Fumbling the bag

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DAILY ENERGY NEWS | 05/28/2024

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Governor Gavin isn't big on doing his homework. Bag bans create more waste.

Washington Examiner (5/27/24) reports: "Both chambers of the California legislature voted in favor of legislation last week that would ban grocery stores and other retailers from giving multiuse plastic bags to customers. Under the legislation, stores would still be able to offer paper bags or plastic bags that are made of at least 50% post-consumer recycled materials and for a 10-cent fee. In the state Senate, SB 1053 passed 31-7, and AB 2236 passed in the state Assembly 51-7. Now both bills will head to the opposite chamber to be voted on. Single-use plastic bags are currently banned in California, but this legislation targets multiuse plastic bags, which have replaced single-use bags. The author of the senate bill, Democratic state Sen. Catherine Blakespear, said in a statement that the current ban on single-use plastic bags in California is not doing enough...New Jersey banned paper single-use plastic bags in 2020, but the decision could have had adverse effects on the state’s carbon impact. According to the Institute for Energy Research, 'Plastic consumption went from 53 million pounds of plastic before the ban to 151 million pounds following the ban' in New Jersey. Because multiuse plastic bags are heavier and use more plastic to be made in the hope the durability will increase the number of times they are used, 'greenhouse gas emissions rose [in New Jersey] 500 percent compared to the old bags in 2015.'"

"With our National Security on the line, and the lives of our Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force military personnel around the world, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm supports the Biden administration efforts to require the U.S. military to implement an all-electric vehicle fleet by the year 2030, telling lawmakers that she believes 'we can get there' !"

– Ronald Stein, P.E.,
The Heartland Institute

If we get to the point where we are arguing over what and how much of Biden's IRA we should cut, that's a win either way.

Politico (5/28/24) reports: "Two of Washington’s most powerful Republican-leaning industry groups are gearing up to defend President Joe Biden’s climate law if the GOP retakes the White House next year — setting up a potential collision between big business and a future Trump administration. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute largely opposed the Inflation Reduction Act two years ago, when Congress passed it entirely with Democratic votes...Tom Pyle, president of the right-leaning American Energy Alliance and former Trump transition team lead, said there’s not a definitive Republican position on repealing the climate law. 'There are a lot of options,' he said. One could be to reprogram the money. The Energy Department’s Loan Program Office, for instance, could dole out money for natural gas projects that have not traditionally been considered 'clean.' Lately, Republicans have been focused on attacking the Biden electric vehicle push. They appear to be following Trump’s lead. Asked for clarification on Trump’s views, campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt zeroed in to attack the electric subsidies for EVs, which she contended are 'proving to be a gift to China and a death sentence to the American auto industry.' Trump has in the past threatened to withhold congressionally approved funding he considers wasteful — and contended that a 1974 law prohibiting presidents from doing that is unconstitutional. But he hasn’t spelled out what he would do with the IRA and whether he would be open to keeping any of it. As Pyle put it: 'It’s Donald Trump — you never really know.'"

Give Mayor Pete a break. He's not used to hard questions.

Mo solar, mo problems.

Oil Price (5/27/24) reports: "No other energy source has seen more rapid growth in the United States over the past half a decade than solar power. But soaring solar installations have begun to distort the power distribution and transmission systems in the top solar-producing states such as California, creating challenges for utilities and the grid. Battery storage could help alleviate these challenges, and although it is also surging, it is still lagging behind solar capacity additions. It is no wonder then that despite a continuous decline in U.S. coal power generation, the share of coal in America’s electricity mix is still above 15%, more than any renewable energy source...To cope with the natural and weather-dependent solar power, the grid needs much more battery storage than currently available to smooth out the difference in peak output and peak demand and the large power price variations. Power systems and grid operators need to cope with often negative prices when solar output is at its peak during the day. In California, for example, 'on sunny spring days when there is not as much demand, electricity prices go negative and solar generation must be "curtailed" or essentially, thrown away,' says the Institute for Energy Research (IER). California has nearly 47 gigawatts (GW) of solar power installed that could supply a quarter of the state’s electricity if it could operate 24/7 and on-demand as traditional sources, including coal, natural gas, and nuclear power do, IER analysts wrote in a commentary last week. The ‘wasted’ solar power output and insufficient battery storage are raising electricity prices in the state, according to the institute."

Energy Markets

WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $79.34
Natural Gas: ↓ $2.51
Gasoline: ↑ $3.58

Diesel: ↓ $3.86
Heating Oil: ↑ $246.35
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $83.66
US Rig Count: ↑ 630

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