Department Of Energy Finds Large Reserve Of Lithium In California

World’s Largest Lithium Reserve Discovered Beneath California’s Salton Sea – Oilprice, 2023/12/28

The U.S. Department of Energy has made its second major lithium discovery this year, both of which promise to make the country self-sufficient in the critical battery metal for decades. The DoE has discovered a massive lithium deposit beneath California’s Salton Sea, holding an estimated 18 million tons of lithium.

According to the DoE, with expected technology advances, the Salton Sea region’s total resources could produce more than 3,400 kilotons of lithium, worth up to $540 billion and enough to support over 375 million batteries for electric vehicles (EV)—more than the total number of vehicles currently on U.S. roads.

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The DoE has acknowledged that the United States currently has limited capabilities to extract, refine, and produce domestically sourced lithium. Indeed, the country typically imports nearly half of the lithium it consumes, almost all coming from Chile and Argentina.

For those pushing for electric vehicles, this is a good report. Hopefully it can be used domestically for the creation of jobs.

The World’s Largest Offshore Wind Power Provider Cuts Projects and Cuts Jobs

Offshore wind firm Orsted cuts investment, capacity targets after review – Reuters, 2024/02/07

Orsted, the world’s biggest offshore wind farm developer, trimmed its investment and capacity targets on Wednesday and paused dividend payouts as part of a major review.

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It also said it would reduce capital expenditure in the coming three years by 35 billion Danish crowns ($5.05 billion), pause dividends for 2023-2025 and sell assets worth around 115 billion crowns towards 2030.

In addition, it announced plans to cut as many as 800 jobs and exit markets in Norway, Spain and Portugal.

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Orsted also said its Chairman Thomas Thune Andersen will step down.

What else is going on?

Orsted withdraws from contract for Maryland offshore wind farm – National Wind Watch, 2024/01/26

Orsted A/S withdrew from an agreement with regulators in the US state of Maryland to sell electricity from a big offshore wind farm it’s planning to build in the Atlantic Ocean.

It’s the latest step for the Danish firm to reconfigure its portfolio of American projects after soaring costs forced it to take billions of dollars of write downs last year. Orsted’s executives plan to update investors on Feb. 7 on how they will reset the company after the setbacks.

The prices set in the power contract for the Skipjack Wind project were no longer viable because of inflation, high interest rates and supply-chain problems, the Danish company said late Thursday.

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The nascent US offshore wind industry is struggling to adjust to higher costs, raising concerns about its future. Developers have been forced to recalculate the figures for proposals originally modeled years ago, with some delayed or even canceled.

Last year, Orsted canceled two US offshore wind projects and recorded $4 billion in impairments.

The fact of the matter is twofold. One, the wind power industry needs government subsidies to survive. It can’t seem to operate on its own. Two, it will never provide the reliable energy that nuclear and fossil fuels provide.

For now, this attempted move to wind power is a failure that’s eating up government funds.

Biden Admin Extends Low Income Tax Credit for Electric Vehicle Chargers for Martha’s Vineyard Residents

Biden admin extends EV charger tax credit to ‘low-income’ Martha’s Vineyard – WPDE Florence, 2024/01/31

The Biden administration, in a push to make electric vehicles (EVs) more practical, is offering a tax credit for car chargers to a portion of Martha’s Vineyard by classifying it as a “low-income community.”

The sun-splashed Massachusetts island is known as a playground for wealthy elites, with median home prices in the area hovering around $1.5 million, according to Rocket Homes.

I’m sorry – is this tax cuts for the rich from Democrats ??? I’m shocked [NOT]

The tax cuts amount to 30% of the cost of the equipment. The tax is furnished through the Dept. of Energy, so I don’t believe there need to be a vote on this.

If you ever had a question about the high expense of EV ownership, the rich folk want tax credits to make ownership palatable.

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IRS code specifies an area qualifies as low-income if it has a poverty rate of 20% or more. Areas with a median income below that of 80% of the nearest metropolitan area or state can also qualify. This allows affluent areas to still qualify as low-income as long as they are located in significantly richer areas.

These people can design any loophole they want into the tax codes.

This is why a flat tax (with 2 or 3 tiers) with no behavioral considerations should be adopted.

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Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda last week doubled down on his distaste for electric vehicles, claiming the push for such products should come from consumer demand rather than government preference.

Buy Toyota…

What’s Going On With The Hawaii Wildfires From Last Year

Someone online asked about what is going on there and what are the speculations about?

Basically many are claiming that the fire is being used to displace regular folk from their properties in order to seize the land for the elites or turn the city into a smart city. Some even claim the fires were started on purpose – possibly from a laser beam from space.

Some stated that police blockades of escape routes were orders from the elites to increase damage and casualties – in order to facilitate taking over property.

Congressional Democrats were looking to claim the fires were a part of global warming, but then backed off of those claims in light of the information below.

Currently the blame seems to be pointing towards Hawaii’s only power supplier, Hawaiian Electric Company. They reportedly did not power down their power lines adequately when the warning came about the high winds from the National Weather Service. There are lawsuits totaling $4.9B against the company.

Dems who blamed Hawaii fires on climate change largely silent after county says power line responsible – Fox News, 2023/08/23

Fox News Digital contacted five lawmakers — Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Cori Bush, D-Mo. — who were among the voices claiming the devastating fires were sparked by man-made global warming. While Khanna provided a response, the four other lawmakers ignored the requests noting Maui County, Hawaii, alleged in a lawsuit the fires were sparked by power lines.

“The lawsuit alleges that the Defendants acted negligently by failing to power down their electrical equipment despite a National Weather Service Red Flag Warning on August 7th,” Maui County said in a release announcing its lawsuit last week.

“The lawsuit further alleges [Hawaiian Electric Company’s (HECO)] energized and downed power lines ignited dry fuel such as grass and brush, causing the fires,” the announcement added. “The lawsuit also alleges failure to maintain the system and power grid, which caused the systemic failures starting three different fires on August 8th.”

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According to the county’s lawsuit, HECO and its subsidiaries, which supply Hawaii with most of its electricity, failed to follow protocol powering down live electrical equipment allowing downed power lines to spark multiple fires earlier this month. The fires have claimed the lives of at least 115 people, according to the latest figures, and hundreds more remain missing.

This article is the latest from last week.

Hawaiian Electric jumps on state legislation to securitize fire costs – Seeking Alpha, 2024/01/23

Hawaiian Electric (NYSE:HE) closed +4.6% on Tuesday after state lawmakers introduced legislation that would allow the electric utility to sell recovery bonds backed by customer rates to cover costs from last year’s deadly Maui wildfire, Bloomberg reported.

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Research firm Capstone LLC told Bloomberg that Hawaiian Electric (HE) could face as much as $4.9B in liabilities from multiple lawsuits filed against the utility, blaming its power lines for causing the fire last year that razed the town of Lahaina and killed at least 99 people.

Cold Weather Wreaking Havoc With U.S. Electric Vehicle Owners

Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather – Yahoo/NY Times, 2024/01/17

With Chicago temperatures sinking below zero, electric vehicle charging stations have become scenes of desperation: depleted batteries, confrontational drivers and lines stretching out onto the street.

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With more people owning electric vehicles than ever before, cold snaps this winter have created headaches for electric vehicle owners, as freezing temperatures drain batteries and reduce driving range.

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In a painfully chilly parking lot in Chicago on Tuesday, Tesla drivers huddled in their cars waiting for a charge.

That morning, Nick Sethi, 35, an engineer in Chicago, said he had found his Tesla frozen shut. He spent an hour in minus 5-degree temperatures struggling with the locks.

Finally, he was able to chisel out the embedded trunk handle to open it, clambering in and driving his Model Y Long Range SUV 5 miles to the closet supercharging station. He joined a long line of Tesla drivers.

All 12 charging posts were occupied, with drivers slowing the process down slightly by staying inside their vehicles with the heat on high.

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Unlike cars with internal combustion engines, an electric vehicle has two batteries: a low-voltage and a high-voltage. In particularly cold weather, the lower-voltage, 12-volt battery can also lose charge, like it does in traditional vehicles.

When that happens, the EV cannot charge at a fast charger until the low voltage battery has been jump-started, said Albert Gore III, a former Tesla employee who is now the executive director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, which represents automakers including Tesla and has released a tips sheet for operating electric vehicles in cold weather.

The article mentions Norway, which has plenty of cold weather, being a place where there are many electric vehicles. However, they don’t have these problems. Why? The majority of people in Norway live in homes. 90% of people who own electric vehicles are able to charge their vehicles at home.

I will stick with my internal combustion engine vehicle as long as I am able.

South Africa Gets $1 Billion Loan To Help With Months Long Power Failures

The World Bank approved a $1B loan to help blackout-hit South Africa’s energy sector – WNYT/AP, 2023/10/25

The World Bank approved a $1 billion loan for South Africa on Wednesday to help it address an energy crisis that has peaked this year with the country’s worst electricity blackouts. The energy problem has forced the country to lean on its highly polluting coal-fired power stations.

South Africa has experienced scheduled, rolling blackouts for months because of problems generating enough electricity for its 62 million people.

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South Africa’s commitment to its climate change targets are in danger of being affected in the short term, with President Cyril Ramaphosa announcing in April that it may delay shutting down some of its coal stations because of the electricity supply problems.

Who knew they have been having widespread blackouts for months? My immediate assumption is they have been reducing reliable fossil fuel energy, and now they can’t supply enough power.

What happened in April?

Blackout-beset South Africa may delay closing coal stations – AP, 2023/04/24

South Africa may delay shutting down many of its highly polluting coal-fired power stations, President Cyril Ramaphosa said Monday, a move that could stem a crisis of daily electricity blackouts but would slow a shift to greener energy sources.

South Africa is Africa’s most developed economy but is experiencing rolling nationwide blackouts, sometimes for more than 10 hours a day, because of an electricity shortfall.

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Extending the life of the coal stations would throw scrutiny on South Africa’s Just Energy Transition policy, for which it has already received pledges of $8.5 billion from the United States, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union to help phase out fossil fuels.

Under the policy, South Africa has committed to reducing its reliance on coal for its electricity by at least 50% by 2035.

The country has managed to add some electricity from renewable energy sources like wind and solar but it is not nearly enough.

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South African energy expert Chris Yelland said Ramaphosa’s statement on delaying the decommissioning of the power stations was in contradiction to several policy decisions and Eskom’s own operational plans to decommission the plants.

He said extending the lifespans of coal plants could require South Africa to change some of its laws, including the Air Quality Act, which has specific targets for the improvement of air quality. But Ramaphosa and his ruling African National Congress party were under political pressure to find a solution to the damaging electricity crisis ahead of elections next year, Yelland said.

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One coal station, the Komati Power Station in the Mpumalanga province, was decommissioned earlier this year and will be converted into a renewable energy site with wind, solar and storage batteries.

So they have decommissioned at least one coal plant, and others are in disrepair. The wind and solar energy plants aren’t cutting it.  Meanwhile, the citizens are suffering.

It seems the South African government is in a bind between serving it’s people, and fulfilling a global edict that is unreasonable. It’s unreasonable because no one has any idea how wind and solar energy will perform – yet they are shutting down reliable sources of energy. It’s not a good situation – and I haven’t even touched on who is getting paid with these wind and solar energy deals.

Gas Pipeline Between Finland and Estonia Damaged By External Activity

Undersea gas line, telecom cable connecting Finland, Estonia damaged by ‘external activity’ – Fox News, 2023/10/10

Damage to an undersea gas pipeline and telecommunications cable connecting Finland and Estonia appears to have been caused by “external activity,” Finnish officials said Tuesday, adding that authorities were investigating.</p

Finnish and Estonian gas system operators on Sunday said they noted an unusual drop in pressure in the Balticconnector pipeline after which they shut down the gas flow.</p

The Finnish government on Tuesday said there was damage both to the gas pipeline and to a telecommunications cable between the two NATO countries.

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Elering said Estonian consumers were receiving gas from Latvia after the shutdown of the pipeline.</p

While Europe currently has filled 97% of its gas storage capacity for the winter, security of supply still depends on deliveries of pipeline gas and LNG.

Sounds like the consumers will be OK for now – but this is like Nordstream all over again.

Officials In Scotland Admit Nearly 17 Million Trees Cut Down For Wind Power

SNP admits to felling 16 million trees to develop wind farms – MSN/UK Telegraph, 2023/07/23

Almost 16 million trees have been chopped down on publicly owned land in Scotland to make way for wind farms, an SNP minister had admitted amid a major drive to erect more turbines.

Mairi Gougeon, the Rural Affairs Secretary, estimated that 15.7 million trees had been felled since 2000 in land that is currently managed by agency Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) – the equivalent of more than 1,700 per day.

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FLS said it had planted more than 500 million trees since 2000 and the quantity felled for wind farms equated roughly to its annual harvesting programme.

A spokesman said: “Renewable energy generated from wind farms is a key element in Scotland’s response to the climate emergency and the shift towards net zero and the infrastructure on land that we manage generates enough power for 600,000 homes.”

Morag Watson, director of policy at trade body Scottish Renewables said: “The volatile price of imported gas has left energy consumers suffering some of the highest prices in living memory, alongside a climate emergency which means cutting the amount of carbon we emit as quickly as possible.

“Building new wind farms – the cheapest form of power generation – tackles both problems at once.”

These people are going to mess up the earth’s ecosystem at the end of the day and cause their own demise.

Incandescent Light Bulb Now Banned By The Biden Administration

Biden admin begins enforcing nationwide lightbulb bans, igniting backlash from GOP: ‘Liberal fantasies’ – Fox News, 2023/08/01

The Biden administration will begin enforcing a nationwide ban on various types of popular light bulbs Tuesday as part of its aggressive energy efficiency agenda.

Under the Department of Energy’s (DOE) regulations, manufacturers and retailers will be prohibited from selling incandescent and similar halogen light bulbs which represent a sizable share of current light bulb supplies. Instead, manufacturers and retailers must sell light-emitting diode, or LED, alternatives or risk substantial federal penalties.

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In April 2022, months after first proposing the rulemaking, the DOE finalized regulations prohibiting certain light bulbs over their low energy efficiency levels. According to the DOE announcement, the regulations are projected to save consumers an estimated $3 billion per year on utility bills and cut carbon emissions by 222 million metric tons over the next three decades.

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The DOE’s rule in April 2022, meanwhile, reversed a Trump administration rule that sought to protect incandescent light bulbs and allow consumers to choose which products they want to purchase. Former President Donald Trump was also personally opposed to LED light bulb adoption, remarking in 2019 that they are often more expensive, not good and make him “look orange.”

If you read thru the article other appliances such as gas stoves, clothes washers, refrigerators, dishwashers, water heaters, air conditioners, consumer furnaces, pool pumps, battery chargers, ceiling fans and dehumidifiers are on the Dept. of Energy’s target list. All this for what is a climate hoax in my opinion. Elections have consequences.

Circle K Offering A Gas Holiday On May 25th

Circle K Fuel Day Returns Ahead of Holiday Weekend – Convenience Store News, 2023/05/24

Circle K is offering drivers savings at the pump on May 25, the convenience store operator’s second Circle K Fuel Day.

From 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. local time, more than 5,000 Circle K and Holiday Stationstores fuel locations across the United States will offer 40 cents off per gallon, helping drivers to fuel up ahead of the long Memorial Day weekend and celebrate the unofficial start of summer.

The deal is available at participating company-operated and select franchise-operated fueling locations within the U.S.

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The discount is up to 40 cents per gallon in certain states in accordance with applicable laws. Holiday Stationstores customers must pay inside the store to receive the discount.

Now I felt like I have done my good deed for the day. Here are the list of participating stores. Not entirely fun that’s it’s during rush hour – but it’s better than nothing.

Biden Administration Proposes Rule To Cut Water and Energy Use In Dishwashers

Biden Energy Dept. releases proposed rule to slash water use and energy consumption in dishwashers – Washington Times, 2023/05/06

The Department of Energy on Friday quietly released proposed efficiency rules for dishwashers that would reduce water use by more than one-third for some standard-sized machines and slash energy use by 27%.

The proposed standards mark the most significant energy crackdown on dishwashers in a decade and come as the appliance manufacturing industry is struggling to comply with a plethora of Biden administration rules aimed at boosting energy efficiency and cutting carbon emissions.

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Under the proposed rule, which would take effect three years after it is finalized, dishwashers would have to reduce water use to 3.2 gallons per cycle. Federal law currently allows dishwashers to use up to 5 gallons per cycle and those models face the steepest cuts in water and energy use. They would be eliminated from the market unless redesigned for reduced water levels.

Manufacturers would also be required to cut energy use in standard dishwashers from 307-kilowatt hours annually to 223 yearly kilowatt hours.

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Some manufacturers have warned the new standards impacting the trio of appliances will lead to reduced performance and much higher prices. It could also lead appliance manufacturers to move production outside of the U.S., where labor is cheaper.

Manufacturers have also warned reducing water and power in appliances has become increasingly difficult without impacting performance, or in the case of dishwashers, reducing how effectively they clean and dry dishes.

This is another example of how over-regulation can be used to destroy businesses and jobs and negatively effect consumers. There is a hearing on these proposed regulations on June 8 and there will be an opportunity for public comment online and in writing.

Biden Administration Projects Oil Will Be Strong Through 2050

US oil production will remain at ‘historically high volumes’ through 2050: New government report – Yahoo Finance, 2023/03/16

Despite his campaign rhetoric of ending fossil fuels, President Biden acknowledged in his recent State of the Union address that “we’re going to need oil for at least another decade.”

But a new report released Thursday by an independent agency of Biden’s own government projects it will even be much much longer than that.

In fact, the 2023 Annual Energy Outlook from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) finds that U.S. oil production may even increase between now and 2050 even as clean energy sources like wind and solar power increase dramatically as well.

The analysts say that U.S. demand for oil and gas is likely to remain remarkably steady for decades and “we expect U.S. production to remain at historically high volumes as exports of finished products grow,” said Angelina LaRose, EIA Assistant Administrator for Energy Analysis, during a session Thursday around the release of the report.

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The U.S. currently produces about 20 million barrels of oil per day. Looking to 2050, the EIA analysts see the possibility of one “high oil and gas supply” scenario where that number jumps to around 30 million barrels per day in 2050. Production stays steady or goes down slightly in other models but in every case that the analysts modeled, the U.S. will remain a net exporter of petroleum products and natural gas through 2050.

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In the EV space, for example, EIA analysts project that clean cars will only make up less than 20% of the overall automobile market in 2050.

So – at the same time they are pushing renewables and encouraging people to go electric and wind energy, they know oil will be around for decades. What do you do with this?

Tennessee: Fire Contained At Uranium Facility

Uranium fire contained at Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge – WATE Knoxville, 2023/02/22

A fire at one of the nation’s enriched uranium processing facilities on Wednesday did not result in the release of radioactivity, according to officials at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Officials at Y-12 notified city officials, legislators and media that emergency response teams were handling an “incident” at a building on the western side of the Y-12 complex.

The fire at the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility led to the evacuation of “a couple hundred employees,” a spokesman said and involved uranium in a metal-type form in a hood at Building 9212 — an original 1945-era building that is scheduled to be replaced in the coming years.

Another plant/facility fire…

Two Arrested In Plot To Attack Baltimore’s Power Grid

Neo-Nazi leader among 2 arrested in plot to attack Baltimore’s power grid, feds say – NBC News, 2023/02/07

The FBI captured two people, one a nationally known neo-Nazi leader, before they could launch an attack on Baltimore’s power grid that had the potential to “completely destroy this whole city,” authorities said Monday.

The suspects, Brandon Russell and Sarah Clendaniel, were taken into custody last week, in Florida and Maryland, respectively, officials said.

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Russell, 27, is a founder of the Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi group bent on “ushering in the collapse of civilization,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights activist organization. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the group admires Charles Manson and supports “the idea of lone wolf violence.”

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Clendaniel, 34, had five stations in her crosshairs, officials said, in Norrisville, Reisterstown and Perry Hall, Maryland, and two more “in the vicinity of Baltimore,” the complaint said.

Attacks on all five would be a “‘ring’ around Baltimore and if they hit a number of them all in the same day, they ‘would completely destroy this whole city,'” Clendaniel allegedly said in a recorded conversation, the complaint revealed.

Glad they got arrested before anything was damaged.

Biden Administration Quietly Admits Canceling Keystone Cost Thousands Of Jobs, Billion of Dollars

Biden admin quietly admits canceling Keystone XL Pipeline cost thousands of jobs, billions of dollars – Fox News, 2023/01/05

The Biden administration published a congressionally mandated report highlighting the positive economic benefits the Keystone XL Pipeline would have had if President Biden didn’t revoke its federal permits.

The report, which the Department of Energy (DOE) completed in late December without any public announcement, says the Keystone XL project would have created between 16,149 and 59,000 jobs and would have had a positive economic impact of between $3.4-9.6 billion, citing various studies. A previous report from the federal government published in 2014 determined 3,900 direct jobs and 21,050 total jobs would be created during construction which was expected to take two years.

But immediately after taking office in January 2021, Biden canceled the pipeline’s permits, effectively shutting the project down.

Why was the report released?

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The DOE was forced to issue the report after Daines and Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, successfully inserted a bill mandating the report into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Biden signed into law in November 2021. The agency was required to publish the report within 90 days of the bill’s passage but ultimately waited more than a year before releasing it.

Just to make sure we all understand – this was no accident.

The Biden administration has done nothing good for middle class Americans.

China & Russia – on the other hand – are doing pretty well.

Toyota President Not On Board With Electric Vehicle Mania

Toyota President: Not So Fast with the EVs – The Pipeline, 2023/01/14

Toyota Motor Corporation president Akio Toyoda has long been a skeptic of the frenzied embrace of Electric Vehicles by the automotive industry. Indeed, two years ago we wrote about Toyoda’s concerns that it was unrealistic to expect the entire industry to electrify in the timeframe that governments and activists (but we repeat ourselves) have demanded, not least because of the cost of updating infrastructure—in Japan alone he estimated that it would cost somewhere between $135 billion to $358 billion to build up the required infrastructure to support an fully EV fleet.

And then there’s the fact that switching to EVs doesn’t change how electricity is generated. As Toyoda said at the time, “most of the country’s electricity is generated by burning coal and natural gas, anyway.” So the politicians mandating a change are ensuring that, ultimately, our vehicles will all be coal powered. Consequently, according to Toyoda, “The more EVs we build, the worse carbon dioxide gets.”

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Toyota, WSJ continues, has refused to follow other industry giants like Honda and General Motors in committing to the total electrification of their fleets by a set date. Instead, the company has insisted on investing in a diverse range of auto technologies, including E.V.s, yes, but also improved traditional vehicles as well as “hydrogen-powered cars and hybrids.” For Toyoda, this is just common sense. He has said, “Because the right answer is still unclear, we shouldn’t limit ourselves to just one option.”

They will win in the end big time for holding firm.

Study: Self Driving Electric Vehicles Are Not Energy Efficient

Self-driving EVs use way more energy than you’d think – Popular Science, 2023/01/13

Truly self-driving cars are still at least a few years down the road—but if the day does come when the software becomes a de facto means of navigation, a new study indicates it’s going to need to be much more energy efficient. If not, autopilot features could ostensibly neutralize any self-driving electric vehicles’ environmental benefits. According to a new study from researchers at MIT, statistical modeling indicates the potential energy consumption needed to power a near-future global fleet of autopiloted EVs would generate as much greenhouse gas as all of the world’s current data centers combined.

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MIT notes that semi-autonomous vehicles already rely on popular algorithms such as a “multitask deep neural network” to navigate travel using numerous high-resolution cameras feeding constant, real-time information to its system. In one situation, researchers estimated that if an autonomous vehicle used 10 deep neural networks analyzing imagery from 10 cameras while driving just a single hour, it would generate 21.6 million inferences per day. Extrapolate that for 1 billion vehicles, and you get… 21.6 quadrillion inferences.

Normal human processing while driving is much more energy efficient than all of these machines and computers needed to process the information necessary for autopilot capabilities. If some people are so concerned about burning energy and the climate, why even undertake this? Answer… money.

Biden Administration Delays Refilling the Strategic Oil Reserves

White House Delays Refill Of Strategic Oil Reserve, Balks At “Too Expensive” Offers – Zero Hedge, 2023/01/07

The Biden administration had no problems aggressively draining the SPR by 1mmb/d at market prices in the immediate aftermath of the Ukraine war, in hopes of lowering the price of gasoline ahead of November’s elections and avoiding an inflationary midterm rout. However, when it comes to refilling the SPR, now that US emergency inventories are down to the lowest level since November 1983 and not too far from an all time low which threatens the structural integrity of the salt caverns the oil is deposited in… the White House has “unexpectedly” gotten cold feet.

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According to Bloomberg, the Biden administration has delayed the replenishment of the nation’s emergency oil reserve after deciding the offers it received were either too expensive or didn’t meet the required specifications. Citing “people familiar” the report adds that “the Department of Energy rejected the several offers it got for a potential purchase in February.” In other words, absent a brutal US or global recession which drags oil far lower – courtesy of the Fed which is doing Biden’s bidding of containing inflation by crushing the US economy with the highest interest rates in a generation – the SPR won’t get any more oil.

While the DOE will put off the purchase it had originally planned for next month, the proposed program, which used a new approach that accepts fixed-price offers, will continue, one of the people said. Of course, it will “continue” only as long as oil is below a certain White House mandated threshold, anything above that – as we now can see – means no refills. As a reminder, last year there were reports that the Biden administration had planned to start buying crude when it dropped around $70 a barrel; and while oil fell during the fourth quarter and US benchmark prices fell close to those levels last month, they have since rebounded, with the SPR refill price serving as a market support level.

…

So much is wrong with this.  Anyway – $70 per barrel is when they will start refilling the reserve. We will see what happens.

Nevada: Man Charged With Terrorism After Attack On Las Vegas Solar Energy Facility

Man faces terror charge for damaging power plant outside Las Vegas – KLAS Las Vegas, 2023/01/06

A man is facing terror-related charges after police said he rammed his car through a gate at a solar plant outside Las Vegas and set his car on fire, disabling the huge facility, the 8 News Now Investigators have learned.

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The Mega Solar Array facility provides energy to MGM properties but is run by a company called Invenergy.

The driver, later identified as Mohammad Mesmarian, 34, is accused of ramming through a fence and setting the car on fire. The car is registered out of Idaho, documents said.

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“Following an incident at the Mega Solar Array facility, on-site personnel immediately notified authorities and shut down the plant’s operations as a precaution in accordance with industry-standard safety protocols,” an Invenergy spokesperson said, “No one was injured, and we are currently restoring the facility’s full operations.”

There have been a few of these incidents. This one is not getting much attention.

Green Energy Sources Struggling During Christmas Week Cold Snap

Green energy struggled to meet energy demand across America during raging winter storms – Dally Caller/BizPac Review, 2022/12/29

Renewable energy was unable to generate sufficient power to meet elevated energy demand during Christmas Eve snowstorms that pummeled the northeastern U.S. and Texas.

Although wind turbines, solar panels and other forms of green energy have been consistently touted by the Biden administration as reliable alternatives to fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, renewables accounted for a small percentage of grids’ power output after snowstorms and a “bomb cyclone” nearly caused power outages in New England and Texas. Grid operators in both areas were forced to burn oil, a fuel that is significantly less efficient than natural gas, to avoid power outages as renewable energy sources were stymied by the harsh weather.

Yet we are still marching mindless to rid ourselves of oil. Doesn’t make sense – unless you include the possibility of mindless decisions like this being part of God’s judgment.

Democrat Congressman Looking To China For Green Energy Supplies

Dem Rep. Auchincloss: ‘We Want to Import Chinese Inputs, Especially in our Clean Energy Supply Chains’ – Breitbart, 2022/09/22

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) said that “We want to import Chinese inputs, especially in our clean energy supply chains, where we know that they have critical inputs for us.”

It was a matter of time before we got to this point. Destroy the United States’ capability of energy production, and now buy from China – who has absolutely no interest in global warming, climate edicts – except to destroy other countries.

We welcome Chinese economic development. It’s good for the global economy. Having said that, we are also going to fiercely compete. We’re going to compete on ideology. We do not accept their state-dominated, authoritarian view of how civil society should operate.

(snicker…) Who does he think he is fooling what that line?

Climate Czar Kerry Has Flown Over 180,000 Miles To Save The Climate

As Biden’s Climate Czar, John Kerry Has Flown More Than 180,000 Miles, Emitting 9.5 Million Pounds of Carbon – Washington Free Beacon, 2022/09/08

In his role as President Joe Biden’s climate czar, John Kerry has flown more than 180,000 miles—flights that emitted more than 9.5 million pounds of carbon, a Washington Free Beacon analysis found.

The Free Beacon reviewed 75 of Kerry’s official travel announcements from March 2021 to July 2022, which show Kerry has flown roughly 180,100 miles—the equivalent of traveling around the world more than seven times—to discuss climate change with various world leaders. Planes on average produce 53.3 pounds of carbon dioxide per mile traveled, according to carbon emissions modeling website BlueSkyModel, meaning Kerry’s flights have produced 9.54 million pounds, or 4,772 tons, of carbon—roughly 300 times the average American’s carbon footprint for an entire year.

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Despite Kerry’s status as a mega-emitter, the former secretary of state has argued that the United States must “transition to electric vehicles about 20 times faster than we are now.” He has also called to ban non-electric cars by 2035, a policy California announced in late August.

The oil and gas industry needs to send Climate Czar Kerry a nice Christmas Card for keeping them afloat.

Europe Is Burning Trees For Renewable Energy Production And Increasing Its Carbon Footprint

Europe Is Sacrificing Its Ancient Forests for Energy – World News Era, 2022/09/07

Burning wood was never supposed to be the cornerstone of the European Union’s green energy strategy.

When the bloc began subsidizing wood burning over a decade ago, it was seen as a quick boost for renewable fuel and an incentive to move homes and power plants away from coal and gas. Chips and pellets were marketed as a way to turn sawdust waste into green power.

Those subsidies gave rise to a booming market, to the point that wood is now Europe’s largest renewable energy source, far ahead of wind and solar.

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Forests in Finland and Estonia, for example, once seen as key assets for reducing carbon from the air, are now the source of so much logging that government scientists consider them carbon emitters. In Hungary, the government waived conservation rules last month to allow increased logging in old-growth forests.

And while European nations can count wood power toward their clean-energy targets, the E.U. scientific research agency said last year that burning wood released more carbon dioxide than would have been emitted had that energy come from fossil fuels.

Do you believe this? Do they understand that trees soak up a large portion of atmospheric carbon dioxide? They are cutting down trees and burning wood so they can pretend that wind and solar (renewables) could keep up with demand. In the end they are in fact increasing the carbon dioxide emissions – while they are removing the trees that can absorb it. You can’t make this up.

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Scientists have calculated that, per unit of energy, burning wood actually releases more greenhouse gas emissions than burning gas, oil, or even coal.

How long have we heard the mantra about saving paper and recycling so that we can save the rain forests? Not much stuns me anymore – but this did it. And now they are in a crisis because of Russia is cutting off the oil supply to western Europe – and they are agonizing over the climate and heating homes and making money. Wow

The Biden Administration Has Effectively Stopped Federal Oil Leases

Federal Oil Leases Slow to a Trickle Under Biden – Wall Street Journal, 2022/09/04

The Biden administration has leased fewer acres for oil-and-gas drilling offshore and on federal land than any other administration in its early stages dating back to the end of World War II, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.

President Biden’s Interior Department leased 126,228 acres for drilling through Aug. 20, his first 19 months in office, the analysis found. No other president since Richard Nixon in 1969-70 leased out fewer than 4.4 million acres at this stage in his first term.

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The program had already been in a long decline as oil-and-gas companies shied away from offshore drilling and federal lands amid the boom in fracking shale. Under Mr. Biden’s stewardship the decline has quickened, with leasing down 97% from the first 19 months of his predecessor Donald Trump’s term.

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The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by Mr. Biden on Aug. 16, requires the Interior Department to offer at least 2 million acres of federal land and 60 million offshore acres to oil and gas producers every year for the next decade. Those requirements must be met for an administration to permit some wind-power and solar-power development.

That still gives the Biden administration or others wiggle room if they want to stymie oil and gas, say lawyers and analysts. One tactic could be offering areas unappealing to the industry, they say. The administration could also simply forgo wind and solar development on federal territory.

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Federal leases account for more than a quarter of all U.S. oil production. Crude production offshore and on federal lands hit a record high in 2021, according to Interior Department data that dates back through 2003.

So far, the drop-off in new leases hasn’t been a factor in the supply issues that helped send gasoline and other energy prices to historic highs earlier this year, since oil typically takes years to reach the market after federal leases are approved, analysts say.

So according to the last snippet, we aren’t feeling the effects of these policies… but we could years down the road if there is no change in course. The Administration is basically exchanging America’s energy source from reliable to unreliable.

California: Solar Panels Are Approaching End Of Life Cycles… Now What?

Many complain about how oil and coal are dirty sources of energy, and solar and wind are clean sources of energy. Oil and coal and been around for decades and we have experienced the full process of production. With solar, we haven’t gotten to the full process yet… but now the solar panels are approaching end of life cycles – problems are cropping up.

California went big on rooftop solar. Now that’s a problem for landfills – LA Times, 2022/07/14

California has been a pioneer in pushing for rooftop solar power, building up the largest solar market in the U.S. More than 20 years and 1.3 million rooftops later, the bill is coming due.

Beginning in 2006, the state, focused on how to incentivize people to take up solar power, showered subsidies on homeowners who installed photovoltaic panels but had no comprehensive plan to dispose of them. Now, panels purchased under those programs are nearing the end of their typical 25-to-30-year life cycle.

Many are already winding up in landfills, where in some cases, they could potentially contaminate groundwater with toxic heavy metals such as lead, selenium and cadmium.

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The looming challenge over how to handle truckloads of waste, some of it contaminated, illustrates how cutting-edge environmental policy can create unforeseen problems down the road.

“The industry is supposed to be green,” Vanderhoof said. “But in reality, it’s all about the money.”

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But as California barreled ahead on its renewable-energy program, focusing on rebates and — more recently — a proposed solar tax, questions about how to handle the waste that would accrue years later were never fully addressed. Now, both regulators and panel manufacturers are realizing that they don’t have the capacity to handle what comes next.

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Recycling solar panels isn’t a simple process. Highly specialized equipment and workers are needed to separate the aluminum frame and junction box from the panel without shattering it into glass shards. Specialized furnaces are used to heat panels to recover silicon. In most states, panels are classified as hazardous materials, which require expensive restrictions on packaging, transport and storage. (The vast majority of residential solar arrays in the U.S. are crystalline silicon panels, which can contain lead, although it’s less prevalent in newer panels. Thin-film solar panels, which contain cadmium and selenium, are primarily used in utility-grade applications.)

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Orben said the economics of the process don’t make a compelling case for recycling.

Only about $2 to $4 worth of materials are recovered from each panel. The majority of processing costs are tied to labor, and Orben said even recycling panels at scale would not be more economical.

What? You mean they are allowing money to dictate the case for recycling? It’s evil when oil companies consider the financial bottom line. What about with solar panels?