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MORNING ENERGY NEWS  |  04/07/2020
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After everything they've already been given, they still want more.


Bloomberg (4/7/20) reports: "California needs dramatic growth in the number of available charging stations to meet its goal of 5 million zero-emission vehicles within a decade. The state has more than 700,000 electric vehicles on the roads, but places to stop and charge are proving to be a key obstacle. 'Infrastructure has risen to the top of the list, even above the cost of vehicles as one of the key barriers,' said Bill Van Amburg, executive vice president of CALSTART...California has just over 6,200 public charging stations. To meet its 2030 goals, the Golden State needs an estimated 73,000 additional shared charging stations, which amounts roughly to 29 new sites per day. The average last year was four sites opening per day...The state’s near-term goal is 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles and 250,000 charging stations by 2025. Former Gov. Jerry Brown at the end of his term in 2018 expanded the electric vehicle goal to 5 million vehicles by 2030. One thing is known: Public and private investment is needed, Eckerle said. 'It’s coming,' Eckerle said in an interview. 'We need to amplify it more.'"

"My view is that the [CAFE] rule plus the revocation of the California waiver is a huge win for auto buyers and drivers, but it should and could have gone much further in increasing consumer choice, especially in terms of safer vehicles."

 

– Myron Ebell,
Competitive Enterprise Institute

OPEC's oil autocrats don't seem to have a good grasp on the whole "free country" concept.


Reuters (4/6/20) reports: " Major oil producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia are likely to agree to cut production at a Thursday meeting but only if the United States joins the effort, aimed at coping with the disastrous effect of the coronavirus on fuel demand, three OPEC+ sources told Reuters on Monday. Worldwide oil demand has dropped by roughly 30%, or about 30 million barrels a day, at the same time that Saudi Arabia and Russia have been flooding markets with extra supply. Last week, in response to a weeks-long market rout, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, started talking about cutting production, but want other non-OPEC nations to participate, particularly the United States...The United States has not committed to taking part in any deal, which U.S. President Donald Trump has said could take 10% to 15% of world supply off the market. U.S. companies cannot coordinate production due to antitrust laws." 

In today's episode of "you won't believe what some medical publications are focusing on during a global pandemic."


Consumer Choice Center (4/6/20) blog: "Are consumers prepared to be hounded at the pump for fueling up their cars? An article published last week in BMJ, the journal of the British Medical Association, makes an argument for including 'cigarette-style' warning labels on fuel pumps, airline tickets, and energy bills. The warnings would highlight the 'major health impacts' of fossil fuels for both the environment and human health. The researchers behind the article claim this strategy, borrowed from tobacco control efforts, would highlight the 'harmful' effects of fossil fuels and their contribution to climate change...Multiple studies have shown that warning labels are not effective in changing consumer behavior. Faced with increasing warning labels on many products, including those mandated by California’s Prop 65 law that labels almost everything carcinogenic, most consumers just tune out and learn to ignore them. Because ordinary people need fuel for their cars, it doesn’t take much imagination to see such labels easily laughed off."

No time for jet-setting celebrities.


E&E News (4/7/20) reports: "The two most important locations for international climate diplomacy — this year and last — have both been turned into field hospitals. In Glasgow, it's the giant Scottish Event Campus that's now lined with beds. Until last week that venue was set to host the United Nations annual climate talks in November; the new coronavirus has forced a delay of the conference, known as COP 26, until 2021. In Madrid, it's the airport-sized IFEMA fairground that now looks more like a scene from 1918 Spanish flu than the site of last year's COP 25, which drew over 26,000 people with a carnival-like atmosphere that included Harrison Ford and Greta Thunberg. Just like everyone else, climate diplomats have replaced physical gatherings with online video meetings. But, as you've probably discovered firsthand, working from home is not the same. There are more distractions. Things move more slowly, even by the slow standards of climate diplomacy. And, as it turns out, human touch counts."

Energy Markets

 
WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $26.53
Natural Gas: ↑ $1.79
Gasoline: ↓ $1.91
Diesel: ↓ $2.55
Heating Oil: ↑ $106.15
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $33.76
US Rig Count: ↓ 632

 
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