Month: August 2026

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley won the Democratic nomination for Wisconsin governor Tuesday, marking an unexpected comeback after suspending his campaign earlier in the race.

Crowley won with 39.8% of the vote and Francesca Hong took second with 39.4% of the vote.

Tuesday capped off a whirlwind of a primary that saw a seven-candidate field narrow to four in the course of two months. Crowley dropped out of the race on July 8 and endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez. The move set up Rodriguez as the front-runner for the Democrats. But just days later, she fired her campaign manager over inaccurate campaign finance filings.

The scandal blew up in Rodriguez’s face and, by the end of that week, she ended her campaign. Crowley hopped back into the fight and grabbed the endorsement of Gov. Tony Evers.

In a statement on social media, Evers said Crowley “earned this win” and “can’t wait for him to be our next governor.”

Tuesday’s results set up a race between Crowley and Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany to succeed Evers.

The IRS on Wednesday issued Notice 2026-28, providing guidance on how employers can use the new premium-based method to calculate the expanded credit for paid family and medical leave (PFML) under the 2025 tax law.

H.R. 1, P.L. 119-21, commonly referred to as the OBBBA, made the PFML credit in Sec. 45S permanent and made substantive changes to enhance the credit and expand its availability to a broader group of employers. However, employers must ensure that their written leave policies are compliant during the first full year that the amended Sec. 45S changes are in effect, which is 2026.

H.R. 1 offers greater incentives for businesses to offer up to 12 weeks of paid leave, which employees may use to recover from a serious health condition or to care for certain family members with serious health conditions, the IRS said.

H.R. 1 also made other changes to the credit, including:

• Expanded eligibility: Employers can claim the credit for employees with six months of service and for part-time employees customarily working 20 hours or more per week.
• Expanded coverage: Employers can claim the credit for insurance premiums to provide leave or for wages paid during leave.
• State and local mandates: Employers can count leave provided under state or local mandates toward the eligibility for this federal tax credit, but not toward the credit calculation.

Beginning in 2026, employers can claim the credit for premiums paid for PFML insurance policies, in addition to wages paid during PFML leave. Also beginning this year, more employers providing paid family and medical leave that meets certain requirements can take advantage of a general business tax credit. That credit ranges from 12.5% to 25% of wages paid to qualifying employees for up to 12 weeks of family and medical leave per tax year.

To help employers apply the new premium-based method, the notice addresses how the premium-based method compares to the wage-based method; how to allocate the qualifying premiums; and how to elect between the premium method and the wage method.

Forthcoming proposed regulations will provide broader guidance to address the statute comprehensively and provide certainty to taxpayers, the IRS said.

According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States remained the world’s largest crude oil producer in 2025, extending a streak that began in 2018 when the United States overtook Russia to become the world’s leading producer.

Crude oil production in the United States, including lease condensate, averaged a record-high 13.6 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2025, breaking the previous U.S. and global production record of 13.2 million b/d set in 2024. U.S. crude oil production was about 40% higher on average in 2025 than that from the next two largest global crude oil producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

U.S. crude oil production has been buoyed by continued gains in drilling productivity and operational efficiency across key shale basins, which allow operators to extract more oil per well. The growth in output continued in 2025 despite lower oil prices; West Texas Intermediate (WTI) prices dropped from an average of $77/b in 2024 to $65/b in 2025 amid global oversupply. Production growth was particularly strong in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, which had a 4% increase in crude oil production, from 6.3 million b/d in 2024 to 6.6 million b/d in 2025. The Permian accounted for approximately 48% of U.S. production in 2025.

Shale oil and gas development in the United States became notable when in 2008 it reversed a multi-decade decline in U.S. crude oil production. U.S. crude oil production powered by shale development has turned the United States into not just the world’s largest producer, but the largest producer of crude oil ever.

The difference between the United States and other major producers widened in 2025, with Russian output largely unchanged and Saudi Arabia recording modest growth as a result of OPEC+ unwinding voluntary production cuts. Crude oil production including lease condensate in Saudi Arabia increased from 9.2 million b/d in 2024 to 9.6 million b/d in 2025. Russia’s crude oil production averaged 9.9 million b/d in 2024 and remained largely unchanged in 2025 as a combination of voluntary production cuts and effects of the conflict with Ukraine limited crude oil output growth.

A transmission utility has filed plans with state and federal regulators aimed at shielding customers from transmission costs tied to data centers.

Late last month, American Transmission Company and We Energies filed an application with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin seeking approval of a transmission charge agreement for Microsoft’s data center in Mount Pleasant.

It comes as ATC is planning more than $2 billion in transmission infrastructure projects tied to data center developments across Wisconsin. Those range from new high-voltage power lines and substations to upgrades to existing facilities.

The proposal is the first in a series of agreements aimed at making sure customers aren’t on the hook for transmission costs for data center projects, including others in Port Washington and Beaver Dam.

Bob McKee, director of interconnection solutions at ATC, said the company requires minimum transmission charge agreements when transmission construction costs exceed $100 million or when transmission facilities are designed to serve more than 100 megawatts of demand.

“We’ve had other ways to protect customers from costs associated with the transmission capacity requested for a specific large load project, like a data center,” he said. “This is the newest protection. This is just another mechanism that we’ve put in place after gauging, over time, developments in our footprint.”

In a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, ATC said the agreement is designed to protect customers as energy needs ramp up for Microsoft’s project in Racine County and if the project ends up using less transmission capacity than planned.

Under the terms of the agreement, the PSC application says ATC will calculate a minimum transmission charge that would require We Energies to pay for the full amount of transmission capacity requested for the project, even if Microsoft ultimately uses less capacity than anticipated.

“It starts charging that utility for this transmission capacity that they requested for their customer when those facilities go in service, not necessarily when they start using it,” McKee said.