Tuesday, 4 August 2026

One Nation is polling at or above both major parties in Victoria, Australia, according to two separate surveys reported by RenewEconomy, even though the party holds almost no seats in the state parliament.

Freshwater Strategy put the Liberal-National Coalition in front on a primary vote of 27 per cent, One Nation second on 25 per cent, and Victorian Labor trailing on 23 per cent.

Redbridge, in polling commissioned by the Victorian Unions, had One Nation in the lead on a primary vote of 27%, with Labor and the Liberal-National Coalition tied on 26% and the Greens on 13%.

The two surveys disagree on the order of the top three but agree on the compression: under either set of numbers, no party clears the high twenties on primaries.

That polling strength has no equivalent in the chamber. One Nation does not hold a single seat in the lower house of the Victorian Parliament and has one representative in the upper house.

RenewEconomy frames the numbers against the state's energy position and the arrival of a new premier, arguing One Nation is not the answer to Victoria's difficulties.

Climate, environmental, and social justice organizations filed testimony asking the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) to scale back a proposed rate increase from Puget Sound Energy, according to CleanTechnica.

CleanTechnica described Puget Sound Energy as Washington's largest utility and reported that the groups want the commission to cut the size of the requested hike.

The utility's filing seeks major rate increases alongside costly new gas infrastructure, per CleanTechnica.

The testimony puts the groups on the record before the UTC, the state body that reviews and sets utility rates, as it weighs the request.

Indiana ranked among the top three US states for solar installation last year, according to Canary Media.

The same reporting places that ranking against a steady contraction in the state's coal fleet. Canary Media reported that more than a dozen coal plants have closed in Indiana since 2010.

The outlet examined the two trends in the context of federal proposals that would keep Indiana coal generation running, which it reported would threaten drinking water.

Maryland has scaled back EmPOWER, its flagship energy-efficiency program, and proposed stripping renewable-energy and load-management requirements out of the state's commercial building code, according to Inside Climate News.

The administration of Governor Wes Moore said the reductions to EmPOWER will deliver consumers "immediate relief," Inside Climate News reported.

Consumer and climate advocates take the opposite view. According to the same reporting, they warn the combined moves could make it harder for the state to hit its pollution-reduction goals.

The building code proposal reaches beyond efficiency measures for utility customers. Removing renewable-energy and load-management provisions would alter what new commercial construction in the state is required to install, per Inside Climate News. Load-management requirements govern how buildings shift or shed electricity demand, a function that intersects directly with the ratepayer savings the efficiency program was designed to produce.

Brent crude has slumped to USD 86 a barrel since both sides paused skirmishes on Friday, according to World Oil, after the benchmark soared above USD 100 on Thursday during the flare up in fighting.

President Donald Trump said he would prefer to avoid another escalation in the war with Iran and urged Tehran to make a deal, World Oil reported, laying the ground for further diplomacy after the tit-for-tat strikes stopped.

Asked about the Strait of Hormuz, Trump told Fox News: "Iran doesn't control the strait, we control the strait".

Talks are running in parallel to the public signaling. Omani and Iranian negotiators met in Tehran over the weekend and discussions are ongoing, according to people familiar with the situation cited by World Oil, who asked not to be identified because the matters are sensitive.

Shipping data points to crude moving on a route that bypasses the strait. At least eight crude carriers are signaling Egypt's Mediterranean port of Sidi Kerir to collect Saudi crude, with arrivals set through mid-August, according to ship-tracking data reported by World Oil.

Queensland energy minister David Janetzki and NSW energy minister Penny Sharpe appeared together on stage at the Australian Clean Energy Summit in Sydney, according to RenewEconomy.

Both ministers speak for grids still running majority coal. Queensland's grid carried a 60 per cent coal share over the last 12 months, according to Open Electricity as cited by RenewEconomy. The NSW figure stands at 53 per cent on the same measure.

The seven-point gap between the two states is the clearest quantitative marker of how differently the two jurisdictions sit on coal dependence, based on the Open Electricity data reported by RenewEconomy.

Deep Sea Minerals Corp. has received a determination of substantial compliance from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on its DSHMRA application, the company said in an interview published by Offshore Magazine.

The determination means the application has met first-stage completeness requirements and can proceed into the federal review process, according to the company's own description of the milestone.

The acreage at stake is large. Offshore Magazine reported that Deep Sea Minerals Corp. holds a concession of roughly 150,000 sq km in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.

The company is a recent arrival to the seabed business. It was founded in Vancouver in 2022 as Copperhead Resources, a land-based minerals venture, then rebranded in early 2026 and moved its focus fully underwater, per Offshore Magazine. It is pursuing a Nasdaq listing.

The pivot came with new leadership. James Deckelman was hired as chief executive in January, bringing more than 25 years of deepwater oil and gas experience from bp, ConocoPhillips, Talisman Energy and BluEnergies, according to Offshore Magazine.

That hiring pattern is itself the signal worth reading in the filing: a company applying for federal seabed review staffed its top job with an executive whose track record is in offshore hydrocarbons rather than hard-rock mining.

The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has updated its accredited official statistics publication UK energy in brief 2026, releasing the accompanying dataset on 3 August 2026, according to the department's statistics page.

DESNZ, the United Kingdom's energy department, first published the compilation on 30 July 2026 and recorded its most recent update on 3 August 2026. The dataset itself was published on the later of those two dates.

The publication carries accredited official statistics status and is described by DESNZ as a summary of key annual statistics in the UK energy system.

According to DESNZ, the release covers how energy is produced and used, and the way energy use influences greenhouse gas emissions. It also covers combined heat and power, renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy prices and fuel poverty.

The U.S. Department of Justice has told a federal court that private citizens should not be permitted to enforce environmental statutes and should instead defer to the executive branch, according to The Conversation. The position was filed in litigation involving Elon Musk's xAI.

The Conversation reports that the Justice Department's argument would require plaintiffs to leave enforcement to the executive branch even when the executive decides to take no action.

The underlying case dates to April 2026, when the NAACP, a nationwide civil rights organization, sued xAI in federal court under the citizen suit provision of the Clean Air Act, The Conversation reports. The complaint alleges that xAI and a subsidiary built and operated 27 natural gas-fired turbines in Southaven, Mississippi, without the Clean Air Act permits required for them, to power the company's Colossus 2 data center.

Citizen suit provisions are not a marginal enforcement channel. They have been used in more than 2,000 lawsuits since the 1970s, according to The Conversation.

Two settlements illustrate the financial stakes attached to that mechanism. Formosa Plastics settled a 2017 Clean Water Act citizen suit in 2019 for USD 50 million, money directed to mitigation and remediation projects in Lavaca Bay, Texas, The Conversation reports.

A more recent case closed at a smaller figure. Styropek USA settled a citizen suit brought by PennEnvironment and Three Rivers Waterkeeper for USD 2.5 million in 2025 over plastic pellet discharges in western Pennsylvania, according to The Conversation.

Diplomatic efforts to end the Iran war ruptured on Monday after Tehran denied that negotiations would take place, according to Semafor.

US President Donald Trump described Iran's leaders as "unbelievably duplicitous," Semafor reported. He later vowed to blockade Iran until "a Deal, or Total Surrender, is accomplished."

On the Iranian side, Semafor reported that Tehran is resolved on a "pressure points" strategy, aimed at reframing Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz as less costly for the region and the global economy.