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MORNING ENERGY NEWS  |  09/21/2020
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Good luck selling from under one of those monstrosities. 


VOX EU (9/20/20) reports: "Countries that invest in renewable energy production face frequent opposition from local homeowners. Using a detailed housing transaction dataset covering the whole of the Netherlands since 1985, this column compares the overall impact that wind turbines and solar farms have on housing prices. It finds that tall wind turbines (over 150 meters) have a negative effect, and solar farms generate losses as well (2-3% for homeowners within a 1km orbit). This evidence should be factored into finding the optimal allocation of renewable energy production facilities...Wind turbines make noise, cast shadows, causing flickering, and visually pollute the landscape, typically leading to substantial opposition from the local population, including homeowners. A similar story applies for ground-mounted solar panels, as they reflect ambient sound, sunlight, create a buzzing sound, and are also not so great to look at. In line with a large literature on hedonic pricing, we would expect that such ‘external effects’ capitalize into local house prices. Increasing our understanding of these external effects is important to gaining insight into the optimal allocation of renewable energy production facilities." 

"Let’s redirect the passion behind banning drilling on public lands to fighting energy poverty. We would get a twofer: reducing emissions of GHG emissions and particulate matter while also lifting-up the least fortunate among us."

 

– Chris Wright,
Liberty Oilfield Services

It's time to attack the real problems.


Town Hall (9/18/20) column "Wyatt Totte, 13, and his dog died huddled together in a car, when they sought safety from the flames.  His grandmother died with them, as his mother stood frantically tried to save them. That Oregon tragedy has drawn the most national publicity, but Californians have experienced equally heart-breaking nightmares. The Bear Fire destroyed Camp Okizu, a pediatric center that hosts 700 kids each year. 'Our hearts have been in our throats all day,' the organization said...California’s current Governor Newsom absolves himself of personal responsibility by blaming the fires on climate change. Newsom has proven inconsistent, and failed to rally the human, economic and technological resources of the world’s fifth largest economy to decisively confront the problem.  Blaming worldwide conditions are not going to solve this problem; I’ve been solving real problems for 40 years in the private sector where I didn’t have the luxury of the blame game – I had to get solutions that worked...Wildfire requires military-minded resolve and attack. Assembling a modern, dedicated California Fire Air Attack Force is a key to winning this war. We can win the battle and the war. That starts with demanding and having the right leadership.

In the year of unprecedented everything else, here's another. 


Utility Dive (9/14/20) reports: "Federal regulators on Sept. 1 issued an order reversing 40 years of precedent under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA). The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied qualifying facility (QF) status to a facility in Montana with a net capacity of 80 MW of solar power, the legal threshold a facility must meet to qualify as a small power production facility, asserting that because its gross capacity is 160 MW, it does not meet the legal threshold for a QF. Its order is a departure from precedent set by FERC in its 1981 case Occidental Geothermal, Inc., which determined a facility's eligibility under PURPA should be based on net capacity. Legal experts say the conclusion refines the way that FERC is going to implement its standard for what constitutes a small power producer. But notably, the order intentionally does not address the critical question of whether the facility's 50 MW battery is a separate QF completely and how, if at all, battery storage should be considered in determining a QF's power production capacity."

But won't Portland's lawless Antifa burn it down?


Wall Street Journal (9/20/20) column: "Here’s a fun game. Ask an environmentalist about his top plan of action to fight climate change. You’ll likely get a quick answer urging a carbon-neutral or net-zero-emission clean-energy economy, usually by 2050, echoing the Paris climate agreement. OK, now ask if he’s for nuclear power, which has zero carbon emissions, at which point he’ll usually stare at his shoes and mumble something about high costs. 'The biggest problem with nuclear power,' activist Bill McKibben of 350.org told Techonomy, is that 'it’s really expensive.' Al Gore, who sounds more and more like a revivalist preacher, told Reuters last month, 'They’ve priced themselves out of the market. Electricity from nuclear power plants is by far the most expensive in the world,' while the cost of renewables 'is continuing to go down.' I mention all this now because earlier this month, and almost miraculously, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the design and issued a final safety evaluation report for a Small Modular Reactor, or SMR, by NuScale based in Portland, Ore. NuScale’s design, funded by engineering firm Fluor and the U.S. Energy Department, joins six older federally approved designs. But it’s the first that looks as if it can scale and reduce costs."

Energy Markets

 
WTI Crude Oil: ↓ $40.21
Natural Gas: ↓ $1.95
Gasoline: ~ $2.18
Diesel: ↓ $2.39
Heating Oil: ↓ $113.21
Brent Crude Oil: ↓ $42.25
US Rig Count: ↓ 294

 
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