Wednesday, 12 August 2026

New South Wales energy minister Penny Sharpe has kept open the possibility of further changes to coal generator closure dates, according to RenewEconomy.

That stance leaves the state's exit timetable unsettled at a point when developers are already struggling to raise capital. RenewEconomy reported that uncertainty over closure dates has been cited as a major reason for the difficulty in financing new wind and solar projects in the Australian state.

The two threads run together. Lenders price the timing of coal retirements into revenue assumptions for new generation, and a movable date weakens that basis. Sharpe's refusal to lock in the schedule keeps that variable in play.

Two-thirds of India's iron ore reserves cannot be used efficiently without upgrading, a constraint that sits directly beneath the government's plan to lift crude steel capacity beyond 400 million tonnes by 2035-36 under the proposed National Steel Policy 2025, according to IEEFA.

IEEFA cited an inter-ministerial committee finding that medium- and low-grade material accounts for 66.5% of the reserve base, leaving beneficiation as a precondition for efficient use. Output volume is not the binding issue: FY2024-25 iron ore production reached roughly 289Mt, fourth-largest worldwide.

Moving beneficiation capacity from about 136 MTPA to 170 MTPA by FY2030 could take roughly INR51,000 crore (USD5.37 billion) of investment, IEEFA said.

The Australian government projects that Indian iron ore imports climb to 50Mt in 2031, up from 3Mt in 2025, on IEEFA's account.

Grade quality also shows up in furnace fuel bills. Each percentage point of added alumina raises coke burn by 2.2% while trimming blast furnace productivity by 4%, according to an Indian study cited by IEEFA. Around 85% of India's coking coal already arrives from abroad.

Global Energy Monitor puts the blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace share of India's announced capacity under development at about 57%, which keeps that import exposure attached to the buildout. Alongside the capacity figure, the policy also sets out lower emissions intensity and reduced coking coal dependence as objectives, IEEFA reported.

Iran restated its conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, demanding that the US and its allies unfreeze Iranian assets and end hostilities across the region, according to Semafor Net Zero.

The statement narrowed the prospect of an interim workaround. Semafor Net Zero reported that Tehran's position dampened hopes a deal with Oman could open a route for commercial shipping before the US and Iran reach an agreement of their own.

Enforcement action continued the same day. Semafor Net Zero reported that the US fired on a Panama-flagged vessel that attempted to break its blockade on Tuesday.

Semafor's White House correspondent reported that President Donald Trump is increasingly concerned the conflict could damage his legacy by inviting unfavorable comparisons to past US leaders.

Analyst firm Wood Mackenzie puts the oil and gas industry's cash windfall on course for USD 495 billion in 2026, a figure cited by The Conversation.

One levy already claims a share of that pool. Stacked on earlier charges, a windfall tax covering North Sea oil and gas lifts the combined burden on profits to 78%, and The Conversation reported it should bring in an estimated GBP 8 billion in 2026, about twice what the levy delivered in 2024-25.

A European Union-wide tax followed a different design, applied once after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. That measure collected EUR 26.15 billion, according to The Conversation.

The Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax, enacted in 1980, was originally projected to bring in USD 393 billion across a planned 10-year life. Actual receipts came to roughly USD 80 billion before lawmakers repealed the tax in 1988, The Conversation reported.

Two bills now on the table reach for the same revenue in different ways. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Ro Khanna would apply a 50% excise tax per barrel to the gap between the current average Brent crude price and the 2025 average of USD 69.

The other bill goes after shareholder distributions instead of production volumes. The Taxing Buybacks from Big Oil Windfalls Act, from Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden, Chuck Schumer, and Michael Bennet, would lift the excise tax on stock buybacks by large oil and gas companies from 1% to 25%, according to The Conversation.

The Critical Services Building at Canberra Hospital is the first fully-electric hospital building in Australia, according to RenewEconomy.

RenewEconomy reported that dropping gas in favour of electric equipment could save public hospitals millions.

Hospital campuses have long relied on gas for heat, hot water, sterilisation and cooking, which makes the all-electric designation for the Canberra facility a departure from standard practice in the sector. RenewEconomy framed the switch as a cost question for public health budgets rather than a purely technical one.