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DAILY ENERGY NEWS | 12/09/2024

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42 more days until the cash register stops...

Just the News (12/8/24) reports: "Project Veritas released an undercover video this week showing Brent Efron, special advisor for implementation at the Environmental Protection Agency, discussing an effort at the agency to 'get as much money out as fast as possible' before there’s a change in administration. The video was captured surreptitiously by a Project Veritas investigative journalist at what appears to be a bar while Efron drank an orange cocktail. Efron told the journalist that billions of dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act was going to 'nonprofit institutions that are making it more financially feasible to build renewables and climate projects,' as well as states, tribes and cities. This rushed doling out of cash would continue until Jan. 20 when Trump is inaugurated, when Efron said the new administration could immediately halt the process. The video appears to confirm suspicions that agencies are spending as much money as possible before President-elect Donald Trump could put the brakes on it... The Institute For Energy Research (IER) also collected a number of these stories in a recent report, including a $290 million conditional loan guarantee to deploy up to 1,000 solar and battery facilities in a virtual power plant across up to 27 states. A virtual power plant, IER explains, are networks of small-scale, distributed energy resources, such as solar panels, battery facilities, and EV batteries set up to feed into the grid when needed. 'The Biden-Harris administration is doing all it can to make things more difficult for the incoming Trump administration by shelling out money to pet projects when it is clear that the Trump administration will change direction on these projects,' the IER reported."

"The nation needs the president-elect to end the war on natural gas as quickly as possible, but Pennsylvanians need it most of all. The voters who delivered the White House to Trump are counting on him to deliver a new era of jobs and affordability for us."

– A ndrew Lewis,
Commonwealth Foundation

Do you think these guys will thank President Trump after he saves them from themselves?

Energy Bad Boys (12/7/24) Substack: "States in the New England region, except New Hampshire, have been pushing for so-called 'green' energy policies for years. These policies include transitioning their electricity grids to net-zero emissions using primarily wind, solar, and batteries and electrifying transportation and home heating—all by 2050. Electricity prices in New England already surpass those in most of the United States and are among the fastest-growing in the nation. If New England succeeds in its electrification and carbon-free agenda, prices will continue to rise. We recently modeled the cost and reliability impacts of achieving New England’s green energy policies for a network of think tanks in the region, and our analysis found it would cost an additional $815 billion through 2050."

It might be more efficient to just burn the cash in the fireplace.

Oil Price (12/3/24) reports: "Wind power is the leading technology of the energy transition in the UK. It is the basis for the transition shift championed by the Starmer government—and it is failing because the grid operator is having to pay hundreds of millions to wind turbine operators to turn them off. The reason: there is no way to transport the electricity to where it can be consumed. The UK is not a country known for its many days of sunshine. What it is known for is the fact it is an island, and islands are windy places. Wind power was supposed to be perfect for the UK. It was the main tool that would, according to the new government, turn it into a global leader in the energy transition. Instead, it has cost Britons 1.3 billion to compensate wind turbine operators for lost profits—this year alone."

It's not about drilling for more oil. It's about giving them the freedom to choose...

NPR (12/9/24) reports: "President-elect Donald Trump talks a lot about 'unleashing American energy' — specifically oil, which he likes to call 'liquid gold.' And based on his nominees for key energy posts, there's every indication that a Trump administration 2.0 will actively promote oil and natural gas... Those changes might make it easier and cheaper, and therefore more profitable, to drill for oil. But they won't guarantee a massive increase in production. After all, U.S. production is already historically high. Global oil demand is far from booming. In fact, the oil cartel OPEC and its allies just delayed plans to boost production, judging that the world doesn't need more oil at the moment. After all, if production suddenly surges beyond what global markets demand, prices would fall — which would, in turn, cause companies to pull back on drilling. That's a scenario investors and executives are eager to avoid. Wall Street has spent several years pressuring companies to focus less on 'drill, baby, drill,' and more on a strategy you might call 'dollars, baby, dollars' — sending spare cash back to stockholders, instead of deploying as many rigs as possible. So, with financial incentives to keep production growth in check, how much would production increase if Trump enacts these oil-friendly policies? In an interview with NPR, Thomas Pyle, who runs a think tank supporting free-market energy policy and was part of Trump's transition team in his first administration, rejected the question entirely. 'I don't know and I don't care,' he said. 'The industry should make those decisions based on the marketplace. … To me, it's not about producing more. It's about giving the industry the ability to make those choices free from the hammer of the regulations.'"

Energy Markets

WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $68.16
Natural Gas: ↑ $3.22
Gasoline: ↓ $3.02

Diesel: ↓ $3.51
Heating Oil: ↑ $217.56
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $72.01
US Rig Count: ↓ 610

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