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MORNING ENERGY NEWS  |  03/26/2020
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Hopefully, this idea sticks around after the pandemic subsides. 


Dorchester Reporter (3/25/20) reports: "To protect the health of people while they shop during the COVID-19 pandemic, Boston Mayor Martin Walsh on Tuesday morning issued an executive order allowing plastic bag use in the city for retailers that qualify as essential businesses under a Gov. Charlie Baker executive order. 'During this challenging time, we understand the retail establishments our residents rely on -- like grocery stores, pharmacies, and restaurants -- need added flexibility to best serve their customers,' said Walsh. 'We are adjusting Boston's plastic bag ordinance to give establishments and residents the help they need during this time.' The order permits temporary exemptions from a city ordinance restricting plastic bag use in the city to protect the environment and reduce solid waste. Essential businesses will be allowed to use plastic bags, and will be exempt from the requirement that they charge customers a fee for checkout bags. The order went into effect Tuesday and will remain in effect until the last day of the public health emergency declared by the Boston Public Health Commission."

"Where I live in Virginia, we have signs and shirts that say simply 'No Pipeline,' counting on people to understand which one we mean. I’m inclined to add an 's.' What if we were all for 'No Pipelines' everywhere? The climate of the planet would collapse more slowly."

 

– David Swanson,
World Beyond War

Looks like we need some bigger tanks.


Reuters (3/24/20) reports: "From Canada and the Caribbean to the Baltic and Singapore, oil tanks around the world are filling fast, despite a 50%-100% jump in lease costs, as oil companies and traders scramble to park unwanted crude and refined products. Millions of barrels are struggling to find buyers among industrial users and refiners, which have cut operations as the impact of the coronavirus has destroyed demand and a Saudi-Russia market share battle has led to a flood of supply. Fuel storage rates doubled this month in some onshore European and U.S. hubs as traders rushed to secure tanks in the hope of selling their products at a higher price when the coronavirus outbreak eases and demand recovers. Europe’s Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub saw the cost of storing diesel and jet kerosene rise by between 50% and 100%, traders and industry watchers said. 'Storage prices for gasoil doubled in the last three weeks from 2 euros ($2.16) per cubic metre per month to 4 euros,' said Patrick Kulsen from Insights Global, a firm that tracks oil product storage and exports in the ARA region."

Pandemics aren't new, but our modern experience is truly novel thanks to market forces.


Washington Examiner (3/25/20) column: "In 1722, Daniel Defoe published A Journal of the Plague Year, recounting the Great Plague of 1665 in London. This fictionalized but fact-based narration of the bubonic plague’s last outbreak in England is strangely relevant today, despite advances in the understanding of disease in the three centuries since it was published...But the differences between then and now are surely greater than the similarities, and not just in the sense that the modern scientific understanding of infectious disease is vastly improved. As much anxiety as the current situation brings, the technological advancements that free markets have generated are making today's plague much more tolerable...What's truly astounding is that nearly everyone in the Western world, and a majority of the entire world, possesses at least one device that can access this limitless commerce, news, and entertainment to make life tolerable during the coming weeks of quarantine.For all this, the modern world can thank the free market."

Cause and Effect?  Gov. Cuomo spent $1 billion on the Buffalo Boondoggle Solar Plant, rather than buy respirators.  Gov. Inslee spent $1 Billion on Orcas.  


E&E News (3/26/20) reports: "In the early days of the coronavirus crisis, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) of New York wasn't shy about taking action. He locked down a New York City suburb. He urged schools to close statewide, and he suggested that New York City shut down major streets. Cuomo successfully pushed for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to allow state labs to ramp up testing for the virus. And he took aim at the White House for not doing enough to address the pandemic...Cuomo is not a unique example among climate-minded governors. Several others also have taken proactive steps to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. Gov. Jay Inslee (D) of Washington — who briefly ran for president on a climate-first platform — was one of the first governors to call for the closure of all restaurants, bars, movie theaters and other nonessential businesses. Gov. Jared Polis (D) of Colorado, another climate hawk, was the first governor to set up a mobile testing site." 

Energy Markets

 
WTI Crude Oil: ↓ $23.56
Natural Gas: ↓ $1.64
Gasoline: ↓ $2.06
Diesel: ↓ $2.63
Heating Oil: ↓ $106.64
Brent Crude Oil: ↓ $26.87
US Rig Count: ↓ 760

 
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