A Review Of 10 Big Energy Events Of 2024

2024 was one of the most eventful years in memory as it relates to energy policy and energy security. This is especially true given the growing consensus forming that the government-subsidized energy transition is failing to progress as social planners had hoped.

Here is a review of 10 Big Energy Events that impacted the United States and its energy security during 2024:

• The rise of AI and data centers as major energy demand drivers - Regional US power grids were already coming under strains to maintain security and reliability as 2024 dawned. The rise of AI and datacenters now proliferating around the country promises to further complicate the jobs of grid managers in the years to come.

STONE RIDGE, VIRGINIA - JULY 17: In an aerial view, an Amazon Web Services data center is shown situated near single-family homes on July 17, 2024 in Stone Ridge, Virginia. Northern Virginia is the largest data center market in the world, according to a report this year cited in published accounts, but is facing headwinds from availability of land and electric power. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)Getty Images

• President Joe Biden’s permitting “pause” on LNG infrastructure - Perhaps among the least justifiable of all the various Biden executive actions related to energy, this permitting pause might well have become a permanent feature of US energy policy had Donald Trump failed to win the 2024 presidential election over Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump will almost certainly reverse Biden’s order implementing the pause during the early days of his second term.

• The Supreme Court’s recission of the Chevron Deference - This legal principle established by the Supreme Court in 1984 has served as the foundation for a wide variety of energy and environmental policy actions for the past 40 years. Its recission now places all of those myriad policies in jeopardy as new cases are filed in the coming years.