The White House and GOP officials are on a PR offensive to tout gasoline prices that — depending on how you slice the data — are at their lowest since either May 2021 or last December. (It's basically a tie for the moment.)

Why it matters: Average prices are hovering around $3 per gallon or have already dipped below that. It adds intrigue to a huge question: Who gains politically when pump prices fall but power bills rise?

The big picture: Costs to fill up gasoline tanks vs. keeping the lights and heat on at home are moving in generally opposite directions, which makes energy prices even more of a midterm political wild card if trends hold.

• More immediately, power bills are front and center in New Jersey's close governor's election Nov. 4.
• They've also become important in the Virginia governor's race.

What we're watching: GasBuddy reports that "barring any major disruptions, gas prices are likely to remain slightly below year-ago levels and could stay under $3 for much of the next few months."

• "Promises made, promises kept," the White House said in an X post boasting about the gas figures.

The intrigue: Democrats are putting heavy focus on electricity prices that are pinching wallets — and alleging that the new GOP budget law will exacerbate the problem by making it harder to add renewables to the grid.

Driving the news: Electricity costs are on a steadily upward climb that well outpaces inflation.

• One recent sign: the Energy Department's independent stats arm sees residential electricity costs averaging 4.8% more this winter than the 2024-2025 cold season.

Yes, but: Gasoline prices are typically a bigger share of household budgets than power, though the difference varies by region.

• A recent study by the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute found that last year, the average U.S. household paid $1,850 for electricity and $2,930 for gasoline.

The bottom line: The White House is taking a victory lap on pump prices. But politically, it's a much longer race.

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Uber plans to provide grants to drivers in key markets to switch to electric vehicles, and is rebranding its Uber Green option to Uber Electric.

Why it matters: The move follows recent expiration of the federal EV tax credit, which was worth up to $7,500 for new EVs and up to $4,000 for used ones.

Driving the news: Uber will provide $4,000 "Go Electric" grants to high-mileage, tenured drivers in markets with high demand — New York City, California, Colorado and Massachusetts — to purchase new or used EVs.

• Uber drivers in all states can get a $1,000 discount on a new or used EV through TrueCar.

Driving the news: The announcement was paired with the news of the Uber Electric rebranding, which the service says will make it "easier for riders to choose zero-emissions rides."

• Uber Green previously included hybrids, but the company switched it to only pure EVs earlier this year.
• In the U.S., Europe and Canada, 1 in 10 Uber miles are currently driven in EVs, per the company.

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🛢️ The Energy Department is looking to buy another one million barrels for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, using low prices to add to the stockpile.

• The big picture: The SPR currently holds around 409 million barrels, which is roughly 300 million below its capacity.
• Friction point: DOE head Chris Wright, in a statement, accused the Biden White House of "recklessly" draining the reserve for political reasons, referring to large releases after Russia invaded Ukraine and prices soared.

⛏️ Perpetua Resources said it has broken ground on "early works construction" for the long-planned Stibnite Gold Project in Idaho.

• Why it matters: The project will provide supplies of antimony. It has key defense and commercial applications — including batteries — as U.S. policymakers look to boost critical minerals.
• Catch up quick: The Biden administration backed the project, but some environmental groups look to thwart it. Stibnite recently received final approvals from the U.S. Forest Service to start construction.
• State of play: "As America's answer to China's antimony export bans, we are focused on swiftly and safely bringing our antimony and gold project into development," Perpetua CEO Jon Cherry said in a statement.

🛢️ The Interior Department is moving closer to selling drilling leases in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska for the first time since 2019. Go deeper.

☀️ Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, will depart early next year after a nine-year run.

• Why it matters: She was at the helm during a massive solar boom, but more recently, a seismic change under GOP policies that phase out incentives and add new restrictions.

🐨 CSIS analysts have an informative primer on the major new U.S.-Australia plan to boost cooperation and bilateral investment in critical minerals and rare earth projects.

• Why it matters: The deal is expansive and pretty specific, which is interesting because these kinds of cooperation agreements are often airy, PR-y and aspirational.
• What we're watching: The primer gets into one aspect that has gotten less press — the joint efforts to limit China's acquisition of more mining assets abroad.
• The bottom line: "This comes at a critical moment: Even as China slows domestic production and idles projects, its overseas mining acquisitions reached their highest level in a decade in 2024," they write.

⚔️ "With more countries threatening to make coercive use of more different kinds of energy flows, the world could be at the dawn of a new age of energy weaponization," energy scholars Meghan O'Sullivan and Jason Bordoff write in Foreign Affairs.

• The big picture: You don't have to look far for examples — like the U.S. demanding that countries buy its fossil fuels to avoid tariffs, Russia threatening Europe's gas, or China weaponizing its critical minerals dominance. The landscape is really fraught — more than any time since the '70s oil embargo era.
• What we're watching: Countries have tools to ease risk, they write. Low-carbon transition and electrification help, though they're not a panacea, given the fragility of cross-border power flows and supply chains.

Four more U.S. clean energy manufacturing projects with an investment value of $1.6 billion were canceled in September, spanning solar, grid and EV tech, per the nonprofit group E2.

Why it matters: It's the latest in a growing wave of projects scuttled, closed or downsized amid waning federal support.

• The total value of abandoned or downsized projects this year is over $24 billion, costing over 21,000 previously announced jobs, the group affiliated with the Natural Resources Defense Council finds.
• Full analysis

That's what GE Vernova is paying for the remaining stake in the Prolec GE joint venture, a supplier of power transformers.

• Why it matters: Buying out the partnership GE had for decades with Xignux is a testament to opportunities it sees in AI power demand and other needs for grid upgrades.
• Investor deck...Bloomberg coverage