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MORNING ENERGY NEWS  |  03/25/2020
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Never underestimate the greed of Big Green, Inc. They lost this round, but are clearly setting themselves up for the next package...


E&E News (3/25/20) reports: "The Senate is expected to vote today on a massive stimulus package worth $2 trillion in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The legislation would be the third pandemic response bill in recent weeks, and took nearly a week to negotiate amid partisan bickering between Democrats and Republicans. 'At last, we have a deal,' said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) early this morning. 'After days of intense discussions, senators reached a bipartisan agreement for a historic relief package for this pandemic.' The legislation includes a payment of $1,200 to most Americans, expanded unemployment benefits, business tax relief and loans...According to a letter Schumer sent to Democrats, the deal does not include $3 billion sought by Republicans and the Trump administration to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR)...While the deal has limits preventing airlines from receiving aid from buying back stock and boosting CEO bonuses, Schumer's letter does not reference aviation carbon limits sought by some Democrats in recent days. Nor does it address clean energy tax credits sought by renewable sectors, environmentalists and Democrats but ridiculed by Republicans this week."

Thank you, Mr. President, for refusing to give in to Big Green, Inc.


Fox News (3/24/20) reports: "President Trump said Tuesday that he would not support an emergency coronavirus response bill pitched by House Democrats earlier this week. 'Nancy Pelosi came and put a lot of things in the deal that had nothing to do with workers -- that had to do with an agenda that they have been trying to get passed for 10 years,' Trump told Fox News in a special 'Virtual Town Hall.' 'I came in, I told Mike [Pence], I told a lot of people, 'There is no way I am signing that deal,' the president added. Trump said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had almost reached an agreement on the response bill over the weekend before Democrats suddenly injected the 'Green New Deal' into the mix. '[The Democrats said] "We want green energy, let’s stop drilling oil" -- they had things in there that were terrible,' Trump said. 'Windmills all over the place and all sorts of credits for windmills -- they kill the birds and ruin the real estate. A lot of problems.'"



"Are you kidding me? This is the moment to debate new regulations that have nothing to do with this crisis? … Democrats won’t let us fund hospitals or save small businesses unless they get to dust off the Green New Deal?"

 

– Mitch McConnel,
Senate Majority Leader 

Frank the Tank is crying right now. On another note, oh that hair...

S&P Global (3/25/20) reports: "The Trump administration's plan to fill the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve with 77 million barrels of medium and heavy crudes appears to be on hold after Congressional leaders removed funding for it from a contentious coronavirus aid package. A spokesman for Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat-New York, confirmed early Wednesday that the final deal reached overnight removed the SPR funding. The government stockpiles represent the equivalent of about 8% of currently available commercial crude storage, according to Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group. The consultancy expects crude and product storage to be full by the end of summer, if not earlier. McNally predicted a deal without the SPR funding could initially push oil futures down another $1/b. 'But there could be a bigger, psychological, bearish impact as failure to fill the SPR would signal Washington's complete inability to execute no-brainer policy steps in the midst of a full-blown crisis and call into question the federal government's broader competence and coherence,' he said Tuesday." 

Priorities.


Real Clear Politics (3/18/20) column: "Coronavirus is causing working-age people to worry about missing paychecks, caring for kids home from school, stockpiling groceries and canceling plans...After learning that the state's stockpile of medical equipment had 16,000 fewer ventilators than New Yorkers would need in a severe pandemic, Gov. Cuomo came to a fork in the road in 2015. He could have chosen to buy more ventilators. Instead, he asked his health commissioner, to assemble a task force and draft rules for rationing the ventilators they already had. That task force came up with rules that will be imposed when ventilators run short. Patients assigned a red code will have the highest access, and other patients will be assigned green, yellow or blue depending on a 'triage officer's' decision. In truth, a death officer. Let's not sugarcoat it. It won't be up to your own doctor. Cuomo could have purchased the additional 16,000 needed ventilators for $36,000 apiece or a total of $576 million in 2015. It's a lot of money but less than the $750 million he threw away on a boondoggle 'Buffalo Billion' solar panel factory. When it comes to state budget priorities, spending half a percent of the budget on ventilators is a no brainer."

Europe is stocked up on freedom molecules.


Energy Information Administration (3/24/20) reports: "European natural gas storage inventories as of March 1, 2020, were 60% full—the highest ever recorded level for the start of March, according to Gas Storage Europe’s Aggregated Gas Storage Inventory (AGSI+). European stock levels for both January and February 2020 were the highest ever recorded for those months. Europe’s high levels of natural gas in storage are the result of a mild winter, which limited winter heating demand, and growing natural gas imports by pipeline and as liquefied natural gas (LNG)...Russia and the United States increased LNG exports to Europe last year by an estimated 1.4 Bcf/d and 1.5 Bcf/d, respectively, compared with 2018. The United States has been the largest LNG supplier to Europe since November 2019, and in February 2020, LNG imports from the United States reached a new record high at 5.1 Bcf/d—nearly double the volume of Europe’s second-largest supplier, Qatar." 

Energy Markets

 
WTI Crude Oil: ↓ $23.54
Natural Gas: ↑ $1.69
Gasoline: ↓ $2.08
Diesel: ↓ $2.65
Heating Oil: ↓ $107.99
Brent Crude Oil: ↓ $26.27
US Rig Count: ↓ 767

 
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