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DAILY ENERGY NEWS | 05/02/2024
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** Chris Horner sees a slight problem with EPA's attempt to decide how Americans get their energy. I'll give you a hint, it ain't legal.
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Wall Street Journal ([link removed]) (5/1/24) op-ed: "The Environmental Protection Agency last week finalized a “suite of rules” governing electricity producers. The EPA first announced these air, soil and water regulations two years ago, as tools to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by forcing coal-fired power plants to close prematurely. The rules reflect the Biden administration’s 'whole of government' approach to imposing its climate agenda, which puts ideological ambition above the limits of congressionally delegated authority. Soon after the EPA announced this plan in 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court in West Virginia v. EPA struck down the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which also sought what the agency calls 'generation shifting,' from fossil fuel to renewables. The court found no evidence that Congress had granted the EPA the sweeping
power of 'deciding how Americans will get their energy.' This signaled trouble ahead for the Biden strategy, which relied on what was already creative rulemaking in the express pursuit of precisely that goal. Following that defeat, the EPA labored to shield these rules from that same constitutional challenge. But a standard employed by the Supreme Court against supposedly deceitful conduct during the Trump administration should doom the effort...Bureaucratic workarounds of agencies’ limited delegations of power are an affront to the judiciary and to 'our democracy.' The Biden backdoor climate gambit is a good place to draw the line."
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** "With soaring demand for electricity, America is already facing energy poverty in the years ahead. The new EPA rule will make the problem far worse, creating in the years ahead many of the same problems that people keep warning will come from climate change 100 years from now."
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– Mario Loyola, Competitive Enterprise Institute ([link removed])
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They need to change the slogan "As California goes, so goes the nation" to "What happens in California should stay in California."
** San Francisco Chronicle ([link removed])
(5/2/24) reports: "North Beach resident Serena Satyasai never thought much about her utility bill, but that was before February when California’s electricity prices rose to become the highest in the contiguous United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Satyasai’s Pacific Gas and Electric bill jumped by about $100 compared to the same month last year. Like many of PG&E’s 5.5 million customers, she’s having to rescript her monthly budget around these rising costs. Propelled in large part by PG&E, which hiked residential electricity rates by 20% for about 16 million Californians in January, the state high electricity prices are second only to Hawaii, which is always an expensive outlier because of the costs of shipping oil to the far-flung archipelago...The company attributes about 85% of January’s rate increase to covering the costs to modernize, upgrade and strengthen its aging electric and natural gas infrastructure at a time when climate change has made the
state increasingly vulnerable to storms and wildfires...Californians’ utility bills could also be impacted by a controversial proposed monthly fixed charge of about $24."
You'd think an old 18 wheeler man like Biden would have a little more appreciation for the vehicles that keep America trucking...
** CNN ([link removed])
(5/2/24) reports: " President Joe Biden has revived a debunked tale about his past – his fictional claim that he used to drive an 18-wheeler truck. Biden has repeatedly embellished or invented biographical tidbits. In 2021, he claimed during a tour of a Mack Trucks facility: 'I used to drive an 18-wheeler, man,' then added, 'I got to.' At a separate 2021 event, he told college students studying truck technology, 'I used to drive a tractor-trailer,' adding, 'I only did it for part of a summer, but I got my license anyway.'...Biden’s claims were fact-checked at the time as false. But on Tuesday, during a campaign event in Florida, Biden said it again. A supporter told him, 'The only reason I have a pension is because of you.' (The supporter appeared to be referring to the Biden administration’s $36 billion in aid to prevent steep pension cuts for more than 350,000 union workers and retirees, including truck drivers.) Biden responded: 'Well, we did get that done. Anyway. Besides, I used to
drive an 18-wheeler.' Facts First: Biden’s claim remains untrue. There is no evidence he ever drove an 18-wheeler...When CNN inquired about the claim in 2021, the White House noted that Biden once had a part-time job driving a school bus (which is not an 18-wheeler or a tractor-trailer) and that, as a US senator in 1973, he spent a night riding in a cargo truck (not driving it)."
I thought Jeff Bezos moved to Florida? Why is he still trying to bail out Governor Green Jeans?
** Bloomberg ([link removed])
(5/1/24) reports: "When regular gas prices in Seattle blew past $5 last month, it appeared to play into the hands of conservative activists and politicians who say the surefire way to bring down fuel prices is repealing Washington state’s most ambitious climate policy: a cap-and-trade program. Created under Washington’s 2021 Climate Commitment Act, 'cap and invest,' as it’s known in the state, requires companies with high emissions to pay for their pollution in a carbon market that began operating last year. It’s raised roughly $2 billion to help fund state programs. November’s ballot initiative I-2117, bankrolled by a wealthy Seattle-area investor, would repeal that law and prevent anything similar from taking its place. Deep-blue Washington and its outgoing Governor Jay Inslee, who put climate at the top of his agenda, have sought to lead the US in carbon-cutting commitment. But the backlash to his signature policy could come with its own serious costs to the environment that would
extend beyond the state...Meanwhile, some unlikely bedfellows have come together to defend the climate program. Organized labor joined forces with some of the state’s largest companies, including Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp. Environmental groups are backing the effort alongside oil major BP Plc. In a 'No on 2117' press release, BP said it urged state voters 'to vote no on this initiative and keep the state’s carbon pricing program alive.' The coalition has raised more than $11 million to defeat the repeal initiative. (Chris Stolte, a co-founder of Tableau Software Inc., gave $1 million. So did Bill Gates.) In a coalition video, a wildland firefighter, a dairy farmer and a solar power entrepreneur all describe repeal as the costlier option."
Energy Markets
WTI Crude Oil: ↓ $78.81
Natural Gas: ↑ $2.02
Gasoline: ↑ $3.67
Diesel: ↓ $4.00
Heating Oil: ↓ $243.57
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $83.45
** US Rig Count ([link removed])
: ↓ 626
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