Your Morning Energy News
View this email in your browser ([link removed])
MORNING ENERGY NEWS | 01/27/2021
Subscribe Now ([link removed])
** Executive orders don't change the laws of physics.
------------------------------------------------------------
Power Magazine ([link removed]) (1/25/21) reports: "A report from a major environmental group said that coal-fired power generation will continue to play a large role in U.S. electricity production for at least another 10 years. The Sierra Club report published Jan. 25, based on a review of integrated resource plans (IRPs) from the 50 U.S. utilities most invested in coal-fired and natural gas-fired power plants, said those utilities plan to retire about 25% of their coal capacity over the next decade. The group’s analysis said those companies, which it said account for 43% of U.S. electricity output, do plan to add solar and wind power capacity, with the production from renewables amounting to less than 20% of their current coal- and gas-fired generation...Groups that support thermal power generation have said a goal to decarbonize the power sector over the next 15 years threatens the availability of electricity and could increase
energy costs. The Institute for Energy Research, a group that advocates for deregulation of utilities and free-market policies, in a commentary about the new president’s executive orders issued last week, said, 'the administration’s desire for extensive climate regulations will drive up the cost of energy, but higher energy costs disproportionately harm poor and minority groups. This conflicts with the repeated references to racial justice and inequality throughout the executive orders'.”
** “The Green New Deal was an important framework for what Joe Biden has put on tap, but I mean really, this is the most robust climate change plan ever.”
------------------------------------------------------------
– Jennifer Granholm, Biden Nominee for DOE ([link removed])
============================================================
That was fast. Now do everyone else.
** U.S. News ([link removed])
(1/25/2021) reports: "Native American tribes are exempt from the Biden administration's temporary suspension of U.S. oil and gas leasing and permitting on federal lands, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Interior said on Monday. The clarification comes after an oil-producing tribe in Utah last week asked Interior for an exemption from the 60-day pause, saying it would hit its economy and sovereignty. 'The approval process for oil and gas activities does not apply to tribal and individual trust lands,' Interior spokesman Tyler Cherry said in an email, referring to the secretarial order issued on Jan. 20, President Joe Biden's first day in office. The order, which strips Interior Department agencies and bureaus of their authority to issue drilling leases and permits, appeared to be a first step in delivering on Biden's campaign pledge to ban new drilling on federal acreage permanently. But the immediate backlash from the Ute Indian Tribe reflects the financial strain some communities
will face from a freeze in the government's fossil fuel permitting program. While some tribes opposed fossil fuel development, others are drilling the vast oil and coal reserves on their land. In a letter to acting U.S. Interior Secretary Scott de la Vega last week, the Ute tribe said energy development was critical to providing services to its members."
Seriously, these political gestures hurt more than just one group.
** Fox News ([link removed])
(1/26/21) reports: "In his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to halt the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which was meant to transport Canadian crude oil to the U.S., citing the climate-change crisis as the reason. The move swiftly eliminated the estimated 11,000 U.S. jobs – including 8,000 union jobs – the project would have sustained in 2021. Neal Crabtree, a welding foreman who began working on pipeline construction as an apprentice in 1997, was dismayed when he heard the news. 'This is not a time to be making political statements. We need to be finding ways to put more Americans back to work, not the other way around,' he said in an interview with Fox News. A member of Pipeliners Local Union 798, one of four unions whose members will be left without work due to the pipeline’s cancellation, the 46-year-old welder from Arkansas was among the first to be laid off following the order. At the time the cross-border permits for the pipeline were
rescinded, he and his team were in Nebraska working on a pump station for Keystone XL."
BP, BP, BP, BP...that's all folks!
** Reuters ([link removed])
(1/25/21) reports: "Nothing escapes the winds of change now sweeping through BP, not even the exploration team that for more than a century powered its profits by discovering billions of barrels of oil. Its geologists, engineers and scientists have been cut to less than 100 from a peak of more than 700 a few years ago, company sources told Reuters, part of a climate change-driven overhaul triggered last year by CEO Bernard Looney. 'The winds have turned very chilly in the exploration team since Looney's arrival. This is happening incredibly fast,' a senior member of the team told Reuters. Hundreds have left the oil exploration team in recent months, either transferred to help develop new low-carbon activities or laid off, current and former employees said. The exodus is the starkest sign yet from inside the company of its rapid shift away from oil and gas, which will nevertheless be its main source of cash to finance a switch to renewables for at least the next decade. BP declined to
comment on the staffing changes, which have not been publicly disclosed."
Energy Markets
WTI Crude Oil: ↓ $52.03
Natural Gas: ↑ $2.69
Gasoline: ~ $2.40
Diesel: ↑ $2.64
Heating Oil: ↓ $158.79
Brent Crude Oil: ↓ $55.39
** US Rig Count ([link removed])
: ↑↓ 415
** Donate ([link removed])
** Subscribe to AEA's Unregulated Podcast ([link removed])
** Subscribe to AEA's Unregulated Podcast ([link removed])
** Subscribe to IER's Plugged In Podcast ([link removed])
** Subscribe to IER's Plugged In Podcast ([link removed])
** Friend on Facebook ([link removed])
** Friend on Facebook ([link removed])
** Follow on Twitter ([link removed])
** Follow on Twitter ([link removed])
** Forward to a Friend ([link removed])
** Forward to a Friend ([link removed])
Our mailing address is:
** 1155 15th Street NW ([link removed])
** Suite 900 ([link removed])
** Washington, DC xxxxxx ([link removed])
Want to change how you receive these emails?
** update your preferences ([link removed])
** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
