Left: Little Blue Run Lake in 1993, prior to dewatering
Right: Little Blue Run Lake in 2019 after partial dewatering
Little Blue Run Lake or Little Blue Run is the largest coal ash impound in the United States. FirstEnergy owns the site, located in Western Pennsylvania and parts of the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, and has disposed of billions of gallons of coal waste into the body of water. The lake contains 20 billion gallons of coal ash and smokestack scrubber waste. The northern coast of the lake is only a few hundred meters from the Ohio River, which is the drinking water source for more than three million people.
Democrats said Tuesday they intend to fight the Trump administration’s plan to eradicate a deep-ocean observation system critical to understanding climate change and marine ecosystems. The system cost $368 million when it was installed in 2016 but now officials want to shut it down, which they say would save $48 million in operating costs each year. The National Science Foundation declined to say how much it would cost to remove more than 900 remote ocean instruments that are anchored to the ocean bottom in far-flung locations, including in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and an area between Greenland and Iceland known as the Irminger Sea. The agency will begin sending ships to begin pulling up the instruments later this month, a process that is expected to take about 15 months. The ocean observation system was designed to operate for at least 25 years, meaning the decision would result in the loss of more than a decade of data.
As the Iran War continues, global oil stockpiles are draining at an unprecedented rate heading into the peak summer driving season. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the combination of peak seasonal demand and severe supply shocks has placed global oil markets in a “red zone,” with a high risk of inventories hitting historic lows by July and August. The situation represents an extraordinary structural deficit rather than standard seasonal tightening.
The ongoing war in Iran has resulted in the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, shutting in roughly 14 million barrels per day (bpd) of Middle Eastern supply. This represents the largest sudden oil supply shock in history. While a massive, coordinated 400-million-barrel emergency release from strategic reserves initially cushioned the market, these government stockpiles are rapidly emptying. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) sits at its lowest level since 1983. Global observed inventories plummeted by 246 million barrels across March and April alone. U.S. commercial crude stocks recently dropped by 8 million barrels in a single week, while refined products like gasoline and diesel are drawing down nearly twice as fast as last year. Even where raw crude exists, the U.S. faces a severe crunch in domestic refining capacity to turn that crude into gasoline. U.S. diesel inventories have plummeted to a 23-year low.
While the numbers look kind of bad, structural forces are preventing a total energy collapse. There is record-high domestic production in the U.S. (averaging over 13.7 million bpd), alongside upside surprises from Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela, which is providing a marginal offset to the lost Eastern supply. Moreover, high prices are doing their job by forcing consumers to pull back. Global oil demand is forecast to contract by 2.4 million bpd in the second quarter of 2026. Notably, Chinese crude imports dropped by 6 million bpd in May, which has kept crude prices from entirely boiling over. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) model assumes that a diplomatic breakthrough or resolution could allow traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to gradually resume this summer. If this happens, global supply deficits will ease by the fourth quarter of the year.
Gas prices are currently entering the most volatile summer in years, with national retail averages hovering at a $4.45 per gallon. A bit down from a few weeks ago, they still remain mucher then a year ago. Driven by the geopolitical crisis in Iran, baseline gas prices are nearly 45% higher than they were at the start of the year. GasBuddy analysis projects that if shipping routes stay locked, the national average will likely crest between $4.80 and $5.00 per gallon during the peak June-July vacation season. If diplomatic efforts stall and Middle Eastern supply remains locked out, late-summer prices will about $4.50-$4.75 through Labor Day. Compounding this, late August is peak Atlantic hurricane season; any storm disrupting Gulf Coast refineries could instantly tip thin inventories into localized fuel rationing or immediate retail price spikes. Others are not so pestimistic about gas prices by the end of the summer. Energy data modeling from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) anticipates a gradual lifting of supply tensions later this summer. If shipping resuming timeline holds, the national average could tumble sharply down to $3.65–$3.85 per gallon by late August and September
Market Metric
Pre-War/Normal Range
Current Status (June 2026)
Projected Summer Impact
Brent Crude Price
~$70 / barrel
~$98 / barrel
Expected to exceed $106–$115+ if supply relief is delayed
U.S. Gas Prices (AAA)
Seasonal Norms
Avg. $4.30+ / gallon (nationally)
Significant upward spike expected ahead of July 4th
Refining Margins
Historical Averages
2x to 3x higher than normal
Elevated fuel costs passed directly to consumers
Market Balance
Expected Surplus
1.78 million bpd Deficit
Potential for localized fuel rationing in late summer
Solar panels are made up of solar cells which are diodes or silicon junctions or check valves that put out 0.5 to 0.6 volts each without load (open circuit). To charge a 12 volt battery, you put 10 solar cells in series to get roughly 20 volts which under load will drop down to closer to 15 volts.
Every solar cell is a diode and not only prevents the backwards flow of current it also prohibits forward flow of current without sunlight to excite the electrons and bridge the junctions.
As solar panels are strings diodes wired in series, if you partially block one diode by providing less light due to a shadow the performance of the entire panel suffers disproportionately. It’s actually bad for the panel to be exposed to shadows continously as when you are blocking flow of current due to shadows you are starting to wear down the silicon junctions in other cells eventually causing permanent damage to the panel.
