Daily Energy Standup Episode #324 – Regulatory difficulties, investment dilemmas, and shifts in policies

Daily Standup Top Stories

Biden’s scaled-back power rule raises doubts over US climate target

March 6, 2024 Stu Turley

---

Follow Stuart On LinkedIn and Twitter

Follow Michael On LinkedIn and Twitter

ENB Top News

ENB

Energy Dashboard

ENB Podcast

ENB Substack

– Get in Contact With The Show –

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

---

Stuart Turley: [00:00:15] Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Energy News Beat Daily. Stand up. My name’s du Turley. Presidency of the sandstone Group. Today is March 7th. And, just buckle up. This is going to be a fun discussion this morning. Michael still out on assignment in California. He said it’s pretty funny. Pictures Biden scaled back power rules, raises doubts over U.S climate targets. Can have some fun things going on there. Blackrock is at it again. Blackrock and Morgan Stanley buy TC Energy’s Portland pipeline business for $1.14 billion. In the words of Michael and I, what’s a few billion mid-range friends? As the world hit, the world has been hit by internet outages. It’s kind of an interesting little story. I don’t know about you guys, but, I got hit, my LinkedIn went down, and it turns out Twitter is the only one that hadn’t been hit. I hope I don’t just jinx Elon. So that’s come around the corner one here. Secrecy around gas export terminals leave public in the dark on dangers. This is kind of frightening about having the regulatory, agencies having a little more control or not having any open, openness on issues. Let’s also talk about, the last story here is New Hampshire solar projects face widespread delays of trying to connect to the power grid. This is bringing up another gigantic problem that’s going on is there’s 20,000 projects trying to attach to the grid, but they can’t because regulatory hold ups and permitting problems. So you need more power. You gotta fix the regulatory issues first. [00:02:08][113.3]

Stuart Turley: [00:02:08] So with that, let’s go ahead and get started on these stories and get rolling around. Biden’s scaled back power rule raises doubts over the U.S climate target. I’ll tell you. Him, this is kind of interesting. When we sit back and say, the Biden administration to exclude the existing U.S fleet of natural gas plants from the carbon emissions regulations, definitely raises questions over the nation’s ability to meet its own climate goals. This is where I’m going to, go a little bit, disagree with this story, and then I’ll agree with it here in just a little bit. The EPA says it has plans to write separate rules to cover the CO2 emissions from existing, gas plants, as well as other hazardous air pollution issues. The Trump administration, displayed enormous hostility to environmental protections for American communities when they were power, says Trevor Higgins, senior vice president for energy and environment at the left wing, think tank center for American Progress. They intend to roll back and halt climate policy across the board. This is further than the farther they need to understand physics, regulatory actions and the impact it has on consumers and voter. Let’s take a look at this right down in here. The EPA’s proposal upset the U.S power industry right from the get go. The white paper, the white House and the EPA declined to comment for the last minute change of excluding the natural gas plants from the new regulations coming out. Natural gas is 40% of our electricity in the United States. We’re in an election year. They’re trying to shut down every coal plant they can. The EIA over the last, two years ago said the only reason that the United States reduced its, carbon output by 22% was due to natural gas. China, on the other hand, has increased theirs by 220%. So, and they are increasing on coal. So we’re going to eliminate the two most important pieces of our grid. And that is the natural gas and coal combination watch coming around the corner here. So you’re going to see this and it’s going to get pretty funny. so and as we get rolling into this. [00:04:58][169.5]

Stuart Turley: [00:04:59] Let’s go to the next story. Blackrock and Morgan ITC Energy’s Portland pipeline business for $1.14 billion. Here’s where it gets really kind of interesting. Let me give you some stats on this real quick. Blackrock and Morgan Stanley agree to buy TC Energy’s Portland natural gas transmission system. It’s worth 1.14 billion. The move comes not long after, Blackrock agreed to buy Global Infrastructure Partners for 12.5 billion in January. Let’s take a look at this. The deal is between the existing infrastructure services provider and its partner, integer LP and block, BlackRock’s diversified infrastructure business investment fund managed by Morgan Stanley. It includes $250 million in debt. Pipelines are always a van tastic, long term, investment. The PE in, GT operates 295 miles of gas pipelines, also serving in Upper New England and the Atlantic provinces of Canada. Here’s where I think people need to understand. Blackrock has now ditched ESG. They have ditched ESG investing, and then they still want to hold to their chorus of saying that we should abandon fossil fuels, but then they go by natural gas pipelines. So follow the money, question everything. And just as a, teaser, I’m interviewing Paul twice next week. He has a brand new book out and it is called The Race to Zero How ESG Investing Will Crater the Global Financial System. So I’m quite excited to read this and, interview Paul next week on that. [00:06:59][119.9]

Stuart Turley: [00:06:59] So let’s go to the next story here. World hit by internet outages. I don’t know about you, but David Blackman, Ray Trevino and I talked about the, Charles Schwab up there when he was saying, hey, we are going to you are going to see an internet failure around the world like you wouldn’t believe. Well, we just had AT&T cell phone come down. We just had, yesterday was, I’m filming this on Wednesday, but on Super Tuesday, we had the, I believe it was Twitter. No Twitter data. Facebook and several others, all went down today when I’m filming this on Wednesday. LinkedIn went down. So when you sit back and take a look, this article really is just displaying, there are some big things happening on right now in the world of security. The Yemen based, hoodies. And as Michael and I say, hoodies and the blowfish, militants, could have cut the underwater cables in the Red sea. They’ve claimed. In a post on X menace, spokesperson Andy Stone said that the company was aware people are having trouble accessing our services. In a subsequent mention, he, puts the disruptions down to a technical issue. I love that technical issue. And leave it to Elon. When he jumped out there and and said, hey, X is still up. I loved it because he jumped out again today and said, hey, X is still up. And they even linked at LinkedIn got hit. Now the according to the companies that estimates 25% of its internet HGC communications was hit. It had a contingency plan. Through mainland China and the U.S. this was out of the cable that was cut. And there are other telecom, folks that are also having problems. This goes back also to several other conversations that we’ve had, is that there are things going on geopolitically around the world that have been emboldened because nothing was done even after the Nord Stream, pipelines were, sabotaged. There are other sabotage is going on. We are in a area where you need to double check everything. Keep your head on a swivel. Backup all your data. And. Just be careful out there. Things are getting weird, and they’re getting. It’s election year. [00:09:46][166.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:09:47] Here’s the next one. Secrecy around gas export terminals leaves public in the dark on dangers. This one is really pretty scary when you sit back 18 months after the plan. After the Freeport LNG explosion, what caused the explosion or where did it. What was going to happen again? They haven’t heard anything. And I think that that is a very big. Item, and then we see the, Biden administration not permitting any more LNG and putting the ban in the LNG area. They need to be able to not put harsh, restrictions without following up on actually communication with the public. We have a right to know if people knew the risks around LNG, there would be, so much public outcry that this build out wouldn’t happen, said Naomi Yoder, who researched the safety of LNG facilities as staff scientist at the environmental watchdog Healthy Gulf. This one kind of irritates me a little bit in the fact that let’s check and see who’s paying her salary. It’s either going to be Bloomberg or it’s going to be Soros. I don’t want to be a conspiracy theory, but you have to look at who prints the money on these things in order for these reports to come back through. So the bottom line is, we need to know what happened on that report. We also need to be able to trade with our global partners around the world without repercussions. Right now, our grain LNG exports can help deliver promised goods. President Biden, if you’re awake or if you’re listening, you promised to deliver all the LNG that you could to our, partners and our allies. And now you’re back walking that. So, anyway, with that, let’s go ahead and go to the next one. That was a very interesting article. [00:12:01][134.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:12:02] Let’s go to the next story here. New Hampshire solar projects face widespread delays connecting to the power grid. I found this pretty interesting. And when you sit back and take a look, even though this is out of just one state, it is another in this energy thread that we’re talking about today. And that is part of the regulatory issues coming on wire bill. Solar panels are 2400 solar panel array installed on the roof was for a conveyor belt manufacturer wire belt. They just wanted to make sure that the people who. This is a quote, took advantage of the solar have opportunity to utilize the good clean power and hopefully at a lower price. Right now, there are no guardrails, no timelines, no real obligations to hurry, said Sam Evans Brown, executive director for the nonprofit Clean Energy New Hampshire. This is where you’re a regulated monopoly. Regulators are supposed to step in. We need answers as the public trying to be able to say, guys, we are in an election year. We need answers. We need low cost energy, and we need to be able to have accountability. [00:13:14][72.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:13:16] So, with that take the survey on survey.energyNewsbeat.com. Let us know what your thoughts are. We have some fantastic new products rolling out. Sign up early. And, not like the joke that’s going on. Sign up early and sign up often and and then sign up your dead relatives. But, since this is an election year, that is a joke. So, with that, reach out, hug somebody, love somebody, and tell, everybody, about the show. We appreciate all of our great listeners and, all of the great feedback. If you are an energy expert, please, reach out. I want to talk to you on the podcast. I have a wild line up, getting ready to rumble out again. Thank you to everybody that’s listening in the show. We really appreciate it. Till then, we’ll see you next week. [00:13:16][0.0][775.9]

---

– Get in Contact With The Show –

---