Two US Stocks That Could Benefit From Europe's Winter Energy Crunch -- October 1, 2026

Locator: 51849LNG. 
Locator: 51849GRID.

See disclaimer.

I find the linked article below interesting. 

By Brian Sullivan, CNBC. I don't know if he knows his stuff, but he certainly is exposed to a lot of information. 

It's a long article: link here. 

To cut to the chase:

Much of that LNG supply [that will be needed by Europe this winter] is going to come from the United States. [The US has] more natural gas than we can export. If you’re looking to invest around this theme, two obvious names are exporters Cheniere Energy (LNG) and Venture Global (VG). 

Less obvious: the biggest holders of U.S. LNG capacity are based in France and the U.K. They are TotalEnergies (TTE) and Shell (SHEL).

TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné — arguably the most important CEO in global oil and gas — spoke with us this week about Europe’s energy challenges, prices, and more in a Power Insider interview.

Disclaimer: 

• I am not adding to any positions in energy. 
• I continue to add to positions in tech on dips.
• I am slowly -- very slowly -- beginning to pivot to healthcare (Big Pharma, mostly through ETFs) and Big Banks (two names). 

********************************
Global Electric Grid
IEA Perspective

Some very interesting data points in IEA's annual report. Overview here.

The full 2026 report here. 

Two takeaways:
despite the surge in demand and expansion of the grid, if one does the math, it's hardly daunting; political backlash will be much more daunting than the dollars involved; and,
in the US, the growth in Texas / ERCOT will be daunting.

From the report: 

• In the US, the growth will be prominently in two ISO: PJM and ERCOT.

• Despite a pause in connecting new data center projects in Texas to the grid, the West South Central region (Texas, for the most part) will still account for the largest regional share of growth in total electricity sales, totaling nearly 20% of nationwide growth in 2026 and almost 40% in 2027, according to the EIA’s forecast in the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) for September.

This is not trivial. 

********************************
Disclaimer

Briefly: 

I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken and I am often well out front of my headlights. I am often appropriately accused of hyperbole when it comes to the Bakken.

I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market.

I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple.

See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. 

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If something appears wrong, it probably is. Feel free to fact check everything.

If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. 

Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken, US economy, and the US market.

I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 

And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia. Nvidia is a metonym for AI and/or the sixth industrial revolution. 

I've now added Broadcom to the disclaimer. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Broadcom. Now, I've added Amazon. And QCOM. Nothing on this site should be seen as recommendations for the general public. On the other hand, I have no problem if members of my extended family "see" recommendations I might be making - but only members of my extended family, limited to my children and my grandchildren.

Longer version here.

Electricity Rates By State -- Just Posted -- All Sectors: North Dakota Lowest (?) -- Data For July 2026 -- Posted September 30, 2026

Locator: 51838ELECTRICITY.

Usual disclaimer applies: typographical errors and content errors likely. I go through the report quickly.  

By state. 

Link here. 

All sectors: only three states with a 9-handle: New Mexico, 9.52 cents; North Dakota, 9.09 cents; Louisiana, 9.74 cents.

• North Dakota: up from 8.56 a year ago
• New Mexico: down from 10.38 a year ago 
• Louisiana: look at this -- 9.74 vs 10.37 last year

Residential: only four states with a 13-handle, despite record-setting a/c use / hot summer -- North Dakota, Tennessee, Idaho, Kentucky. BUT, Louisiana with a 12-handle. 

• Louisiana: 12.72 vs 13.12 last year
• North Dakota: 13.41 vs 13.31 last year -- way well below inflation at 0.75% y/y -- less than 1% increase y/y
• Tennessee: 13.71 vs 13.21 last year
• Idaho: 13.72 vs 12.28 last year
• Nebraska: 13.78 vs 12.84 last year
• Kentucky: 13.81 vs 13.13 last year
• Missouri: jumps to 16.09 

Industrial: California with a 25-handle vs so many states well below 10 cents. NY state is at 10.81 vs 10.06 last year. Others of note:

• New Mexico: 4.18 vs 5.74 last year (very little industry; lots of coal?); obviously an oulier
• South Carolina: 7.84 vs 7.88 last year

The big LCD states, industrial:

• Virginia:  10.07 vs 9.70 last year
• Ohio: 10.95 vs 9.05
• Texas: 7.07 vs 6.61 last year

The big LCD states, residential:

• Virginia: 17.55 vs 15.78 last year
• Ohio: 19.45 vs 17.38 last year
• Texas: 15.85 vs 15.36 last year

The big LCD states, overall:

• Virginia: 13.49 vs 12.20 last year  
• Ohio: 15.09 vs 13.10 last year
• Texas: 10.91 vs 10.55 last year

The wind state: residential:

• Iowa:  15.99 vs 15.31 last year.

Electricity Rates By State -- Just Posted -- July 24, 2026

Locator: 51242ELECTRICITY.

By state. 

Link here. 

All sectors: only two states with an 8-handle: New Mexico, 8.07 cents; and North Dakota, 8.67 cents. 

Residential: only four states with a 13-handle, despite record-setting a/c use / hot summer -- Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and North Dakota. BUT, Utah and Idaho with a 12-handle. 

Industrial: California with a 20-handle vs so many states with a 6-handle. NY state is below 10 cents. Amazing.  

US Record Electricity Demand To Hit Record -- August 21, 2025

Locator: 48918ELECTRICITY.

Link here.

Up until a few years ago, it was estimated that electricity demand in the US would flat-line or increase about a percent / year from now until 2030. It is not being predicted that electricity demand will increase by 25% between now and 2030. 

Here is the data from just a few years ago (2022), link here.

Electricity consumption in the United States was about 4 trillion kilowatthours (kWh) in 2022 Electricity is an essential part of modern life and important to the U.S. economy.

Total U.S. electricity consumption in 2022 was about 4.07 trillion kWh, the highest amount recorded and 14 times greater than electricity use in 1950.

Total annual U.S. electricity consumption increased in all but 11 years between 1950 and 2022, and 8 of the years with year-over-year decreases occurred after 2007.

Total electricity end-use consumption includes retail sales of electricity to consumers and direct use electricity. Direct use electricity is used by the same industrial or commercial sector facility where it is produced. The industrial sector accounts for most direct use electricity.

Total direct use of electricity by the industrial and commercial sectors was about 3.5% of total electricity end-use consumption in 2022.

Total U.S. electricity end-use consumption in 2022 was about 3.2% higher than in 2021.1 In 2022, retail electricity sales to the residential sector were about 2.6% higher than in 2021, and retail electricity sales to the commercial sector were about 4.7% higher than in 2021.

Electricity retail sales to the industrial sector in 2022 were about 2.0% higher than in 2021 but were about 4.1% lower than in 2000, the year of highest U.S. retail sales to the industrial sector. The industrial sector's percentage share of total U.S. electricity retail sales was about 31.1% in 2000 and 26.0% in 2022.

Global Electricity Review -- 2024

Locator: 48442ENERGYGLOBAL.

Sixth Industrial Revolution (SIR) now has its own page. 

When reading this, put this in perspective:

• the sixth industrial revolution;
• what Trump sees;
• the LDC story is an energy story;
• the gap between the US and the EU continues to widen

Must-read. Archive. The full report is here and can be downloaded as a PDF: 118 pages.

The languages available, in this order:

• Turkish, Spanish, Japanese, Indonesian, Arabic, Portuguese, and Korean.

Global electricity review. Ember, link here. 

Electrek's version of the story.

Solar has doubled in just three years, providing more than 2,000 TWh of electricity in 2024. Wind generation also grew to 8.1% of global electricity, while hydro – the single largest renewable source – remained steady at 14% of global electricity.

“Solar power has become the engine of the global energy transition,” said Phil MacDonald, Ember’s managing director. “Paired with battery storage, solar is set to be an unstoppable force. As the fastest-growing and largest source of new electricity, it is critical in meeting the world’s ever-increasing demand for electricity.”

Folks may want to find out how much battery storage the US has. 

Chapter 1: 2024 in review -- record rise in renewables pushes clean power generation above 50% of global electricity --

Record renewables growth helped push clean power to a new milestone. However, heatwaves contributed to high growth in electricity demand, which resulted in a small increase in fossil generation.

But wow, one has to read it closely to see the Real Story! Actually two stories. And both stories buried.

The first story: global electricity demand grows at the third-highest level in the last decade. And that's before the LDCs start to come into play. 

The second story: the world's three largest power consumers -- China, India, and the US -- saw an increase in fossil generation in 2024, while the world's fourth largest, the EU saw a decline.

But, to repeat: the EU saw a decline.

Global Electricity Review -- 2024

Locator: 48441ENERGYGLOBAL.

Must-read. Archive. The full report is here and can be downloaded as a PDF: 118 pages.

The languages available, in this order:

• Turkish, Spanish, Japanese, Indonesian, Arabic, Portuguese, and Korean.

Global electricity review. Ember, link here.  

Chapter 1: 2024 in review -- record rise in renewables pushes clean power generation above 50% of global electricity --

Record renewables growth helped push clean power to a new milestone. However, heatwaves contributed to high growth in electricity demand, which resulted in a small increase in fossil generation.

But wow, one has to read it closely to see the Real Story! Actually two stories. And both stories buried.

The first story: global electricity demand grows at the third-highest level in the last decade. And that's before the LDCs start to come into play. 

The second story: the world's three largest power consumers -- China, India, and the US -- saw an increase in fossil generation in 2024, while the world's fourth largest, the EU saw a decline.

But, to repeat: the EU saw a decline.

The Cost Of Electricity -- November 13, 2024

Locator: 48751ELECTRICITY. 

This is quite coincidental. Earlier this morning, we talked about the price of electricity -- from a tweet about the cost of electricity "today." And then, just an hour or so later, SStap provided a great tweet on the same subject. See below.

Updates

6:21 a.m. CT, link here:

5:45 a.m. CT, link here:

Original Post 

Just the links right now.

• nuclear energy / electricity costs in Europe (Germany, France, the low countries); link here;

• the price of power, link here;

• the road to Germany, May 30, 2017 (flashback):

• AI:

• from some time ago, clearing off the desktop:

Cost Of Electricity -- November 13, 2024

Locator: 48751ELECTRICITY.

Updates

5:45 a.m. CT, link here:

Original Post 

Just the links right now.

• nuclear energy / electricity costs in Europe (Germany, France, the low countries); link here;

• the price of power, link here;

• the road to Germany, May 30, 2017 (flashback):

• AI:

• from some time ago, clearing off the desktop:

Electricity Rates By Region -- September 4, 2024

Locator: 48534ELECTRICITY.

Electricity rates by region, link here:

AI -- August 20, 2024

Locator: 48480AI.

Link here. 

There are two camps in America with regard to AI:

• AI is all hype;
• AI is real; it's not hype.

I'm in the second camp.

All I see is the need for a lot of electricity.

Projections Of Electricity Demand Surging -- But It Varies Across Regions -- August 16, 2024

Locator: 48433ELECTRICITY.

See this post. 

Link here.

Big Story Today -- Electricity Demand Surging -- California -- Friday, August 16, 2024

Locator: 48431ELECTRICITY.

Electricity demand surging: great interactive article in The WSJ today. Link here. 

Which immediately takes us to California: link here.

Re-posting:

Electric rates tracked here by the EIA. 

Residential electric rates, cents per kWh, May, 2024, for selected states:

• Massachusetts: 28.70
• New York: 23.60
• Ohio: 16.65
• Minnesota: 15.69
• North Dakota: 13.04
• Florida: 13.63
• Tennessee: 12.46
• Texas: 14.74
• Montana: 13.26
• California: 34.31 (no typo) -- it was 29.80 a year ago -- a 15% increase in price y/y!
  
• Washington State: 12.16 (think hydroelectricity)
• Alaska: 25.02
• Hawaii: 44.14 (and a question whether Hawaiian Electric might go bankrupt)
  

But, cost of electricity is like the US postage stamp: for residential demand, it's not the cost/kWh, it's the amount of electricity actually used per household/month. For US postage stamps, it's not the cost per stamp, it's the overall cost of mailing for non-commercial users. See household demand by state at this link. Average monthly use by household:

• California: 542 kwh 
• almost half that of high use states
  
• (only Hawaii is lower at 531)
  
• Florida: 1,096
• Louisiana: 1,192 (highest)
  
• Minnesota: 776
• North Dakota: 1,041
• Texas: 1,094
  

Coincidentally, this was posted yesterday:

Which takes me to SRE. Ticker:

And pays 3%. And increases dividend regularly. 

ERCOT: link here. Holding, but will be challenging through the rest of the month of August.

Electricity -- April 19, 2024

Locator: 47048GRID.

Link here. 

I haven't read this article yet. Let's see if Barron's has it right. LOL. More weekend reading.

Electricity Costs -- By State -- Residential -- December, 2023

Locator: 46837ELECTRICITY.

North Dakota: on both charts below, look at North Dakota. You have to go to the bottom of both charts to find North Dakota. This is why data centers and bitcoin miners prefer North Dakota.  

Reminder: in the US, one new data center is coming on line every three days.

Link here.

 

State	December 2023	October 2023	October 2022	Change
RI	30.88	18.64	16.65	85.47%
ME	28.04	16.16	16.17	73.41%
MA	28.85	21.11	18.56	55.44%
CA	29.11	19.90	19.39	50.13%
HI	41.60	32.76	30.45	36.62%
NV	15.55	11.67	11.64	33.59%
DC	17.75	13.21	13.40	32.46%
CT	26.86	21.62	20.47	31.22%
TX	14.58	11.36	11.15	30.76%
DE	16.32	12.05	12.59	29.63%
NH	24.98	19.63	19.30	29.43%
FL	15.26	11.37	12.02	26.96%
OH	15.69	12.64	12.67	23.84%
MD	17.46	13.92	14.22	22.78%
IN	14.58	12.02	12.05	21.00%
PA	17.53	14.38	14.52	20.73%
NY	22.52	18.30	18.76	20.04%
NC	13.22	11.24	11.07	19.42%
VT	21.09	18.50	18.02	17.04%
MI	18.55	16.07	15.86	16.96%
MS	13.25	11.55	11.40	16.23%
IL	14.98	12.56	12.95	15.68%
OR	12.56	11.02	10.97	14.49%
WV	13.37	11.57	11.69	14.37%
KY	12.21	10.56	10.68	14.33%
VA	13.61	12.40	11.91	14.27%
AZ	14.41	13.16	12.65	13.91%
LA	11.40	9.37	10.19	11.87%
TN	12.18	10.79	10.93	11.44%
CO	14.15	12.28	12.75	10.98%
WA	11.00	9.79	9.95	10.55%
AL	14.13	12.41	12.79	10.48%
NJ	17.59	15.64	15.96	10.21%
WI	16.48	14.28	15.05	9.50%
AR	11.61	9.99	10.73	8.20%
MT	12.61	11.85	11.73	7.50%
OK	10.99	10.72	10.53	4.37%
SC	13.61	12.91	13.07	4.13%
GA	12.79	12.26	12.53	2.08%
NM	13.65	13.37	13.41	1.79%
ID	11.60	10.58	11.42	1.58%
MN	13.94	14.09	13.96	-0.14%
KS	12.96	11.56	13.56	-4.42%
UT	10.86	10.63	11.48	-5.40%
SD	11.69	12.39	12.57	-7.00%
WY	11.21	12.30	12.21	-8.19%
NE	10.58	11.31	12.06	-12.27%
IA	11.88	13.81	13.92	-14.66%
MO	11.20	13.23	13.25	-15.47%
ND	10.23	12.07	12.34	-17.10%
AK	11.61	22.54	22.14	-47.56%

 Change: From October, 2022 - December, 2022

The above chart was ranked on change, y/y.

The chart below is ranked on actual cost of residential energy, highest to lowest.

Note the state with the lowest rates. During the winter.

State	December 2023	October 2023	October 2022	Change
HI	41.60	32.76	30.45	36.62%
RI	30.88	18.64	16.65	85.47%
CA	29.11	19.90	19.39	50.13%
MA	28.85	21.11	18.56	55.44%
ME	28.04	16.16	16.17	73.41%
CT	26.86	21.62	20.47	31.22%
NH	24.98	19.63	19.30	29.43%
NY	22.52	18.30	18.76	20.04%
VT	21.09	18.50	18.02	17.04%
MI	18.55	16.07	15.86	16.96%
DC	17.75	13.21	13.40	32.46%
NJ	17.59	15.64	15.96	10.21%
PA	17.53	14.38	14.52	20.73%
MD	17.46	13.92	14.22	22.78%
WI	16.48	14.28	15.05	9.50%
DE	16.32	12.05	12.59	29.63%
OH	15.69	12.64	12.67	23.84%
NV	15.55	11.67	11.64	33.59%
FL	15.26	11.37	12.02	26.96%
IL	14.98	12.56	12.95	15.68%
TX	14.58	11.36	11.15	30.76%
IN	14.58	12.02	12.05	21.00%
AZ	14.41	13.16	12.65	13.91%
CO	14.15	12.28	12.75	10.98%
AL	14.13	12.41	12.79	10.48%
MN	13.94	14.09	13.96	-0.14%
NM	13.65	13.37	13.41	1.79%
VA	13.61	12.40	11.91	14.27%
SC	13.61	12.91	13.07	4.13%
WV	13.37	11.57	11.69	14.37%
MS	13.25	11.55	11.40	16.23%
NC	13.22	11.24	11.07	19.42%
KS	12.96	11.56	13.56	-4.42%
GA	12.79	12.26	12.53	2.08%
MT	12.61	11.85	11.73	7.50%
OR	12.56	11.02	10.97	14.49%
KY	12.21	10.56	10.68	14.33%
TN	12.18	10.79	10.93	11.44%
IA	11.88	13.81	13.92	-14.66%
SD	11.69	12.39	12.57	-7.00%
AR	11.61	9.99	10.73	8.20%
AK	11.61	22.54	22.14	-47.56%
ID	11.60	10.58	11.42	1.58%
LA	11.40	9.37	10.19	11.87%
WY	11.21	12.30	12.21	-8.19%
MO	11.20	13.23	13.25	-15.47%
WA	11.00	9.79	9.95	10.55%
OK	10.99	10.72	10.53	4.37%
UT	10.86	10.63	11.48	-5.40%
NE	10.58	11.31	12.06	-12.27%
ND	10.23	12.07	12.34	-17.10%