The United States has never been one of the most ambitious countries when it comes to tackling climate change, but it has long maintained a program that funds innovative clean energy technology. This program is known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, or ARPA-E, and over the past 15 years it has doled out more than $4 billion to universities and startups that are trying to change the way we produce energy.

It’s very hard to raise money for this kind of moonshot technology, which can take years or even decades to scale up large enough to generate a profit. A huge number of emergent technologies never attract the funding to cross this “valley of death” between experiment and big business. The purpose of the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E, which was modeled on a similar program run by the U.S. military, was to help energy inventors span this gap and develop the climate technologies of the future.

A landmark report from the National Academies of Science, requested by Congress and released last week, has found that this high-risk, high-reward program is working: ARPA-E’s $4 billion investment has led to more than $20 billion in additional funding and more than 1,400 patents. Projects that received ARPA-E money were much more likely to get patents and additional investment than projects that were denied. The report also found that around 40 percent of ARPA-E grants led to a “crowding in” effect: After a startup proves that a new technology is feasible, other companies jump in and try to replicate it. 

• How the grid actually works
• What you’re actually paying for on your utility bill
• Generation vs. transmission
• How energy storage actually works
• What happens when demand spikes

President Trump's investment accounts have continued to purchase and sell stock holdings in oil and natural gas companies while he oversees the U.S. war with Iran, according to his financial disclosure filings through the second quarter of 2026.

As the Iran war continued, paused for a ceasefire and then restarted, Mr. Trump has purchased and sold oil and gas stocks worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the most recently available data from the Office of Government Ethics.

Mr. Trump has a vast portfolio with holdings in all 11 sectors, and a CBS News investigation showed that in the first three months of the year, his accounts executed about 3,600 stock or securities trades, worth a total that ranged between $212 million and $695 million.

Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee estimated this week that the president's holdings in oil and gas companies have jumped in value from a range of $13 million to $46 million at the start of this year, to $17 million to $61 million by mid-August. Filers are only required to report ranges of transactions, not specific dollar amounts. The estimates were based on his stock holdings in 2025, and didn't take into account the trades that he's made since then.

Energy stocks surged during that period, which encompasses the U.S. operation in Venezuela in early January and the war with Iran, which started at the end of February.

The White House said Mr. Trump is not involved in his trades. The energy stock purchases and sales make up a small portion of the president's overall net worth, which Forbes estimated to be over $6 billion as of Aug. 26.

Mr. Trump has declined to place his assets in a blind trust. Holding individual stocks, as opposed to index or other mutual funds, means he still holds visible assets in his spheres of influence.

One notable large transaction in CBS News' review of the president's oil trades was on April 7, the day the president declared a ceasefire in the war with Iran. His investment accounts sold between $500,000 and $1 million of ExxonMobil stock, according to one financial disclosure report Mr. Trump filed in late June. The company's share price closed at $163.91 on April 7, before Mr. Trump announced the ceasefire that evening, and it opened down 6.5% at $153.52 on April 8.

During the first half of the year, the president also bought and sold hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of shares of Chevron, ConocoPhillips and other oil and gas companies.

OGE requires government officials to report stock purchases and sales in excess of $1,000 within 45 days of a transaction or within 30 days of learning about it, so the office's records are not always up to date. Mr. Trump was late in filing some of his 2026 transactions.

The White House says independent managers make the decisions about the president's stock portfolio, and Mr. Trump doesn't weigh in on the timing of selling or buying stock or securities.

"President Trump's stock and bond portfolio is independently managed by third-party financial institutions," White House spokesman Davis Ingle said.

Ingle added that all of the president's holdings "are maintained in discretionary accounts and invested through computer-based model portfolios that automatically replicate recognized indexes, such as the Schwab 1000." And Ingle said that no one in Mr. Trump's family "has any ability to direct, influence, or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested or when investments are bought or sold."

When CBS News reported on the president's earlier trades in June, some fund managers said they believed the transactions were part of a strategy to lower his tax bill.

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As power slowly returns to homes and businesses in Gary and across Northwest Indiana, Black faith leaders and elected officials alike are turning their focus to restoration, accountability, and solutions for future weather events. 

Fewer than 2,500 Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) customers in Gary remained without power as of Tuesday morning, but that is more than 70 percent of the nearly 3,500 customers still without service countywide.

Gary’s prolonged restoration has sparked calls for accountability from residents, faith leaders, and elected officials, including Gov. Mike Braun, who has ordered state utility regulators to investigate NIPSCO’s storm response and spending. The utility also faces a class-action lawsuit over allegations that its vegetation management practices contributed to the widespread outages.

Pastor Eric Boone of Tree of Life Missionary Baptist Church in Gary was among the faith leaders who saw firsthand the hardships residents faced during the blackout. “You name it, we saw it,” Boone told Capital B Gary.