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MORNING ENERGY NEWS  |  03/12/2020
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President Inslee does another faceplant.


E&E News (3/11/20) reports: "This was supposed to be the year that Washington Gov. Jay Inslee finally clinched a major climate victory on his home turf. Not anymore. As the legislative session in Olympia draws to a close, the odds aren't looking good for the Democratic governor, who ran for president as the self-styled 'climate candidate' before withdrawing from the race in August. In particular, it appears unlikely that a major climate bill will make it over the finish line before the Washington Legislature adjourns tomorrow, according to environmentalists, lawmakers and others tracking the measure's progress. The bill's death, which comes after Republican lawmakers in nearby Oregon fled the capital to protest a cap-and-trade bill, showcases the difficulties of passing state-level climate policy opposed by the oil and gas industry."

"The richest most powerful companies in the world, and now the Governor of California are still making excuses for not investigating the supply chains and continue to power manufactured EV’s with 'dirty batteries.' Can this be a blatant example of hypocrisy?"

 

– Ronald Stein, Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow

Refreshingly honest. 


New York Times (3/11/20) reports: "On Monday, oil prices saw their biggest one-day drop since 1991, driven down by coronavirus fears and a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia. If we’re entering an era of really cheap oil, it’s worth asking what that could mean for climate change...Cheap oil, for instance, has often depressed sales of electric cars. But nowadays, a large share of electric vehicle sales is being driven by regulations in places like China, Europe and California. Those aren’t going away. What’s more, battery prices have been quickly falling over time, which means that electric cars are steadily becoming more competitive with conventional cars, even if you ignore fuel costs. 'For most consumers, high upfront prices are the biggest thing holding electric vehicles back,' Colin McKerracher, head of advanced transport at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in an email. 'Battery prices matter more than oil prices. If those keep falling, EV adoption will keep going up.'"

It's not about building something new. It's about tearing down something successful.


The Hill (3/7/20) column: "Pledging “net zero” by 2050 to achieve compliance with the Paris Agreement on climate change is all the rage in the corporate world. BP has announced that it will be a net-zero company – that is, maintaining a balance between emissions produced and emissions taken out of the atmosphere – by the designated date. During its 'Beyond Petroleum' days in the 2000s, BP made massive bets on renewable energy, ending in large write-downs in 2011. The lesson: An oil company doesn’t become a renewable-energy company. BP apparently hasn’t learned. In effect, its new CEO, Brian Looney, is sun-setting the world’s sixth-largest quoted oil company and Britain’s fifth-largest company by market capitalization...Free-market capitalism is not the IPCC’s only victim. Higher food prices are on the 1.5°C menu, too. Higher energy prices will delay the transition to "clean cooking" and away from burning wood or animal dung and the indoor pollution they cause, one of the biggest killers in poorer countries. Yet the IPCC avoids weighing the costs of the 1.5°C pathway against its putative benefits, arguing that it’s a matter of value judgments. " 

Energy Markets

 
WTI Crude Oil: ↓ $30.93
Natural Gas: ↓ $1.79
Gasoline: ↓ $2.32
Diesel: ↓ $2.78
Heating Oil: ↓ $114.35
Brent Crude Oil: ↓ $33.36
US Rig Count: ↑ 811

 
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