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MORNING ENERGY NEWS  |  01/04/2021
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At least they no longer have to pretend that they are concerned about spending.


Roll Call (11/1/20) reports: "The House rules package for the 117th Congress, released Friday, would weaken a procedural tool of the minority, provide key exemptions to a budget rule requiring the cost of legislation to be offset and strengthen congressional oversight provisions. All of those changes are designed to respond to members’ requests, although the new rules don’t go as far as some lawmakers would have preferred...One of the main requests from Democrats across the caucus was that leadership either eliminate or defang the motion to recommit, or MTR, which is a vote afforded to the minority on most bills. The MTR has been used in the past as a procedural vote to kill legislation by sending it back to committee, but in recent years it has become a substantive vote that would actually amend the bill if adopted. In either scenario, it is mostly used as a political messaging vote in which the minority tries to trap the majority into going on the record on controversial policies. The new rules would prevent MTRs from being used to alter bills on the floor. Instead, the minority would only be able to use the motion to send a bill back to committee...Progressives were also pushing for the rules package to eliminate a longstanding pay-as-you-go, or PAYGO, provision that requires legislation that would increase the deficit to be offset. While the rules package does not get rid of PAYGO, it would provide the Budget Committee chairperson the authority to declare legislation providing economic and heath responses to the pandemic, as well as measures designed to combat climate change, as having no cost — effectively a PAYGO exemption."

"Climate policies also have costs that often vastly outweigh their climate benefits. The Paris Agreement, if fully implemented, will cost $819–$1,890 billion per year in 2030, yet will reduce emissions by just 1% of what is needed to limit average global temperature rise to 1.5°C. Each dollar spent on Paris will likely produce climate benefits worth 11¢."

 

– Bjorn Lomborg,
 Copenhagen Consensus Center

Well ain't that something.


Tohoku Univerity (12/7/20) reports: "A team of researchers understands more about the melting of the Greenland ice sheet. They discovered a flow of hot rocks, known as a mantle plume, rising from the core-mantle boundary beneath central Greenland that melts the ice from below. The results of their two-part study were published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. 'Knowledge about the Greenland plume will bolster our understanding of volcanic activities in these regions and the problematic issue of global sea-level rising caused by the melting of the Greenland ice sheet,' said Dr. Genti Toyokuni, co-author of the studies. The North Atlantic region is awash with geothermal activity. Iceland and Jan Mayen contain active volcanoes with their own distinct mantle plumes, whilst Svalbard - a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean - is a geothermal area. However, the origin of these activities and their interconnectedness has largely been unexplored. The research team discovered that the Greenland plume rose from the core-mantle boundary to the mantle transition zone beneath Greenland. The plume also has two branches in the lower mantle that feed into other plumes in the region, supplying heat to active regions in Iceland and Jan Mayen and the geothermal area in Svalbard."

Doing to food security in America what they’ve already done for energy security in California. 


Des Moines Register (1/1/21) column: "I’ve been passionate about conservation and land stewardship throughout my life on our sixth-generation Iowa farm. As I look at the broad challenges facing agriculture moving forward, environmental sustainability and profitability are inextricably linked. Our solutions must center on both. Now that the elections have come and gone, it’s time for Congress to focus on meaningful legislation that will help our economy continue to grow in a smart way. For the agricultural community in Iowa and across the country, that means finding new opportunities to increase revenue while at the same time addressing a defining issue of our generation: environmental stewardship. America’s farmers are on the front lines of the battle to responsibly combat a changing climate and the challenges it presents. Now is the time for innovative, bipartisan solutions that will empower farmers and producers to adapt practices on their land that lead to long-lasting environmental benefits, while laying the groundwork for financial sustainability. For that reason, Congress needs to pass the Growing Climate Solutions Act — and Iowa Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley can help lead the charge."

Because hauling in $7 million to speak to a bunch of Wall Street executives screams fundamental transformation.


Wall Street Journal (12/31/21) reports: "Janet Yellen, President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for Treasury secretary, collected more than $7 million in speaking fees during more than 50 in-person and virtual engagements over the past two years, according to financial disclosures released Thursday. A separate ethics agreement outlined Ms. Yellen’s plans to resign as a consultant to the Magellan Financial Group Ltd. , an investment-fund manager based in Australia, upon her confirmation. Ms. Yellen began consulting for the firm one year after leaving her post as Federal Reserve chairwoman in early 2018. The agreement said Ms. Yellen would seek special authorization for one year when dealing with matters pertaining to Magellan, according to forms posted online by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. The agreement outlines similar steps she would take for 16 additional financial firms or entities from which she collected speaking fees in the past year, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and hedge-fund firm Citadel LLC. Those measures would be in place until one year after the speaking fee was paid. Like many former government officials, Ms. Yellen signed a contract shortly after leaving the Fed with the Washington Speakers Bureau, an agency that helps former heads of state and other political personalities manage scores of speaking requests." 

Energy Markets

 
WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $48.75
Natural Gas: ↑ $2.62
Gasoline: ↑ $2.25
Diesel: ~ $2.56
Heating Oil: ↑ $149.83
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $52.25
US Rig Count: ↑ 393

 
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