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MORNING ENERGY NEWS  |  01/07/2020
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The Donald will boldly go where no Bush has gone before...


E&E News (1/6/20) reports: "The White House is poised to exclude climate considerations from its controversial rewrite of rules surrounding the nation's core environmental law. The Council on Environmental Quality's proposed changes to National Environmental Policy Act guidelines will likely emerge this week. NEPA, signed into law by President Nixon, gives communities input and allows them to challenge federal decisions on projects like pipelines, highways and bridges. And it requires federal regulators to analyze a host of impacts. The Trump plan is expected to 'simplify the definition of environmental "effects" and clarify that effects must be reasonably foreseeable and require a reasonably close causal relationship to the proposed action,' according to a draft White House memo obtained by E&E News. In other words, the government could only study the impacts tied directly to a project — not how a project would add to a larger problem, something environmentalists have been clamoring for...CEQ spokesman Dan Schneider declined to comment on the Times reporting but noted in an email that the NEPA regulations have not been updated in more than 40 years. 'President Trump promised a more efficient process to provide Americans timely decisions on permits for vital infrastructure projects that provide good jobs, reduce traffic congestion, and enhance the quality of life in neighborhoods across our great country,' Schneider said."

"The U.S. is actually producing more oil each day — 12.8 million barrels — than the kingdom of Saudi Arabia says it is even capable of producing. The U.S. also is producing so much natural gas that we don’t know what to do with it."

 

– Ellen R. Wald, Ph.D.,
The Atlantic Council

Are we still supposed to be upset about foreign meddling in our elections? 


RealClear (1/6/20) reports: "A global organization called Extinction Rebellion has rapidly risen to become the most disruptive environmental movement on earth. Since its founding in 2018, the collective, abbreviated as XR, has organized an escalating series of anarchical protests across the globe...XR’s largest disclosed individual donor to date is a reclusive British billionaire, Sir Christopher Hohn. 'Humanity is aggressively destroying the world with climate change and there is an urgent need for us all to wake up to this fact,' he told The Telegraph...Critics have called XR a cult, citing co-founder Gail Bradbrook’s admission that a bender on psychedelic drugs inspired her epiphany that humanity is at the brink of extinction. Undeterred, Hohn said he had donated $65,000 to XR personally and a separate $196,000 through the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, a hybrid charity/hedge fund he founded and operates. Amid wide alarm about foreign meddling in American politics, Hohn’s support for an organization advocating an uprising against the U.S. government has drawn little notice. Yet court filings and tax records show that he is a billion-dollar non-plastic straw stirring a global network of climate policy influence. He illustrates the reach of politically driven philanthropy and the potential of wealthy foreigners to sidestep U.S. lobbying laws by using complex financial arrangements to pursue both civic and self-interested goals." 

Door to door pipe inspections coming to a city near you.


The New York Times (1/5/20) reports: "As a progressive-minded city nestled where the Cascade mountains reach the sea, Bellingham, Wash., has long been looking to scale back its contribution to climate change. In recent years, city leaders have converted the streetlights to low-power LEDs, provided bikes for city employees and made plans to halt the burning of sewage solids. But while the efforts so far have lowered the city’s emissions, none have come close to erasing its carbon footprint. Now, Bellingham is looking to do something that no other city has yet attempted: adopt a ban on all residential heating by natural gas. The ambitious plan set for consideration by the City Council in the coming weeks had already prompted vigorous debate over how much one small city should try to do to avert climate catastrophe, at a time when the federal government was putting less emphasis on halting the trajectory of rising temperatures...Last year, Berkeley, Calif., became the first city in the country to ban natural gas in newly constructed low-rise residential buildings. Dozens of other cities passed or proposed similar bans, including Seattle, where an increasing number of new homes have adopted electric heat...Bellingham is talking about going even further: banning natural gas heating not only in new construction but also in existing homes and businesses."

Never bet against the resourcefulness of American energy producers. 


Axios (12/23/19) column: "America’s energy sources, like booming oil and crumbling coal, have defied projections and historical precedents over the last decade. Why it matters: It shows how change can happen rapidly and unexpectedly, even in an industry known to move gradually and predictably. With a new decade upon us, let’s look back at the last one’s biggest, most surprising energy changes. Where it stands: The following five charts show the U.S. Energy Information Administration projections for the future from a decade ago, along with current EIA data to compare those projections with what actually has happened....In 2010, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected that in 2019, the U.S. would be producing about six million barrels of oil a day. The reality? We're now producing 12 million barrels of oil a day...EIA had projected in 2010 that the U.S. would be importing a net eight million barrels of petroleum by now, which includes crude oil and petroleum products like gasoline. In September, the U.S. actually exported a net 89,000 barrels of petroleum...In 2010, EIA projected that the U.S. would be producing about 20 trillion cubic feet of natural gas by now. In 2018, the last full year of annual data, we produced more than 30 trillion."

So much for 'critical infrastructure.' 


Ottawa Sun (1/3/20) reports: "Taxpayers are footing the bill for some electric vehicle recharging stations that serve as little as one or two customers a day on average, according to a federal audit, Blacklock’s Reporter reports. Natural Resources Canada questions when, if ever, the initiative – subsidized under a $226-million climate-change program – will become profitable. 'Some proponents indicated they expect to make a profit while others do not,' the department wrote in a report The Electric Vehicle & Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Deployment Initiative Joint Audit & Evaluation. 'For the ones expecting a profit, most forecast that profitability would start between Years Four and Seven. There was also a lack of understanding by some of the interviewees on the requirements for profit calculation.' The program was launched in 2016 under the department’s Clean Air Agenda. In its first phase, it allocated $16.4 million to electric vehicle stations 'coast-to-coast.' In 2019, Phase 2 saw another $80 million budgeted through the 2021-22 fiscal year. Phase 3 would see an additional $130 million budgeted."

Energy Markets

 
WTI Crude Oil: ↓ $62.74
Natural Gas: ↓ $2.12
Gasoline: ↑ $2.58
Diesel: ↑ $3.01
Heating Oil: ↓ $202.51
Brent Crude Oil: ↓ $68.26
US Rig Count: ↑ 823

 
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