Setting our priorities

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DAILY ENERGY NEWS | 03/23/2022

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Seriously, how are we supposed to write jokes about these guys?

Fox News (3/15/22) reports: "The Atlantic was mocked by political commentators for showing concern about how a nuclear war would affect the climate. Reacting Tuesday to the piece on 'Fox & Friends,' Hoover Institute fellow Bjorn Lomborg said that he was 'astounded' by the argument. The Atlantic headline on Sunday argued, in addition to killing millions of people, a nuclear war would 'prove disastrous for climate change.' 'On Top of Everything Else, Nuclear War Is a Climate Problem,' the headline of The Atlantic article read. 'A nuclear war would kill tens of millions of people and would also prove disastrous for climate change," a tweet that accompanies the article said.'...After a wave of criticism against the piece, Lomborg said humanity should be concerned about avoiding nuclear war in general. 'Let's get our priorities right. If you want to deal with the problem from Russia, you should be able to have your own energy. That includes getting fracking, maybe going more nuclear. Make sure you get all these energy sources that can actually make you independent instead of just talking about your favorite thing like solar and wind,' he said, adding global warming must be treated as one of many global problems.

"Governmental promotion of ESG is a policy setting the stage for future economic downturns. As the three economic shocks so far in the 21st century have demonstrated, those downturns will be exploited for expanding what have now morphed into whole-of-government programs, unless measures are taken to prevent crisis abuse."

– Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., Competitive Enterprise Institute

Democrats want to mandate EVs. Democrat leader buys 2 million shares of EV company.

Forbes (3/22/22) reports: "In a regulatory filing unveiled Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) disclosed her financier husband purchased more than $2 million in Tesla stock last week, marking one of the lawmaker's biggest equity investments this year as lawmakers tackle a wave of scrutiny targeting their trading activity. In a periodic transaction filing, Pelosi disclosed her husband, Paul Pelosi, exercised 25 call options on Thursday to buy 2,500 shares of Tesla stock, worth nearly $2.2 million at the time; the options were set to expire on Friday...It's not the first high-priced options bet Pelosi has placed on big-tech stocks: Last year, Paul Pelosi reportedly made about $5 million on options contracts tied to Alphabet stock...Lawmakers' personal investments have garnered increased scrutiny since a series of trades by Federal Reserve officials led to high-profile resignations in recent months. Though the Fed, whose monetary policy measures helped the stock market recover during the pandemic, has since unveiled rules banning officials from individual stock trades, Congress is still considering what steps it should take. Pelosi initially rejected the idea of a ban in December, saying: 'We are a free market economy. [Lawmakers] should be able to participate in that,' but she's since turned a corner. In February, the Speaker directed the House Administration Committee to work on legislation prohibiting lawmakers from trading individual stocks. A vote is expected this year."

Remember when Twitter banned the account tracking Pelosi's trades? They forgot the most important term of service: Don't embarrass Ds.

Not exactly nickel and dime stuff we're talking about.

Washington Times (3/22/22) op-ed: "Chaos at the London Metals Exchange has thrust a low-profile commodity into the limelight. For the first time on record, nickel spiked to more than $100,000 per metric ton on March 8, prompting the LME to halt nickel trading for a week. Until recently, Russian nickel constituted about one-tenth of global supply. But Indonesia boasts the world’s largest nickel reserves and is already the largest producer. Now that Russian nickel faces sanctions, Indonesia could be in for a windfall as buyers compete for a scarcer resource. Unfortunately for Indonesians, their government has banned nickel exports. Nickel is a key input for stainless steel and for fossil energy alternatives like lithium-ion batteries...The theory animating Indonesia is operating according to the theory that its government can produce trade outcomes superior to those produced by free trade and competition...But as Columbia University economics professor Arvind Panagariya notes...that theory is shaky at best; the miracles of prosperity achieved by South Korea and Taiwan happened despite, not because of, their industrial policies. Indeed, Mr. Panagariya argues, developing countries like Indonesia can best accelerate prosperity by embracing free and open trade. With a population of more than 270 million and its position at the heart of the dynamic Southeast Asia region, Indonesia is poised for an economic miracle of its own — one that could surely eclipse that of South Korea. Trade encumbrances, however, narrow Indonesia’s pathways to success. By ditching the nickel export ban (and the planned export bans on other commodities), Mr. Widodo’s government would make both Indonesians and the global economy better off."

Only "green" in this process are the dollar bills Musk is fleecing from taxpayers.

Real Clear Energy (3/22/22) op-ed: "Elon Musk, who is now spending his time urging the U.S. to increase oil and gas production despite selling electric vehicles, wants you to believe that he is putting his financial interests and environmental ambitions aside in a goodhearted effort to protect America’s national security interests. However, the truth is that today’s heavily subsidized electric vehicles are often built with parts sourced from Russia and that they are not as environmentally friendly as Musk would like you to believe. Musk promised a $25,000 electric car. Instead, he just raised the price of his electric car — the $44,990 to start Model 3 — by almost 20 percent, in part to compensate for the increased costs of certain raw materials needed to make electric car batteries, such as nickel, palladium and aluminum...He has made a name for himself by promising cheap prices and then raising them after he secures funding. This case may be different, however, because as it turns out, Russia is one of the major suppliers of these crucial raw materials — 44 percent of palladium. There are fewer environmental regulatory restrictions in Russia, which makes it less expensive to source them from there...Most people have no idea just how many environmentally unfriendly materials go into each electric car. A Tesla Model 3, for instance, is laden with more than 1,000 pounds of battery pack, containing materials that are as 'green' as the damaged reactors at Fukushima."

Same old scare tactics, but new, miseducated students.

Wall Street Journal (3/22/22) op-ed: "The Biden administration’s overly ambitious climate-change agenda has gone next to nowhere in Congress, but the war on coal, oil and natural-gas production has continued by other means...To understand the Biden administration’s stubbornness, it helps to appreciate how long environmental alarmism has been capturing the imagination of our intellectual elites. Before global warming, overpopulation was the existential threat du jour. The modern green movement dates to the 1960s and apocalyptic predictions have long been the coin of this realm...Five decades on, these predictions have not aged well. The U.S. population now numbers more than 330 million, up from around 200 million in 1970. Yet Americans breathe cleaner air and drink cleaner water than they did 50 years ago. Poverty rates are lower, obesity is a bigger problem than hunger, and the current unemployment rate if anything reflects a labor shortage. Internationally, the trends have likewise been favorable, even as the world’s population has doubled over the past half-century. The International Monetary Fund has tracked the quality of air, water, fisheries and natural habitats in 180 countries for more than a decade, and 178 of them have shown improvement. Between 1990 and 2014, the proportion of land set aside for wildlife reserves, national parks and the like grew by 80%, and marine conservation areas more than doubled."

Energy Markets

WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $113.82
Natural Gas: ↑ $5.21
Gasoline: ↓ $4.23

Diesel: ↑ $5.04
Heating Oil: ↑ $391.37
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $120.43
US Rig Count: ↓ 749

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