President Donald Trump’s strong interest in exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) has carried over from his first term. It’s a critical part of what the Trump administration says makes up the heart of the U.S. economy, and it provides an edge in the geopolitical battle for dominating energy markets.
There were no surprise announcements from the Trump administration last week — electric vehicle tax credits won’t be supported, offshore oil and gas drilling will increase, renewable energy won’t be supported, and the U.S. will go back to staying away from the UN’s climate change initiative. The focus will be on global energy exports.
“We have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have: the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth,” Trump said during his inauguration speech. “And we are going to use it…and export American energy all over the world.”
Trump will have to watch out for overpromising on LNG. He’ll have to wait to see if market demand will justify moving forward on building any of the nearly two dozen new export terminals in the U.S. President Biden had put that on hold a year ago, but that decision was overturned by a federal judge in July.
Demand continues to rise in Europe as Russia’s supply of gas through Ukraine has been cut off due to the war. Exxon has four LNG projects under development and expects to start commissioning the production units in the US and Qatar first, by the end of this year, according to a senior Exxon Mobil Corp. executive. Other US export projects will also start picking up production, but most of the new supply won’t arrive until 2027.
In 2023, the U.S. used 1.27 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas for transportation, which is about 4% of the total natural gas consumed in America. Most of the natural gas used for transportation that year came from renewable natural gas, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration. Another significant indicator from that year: LNG exports accounted for 57% of the U.S.’s total natural gas exports.
U.S. exports of LNG have grown quite a bit over the past eight years, in part because of the rise of fracking and also because of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which hurt Russia’s pipeline exports of natural gas to Europe.
LNG has gone mainstream for most commercial trucks, with some of it being bio-LNG. The list of trucks using LNG includes Volvo FH, FH Aero, FM, and FMX; Peterbilt Model 386 and 579, Freightliner M2 112, Raley’s, and Kenworth T800.
Read more on Trump’s executive orders on energy policies from ACT News.
How Europe is doing: The alternative fuel market in November 2024 shows a continued dominance of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), with cars at 15.0% and vans at 5.2% market share, according to European Alternative Fuels Observatory. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) maintain a moderate share of 8% in the car segment, while fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) remain absent in both categories. Propane-powered vehicles account for 2.9% of cars and 1.0% of vans, whereas compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles register no market share, the agency said.
ACT Expo keynoters: Jennifer Rumsey, Chair & CEO, Cummins Inc., Lars Stenqvist, CTO, Volvo Group, and Jim Walenczak, Vice President, PACCAR Inc, General Manager, Kenworth Truck Company, are the first keynote speakers announced for Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo 2025. Held April 28 to May 1, 2025, at the Anaheim Convention Center in Southern California, these three speakers will each be on stage on that Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. This year’s ACT Expo will provide fleets with the tools, insights, and strategies needed to achieve organizational goals in clean transportation, emissions, while building both economic and environmental sustainability.
Wouldn’t it have been miraculous if drones and robots had put out the L.A. wildfires soon after they’d started? Peter Diamandis, executive chairman of the X Prize Foundation, sure thinks so.
In April 2023, X Prize launched an $11 million XPRIZE Wildfire, a global incentive competition whose goal it is to detect a fire at ignition and put it out within 10 minutes. Today, 50 teams from 10 nations are moving forward on developing the technology that could win them the X Prize and enable it to all come together. A winner is expected in early 2026. It will be discussed and other relevant and pressing issues at the Abundance360 Summit in March of this year for those who are interested.
Diamandis wished it had been done earlier, and it could be preventable. On January 15 in his email newsletter, he wrote, “My family and I evacuated our home last Tuesday and luckily, our home is safe (for now), but the atmosphere in Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades remains toxic as Teslas and flat-screen TVs melt and go up in smoke.”
The Palisades fire, on the western side of Los Angeles, was 52% contained, according to Cal Fire. The Eaton fire, near Pasadena, is 81% contained, as of about 6:30 Pacific time this morning according the New York Times. Winds are expected to increase this afternoon, creating a “particularly dangerous situation.”
Another good from Diamandis: “I also believe the future of fire insurance will soon change. Rather than paying you to rebuild your home after it burns down, the best insurers will use exponential tech to protect and prevent your home from ever burning in the first place. That’s a policy I’d prefer to have.”
He’s not the only futurist to warn us that advanced technologies like drones and robotics have become a necessity. Just talking about the impact of climate change doesn’t tell the whole story anymore. The words ‘remediation’ and ‘mitigation’ are becoming front and center. Climate change remediation involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the effects of climate change. Mitigation reduce the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) released into the atmosphere. The U.S. and other countries will need to invest more in emergency response and prevention tactics and technologies to prepare for wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and more.
Canoo files for BK: Electric van maker Canoo announced on Jan. 17 that it will be ceasing operations “immediately” and that it has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Delaware. The EV startup estimates in its filing that its assets are worth $126 million and that it owes over $164 million to its creditors, according to TechCrunch and The Verge. The U.S. will be appointing a bankruptcy trustee to oversee liquidation of the company’s assets and the distribution of proceeds to creditor, Canoo said. The startup EV maker had asked for support from the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Loan Programs Office and from foreign investors, but neither came through. It’s the latest sign of problems developing for the company with Oklahoma operations idling and several executives leaving in recent weeks — including all of its founders.
What will come of Nissan and Honda merger?: With Nissan and Honda announcing its merger last month, what will come next? The merger could help the companies compete with other automakers in the electric vehicle (EV) market tapping into Nissan’s experience in building batteries and EVs, and Honda’s success in hybrid powertrains. A joint holding company is being formed, with each brand retained but a merger of the two global automakers taking place. Honda said it will initially lead the new executive management.
Some analysts wonder if the JV will be able to produce competitive, profitable EVs and hybrids, with both companies being known for staying behind global market leaders in designing, developing, manufacturing, and marketing new model lineups. Nissan is currently marketing its Ariya all-electric crossover SUV. Car and Driver recent placed the Accord and Civic on its top 10 models to now this year. At CES earlier this month, Honda debuted two prototypes in its new 0 Series line of battery electric vehicles. Honda also showed another EV — an updated version of its Afeela 1 sedan, in a JV project with consumer electronics giant Sony.
Don’t forget about my Substack page: If you’re looking for something to read, check out Discovery: Jon LeSage’s Substack. It started with publishing my book in September, but then I got hooked. It was also fascinating to see a few big names out there — in writing, journalism, novels, music, technology innovations, politics, economics, and more — joining up in Substack. For a writer like me, it’s a thrill just to be there. They also make it easier to keep your commentaries organized and sent out to readers, along with promoting it on social media. If you’re hooked on writing and sending it out to the world, go see Substack and consider trying it out. It’s all free, and you can put out subscriber only version as well.
News briefs: 1. Check out U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Transformative Pathways for U.S. Industry with fascinating analysis of industrial transformation. 2. Learn more about how National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will continue to support medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicle charging by tapping into its ARIES platform and decades of electrification research. 3. With the changing executive branch in Washington DC, California Air Resources Board (CARB) sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdrawing the state’s request for a Clean Air Act waiver for its Advanced Clean Fleet (ACF) Regulation. CARB thinks it would be prudent to do so given its experience during the previous Trump administration. 4. The U.S. Department of Energy released an update to the 45VH2-GREET model, which has been adopted by the Department of the Treasury for the purposes of calculating well-to-gate emissions of hydrogen production facilities for the clean hydrogen production tax credit established in Internal Revenue Code (I.R.C section 45V [45V tax credit]). 5. Hyundai Motor America says that it’s been awarded The Clean Transport Award at the annual Supply Chain Excellence Awards USA, being recognized for its groundbreaking advancements in hydrogen mobility and clean logistics. 6. The Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA), a federal coalition focused on advocating for the advancement of the electric vehicle supply chain, released its 2025 Policy Platform to support electric vehicle adoption. It’s also organized around building a robust domestic supply chain, and creating American jobs. Built on four pillars supporting all elements of the EV value chain, ZETA’s Policy Platform will reinforce the industry’s continued strong domestic growth, the coalition said.
Image by: Mineral License and Safety Authority, Greenland. Source: Pulitzer Center.
Greenland is not a place you’d want to build a resort destination for American tourists. So why would soon-to-be President Donald Trump want to acquire the island from Denmark? It’s the world’s largest island, with almost 80% of it is covered by ice caps and glaciers. For the ice-free area, only a very small part of it is arable.
Greenland holds rare earth minerals that America wants — but which it largely relies on China to get. Greenland has about a quarter of the world’s rare earth minerals used in many of today’s technologies — from smartphones to MRI machines, as well as electric vehicles and military jets.
US and Danish officials lobbied the developer of Greenland’s largest rare earths deposit last year not to sell its project to Chinese-linked firms. Greg Barnes, CEO of privately held Tanbreez Mining said that the company has been in regular talks with Washington as it reviews funding options to develop the island’s critical minerals.
Trump initially made the surprise suggestion during his first presidency in August 2019 that the U.S. should buy Greenland, which is a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. It drew an immediate rejection from the leaders in Greenland and Denmark.
It also has its strategic advantages on the military and national security front. It offers the shortest route from North America to Europe.
The U.S. already has military presence on the island. British online newspaper, The Independent, reports that the Danish government has been speaking privately with members of President-elect Trump’s team about potentially increasing U.S. military presence there.
Greenland is about 630 miles from the Arctic Sea. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Arctic region holds an estimated 90 billion barrels of oil, 1,669 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids, according to its July 2023 report. Another USGS report says that it could have up to 160 billion barrels of oil and 30% of the world’s undiscovered natural gas.
These reserves are currently under the jurisdiction of eight countries: Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the U.S. These countries have exclusive rights to seabed resources up to 200 miles beyond their coast, in an area called an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
There are several barriers for any one of these countries taking control over any of these fossil fuel reserves including oil spills being very difficult to clean up in this zone with unique animal and plant species; and because the Arctic is mostly sea there is no international treaty protecting its environment from economic development, as there is for the Antarctic.
So the U.S., Russia, Norway, or another country could make a strong move toward securing the oil and gas reserves in that region.
Kimberly Taylor retires: About a week ago, CALSTART Director Kimberly Taylor announced her retirement after 14 years with the renowned nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting businesses and government in developing clean, efficient transportation solutions. Taylor started out at National Renewable Energy Lab, and then moved over to the Dept. of Energy’s Clean Cities program before coming to CALSTART. Her LinkedIn announcement had a long list of comments from friends and colleagues in the field. While retiring at the end of 2024, Taylor says that she’ll, “continue to enthusiastically advocate for and celebrate the technologies and people who are driven to make the world a better place.”
Musk providing Starlink in Los Angeles: Tesla Cybertruck buyers will have to wait longer for delivery as CEO Elon Musk diverts some of them to support victims of the California wildfires. “Apologies to those expecting Cybertruck deliveries in California over the next few days,” Musk said on X. “We need those trucks as mobile base stations to provide power to Starlink Internet terminals in areas of L.A. without connectivity.”
“The press will of course accuse me of grandstanding, but if this helps save even one house or maybe even someone’s life, we should still do it,” Musk said.
Tesla and SpaceX personnel were also providing drinks and snacks in affected areas. “We are going to position Cybertrucks with Starlinks and free wifi in a grid pattern in the areas that most need it,” he said.
What happened at CES 2025: Honda’s futuristic electric vehicles and Nvidia’s technology for autonomous driving got a lot of attention at CES 2025 in Las Vegas. There was also a few missing major automakers at the biggest tech-gadget and electronics show of the year.
Honda debuted two prototypes in its new 0 Series line of battery electric vehicles. The Honda 0 Saloon and Honda 0 SUV can be seen in the photo above. Both models are still in the prototype stage, but they’re scheduled to launch in North America in 2026.
Honda also showed another EV — an updated version of its Afeela 1 sedan, in a joint venture project with consumer electronics giant Sony. Sony will provide a full-screen dash powered by Sony software, including the ability to play PS5 games, among other in-car entertainment features.
Nvidia continues to count on autonomous vehicles becoming the norm in the next few years CEO Jensen Huang to Yahoo Finance he expects its technology for autonomous driving will generate $5 billion in annual sales for the AI chipmakers. For this year, Huang unveiled Nvidia’s Cosmos platform for developers to simulate its self-driving vehicle software.
“If it’s already a $5 billion business for us, imagine how big it’s going to be when we have 100 million new [self-driving] cars per year,” Huang said.
Nvidia also announced new partnerships with Toyota to power computing and autonomous tech, and autonomous trucking company Aurora Innovation (AUR), which will use its specialized chips for self-driving vehicle systems. Toyota did not say which upcoming vehicles would use Nvidia tech, while the Aurora deal also brings in Germany’s Continental, which will manufacture the driverless trucks.
John Deere grabbed attention by showing off its autonomous machinery at CES. That includes functions for tillage, orchard spraying, landscaping, and construction. Jahmy Hindman, senior vice president and chief technology officer at John Deere said that it’s very much about addressing labor availability challenges in agriculture, construction, and landscaping.
BMW unveiled its latest infotainment software and digital driver cockpit. Hyundai unveiled its Hyundai Mobis division with its Holographic Windshield Display, powered by augmented reality.
While automakers like Ford have many times used CES as the launch pad for its latest technology, that automaker didn’t have an appearance at this year’s show. That was also true of GM, Stellantis, and Mercedes.
Several Chinese automakers filled that void, with Zeekr, the EV brand owned by China’s Geely Holdings, being visible. Wey, a premium brand owned by Great Wall Motor, and Xpeng also had booths.
Brian Moody, senior editor for Kelley Blue Book, told TechCrunch that it has to do with the long product cycles vehicles are under. He also thinks that some automakers have been rethinking their presence at shows like CES and whether its worth the expenditure.
EV tax credits: Electric vehicles qualifying for tax credits went up to 27 vehicles this year from 22 last year, but the future of tax credits may be affected by President Donald Trump returning for his second term as president. The Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act had set the template for the current state of EV tax credits, with domestic assembly and battery sourcing being a strict guideline. The Trump administration can change how it’s being enforced by the Internal Revenue Service.
EVs from Cadillac, Chevrolet, Honda, Acura, Ford and Tesla continue to be eligible for the full $7,500 credit this year, as does the plug-in hybrid version of the Chrysler Pacifica minivan, according to the IRS. Some EVs and PHEVs from Volkswagen, Audi, Ford, Lincoln, Jeep and Rivian that qualified in 2024 dropped off the list as of Jan. 1. However those leasing an EV can find a less stringent set of battery sourcing and assembly rules, according to Automotive News.
Hyundai and its two other brands, Genesis and Kia, did make the list this year after not qualifying last year. The brands anticipate eligibility for the full $7,500 purchase credit on the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9, the 2025 Genesis Electrified GV70 and the 2026 Kia EV6 and EV9 crossovers this year as U.S. battery and vehicle assembly sites come online.
Clean energy in Chicago: As of January 1, Chicago can now produce 700,000 megawatt hours of electricity to power Chicago’s more than 400 municipal buildings every year. Every single one of them — including 98 fire stations, two international airports, and two of the largest water treatment plants on the planet — is running on renewable energy, thanks largely to Illinois’ newest and largest solar farm, according to Grist. The move is projected to cut the carbon footprint of the country’s third-largest city by approximately 290,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year — the equivalent of taking 62,000 cars off the road, according to the city.
Hyzon liquidating assets: Hydrogen fuel cell truck maker Hyzon will be leaving the market, according to its board of directors. Employees had been issued a warning December, but the board unanimously voted to dissolve the company and liquidate its assets, pending shareholder approval. The company in the past look like it could be a supplier of hydrogen-powered refuse trucks, tow trucks, severe-duty trucks, and transit buses.
