Follow the money

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DAILY ENERGY NEWS | 05/23/2024

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Apparently 'climate justice' entails transferring money to the Hamas wing of the Democratic Party.

Washington Free Beacon (5/21/24) reports: "The Environmental Protection Agency is facing congressional scrutiny for awarding a $50 million grant to the Climate Justice Alliance, a California nonprofit that has accused Israel of committing genocide and encouraged 'solidarity protest actions' in opposition to the Jewish state. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ranking member Shelley Moore Capito (R., W.Va.) during a press conference Tuesday highlighted the EPA's grant to the Climate Justice Alliance and the group's anti-Israel activism. The top Republican lawmaker also blasted the agency for its ongoing pursuit of its big-money environmental programs and promised to lead oversight of such programs. 'You could ask yourself, is this group really going to be funding climate—again, cleaning up the water and cleaning up the soil and cleaning up the air? Or are they going to be funding things like the protests they had … weeks ago where several of them were arrested?' Capito asked Tuesday. 'Follow the money. We're going to be doing that in the Environment and Public Works Committee,' she continued. 'And I find it rather startling to me that the EPA and this administration are not doing any better research as to where American taxpayers' dollars are going.'"

"Why, without massive subsidies, does the private sector fail to invest in such innovation in pursuit of a competitive advantage? Answer: The unconcentrated energy content of wind flows, sunlight and other green fantasies means that it is very unlikely that their costs ever will fall below those of fossil fuels, which are also likely to enjoy the benefits of innovation."

– B en Zycher, AEI

It turns out that the UN is mostly interested in helping rich people.

Reuters (5/22/24) reports: "Japan, France, Germany, the United States and other wealthy nations are reaping billions of dollars in economic rewards from a global program meant to help the developing world grapple with the effects of climate change, a Reuters review of U.N. and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development data shows... Wealthy nations have loaned at least $18 billion at market-rate interest, including $10.2 billion in loans made by Japan, $3.6 billion by France, $1.9 billion by Germany and $1.5 billion by the United States, according to the review by Reuters and Big Local News, a journalism program at Stanford University. That is not the norm for loans for climate-related and other aid projects, which usually carry low or no interest. At least another $11 billion in loans – nearly all from Japan – required recipient nations to hire or purchase materials from companies in the lending countries. And Reuters identified at least $10.6 billion in grants from 24 countries and the European Union that similarly required recipients to hire companies, nonprofits or public agencies from specific nations – usually the donor – to do the work or provide materials."

Schumer and FERC end-run Congress to socialize energy costs.

Wall Street Journal (5/22/24) editorial: "Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer must have uncorked some vintage champagne last week after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission finalized a 1,363-page transmission rule to accelerate the green-energy buildout. Now Democrats can bypass Congress on permitting reform. FERC’s actions are 'what we need to see the clean energy revolution we catalyzed with the Inflation Reduction Act come to fruition,' Mr. Schumer crowed. What he means is that renewable developers will now capitalize on more taxpayer largesse while states and businesses socialize the costs of their climate policies. Most Americans don’t know what FERC is, and in a normal world they shouldn’t need to. But as energy policy has become politicized, Democrats are using FERC to drive policy they can’t pass in Congress. The goal is to transform the U.S. electrical grid to accommodate solar and wind power while rolling over states that object."

Mind the gap.

Oil Price (5/19/24) reports: "While solar and wind power installations and power generation are booming in Europe, policymakers need to address the growing gap between baseload capacity and soaring intermittent renewable electricity. Europe still has a lot of work to do in providing flexible and reliable grids to handle the soaring share of renewables in electricity generation and consumption. Last month, the European Union saw a record-low power generation from fossil fuels and a record-high share of renewables in the electricity mix, energy think tank Ember says. In April 2024, fossil fuels produced less than a quarter of EU electricity for the first time, while the share of renewables, at a record-high for a single month at 54%, was boosted by wind and solar and a recovery in hydropower compared to April 2023, when droughts had diminished the hydropower share of generation. But what happens to wind and solar generation when it is cloudy and windless? It dips and has to be compensated by either other sources of power generation or energy storage. Europe, and the rest of the world, need solutions to tackle the intermittency in wind and solar generation and to expand and overhaul grids so that they are capable of handling surging renewable capacity. Essentially, if the booming wind and solar power doesn’t have a way to access the grid, it’s pointless to tout the record-breaking capacity additions."

Energy Markets

WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $78.15
Natural Gas: ↓ $2.83
Gasoline: ↑ $3.62

Diesel: ↑ $3.91
Heating Oil: ↑ $244.58
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $82.49
US Rig Count: ↓ 617

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