Sep 28, 2026 · Energy & Climate Daily Digest
Energy and climate highlights compiled for September 28, 2026, with summaries, links, and brief commentary.
I. Policy and Carbon Markets
1. U.S. final fuel-economy rule: about 34.9 mpg fleetwide in 2031, below the Biden path of 50.4 (Policy)
Summary:
The Associated Press, via PBS, and The Guardian reported on September 28 that the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released final Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards on Monday, relaxing mileage requirements for gasoline cars and light trucks in model years 2022 through 2031. The final standards correspond to a combined industry fleetwide average of roughly 34.9 miles per gallon in model year 2031, up from 30.1 mpg in model year 2024 but down from a projected 50.4 mpg in 2031 under Biden-era rules. The department said the rule, titled Freedom Means Affordable Cars, would cut the average cost of a new vehicle by $1,300 and save consumers $138 billion over five years. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said it ended an "illegal mandate" forcing automakers to build more expensive electric vehicles; the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club said they would fight it. Cox Automotive data showed EVs were 5.7% of new-vehicle sales in August, down from 7.4% for all of 2025. AAA put Monday's average U.S. gasoline price at $4.47 a gallon, versus $3.13 a year earlier.
Links:
- PBS / AP — Trump administration lowers fuel economy standards
- The Guardian — Administration slashes clean car rules aimed at cutting climate emissions
Commentary:
In the same week pump prices are rising, the federal mileage yardstick stepped back from an EV-leaning path to a cheaper gasoline car, and the sticker savings will be re-priced at the pump.
2. UK energy secretary: green levies could move onto taxes, saving bills about £120 (Policy)
Summary:
The Guardian reported on September 28 that Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, speaking around the Labour conference, said the government is examining how green projects are funded, including varying levies among customers or paying for wind, solar and home insulation through general taxation so that billions of pounds of green levies could come off electricity bills. Analysis by the MCS Foundation, a green-energy charity, found the shift would save about £120 a year on bills but cost the Treasury a little more than £3 billion a year. Households face a predicted electricity-bill rise next year of more than £400, largely because of the Iran war. She did not recommit to predecessor Ed Miliband's pledge to cut bills by £300 a year, and said her test of success is whether bills come down, while she would keep climate action despite attacks from Reform and the Conservatives.
Links:
Commentary:
The argument has moved from whether to build green power to whether fixed costs sit on the meter or the tax bill, and fairness is now ahead of the capacity story.
3. Outlook decodes the 15th Five-Year climate plan: covered-sector carbon intensity down about 3% by 2030 (Carbon Markets)
Summary:
Xinhua's Outlook Weekly published a September 28 readout of the national climate-change plan for the 15th Five-Year period, issued on July 27 by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment together with the National Development and Reform Commission and other agencies. The piece says this is the first time a five-year plan has built a climate-target system, with three shifts: source control, carbon management moving from intensity-led rules toward dual control of total emissions and intensity, and joint progress on carbon, pollution, greening and growth. Coverage extends to methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases. The plan requires carbon dioxide per unit of product in sectors covered by the national emissions-trading market to fall about 3% by 2030 from 2025, and a national voluntary greenhouse-gas market aligned with international practice. By 2030 China is to have 30 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent abatement capacity for non-CO2 gases, which account for about 20% of national greenhouse-gas emissions. Carbon dioxide per unit of GDP is to fall 17% from 2025 by 2030. The article cites average annual direct losses from weather disasters of 217.1 billion yuan from 1984 to 2021, about 1.7% of average GDP.
Links:
Commentary:
Dual control turns the carbon market from an intensity add-on into a unit-product cut that covered sectors must deliver, so the price signal is being aimed at the total.
4. Draft EU inverter rules would judge high-risk suppliers firm by firm, not by country (Supply Chain)
Summary:
pv magazine reported on September 28 that a draft report from the European Parliament's Industry, Research and Energy Committee would amend the proposed Cybersecurity Act 2 so that "high-risk" suppliers are assessed individually rather than by country. The Commission's January text would allow a supplier established in, or owned or controlled from, a third country flagged for cybersecurity concerns to be treated as high-risk. Amendment 28 would require a case-by-case assessment: country of origin, ownership and control would remain factors, but a link to a high-risk third country would not by itself decide the label. In late April the Commission restricted European Investment Bank and European Investment Fund financing for solar, wind and storage projects using inverters from suppliers tied to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, a step China's commerce ministry criticized. The draft is not an EU-wide ban on a named company's inverters; lists, scope and phase-out periods would come later. The law is not in force, and Parliament and Council still need positions before negotiations.
Links:
Commentary:
If inverter access moves from a country list to a company profile, the supply-chain hit changes from a national stop to a named phase-out, and the names are not set yet.
II. Renewables and Storage
5. Australia's Waratah battery reaches full operation: 850 MW and 1,680 MWh (Storage)
Summary:
Energy Storage reported on September 28 that the Waratah Super Battery, built by Akaysha Energy on the site of the former Munmorah coal plant on the New South Wales Central Coast, has been cleared by the Australian Energy Market Operator to run at full capacity, a step confirmed by NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe. The system is 850 MW and 1,680 MWh and cost more than 1 billion Australian dollars (about $700 million). A system integrity protection scheme delivered by Transgrid adds 700 MW and 1,400 MWh, meant to act as a grid shock absorber when major transmission lines are disrupted. At full output it can cover up to about 340,000 NSW households at peak. Full operation had been due in late 2025; a severe failure of one of three giant transformers just before final testing delayed it.
Links:
Commentary:
A battery at full power on a former coal site shows that a retired plant leaves behind a stability job, not only an empty pad.
6. Austria breaks ground on 210 MWh in Nickelsdorf to catch curtailed wind and solar (Storage)
Summary:
energynews.pro reported on September 28 that Burgenland Energie has started building a battery of more than 200 MWh in Nickelsdorf, Burgenland, with company figures putting it at 210 MWh, paired with 119 MW of operating wind and 118 MW of operating solar in what the chairman called Austria's first hybrid wind-solar-storage plant. The site already hosts the country's first photovoltaic plant above 100 MW, commissioned three years ago. Storage will come in two phases, about 60 MWh then about 150 MWh, with roughly three hours of duration, about 40 large batteries and 1,600 modules, shifting daytime solar to the evening and nighttime wind to the morning. The company said grid bottlenecks leave about 15% of the site's potential renewable output unused, and that this battery alone could make about 18 million kWh more usable each year, roughly the annual use of 5,000 households. It is the fifth large project in a 700 MWh storage push.
Links:
Commentary:
A three-hour battery is being bought to recover the 15% of wind and solar the bottleneck throws away, not to file another power-plant application.
7. Rizhao seawater hydrogen unit runs past 1,000 hours, with 260,000 cubic meters a year (Green Hydrogen)
Summary:
Dazhong News, via Ifeng on September 28, reported that the first heat-coupled seawater-to-hydrogen unit co-producing strategic elements, at a seawater-resource base in Lanshan District, Rizhao, Shandong, has run stably for more than 1,000 hours. It was developed by Laoshan Laboratory with the Rizhao government, China General Nuclear and Shandong Normal University, using natural seawater and low-grade waste heat from nearby port industry to cut power use. Project lead Tang Bo, a Chinese Academy of Sciences academician, said the route targets scale buildup and chlorine corrosion in seawater electrolysis. Measured output is 30 normal cubic meters an hour of hydrogen at no less than 99.999% purity. On an annual basis the unit could treat about 800 tonnes of seawater and produce 260,000 normal cubic meters of hydrogen, with co-product purity of 99.8%, cutting about 460 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. At industrial scale, electricity at 0.55, 0.40 and 0.35 yuan per kWh would put all-in cost at about 22.21, 12.99 and 9.92 yuan per kilogram.
Links:
Commentary:
A thousand hours moves seawater hydrogen from a paper to a quoted cost per kilogram; the next test is scaling the equipment, not proving that electrolysis can make hydrogen.
8. U.S. added 26 GW of clean power in the first half, while 14.9 GW was canceled and gas plans jumped (Clean Power)
Summary:
Environmental Defense Fund and Atlas Public Policy on September 28 released The State of Clean Power in Q2 2026. The United States added 26 GW of clean power in the first half, including 11.5 GW of solar, 8.3 GW of batteries and 6.3 GW of wind; the new wind and solar could generate enough electricity in a year for about 5 million homes. Developers canceled 14.9 GW of planned or under-construction clean capacity in the same period, almost all solar and batteries, representing about $24.5 billion of investment and about 68,000 construction jobs. Operating clean power stands at 489.6 GW, with another 211.7 GW planned or under construction through 2031. Solar and batteries are about 87% of planned and under-construction clean capacity, with future investment estimated at $281 billion. Planned and under-construction gas rose by 23.5 GW, from 44.8 GW at the end of 2025 to 68.3 GW. Fossil fuels were 29% of planned power capacity at the end of the second quarter, up from 9% at the end of 2022.
Links:
Commentary:
The capacity table is still turning greener, but the cancellation list and the gas pipeline are growing just as fast, and rising demand is being claimed by both.
III. Oil, Climate and Disasters
9. Trump says a diesel export ban is under "very serious" consideration, with U.S. diesel near $6.50 a gallon (Oil and Gas)
Summary:
CNBC reported on September 28 that President Donald Trump told Fox News on Sunday, while at the Presidents Cup in Illinois, that the White House is still thinking "very seriously" about a diesel export ban, and that it can raise gasoline prices a little. "We may do it," he said. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said the administration is considering restrictions rather than an outright ban. Politico reported last week that officials were preparing a 90-day diesel-export ban; no measure is in place. AAA put Friday's average U.S. diesel price at about $6.50 a gallon, just under the record $6.53 on September 22. Benedict George, head of European product pricing at Argus, said the United States has supplied about half of Europe's diesel imports over the last couple of months, and that a restriction would likely send European diesel prices and premiums to crude to a new high. A Morgan Stanley note on Thursday said a restriction would likely lower U.S. diesel at first, but global diesel would be higher and refinery adjustments could feed back into U.S. gasoline. American Petroleum Institute chief executive Mike Sommers said restricting exports would compound refining problems and hurt consumers.
Links:
Commentary:
If the world's largest diesel exporter closes the hatch for the midterms, Europe loses a marginal barrel first, and the domestic price is not guaranteed to hold.
10. Thai flood losses seen above 11 billion baht, with more than 580,000 homes hit (Disaster)
Summary:
Reuters reported on September 28 that parts of Bangkok were still waist-deep on Monday after 320 mm of rain in two or three days last week, close to what the low-lying city usually gets in all of September. The interior ministry said floods since September 16 have hit 41 provinces, killed at least eight people and disrupted more than 580,000 homes. Permanent secretary Unsit Sampuntharat said more than 80,000 residents could not leave flooded homes. At least 5,901 people in Bangkok have moved to 234 evacuation centres. Aat Pisanwanich of Rangsit University estimated nationwide economic damage of at least 11 billion baht (about $327 million), likely to rise if conditions do not improve, and said the floods could shave 0.3 percentage points off this year's GDP growth to 2.1% and about 0.5 points off third-quarter growth to 1.7%. The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce put the nationwide hit at about 12.3 billion baht and the capital at about 7 billion. In eastern Rayong, two reservoirs exceeded capacity on Monday and authorities ordered evacuations.
Links:
Commentary:
The bill starts after the rain: the loss estimate has already moved from street water to a cut in quarterly and full-year growth.
11. Category 3 Hurricane Polo nears Baja California with 115 mph winds (Disaster)
Summary:
The Associated Press, via NBC on September 28, reported that Hurricane Polo was a Category 3 storm Monday morning with top sustained winds of 115 mph. The National Hurricane Center said it would be near major-hurricane strength at Baja California Sur later in the day and was expected to make landfall in mainland Mexico as a hurricane late Monday night or early Tuesday, with heavy rain and flooding possible in the U.S. Southwest later in the week. Residents of Puerto San Carlos, a fishing town of about 5,700, feared high tides and waves could breach earthen barriers. Mexico's civil protection agency told people in risk areas to stay off the streets; travel will be suspended and ports closed in the landfall zone. The navy has staged aid at Guaymas and Mazatlan and deployed three vessels. The same report said Hurricane Nolo was moving away from Hawaii with maximum sustained winds near 155 mph, while parts of the Big Island could still see up to 20 inches of rain. More than 120 National Guard members were activated, about 400 statewide, after an emergency declaration.
Links:
Commentary:
A busier Pacific storm season fits El Nino, and what gets cut first is ports, fishing-town access and coastal communities that still lack steady power.
12. General Assembly adopts its first sea-level declaration, affirming island statehood if land is submerged (Climate)
Summary:
Down To Earth reported on September 28 that the UN General Assembly on September 24, during its 81st session, adopted its first declaration on sea-level rise, with member states including the United States agreeing a common text. The declaration affirms that the physical loss of territory or a changed coastline from rising seas does not automatically end statehood, and that states may keep maritime zones established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea while retaining the right to update them. A report presented by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said global mean sea level rose 5.9 millimetres in 2024, a record, and stayed close to that level in 2025. About 770 million people live less than five metres above the high-tide line. Without significant emission cuts and adaptation, risks to coastal cities and communities could increase tenfold by 2100. The text calls for multi-hazard early warnings, adaptation finance, and for sea-level projections to be built into ports, energy, transport and water systems. Surangel Whipps Jr., president of Palau and chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, said only strong climate action can stop seas from rising further.
Links:
Commentary:
The declaration secures statehood and maritime rights first; the water level still depends on warming already locked in and on the cuts that follow.
Today's Summary
- The United States cut the 2031 fleet mileage path from about 50.4 mpg under Biden-era rules to about 34.9, while a diesel export ban is still under serious consideration; Britain is discussing whether green levies move from bills onto taxes.
- A readout of China's 15th Five-Year climate plan set 2030 marks for unit-product emissions in the carbon market, non-CO2 gases and carbon intensity of GDP; a draft EU inverter rule would assess high-risk suppliers firm by firm rather than by country.
- The Waratah battery in New South Wales reached full output, Austria broke ground on 210 MWh of hybrid storage, and a Rizhao seawater hydrogen unit passed 1,000 hours; the U.S. added 26 GW of clean power in the first half as cancellations and planned gas grew alongside it.
- Thai flood losses are estimated above 11 billion baht, Hurricane Polo is closing on Mexico's Pacific coast, and the General Assembly's first sea-level declaration says island states do not automatically lose statehood if their land is submerged.
Daily Framing:
Today was a "rules loosened against supply security" day in the energy-climate cycle—fuel-economy standards and an export ban sat on the same table, storage and seawater hydrogen kept landing, and floods, a hurricane and sea-level rights turned the shock into a cost that has to be priced now.
This digest is compiled from real-time search results and is for reference only.