As of 4:00 a.m. central time on October 9, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expects Hurricane Isaias to make landfall on the Gulf Coast late Friday or early Saturday, creating the potential for significant disruptions to energy infrastructure. Hurricane Isaias is the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season and will be the largest storm system to make landfall in the region since Hurricane Helene in September 2024.
The U.S. refinery fleet has run at higher-than-normal rates this year, with refinery utilization averaging more than 95% of capacity between May and September, the highest for those months since 1998. Tight global product supplies this year have boosted margins for petroleum products, particularly for diesel, incentivizing the increased run rates.
In the third quarter of 2026 (3Q26), 23% of new light-duty vehicles sold in the United States were hybrid electric, battery electric, or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, down slightly from 24% in 3Q25. Between 3Q25 and 3Q26, hybrid electric vehicles continued to gain market share, reaching 16% of light-duty vehicle sales. Growth of hybrid electric vehicle sales has slowed this quarter as the average transaction price for a new vehicle passed $50,000-the first time this price has been reached so far this year, according to Kelley Blue Book.
We estimate that U.S. generation from small-scale or rooftop solar photovoltaic systems (smaller than 1 megawatt of capacity) has increased from 18,812 gigawatthours (GWh) to 92,979 GWh over the last decade. The four states with the highest generation of small-scale solar in the country-California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida-are in regions with more abundant solar resources. Even though it is in a region with lower solar resources, New York ranks as the fifth-largest rooftop solar generation producer as a result of capacity growth supported by technology improvements and state incentives.
Three regional transmission organizations (RTOs) set records for peak hourly load this past summer, according to data reported on Form EIA-930 and presented in the Hourly Electric Grid Monitor.
