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DAILY ENERGY NEWS | 05/17/2022

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When he's right, he's right.

Fox Business (5/17/22) reports: "Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose purchase of Twitter remains ongoing, slammed President Biden in a podcast interview Monday and warned that if the government continues printing money, inflation will get worse and the U.S. might follow the path of Venezuela. Musk, who said he has voted 'overwhelmingly for Democrats,' slammed the Democratic Party and Biden in particular. He suggested that Biden is something of an empty suit. 'The real president is whoever controls the teleprompter,' the Tesla CEO said. 'The path to power is the path to the teleprompter.' 'I do feel like if somebody were to accidentally lean on the teleprompter, it's going to be like Anchorman,' the CEO added, referencing the 2004 film in which Ron Burgundy reads whatever is written on the teleprompter, even if it would ruin his career. 'This administration doesn't seem to get a lot done,' Musk said. 'The Trump administration, leaving Trump aside, there were a lot of people in the administration who were effective at getting things done.'...'I mean, the obvious reason for inflation is that the government printed a zillion amount of more money than it had, obviously,' Musk said, echoing Republican critics who claim that Biden's American Rescue Plan COVID-19 relief stimulus bill contributed to the near-40-year-high inflation the U.S. experienced in April."

“The current crises should increase, not diminish, our determination to deliver on what we agreed here at Cop26, and honour the Glasgow climate pact. [World leaders must show that] though the world has changed, our resolve has not."

– Alok Sharma, President of COP26

Question: What to oil, gas, baby formula, and critical minerals have in common?

Answer: All the things Team Biden says you shouldn't produce in America.

Daily Caller (5/16/22) reports: "The Biden administration asked Congress to allow the Department of Defense (DoD) to fund foreign critical mineral facilities in the annual defense spending bill. The Pentagon asked lawmakers earlier this month to broaden where it is able to fund projects under the Defense Production Act (DPA) to include the U.S., U.K., Northern Ireland and Australia, according to its most recent fiscal year 2023 legislative proposal. Such a modification would enable the federal government to 'leverage the resources of its closest allies to enrich U.S. manufacturing and industrial base capabilities and increase the nation’s advantage in an environment of great competition,' the DoD stated. While minerals, like copper, cobalt, nickel, graphite and zinc, are essential for green tech, China and other hostile nations dominate global mineral supply chains. In 2021, the U.S. produced just 6% of the global copper supply, 0.4% of global cobalt supplies, 0.67% of the world’s nickel, 0% of global graphite supply and about 5.7% of the world’s zinc, according to federal data. 'The Biden Administration continues to put American union workers last and look anywhere else but domestically for minerals, the opposite of what Biden pledged to do before taking office,' Minnesota Rep. Pete Stauber, the top Republican on the Natural Resources Energy and Mineral Subcommittee, told The Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement."

Case in point....

Wall Street Journal (5/16/22) editorial: "Is the Biden Administration preparing to ease sanctions on Venezuela to increase the global supply of oil? The State Department denies it, but this is a potentially damaging U.S. policy shift that bears watching in Congress. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador returned from a visit to Havana this month and announced the next day that the U.S. had agreed with Caracas to buy one million barrels of Venezuelan crude daily. This would require lifting U.S. sanctions that are designed to squeeze the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro and help return the country to democracy...In March, Team Biden sent three representatives to Caracas to talk to Mr. Maduro. Venezuela later released two of more than a half-dozen American hostages it has been holding. The regime used the meeting to spread a propaganda message that Washington now recognizes its legitimacy. Rumors persist that back-channel talks continue...The Biden Administration’s sanctions dance with the dictator is taking place even as it acts at every turn to restrict U.S. oil and production. The contradiction is hard to fathom other than as the triumph of ideology over reason."

And just for a little insurance, Biden seems content to pay both sides of the Ukraine/Russia conflict if it means he can keep sticking it to U.S. producers.

Reuters (5/17/22) reports: "U.S. Treasury officials said on Tuesday they plan to propose at this week's G7 finance meeting that European countries impose tariffs on Russian oil, as a faster alternative to an outright oil embargo. European Union officials are considering a phased embargo on imports of Russian crude as its next response to Moscow's war in Ukraine, but concerns from some eastern European countries about supply represent a major obstacle to the plan. The tariff mechanism to be proposed by the United States would be designed to keep Russian oil on the market but limit the amount of revenue that can flow to Moscow from exports, the Treasury officials told reporters in Brussels. Finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of Seven rich nations are due to meet in the city later this week. Because Russian oil sells at a discount to global benchmarks, a tariff could be set at a level that would both capture part of that gap and reduce Russia's profits, the officials said. But it would have to be low enough that Russia earns more than its production costs, giving it an incentive to continue exporting, they added."

Energy Markets

WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $115.26
Natural Gas: ↑ $8.31
Gasoline: ↑ $4.52

Diesel: ↑ $5.57
Heating Oil: ↑ $392.11
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $114.97
US Rig Count: ↑ 785

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