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MORNING ENERGY NEWS | 10/01/2020
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** This is the real world impact of the lockdowns. People are losing their livelihoods and no amount of federal money can replace the dignity of work.

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Reuters ([link removed]) (9/30/20) reports: "Marathon Petroleum Corp, the top U.S. oil refiner, is cutting 12% of its workforce amid continued declines in fuel consumption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it said on Wednesday. Refiners and oil producers have been dismissing staff, slashing spending and reducing production to cope with weak prices and a global glut of fuel. U.S. gasoline futures are down 26% from a year ago and oil is trading down a third from where it began the year. Marathon will incur an up to $175 million charge to third quarter earnings for the 2,050 job cuts, it reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. About 20% of the charge will be recouped from its publicly traded pipeline unit, the company said. The Findlay, Ohio, firm disclosed the workforce cuts after Reuters on Tuesday reported employees across the
company had been notified of impending layoffs. The cuts includes staff at its Martinez, California, and Gallup, New Mexico refineries, which in July were designated to close. The shutdowns and job cuts will lower overall costs beginning next year, Marathon said in a statement."


** "Carbon neutrality is a bogus goal, and China admits this with its actions as opposed to its words. If our nation’s leaders fall for this trick, we will have deserved to lose our dominant role in the world -- and we may never get it back."
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– Frank Lasee, Real Clear Energy ([link removed])

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Tax Foundation goes weak in the knees for a carbon tax.

** Tax Foundation ([link removed])
(9/30/20) blog: "At the end of 2025, most individual income tax provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) will expire, increasing taxes on individuals. Making these provisions permanent is estimated to reduce federal tax revenues by $176 billion annually (in 2021 dollars). While making these provisions permanent would increase the long-run size of the economy by 1.4 percent, many lawmakers may worry about the potential increase in the federal deficit from the reduced tax revenues and may look for offsetting sources of revenues. One such option is a carbon tax. Introducing a carbon tax in 2021 at a rate of $60 per metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent, growing at 5 percent annually, would raise sufficient federal tax revenues to cover the cost of making the individual provisions permanent. A carbon tax would reduce long-run economic growth by 0.4 percent. In addition to being revenue-neutral, combining these policies would increase the long-run size of the economy by 1 percent, making
it a sustainable pro-growth option. However, this trade would put a disproportionate burden on lower-income taxpayers. "

Instead of asking if it's 'progressive enough' maybe they sould ask if it is feasible or even worth accomplishing in the first place.

** E&E News ([link removed])
(10/1/20) reports: "Joe Biden said yesterday that he can distance himself from the Green New Deal without losing progressive voters. 'The Green New Deal that the president keeps trying to talk about is not a bad deal, but it's not the plan I have — that's the Biden green deal,' the Democratic presidential nominee said during a campaign stop in Ohio. Biden was fresh off the first presidential debate, in which President Trump sought to tie Biden's climate plan to misleading claims about the Green New Deal. The fight has more to do with branding than policy. At the debate, Biden outlined the tenets of his plan; he and Trump then argued about whether that constitutes a Green New Deal, with Trump ignoring or mischaracterizing many of Biden's proposals. 'What the president's trying to do is run against someone other than me,' the former vice president said yesterday. Biden also has muddied the waters by giving shifting answers on the Green New Deal. For the most part, though, he's managed to
sidestep intraparty problems by embracing aggressive policy goals without adopting the language of activists."

We've gone solar!.....and dark!

EIA (9/30/20) reports: "In the first two weeks of September 2020, average solar-powered electricity generation in the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), which covers 90% of utility-scale solar capacity in California, declined nearly 30% from the July 2020 average as wildfires burned across the state. Wildfire smoke contains small, airborne particulate matter particles that are generally 2.5 micrometers or smaller (referred to as PM2.5). This matter reduces the amount of sunlight that reaches solar panels, decreasing solar-powered electricity generation. As of September 28, California wildfires have burned an estimated 3.6 million acres in 2020, an area about the size of Connecticut. According to data from the California Air Resources Board, peak California PM2.5 pollution began increasing in mid-August and reached a record high of 659 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) on September 15, the highest level since record keeping began in 2000. Peak PM2.5 pollution is measured as the
daily average value at the testing site that has the highest measured particulate matter concentration on a given day."

Energy Markets


WTI Crude Oil: ↓ $39.55
Natural Gas: ↑ $2.57
Gasoline: ↓ $2.19

Diesel: ↓ $2.39
Heating Oil: ↓ $114.01
Brent Crude Oil: ↓ $41.67
** US Rig Count ([link removed])
: ↑ 314



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