Been there, done that

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DAILY ENERGY NEWS | 08/26/2024

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We've been down this road before. It didn't go well.

Market Oracle UK (8/24/24) op-ed: "Kamala Harris is going to fix price inflation. As she explains it, greedy corporations are arbitrarily raising prices and causing inflation. She will stop this 'price gouging' and inflation will go away. The problem with this plan is greedy corporations don’t cause price inflation. Greedy politicians do. But Harris isn’t interested in fixing herself, so she will scapegoat the people who produce and distribute your food and empty shelves along the way. Of course, if you look at it the right way, it’s a brilliant plan. You won’t pay as much for groceries because there won’t be anything on the shelves to buy. That’s what you get when government mandates price controls – shortages. And price controls are exactly what Kamala means when she says she’s going to stop 'price gouging.' This is basic economics. When you artificially hold the price of something lower than it otherwise would be, supply falls and demand increases. This causes shortages. And it’s not like this is some untried theory. President Richard Nixon imposed price controls in the 1970s. Guess what. There were shortages! Those of you who are old enough will remember the gas lines in the early 1970s. Even the government admits this. In 1973, a Senate report concluded that price controls caused a breakdown in energy production and distribution and the shortages were 'far more extensive than anticipated.' Robert Bradley Jr at the Institute for Energy Research explained exactly what happened. 'Frozen prices did not address the underlying cause of expansionary monetary policy. Nor did it override the market’s continually changing scarcity values. With demand artificially encouraged and supply discouraged, strife with an everyday, essential commodity resulted.'”

"If EVs truly offer superior value, consumers will choose them without government intervention. The fact that so many current EV owners are looking to switch back to conventional vehicles speaks volumes."

– P atricia Patnode, CEI

Elections have consequences.

Oil Price (8/20/24) reports: "GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump has promised to reduce energy costs by half by reversing current federal government policies in his first year in office if he gets elected. Trump was speaking at an event at a defense manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania and said that if he enters the White House, during his first year he would remove future mandates for electric cars and cancel 'green energy' policies, according to a report by UPI. Trump went on to warn those in attendance that if Harris wins the presidential vote, energy costs would triple and quadruple, and the U.S. 'won't be producing a drop of oil.' He also accused the Biden administration of a 'regulatory jihad to shut down power plants.' The Biden administration indeed has a very different energy policies agenda than Trump and Harris has indicated she would stay in the transition lane if she enters the White House as president. Trump, on the other hand, has remained a staunch supporter of what he calls U.S. energy dominance, encouraging as much oil and gas production as possible to turn the country into a self-sufficient one in terms of energy and extend its international influence through energy exports."

The lies you tell yourself.

The Unregulated Podcast #196 (8/25/24): On this episode of The Unregulated Podcast, Tom and Mike unpack the DNC, California's diminished status, the troubling pattern of lying from Tim Walz, EVs, and much more.

Listen now

This won't make EVs any cheaper.

Deutsche Welle (8/19/24) reports: "A series of headline-grabbing car fires in South Korea are driving distrust of electric vehicles (EVs), in what local media have dubbed 'EV-phobia.' South Korean officials met last week to discuss vehicle safety, and called on all car manufacturers to increase transparency and name their battery suppliers. On August 1, a Mercedes-Benz EV caught fire in the underground parking lot of an apartment complex in the city of Incheon. It took firefighters more than eight hours to extinguish the blaze. Twenty-three people required hospital treatment, around 140 vehicles were damaged, and 1,600 homes were affected by electricity and water outages for a week. In separate incident several days later, a Kia EV6 burned out in a parking tower in South Chungcheong Province, with the blaze lasting more than 90 minutes before it could be brought under control. The cause of both fires is believed to have been the vehicles' batteries... Responding to government calls for more transparency, carmakers have begun providing details of battery suppliers on their websites for the South Korean market. This measure had not been required previously in South Korea, but is mandated elsewhere in the world, including the EU. Mercedes-Benz Korea was initially criticized for what was seen as a half-hearted response to the Incheon fire, but now seems to be attempting to rebuild its reputation. Mercedes-Benz Korea CEO Mathias Vaitl on Wednesday evening spoke with around 150 residents of the apartment complex where the fire had broken out, pledging to consider additional financial assistance for those inconvenienced by the incident. Mercedes-Benz initially announced that it would provide compensation of 4.5 billion won (€3 million; $3.4 million), although residents said that figure was not enough."

Fingers crossed isn't an energy strategy.

EnergyPoint Research (8/21/24) reports: "Wind and solar energy have big limitations and drawbacks that make seem to make them unsuitable for what many of their advocates are attempting to do with them. To wit, our energy system is an always-on, always-needed economic asset. Optimizing it requires more than just piling on solar panels and wind turbines, and crossing our fingers that the stars align day-in and day-out. When it comes to energy, getting correct answers requires work. And developing a deeper understanding of the complex and dynamic nature of electricity production and consumption is essential to getting the grid right... Given what we calculate as a real-world breakeven for generation of almost $130 per MWhr for a PV-hybrid system—even after favorable assumptions—we find claims that solar power is the 'cheapest' form of power very likely to be false. How could they be anything but when coal and gas-fired generation could serve this same grid at anywhere from half to a quarter of the breakeven for a PV-hybrid system? We conclude renewables are like Usain Bolt—a performer that can impress in short bursts, but not in the long run. That means solar’s not the answer to solving climate change or meeting our energy needs any more than sprinting is the right choice for running a marathon. Pretending otherwise can only lead to serious problems."

Energy Markets

WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $77.02
Natural Gas: ↓ $1.96
Gasoline: ↓ $3.35

Diesel: ↓ $3.69
Heating Oil: ↑ $235.49
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $81.27
US Rig Count: ↓ 627

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