Daily Standup Top Stories
G-7 ministers to call for natural gas phaseout
SAPPORO, Japan — Environment and energy ministers from the Group of Seven rich nations are poised to endorse faster progress toward ending reliance on fossil fuels, including natural gas, at a meeting here, sources close […]
Germany has shut down its last three nuclear power plants, and some climate scientists are aghast
On April 15, Germany stopped producing any electricity from nuclear power plants. The move was expected, but is nonetheless seen as a blow to climate advocates who support nuclear energy as a clean, zero-carbon source […]
Janet Yellen says sanctions may risk hegemony of US dollar
WASHINGTON – Economic sanctions imposed on Russia and other countries by the United States put the dollar’s dominance at risk as targeted nations seek out an alternative, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Sunday. “There […]
The fate of a key transmission line in Maine is on trial now
This story was originally published by Canary Media. How hard could it be to bring more carbon-free power to New England, a region with a professed dedication to tackling the climate crisis? It hasn’t been easy […]
What Russia’s First Gas Pipeline to China Reveals About a Planned Second One
A key topic of discussion during the Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Moscow was the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline project planned to export Russian natural gas from the Yamal Peninsula in […]
Highlights of the Podcast
00:00 – Intro
02:21 – Janet Yellen says sanctions may risk the homogeneity of the U.S. dollar
05:28 – Germany has shut down its last three nuclear plants and some climate scientists are gassed
07:43 – The G7 ministers to call for natural gas phaseout
08:59 – The fate of a key transmission line in Maine is on trial now
11:34 – What Russia’s first gas pipeline to China reveals about a planned second one
14:30 – Outro
Follow Stuart On LinkedIn and Twitter
Follow Michael On LinkedIn and Twitter
Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
Stuart Turley [00:00:14] Hello, Everybody, Today is a fantastic day. My name is Stuart Turley, President and CEO of the Sandstone Group and today is April 20th. Welcome to the Energy News Beat Daily Stand Up Show. Michael’s on assignment, so it’s just me today.
Stuart Turley [00:00:31] We got a wild show for you today First story coming around the corner is Janet Yellen says sanctions may risk the homogeneity of the U.S. dollar. Michael and I talked about that a lot yesterday. We also have another one follow up story on Germany has shut down its reactors. Now, the climate folks are a little upset. Should be kind of fun.
Stuart Turley [00:00:54] The G7 ministers call for the end of natural gas. Wow! Then you got to sit down and talk about where would we be without a good story from New England? There’s a maine transmission line up there that has cost a lot of money and is how not to upgrade the grid.
Stuart Turley [00:01:16] So I also have one last one here Michael and I also talked about yesterday on the pipelines. Russia yesterday had gotten a notification that they were just unbelievably pushing out large volumes of their exporting energy. Here is another story from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. [00:01:43]What Russia’s first gas pipeline to China reveals about a planned second one. We had talked about how this is going to play into the future and how sanctions just don’t work.
Stuart Turley [00:01:57] So with that, like subscribe to tell your friends, tell your neighbor, tell your pastor, tell everybody. And we do appreciate all the support, and all the questions that we get at EnergyNewsBeat.com let us know, Michael, and I’ll address everything that we possibly can and get those answers and questions back to you.
Stuart Turley [00:02:19] First story coming around the corner. Janet Yellen says sanctions may risk the homogeneity of the U.S. dollar. I’ll tell you what, Irina Slav out of Bulgaria and I have had a lot of fun talking over the last several years sanctions don’t work. This is a quote out of the economic sanctions imposed on Russia and other countries by the United States the dollar’s dominance at risk. Targeted nations seek out an internal alternative.
Stuart Turley [00:02:48] The United States has used the dollar, which was as a weapon and when you tie the weapon of the dollar and you tie it to poor political enforcement methodologies, you’re going to have people avoiding and countries avoiding sanctions.
Stuart Turley [00:03:09] Iran first showed Russia how to do it. Now, Russia has really taken that to the next level. And so Russia has been avoiding sanctions they are pumping more oil now than they did at the beginning of COVID.
Stuart Turley [00:03:25] So even Ms. Yellen said there is a risk when we use financial sanctions that are linked to the role of the dollar, that over time it could undermine the homogeneity of the dollar. You think? This is really come back around because China has been instrumental in the BRICS Foundation movement and moving away from the Petro dollar to the Petro yuan and I mean this is happening. Yesterday’s podcast had some critical information in there.
Stuart Turley [00:03:59] Ms. Yellen, in this article also says, that we haven’t seen any other country that has had basic institutional infrastructure that would enable its currency to serve the world like this. Well, guess what? That is now in place and the U.S. really? Who’s going to buy the U.S. debt? You can’t print money, you can’t go through all that.
Stuart Turley [00:04:26] So when you sit back and kind of go through all that, it makes it kind of tough. So her quote is accurate. Ms. Yellen’s quote when asked about the possibility of using frozen Russian assets to rebuild a war-ravaged Ukraine after Moscow’s invasion, Ms. Yellen said that Russia should pay for damages that it has caused. But she also noticed there are legal constraints on what we can do with frozen Russian assets. And we’re discussing with our partners what might lie in the future.
Stuart Turley [00:05:01] Okay. I will just kind of like leave my opinions here for now, but just know that sanctions don’t work. And as a politician, you need. It considered sanctions, diplomacy and in talking about things before it becomes an invasion so, anyway, a little armchair quarterbacking there and the sanctions don’t work.
Stuart Turley [00:05:26] Now, let’s turn around in the next corner here. Germany has shut down its last three nuclear plants and some climate scientists are gassed. Interesting article. This one. You really can have your climate crisis and then complain about it when your climate folks shut down nuclear plants. We are not going to get to carbon net zero, we’re not going to get to anything that you want in that area without nuclear.
Stuart Turley [00:05:57] So Germany and California have some of the most expensive energy in the in the world. And nuclear is you must have nuclear energy. In Texas, we have wind, solar, nuclear, natural gas. We just the Texas legislature just put out a proposal or excuse me, a bill for I believe it was $10 billion on natural gas plants. We have the newest coal fleet. We don’t care what kind of energy it is we want what’s best for the environment.
Stuart Turley [00:06:32] That’s the same kind of thing you got to do when you’re out there shutting down nuclear plants. And I’m going to give it get on my little stick here for just a second. And that is France has, I believe, around 50 to 52 nuclear plants, I believe. And they are only operating at 25% capacity because of the lack of maintenance that they have put into those nuclear reactors.
Stuart Turley [00:07:00] So Germany in this article here says that Germany will continue to be first class in the Y. Weiter nuclear supply chain in areas such as fuel fabrication and decommissioning. That is not going to help the Climate Crisis Group but is going to mean that they’re going to help with decommissioning. Boy, I kind of like what the Biden administration did. I hate to give them a shout-out, but I will give them a shout-out that we are looking at loaning money to Poland to help put in nuclear reactors so shout out to the Biden administration on that one.
Stuart Turley [00:07:42] Here we are again, The G7 ministers to call for natural gas phaseout. I’m not sure how to really fe talk about this one. When you sit back and talk about Kerry and you talk about all of the other folks in Japan talking about the G7 plan and you and you talk about the migration to renewable energy.
Stuart Turley [00:08:10] I just had a great interview with Chuck McConnell he is a true industry thought leader and I really am looking forward to putting this podcast out with him. And it’s really about having using all forms of energy, looking at carbon capture, looking at delivering the lowest cost kilowatt per hour to the consumers so that the renewable energy, the nuclear energy, the natural gas is all sustainable.
Stuart Turley [00:08:42] And if anybody is listening to this podcast, please, I welcome any industry thought leaders to step on to our podcast. I want to talk to you, I want to hear what’s going on and would love to visit with you about that.
Stuart Turley [00:08:58] Coming up around the corner to Maine, The fate of a key transmission line in Maine is on trial now. This is a discussion that I had the opportunity to visit with Meredith in her book not very long ago, and it was Shorting The Grid [1.2s] and it is a phenomenal book. She is truly an industry thought leader and we discuss this when you have New England in Maine.
Stuart Turley [00:09:26] The New England Clean Energy Connect, a long running effort by Massachusetts, can’t even see that boy. I’m in Texas. A long running effort thousand 200 megawatts of electricity produced from hydropower in Quebec. Instead, project storyline resembles an unrelenting mishaps of the audio disease journey from Troy, or perhaps more contemporary. The twist of Shonda Rhimes show. The transmission line doesn’t need to get away with murder, but it’s on trial this week. I’ve got a few jokes and we’ll just leave those alone for now like fourth paragraph down in this article.
Stuart Turley [00:10:08] The Department of Energy found that there’s a pressing need for more transmission infrastructure around the country to keep the grid reliable while incorporating renewable power. However, its recent history is riddled with failed or delayed projects in the NECEC saga shows how much can go wrong along the way.
Stuart Turley [00:10:31] This is critical because in order for us to get past the energy crisis, we’re going to have to make sure that we get permitting reform done. Let me give you my $0.02 here. In order to get past inflation to in order to get past the Banking crisis going on, in order to get past everything, we need to lower the interest rates, and get the opportunity for business leaders to have low cost of capital but it can only be done if we lower the cost of energy. The only way to fight inflation or even the geopolitical problems around the world is by accessing all of the low energy that the United States could produce and reduce the power. That’s my $0.02 and we’re going to move on to the next one here.
Stuart Turley [00:11:29] So now that I’ve solved that most of the world’s problems, here’s my last article. [00:11:34]What Russia’s first gas pipeline to China reveals about a planned second one. Michael and I talked about this a while ago. I got word on this first one when the sanctions were first imposed on Russia, China and Russia at the beginning of the war started negotiating for the first pipeline. And they did go through Kazakhstan, I believe. Let me double check here.
Stuart Turley [00:12:04] And the reason for that Gazprom has long touted the first power of Siberia as highly profitable and successful project, while going great lengths not to disclose the actual parameters of the ongoing trade. In June two, 2014, when the project was launched, following the figures were made public, Russia would sell China 38 billion cubic meters of gas annually, totaling a thousand BCM over a 30 year contract with estimated sale price of 350 to 400 per thousand cubic meters pretty good stuff, but that has really changed.
Stuart Turley [00:12:44] This article goes through the newer information and how the pipeline does visit in. I did visit with a executive from Gazprom probably four or five years ago at a investment conference, and it was amazing how little money Gazprom has to actually pay to bring natural gas to market and you would be surprised. It is in the sense, not the dollars. So they can actually make no wonder Russia is making so much money off of their energy.
Stuart Turley [00:13:24] So when we take a look at the pipelines, these pipelines coming around are critical for the long term dollar amounts and the long term sustainability of Russia. Russia has moved away from sanctions they don’t have to deal with it, they are now working on not using the petro dollar and they have everything on road.
Stuart Turley [00:13:52] So all these stories kind of all kind of blend in together and I hope that all this makes a lot of fun and a lot of sense by the way, you’re going to have a great day. Thanks for listening to the Energy News Beat Podcast check us out on all of the areas where you can get your podcasts on the EnergyNewsBeat.com, on Energy News Beat | Substack and reach out to me and I’d love to visit with you. Thanks and have a great day.
