Clown world update. 🤡

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MORNING ENERGY NEWS | 12/11/2020

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I've got news for you, progressives: you're being cut out. And the fact that you think Mary Nichols is "conventional" is startling.

Bloomberg (12/10/20) reports: "President-elect Joe Biden is facing pressure from dueling factions as he gets close to naming people to carry out his environmental policies: traditionalists who are pushing experienced hands and activists eager for fresh thinking. Progressives have mounted a furious campaign to steer Biden away from nominating more conventional picks such as California regulator Mary Nichols to head the Environmental Protection Agency. They are urging newer leaders focused on environmental justice such as Collin O’Mara, head of the National Wildlife Federation. The tension goes beyond the EPA too, as Biden prepares to nominate people in the coming days for top jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, which coordinates policy across the federal government, and the Departments of Interior and Energy. 'There is a lot of pressure that Biden is getting from corporate Democrats to go with a repeat of Obama, but that isn’t going to cut it in 2021,' said Karen Orenstein, director of the climate and energy program at the progressive environmental group Friends of the Earth. 'He talked a decent game during the campaign about environmental justice and climate change, but so far his picks are not inspiring us.'"

"Because Joe Biden has the empathy to understand that we’re all in this together — in climate change, in the pandemic, in life itself — the president-elect can help lead to healing and hope. A community of conservatives is ready to help."

– Bob Inglis, Former Congressman Who Lost His 2010 Primary by Nearly 3-1

Here's a crazy idea: what if United Airlines made a multi-million investment in its customers?

E&E News (11/1/20) reports: "United Airlines Inc. yesterday announced a multimillion-dollar investment in a planned carbon capture facility that aims to be the largest global attempt to pull carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere. The funding — part of United's goals to become carbon neutral by 2050 — will back 1PointFive, the company developing the direct air capture plant in the Permian Basin. Once built, the facility will be capable of capturing up to 1 million metric tons of atmospheric CO2 per year, developers say, and would be the world's largest direct air capture (DAC) plant. 1PointFive was formed in August by a private equity firm and a subsidiary of Houston-based Occidental Petroleum Corp., which said this month it plans to become a carbon management company in the future. Construction on the plant is not scheduled to begin until 2022. United, which declined to disclose the exact investment amount, said direct air capture is 'one of the few proven ways to physically correct for aircraft emissions' and said its commitment is 'the first to be announced in the aviation industry.' Yesterday, United CEO Scott Kirby said purchasing carbon offsets alone is not enough to achieve its targets."

Here's another crazy idea: What if New York State's pension fund focused on ensuring their pensioners have a secure retirement?

New York Times (12/9/20) reports: "New York State’s pension fund, one of the world’s largest and most influential investors, will drop many of its fossil fuel stocks in the next five years and sell its shares in other companies that contribute to global warming by 2040, the state comptroller said on Wednesday. With $226 billion in assets, New York’s fund wields clout with other retirement funds and its decision to divest from fossil fuels could accelerate a broader shift in global markets away from oil and gas companies, energy experts and climate activists said. The announcement came months after the fund moved to sell its stock in 22 coal companies. New York City, San Francisco, Washington and several smaller cities have also adopted fossil-fuel divestment programs, but New York State’s commitment to an even more sweeping plan is more significant, especially given the state’s centrality to the global financial markets. The state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, had long resisted a sell-off, saying that his primary concern was safeguarding the taxpayer-guaranteed retirement savings of 1.1 million state and municipal workers who rely on the pension fund...With the plan, New York State’s fund has taken a prominent role in a movement that is growing around the world, with pension funds in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Sweden adopting divestment plans. António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, has urged governments, foundations and universities to follow suit."

Occupy Wall Street.

Wall Street Journal (12/7/20) column: "While it will take time to reverse Trump-era regulatory decisions in the Environmental Protection Agency, altering the hundreds of regulatory changes and procurement decisions across the government can drive significant change. From tightening standards for methane emissions by frackers to mandating tougher energy standards for everything from buildings to cars, regulators can make it harder and more expensive both to produce and use fossil fuels. Useful as it remains, however, conventional regulatory pressure is yesterday’s tactic. It is the financial system that drives the allocation of capital, and the considerable power that governments and central banks have over investment decisions is increasingly seen by environmentalists as the key to driving the massive global transformation they seek to address climate change. The key to this strategy is to define climate change as a risk to the financial system. If rising tides can sink stocks, then the supervisory powers meant to prevent market upheavals can be invoked to impose a green agenda on banks, international financial institutions, hedge funds and other market participants. Regulators can mandate accounting standards that penalize investments and activities they deem bad for the planet, and stock exchanges could require listed companies to conform to whatever standards conventional green wisdom believes useful at any given moment. Treasury Secretary-designate Janet Yellen is a longtime climate hawk. Activists hope she will drive an aggressive use of the department’s wide-ranging regulatory and oversight powers to push the green agenda. The Fed is also a likely accomplice. By April it is expected to join the 75-member club of central banks focused on climate change, the Network for Greening the Financial System. Last month’s Financial Stability Report cited climate change-based risks to the financial system for the first time. Already the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund seek to drive borrowers toward more “climate friendly” policies. Combined European and U.S. pressure will likely make both institutions dramatically more active in this field. Prudential regulation of financial markets is the most powerful and the most essential tool in the possession of the administrative state. If the green movement manages a friendly takeover of this system, the effects on investor and corporate behavior could be immense."

If you oppose a carbon tax, take a stand and contact us.

Tom Pyle, American Energy Alliance

Myron Ebell, Competitive Enterprise Institute

Phil Kerpen, American Commitment

Andrew Quinlan, Center for Freedom and Prosperity

Tim Phillips, Americans for Prosperity

Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform

George Landrith, Frontiers of Freedom

Thomas A. Schatz, Citizens Against Government Waste

Richard Manning, Americans for Limited Government

Adam Brandon, FreedomWorks

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
Nathan Nascimento, Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce
Isaac Orr, Center of the American Experiment
David T. Stevenson & Clint Laird, 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

Energy Markets

WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $46.83
Natural Gas: ↑ $2.56
Gasoline: ~ $2.15

Diesel: ↑ $2.46
Heating Oil: ↑ $143.86
Brent Crude Oil: ↓ $50.23
US Rig Count: ↑ 410

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