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MORNING ENERGY NEWS | 04/17/2020

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RFS should be repealed. In the meantime...

FAJC (4/16/20) blog: "Governors from five states released a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler calling for an expedited waiver of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) renewable volume obligations (RVO). The letter outlines how high RFS compliance costs are putting American fuel supplies and refining jobs at risk as they face plummeting transportation fuel demand associated with the extensive COVID 19-related lifestyle and travel restrictions. The cost of RFS compliance credits, known as 'renewable identification numbers' (RINs), rose to 41 cents Wednesday—an increase of 178% since the beginning of 2020—creating a substantial burden for refiners at a time when the U.S. economy and fuel demand has crashed...The letter to Administrator Wheeler is signed by Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, Gov. Gary Herbert of Utah, Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, and Gov. Mark Gordon of Wyoming. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards filed a waiver request last week. Collectively, the states requesting RVO waivers account for a broad swath of total U.S. refining capacity."

"In America, environmentalists often demand that businesses only produce goods that are sourced with fair trade, environmental, and human rights standards firmly in place. Will Green New Deal advocates hold to such principles when sourcing all metals and minerals needed for their renewable technologies?"

– Paul Driessen, Heartland Institute

Completely, and utterly, unhinged from reality.

Washington Times (4/16/20) reports: "Alec Baldwin said God may have no other choice but to inflict the coronavirus on mankind as a means of caring for the environment. The celebrity activist pivoted from hot takes on President Trump’s handling of the pandemic — last week he excoriated the commander in chief for threatening to cut funding from the World Health Organization — to the contagion’s possible benefits. 'This crisis may reveal some unintended consequences,' he began a series of tweets Thursday. 'Many may remain working at home, thus reducing traffic and eliminating the need for superfluous office space. Some manufacturing may cease and never return for a variety of things we don’t really need.' Mr. Baldwin then offered the implosion of the airline industry as a source of optimism for green activists around the globe. 'The airline industry may contract, which is not a bad thing as the environment is concerned,' he wrote. 'The Coronavirus May be God’s best hope for environmental stewardship.'"

What could go wrong with buying Chinese Energy and plugging into our essential Grid?

E&E News (4/17/20) reports: "The Trump administration is moving to place tariffs on a type of solar panel that had previously been exempted — a move that analysts say could hurt the industry at a time when it is struggling because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. In a notice published in the Federal Register yesterday, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said it had determined that cheap foreign imports of bifacial panels would discourage U.S.-based manufacturers from making them, while depressing prices for domestic monofacial panels. Bifacial panels can collect sunlight on both sides, allowing them to produce roughly 10% more power over their lifetimes at lower cost, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory...Such a ruling would close off 'perhaps the most significant opportunity for utility-scale solar projects to avoid the Trump Administration's solar product trade remedies,' they wrote It would also strike a blow to solar development at a time of catastrophic fallout from the pandemic. Solar and other renewable power companies shed some 16,500 jobs in March, according to an analysis commissioned by clean energy groups."

Oh...

Los Angeles Times (4/6/20) reports: "When the coronavirus hit China late last year, America’s solar industry immediately started worrying about manufacturing. Asia is the main source of panels and other equipment, and with residential installers anticipating a bumper year, a bottleneck in the supply chain could be a major hindrance. Turns out the industry’s biggest 2020 quandary is very different: dwindling demand...'When the virus first hit, everybody was like, "Oh, my God, Chinese manufacturing,"' says Tara Narayanan, a solar analyst at BloombergNEF. When the coronavirus hit China late last year, America’s solar industry immediately started worrying about manufacturing. Asia is the main source of panels and other equipment, and with residential installers anticipating a bumper year, a bottleneck in the supply chain could be a major hindrance."

Honk

Wall Street Journal (4/16/20) editorial: "Among the most overlooked heroes of the 2020 coronavirus crisis are the men and women who haul food and supplies around the country to your local supermarket. Americans can stock up on toilet paper and hand sanitizer—and generally keep themselves fed—only as long as the nation’s truckers keep working. We stress the word “overlooked.” In all the well-deserved tributes to personnel helping to mitigate the damage wrought by Covid-19, truckers usually don’t get a mention. So disregarded are they that when some states imposed shelter-in-place orders in March and early April, they ordered public rest areas closed, too—leaving truckers to figure out on their own where to relieve themselves and park their trucks for a snooze break...Credit Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao for easing the restrictions governing the number of successive hours logged by truckers transporting food and other vital materials, and waiving penalties for expired commercial driver’s licenses. And the federal government has waived regulations prohibiting food trucks from servicing public rest areas, giving truckers at least some variety in hot meals. President Trump gave truckers a shout out on Thursday at the White House, and why not. As a truckers’ industry group slogan has it, without trucks, America stops. Honk if you agree."

If you oppose a carbon tax, please contact us and take a stand.

Tom Pyle, American Energy Alliance

Myron Ebell, Competitive Enterprise Institute

Phil Kerpen, American Commitment

Andrew Quinlan, Center for Freedom and Prosperity

Tim Phillips, Americans for Prosperity

Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform

George Landrith, Frontiers of Freedom

Thomas A. Schatz, Citizens Against Government Waste

Richard Manning, Americans for Limited Government

Adam Brandon, FreedomWorks

Craig Richardson, E&E Legal

Benjamin Zycher, American Enterprise Institute
Jason Hayes, Mackinac Center
David Williams, Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Paul Gessing, Rio Grande Foundation
Seton Motley, Less Government
Nathan Nascimento, Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce
Isaac Orr, Center of the American Experiment
David T. Stevenson & Clint Laird, Caesar Rodney Institute
John Droz, Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions
Jim Karahalios, Axe the Carbon Tax
Mark Mathis, Clear Energy Alliance
Mandy Gunasekara, Energy 45
Jack Ekstrom, PolicyWorks America