Caught in the crossfire

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DAILY ENERGY NEWS | 01/17/2023

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Biden & Co. are waging an ideological war on energy producers and American families are being rolled up as collateral damage.

MSN (1/16/23) reports: "Biden has taken issue with oil juggernauts like Chevron and Exxon Mobil that have been raking in profits this last year — especially in the wake of scorching inflation and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Now, the oil and gas industry is turning up the heat on the situation. In his annual address in Washington on Jan. 11, American Petroleum Institute President Mike Sommers blamed the 'barrage of negative rhetoric' from the White House for slowing domestic oil and gas production. With gas prices still elevated, and many households muddling through an expensive winter, the strained relationship between Biden and the country’s oil companies could mean the situation will only get worse over the next few months...All this back-and-forth could only be aggravating the situation. A blog post from the Institute for Energy Research accused the Energy Department of asking them to 'undersell their product' and accused Biden of using the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve 'as a political tool to lower gasoline prices.' And in an interview with Bloomberg, Sommers from the American Petroleum Institute said the signals Biden is sending discourage investment in the oil and gas industry 'does harm to capital.' 'If the government signals support for American energy, it would boost investor confidence in future projects to unleash needed supplies and strengthen infrastructure,' Sommers says."

"Contrary to the climate extremists and their virtue signals, the world they are trying to create would be devastating for the poorest people on the planet. The elimination of poverty and the improvement of living conditions is only made possible through access to energy in all forms and the petrochemical processes enabled by fossil fuels—the production of fertilizers for food and plastics needed in medical equipment."

–Ralph Schoellhammer,
Webster University Vienna

Focusing on renewables was supposed to reduce costs. 🤔

Bloomberg (1/16/23) reports: "Europe is failing on its renewable energy plan as the cost of development soars, according to the world’s biggest wind-turbine maker. Clean energy developers should be 'building like crazy' to meet European Union renewable-capacity targets, Vestas Wind Systems A/S Chief Executive Officer Henrik Andersen said in an interview. Power prices are so high right now that steep construction costs should not stymie projects, he said. Vestas is among manufacturers to have raised prices as it struggles with higher commodities costs and supply-chain constraints that have rocked the industry over the past two years. But cost inflation doesn’t only threaten wind power. In green hydrogen, for example, Europe must speed up deployment or risk losing billions in investment to regions such as the US and Latin America. Clean-burning hydrogen, which can be used instead of natural gas, is seen as crucial to the transition away from fossil fuels. The US has developed a system of tax credits for developers, which could catapult the nation ahead of Europe, where subsidies are less generous. A huge buildout of renewable capacity, as envisaged by the EU, would help to curb energy costs for consumers. Power prices soared in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — along with gas — and remain more than 30% higher than a year ago. The EU is working on reforming electricity pricing to try to limit the influence of expensive fossil fuels in setting the cost of all power."

After you factor in battery degradation, your family will need a different EV for every day of the week. One to use while the other 6 are charging.

Western Journal (1/16/23) reports: "I still remember that Sunday night in my foolish youth driving a Volkswagen on a 67-mile trip while low on gas. Desperate, I got off the interstate once or twice to poke around small towns trying to find what was in those days a rarity – a gas station open on a Sunday night. I don’t remember if I found an open station or if there were enough fumes in that little bug to successfully get me to my destination, but I made it. Whew! That was decades ago, and yet in 2023, I hear – and have written – about electric vehicle drivers having similar experiences to my search for energy all those years ago. Because it turns out that, despite all the razzmatazz and hype over an impending climate crisis and saving the planet and such, EVs simply are not ready for the demands of general use. And there are more than just range issues. The wonderful promise of overnight recharging of your EV at home isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Consider the following short video from YouTube user TFLEV, a fan page dedicated to all things EV. This guy, using a regular U.S household electrical outlet of 120 volts, needed five days to charge his Hummer’s large 250kw battery. Five days! Does the car then use the U.S. Postal Service to notify the driver of a full charge?"

DOE offers $700 million to a project that has ESA issues and will take a decade to resolve before any lithium could be produced. Biden does a great job picking winners...

E&E News (1/13/23) reports: "The Biden administration on Friday offered its first loan commitment for a lithium processing plant, backing a facility in southwest Nevada that would provide the highly sought mineral needed for EV batteries but that some environmentalists contend will further threaten an endangered flower. The Department of Energy revealed in a release that the agency’s Loan Programs Office has offered a conditional commitment of up to $700 million for a proposed lithium carbonate processing plant that has just started undergoing a federal environmental review. If built, the proposed plant and associated mine at the site would provide enough lithium for almost 400,000 electric vehicles each year. The administration’s financial backing of the project is part of its larger push to boost domestic supply chains for battery minerals and electric vehicles, with federal agencies looking at the steps needed to ramp up electrification and slash emissions from the nation’s transportation sector. According to DOE, lithium demand is expected to surpass global production by 2023...DOE’s support shines a light on the federal government’s ongoing environmental review of the sprawling mining and processing facility in Esmeralda County, Nev. The agency’s financing is conditional upon the developers receiving a positive record of decision from the Interior Department, as well as any final investment decisions. A major point of contention is Ioneer Rhyolite Ridge LLC’s plan to build the project close to only known habitat for the Tiehm’s buckwheat, a yellow-tinged wildflower that the Fish and Wildlife Service recently listed as endangered. The agency’s decision means the low-growing perennial herb will be protected under the Endangered Species Act and surrounded by a designated critical habitat of 910 acres."

Energy Markets

WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $80.94
Natural Gas: ↑ $3.66
Gasoline: ↑ $3.32

Diesel: ↑ $4.60
Heating Oil: ↑ $326.27
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $86.33
US Rig Count: ↑ 874

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