Arcadia, which helps businesses procure and manage energy, is acquiring Engie Impact — the arm of French multinational power giant Engie that offers a suite of complementary services.

Why it matters: The deal lands as energy demand and costs are rising around the world.

• Companies of all stripes are navigating this and have a growing menu of options, while often trying to maintain sustainability goals.
• The agreement also enables Arcadia to expand offerings to its Big Tech clients — like Google and Meta — that have soaring AI energy thirst.

State of play: The deal provides a "unified solution" for companies to "manage the full lifecycle of utility data, from bill payment to strategic energy procurement," states the announcement.

Zoom in: Engie Impact customers include FedEx, Capital One, Cargill, Chipotle, Starbucks and UnitedHealthcare. Arcadia's client list also includes Ford, Oracle and data center giant Equinix.

• The combined company will serve over 1,500 corporate customers worldwide, about 25% of the Fortune 500 among them, that have over $30 billion in annual utility payments, Arcadia said.
• It will have roughly 2,000 employees and hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue, founder and CEO Kiran Bhatraju said in an interview.
• Terms were not disclosed.

The intrigue: The deal has links to AI on several levels. One is direct services to hyperscalers.

• Another is Arcadia's in-house AI development to help all kinds of clients navigate and control costs in a complex landscape.
• "We're building AI tools to help create this full picture of energy procurement," Bhatraju said.
• That ranges from analyzing wholesale power markets in different areas to so-called behind-the-meter strategies like on-site solar, battery storage, efficiency strategies and more.

The bottom line: Power demand, and often costs, are rising in many regions — something that any company needs to weigh.

• "You have really almost the rest of the economy — like retail, hospitals, commercial real estate, cold storage — when they think about growing their business and their footprint, they need access to power. And right now that is one of the most difficult things to assess," Bhatraju said.

The energy crisis in the U.S. is starting to eat into American wallets, and though it's hardly an apocalyptic scenario, it sure feels awful.

Why it matters: Unlike in Asia and Europe, the U.S. is relatively insulated from the threat of actual gasoline or oil shortages, and price increases are so far manageable.

The intrigue: That's good for the economy and for stock prices, and cold comfort to basically everyone else who is forced to pay more to fill up the tank.

By the numbers: The increase in gas prices has been kind of Hobbesian: Nasty, brutal and taking place over a very short period.

• Since Feb. 27, the day before the war, the average price of a gallon of unleaded gas has risen 44%, to $4.30 as of yesterday.
• That's lower than what it was during the last energy shock in 2022 — driven by Russia's invasion of Ukraine — and if you adjust for inflation, it's even lower still.
• And gas makes up a small share of Americans' overall spending.

Yes, but: Even if a lot of people can absorb the increase, the whiplash of the record-breaking rise in gas prices is making people feel bad — we're seeing low consumer sentiment.

• It's the latest chapter in the current vibecession, where the economy holds up, but no one feels particularly great about it.

How it works: Higher gas prices can force people to make choices that they don't want to make — trading down on spending for groceries or restaurants or clothing, says David Tinsley, senior economist at the Bank of America Institute.

• For the economy overall, those shifts may not be noticeable, as people keep spending levels the same.
• But for individuals, it stinks.

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⛽ Average U.S. gasoline prices are up to $4.39 per gallon, a new high during the Iran war, per AAA's update today.

💵 Exxon's and Chevron's Q1 earnings this morning both beat analysts' expectations despite lower profits. But it's a mixed bag — especially for Exxon — as higher crude prices are balanced against disrupted operations.

• The intrigue: "ExxonMobil and Chevron have defied calls from the White House to increase oil production, resisting pressure from an administration that is struggling to end the biggest energy crisis in decades," the FT reports.
• Go deeper: Exxon earnings deck ... Chevron earnings deck ... CNBC coverage.

🇻🇪 Companies including Hunt Oil, Crossover Energy, HKN and Mercuris "signed memorandums of understanding to lay the groundwork to operate in Venezuela," the WSJ reports.

• State of play: Officials with the firms were traveling with Jarrod Agen, a top White House energy aide, who met in Caracas yesterday with acting president Delcy Rodriguez.

✅ Via AP, "President Donald Trump granted a key approval Thursday for a major new oil pipeline from Canada into the U.S. that's been dubbed 'Keystone Light' over its similarities to a contentious project blocked by the Biden administration."

The U.S. is producing so much natural gas that at one hub in West Texas, drillers have to pay customers to take the stuff — or put another way, prices are negative!

Why it matters: It's surprising given that we're in the middle of the worst energy shock in history.

• But unlike oil, which trades in a global market, natural gas still mostly trades at the regional level. And the U.S. produces enough to supply itself.

The big picture: "Cheap supplies of gas — a key manufacturing input and a major player in meeting power demand from artificial intelligence — stand to give the US an edge over countries facing fuel shortages," per Bloomberg.

The big picture: The West Texas glut stems from a surge in production over the past 15 years that has far outpaced the pipelines needed to move it out of the region.

• This isn't the first time the price has turned negative.
• The gas is a byproduct created during the oil drilling process.

What we're watching: New pipeline capacity is set to come online, but more gluts could be on the way.

Full story

Where Did All the Solar Go? (Heatmap)

Amy says: Wow, the shift in recent years from renewable energy to natural gas in the nation's largest power system is stark. I have to say I'm not surprised based on our reporting on how companies are doubling down on natural gas in the AI boom.

Key outcomes from first summit on 'transitioning away' from fossil fuels (CarbonBrief)

Ben says: This is a long, lucid and complete dispatch from the multinational conference in Colombia that just wrapped up — and what happens now.

• One noteworthy tidbit: it birthed a new scientific body to provide rapid analysis of transition strategies for countries that ask.
• It's also worth your time because "coalitions of the willing" outside the formal United Nations process are something to understand going forward.

Countries Draw Up Next Steps to Decarbonize at Colombia Fossil-Fuel Summit (Bloomberg)

Amy says: It's interesting to see the conversations happening there, but any progress seems pretty unlikely if you don't have many of the major economies there — including the biggest fossil-fuel producers.

• I also wonder to what degree this could be duplicative with the underlying UN conference each year.

International patenting for battery "circularity" tech soared by 42% annually from 2017-2023, per new analysis from the International Energy Agency and the EU's patent office.

Why it matters: The world will soon be awash in used batteries from EVs — 1.2 million could reach the end of their lives by 2030 and 14 million by 2040.

• They're useful resources. "Circularity" tech — like recycling and repurposing — can help diversify what are now highly concentrated supply chains and address waste and ease how much new mining is needed, IEA said.
• Full report