View this email in your browser
MORNING ENERGY NEWS  |  12/19/2019
Subscribe Now

To want to stay out of the light.


Daily Caller (12/17/19) reports: "A major 'green' firm called Cenergistic says it’s saved more than 1,000 schools and local governments $5.5 billion in energy costs, taking portions of those savings as fees. But a new lawsuit, a decade of government investigations, and news reports show that Cenergistic is an Enron-linked, for-profit company that has allegedly talked its way into no-bid contracts after secretly putting school officials on its payroll, and then billed districts for questionable savings whose basis it refuses to explain. The contracts are typically awarded by school board members who want to make a statement about environmentalism, and are sometimes exempted from scrutiny on the basis that the money being paid is 'free.' In a lawsuit filed Nov. 1, 2019, the former auditor for Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia, Goli Trump, said she was fired by school board president Sandy Evans in retaliation for pursuing an investigation into Cenergistic that implicated superintendent Karen Garza as well as Evans herself."

"A modern irony is that many green policies advocated now would actually reverse the trend towards using less stuff... Technology has put us on a path to a cleaner, greener planet. We don’t need to veer off in a new direction."

 

– Matt Ridley, The Spectator

Solar doesn't discriminate and will rob regular people too.


Bloomberg (12/17/19) reports: "A third co-conspirator has pleaded guilty Dec. 17 to his role in a Ponzi scheme that involved $2.5 billion in transactions and caused $1 billion in losses based on purported investments in solar energy hardware. Certified public accountant Robert A. Karmann became the third individual to plead guilty in connection with the plot, coming about two months after two other men similarly admitted guilt in a related case. The scheme involved investments in solar energy devices, such as mobile solar generator units mounted on trailers, according to prosecutors. The co-conspirators allegedly ran a solar company that made MSGs and used a complicated system to bring in investors and lease out the hardware to third parties. The leases didn’t make huge returns, however, and early investors were paid off with money from later ones, prosecutors said. Karmann reportedly joined the group in 2014 and acted as its chief financial officer. In that role, he and others used fraudulent financial statements to hide the Ponzi scheme from its potential investors, the government had alleged. 'Karmann’s criminal conduct was intended to create the false impression for investors that the MSG investments were operating as promised, which helped lull existing investors, lured prospective investors, and caused investors to seek more than $1 billion in tax benefits from the Internal Revenue Service to which they were not entitled,' officials for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California wrote."

Doug "The Absoulute Madman" Ford back at it again eliminating expensinve virtue signaling boondoggles.


Railway Age (12/17/19) reports: "Ford’s Transportation Minister, Caroline Mulroney, made the announcement canceling the project in a statement—not at a planned press conference at Hamilton’s downtown Sheraton hotel. The briefing was canceled at the last minute due to “safety concerns,” according to Ford’s staff, after city councilors and transit activists had packed the briefing room when they learned about the cancellation through local media. Mulroney was whisked away with a police escort...In a statement, Mulroney claimed the previous Liberal government’s C$1 billion budget figure did not reflect the LRT’s actual cost. She said officials had not released a higher, C$3 billion estimate, and that she commissioned a third-party project review—also not released—that calculated a C$5.5 billion cost. Mulroney also claimed the prior government had planned to require the City of Hamilton to cover C$1 billion in operating and maintenance costs. 'It is frustrating news, but the stark fiscal reality is that the project will actually cost five times more than the previous government led us all to believe,' Mulroney’s statement reads."

Can Congress impeach Angela Merkel for colluding with Russia?


E&E News (12/19/19) reports: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday criticized a U.S. move to impose sanctions related to a new Russian-German gas pipeline, signaling that she wants discussions with Washington but declining to threaten retaliation. Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said that the U.S. government's move violates international law and that the project will be completed regardless of the sanctions. The United States has been an outspoken opponent of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will transport natural gas about 750 miles under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. Along with Eastern European countries that also oppose the project, the U.S. government argues that it will increase Europe's dependence on Russia for energy. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill last week that provides for sanctions against foreigners involved with ships laying sections of the pipeline. The Senate approved the bill Tuesday, and it's now up to President Trump to sign it." 

Energy Markets

 
WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $61.05
Natural Gas: ↓ $2.24
Gasoline: ~ $2.55
Diesel: ~ $2.99
Heating Oil: ↑ $202.47
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $66.37
US Rig Count: ↓ 839

 
Friend on Facebook Friend on Facebook
Follow on Twitter Follow on Twitter
Forward to a Friend Forward to a Friend
Our mailing address is:
1155 15th Street NW
Suite 900
Washington, DC xxxxxx
Want to change how you receive these emails?
update your preferences
unsubscribe from this list