Environmental groups have been campaigning to encourage banks and other financial institutions to divest from fossil fuels for years, with efforts growing stronger since the Covid-19 pandemic and the global push to transition away from oil, gas, and coal to renewable alternatives.
In June, the Bank of England quietly announced that it would no longer be accepting bonds ****** ociated with coal operations for key loan arrangements. The ban will be enforced from October. It is the latest move to encourage a shift away from thermal coal for electricity production. The Bank of England said it would no longer be allowing commercial banks to use bonds linked to thermal coal as "collateral" when borrowing money from the financial institution.
The move suggests that any bonds linked to thermal coal are now considered too risky to appear on its balance sheet, as consumers and governments worldwide call for a shift away from "the dirtiest fossil fuel". The rapid global transition to renewable energy could lead certain types of fossil fuels to depreciate in value over the coming decades, making them more of a financial risk.
The Bank of England stated that thermal coal companies "can be exposed to potential financial risks connected to the adjustment of the economy towards net zero," in its policy statement. It said it would also discount the value of bonds in other relevant sectors "to protect the Bank against financial risks".
It is common for the Bank of England to provide loans to major banks operating in the United Kingdom, including Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest, and HSBC, to help them settle transactions and conduct operations efficiently. To gain access to these loans, commercial banks must provide collateral as a guarantee, typically in the form of bonds.

#banks #fossil #away #encourage

Renewable energy developer Avantus said its Aratina 1 solar-plus-storage project has entered commercial operation in California. The 200-MW/500-MWh installation in Kern County has long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) and Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE), a pair of community choice aggregators.Avantus on July 20 said the company will have a controlling stake in Aratina 1 and will operate the facility. The company said the project is among several **** ets it will oversee as it expands from a clean energy developer to an independent power producer (IPP)."Aratina 1 coming online marks a major milestone for Avantus as an independent power producer, providing reliable clean power to California communities for decades to come," said Cliff Graham, CEO of Avantus. "I'm incredibly proud of what Team Avantus built here. Their expertise across development, construction, financing and operations, and the trust our financing and CCA partners have placed in us, are the foundation we're building our long-term IPP model on.""The Aratina project is a powerful example of how community choice energy turns climate goals into real projects on the ground," said Robert Shaw, CEO of 3CE. "Our long-term commitment to 120 MW from this facility will deliver clean, affordable power to our customers while supporting California's transition away from fossil fuels. We're grateful to partner with Avantus on a project that strengthens grid reliability and invests in the Central Coast's clean energy future."
Avantus said a consortium of lenders, including Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Truist Securities, ING Capital, and Mizuho, provided financing of more than $500 million for Aratina 1. The project also secured a $300-million tax equity commitment from Truist Bank. Officials said the project created about 500 jobs at peak construction."The clean power generated from the Aratina project gets us one step closer to our climate goals. New projects like this are critical in increasing statewide clean capacity and reliability as we reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and move towards an all-electric future," said Monica Padilla, CEO of SVCE.Avantus on Monday said that Aratina 2, the second phase of the Aratina Solar Center, located adjacent to Aratina 1, is currently under construction. Aratina 2 recently closed more than $525 million in financing and is targeting commercial operation before year-end. The Aratina Solar Center when complete will represent a combined 350 MW of solar and 952 MWh of energy storage.Avantus develops, owns, and operates utility-scale clean energy projects across California and the Desert Southwest. The company is backed by strategic investment from KKR and EIG. The company earlier this year closed a financing package of more than $300 million for a project in Arizona.Avantus and Clean Power Alliance, another community choice aggregator, earlier in July announced a 20-year PPA for the Rexford 2 solar-plus-s

With a market cap of $27.2 billion, NRG Energy, Inc. (NRG) provides retail electricity, energy management, smart home solutions, and carbon management services across the United States and Canada. Through multiple segments, it serves residential, commercial, and industrial customers while operating a diversified portfolio of fossil fuel and renewable energy generation ******* ets and engaging in energy trading and related financial products.
The Houston, Texas-based company is expected to unveil its fiscal Q2 2026 results before the market opens on Tuesday, Aug. 4. Ahead of the event, ******* ysts anticipate NRG to report an EPS of $1.83, a rise of 8.9% from $1.68 in the year-ago quarter. It has exceeded Wall Street's bottom-line estimates in three of the past four quarters while missing on another occasion.
Alibaba Stock Just Got Apple's Biggest AI Endorsement. This Could Be a Game Changer for BABA.
Elon Musk Says If ******* eX Accomplishes Its Goals, 'It Will Be Worth More Than The Rest of Earth' — Though He's Also Said 'Money Will Stop Being Relevant'
AI Bubble Fears, Earnings and Other Can't Miss Items this Week

#energy #market #united #ahead

By Dawn Chmielewski
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, July 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump called for a review related to the ‌Federal Judicial Center's scientific reference manual in cases involving climate ‌change, writing in a Truth Social post on Sunday that the work contains "discredited" information that led to "huge losses" for the country.
"Our Nation's Federal Judges deserve Facts and Science, not Political Fraud and False Science on Climate," Trump posted. "With this TRUTH, I hereby order Federal Suspension and Debarment ‌Officials to review this ⁠conduct."
It was not immediately clear what "conduct" Trump wants investigated. The White House did not immediately reply to a ⁠request for comment.
Earlier this year, the U.S. federal judiciary withdrew a chapter from the newest edition of its reference manual on scientific evidence that addressed climate change after Republican state attorneys general argued it ‌was biased against fossil fuel companies.

Choosing between State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEMKT:XLE) and iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (NASDAQ:ICLN) comes down to a preference for low-cost, domestic fossil-fuel giants versus a global, ESG-screened portfolio of renewable energy developers.
XLE provides a liquid, concentrated vehicle for betting on the traditional energy giants within the S&P 500. Conversely, ICLN offers diversified international exposure to the clean energy transition. This match-up highlights the differences in cost, volatility, and sector focus between traditional and sustainable energy strategies.
Metric
ICLN
XLE

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) are **** ans of the global energy landscape, but their diverging paths in a changing economy present a unique puzzle for retail investors today. This match-up explores which stock is a better buy.
Chevron is doubling down on operational efficiency in major basins while eyeing the power-hungry technology sector. Exxon Mobil is leveraging its massive scale to dominate traditional markets and lead the charge in carbon capture and storage. Both are navigating a transition toward cleaner energy while maintaining robust oil and gas production.
Chevron sells crude oil, natural gas, and refined products to industrial and consumer markets globally. The company operates in major regions like Kazakhstan, Australia, and the U.S. shale basins through partnerships with entities like Hess Midstream LP. While primarily focused on fossil fuels, the company also monitors developments in renewable energy stocks to stay competitive in a changing market.
In FY 2025, revenue reached nearly $184.4 billion, representing a decrease of approximately 4.6% from the previous year. The company reported net income of close to $12.3 billion for the same period, down from $17.7 billion in 2024. This resulted in a net margin of roughly 6.7%, which measures how much of every dollar of sales remains after all expenses are paid.
As of its December 2025 balance sheet, the debt-to-equity ratio was approximately 0.3x. This ratio measures total debt against shareholder equity, and a lower number indicates a lighter debt load. The current ratio, which compares short-term **** ets to short-term liabilities, was nearly 1.2x. Free cash flow for the year was close to $16.6 billion, representing the cash a company generates after accounting for capital expenditures.

Concerned about an AI bubble? Sign up for The Daily Upside for smart and actionable market news, built for investors.
Arguably the most bearish forecast on markets this year has been that artificial intelligence will render software stocks fossils. The "vibe coding" enabled by tools like Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex, this view holds, will serve as a metaphorical asteroid to the digital dinosaurs about to be wiped out in a SaaSpocalypse.
Guggenheim ***** yst John DiFucci argued Wednesday that, like a chatbot's misfired answer, this pessimistic view is "a hallucination." Software firms, he said, are "one of the best opportunities for patient investors" and, at least for a day, investors came around to the idea that the prevailing sentiment might be overblown.
Sign up for The Daily Upside at no cost for premium ***** ysis on all your favorite stocks.
READ ALSO: New Fed Chair Noncommittal on Interest Rates, Emphatic on Central Bank Independence and Budget-Conscious Shoppers Splurge on General Mills' Cat Treats While Skipping Cereal

On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) into law. It implemented major changes for individual, corporate, and specialized taxes; restructured safety-net programs like Medicaid and SNAP; increased government spending on defense and immigration reform; and pivoted federal support from green energy to fossil fuels. Let's see how those changes could impact your retirement plans.
Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue »
The OBBBA introduces a new senior tax deduction of $6,000 for individuals aged 65 and older, and $12,000 for married couples if both individuals are at least 65 years old. That deduction can be stacked with the baseline standard deduction and existing over-65 bonus deductions, which means a senior married couple can shield up to $47,500 from federal income taxes.
However, this new deduction phases out at a rate of 6% for every $1,000 in Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) exceeding $75,000 for single filers and $150,000 for married joint filers. It disappears at $150,000 and $250,000 for single filers and married joint filers, respectively.
The OBBBA also raised the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap from $10,000 to $40,000 through 2029. That increase should help retirees in high-tax states preserve much more cash.

After two weeks of voting, we have a champion in the Blue Federal Credit Union Girls Athlete of the Year bracket.
Wellington state champion swimmer Cody Monajjem is the Blue FCU Fort Collins-area Girls Athlete of the Year for the 2025-26 school year, taking the ******* le in a thrillingly close championship matchup to wrap up four rounds of voting from thousands of fans.
The senior barely beat out Fossil Ridge soccer and track standout Lily Wale, as Monajjem ultimately earned the win with 50.3% of the vote.
It's a well-deserved career capper for the Eagles champion and foundational swimmer for Wellington's combined program with Timnath.
Monajjem won a Class 3A state ******* le for the third straight year, this time taking the 200-yard freestyle state crown in 1:53.04.

PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG) is one of the undervalued infrastructure stocks to buy now. Two ***** ysts recently trimmed their price targets on the stock, yet the underlying demand story has not gone quiet.
On May 21, 2026, Morgan Stanley lowered its price target on PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG) to $22 from $23, keeping an "Equal Weight" rating, as part of a broader update to North American Regulated and Diversified Utilities and IPP targets.
Three days earlier, on May 18, 2026, Truist made the same price target move, cutting to $22 from $23 while keeping a "Buy" rating on PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG). The adjustment came as part of a broader model update ahead of the American Gas ***** ociation's Financial Forum. Truist noted the sector is now in year three of the data center wave, with investment and growth expectations continuing to climb. The firm views vertically integrated electric utilities as clear winners in building the infrastructure needed to serve that load growth.
Meanwhile, PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG) added a milestone of its own. On June 4, 2026, the company announced it had surpassed 1 million customers with solar systems connected to its electric grid. Jason Glickman, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Growth, said PG&E has enabled more solar adoption than any utility in the country.
PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG) sells electricity and natural gas across the U.S. market. The company uses fossil fuel-fired, fuel cells, photovoltaic, nuclear, and hydroelectric sources to generate electricity. It serves residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural customers, as well as natural gas-fired electricity generation facilities. The company operates through various interconnected transmission lines.

By Saeed Azhar, Nupur Anand and Chris Prentice
NEW YORK, June 15 (Reuters) - Big U.S. lenders are bracing for further public scrutiny over whether they improperly closed customer accounts as a top watchdog wraps up a review that is expected to name and shame banks and result in disciplinary action, said several people with knowledge of the matter.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is poised ‌to publish in coming weeks the findings of a supervisory review of whether lenders including JPMorgan and Bank of America cut off or denied services on religious or political grounds, often dubbed debanking. It has ‌also examined whether lenders denied services to legitimate, conservative-aligned sectors such as fossil-fuel companies, gun makers and crypto, the people said.
Debanking generally refers to the process whereby a financial institution suddenly cuts off or restricts services to individuals or businesses. Following Republican President Donald Trump's order last year, authorities have been cracking down on what Trump has characterized as politically motivated debanking pushed by Democrats, creating headaches for lenders, who deny the claims and say they have merely been following risk management rules.
Republicans have for years been ramping up pressure on Wall Street banks to drop what they describe as left-leaning "woke" policies that they say are discriminatory, and Trump says he has personally had accounts closed for such political reasons.

By Sudarshan Varadhan and Colleen Howe
SHANGHAI, June 5 (Reuters) - China's major solar panel manufacturers are ramping up higher-margin battery exports to boost revenue as growth in photovoltaic (PV) sales slows, betting on rising global demand for renewable energy storage to ‌cut reliance on fossil fuels.
The sector has been hit by weaker domestic installations, slowing exports and record-low prices, with executives ‌expecting global demand to decline in 2026.
That has pushed players including JinkoSolar, JA Solar, LONGi Green Energy and Trina Solar to accelerate expansion into battery storage, company executives told Reuters.
JinkoSolar plans to nearly triple its battery manufacturing capacity from 5 gigawatt-hours (GWh) to 13-14 GWh by the end of this year, as developers seek to address the intermittency of renewables, a company official said at SNEC - a solar industry gathering attended by over half a million people.

Nations gather for first-ever conference on fossil fuel exit

More than 50 nations are attending a world-first conference on phasing out fossil fuels in Colombia next week as the Iran war underscores how dependent countries remain on planet-heating coal, oil and gas.
Ministers arrive in the Caribbean city of Santa Marta against a backdrop of wartime fuel shortages, soaring prices and a scramble for energy security in what the International Energy Agency has called the biggest oil supply shock ever.
The gathering was born out of frustration with consensus-based United Nations climate talks,

Ancient teeth reveal clues to the environment humans’ early ancestors evolved in millions of years ago

Teeth are like tiny biological time capsules. They tell stories about ancient diets and environments long after their owners have died and landscapes have changed.
After bones break down, tooth enamel stays hard and unchanged, even in fossilized teeth that have been buried under sediment and rock for millions of years and are now being uncovered by erosion or excavation.
Tooth enamel forms when an animal is young, and it remains chemically stable for the rest of that animal’s life. The f

U.S. Intervention in Venezuela Could Help Solve Colombia’s Energy Crisis

Colombia’s natural gas production is spiraling ever lower, with the hydrocarbon sector impacted by tax hikes and leftist President Gustavo Petro’s reforms aimed at weaning the country off its dependence on fossil fuels. This forced Bogota to significantly boost costly liquified petroleum gas (LPG) imports to meet domestic demand and ensure the stability of Colombia's electricity grid. Those imports are straining government finances and the economy at a time of fiscal crisis. Nonetheless, U.S. President Donald Trump’s i

Birds could be 60 million years older than thought

Tracks believed to be the work of small, scampering dinosaurs may have been made by birds, pushing back the date of the evolution of flight by 60 million years, scientists believe.
Birds first appear in the fossil record about 150 million years ago, when winged species such as Archaeopteryx evolved from a group of small, carnivorous, bipedal dinosaurs known as theropods.
However, in the past few decades, experts have noticed that ancient footprints, dating from much earlier, look surprisingly similar to bird tracks.
Now an AI model, deve

The post A Major Revision to the Story of Large Shark Evolution appeared first on A-Z Animals.
Large-body sharks in the Lamniformes family appeared 15 million years earlier than science previously claimed.
Understanding shark evolution can be difficult because sharks are cartilaginous, so only their vertebrae and teeth survive fossilization.
A richly biodiverse ocean during the Late Cretaceous period allowed gigantic sharks to coexist with other apex predators.
As a shark tooth and fossil hunting enthusiast, I often have people ask me why I find fossils so fascinating. To me, the answer is

Generations of ancient, solitary bees made a home within the tooth holes of a fossilized jawbone, which was recently uncovered in a cave on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.
It's the first time we've ever seen ancient bees taking up residence in the pre-existing cavities of a fossil, and it shows home really is what you make it.
Paleontologists believe the jawbone once belonged to a capybara-like rodent (Plagiodontia araeum), most likely transported to the cave in the grasp of an owl, which made a meal of the now extinct mammal and discarded its jawbone.
Related: A Wasp, Flower, And Fly T

These “Living Rocks” Are Living It Up

You might think you’re looking at a bunch of mossy rocks, but you’re actually gazing at some of the world’s oldest living creatures—and they’re doing great.
Communities of microbes gobble up dissolved minerals in water and turn them into these solid, rock-like structures called microbialites. Researchers have found fossilized microbialites that are around 3.7 to 3.5 billion years old, which might represent the oldest organisms found on Earth.
Around a billion years after that, microbialites may have transformed our planet forever—researchers think tha

Scientists document over 16,000 footprints in the world’s most extensive dinosaur tracksite

A high-traffic “dinosaur freeway” may have once stretched across a shoreline in what is now Bolivia. Traveling along this busy route were theropods — three-toed, bipedal meat-eating dinosaurs, which left behind thousands of fossil footprints. Paleontologists have now described their tracks for the first time, offering a rare glimpse into dinosaurs’ movements through their habitat.
Scientists recently counted 16,600 theropod tracks — more than any other trackway site — at the Carreras Pampas tracksit

Dec. 4—WINONA, Minn. — It was a dinosaur that once roamed the earth 66 million years ago, and now a big piece of its sits housed in a lab at Winona State University in one of the rarest and largest fossil discoveries in recent memory.
It was called Edmontosaurus. And the duck-billed dinosaur was really big. From the tip of its snout to the end of its tail, it was as big as a city bus. And it lived alongside its contemporaries Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops and existed just before all the large dinosaurs were wiped out in a mass extinction.
Its bones sticking out of the ground in the North

(Photo by JasonDoiy/Getty Images)
Washington state has ambitious renewable energy goals. But as we transition away from fossil fuels, energy demand will increase as we electrify our lives and as energy-intensive industries proliferate.
This complicates our state’s path to decarbonization.
As part of the transition, solar energy in Washington could cover tens of thousands — possibly hundreds of thousands — of acres in the coming years.
Where all those solar panels go is a serious question.

https://www.yahoo.com/news...

Clint Boyd, North Dakota state paleontologist, shows off a mammoth tusk discovered at a coal mine near Beulah in 2023. He presented the discovery during a Nov. 25, 2025, North Dakota Industrial Commission meeting. (Photo by Jacob Orledge/North Dakota Monitor)
The North Dakota Geological Survey has found a new Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton at a dig site in southwest North Dakota.
Researchers first discovered the bones in September 2024 while searching for crocodile fossils in Bowman County, according to State Paleontologist Clint Boyd. Tuesday was the first time the find was publicly announced.

Using fossil fuels to produce energy has had a detrimental impact on the planet. Despite pushes for cleaner energy, the power sector is still the top producer of harmful emissions according to the United Nations. As it becomes clear that human-driven climate change is making it harder for trees to breathe, it is fitting that a new proposed solution is inspired by the photosynthesis of plants.
A team of researchers at the University of Cambridge has developed artificial photosynthesis. The system mimics plants by using sunlight, water, and CO2 to create energy. The benefit of this system is th

UN climate summit drops mention of fossil fuels from draft deal

All mention of fossil fuels, by far the largest contributor to climate change, has been dropped from the draft deal under negotiation at the COP30 UN climate talks in Belém, Brazil enter their final stretch.
Draft agreements at the meeting of nearly 200 countries usually go through multiple revisions as all parties must agree in order for a deal to pass.
Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and some countries including the UK want the summit to commit countries to stronger, faster action to reduce their use of fossil

“Living Fossil” Discovered by Accident Could Reshape Tree of Life

It’s not uncommon for a new species to be discovered among existing collections; it’s rare that the new species is still alive, though. But that’s what a research team from Charles University in the Czech Republic found when they examined an old culture of marine microorganisms.
In the years-old sample, larger organisms had expired, but there was still one tiny, odd-looking creature left living. It was a minuscule, one-celled protist—a catchall group that comprises eukaryotic organisms that aren’t plants, animals, or fungi.

More than 100 million years ago, huge marine reptiles might have chomped down on marlin-like fish, violently thrashing their prey until their heads ripped off, according to fossils that were recently ******* yzed.
Researchers studied more than 300 fossils belonging to Aspidorhynchus, a genus of extinct fish, from a large region of Germany that was once a series of islands scattered throughout a shallow sea. The area is recognized for yielding particularly well-preserved fossils from the Late Jurassic, which stretched from about 160 million to 145 million years ago.
Among this collection were

Chinese scientists have developed a new method to directly manufacture rubber and plastic from a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide gases, an advance that could reduce industrial reliance on fossil fuels.
Olefins, or organic compounds, derived from petroleum are the building blocks for many polymers, including commonly used plastic and rubber products.
This has directly amplified the carbon footprint of the entire industry.
While alternatives exist – such as the use of a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide gases called syngas from decomposing organic matter – these have been shown

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Global efforts to curb emissions of the potent but short-lived heat-trapping gas methane are doing about as poorly as the more prevalent carbon dioxide, but there's hope for the next five years, U.N. officials said Monday.
Methane emissions can be a “hand brake” for slowing greenhouse gas pollution and temperatures, said Martina Otto, head of the U.N.'s climate and clean air commission for methane pollution. That's because methane from fossil fuels traps nearly 30 times the heat of the more common carbon dioxide, but because they don't last nearly as long in the air, fast

Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels are projected to rise to an all-time high this year.

At this rate, it will take the world four years to pass the 1.5-degree threshold that experts say would constitute catastrophic warming.
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