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MORNING ENERGY NEWS  |  11.5.2019
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Watch as Trump frees America from the Paris Climate Agreement...


Axios (11/4/19) reports: "President Trump got a step closer to pulling America out of the Paris Climate Agreement by sending a withdrawal letter to the United Nations, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced in a statement Monday. While Trump indicated this intention in June 2017, today marks the first day his administration could begin the formal process, which will be completed on Nov. 4, 2020 — a day after the 2020 presidential election. While today is more procedural than symbolic in nature, the U.S. beginning the exit process is likely to further dampen the 2015 climate deal's aspirations and remove any slim chance that Trump would ever re-engage on the matter, like he suggested in 2017 he would be willing to...In a Rose Garden speech in June 2017, Trump criticized the accord as a bad deal for America because it allowed China to continue increasing its emissions and because it would hurt the bottom lines of U.S. businesses. But most big companies — even oil producers — say they support the accord. If a Democrat wins the White House in 2020, he or she would have to submit a letter to rejoin the accord, at which point there is a 30-day delay. The U.S. could then be back into the agreement as soon as Feb. 21, 2021."

...meanwhile Chris Horner is working to make sure we aren't dragged into illegal treaties again.


Climate Litigation Watch (11/4/19) blog: "Today the public interest law firm Government Accountability & Oversight, P.C. (GAO) filed suit against the United States Department of State under the Freedom of Information Act, seeking improperly withheld documents relating to the Paris climate treaty. The suit, on behalf of the nonprofit group Energy Policy Advocates (EPA), seeks records requested in June 2019, including the memorandum setting forth State’s 'working law' claiming that the U.S. could enter Paris – what the Obama White House called 'the most ambitious climate agreement in history' – without obtaining Senate approval required of treaties. The complaint notes that EPA has come into possession of a document purporting to be the Obama State Department’s 'Circular 175' memo, a required legal justification which State has been improperly hiding from the public. GAO’s Chris Horner, co-author of a 2017 paper 'The Legal and Economic Case Against the Paris Treaty,' notes that: 'If this document EPA has obtained is in fact the actual Circular 175 memo, it represents a major political and legal scandal with significant implications for U.S. participation in Paris, and the effort to bind the U.S. without following the Constitution.' This memo demonstrates the Obama administration’s unlawful entry into the Paris treaty." 



"The U.S. is proud of our record as a world leader in reducing all emissions, fostering resilience, growing our economy, and ensuring energy for our citizens. Ours is a realistic and pragmatic model."

 

– Mike Pompeo,
United States Secretary of State

Anyone got any ideas on how to deal with the Fed going into climate policy?


Bloomberg (10/30/19) reports: "Central banks should pay more attention to climate change and income inequality, Patrick Honohan, a former governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, argued Tuesday in a new paper from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. 'If central banks applied, to their own bond purchases, the new approach to climate-related financial risk that they are pressing on private bankers, they would reduce their purchases of bonds issued by carbon-intensive firms,' wrote Honohan, who is now a nonresident senior fellow at the Washington think tank. His remarks contrast with a warning earlier on Tuesday from Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann that giving preference to green bonds when conducting asset purchases would overburden central banks and could eventually endanger their independence. Honohan acknowledged that central bankers have traditionally been reluctant to focus on inequality and climate change when pursuing monetary policy goals. 'This now should be corrected, through both deeper analysis of the channels of effect and consideration of side effects in the choice of policy mixes,' he wrote. Incoming European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has also hinted that she may want to harness the institution’s asset purchase program to fight climate change."

Update from the world of academia.


The Telegraph (10/29/19) reports: "Academics have demanded career breaks so they can save the planet from climate change as they warn that 'humanity is on a precipice.' Over 700 British professors and lecturers have signed an open letter to vice-Chancellors and research funding chiefs warning that 'the very future of life on earth is in question' if 'climate breakdown' is not addressed. Since universities are the 'bastions of wisdom and knowledge,' the academics say that their services are urgently needed to combat the 'climate crisis.' The letter, published by the Times Higher Education magazine, is signed by academics from the country’s leading institutions including Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Bristol universities as well as those from the London School of Economics and Imperial College London. They use the letter to urge university leaders to 'support scientists, academics and students to help address the climate emergency through a series of new programmes, fellowships, sabbaticals and voluntary placements to help the critical efforts needed to save all life on our planet.'"

Hard imagine seeing the nightmare of California and thinking "we should try and one-up them."


The Federalist (11/4/19) column: "When I was a kid, I had a green dream that I would one day save the world as the Green Power Ranger. These days, the political left’s 'green dream' is a massive Green New Deal (GND) brainchild of the likes of socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The GND is at least as far-fetched as my green ranger dream. Yet that isn’t stopping the agenda from rampaging — just watch the Democratic presidential candidates speak. The agenda isn’t just national, either, it’s localized in states. Advocates for free markets, affordable energy for everyday people, and expanding our miraculous energy independence must closely watch what’s happening among the states. Case in point: Colorado’s Green Little Deal (GLD)...Climate change is a legitimate issue. But altogether, Colorado’s Green Little Deal, like its big brother Green New Deal, will suffocate ingenuity and prosperity for minuscule environmental benefits. While the Centennial State might get away with this behavior for a time because it’s part of a large, robust American economy, what happens when other states — or the whole country — follow Colorado’s lead in taking this monstrous, government-knows-best approach?"

Energy Markets

 
WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $56.93
Natural Gas: ↑ $2.88
Gasoline: ↑ $2.61
Diesel: ↓ $3.00
Heating Oil: ↑ $194.20
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $62.63
US Rig Count: ↓ 840

 
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