Send in the heat pumps

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DAILY ENERGY NEWS | 11/20/2023

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"No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair." - General George S. Patton

The Hill (11/17/23) reports: "The Biden administration said Friday that it used wartime authority to bolster manufacturing of energy efficient heating and cooling technology. It said it was utilizing the Defense Production Act to mobilize the production of heat pumps — technology used to heat or cool someone’s home that is more efficient than traditional heating and air conditioning systems. The Defense Production Act gives the president the authority to mobilize a certain industry to advance national security, which the administration argues applies to producing more climate-friendly energy. Giulia Siccardo, director of the Energy Department’s Office of manufacturing and energy supply chains, told The Hill in an interview that the $169 million in funding the department announced Friday would allow companies to construct factories to build heat pumps. The funds come from the Inflation Reduction Act — the Democrats’ climate, tax and health care law. 'Most of the companies that we announced today, seven out of the nine, are actually not yet manufacturing heat pumps here in the U.S., or heat pump components, in the U.S. at scale' Siccardo said."

"It is imperative to recognize the ramifications of this dependence on China's minerals for U.S. security and our nation's economic well-being."

– Danny Ervin,
The Perdue School of Business at Salisbury University

It's hard to project strength abroad if you can't keep the lights on at home.

Daily Caller (11/17/23) column: "“Candid, straightforward and useful” are the words President Joe Biden chose to describe his relationship with President Xi Jinping during their meeting in San Francisco. It’s an interesting characterization considering the only transparent aspect of Chinese governance is its intent to unseat America as a global leader. Xi’s response to Biden was that planet Earth is big enough for both countries to co-exist. The question is on whose terms. The Biden administration primed the public with low expectations for the meeting, indicating that even resuming conversation with China would be of value...The meeting yielded no concrete progress on economic and trade policy. Most proponents have given up resurrecting the corpse of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as a way to 'manage competition with China.' In its stead, Team Biden created the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). Pillar One of IPEF is labeled 'Fair and Resilient Trade.' Any hope of making progress on Pillar One with partners at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit was preempted by members of Congress, many of whom see it as TPP by another name. The reality is IPEF will have as little impact as TPP would have had on America’s ability to manage the relationship with China. The solution to this bilateral plight lies not in hollow multilateral gestures, but rather in gaining strength at home. First, America needs to regain energy independence. According to the Institute for Energy Research, in 2019, for the first time since 1957, the U.S. was energy independent, meaning that the country didn’t have to rely on foreign sources for this basic need. Energy independence can be regained by keeping existing permits in place and reducing regulatory burdens for future permitting. And it can be done within a responsible environmental framework. If external sources are tapped, they should be partner nations, not regimes like Venezuela, which work with China against America and its allies."

You didn't think all of those tax dollars were going to come without a few strings attached, did you?

Turns out money for nothing attracts the people you might expect.

Politico (11/14/23) reports: "The European Union’s hunt for raw materials is running into new roadblocks — at home and abroad. Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa’s recent resignation over a corruption probe in connection with lithium mining concessions in the north of the country has just dealt another blow to Brussels’ ambitions to diversify its supply of raw materials needed for green and digital technologies. Currently, the EU relies on imports to satisfy its rapidly growing hunger for lithium, a key ingredient in the batteries that power electric vehicles, with China accounting for 60 percent of global battery cell production. Brussels is determined to change that, aiming to diversify supplies of such critical raw materials by boosting mining at home and tapping more reserves in resource-rich and like-minded partner countries. But while EU institutions clinched a deal Monday on Brussels’ grand plan to achieve just that, Portugal’s corruption scandal shows how frail the bloc’s ambitions are. Costa apologized in a televised speech to the nation at the weekend in a bid to ensure that 'Portugal does not waste strategic opportunities for its development.' His infrastructure minister, also embroiled in the scandal, quit on Monday evening. Together with a green hydrogen mega-project and a data center that are also under investigation, the lithium extraction projects add up to an investment of €23.5 billion that Costa had wanted to secure. Portugal’s lithium deposits are seen as central to the bloc’s efforts to secure its own reserves."

Energy Markets

WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $77.82
Natural Gas: ↓ $2.91
Gasoline: ↓ $3.30

Diesel: ↓ $4.28
Heating Oil: ↑ $285.52
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $82.80
US Rig Count: ↑ 699

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