The EV pipe-dream

View this email in your browser

MORNING ENERGY NEWS | 06/30/2021

Subscribe Now

Automakers can't even keep up with the demand for cars people actually want and we're supposed to believe Biden can get us to 100% EVs?

Wall Street Journal (6/29/21) reports: "The sticker price on cars isn’t sticking. In some cases, it’s going up. Auto makers typically set what is known as the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, or MSRP, a figure that appears on the window sticker of a new model. But with inventory tight and customers clamoring for cars and trucks, auto dealers are charging more, increasing the price above sticker and in some cases requiring customers buy certain add-ons, such as protective coatings and accessories, as part of the increase. Some buyers say they have encountered dealerships asking for thousands of dollars above MSRP. And analysts and dealers say the practice is becoming more widespread and occurring on a wider range of vehicles, including more mainstream models that typically wouldn’t be targeted for such price increases. 'I was shocked,' said Ken Baird, a 61-year-old Boca Raton, Fla., resident who was recently shopping for a Kia Telluride. The window sticker on the particular model he was looking at read $45,000, and he said he offered to pay $3,000 over that knowing the vehicle was in high demand. But the dealership wanted $10,000 above the original sticker. 'They said, "I’ll get the $55,000 from someone else,’” Mr. Baird said."

"One of the myriad problems with the climate controversy is that it rarely ever takes place in the context of reality. The notion that fossil fuels and their emissions create a net cost to society is without basis in fact."

– Steve Milloy, Washington Times

Coal at a 13 year high?

Mining.com (6/28/21) reports: " Ivan Glasenberg is Mr. Coal. The most successful commodity trader of his generation built his career on slaking the world’s thirst for cheap energy with countless shiploads of the fossil fuel, a trade that made him both the boss and biggest shareholder at Glencore Plc. Now, Glasenberg is on his way out, stepping down this week after almost two decades as chief executive officer of the resources giant. As the world navigates the transition to a low-carbon energy system, many expect coal to head the same way, replaced by huge investments in solar and wind power. But in his last days on the job, Glasenberg made one last coal deal, spending $588 million buying out the partners in the Cerrejon mine in Colombia. His parting act shows why expectations of coal’s swift demise are likely to be confounded and how mining the black stuff could remain vastly profitable for years to come...For the world leaders working on strengthening pro-climate policies at this year’s COP26 summit in Glasgow, it highlights an awkward truth: the coal industry is booming. Prices are at a thirteen-year high as recovery from the pandemic revives power use around the world. China, which burns half the world’s coal, has been forced to try and cool the market. In the U.S., where coal has been on the retreat over the last decade, consumption is expected to rebound 16% this year. Even in Europe, coal use is inching up as demand stretches electricity grids."

Sleep with dogs, you get fleas.

Wall Street Journal (6/29/21) reports: "Democratic Party progressives are pushing President Biden to include in his infrastructure agenda stringent measures to address climate change, including policies designed to end the nation’s reliance on natural gas as a fuel source. The more the progressives succeed, the more moderate Democrats in energy-producing states become vulnerable to losing seats that are crucial to the party’s hold on Congress, current and former House members say. The White House announced a deal last week with centrist lawmakers in the Senate on a roughly $1 trillion package focused on traditional infrastructure such as roads and bridges. On a separate track, Democrats are advancing a second bill—without Republican input—that among other goals aims to eliminate greenhouse-gas emissions from electric power generation by 2035...The 2020 elections showed the vulnerability that some energy-state Democrats feel from the perception that their party isn’t supportive of the industry. House candidates in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania told voters that they were independent from their party on energy policy and would support energy extraction. 'If Washington or members of my own party try to ban fracking,' said Xochitl Torres Small, a Democrat from New Mexico, in a 2020 television ad seeking re-election, “they’ll have to come through me.’' Ms. Torres Small lost her 2020 re-election bid after a single term."

Even a high school dropout can see Kerry and company are full of it.

Climate Discussion Nexus (6/23/21) column: "Here at the Climate Discussion Nexus we generally manage to contain our enthusiasm for noted climate scientist and grade 11 student Greta Thunberg. But we have to acknowledge that she hit the bulls-eye with her tweet about the leaders of the G7 jetting around and indulging in haute cuisine to promote Net Zero: “G7 spends fantasy amounts on fossil fuels as CO2 emissions are forecast for 2nd biggest annual rise ever. This calls for steak-and-lobster-BBQ-celebration while jet planes perform aerobatics in the sky above the G7 resort!” And did it not occur to any of the pompous potentates that gaping and grinning as Britain’s Red Arrows consumed prodigious quantities of high-octane jet fuel might possibly be an awkward look? Perhaps Ms. Thunberg could turn her profound learning to explaining why COVID lockdowns didn’t put a dent in the increase in atmospheric CO2. Or why politicians promise stuff and then don’t deliver...All these leaders have repeatedly promised to stop climate change, complete with sneering attacks on the motives of anyone who doubts their methods, their understanding or their gravitas. So why should they go to a lavish international conference to promise it again instead of sitting in their offices drinking coffee too long on the warmer and tackling the gruesome details? As John O’Sullivan recently pointed out in The Pipeline, even the G7 pledge to get rid of coal subsidies was made with fingers crossed behind their backs"

Energy Markets

WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $73.44
Natural Gas: ↑ $3.68
Gasoline: ↑ $3.11

Diesel: ~$3.24
Heating Oil: ↓ $212.17
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $75.17
US Rig Count: ↓ 542

Donate

Subscribe to AEA's Unregulated Podcast

Subscribe to IER's Plugged In Podcast

Friend on Facebook

Follow on Twitter

Forward to a Friend

Our mailing address is:
1155 15th Street NW
Suite 900
Washington, DC xxxxxx

Want to change how you receive these emails?
update your preferences
unsubscribe from this list