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MORNING ENERGY NEWS  | 07/23/2021
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Founder of new can’t miss battery startup also founded couldn’t miss A123 Systems. Except the only thing missing are millions in taxpayer dollars. Is there no learning curve with this crowd?


Wall Street Journal (7/22/21) reports: "A four-year-old startup says it has built an inexpensive battery that can discharge power for days using one of the most common elements on Earth: iron. Form Energy Inc.’s batteries are far too heavy for electric cars. But it says they will be capable of solving one of the most elusive problems facing renewable energy: cheaply storing large amounts of electricity to power grids when the sun isn’t shining and wind isn’t blowing. The work of the Somerville, Mass., company has long been shrouded in secrecy and nondisclosure agreements. It recently shared its progress with The Wall Street Journal, saying it wants to make regulators and utilities aware that if all continues to go according to plan, its iron-air batteries will be capable of affordable, long-duration power storage by 2025...Form is preparing to soon be in production of the 'kind of battery you need to fully retire thermal assets like coal and natural gas' power plants, said the company’s chief executive, Mateo Jaramillo, who developed Tesla Inc.’s Powerwall battery and worked on some of its earliest automotive powertrains."

"'[Men's] masculine identities became heavily associated with fossil fuel extraction and consumption ... and resistance to sustainable diets.'" 

 

– Asmae Ourkiya,
Doctoral Researcher in Ecofeminism and Environmental Justice at the University of Limerick in Ireland

What's going on with the "infrastructure" battle? The latest insights from The Unregulated Podcast. Now streaming.

The show is available on all your favorite platforms including Sound Cloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Podbay, Blubrry, and TuneIn.

Wait, you mean it's important to keep the lights on?  Coal at highest price in a decade.


Financial Times (7/23/21) reports: "Supply disruptions, a drought in China and rebounding electricity demand have fired up the market for thermal coal, making the world’s least liked commodity one of this year’s best-performing assets. Since the start of the year, the price of high energy Australian coal — the benchmark for the vast Asian market — has climbed 80 percent to almost $146 a tonne, its highest level in more than a decade. Its South African equivalent is also trading at its highest level in more than 10 years, rising 44 percent in 2021, according to the latest weekly assessment by commodity price provider Argus. That puts the coal benchmarks ahead of two of this year’s best-performing asset classes: real estate, which is up 28 percent, and financial stocks, up 25 percent. Only Brent crude, up 44 percent, boasts comparable gains. The resurgence of thermal coal, which is burnt in power stations to generate electricity, highlights the difficulties governments face in trying to make the switch to cleaner forms of energy."

If I were DeSantis, I would run on this...


Forbes (7/19/21) column: "On Friday, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced it would be revising its definition of 'showerhead.' The proposed action is taking aim at a 2020 Trump Administration attempt to increase water pressure for consumers. While the DOE is usually prevented from rolling back its energy standards, the Trump DOE found a workaround by changing the definition of terms like showerhead and 'body spray' to bring more water flow to frustrated bathers...The DOE’s energy regulations bestow benefits on consumers of these products in the same way that banning grocery stores would. Sure, it might cut monthly expenses dramatically for families, but only because people have a harder time finding food. When environmentalists and regulators claim they are making consumers better off by banning products people would otherwise purchase, what they really mean is consumers are making choices they don’t approve of. These enlightened individuals could choose better for them...In reality, energy efficiency regulations create complex tradeoffs between consumer preferences, economic efficiency, and economic growth. As the Biden Administration’s anti-showering regulation makes clear, consumer preferences and social welfare often don’t go hand in hand."

So what?  We can just print all the money needed for the Green New Deal right?  What could go wrong?


Oil Price (7/22/21) reports: "The world will need to invest up to $173 trillion in greener energy infrastructure and supply over the next 30 years if it wants to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, BloombergNEF said in its New Energy Outlook 2021 report published on Wednesday. If governments and companies want to see the coveted 2050 net-zero emissions they have been racing to pledge in recent months, they would need to invest between $92 trillion and $173 trillion in the next three decades, according to BNEF. The energy transition that would be compatible with a net-zero world in 2050 would need rapid scaling of investment, the research firm says, adding that 'the route to net-zero remains yet uncertain.' According to BNEF, the world needs to more than double yearly investments in order to achieve net-zero emissions. Those investments should jump from around $1.7 trillion annually at present to “somewhere between $3.1 trillion and $5.8 trillion per year on average over the next three decades.”"

If you oppose a carbon tax, take a stand and contact us.
Tom Pyle, American Energy Alliance
Myron Ebell, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Phil Kerpen, American Commitment
Andrew Quinlan, Center for Freedom and Prosperity
Tim Phillips, Americans for Prosperity
Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform
George Landrith, Frontiers of Freedom
Thomas A. Schatz, Citizens Against Government Waste
Richard Manning, Americans for Limited Government
Adam Brandon, FreedomWorks
Craig Richardson, E&E Legal
Benjamin Zycher, American Enterprise Institute
Jason Hayes, Mackinac Center
David Williams, Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Paul Gessing, Rio Grande Foundation
Seton Motley, Less Government
Nathan Nascimento, Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce
Isaac Orr, Center of the American Experiment
David T. Stevenson & Clint Laird, Caesar Rodney Institute
John Droz, Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions
Jim Karahalios, Axe the Carbon Tax
Mark Mathis, Clear Energy Alliance
Jack Ekstrom, PolicyWorks America

Energy Markets

 
WTI Crude Oil: ↓ $71.62
Natural Gas: ↑ $4.02
Gasoline: ↓ $3.15
Diesel: ↑↓ $2.62
Heating Oil: ↓ $212.64
Brent Crude Oil: ↓ $73.50
US Rig Count: ↓ 555

 
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