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DAILY ENERGY NEWS | 10/04/2024

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California is banning new truck sales? That's a big 10-4.

Wall Street Journal (10/3/24) editorial: "Want to know how the Biden-Harris electric-vehicle mandate—which they claim isn’t a mandate—will work in practice? Look no further than Kamala Harris’s state of California where auto dealers are restricting sales of diesel-powered trucks to meet the state’s EV rules. This news came in a public comment filed by the National Automobile Dealers Association with the Environmental Protection Agency regarding California’s Advanced Clean Fleets rule. The regulation says “zero-emission” trucks must be a growing share of semi-truck fleet sales. California imposes a similar mandate for passenger cars.Trouble is, truckers aren’t buying electric big rigs because they can’t afford them even with $40,000 in federal tax credits. Electric trucks cost twice as much as diesel-powered rigs and have a limited driving range—150 miles on average, compared to between 1,000 and 1,500 for diesel trucks. There are also few truck charging stations. Yet under California’s rules, 'dealers are restricted from selling a diesel truck unless they sell a ZEV truck,' the dealer group reports. The result: 'New class 8 truck sales (ZEV and Diesel) were down 50 percent year-over-year in June 2024...Manufacturers will have no choice but to produce more EVs to comply, and if EVs don’t sell, sales of gas-powered cars will have to be restricted. This is a back-door ban on gas-powered cars, even if Ms. Harris won’t admit it."

"A stable and secure supply of crude oil to meet the demands of citizens and businesses, as well as continuous, uninterruptible, dispatchable electricity, are both non-negotiable requirements for sustainable economic growth, not just for California but for the entire country."

– Ronald Stein,
The Heartland Institute

EV mandates aren't good for consumers, auto-makers, or workers. Who are they writing them for?

Daily Caller (9/25/24) reports: "The Biden-Harris administration’s electric vehicle (EV) push is spurring auto manufacturers to rethink their production processes and cut thousands of jobs in the process, with experts warning the most recent round of layoffs are just the tip of the iceberg. GM announced it will temporarily cut nearly 1,700 factory workers on Saturday as it retrofits its Fairfax, Kansas, factory to manufacture the electric Chevrolet Bolt instead of the gasoline-powered Chevrolet Malibu, joining fellow automaker Stellantis, which revealed plans to lay off 2,450 employees in August as it discontinues the classic version of its Ram-1500 truck in favor of an electrified pickup, according to Bloomberg and a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notice. The layoffs are a canary in a coal mine for the blue collar job losses that the Biden-Harris administration’s EV push will create, as the vehicles require less labor to manufacture and depend more on Chinese parts than their internal combustion engine counterparts, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation...Deindustrialization and globalization has led to a massive decline in traditional blue-collar jobs, with blue-collar work falling from 31.2% of total nonfarm employment in 1970 to roughly 13% in 2016, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research."

Good news for Hoosiers.

Bloomberg (10/3/24) reports: "Duke Energy Corp. plans to extend the life of its largest coal-fired power plant, pushing aside its climate goal to shutter all facilities that burn the dirty fuel by 2035.The utility said it plans to operate its massive Gibson Station in Indiana through 2038, according to a presentation about its resource plan for that state posted on its website Thursday. The company previously said it would shutter the plant by 2035, in line with its broader plan to be entirely coal-free by that year. A Duke spokeswoman said in an email that the company’s emission-reduction goals remain unchanged but aren’t linear. She added that resource plans are not final decisions and are revised regularly...Some US utilities are struggling to meet ambitious climate goals set before electricity forecasts began spiking amid tech giants’ move to build new data centers for artificial intelligence. This increase after a generation of flat to sluggish demand growth threatens to complicate the energy transition and efforts to shut down fossil fuel power plants."

If you're worried about your freezer thawing during a renewable-induced blackout, Biden and Harris have a plan: make meat unaffordable.

Epoch Times (10/3/24) reports: "Food prices—especially meat and poultry—have skyrocketed in the past four years and could be exacerbated further next year when new EPA rules for meat processors go into effect...Next year could see still higher meat and poultry prices at the grocery store, analysts say. That’s because an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposal is expected to put some meat processors out of business, resulting in potential job losses and supply chain disruptions. The EPA announced a proposed rule change governing effluent, or wastewater, limits for meat and poultry processors in January of this year, followed by public comment in the spring...The EPA estimates that under its preferred option, at least 16 facilities will be forced to close, impacting at least 17,000 jobs. At the top end, the EPA estimates up to 53 plants could close. Prices for beef, chicken, turkey, and pork products are expected to increase slightly while availability of meat and poultry is expected to decrease slightly, according to the agency...Less pollution would combat climate issues and work to address pollution in poor and minority communities, according to the EPA."

If you oppose a carbon tax, tariff, tracker, or fee take a stand and contact us.

Tom Pyle, American Energy Alliance

Daren Bakst, Competitive Enterprise Institute

Phil Kerpen, American Commitment

Andrew Quinlan, Center for Freedom and Prosperity

Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform

George Landrith, Frontiers of Freedom

Thomas Schatz, Citizens Against Government Waste

Richard Manning, Americans for Limited Government

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
Annette Meeks, Freedom Foundation of Minnesota
Isaac Orr, Center of the American Experiment
David T. Stevenson, Caesar Rodney Institute
John Droz, Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions
Jim Karahalios, Axe the Carbon Tax
Mark Mathis, Clear Energy Alliance
Jack Ekstrom, PolicyWorks America
Jon Sanders, John Locke Foundation

Energy Markets

WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $74.11
Natural Gas: ↓ $2.88
Gasoline: ↓ $3.18

Diesel: ↓ $4.02
Heating Oil: ↑ $231.34
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $78.04
US Rig Count: ↓ 620

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