economist.

Iran’s foreign minister said the first session of high-level talks with the United States in Switzerland made “major progress” toward a ceasefire in Lebanon. Pakistan and Qatar, acting as mediators, said in a joint statement that “encouraging progress” had been achieved after the session ended. Oil prices had risen earlier on uncertainty over the Strait of Hormuz, but optimism from the opening round pushed prices lower.

The article says China, the world’s largest oil importer, cut crude imports by about a third during the war, leaving state energy firms’ stockpiles and refiners’ fuel inventories close to full. If the Strait of Hormuz reopens, oil tankers previously stranded in the Persian Gulf and bound for China could arrive in a cluster, temporarily boosting deliveries. The resulting supply-demand setup reduces upside momentum for global oil prices and adds direct downside pressure to crude and fuels such as gasoline.