Ford's foray into forced labor

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DAILY ENERGY NEWS | 01/24/2023

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Governor Youngkin should be applauded for nuking this project. Ford should not be taking government subsidies to consort with a company that even the New York Times implicated last month with slave labor in China.

Richmond Times-Dispatch (1/16/23) reports: "Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s decision to halt plans for a $3.5 billion Ford Motor Co. battery plant over his concerns about Chinese influence cost one of the poorest areas of Virginia a reported 2,500 jobs with potential for more. If Ford finalized the project, the plant would have gone in the Southern Virginia Mega Site at Berry Hill in Pittsylvania County. More than $200 million has been spent over 15 years to make Berry Hill a premier site and the largest publicly owned site in the Southeast. The plant would have built lithium iron phosphate batteries for Ford’s electric vehicles. The location still has no tenant, however, after Youngkin intervened in late December to stop plans for the plant in Virginia because of its partnership with Chinese company Contemporary Amperex Technology. Youngkin first publicly discussed his decision after giving his State of the Commonwealth address on Wednesday...Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said in an email for this story: 'While Ford is an iconic American company, it became clear that this proposal would serve as a front for the Chinese Communist party, which could compromise our economic security and Virginians’ personal privacy. Virginians can be confident that companies with known ties to the Chinese Communist Party won’t receive a leg up from the Commonwealth’s economic incentive packages. When the potentially damaging effects of the deal were realized, the plant proposal never reached a final discussion stage.'"

I wonder if Youngkin's critics think it's OK for a company that uses "cost-neutral labor" should set up shop in the Commonwealth...

"It should go without saying that government taking popular consumer choices away from people leaves them worse off, as consumers as well as makers and sellers. The drive to deprive people of gas stoves and conventional cars and trucks is fueled by the same environmental extremism that opposes gas-fired electricity."

–Jon Sanders,
The John Locke Foundation

All President Trump tried to do was make sure that your dishwasher could complete a cycle in less than 3 hours. But I guess that was a bridge too far for Team Biden.

The Hill (1/13/23) reports: "A rule issued Wednesday cuts two Trump rules that created separate product categories for dishwashers that took 60 minutes or fewer per cycle, certain clothes washers or dryers that took less than 30 minutes and other washers that took less than 45 minutes. The creation of these separate classifications for 'shortcycle' appliances exempted them from efficiency regulations. They were part of the previous administration’s pushback against efficiency regulations, also going after lightbulbs and showerheads. The Biden administration has worked to reverse these efforts. Efficiency advocate Andrew deLaski described the latest move as necessary, but not enough by itself. 'Undoing this Trump gimmick is a needed step, but the administration still needs to finish undoing several other Trump rollbacks and start updating standards for dozens of products,' deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, said in a statement. Proponents of the Trump rule have argued it benefitted consumer choice. In its new rule reversing the Trump-era efforts, the Biden administration said it does not believe new products with short cycles have entered the market after the Trump rules, meaning the change will not impact existing products. "

Funny how that only goes one way...

"Green" governments can pump in as many subsidies as they want, but people want something reliable for their families.

Epoch Times (1/21/23) reports: "Electric vehicle (EV) 'mania' might be at an end, or, at a minimum, easing down, according to research, as concerns about supply chains, lithium sourcing, inflation, and more affect production capacities while customer demand decelerates globally, as evidenced by industry leader Tesla cutting prices in order to increase sales. In Europe, EV car manufacturers are slowing production due to uncertainties around lithium supply for batteries as well as electric vehicles proving to be expensive for the middle class, according to a Jan. 18 Institute for Energy Research (IER) post. This year, Europe is expected to output 12 million cars, which is a million less than earlier estimates. The average price of an EV in Europe during the first half of 2022 was 55,821 euros, up by over 14 percent from 48,942 euros in 2015, according to a report by automotive market research firm JATO. An EV in Europe is 27 percent more expensive than a gasoline car. These factors raise an affordability challenge for the sector in a region where EV-adoption is generally more accepted than in North America. The issue of lithium sourcing, as a challenge for EVs becoming mainstream, was highlighted by geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan in September last year. 'The lithium comes from one place, and it’s all processed in China. So, just building the alternate processing infrastructure … and by the way, we have to invade Russia too … just to get the materials to do EVs at scale is just laughable for the next decade,' he said at the time."

Energy Markets

WTI Crude Oil: ↓ $81.49
Natural Gas: ↓ $3.43
Gasoline: ↑ $3.44

Diesel: ↑ $4.63
Heating Oil: ↓ $353.30
Brent Crude Oil: ↓ $88.04
US Rig Count: ↓ 839

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