Chart of the Week
A new chart every week.
First Summer 2026 Heat Wave: How PJM’s Fuel Mix Responded
The first major U.S. heat wave of summer 2026 pushed a heat dome across the Central and Eastern U.S. in…
Natural Gas Inventories in the Northern Latitudes: A Mid-Year Review
Recent harsh winters across the northern latitudes have elevated reliance on natural gas for seasonal power and heating in both…
U.S. Crude Inventories, Strategic and Commercial, in the Wake of Hormuz
Following the Hormuz Strait blockade, U.S. crude oil inventories declined from 855 million barrels at the end of February 2026…
Updated Chart of the Week: The Renewable Fuel Standard’s Cost to Consumers
Under EPA's final renewable volume obligations for compliance years 2026 and 2027, the agency elected to reallocate 70% of previously…
LLM Solves 80 Year Old Math Problem: Potential Research Speedups from AI
A general reasoning model resolved the 80-year-old Erdős unit-distance conjecture in approximately 32 hours of compute at a cost of…
Shifts in U.S. Jet Fuel Prices and Commercial Air Travel
Since the end of February, U.S. jet fuel prices have risen over 80% to an average of $4.10 per gallon…
U.S. Energy Intensity 1949-2025
From 1949 to 2025, U.S. energy efficiency improved at an annualized rate of 1.6%, such that each dollar of inflation-adjusted…
Natural Gas Exports Surpass Soybeans in Importance for Reducing U.S. Trade Deficit
Beginning in 2021, the net value of U.S. natural gas exports reached $30 billion, exceeding soybean exports by $3 billion,…
U.S. Diesel Prices and Shifts in Truck-Hauled Freight – Revisited
Pairing U.S. diesel prices against truck-hauled freight activity from November 2024 through March 2026, the chart shows that the Strait…
U.S. Gasoline Prices: Strait of Hormuz Closure vs. the Renewable Fuel Standard
Comparing U.S. retail regular gasoline price components between January 2024 and April 2026, EPRINC estimates that domestic crude costs have…
Strait of Hormuz Closure: Gasoline and U.S. Fuel Prices
Although the United States remains largely insulated from the physical shortfalls triggered by the Strait of Hormuz closure, its internationally…
Strait of Hormuz Closure: The Arithmetic of the Crude Shortfall after Five Weeks of Policy
Five weeks after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz on March 1, 2026, logistical alternatives, a coordinated strategic-reserve release, floating…
Strait of Hormuz Closure: Helium and Semiconductor Manufacturing
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has removed Qatar—the world's second-largest helium supplier at 35% of global supply—from international…
Strait of Hormuz Closure: Nitrogen Based Fertilizers and Disruptions to Food Security
A prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz would halt Gulf fertilizer exports that account for roughly 43% of global…
Strait of Hormuz Closure: Qatari LNG Curtailment and the Global Gas Market
A closure of the Strait of Hormuz would halt the roughly 10.6 BCF/d of LNG that transits the waterway, nearly…
Strait of Hormuz Closure: Tanker Traffic, Benchmark Prices, and Inventory
After U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and the withdrawal of marine insurance coverage, vessel traffic through the Strait of…
Iranian Petroleum Exports Under Shifting U.S. Sanctions Regimes
Iranian petroleum exports have recovered to roughly 2.0 million barrels per day after falling to 680 thousand bpd in mid-2020,…