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MORNING ENERGY NEWS  |  03/30/2020
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I'd like to hear the greens argument against this one.


The Hill (3/27/20) reports: "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Friday that it will extend the amount of time that winter gasoline can be sold this year as producers have been facing lower demand due to the coronavirus. It will allow companies to sell the winter-grade gasoline through May 20, whereas companies would have previously been required to stop selling it by May 1 to protect air quality. 'Due to the steep fall-off in gasoline demand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, gasoline storage capacity is limited and more time is needed to transition the distribution system in order to come into compliance for the summer driving season,' the EPA said in a statement...The moves to bolster the industry come as it is facing plunging prices from a decrease in demand due to the coronavirus, which has been forcing people to remain at home. It also follows a sweeping announcement by the EPA that it would suspend its enforcement of many environmental laws due to coronavirus."

"The current crisis in the U.S. economy is, in miniature but concentrated form, precisely what the Left has in mind in response to climate change: shutting down large sectors of the domestic and global economies through official writ, social pressure, and indirect means, in response to a crisis with potentially devastating and wide-ranging consequences for human life and human flourishing."

 

– Kevin D. Williamson,
The National Review

The market provides.


CNN (3/27/20) reports: "Dyson has received an order from the UK government for 10,000 ventilators to support efforts by the country's National Health Service to treat coronavirus patients. James Dyson, the company's billionaire founder, confirmed the order in a letter to employees shared with CNN on Wednesday. 'A ventilator supports a patient who is no longer able to maintain their own airways, but sadly there is currently a significant shortage, both in the UK and other countries around the world,' Dyson wrote. Dyson said the company had designed and built an entirely new ventilator, called the 'CoVent,' since he received a call 10 days ago from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. 'This new device can be manufactured quickly, efficiently and at volume,' Dyson added, saying that the new ventilator has been designed to 'address the specific needs' of coronavirus patients. A spokesperson for the company, which is best known for its vacuum cleaners and hand dryers, said the ventilators would be ready by early April. Dyson, who has wealth worth $10 billion according to Bloomberg, wrote in his letter that he would also donate 5,000 units to the international effort to tackle the pandemic."

Too much of a good thing isn't good for anybody.


Bloomberg (3/28/20) reports: "The global oil market is broken, overwhelmed by an unmanageable surplus as virus lockdowns cascade through the world’s largest economies. Onshore tanks in many markets are full, forcing traders to store excess oil in idle supertankers. Refineries are starting to shut down because nobody needs the fuels they produce. In physical oil markets, barrels are already changing hands for less than $10, and in a few landlocked markets producers are paying consumers to take away their crude. 'The physical oil market has seized up,' said Gary Ross, an influential oil watcher and chief investment officer of Black Gold Investors LLC. 'The logistics are struggling to cope because we are facing a catastrophic loss of demand.' Oil traders say it’s likely to get worse this week. The root cause is an accelerating plunge in consumption that’s without precedent since a steady flow of oil became essential to the global economy more than a century ago. The great crash of 1929, the twin oil shocks of the 1970s and the global financial crisis don’t come close."

Let's get off American Oil and Gas!  Chinese Solar is much, much better...


E&E News (3/27/20) reports: "The novel coronavirus has presented the solar industry with an unsavory smorgasbord of problems all at the same time. Many it shares with other businesses, but one it has nearly all to itself: a funding model that puts it at heightened risk. It is called the solar investment tax credit. In good financial times, the ITC is a boon and has been essential to making solar the major energy player it is today. But in bad times, like right now, its convoluted rules could shove lots of promising projects into oblivion. 'If you come online after the ITC' deadline, said Sheldon Kimber, the CEO of solar developer Intersect Power, 'you're just dead.'...The industry sought but did not get changes to the ITC in the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package that Congress is on the cusp of passing. With the Senate adjourning until April 20, any relief is at best a month away. Meanwhile, supplies from China, which was hit first by COVID-19, are finally on the way but arriving with agonizing slowness. Companies in every part of the supply chain are warning they might not fulfill their contracts. Virtual work and shelter-in-place orders make it unclear whether projects can proceed. City and state officials are working from their own homes and can't get permits out the door. And investors are worried." 

Energy Markets

 
WTI Crude Oil: ↓ $20.38
Natural Gas: ↓ $1.64
Gasoline: ↓ $2.01
Diesel: ↓ $2.60
Heating Oil: ↓ $103.89
Brent Crude Oil: ↓ $22.92
US Rig Count: ↓ 726

 
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