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(WASHINGTON) — The tariffs the Trump administration is imposing on Canada could disrupt the longstanding trade of electricity between the United States and its northern neighbor, effectively raising energy bills in multiple U.S. states.

President Donald Trump ignited a trade war on Canada and Mexico immediately upon taking office, announcing on Inauguration Day that he expected to place 25% tariffs on both countries. After weeks of back and forth, the trade war escalated further after Ontario slapped a 25% surcharge on electricity sent to the U.S. in response to Trumps’ tariffs.

The tariffs will likely have reverberations for Americans who use electricity imported by Canada, as the U.S. and Canada are each other’s largest energy trade partners, according to Washington, D.C.-based research institute Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The history of electricity trade between the U.S. and Canada

The U.S. and Canada have been trading electricity for more than a century — long enough to have established an integrated grid, which offers a sense of security for both countries’ energy needs, according to Ontario-based utilities association Electricity Canada.

The electricity interdependence between the two countries was borne out of complementary needs — Canadians tend to use more electricity in the winter for heating, while demand is higher in the U.S. during the summer for cooling, according to Electricity Canada. An integrated grid offers strategic balance and reliability for both countries. according to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER).

The cumulative volume of energy trade between the U.S. and Canada has consistently risen year over year, according to the CSIS.

For the better part of the last two decades, the U.S. has imported “significantly more” electricity from Canada than it has exported, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The balance shifted in the fall of 2023, however, because severe drought significantly reduced the amount of hydropower generated in Canada.

In 2023, electricity exports from the U.S. to Canada were valued at about $1.1 billion and electricity imports from Canada to the U.S. were valued at $2.9 billion, according to the CER.

Tariffs could cause Americans’ electricity bills to increase

Since the integrated electricity system between the U.S. and Canada was built on the idea of tariff-free trade, introducing tariffs is “hugely disruptive” and will be felt by citizens of both countries, according to Electricity Canada.

Both American and Canadian consumers and businesses can expect to pay more for electricity, the association said.

On Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced a 25% surcharge on electricity from Ontario to the U.S. Customers in states that import the most electricity from Ontario — like Minnesota, Michigan and New York — could see higher prices as a result.

Ford said during a press conference on Monday that he would “not back down” until the tariffs are abolished “once and for all.”

“Believe me when I say I do not want to do this,” Ford said. “I feel terrible for the American people who didn’t start this trade war.”

Ford suspended the surcharge on Tuesday after a “productive conservation about the economic relationship between the United States and Canada,” he wrote on a statement posted to X.

Other states that are top importers of Canadian electricity include California, Nevada, Arizona, North Dakota, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, according to the CSIS.

The amount of electricity imported from Canada is a small portion of the overall power supply in the U.S., but the transmission connections are an important component of markets in northern states, according to the EIA.

On Tuesday, Trump imposed another round of tariffs on Canadian steal and aluminum products in response to Ontario’s surcharge on electricity.

Trump also announced that he planned to declare a national emergency in the regions of the U.S. impacted by the surcharge but did not provide any specifics on actions the government might take.

ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart and Max Zahn contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Fourteen members of Congress have signed a letter demanding the release of Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week, despite being a legal permanent resident.

Khalil was detained on Saturday after two plainclothes Department of Homeland Security agents entered Columbia student housing and detained Khalil without presenting a warrant or any filed charges, according to the letter.

Khalil is a legal permanent resident and is married to a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant, according to the letter.

The 14 members of Congress — including “Squad” members Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. — called Khalil’s detention an “attempt to criminalize political protest” and a “direct assault on freedom of speech.”

“Khalil has not been charged or convicted of any crime. As the Trump Administration proudly admits, he was targeted solely for his activism and organizing as a student leader and negotiator for the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on Columbia University’s campus,” the members of Congress wrote in a letter addressed to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The members of Congress, all Democrats, also called Khalil’s detention an act of “anti-Palestinian racism intended to silence the Palestine solidarity movement in this country.”

The ICE agents who arrested Khalil at his home first said that the State Department had revoked his student visa. After being informed by Khalil’s attorney that he was a permanent resident with a green card, the ICE agents said that his green card was being revoked instead, according to the letter.

The agents also threatened to arrest Khalil’s pregnant wife, according to the letter.

“DHS initially informed them he was being held in Elizabeth New Jersey, but his wife attempted to visit the facility on Sunday only to learn that he was not there. DHS refused to provide additional information on his location to his attorney or spouse,” the letter said.

Shortly after his arrest, Khalil was transferred to an ICE facility in central Louisiana.

“Khalil’s constitutional rights have been violated. He has been denied meaningful access to counsel and any visitation from his family. This is absolutely unacceptable — and illegal,” the letter said.

A federal judge has blocked Khalil’s removal while weighing a petition challenging his arrest.

The Trump administration said it has the authority to remove Khalil under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

“Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the secretary of state has the right to revoke a green card or a visa for individuals who serve, or are adversarial to the foreign policy and the national security interests of the United States of America,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. “Mahmoud Khalil was an individual who was given the privilege of coming to this country to study at one of our nation’s finest universities and colleges and he took advantage of that opportunity, of that privilege, by siding with terrorists, Hamas terrorists.”

Baher Azmy, one of Khalil’s lawyers, called his client’s alleged alignment with Hamas “false and preposterous.”

“Setting aside the false and preposterous premise that advocating on behalf of Palestinian human rights and to plead with public officials to stop an ongoing genocide constitutes alignment with Hamas, his speech is absolutely protected by the Constitution, and it should be chilling to everyone that the United States government could punish or try to deport someone because they disapprove of the speech they’re engaged in,” Azmy told ABC News on Monday.

Khalil completed his program at the university in December and expects to graduate in May, according to the habeas corpus petition filed by his lawyer.

Leavitt also said Tuesday that more arrests will come and added Columbia University is “refusing to help” DHS in identifying other individuals.

“I also know that Columbia University has been given the names of other individuals who have engaged in pro-Hamas activity and they are refusing to help DHS identify those individuals on campus,” Leavitt said.

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(WASHINGTON) —  The National Transportation Safety Board chairman called for immediate changes at Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, saying the current helicopter routes around the airport “pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety.”

Chairman Jennifer Homendy said the NTSB is recommending that the Federal Aviation Administration permanently ban helicopter operations near Reagan when runways 15 and 33 are in use.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has “restricted helicopter traffic from operating over the Potomac River at DCA until March 31,” Homendy said at a news conference Tuesday. “And I want to commend him for that and commend the work of the FAA to also take swift action.”

However, “as that deadline nears, we remain concerned about the significant potential for future midair collision at DCA,” she said.

Homendy outlined a history of close calls at Reagan and offered a solution as the NTSB continues to the investigate the devastating crash between an American Airlines plane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed all 67 people on board both aircraft.

The crash happened on the night of Jan. 29 when the PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet, which had departed from Wichita, Kansas, with 64 people on board, was about to land at Reagan (DCA). The three soldiers on the helicopter were conducting an annual training flight and night vision goggle check ride for one of the pilots at the time when the two aircraft collided. Both aircraft plunged into the Potomac River.

Between October 2021 and December 2024, there were 944,179 commercial operations at Reagan, Homendy said. During that time, there were 15,214 close proximity events between commercial airplanes and helicopters, she said.

Encounters between helicopters and commercial aircraft near Reagan show that, from 2011 through 2024, a vast majority of reported events occurred on approach to landing, she said.

Homendy said last month that there was no indication the helicopter crew involved in the January crash could tell there was an impending collision.

The soldiers may have had “bad data” on the altitude from their altimeter, as the pilots had differing altitudes in the seconds before the crash, Homendy said. One helicopter pilot thought they were at 400 feet and the other thought they were at 300 feet.

The transmission from the tower that instructed the helicopter to go behind the plane may not have been heard by the crew because the pilot may have keyed her radio at the same second and stepped on the transmission from ATC, the NTSB added.

The Black Hawk crew was likely wearing night vision goggles throughout the flight, Homendy said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(AUSTIN, Texas) — A homicide investigation is underway after a reporter for InfoWars, the website run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, was shot dead outside his apartment complex in Austin, Texas, according to police.

The victim, Jamie White, 36, was found lying on the ground in the parking lot around 11:56 p.m. Sunday, Austin police said. Infowars is based in Austin.

The suspects may have been burglarizing White’s car when White interrupted them, police said.

The suspects fled the scene after the shooting, police said.

Jones wrote on X, “We pledge that Jamie’s tragic death will not be in vain, and those responsible for this senseless violence will be brought to justice.”

Anyone with information about this shooting should call police at 512-974-TIPS, or submit a tip to Crime Stoppers at 512-472-8477.

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