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DAILY ENERGY NEWS  | 03/28/2022
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Hard to employ workers when the president can lay them off with a stroke of his pen.


Greeley Tribune (3/26/22) reports: "Colorado last month exceeded the pre-pandemic job totals recorded in March 2020, but that recovery has been uneven with areas such as Greeley — heavily reliant on the oil and gas industry — lagging behind. Overall, the state has 107% of the jobs that existed prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. That recovery rate 'substantially outpaces the U.S. recovery rate of around 93%' and is good for 11th nationwide, Colorado Department of Labor and Employment senior economist Ryan Gedney said Friday upon the state’s release of its February 2022 employment data...The Greeley metro area, which includes all of Weld County, saw a dismal recovery rate of 47%, which Gedney attributed to continuing turmoil in the oil and gas industry despite per-barrel price increases over the last year or so...Statewide, the mining and logging sector, of which oil and gas is part, lost about 2,400 jobs between March and April of 2020 and then another roughly 4,800 in the period since...The Colorado oil and gas industry appears to mirror those in other energy-producing states such as Texas and North Dakota, Gedney said, where the recovery in the sector has also been slow. 'None of the states have seen oil and gas employment return to pre-pandemic levels,' he said. The multiplier effect that the oil and gas industry has on job creation works the opposite way as well, Gedney said. So, as oil and gas jobs have stagnated in recovery, so too do providers of a host of other goods and services. This is what Gedney thinks could be the case in Weld County."

"[The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] and the [Department of Energy] have been sitting on these permits for these export terminals for LNG, and I think the administration's going to have to pick up the pace on that so that we can help Europe and hurt Russia. We're the Saudi Arabia of gas, and a lot of people don't know that." 

 

– Dan Eberhart, Canary

Energy independence through EVs? Not in Joe's lifetime.


North State Journal (3/27/22) op-ed: "With gasoline prices at decade-highs, President Joe Biden is on the defensive — for good reason.   On the campaign trail, Biden proclaimed, 'We’re going to end fossil fuels.' Now, given just one year in the White House, he has already canceled a major international oil pipeline, blocked energy development in Alaska, reversed key reforms to the meddlesome Waters of the United States rule, and appealed for a sky high 'social cost of carbon.' Along with deflecting blame to Russia, OPEC, oil companies, and Wall Street, one particularly concerning parry from President Biden is his argument that Americans can buy electric vehicles and, supposedly, insulate themselves from commodity shocks. This claim merits special scrutiny. Electric vehicles — specifically, the batteries and motor technologies that power them ― rely on a global supply chain that is geopolitically thornier than the fuels that power most of our cars now.  Just last year the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned of the risks posed by going all-in on EVs. As IEA explains, a typical electric car requires over 400 pounds of critical minerals — including cobalt, copper, nickel, and manganese. That’s six times more the mineral inputs required than for a normal car.  The problem isn’t simply the need for minerals, however, it’s where we would need to get them. Put bluntly, the supply chains for the cobalt, lithium, and rare earth elements that EVs need are controlled by China. According to IER, Chinese entities process more than half of the world’s lithium and cobalt, and nearly 90 percent of its rare earth elements.  "

The fact that ESG managers can't figure out if they should be investing in China while definitely boycotting US oil companies tells you all you need to know. 


Bloomberg (3/27/22) reports: "Caught flat-footed by Russia’s war on Ukraine, fund managers who get paid to avoid environmental, social and governance risks have started to look at China with a fresh sense of unease. Their exposure to China is huge. Pure ESG funds domiciled just in Europe have about $130 billion invested in China assets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A further $160 billion is held by European-based funds that have screened for ESG-related hazards. And yet the investment industry finds itself starting to contemplate the once unthinkable, as China’s ambiguous response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine leaves the world on edge. China, the world’s second-largest economy, has sought to straddle both sides of the geopolitical divide, condemning the loss of life in Ukraine while blaming NATO for provoking Russia. And when the International Court of Justice voted to order Russia to 'immediately suspend' military operations in Ukraine, only two countries dissented: Russia and China. 'It’s a time to be extra cautious,' said Kristin Hull, founder of Nia Impact Capital, a $400 million sustainability fund in Oakland, California. Given China’s much deeper connections with the rest of the world, 'there are so many global ramifications of this relationship.'"

"He who controls oil will win the next war.”
-Winston Churchill 


Wall Street Journal (3/27/22) editorial: "A wave of energy realism is crashing over Europe, and Britain is set to be the next country to get soaked. Recent weeks have seen Prime Minister Boris Johnson rediscover the virtues of his country’s domestic energy sources, and not a moment too soon. Britain was suffering an energy-price emergency even before Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. The regulatory cap on household electricity and natural-gas prices, which is adjusted twice a year for market conditions, is due to rise 54% in early April. This will add £693 ($915) to the average household’s annual bill even as inflation for everything else is surging. Anyone who has to drive is paying much more as unleaded prices have risen about 35% and diesel prices some 42% over the past year. The Federation of Small Businesses estimates that a typical small company with commercial premises in London has seen its electricity bill increase 145% and its natural-gas bill 258% over the past year. Mr. Johnson and his fellow Tories in government like to remind voters that Britain imports relatively little of its fuel from Russia, unlike Germany and Italy. But that hasn’t insulated the country from global price gyrations triggered by the Ukraine war and other countries’ sudden quest for alternate suppliers."

Energy Markets

 
WTI Crude Oil: ↓ $105.29
Natural Gas: ↓ $5.52
Gasoline: ↑ $4.24
Diesel: ↑ $5.12
Heating Oil: ↓ $384.10
Brent Crude Oil: ↓ $112.01
US Rig Count: ↑ 773

 
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