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Nick Cunningham
@nickcunningham.bsky.social
8.3K followers 1.9K following 2.5K posts
Reporter for Gas Outlook, covering oil and gas industry. Previously at DeSmog.

Portland, Oregon

https://nickcunningham.blog/
https://gasoutlook.com/authors/nicholas-cunningham/
https://www.desmog.com/user/nick-cunningham/
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nickcunningham.bsky.social
Cheniere Energy also told the audience to put pressure on EU officials to weaken methane regulation on gas imports
U.S. officials and LNG companies called on the P-TEC attendees to put pressure on European officials. “I will echo Secretary Wright…where you all can help with the EU, and that’s regarding CSDDD,” said Khary Cauthen, vice president of government affairs at Cheniere Energy. “I’d also add in some of the methane regulations that…We are going to sell the molecules. We want to be partners with Europe. We just need your help to help that be the case.”
November 11, 2025 at 5:16 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
Of course, Trump admin went to Greece with some thinly veiled threats, warning LNG flows would be reduced unless the EU weakened its climate and human rights regulations
At the same time, the U.S. is putting immense pressure on the European Union to weaken some of its policy directives. The two that have raised the most ire from the U.S. energy industry are the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the Methane Regulation. The CSDDD would impose obligations on corporations operating in Europe to ensure their supply chains comply with sustainability and human rights standards, and the Methane Regulation would set limits on the methane intensity for imported gas. “CSDDD in European regulations, it is an absolute existential risk to affordable energy in Europe,” U.S. Energy Secretary Wright said on Thursday at the P-TEC conference. The U.S. government and the American oil and gas industry have repeatedly targeted the CSDDD. ExxonMobil has publicly called for it to be scrapped. Secretary Wright wrote a joint letter with Qatar to the EU member states, suggesting the directives threatened the flow of LNG to Europe. They called on the EU to weaken the CSDDD. “If you can’t do business from countries around the world, not just the United States, but all the countries, you make it too risky and too expensive to do business here, that gas will go elsewhere. We don’t want to see that happen,” Wright said in Athens.
November 11, 2025 at 5:15 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
US gov sent high-level delegation to a gas conference in Greece. Trump admin wants to use Greece as an "entry point" to send a lot more LNG to Europe

gasoutlook.com/analysis/u-s...
The logic is to use the existing gas network to import LNG in Greece and move the gas from Southeastern Europe to countries further north, through Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, and to Ukraine. Unlike other countries, Ukraine has vast gas storage infrastructure, so imported gas could be stored there or moved further into eastern and central Europe. The Vertical Corridor would complement the existing flows of LNG imports from the Baltic Sea, where U.S. LNG arrives at import terminals in Germany, Poland, and Lithuania. The U.S. is seeking to expand the volumes of this trade — the Polish government is in talks with the U.S. on LNG deals that could see gas routed to Ukraine and Slovakia, according to Reuters. Convening the conference in Athens underscored the key role that Greece figures into U.S. plans to bring American gas into Europe. Secretary Wright called Greece the “perfect entry point” for U.S. LNG, a framing echoed by the Greek hosts. “The prospects for future collaboration are enormous,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright ahead of the main conference. “Greece’s unique geographic position makes it the natural gateway for U.S. LNG into Europe.”
November 11, 2025 at 5:13 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
Rubio threatened a bunch of poor countries to vote against what would have been a landmark agreement on maritime emissions.

Gangster diplomacy

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/c...
But foreign diplomats said they were stunned by what they described as “nasty” and “very personal” threats made by State Department officials, which were mostly aimed at leaders from poorer or small countries that are economically dependent on the United States. Some of the delegations were summoned to the U.S. Embassy in London for these discussions, these people said.
November 7, 2025 at 9:39 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
Reminder that US shale wells experience a precipitous decline in output almost immediately after their initial burst of production.

In 2024, the industry had to drill 15,000 new wells just to keep production steady, to offset declines from already existing wells

www.eia.gov/todayinenerg...
November 6, 2025 at 5:35 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
His various projects echo what some on the right call “aristopopulism” and aim to build a bridge between wealthy capitalists and the working-class people they intend to represent, according to interviews with Buskirk and nine other people in his inner circle, profitably reindustrializing the country and tying their interests to that of their base. “You either have an extractive elite — an oligarchy — or you have a productive elite — an aristocracy — in every society,” he said in an interview in his office in Scottsdale, Arizona.
November 4, 2025 at 8:49 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
Booming US gas producers identified as top polluters in environmental report

www.ft.com/content/f2e6...
The independent non-profit Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) found that all of the seven US LNG terminals fully operational at the end of 2024 had violated the Clean Air Act, which regulates air emissions. Five of the seven facilities also exceeded water pollution permits by dumping illegal levels of bacteria, zinc, copper, oil, grease and other contaminants into waterways.
October 29, 2025 at 4:11 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
www.wsj.com/economy/jobs...
tens of thousands of white-collar jobs are vanishing as AI starts to bite
October 29, 2025 at 2:03 AM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
Europe breaks with Russian gas, but still depends on the U.S.

Dependence on US gas exposes Europe to political pressure

gasoutlook.com/analysis/eur...
And the pressure has continued. Both the U.S. and Qatar are now jointly urging EU member states to abandon sustainability and human rights directives. Qatar has previously threatened to cut off LNG flows to Europe unless the rules are rescinded or heavily watered down. ExxonMobil has vocally called for the rules to be scrapped and CEO Darren Woods has appealed to President Trump for assistance on the matter. Under intense pressure from outside, the European Parliament agreed on October 22nd to revisit the rules and consider changes.
October 24, 2025 at 2:19 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
This looks like fun
October 24, 2025 at 1:49 AM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
"In Ireland, data centers consume more than 20 percent of the country’s electricity."

Backlash to data centers underway around the world
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/t...
In Ireland, data centers consume more than 20 percent of the country’s electricity. In Chile, precious aquifers are in danger of depletion. In South Africa, where blackouts have long been routine, data centers are further taxing the national grid. Similar concerns have surfaced in Brazil, Britain, India, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore and Spain. In country after country, activists, residents and environmental organizations have banded together to oppose data centers. Some have tried blocking the projects, while others have pushed for more oversight and transparency. In Ireland, authorities have limited new data centers in the Dublin area because of “significant risk” to power supplies. After activists protested in Chile, Google withdrew plans to build a center that could have depleted water reserves. In the Netherlands, construction was halted on some data centers over environmental concerns. “Data centers are where environmental and social issues meet,” said Rosi Leonard, an environmentalist with Friends of the Earth Ireland. “You have this narrative that data centers are needed and will make us rich and thriving, but this is a real crisis.”
October 20, 2025 at 2:02 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
Massive turnout for #Nokings in Portland, hard to tell how far the crowd stretches
October 18, 2025 at 8:56 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
But that is far from the reality many citizens have experienced. Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched. About two dozen Americans have said they were held for more than a day without being able to phone lawyers or loved ones.
October 16, 2025 at 4:22 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
Trump's conditioning of aid to Argentina depends on the outcome of their midterm election. “If he doesn’t win, we’re gone" and "If he loses, we won't be so genorous"

Top of La Nacion right now
Cumbre en Washington. Trump condicionó la ayuda a Milei al resultado electoral: "Si pierde, no seremos generosos"
October 14, 2025 at 8:25 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
Wild down at the ICE building
October 12, 2025 at 11:33 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
Emergency naked bike ride against ICE and Trumps authoritarianism

Cold rain ended, big turnout
October 12, 2025 at 10:13 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
oh that's encouraging
Altman “has the power to crash the global economy for a decade or take us all to the promised land,” Stacy Rasgon, an analyst with Bernstein Research, wrote in an investor note this week. “Right now we don’t know which is in the cards.”
October 8, 2025 at 12:12 AM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
October 7, 2025 at 7:03 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
Renewables surpass coal for electricity in 1H2025.

Crucially, gas down slightly despite the investment boom in LNG in recent years

ember-energy.org/latest-insig...
Renewables produced more electricity than coal
October 7, 2025 at 3:36 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
great piece and really good news*

*except in North America
Americans' time on social media is still rising, bucking the global trend
October 3, 2025 at 1:25 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
signs of a bubble
Convicted moguls Sean Combs and Miles Guo ponder AI platform after jail
October 3, 2025 at 1:12 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
Meloni is "aware" of Italy's wartime history.

Kind of an odd description for the leader of a party that descends from the remnants of Mussolini supporters and formed Italy's post-war neo-fascist movement

yeah, I imagine she would be "aware"!
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/w...
Ms. Meloni is also aware of Italy’s wartime history. Benito Mussolini passed laws stripping Jews of their rights and sent them to internment camps before Germany occupied Italy and sent Jewish citizens to death camps. “We Europeans have a sense of guilt for the Holocaust,” Mr. Pasquino said in an interview.
October 2, 2025 at 8:12 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
Live from war zone in Portland
September 28, 2025 at 1:02 AM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
the oligarch-led anti-Mamdani campaign struggling to raise money
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/n...
Fund-raising by anti-Mamdani super PACs has also been sluggish. The largest group, Fix the City, raised $25 million to oppose Mr. Mamdani and boost Mr. Cuomo during the Democratic primary. Since then, it has raised just $2.8 million, according to the New York City Campaign Finance Board.
September 26, 2025 at 10:20 PM
nickcunningham.bsky.social
Morgan Stanley estimates that last year there was around $45 billion of revenue for AI products. The sector makes money from a combination of subscription fees for chatbots such as ChatGPT and money paid to use these companies’ data centers. How the tech sector will cover the gap is “the trillion dollar question,” said Mark Moerdler, an analyst at Bernstein.
September 26, 2025 at 3:07 PM