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MORNING ENERGY NEWS  |  06/09/2020
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Governor Ralph is dead set on taking the wealth out of the Commonwealth.


Daily Signal (6/7/20) reports: "While many Virginia residents are still reeling from the effects of COVID-19, their elected officials from Gov. Ralph Northam on down are increasing their financial burdens with radical Green New Deal-style programs, energy policy analysts say. Renewable energy mandates and restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions recently signed into law by Northam, a Democrat, are economically and scientifically unsound, these critics argue...Tom Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, a Washington-based nonprofit that advocates free-market policies, argues that with the Virginia General Assembly’s shift this year from Republican to Democratic control, green energy initiatives became a top priority for newly elected lawmakers at the expense of energy consumers. 'This whole situation is a stark reminder that elections have consequences,' Pyle said in an interview with The Daily Signal. 'The Democratic-controlled Legislature and the governor hid behind the coronavirus pandemic to sneak Green New Deal-type schemes into law that will dramatically increase energy prices for all Virginians.'"

"Antiquated regulations and bureaucratic practices have hindered American infrastructure investments, kept America's building trades workers from working, and prevented our citizens from developing and enjoying the benefits of world-class infrastructure."

 

– President Donald J. Trump

Never question the models. Oops, I meant science. Never question the science! 


Real Clear Investigation (6/4/20) reports: "COVID-19 has proved to be a crisis not only for public health but for public policy. As credentialed experts, media commentators, and elected officials have insisted that ordinary men and women heed 'the science,' the statistical models cited by scientists to predict the spread of contagion and justify the lockdown of the national economy have proven to be far off-base. Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York complained this week about the “guessing business” experts had presented to him dressed up as scientific fact: 'All the early national experts [said]: Here's my projection model. Here's my projection model,' Cuomo said. 'They were all wrong. They were all wrong.'...As Texas Sen. John Cornyn tweeted: 'After #COVID-19 crisis passes, could we have a good faith discussion about the uses and abuses of ‘modeling’ to predict the future? Everything from public health, to economic to climate predictions. It isn't the scientific method, folks.' Whether it’s epidemiology, climate, or economics, says Sally Cripps of the University of Sydney, modelers need to 'acknowledge and explain the uncertainty' in their enterprise. 'The data science community in particular needs a little more humility,' she says. 'It needs to hose down claims about Big Data being a crystal ball, and instead use the data to understand what we don’t know. That is the way forward.'"

I highly recommend the Calm app for all my friends at SEIA...
  

Roll Call (6/8/20) reports: "The solar industry, struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic, faces another threat at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission: a petition that would effectively end a key incentive for installing rooftop solar called net metering. The New England Ratepayers Association on April 14 asked FERC to declare that the agency has jurisdiction over net metering, which requires utilities to buy excess power from customers who generate electricity with their own energy resources, such as rooftop solar panels...The question at the heart of NERA’s petition is whether sales from rooftop solar should be deemed retail sales, which are regulated by states, or wholesale sales, which fall under FERC’s jurisdiction. In decisions issued in 2001 and 2009, FERC has said that net metered electricity sales fall under state authority. NERA, however, contends FERC’s analysis is flawed. If FERC asserts authority over net metered sales, the practice would be effectively killed, according to Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School. The solar industry finds NERA’s petition alarming."

Bereit für die Rechnung?


Bloomberg (6/5/20) reports: "The German program that’s spurred the nation’s switch to green power is buckling under the weight of surging costs and needs an urgent fix. That’s the assessment of one of the scheme’s chief designers, Hans Josef Fell. Designed in 2000 to enable Germany to meet United Nations pledges on climate change, it has pushed renewable energy to make up over 50% of the nation’s energy capacity. Yet the system’s increasing costs have become glaring in the during the coronavirus pandemic, the veteran Green Party lawmaker said. High and guaranteed payments made to investors in clean power plants are the problem Fell said in an interview. German power consumers have to contribute to help finance the payments through a surcharge in their monthly electricity bills, and a quirk of how they’re calculated threatens to send the program’s costs skyrocketing, he said." 

Energy Markets

 
WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $38.22
Natural Gas: ↓ $1.79
Gasoline: ↑ $2.05
Diesel: ↑ $2.41
Heating Oil: ↑ $113.66
Brent Crude Oil: ↓ $40.70
US Rig Count: ↑ 309

 
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