Forgive me if you’ve heard this one before. “We are going to eliminate fossil fuel use!” “I charge my EV using solar panels on my house, I don’t need no stinking fossil fuels.” “We have reached peak demand and we don’t want to see any more investment in oil and gas wells.” “We need a
Also, the cost of nat gas in Europe is 2-3X that of the US, so the downstream industries can't make money even at the nosebleed prices in those markets. More crude and capacity won't help if their other costs are uncompetitive. In spite of the capacity closures, the US is still long diesel and gasoline - we're exporting to Europe as long as the "arb" between the 2 markets covers the cost of shipping. In addition, some refineries are at reduced capacity b/c they are modifying to make "renewable diesel". That will add to the pressure on food prices as they try to find enough feedstock to go green. And, at least 2 other large plants are either in turnaround or doing repairs due to operating upsets. When you've had no people to work in your plant due to COVID and no margins to pay for repairs due to low crack spreads things don't always work smoothly.
Basically, in the real world things don't cycle up and down the same way the stock charts do. There's a lag, often a big one, while stuff has to happen. Solving the wrong problem will make things worse later on. As an example, encouraging bitcoin miners to come use up your "excess" wind and solar power instead of building out the grid to tie it into the lines that feed major cities, or making something that most people actually use isn't exactly helping. But the Texas pols also know that presenting the trapped users of ERCOT grid infrastructure with a big bill to do this on top of their massively higher electric bills won't be very popular this year.
Jun 15, 2022·edited Jun 15, 2022Liked by David Ramsden-Wood
i agree with everything you say except when you say these are un intended consequences of regulations.
I grew up in Nigeria. Nigeria has had ZERO local refining capacity since as far back as i can remember (government run refineries never produced a drop of refined product) . despite being one of the leading exporters of crude oil practically all refined products are imported.
When LNG export terminals were built in the late 1990's and Early 2000's no one ever gave a thought to piping some of the gas to a power station so that we could have a stable power supply in the country. Nigeria was exporting LNG while electricity was being rationed as a matter of routine on a daily basis.
When the Lagos state government (Lagos is the wealthiest and most populous state in Nigeria) wanted to build a power station in the early 2000's, the federal government stopped them on the grounds that constitutionally the Federal government had the sole right to manage the energy sector of the economy (you should look up the Nigerian constitution. its a progressives dream and it does actually stipulate that the federal government has a monopoly on major sectors of the economy) . Meanwhile energy rationing remains the norm across the country
Those are just two examples indicating how the government deliberately shut down or mismanaged projects that would improve peoples lives.
The collapse of basic infrastructure is an outcome desired by leaders of third world countries to hurt and impoverish the population, make them more dependent and easier to manipulate and control .
For whatever reason America's leaders have committed to destroying America in thesame manner . I believe its been going on for a long time, but now with crazy policies justified through COVID hysteria and climate change its, no longer in the realm of conspiracy theory to claim that America's leaders are committed to undermining the country's founding principles of constitutionally limited government and replacing it with a third world style communist or fascist dictatorship.
Cracks are a problem. I have them in my driveway..they do not respond to ‘fillers’…one has to ‘crack it all up’ and start over. I am sorry, David, I am afraid that I lived during the BEST of times and have left our younger generations to ‘fill in the cracks’ (Bozzo the clown was big in my day)…keep that brain producing…we have to get back to ‘LESS GOVERNMENT CONTROL, roll up our sleeves and WORK together to EDUCATE the masses (if we can get them out of the TV room), show up (for more then just lunch) speak the truth, and APPLY COMMON SENSE. PLEASE DO NOT DROP THE HAMMER OF KNOWLEDGE, if you don’t ‘sub stack it’ it won’t be heard (read). KEEP IT COMING…SPEAK LOUDER.
Also, the cost of nat gas in Europe is 2-3X that of the US, so the downstream industries can't make money even at the nosebleed prices in those markets. More crude and capacity won't help if their other costs are uncompetitive. In spite of the capacity closures, the US is still long diesel and gasoline - we're exporting to Europe as long as the "arb" between the 2 markets covers the cost of shipping. In addition, some refineries are at reduced capacity b/c they are modifying to make "renewable diesel". That will add to the pressure on food prices as they try to find enough feedstock to go green. And, at least 2 other large plants are either in turnaround or doing repairs due to operating upsets. When you've had no people to work in your plant due to COVID and no margins to pay for repairs due to low crack spreads things don't always work smoothly.
Basically, in the real world things don't cycle up and down the same way the stock charts do. There's a lag, often a big one, while stuff has to happen. Solving the wrong problem will make things worse later on. As an example, encouraging bitcoin miners to come use up your "excess" wind and solar power instead of building out the grid to tie it into the lines that feed major cities, or making something that most people actually use isn't exactly helping. But the Texas pols also know that presenting the trapped users of ERCOT grid infrastructure with a big bill to do this on top of their massively higher electric bills won't be very popular this year.
i agree with everything you say except when you say these are un intended consequences of regulations.
I grew up in Nigeria. Nigeria has had ZERO local refining capacity since as far back as i can remember (government run refineries never produced a drop of refined product) . despite being one of the leading exporters of crude oil practically all refined products are imported.
When LNG export terminals were built in the late 1990's and Early 2000's no one ever gave a thought to piping some of the gas to a power station so that we could have a stable power supply in the country. Nigeria was exporting LNG while electricity was being rationed as a matter of routine on a daily basis.
When the Lagos state government (Lagos is the wealthiest and most populous state in Nigeria) wanted to build a power station in the early 2000's, the federal government stopped them on the grounds that constitutionally the Federal government had the sole right to manage the energy sector of the economy (you should look up the Nigerian constitution. its a progressives dream and it does actually stipulate that the federal government has a monopoly on major sectors of the economy) . Meanwhile energy rationing remains the norm across the country
Those are just two examples indicating how the government deliberately shut down or mismanaged projects that would improve peoples lives.
The collapse of basic infrastructure is an outcome desired by leaders of third world countries to hurt and impoverish the population, make them more dependent and easier to manipulate and control .
For whatever reason America's leaders have committed to destroying America in thesame manner . I believe its been going on for a long time, but now with crazy policies justified through COVID hysteria and climate change its, no longer in the realm of conspiracy theory to claim that America's leaders are committed to undermining the country's founding principles of constitutionally limited government and replacing it with a third world style communist or fascist dictatorship.
Great comments and insight. Our only option… vote them out and run candidates dedicated to founding principals.
Cracks are a problem. I have them in my driveway..they do not respond to ‘fillers’…one has to ‘crack it all up’ and start over. I am sorry, David, I am afraid that I lived during the BEST of times and have left our younger generations to ‘fill in the cracks’ (Bozzo the clown was big in my day)…keep that brain producing…we have to get back to ‘LESS GOVERNMENT CONTROL, roll up our sleeves and WORK together to EDUCATE the masses (if we can get them out of the TV room), show up (for more then just lunch) speak the truth, and APPLY COMMON SENSE. PLEASE DO NOT DROP THE HAMMER OF KNOWLEDGE, if you don’t ‘sub stack it’ it won’t be heard (read). KEEP IT COMING…SPEAK LOUDER.