Daily Energy Standup Episode #126 – Shifting Tides: Financial Boycott, California’s Grid Cost, Energy Sovereignty, Natural Gas Plant Closures, and Japan’s Gas Challenges

Daily Standup Top Stories

Oklahoma says 13 major financial institutions are boycotting the oil and gas industry

Oklahoma’s state treasurer has issued a list of 13 financial institutions that he says are boycotting Oklahoma’s oil and gas industry and shouldn’t be allowed to do business with the state. Last year, lawmakers targeted financial […]

California could face $50B price tag by 2035 to prepare grid for DERs, study finds

Dive Brief: Preparing California’s grid to manage an influx of distributed energy resources could cost approximately $50 billion in the service territories of its three investor-owned utilities by 2035, barring additional measures to reduce costs or […]

French energy report seeks return of “energy sovereignty”

On 30 March, the French Parliament published a report entitled “D’enquête visant à établir les raisons de la perte de souveraineté et d’indépendance énergétique de la France” or “Inquiry aimed at establishing the reasons for the loss of sovereignty and […]

JAPAN EMBRACES G7’S GAS SUPPORT BUT COMPANIES MAY FACE LONG-TERM PROBLEMS

TOKYO, May 17 (Reuters) – Japan’s energy companies were quick to embrace the G7’s support for natural gas investment in their statement last month but analysts caution that relying on the fossil fuel may open […]

New York gets tough with owners of natural gas plants, forcing some out of business – Consumers will pay through the Wazzoo

The South Bronx may be stuck with the New York Power Authority’s peaker plants and the dangerous emissions they release for years to come. But elsewhere, New York has been making it tougher for these […]

 

Highlights of the Podcast

00:00 – Intro
03:25 – Oklahoma says 13 major financial institutions are boycotting the oil and gas industry
05:38 – California could face $50B price tag by 2035 to prepare grid for DERs, study finds
08:03 – French energy report seeks return of “energy sovereignty”
11:30 – New York gets tough with owners of natural gas plants, forcing some out of business – Consumers will pay through the Wazzoo
14:28 – Market Updates
14:48 – Talks about Agreement on the debt ceiling
18:01 – Outro


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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.

Michael Tanner: [00:00:14] What is going on. Everybody, Welcome into another edition of the Daily Energy News Beat Stand Up here on this gorgeous Thursday, May 18th, 2023. As always, I’m your humble correspondent, Michael Tanner, coming to you from an undisclosed location here in Dallas, Texas, joined by the executive producer of the show, the purveyor of the show the Director and Publisher of the world’s greatest website, EnergyNewsBeat.com. Stuart Turley, my man, how we doing today? [00:00:37][23.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:00:38] Its a beautiful neighborhood we got a heck of a show lined up, dude. [00:00:41][2.8]

Michael Tanner: [00:00:41] We are in for the two youtube watchers that we’ve got. Stu is legitimately glowing behind him. I don’t know what he’s done with his lighting, but he literally looks like he’s coming down from above to grace this show with his presence. And he really is he’s got a great menu lined up for us today. [00:00:54][13.1]

Michael Tanner: [00:00:55] We’ll start out in Oklahoma by doing Oklahoma says 13 major financial institutions are boycotting the oil and gas industry. That’s kind of crazy they’ll lay out a list Stu will talk about what’s going on with with oil and gas or banks divesting from oil and gas. [00:01:10][15.0]

Michael Tanner: [00:01:10] Next up, California could face $50 billion price tag by 2035 to prepare the grid for DER. According to studies, Stu will cover the lunacy out in California at the Next up. French Energy report seeks the return of, quote, energy sovereignty. This should come as a shock to nobody. There’s actually a crazy quote in here that’s Stu, I hope, covers. I mean, it’s absolutely insane what they admitted to to their own people this energy report. And I dare people to think about it if we had to say that here but Stu, will cover what’s going on in France newsflash, not good. [00:01:42][32.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:01:43] Next up Japan embraces G7 gas support but companies may face long term problems. As you can understand, Japan is a net importer of all fuels, so they’re one of the largest swing players on the market so Stu will cover what’s going on in Japan and then finally back here abroad, New York gets tough with owners of natural gas plants, forcing some out through businesses and is in classic Stu fashion. He adds this to the title Customers will pay through the wazoo so Stu will cover what’s going on with the natural gas plants in New York. [00:02:16][33.1]

Michael Tanner: [00:02:16] He’ll toss it over to me. I’ll cover why oil was up $2 today, mainly just due to some some macroeconomic fears that were lifted today based on some debt ceiling discussions. And then we’ll cover quickly what happened with the EIA report and some of those numbers. I’m able to get on out of here and start your week, guys. [00:02:33][16.3]

Michael Tanner: [00:02:33] But before we do that again, all of this stuff is courtesy of the world’s greatest website, EnergyNewsBeat.com you can hear the description below and also find all of the stories that we are about to cover here. [00:02:43][9.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:02:43] Stuart is great job of curating that website to stay up to speed with all of it. Subscribe to our Substack check out the Interview podcast that Stu does you can find it on the same feed. If you just scroll down a little bit. [00:02:53][9.9]

Michael Tanner: [00:02:54] You can hit Dashboard.EnergyNewsBeat.com It’s our data energy news combo where we’re trying to put everything into one kind of single application, as we call it, get it while you still can definitely going behind a paywall soon so be prepared for that. But I think I’ve been I think I’ve said everything I Stu. I’m out of breath. What do we want to start with? [00:03:11][17.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:03:11] I’ll tell you why let’s go to Oklahoma love me some Oklahoma. I want to give out Steve Reece and his gang up there. Reece Consulting, great LNG. [00:03:20][9.3]

Michael Tanner: [00:03:21] Reece. Love Steve Reece. [00:03:22][1.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:03:23] Love Steve Reece hey. Oklahoma State Treasurer has issued a list of 13 financial institutions that he says are boycotting Oil and Gas industry and shouldn’t be allowed to be doing business in the state. Michael, doesn’t that sound like a little bit like Texas? [00:03:40][17.3]

Michael Tanner: [00:03:41] It does sound a little bit like. [00:03:43][1.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:03:43] Okay, I love it. The title of the article, our area pretty much covered that. Okay, So last year, the lawmakers targeted financial institutions and investment managements with environmental, social and governance. Oklahoma, they call that ESG. [00:03:57][13.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:03:58] And so, you know, it’s kind of interesting that list is BlackRock, Wells Fargo, Jp morgan, Bank of America, Grabner Capital, Lexington. First Smart Touchdown. William Blair, Climate First Bank. So you sit back and look at that that is pretty amazing. [00:04:17][18.8]

Stuart Turley: [00:04:18] Here’s a quote from Russ Russell, a good dude by the way, the energy sector is crucial to Oklahoma’s economy, providing jobs for our residents and helping drive out economic growth. It’s essential for us to work with financial institutions that are focused on free market principles and not beholden to social goals that override judiciary duties kind of like it. [00:04:42][23.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:04:42] Yeah. I was shocked to see Jp morgan on this list, if only because Jamie Dimond has come out very much in favor of non-ESG, at least what he’s done before Congress. So that shocked me a little bit. Seeing BlackRock being BlackRock on there didn’t shock me Climate First Bank shocker not going to lose any sleep over this. [00:05:00][18.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:05:01] But I’m glad that one oak was not one. Okay. But the Oklahoma bank up there is is not. [00:05:09][8.0]

Michael Tanner: [00:05:09] We’ll be okay. [00:05:10][0.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:05:11] Be okay thank you Bank of Oklahoma thank you. [00:05:13][2.5]

Michael Tanner: [00:05:14] Of course, they better not be they’ve got way too much money invested they have to be on they if they were on this list, we’d pack up and go home. [00:05:21][7.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:05:22] Oh, yeah. I’d have to sell my places. Okay, Let’s go on to the next one Michael, I just. I’m. I love anybody. Hey, I love ESG, but let’s do it reasonably. Okay, Let’s go here. California. I love my favorite state of knuckleheads. California could face 50 billion price tag by 2035 to prepare the grid for DER study finds distributed energy resources is what the ERS is. That means its three investor owned utilities have to pay in 50 billion barring additional measure measures to reduce cost or manage load, a new study found. [00:06:09][47.1]

Michael Tanner: [00:06:10] Yeah, I mean that’s 4.1 billion a year and. Right the question is okay with that money, which is definitely probably going to have to get spent, is the grid even going to be better? The answer is no. You know, nothing’s going to change with the quality of their grid you have to spend that money just to maintain the terrible quality of the grid. [00:06:29][18.5]

Stuart Turley: [00:06:29] Oh, yeah. And it’s not. Got it. No plan there’s a couple of quotes in here while PGNE has not fully reviewed or vetted the studies, analysis and findings yet, the utility is spending more on capacity and expansion than ever, including investing nearly $1 billion a year in capacity upgrades between 2015 and 2021. [00:06:52][23.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:06:53] They’re already doing everything they can, and because the renewables don’t fit on a grid very well, hey, it’s like retro. Our capacity investments have increased over the past three years and continue to grow we want to invest 15 billion in capacity. [00:07:10][16.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:07:11] Here’s the only thing I got to say what about that high speed rail that’s in California that is now, I think, $30 billion over budget. And it’s still not on time and it’s barely even permitted. [00:07:25][13.6]

Michael Tanner: [00:07:28] Classic California. [00:07:28][0.5]

Stuart Turley: [00:07:29] Yeah, How about that $2 billion toilet? Okay, let’s go. [00:07:33][3.6]

Michael Tanner: [00:07:33] I want to be a court we got to figure out a way to be a contractor on that project. Well, will submit will submit a couple bids, see what happens, what’s next? [00:07:39][6.3]

Stuart Turley: [00:07:40] What for the toilet or the power grid? [00:07:41][1.5]

Michael Tanner: [00:07:42] Whichever one you thought of. [00:07:43][1.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:07:44] Oh, they flush twice it’s a long way to the bank. [00:07:47][3.2]

Michael Tanner: [00:07:47] Okay, speaking of toilets let’s go on to France. [00:07:50][2.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:07:51] Oh, smack. [00:07:52][0.8]

Michael Tanner: [00:07:53] Parampom Sorry not sorry, I don’t know anything about French people, so I. [00:07:59][5.5]

Stuart Turley: [00:07:59] That’s my French imitation is even worse than Putin’s French energy report seeks Return of energy sovereignty. France used to be, Michael, the number one exporter of energy in the EU. Now that they have spent no money on their nuclear fleet, again, 5152 nuclear reactors, they are only using 25% because of maintenance. [00:08:26][26.6]

Michael Tanner: [00:08:27] Insane. [00:08:27][0.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:08:28] it’s insane. I love this quote I’m not going to read this in French because I can barely speak English. Michael, the French parliament published a report entitled said We should be opening it so, you know, I, can’t even pretend to say that everybody go to ENERGY NEWS BEAT and read it,. [00:08:46][18.4]

Stuart Turley: [00:08:47] But I love it. I can come down in here and say What led to the situation described as a total loss of energy sovereignty and how did the entire country go from a leading energy exporter to former High Commissioner for Atomic Energy, Yebs Berake described as a quote unquote headless duck? [00:09:09][22.8]

Michael Tanner: [00:09:10] Well, listen, this gets even more insane so the opening of this report says basically that the only reason that they didn’t they avoided blackouts this winter was through a combination of lower industrial output and a decline in corporate levels of ordinary season we started admitting it. [00:09:28][18.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:09:29] Great. [00:09:29][0.0]

Michael Tanner: [00:09:31] I’ll applaud them for at least stating what happened you know, they’re not lying to their people. I think the issue is, okay, if you’re French now, what do you do moving forward? You’ve got to react you’ve got to turn on some of those nuclear reactors you have. [00:09:44][12.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:09:44] You can’t. You can’t because they’ve been maintenance and maintenance and now they’re the water pipes are rusted. They’re not they can’t even use them now it’s not it’s going to cost more to put them back online this is like California, stupid. One of the I’m sorry. Even Scooby would go. [00:10:04][20.1]

Michael Tanner: [00:10:06] Freaking out over this. [00:10:07][0.8]

Stuart Turley: [00:10:07] Oh, yeah. Scooby, He’s going to lose his French Scooby Crassunt instead of a Scooby snack OC final energy consumption in France. You have oil and refined products, Michael, when you go down you see that chart on there. We may have to have our producer slide this chart in here. Oil and refined products is over 50% of their energy. [00:10:32][25.1]

Michael Tanner: [00:10:33] Now, it’s not good that’s not good no it’s not good that’s way too much oil they’ve got to get that on natural gas. It’s absolutely insane. [00:10:41][7.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:10:41] Oh, yeah,. [00:10:42][0.3]

Michael Tanner: [00:10:43] I will. I won’t be visiting France anytime soon. [00:10:45][2.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:10:45] Okay. Underlying second, cause you always love your second order of magnitude things. [00:10:51][5.9]

Michael Tanner: [00:10:52] Yes. Yes. [00:10:53][0.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:10:53] We’re seeing a real call for the EU as an organization to be dissolved and I think this this is only one of the underlying reasons you’re going to see this come around the corner with energy sovereignty in a nation. A nation has to have energy independence and borders in order to survive this is going to be the demise of the EU anyway,. [00:11:22][28.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:11:22] Interesting…. [00:11:22][0.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:11:23] Yeah, you heard it here second. Okay, let’s go to New York. This one cracked me up like you wouldn’t believe, Michael. New York gets tough with owners of natural gas plants, forcing some out of business consumers will pay through the wazoo. Yes, you caught me. And I did put that. Consumers will put pay through the nose on the wazoo. I’m sorry. That was Fitz on this one. If the wazoo fits, use it. [00:11:49][25.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:11:49] So the South Bronx may be stuck and they they use older technology, power plants they’ve got their older plants. So it’s okay to go ahead and pollute the Bronx. That is offensive. But everywhere else in New York, where they’re using cleaner natural gas and they have to import it from Russia. [00:12:10][21.0]

Michael Tanner: [00:12:11] Yep. [00:12:11][0.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:12:12] Go figure that out and then. [00:12:13][1.6]

Michael Tanner: [00:12:14] Blood gas. [00:12:14][0.5]

Stuart Turley: [00:12:15] Yeah. I mean, the regulation required speakers you said peakers to stop adopt stringent pollution controls by 2023 and 2025. Those couldn’t retrofit their plants to comply with lower allowable emission rates. Forced to retire To date, the State Department of Environmental Conservation says some 37 plants have plans to retire, many after 50 years of operation. [00:12:46][31.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:12:47] Hey, I’m all about retiring them, getting them out of there and everything else but let’s have an orderly plan instead of no natural gas power for you. That means no power for everybody the way it’s done. I mean, the power Nazi you remember the soup Nazi out of Seinfeld? Yeah. No power for you, you know. Holy smokes! [00:13:06][18.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:13:07] Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t want to. I mean, I’m not somebody that wants to live in New York City to begin with, so you’re not going to get very catch me trying to, you know, find an apartment in New York City. [00:13:16][9.5]

Michael Tanner: [00:13:17] I do think what they’re doing is insane do you talk about one of the most densely populated areas in the country and they’re trying to move to offshore wind? Talk about killing the whales so they obviously they’re with me in New York they just kill the whales. They’ll end up on the whale oil again. [00:13:32][15.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:13:32] You want to talk about. [00:13:33][0.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:13:34] Thats how I think we solved the problem in York City on whale oil? [00:13:37][3.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:13:37] There are some consulting firms out there that you’re very well aware of, and they are now focusing instead on ESG, but diverse energy, diversity and inclusion. And if you want to talk about energy, diversity and inclusion, you’re going to burn down the Bronx by using old coal power plants. That, to me, is even offensive. I mean, you’re sitting there and you’re not doing it right for the disproportionately impacted community of the Bronx. Stinks thanks I just wanted to get off my $0.02. [00:14:09][31.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:14:09] All right we appreciate. [00:14:10][0.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:14:11] I feel better now. Woow! [00:14:11][0.6]

Michael Tanner: [00:14:13] You’re legitimately glowing you look great. [00:14:15][2.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:14:16] Well, thank you. [00:14:17][0.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:14:20] You got anything else? [00:14:20][0.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:14:21] No, man. Scooby and I are going to go talk and have a Scooby, Scooby Crescent, as we say. [00:14:26][5.5]

Michael Tanner: [00:14:27] All right, well, I’ll quickly cover finance, guys. Oil traded up about 2%. I’m currently sitting here 7276 as we record this, about 615 here on the 17th. I think, you know, part of the reason we were up mainly was the fact that negotiations in a month long standoff, it looks like there was an agreement on the debt ceiling Stu. What did you hear on really the debt ceiling? You’re more tapped into politics for me then is is it? [00:14:56][28.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:14:56] I was trapped all day. I know that it is a crock of crap. The politics in the United States right now. [00:15:07][11.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:15:08] Specifically around trying to get this debt ceiling raised. I mean, to give you an idea. We’re sitting at a $31.4 trillion debt ceiling. That’s okay. [00:15:15][7.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:15:16] Are you asking me a question? I’m going to respond. It is $97,000 per person in the U.S. for the U.S. debt and it’s 247,000 per taxpayer. All of a sudden, you sit back and kind of go, hmm, that’s some discrimination based on taxpayer I’m feeling violated right now as a taxpayer, is everything I’ve been paying. [00:15:39][23.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:15:41] And these chowder heads and our government are over spending and then they can’t even get to a party to sit there and go, We want to raise the debt ceiling because I got to go have some ice cream and then change my pens. This is terrible. Thank you for letting me rant. [00:15:56][15.6]

Michael Tanner: [00:15:57] Yeah, I know. I mean, saying it, it’s absolutely insane and what’s crazy is this, you know, hopefully this determination to read it, to reach a deal soon is reuters would tell you it spurred the oil markets and that’s really what we’re seeing. [00:16:10][13.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:16:11] I mean, we saw crude oil inventories rise 5 billion barrels week over week, which only would send prices plummeting. But instead we see 2% because everything goes as the government. We we really are teetering from a from what I say, the vibe is turned into a recession. That’s what’s coming. I think the tide has turned a little bit, in my opinion. I think people are expecting rates to continue to rise in order to see unemployment to rise. But I do think we have entered and are entering a recession and it’ll be pretty interesting if. [00:16:41][30.3]

Stuart Turley: [00:16:41] You remember how long I’ve been saying we’ve been coming to a recession? [00:16:44][2.5]

Michael Tanner: [00:16:45] Yeah, the boy. Yes. You know, for four, four, five years we’ve been coming into a recession Stu. [00:16:49][4.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:16:49] All right. I’m going to change my prediction we are coming into a intentional depression. [00:16:55][5.6]

Michael Tanner: [00:16:56] Oh, you’re going the D-word. [00:16:57][1.4]

Stuart Turley: [00:16:58] I’m going to D Word Dude this is now intentional [00:17:01][2.2]

Michael Tanner: [00:17:03] Okay. Okay. Well, let’s let’s get you voted on first to the Federal Reserve let’s get you on the board of governors. [00:17:10][7.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:17:12] I could change this around Michael. [00:17:14][2.0]

Michael Tanner: [00:17:15] To early 2024. [00:17:15][0.4]

Stuart Turley: [00:17:16] No, now I got too many skeletons. [00:17:18][1.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:17:19] No kidding you got anything else? What should people be watching out for? [00:17:22][2.8]

Stuart Turley: [00:17:24] Stay out of Politics [00:17:24][0.5]

Michael Tanner: [00:17:24] Your candidacy for President. [00:17:26][1.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:17:26] Yeah. No, I am running for no office we need some people, though. Holy Smokes [00:17:31][4.9]

Michael Tanner: [00:17:33] Yeah, just not me, just not me. Did you guys get out of here, though? [00:17:37][4.5]

Stuart Turley: [00:17:38] We appreciate all of our fans, Michael. [00:17:40][1.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:17:40] Yes, we do! Feel free to email us Questions@EnergyNewsBeat.com, but we’ll let you get out of here, guys. Thanks for Stuart Turley, I’m Michael Tanner we’ll see you on Monday, folks we got weekly recap tomorrow, so you’ll hear us then ,We’ll see you Monday! [00:17:40][0.0]