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MORNING ENERGY NEWS | 12/21/2020

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The 'taxing ourselves into prosperity' crowd has a new bit they want to talk about...

Washington Examiner (12/18/20) reports: "A Republican-backed group pushing for Congress to pass a carbon tax is out with a new study Friday showing it would achieve the same level of emissions reductions as a regulatory approach while producing better economic outcomes. The group, the Climate Leadership Council, is seeking to shore up support for its carbon tax and dividend proposal as policymakers have gravitated toward other ideas. Democrats, including President-elect Joe Biden, are instead embracing regulations and mandates for combating climate change, while Republicans oppose new taxes or regulations and are offering more limited policies. The council, led by former Republican Secretaries of State James Baker III and George Shultz, is seeking to counter that. 'The intent of this study was not to criticize any particular regulation, however, if our objective is to find a global solution to climate change and rapidly decarbonize in a way that promotes the economy and where U.S. families come out ahead, it’s clear our solution is the best approach,' Greg Bertelsen, CEO of the Climate Leadership Council, told the Washington Examiner."

"Lesson: Don’t go to work for the Biden administration if you care about climate change. Become a technologist and entrepreneur who contributes to the long-run socioeconomic progress that represents the world’s real bet for restraining future emissions."

– Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.,
Wall Street Journal

The two-faced North Face, a crush on AOC, Guy Fieri fights for small business, Swalwell's spy, low energy energy bills, and more the latest Unregulated Podcast.

Renewables stock prices soar on news that Congress is once again picking the pockets of hard working American taxpayers.

Bloomberg (12/18/20) reports: "Clean-energy stocks are surging as the U.S. Congress considers extending tax breaks for wind and solar energy. JinkoSolar Holding Co., one of the world’s biggest publicly traded panel producers gained as much as 16% Friday. Sunrun Inc., the biggest U.S. residential solar installer, rose as much as 7.7%. SunPower Corp. climbed as much as 12%. Congress has debated several key bills addressing government funding and coronavirus relief. The tax package will likely include extensions for the production tax credit and the investment tax credit, which have long been major drivers for wind and solar in the U.S. 'The prospect of a tax extenders package is supporting many of the clean tech stocks that are U.S.-centric,' said Pavel Molchanov, an analyst with Raymond James. Fuel cell companies, which also benefit from tax credits, gained too, with FuelCell Energy Inc. climbing as much as 8.4%. Plug Power Inc. rose 5.8%. The incentives have been extended multiple times with bipartisan support in past years and it appears 'there is little resistance' to another extension, Katie Bays, an analyst with FiscalNote Markets, said in a research note Friday."

Climate doomers boldly go where no man has gone before to advance their narrative...

Reality check: all sources of energy have tradeoffs.

E&E News (12/21/20) reports: "The introduction of renewable power sources does not slash greenhouse gas emissions at an equal rate across the United States, suggesting that some states may be fighting an uphill battle in their push to decarbonize, according to a new study. In a study published in Nature Communications last week, researchers at North Carolina State University examined what happened when wind and solar came online between 2018 and 2020 across 12 regional service territories across the country used by grid security officials. 'As we build more renewables, it's important to ask, what is actually going on with this power?' said Harrison Fell, a study co-author and an energy economist at North Carolina State. 'Is it offsetting [fossil fuel] generation?' The team found that wind and solar's success at displacing fossil fuels tended to vary widely, depending on the region's preexisting energy mix as well as the share of renewable power that ended up being exported. In Florida, for example, nearly every new megawatt-hour of solar introduced to the grid led to a megawatt-hour less of natural gas generation. In New York, by contrast, nearly half of the state's wind generation often ended up being exported to other regions. There and in New England, wind tended to replace imports of another low-carbon source, hydropower, meaning it delivered relatively small reductions of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides (NOx)."

Energy Markets

WTI Crude Oil: ↓ $47.23
Natural Gas: ↓ $2.68
Gasoline: ~ $2.21

Diesel: ↑ $2.52
Heating Oil: ↓ $146.31
Brent Crude Oil: ↓ $50.33
US Rig Count: ↑ 397

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