Today: IPO values renewable company backed by Bill Gates and Google at about $7.7 billion; Democrats press Interior chief on wind and solar energy hurdles; the world is burning through its oil reserves at a record pace.

Welcome back: Shares of geothermal developer Fervo Energy soared in their public-market debut, a sign of investor appetite for energy companies as the U.S. faces record amounts of new power demand.

WSJ's Benoît Morenne writes that Houston-based Fervo uses technology pioneered by oil-and-gas drillers to frack rocks, create geothermal reservoirs and crank out electricity. The company is spending more than $2 billion in Utah to build what it expects to be the world’s largest enhanced geothermal project, expected to come online later this year. It has said it can help sate power-hungry data centers, electric vehicles and growing industries.

Fervo, founded in 2017, has drawn backers including Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, billionaire and former energy trader John Arnold, and Alphabet unit Google. It has quickly emerged as a champion of so-called enhanced geothermal.

Finding pockets of underground heat is relatively easy in places with a lot of geothermal activity. When the heat is deeper in the earth, it is more difficult and more expensive to find. Those constraints have kept the sector’s share of U.S. electricity generation at less than 1%.

Democrats pressed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum over languishing clean-energy projects—a source of friction that has escalated since the Trump administration paid a company to halt its offshore wind plans, WSJ Pro Sustainable Business's Clara Hudson reports.

Speaking at a hearing of the House Committee on Offshore Resources on Wednesday, lawmakers questioned Burgum about his energy project priorities. They pointed to the administration’s recent deal to pay French power giant TotalEnergies $1 billion to drop its offshore wind projects.

TotalEnergies is being scrutinized over its deal with the administration. The New York state comptroller who oversees the state’s retirement fund has said he is considering dropping its stake in the company over the deal. 

Republicans backed Burgum at the hearing, with Rep. Tom McClintock (R., Calif.) saying his state of California’s “biggest fuel problem is not the war with Iran, it’s the war on fossil fuels.”

An underappreciated surplus of crude oil, sloshing around storage tanks and aboard ships, cushioned the global economy when the Persian Gulf closed 2½ months ago, the Journal's Georgi Kantchev reports.

That excess supply is now dwindling at a record pace, with oil executives and analysts predicting that a harsh reckoning is set to upend the relative calm in energy markets. Acute shortages of key fuels and soaring prices could emerge within weeks if the Strait of Hormuz remains shut.

The implications are vast. Prices at the gas pump are already touching their highest levels in years in the U.S. and could shoot higher when stocks run low. Airlines are reorganizing flights to adapt to potential shortages of jet fuel. Central bank decisions over whether to raise interest rates will depend in large part on whether oil markets remain well supplied.

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• Stellantis and Dongfeng Group formed a $1.17 billion partnership to produce electric Peugeot and Jeep vehicles in China from 2027. (WSJ)
   
• Rivian CEO’s robotics company raises $400 million to develop industrial robots for electric vehicle production and beyond. (WSJ)
   
• Honda reported its first annual loss as a listed company, $2.7 billion, citing about $10 billion in EV losses. (WSJ)
   
• Investment has slowed and priorities have shifted, but most large businesses continue to advance sustainability in stormy times. (Trellis)
   
• CREW Carbon uses ground-up limestone to improve the efficiency of sewage plants—and keep CO2 out of the atmosphere. (WSJ)
   
• Corporate climate watchdog Science Based Targets initiative drops stricter proposal on net zero claims after heavy lobbying. (FT)
   
• Top U.N. climate official says China is reaping benefits as a global leader on the green transition and other nations should follow. (Bloomberg)
   
• The world’s largest meatpacker says more beef from Brazil would help lower burger prices for American consumers. (WSJ)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send your comments to editor Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com. Follow the WSJ Pro Sustainable Business team on LinkedIn at perrycp, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.