He did what?

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MORNING ENERGY NEWS | 01/25/2021

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Meet the new COVID response, same as the old COVID response. Also, Biden's EO's, Keystone follies, the peaceful transition of power, and much more on the latest Unregulated Podcast. Now streaming on all your favorite platforms including Sound Cloud, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and TuneIn.

"All of this numbers stuff is far beyond the ability of Madame Tussaud Joe to even comprehend. Somehow, his handlers have got him convinced that he is going to save the world by conducting a war on some of the most productive parts of our economy, significantly impoverishing the American people. How long can the media keep the people from figuring this out?"

– Francis Menton,
Manhattan Contrarian

Build Back Better from what? I guess the pandemic will be over by May according to our masters at the WEF.

McKinsey & Company (1/24/2021) blog: "At the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), we engage with business executives, experts, and policymakers to help make Change that Matters. In 2021, there will be two events in place of the usual annual meeting. The Davos Agenda, a virtual event running from January 25-29, will convene 1,500 global leaders under the theme of 'A crucial year to rebuild trust.' (Follow what’s happening during the week on social media via the event’s official hashtag, #DavosAgenda.) A special live annual meeting will be held in Singapore from May 13-16."

Completely detached from reality.

Wall Street Journal (1/22/2021) column: "Any doubt that the Biden Administration plans to slowly regulate fossil fuels out of existence vanished this week...Meanwhile, President Biden is tapping a deep well of green activists who don’t need Senate confirmation to run the Interior Department on a day-to-day basis. Consider Marissa Knodel, who will serve as a new adviser to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. An Interior press release describes her as 'a passionate advocate for climate and environmental justice through a just and equitable transition to a clean energy-based society, and resilient adaptation to a changing climate.' She was previously legislative counsel with Earthjustice advising on federal onshore, offshore, and Arctic oil and gas leasing regulation and 'managed a campaign at Friends of the Earth to stop new fossil fuel development on federal lands and waters.' Now she’ll manage that campaign from a position of power inside the government." Progressives accused Trump appointees of ignoring government scientists merely because they considered the economic impact of regulation. Mr. Biden is explicitly sidelining government scientists to put progressive activists in charge. This is getting little media attention because most of the press agrees with the Biden agenda. But any company producing any fossil fuels can expect to become a target of a federal regulatory onslaught. "

These executive orders make it perfectly clear who Biden is putting first, and it isn't America.

Bloomberg (1/21/21) reports: "U.S.-China ties will obviously be different under President Joe Biden. What’s less clear at this point is how. Biden has already ruled out making any significant changes immediately upon taking office and indeed shares many of the concerns that Donald Trump's administration had about China. He has indicated that he'll be making tweaks, though not before doing a review of existing policy. While it may be months before Biden’s team releases a China plan, there are already some indications of what it might do. The new president has, for example, said he wants to work more closely with Washington’s allies when dealing with Beijing. That will be a marked departure from Trump’s 'America First' stance...Growth trajectories have long indicted that China’s economy would one day surpass America’s to become the world’s largest. When exactly that might happen has been more of a moving target, though recently there has been a growing number of analysts projecting the pandemic pulling that date forward to as soon as 2028. There’s good reason to think that’s true. China this week released data that put its economic expansion last year at 2.3%. The U.S., in contrast, is expected to shrink by 3.5%, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. "

If you read one thing about the Keystone pipeline saga, this is it.

American Spectator (1/22/21) column: "Among many executive actions signed on Inauguration Day to sweep Trump policies out the door along with the man himself, President Biden rescinded approval for the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Keystone XL, according to Biden’s top climate policy adviser Gina McCarthy, 'was not consistent with addressing the climate crisis to the depth and scope that we are planning to address it.' Keystone XL has now played the role of political football for a full decade, and Americans can be forgiven for having forgotten the project’s details...In an if-it-pleases-the-crown overture to the new president, TC Energy offered to spend $1.7 billion on solar, wind, and battery power to operate the system; hire a union workforce; and eliminate all greenhouse-gas emissions from operations by 2030, according to the Wall Street Journal. That companies now feel compelled to make direct pleas to the executive branch for the privilege of finishing their work speaks to the rot in our system...The story of Keystone XL is but a microcosm of U.S. energy policy woes. A fundamental issue is that Congress has ceded its responsibilities to the executive branch. The result is ad hoc policymaking from the presidency. Congress, for better or worse, must reclaim its authority for setting the laws that will govern the U.S. energy industry. Only with coherent legislation — and even bad policies can be coherent — will businesses have the ability to plan, invest, and build without worrying about who will be in the Oval Office next."

Energy Markets

WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $52.67
Natural Gas: ↑ $2.53
Gasoline: ↑ $2.40

Diesel: ↑ $2.63
Heating Oil: ↑ $158.58
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $55.80
US Rig Count: ↑ 424

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