Iran issues uranium warning
** Iran’s Supreme Leader has issued a directive that the country’s near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources said, hardening Tehran’s stance on one of the main U.S. demands at peace talks.
Oil goes higher
** Oil prices rose on Thursday after Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said the regime’s stores of enriched uranium shouldn’t be sent abroad, throwing a wrench into dealmaking between the US and the Islamic Republic.
Ships pass Strait
** Twenty-six ships have passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours in coordination with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, according to a report by the Iranian news agency Tasnim published on Wednesday. The ships reportedly included oil tankers, cargo ships and other commercial vessels.
Toll system
** Iran is discussing with Oman how to set up some form of a permanent toll system that will formalize its control of maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Not over
** ExxonMobil Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods had a clear message for Wall Street analysts on the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call: the worst may not be over.
US energy
** EPA is easing requirements for industries to manage and phase out planet-warming gases called hydrofluorocarbons commonly used in air conditioning and refrigeration.
** A Republican candidate for North Dakota’s public service commission calls for a moratorium on data center development until lawmakers adopt state-level regulations and safeguards.
** Officials in Corpus Christi, Texas, suggest the reason a nearby town has fought their attempts to access its groundwater to help alleviate a water crisis is because it wants to use those supplies to attract a data center complex.
** The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves a key environmental review for Amazon-backed startup X-energy’s plan to build four 80-MW Xe-100 reactors in Texas.
** Two companies plan a large thermal energy storage system next to a South Dakota ethanol plant that would make it one of the largest energy storage projects in the world.
** PJM Interconnection gets U.S. Energy Department permission to curtail data centers and other large loads that have backup generation when the grid is under strain.
