EPRINC’s Max Pyziur, Director of Research Programs, was quoted in Fox Business by Simon Constable in the April 29, 2026 article “What a UAE Exit
The United States has long run sizable deficits in its trade of goods and services, with the 2025 deficit reaching $912 billion. The size of these deficits is mitigated by the net value of certain commodity exports, and for most of the prior two decades soybeans were the headline contributor. Beginning in 2021, that position was taken by natural gas.
In 2021, net U.S. natural gas exports reached $30 billion, exceeding soybean net exports by $3 billion for the first time. The lead widened the following year and has held since. Net natural gas exports have ranged between $23 billion and $43 billion annually from 2021 forward; soybean net exports ranged between $16 billion and $34 billion across 2022 to 2025. Twelve years earlier, in 2013, the ranking ran the other way, with soybean net exports roughly three times those of natural gas. The crossover reflects the maturation of U.S. LNG export capacity following the shale-driven production surge that began in the mid-2010s, alongside continued investment in both pipeline and liquefaction infrastructure.
2025 widened the gap further, but through asymmetric policy channels. U.S. soybean exports were curtailed mid-year when China, historically the largest single buyer, suspended purchases for roughly six months in retaliation for tariffs; Brazil and Argentina absorbed much of the displaced demand. Over the same period, European sanctions on Russian pipeline gas continued to redirect demand toward U.S. LNG, with Europe receiving 68% of U.S. LNG cargoes through November 2025 per EIA. The chart captures two commodity stories in a single frame: one increasingly dependent on a single buyer that has spent seven years diversifying its sources, the other underwritten by a structural reordering of global gas flows.
On May 18th, 2026, Energy Policy Research President Lucian Pugliaresi and Trustee Ivan Sandrea are scheduled to speak at a CEBRI (Brazilian Center for International Relations) webinar entitled “The Trump Oil Shock: Impacts in the Industry and the World Economy” at 9am Eastern Time.
CEBRI writes: “Rising tensions in the Middle East, shifts in global energy policies, and ongoing transformations in hydrocarbons markets have brought oil back to the center of debates on economic stability and international security. Amid geopolitical uncertainty involving Iran, changes in production dynamics across the Americas, and evolving priorities among major powers, global markets are entering a new period of volatility, with direct impacts on prices, investment decisions, and trade flows.
Against this backdrop, this webinar proposes to discuss how recent geopolitical shocks are reconfiguring global oil markets and what their potential implications may be for the industry, the world economy, and Brazil, bringing together experts to examine the effects of this new environment on the energy sector and on the international economic order.”
More information about the event can be found in this flyer.
Registration for the webinar is still open and can be completed at this link.
EPRINC Fellow Michael Lynch has been published once again in Forbes, this time in an article titled “Gulf Oil Production Could Be Restored Quickly“. His article, published May 4th 2026, covers the oil supply shocks from the US conflict with Iran and the subsequent issues at the Strait of Hormuz and addresses the question: will Gulf oil producers be able to restore oil supply globally once the Strait is reopened?
EPRINC’s research was cited this week in Politico, in a story by Scott Waldman examining how President Trump’s blockade of Iran is disrupting energy and commodity markets beyond oil — including fertilizer and helium supplies.
Politico drew on EPRINC’s Chart of the Week data to note that while the U.S. leads global helium production at 44 percent, Qatar is the second-largest producer at 35 percent — and that war damage to Qatari facilities could take years to repair, tightening an already thin market.
Read the full article here.
The Chart of the Week referenced in the article can be found in full here.
EPRINC Director of Research Max Pyziur was quoted in La Tercera — one of Chile’s leading national newspapers — in a piece surveying how the Strait of Hormuz closure is reshaping daily life around the world. Author Diego Quivira spoke with economists and energy experts to document the on-the-ground effects: Egypt ordering commercial establishments to close by 9:00 PM, Thailand asking public employees to dress lighter to reduce air conditioning loads, and Pakistan and Bangladesh suspending in-person schooling to conserve energy.
Pyziur explained that while crude oil can still exit the Gulf via pipeline, the same is not true for other commodities: LNG, fertilizers, and helium have no comparable overland alternative. He highlighted the particular severity of the disruption for countries like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, and India, which depend on Qatari LNG for electricity generation — and noted that India faces a compounding problem, as gas is also a feedstock for agricultural fertilizers.
EPRINC’s Special Focus page on the Strait of Hormuz crisis tracks the underlying data in detail, including tanker traffic, benchmark prices, LNG exports, fertilizer markets, and helium supply.
The Energy Policy Research Foundation is pleased to announce the release of Power Vision 2050: Creating a Sustainable Pathway to Secure the American Economy (Version 3.0), an expansion of EPRINC’s ongoing multi-year initiative to help policymakers navigate the mounting challenges facing the U.S. electric power sector.
Building on three workshops and the foundational research conducted under the Power Vision 2030 project, this updated framework extends the analytical horizon to mid-century and substantially broadens the initiative’s scope.
The near-term pressures documented in the 2030 project have not abated. U.S. electricity consumption is projected to grow by 30 to 50 percent or more by 2050, driven by the electrification of transportation and buildings, industrial expansion, and the relentless power appetite of AI infrastructure and data centers. Against this backdrop, premature retirements of dispatchable generation continue to compress reserve margins in key regions, with NERC and independent researchers flagging serious reliability risks in the PJM and MISO footprints.
The Power Vision 2050 framework retains the 2030 project’s core focus on near-term natural gas deployment, regulatory reform, and transmission efficiency, while adding an extended set of research questions oriented toward the structural transformation of the grid over the coming quarter century.
The most significant addition to the 2050 initiative is a dedicated research strand on nuclear energy. The existing U.S. fleet, the largest source of carbon-free baseload electricity in the country, faces an aging profile, with the oldest units reaching end-of-life well before 2050 absent license renewals. Supply chain constraints and protracted licensing timelines have slowed the deployment of new capacity, even as interest in advanced reactor designs and small modular reactors continues to grow.
Power Vision 2050 will examine what policy, regulatory, and financing reforms are needed to accelerate deployment of both conventional and advanced nuclear technologies; how the United States can maintain its competitive position in global nuclear markets where China and Russia are aggressively expanding their export footprints; and what role innovative applications, including maritime nuclear propulsion and off-grid industrial power, might play in reinforcing energy security.
The decisions made in the next five to ten years on permitting reform, fuel supply chain investment, workforce development, and advanced reactor commercialization will largely determine whether the United States arrives at 2050 with a power system capable of sustaining its economy. EPRINC’s Power Vision 2050 initiative will convene industry experts, academics, and policymakers to address these questions with the analytical rigor they demand.
The full Power Vision 2050 project overview is available here. For inquiries, contact EPRINC at contact@eprinc.org.
“I’ve known EPRINC through most of its long history. I am delighted to join my dear colleague and friend Lou Pugliaresi and the EPRINC team to help move vital energy and materials thinking to the next stage.” — Michelle Michot FossDr. Michot Foss is an Advisor at L’Acadie Network and a collaborator at Rice University’s Carbon Hub, focused on commercializing advanced carbon materials. She retired as chief energy economist and head of the Bureau of Economic Geology’s Center for Energy Economics at the University of Texas at Austin, where she was also an executive instructor at McCombs School of Business and an ExxonMobil Instructor of Excellence. She created the Bureau’s Center for Energy Economics while at the University of Houston, where she served as a research professor and Shell Interdisciplinary Scholar. Earlier in her career she served as director of research at investment bank Simmons & Company International and at Rice Center. Her career research includes major projects for the Texas Comptroller, U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, World Bank, Japan’s External Trade Organization, and the Saudi Arabia-led Future Minerals Forum. She led industry research consortia for U.S.–Mexico natural gas trade and LNG development in North America, and implemented technical assistance programs sponsored by USAID and the State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources in more than 20 countries, including Central Asia, Ukraine, West Africa, Uganda, India, Bangladesh, and Mexico. Her capacity-building program New Era in Oil, Gas & Power Value Creation was recognized twice by World Oil Awards for excellence. Dr. Michot Foss serves on the board of directors of Consumer Energy Alliance and on advisory councils for Energy Intelligence Group, the North American Energy Standards Board, and Missouri University of Science & Technology’s O’Keefe Center for Critical Minerals. She is past president of both the International Association for Energy Economics and the United States Association for Energy Economics, where she was named a senior fellow. She holds degrees from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Colorado School of Mines, and the University of Houston.
All of us at the Energy Policy Research Foundation mourns the loss of Professor Antonio Zichichi (15 October 2029 – 9 February 2026). He was one of Italy’s most distinguished physicists and a major figure in 20th century nuclear and subnuclear physics. We offer our condolences to Professor Zichichi’s family, friends, and the global scientific community who all benefitted from his unique contributions and accomplishments. EPRINC has had the privilege to present our research before the annual meeting of the Ettore Majorana in recent years.
An obituary from the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, where Zichichi held a membership since 2000, can be found here.
Also, a tribute from the San Grasso Science institute honoring Zichichi is here.
On Wednesday February 11, 2026, new Energy Policy Research Foundation Distinguished Fellow Diana Furchtgott-Roth testified during the House Committee on Space and Technology’s Research and Technology Subcommittee Hearing “Accelerating Progress: U.S. Surface Transportation Research.” Her testimony can be found here, and the full overview of the hearing with the other testimony is here.
She was joined by Hon. Greg Winfree, Agency Director of theTexas A&M Transportation Institute and Dr. Henry Liu, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of the Center for Connected and Automated Transportation for Mcity and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI)
Diana’s testimony covered suggestions for how to prioritize transportation research, including automating vehicles to reduce collisions, protecting GPS systems, and incentivizing the domestic production of transportation equipment and components like batteries to avoid espionage from the nation’s enemies. A video of the entire hearing is available on the Committee’s YouTube channel, here.
Diana can be reached at her Energy Policy Research email address, Dianafr@eprinc.org.
Energy Policy Research Foundation’s Distinguished Fellow Dominick Blue and Director of Research Max Pyziur have been published in The National Interest. Their piece entitled: “The End of Voluntary Energy Security: America’s New Doctrine of Active Sovereignty”, which discusses how “The events of January 2026 reveal that Washington is moving to a war footing. The US Department of Energy (DOE) is becoming an operational arm of national defense, wielding a new strategy of “Shield and Sword.” Further, “Washington is replacing voluntary energy security with active sovereignty—treating grids and resources as battlefields and energy firms as instruments of power.”
The Energy Policy Research Foundation is excited to announce the addition of Diana Furchtgott-Roth as a Distinguished Fellow. Diana, an Oxford-educated economist, served in President Trump’s first term as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology at the U.S. Department of Transportation and Acting Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the U.S. Department of Treasury. Diana also served in the White House under President Reagan, President George H.W. Bush, and President George W. Bush. Diana is the author or coauthor of six books on economic policy and hundreds of articles. She is a frequent guest on TV and radio shows and writes regularly for the UK’s Daily Telegraph.
EPRINC Research Director Max Pyziur was quoted in Utility Dive regarding the recent congressional appropriations bill for the Department of Energy.
The bill provides $3.1 billion in funding to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, significantly exceeding the White House’s requested $880 million, and includes funding for solar and wind programs that the administration had requested zero funding for. Pyziur noted that the reallocation of approximately $3.1 billion toward the Office of Nuclear Energy’s Advanced Reactor Deployment Program “makes sense, because it’s continued funding for safeguarding the U.S. nuclear fuel supply for the grid, continuing research in that particular realm.” He also observed that the funding helps support the national labs, calling it “very important work and very useful work.”
The article is available at Utility Dive.
EPRINC team members Max Pyziur, Matthew Sawoski, and Lucian Pugliaresi were cited in a recent JustTheNews article for their analysis of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and its role in contemporary energy security. The article examines various proposals to refill the SPR, which was depleted to its lowest level since the 1980s by the Biden-Harris administration.
Notably, the piece references EPRINC’s Op-Ed published in the National Interest on October 20, 2025, “The Strategic Petroleum Reserve: 50 + 2 Years Since the Key Inciting Incident,” which analyzes how the SPR’s original purpose has evolved given that the U.S. is now the world’s largest oil producer rather than heavily dependent on Middle Eastern imports.
The article can be read at Just The News, and EPRINC’s National Interest Op-Ed is available here.
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