During the first four months of 2022, the United States exported 74% of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe, compared with an annual average of 34% last year, according to our recently released Natural Gas Monthly and EIA estimates for April 2022.Jun 7, 2022. Note:Europe includes Turkey. Source
What does it do to our prices here at home? If Europe wants to go green, let them do it. One cold winter and they will happily tool back up their coal, oil, and nuke plants. Biden refuses to allow the U.S. to ramp up production thus the end game is to make Americans take the hit of rising prices. But I digress..
And while we are upset with Hunter more likely than not making some bucks off of our strategic oil reserve recently, we need to ask how much did he make when our first release occurred September 10, 2021.Better yet the fall releases also ended up in Asia. More about that later….
In April 2021 imports reached the highest monthly, amounting to 3.3 billion cubic meters.
“Experts say the U.S. would likely have to divert gas from other customers, to increase it to Europe.
“We could solve this problem tomorrow, we need to send a clear message to the marketplace that we’re going to support the oil and gas industry here in America that we’re going to come back to energy independence here in America,” said Sen. Bill Haggerty, R-Tenn.(Source)
Here in Pennsylvania the cost:
Pennsylvania natural gas prices have spiked to their highest level in the last decade.
A recent report from the Independent Fiscal Office shows natural gas prices hit an average of $4.10 per million British thermal units in the first three months of 2022.
That’s a 62 percent jump from the same time last year, when prices averaged $2.53 per MMBtu.
Prices averaged $3.97 per unit in the last quarter of 2021. Source
Earlier:
Democrats call for Biden officials to limit US natural gas overseas shipments … – CNN
New York (CNN Business)Nearly a dozen US Senators are calling for the Biden administration to curb overseas shipments of natural gas as Americans struggle with home heating sticker shock this winter.
“As families across the country continue to face steep residential energy and heating costs, we urge you to take swift action to limit US natural gas exports and examine their impact on domestic energy prices,” the lawmakers wrote in a Wednesday letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
Mike Sommers, the CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, told CNN in December that he’s “concerned” about the risk of a natural gas export ban. Sommers, whose group represents Cheniere and other gas exporters, pointed to how US allies in Europe and Asia have long-term contracts to buy US LNG and banning those shipments would force them to turn to Russia and China for energy.
“One really good way to ruin our standing in the world is to violate those contracts at a time of high energy costs,” Sommers said.
Then there is the old “drill baby drill” but that’s off the table.
Now about Hunter making some big bucks lately on Reserve oil shipments to China. While we have our knickers in a knot about this latest revelation, note the first draw down – foreign shipment of our strategic reserve went out:
Drum Roll Please…….
US Crude Oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Stocks
(Bloomberg) — If the Biden Administration decides to tap U.S. emergency crude reserves to push down domestic energy prices, it may not help all that much. The supplies may just be exported away like last month.
About 1.6 million barrels of crude from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve — a monthly record — was shipped out in October, according to data from market intelligence firm Kpler.
All three supertankers went to Asia.
“Given the ongoing pace of the current SPR release — 12 million barrels in the last two months and the biggest weekly release so far last week at 3.1 million barrels — it’s fair to assume more SPR barrels are going to leave U.S. shores in the weeks ahead,” said Matt Smith, an oil analyst at Kpler.
Check October 29 to November 5 when we drew down the 3.1. This was when Biden was saying he was “thinking about it.”
Is this an impeachable offense?
Biden noncommittal on a potential Strategic Petroleum Release … – CNN
Nov 6, 2021 — President Joe Biden on Saturday was noncommittal on ordering a Strategic Petroleum Reserve release in an attempt to address rising crude oil …
Oh how they lie… it continues
Indeed.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm suggested last month that tapping into the SPR was under active consideration, something the department later walked back by clarifying that there was no “immediate plan” to do so.
Only the US president can order crude stored in those reserves to be released.
“There are other tools in the arsenal that we have to deal” with, Biden said, adding that he is dealing with other countries. The President said “at an appropriate time,” he will discuss how to “get more energy” flowing.
Where was he in it?
How about Hunter?
Then in April we learn more of our strategic oil is going to Europe.
According to Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the matter, the Suezmax ship Advantage Spring – sailing for Rotterdam, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg – received emergency SPR sweet crude from Energy Transfer’s Nederland oil facility around April 1 for export.
Basic Info. US Crude Oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Stocks is at a current level of 492.03M, down from 497.87M last week and down from 622.49M one year …
Change from 1 Year Ago: -20.96%
Value from 1 Year Ago: 622.49M
Change from Last Week: -1.17%
Value from Last Week: 497.87M
And our man Hunter?
Biden administration sold a million barrels of oil from US Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Chinese state-owned firm where Hunter Biden is an investor: Report Source
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Shutting down oil, coal and gas? Just getting started. One refinery in the Virgin Islands, Limetree Bay Refinery. Nuclear? Turkey Point outside of Miami. Peach Bottom in Pennsylvania. Four Hydroelectric dams in Southern Oregon and Northern California – The Klamath River Dams. The indications from the agencies are they are just getting started.
Add that to Biden’s yanking 77 small refineries biofuel waivers that now put them at risk for bankruptcy.
The TVA wants to replace a coal fired plant with natural gas. That would put the federal Tennessee Valley Authority out of step with President Joe Biden’s administration goal of a carbon-pollution-free energy sector by 2035 so they say.
Finally, no one talks about the “energy credits” required that increase the cost of energy.
Limetree Bay Refinery:
Capable of refining more than 200,000 barrels of crude per day, the refinery had reopened in early 2021, following a nine-year hiatus preceded by a string of oil spills and alleged Clean Air Act violations. In a separate letter earlier this month, EPA had outlined other requirements, including the need for fence-line monitoring for benzene, a carcinogen.
They have not one chance in hell of getting a new Clean Air Act permit. Not one chance.
EPA told the new owners of a shuttered U.S. Virgin Islands oil refinery that they may need a new Clean Air Act permit, a hurdle that could significantly slow any plan to reopen the plant.
While regulators are still gathering information, there are “strong indicators to suggest” that the Limetree Bay refinery must get a Prevention of Significant Deterioration pre-construction permit before restarting operations, Liliana Villatora, an air branch chief in EPA’s New York City-based regional office, wrote in a letter today to lawyers for West Indies Petroleum Ltd. and Port Hamilton Refining and Transportation LLLP, which jointly bought the facility at a bankruptcy auction late last year (Greenwire, Dec. 22, 2021).
Under the act, large industrial operations must get a PSD permit before beginning work on a “major modification” expected to lead to a significant increase in emissions of pollutants like soot and sulfur dioxide. In the letter, Villatora did not spell out why EPA suspects the permit is needed but asked the two companies to reply as soon as possible to a series of questions related to the plant’s brief reopening last year and their plans for its future, along with their own analysis of “PSD applicability.”
After Launching Push To End Oil & Gas, Biden Blaming Oil Refineries For Not Doing “Patriotic Duty”
A:
U.S. agency reverses 30-year license extension for Miami’s Turkey Point nuclear power plant, orders environmental review
Associated Press
•
MIAMI — MIAMI — Federal officials have reversed a decision to allow a South Florida nuclear power plant to continue running for another 30 years by ordering a new review of potential environmental risks, including those posed by climate change.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued an order Thursday to reverse a 2019 decision by a previous, Republican-led commission to extend Florida Power & Light’s operating license for two reactors at the Turkey Point nuclear power plant until 2052 and 2053, respectively. The reactors have been operating since 1972 and 1973, respectively.
The reversal gives environmental groups a chance to reiterate concerns that federal regulators didn’t adequately consider the risks of climate change and flooding from sea level rise when granting the last extension. The NRC plans to hold hearings after staff completes a new site-specific environmental impact statement.
FPL has previously said rising sea levels and other climate factors won’t compromise operations of the reactors, the Miami Herald reported.
Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant. Peach Bottom Nuclear Plant
Besides the reversal at Turkey Point, the NRC also reversed a license extension for the Peach Bottom nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. Days after taking office in January 2021, President Joe Biden named Democrats to take over the NRC and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The agencies have been reevaluating decisions made by Republican-led panels under former President Donald Trump, including the 2019 decision on Turkey Point.
So after making “significant investments” Biden shuts it down. Does anyone still wonder why energy companies are not making any further investments? Here is the headline back in 2020:
NRC also reversed a license extension for the Peach Bottom
Peach Bottom nuclear power plant can operate into the middle of this century, federal regulators say.
The southern York County plant’s license was to expire in 2033, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is extending that license another 20 years.
Exelon Generation, the plant’s owner, said in a news release that its two reactors generate electricity for more than 2.7 million homes. Seven hundred fifty people work there full-time, the company says. Roughly another 1,800 workers are brought in for maintenance when the plant shuts down each year for refueling.
Exelon says in the past seven years, it has made “significant investments” in equipment and technology that have increased its capacity by about 12 percent. That work has included replacing or upgrading turbines and power transformers.
Peach Bottom is one of four nuclear power plants in Pennsylvania.
The structures are the four southernmost dams in a string of six constructed in southern Oregon and far northern California producing hydroelectric energy and built in 1918. We are apparently so flush with energy that no concern is being given for additional energy resources for replacement. Especially California.
The environmentalist jihad won’t stop on the Klamath River:
The project on California’s second-largest river would be at the vanguard of a push to demolish dams in the U.S. as the structures age and become less economically viable and as concerns grow about their environmental impact, particularly on fish. AP
Now, plans to demolish four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath’s lower reaches — the largest such demolition project in U.S. history — have placed those competing interests in stark relief. Tribes, farmers, homeowners and conservationists all have a stake in the dams’ fate.
“We are saving salmon country, and we’re doing it through reclaiming the West,” said Amy Cordalis, a Yurok tribal attorney fighting for dam removal.
The project, estimated at nearly $450 million, would reshape the Klamath River and empty giant reservoirs, and could revive plummeting salmon populations by reopening habitat that has been blocked for more than a century. One of the dams is pictured below:
Biden is deliberately putting up to 88 small refineries at risk. Most do not have the capacity to refine added biofuels and instead are forced to buy “energy credits.”
Under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), oil refiners must blend billions of gallons of renewable fuels into the nation’s fuel mix, a policy intended to help farmers, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and cut U.S. petroleum imports.
Small refiners can seek waivers to the mandates, or an SRE, if they can prove the mandates would financially harm them.
Biden wonders why refinery capacity is down???
Chet Thompson, CEO of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, said the blending requirement for this year is “contrary to the administration’s claims to be doing everything in their power to provide relief to consumers.”
“Unachievable mandates will needlessly raise fuel production costs and further threaten the viability of U.S. small refineries, both at the expense of consumers,” Thompson said.
Prices for the credits jumped to a record high of almost $2 in June from only 10 cents at the start of 2020, the resolution said. They are now the second-largest expense for refiners like PBF, after crude oil. The document noted that 800 million fewer credits were issued last year than were needed to meet the 2020 standard.
Announcement also include denial of refinery exemptions
The EPA, after gathering comments since releasing it proposed blending requirements in December, said Friday it will require refiners to blend 20.77 billion gallons of ethanol, biodiesel and other renewable fuel this year.
The agency also denied roughly 70 exemptions for small refineries,(June 2022) many of which had been granted under former President Donald Trump. (Yahoo)
President Joe Biden wrote letters to seven CEOs of oil companies saying that while Russian President Vladimir Putin is responsible for the spike in oil and gas prices, he’s calling on oil companies to explain why they’ve had a drop in refining capacity at a time when profits increase.
South Jersey refinery says cost-mandated fuel credits threaten its survival
The biofuels industry’s RFS struggles span several administrations. Most recently, the Trump administrationgranted 88 small-refinery exemptions in four years, setting off a legal fight all the way to the Supreme Court. Industry groups have placed their hope in the Biden administration to set a different course on the RFS.”
To comply with the standard, PBF and other refiners who are unable to blend biofuels such as ethanol with gasoline and diesel are required instead to buy credits called Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs, that have recently surged in price because they are traded on the open market.
The burden of the credits is worsened, the independent refiners say, by the fact that they buy them from larger competitors who have the technical ability to blend biofuels, and so earn the credits that they can then sell to the smaller companies. That amounts to the smaller companies effectively subsidizing their competitors, they say.
They had this refinery scheme as early as last year. Biden knew this credit business was a problem. Democrat Lawmakers joined in by writing the EPA urging that the refiners not be given any relief:
U.S. Refiners Accumulate $1.6 Billion Shortfall in Biofuel Credits, as Biden Administration Weighs RFS Volume Cuts
“U.S. merchant refiners have amassed up to a $1.6 billion shortfall in the credits they will need to comply with U.S. biofuel laws, according to a Reuters review of corporate disclosures, an apparent bet that the Biden administration could let them off the hook or that credit prices will fall.
“The big liability among companies including PBF Energy Inc, CVR Energy Inc, Par Pacific Holdings and Delta Airlines comes as the administration of President Joe Biden considers granting oil refiners relief from their biofuel mandates amid soaring credit costs and economic turmoil from the coronavirus pandemic that has hurt the fuel industry. It has been widely reported that the energy companies lost over $30 Billion dollars.
Totally wacko.They want to change from coal to gas!!! – Out of step with Biden!
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The nation’s largest public utility plans to shut down a massive coal-fired power plant, but wants to replace it with natural gas. That would put the federal Tennessee Valley Authority out of step with President Joe Biden’s administration goal of a carbon-pollution-free energy sector by 2035.
Officials with the utility argue the natural gas move would help pave a path toward more renewable sources and away from coal, while continuing to keep rates low and the electric grid reliable. But environmental groups warn the agency could squander the chance to get away from carbon-producing fossil fuels that drive climate change. Worth the full read of craziness. Read more
The coming look of the Tennessee Valley
Many people think solar panels are sustainable but the vast majority of them require 300-600x more land than conventional power plants, are made by Uighur Muslims incarcerated in Chinese concentration camps, and contain toxic elements (lead & chromium) that won’t be recycled. pic.twitter.com/GGNwCMPuLU
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) June 15, 2022
GRANHOLM: "As long as our nation remains overly reliant on oil and fossil fuels, we'll feel these price shocks again…the only way out…is diversifying our fuel sources by deploying clean energy." pic.twitter.com/xEKcxI1LIn
Granholm made the rounds on the Sunday talk shows. “One of the biggest pieces of these inflationary increases is the price of fuel” she says. What a surprise. Who would have guessed it? She has come a long way don’t you think…. and best part is that Biden is focused like a laser..Let’s have a little fun checking out what our savants are saying about inflation and energy with a few short clips. Here we go.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm: “Oh, For Sure” Biden Is “Really Focused” On Inflation
Focused but not so much on “Drill Baby Drill” type thing.
She thinks you fill up a tank with electricity..
What’s Charging Those Stations? 🤔 | Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm On Gas Prices & EVs
OOPSIE– Lansing Energy running on 95 percent coal. Ouch.
What About The Rest Of Us? | Senator Debbie Stabenow Gloats About Buying An EV. How many think that Deb drove from Michigan to D.C. and passed all of those gas stations smiling all the time? The average distance I read is somewhere between 260 and 340 miles per tank. Just how were those charging stations?
When You Blame EVERYONE but Yourself.. He says inflation is just a smidgen and then back down, a wee bit, just temporary, yes.
They have to speak like they’re talking to children because that’s the level of intelligence of a progressive.
Our gal is right there in it…with us every step of the way. A great comfort.
Kamala reassures us that every one is working together.
Nothing better than a bit of Terrence. We shall see if this stays up.
Sums up the whole amazing absurdity of it all… hope you enjoyed.
Smart. Burning your food to make “renewable” fuels that will raise the price of corn by 30 percent when there is a looming food shortage. Better, it will requirer more fertilizer which is in short supply and that price too is soaring. Best? Probably put smaller refineries out of business. And the coup de grace? Causes engine wear and damages your car. All this to force the issue of EV’s.
It is hard to think all this is not intentional. It’s odd that if EV was so great and everyone should be using them, why is the government so intent on (or even has to) coercing/forcing the public to move to EV by intentional destroying internal combustion any way they can. Meanwhile we sit on a boatload of fossils fuels that the world envies.
The EPA, after gathering comments since releasing it proposed blending requirements in December, said Friday it will require refiners to blend 20.77 billion gallons of ethanol, biodiesel and other renewable fuel this year.
Additionally, the oil industry must blend 250 million more gallons of renewable fuel, both this year and next, after a federal court found the Obama administration inappropriately reduced the 2016 blending requirements.
The agency also denied roughly 70 exemptions for small refineries, many of which had been granted under former President Donald Trump.
…..
Refiners Complain
But Chet Thompson, CEO of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, said the blending requirement for this year is “contrary to the administration’s claims to be doing everything in their power to provide relief to consumers.”
“Unachievable mandates will needlessly raise fuel production costs and further threaten the viability of U.S. small refineries, both at the expense of consumers,” Thompson said.
….
Now we go into the old “market credits.” We wonder why the price of gasoline is so high? Maybe Peter Doocy could ask our White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about this. That would be a hoot.
The Biden administration on Friday retroactively reduced the amount of ethanol that must be blended into gasoline for 2020 and 2021 but raised the level for 2022, saying the changes are aimed at helping boost domestic fuel supplies.
The agency can adjust these requirements retroactively, signaling to refiners how much they will have to spend to buy market credits that help them comply with obligations lingering from past years.
Both ethanol and corn prices have risen sharply, and cutting the 2022 mandate potentially could have lowered refiners’ business costs and led to lower prices at the pump, but likely by only a few cents a gallon, said analysts at research and consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group LLC.
Let’s get rid of the smaller refineries. Transportation Secretary Butt Boy complains about the big companies running things:
South Jersey refinery says cost-mandated fuel credits threaten its survival
New Jersey lawmakers waded into a long-running battle by independent oil refiners for reform of a federal mandate that the companies say is costing them millions of dollars and threatening their survival.
Both the Senate and Assembly unanimously passed a resolution urging President Joe Biden and the Environmental Protection Agency to allow waivers to the Renewable Fuels Standard that would ease financial pressure on refiners such as Parsippany-based PBF Energy which employs about 225 people at a facility in Paulsboro.
To comply with the standard, PBF and other refiners who are unable to blend biofuels such as ethanol with gasoline and diesel are required instead to buy credits called Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs, that have recently surged in price because they are traded on the open market.
Prices for the credits jumped to a record high of almost $2 in June from only 10 cents at the start of 2020, the resolution said. They are now the second-largest expense for refiners like PBF, after crude oil. The document noted that 800 million fewer credits were issued last year than were needed to meet the 2020 standard.
The burden of the credits is worsened, the independent refiners say, by the fact that they buy them from larger competitors who have the technical ability to blend biofuels, and so earn the credits that they can then sell to the smaller companies. That amounts to the smaller companies effectively subsidizing their competitors, they say. Source
And our farmland?
“Millions of acres are being pointlessly sacrificed just to grow corn to fuel gas-guzzling SUVs,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Meanwhile the EPA looks the other way as our ocean dead zones grow, water pollution worsens, and endangered species suffer.”
Expanded ethanol production under federal mandates raised corn prices by 30% and the prices of other crops by 20%, according to a report published earlier this year in the National Academy of Sciences. The report also said growing more corn for ethanol led to increased amounts of water pollutants from U.S. farms and negated ethanol’s climate benefits.
The Biden administration announced it will suspend a federal rule that bars higher levels of ethanol in gasoline during the summertime. The move is intended to lower fuel prices. However, that decision is to authorize year-round use of E15 or 15% ethanol.
Now the best part not to be missed.
EPA to Expand E15 Ethanol Fuel – Is Ethanol Bad For Your Car’s Engine?
A comment left:
My car SPECIFICALLY states NOT to use Ethanol fuel because it will damage the aluminum block. Almost every car’s block is corroded but ethanol and so extensively damaged by E-15 that the life of the vehicle is reduced by 60-75% so, a life of 5-7 years not 15-25 years. I smell a rat.
The Biden Administration is showing its true self. Cancellation of oil leases adds years to high oil prices. Meanwhile the dumping of our oil reserves continues with little if any effect leaving us in a more precarious position in case of any disruption.
Reasons cited?
“lack of industry interest in leasing in the area” for the decision to “not move forward” with the Cook Inlet lease sale. The department also halted two leases under consideration for the Gulf of Mexico region because of “conflicting court rulings that impacted work on these proposed lease sales.”
How about the coming shortage of diesel fuel? Will that satisfy this White House?
Now, due to increased demand and a drop in production, a diesel shortage may be next as the largest diesel distribution hub in the U.S. is sitting on supplies at a 30-year low. Record gap between gasoline and diesel, but the gap will start to shrink very soon- not by leaps and bounds, but slowly
Here we go:
The Biden administration canceled one of the most high-profile oil and gas lease sales pending before the Department of the Interior Wednesday, as Americans face record-high prices at the pump, according to AAA.
A DOI spokesperson cited a “lack of industry interest in leasing in the area” for the decision “not to move forward” with the Cook Inlet lease sale, CBS News reported. The spokesperson also said the department canceled the Gulf of Mexico leases – lease 259 and lease 261 – due to “conflicting court rulings that impacted work on these proposed lease sales.”
Until now, the White House had remained silent about the massive Alaska lease. However, canceling the sale would be in keeping with political promises President Joe Biden made in the name of halting global warming. But those promises have become a political challenge in the face of prices at the pump.
Federal law requires DOI to stick to a five-year leasing plan for auctioning offshore leases. The department had until the end fo the current five-year plan – due to expire on June 30 – to complete the sales.
Within his first week in office, President Biden signed an executive order temporarily suspending new oil and gas leases on federal lands. The administration resumed the new leasing last month following court challenges against the ban. The administration is appealing a ruling in which Judge James Cain, a Trump appointee, struck down the ban.
…
“I blame Biden for all lack of production. He has scared away investment,” Milloy told FOX Business. “I don’t trust him in court defending leasing,” he added, suggesting that the president will find “any excuse to not drill. They even tried to use the social cost of carbon decision to stop leasing.”
The Biden admin is purposely ratcheting up inflation. This is part of the Democrats play book to maintain control. Why do ppl always fall for the same Democrat BS. Biden admin cancels massive oil and gas lease sale amid record-high gas prices https://t.co/VxGqR4ZMJ4#FoxBusiness
— Richard M Caruso (@RichardCaruso22) May 12, 2022
Our main man out on the stump.
Biden: "We’re the only nation in the world … that has come out of every crisis stronger than we went in it … no other nation has done that. It’s one of the reasons why in some places we’re called the ugly Americans." pic.twitter.com/ct9askJdit
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) May 11, 2022
Coming out of this crisis may not be so easy with idiot at the helm. There I said it.
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The first time Biden released our oil reserve last fall it made its way to Asia. Now we learn that this batch is headed to..drum roll please… Europe. These releases were suppose to bring the price of oil down here. Forget that the purpose of the oil reserve was for emergencies. Just where does the money received from these sales go Mr. Joe? Just thought I would ask. It is being sold as reducing our cost. First the update and then a trip down memory lane:
Joe Biden’s decision to release 180 million barrels of oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve – one million barrels per day for 180 days, ending just before the midterm elections which the Democrats will lose in an avalanche – was meant to help lower US gasoline prices “because Putin price hike.” Instead, it is heading for Europe.
…..
According to Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the matter, the Suezmax ship Advantage Spring – sailing for Rotterdam, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg – received emergency SPR sweet crude from Energy Transfer’s Nederland oil facility around April 1 for export.
“Based on the price of oil, I’ve also instructed the Secretary of Energy to purchase… large quantities of crude oil for storage in the US strategic reserve. We are going to fill it right up to the top. It puts us in a position that’s very strong, and we are buying it at the right price”, Trump said.
Everyone is talking about opening the tap. Namely one Chuck Schumer. Let’s follow the bread crumbs for the surprise ending. Here is the give away!
Biden is selling massive amounts of SPR oil…to Asia!
US reduces stocks and strategic petroleum reserve by 3.2 million barrels
The reserves are now at the lowest level since June 2003
Yesterday the acting head of the EIA said that any release from the US strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) would have only short-lived impact on oil markets.
It even gets more interesting- in a previous post:
The South China Morning Post reports that President Biden asked President Xi, during their virtual meeting overnight, to release China’s oil reserves as part of an economic cooperation pact.
The issue was also broached during a phone conversation between Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken two days earlier.“One of the pressing issues for both sides is energy supply,” the person said, which made us wonder just what China would want to give up some of that ‘supply’ for to help out its arch-competitor on the global hegemon stage?
Now why would that be? And where did our strategic oil go?
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is a supply of petroleum held by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) for emergency fuel. It is the largest emergency supply in the world, and its underground tanks in Louisiana and Texas have capacity for 714 million barrels (113,500,000 m3).
Here is a handy dandy interactive chart which will give you the monthly and yearly stats:
US Crude Oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Stocks
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a U.S. Government complex of four sites with deep underground storage caverns created in salt domes along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts.
It turns out that Biden is already tapping into the SPR; he’s just not doing it to help Americans. A report in investment circles is finally trickling down into the mainstream news: Biden is selling massive amounts of SPR oil…to Asia!
(Bloomberg) — If the Biden Administration decides to tap U.S. emergency crude reserves to push down domestic energy prices, it may not help all that much. The supplies may just be exported away like last month.
About 1.6 million barrels of crude from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve — a monthly record — was shipped out in October, according to data from market intelligence firm Kpler.
All three supertankers went to Asia.
“Given the ongoing pace of the current SPR release — 12 million barrels in the last two months and the biggest weekly release so far last week at 3.1 million barrels — it’s fair to assume more SPR barrels are going to leave U.S. shores in the weeks ahead,” said Matt Smith, an oil analyst at Kpler.
As far as I can tell, the administration has not explained why, with Americans struggling to keep up with rising fuel prices, it’s shipping our SPR to Asia. During the virtual meeting between Biden and Xi Jinping, the two men allegedly discussed releasing oil from both countries’ petroleum reserves but made no mention of the sales to Asia that already took place.
It’s becoming clearer daily that there is a clown in the White House, but it’s not a cute, loving clown like Bozo (although I always found him kind of creepy). Instead, we’re being led by the political equivalent of the Joker from the D.C. Comics, a mad man who wants to burn it all down.
Bonus: Liar liar pants on fire. Does he even know the reserves are being released?
Biden noncommittal on a potential Strategic Petroleum Release … – CNN
Nov 6, 2021 — President Joe Biden on Saturday was noncommittal on ordering a Strategic Petroleum Reserve release in an attempt to address rising crude oil …
That my friends is one of the biggest days in swamp land. Go figure this one out.
Biden never disappoints. The world sits on edge of a possible famine with much of Ukraine unable to plant this year. Fertilizer is in short supply. Bright bulb Joe comes up with this. What fool burns their food supply?
The price of corn has spiked from a low of $3.08 a bushel in August 2020 to $7.69 in April 2022.
The European Union imports more than half of its corn from Ukraine and is already buying more American corn.
Fertilizer prices have skyrocketed as much as 300 percent since early 2021. Thanks in large part to the sky rocketing cost of Natural gas. Thank you Joe Biden.
But Biden talks about using more American corn as fuel for vehicles could help reduce gas prices.
Better yet, ethanol will cause more pollution.
Today, I am announcing that the Environmental Protection Agency is planning to issue an emergency waiver to allow E15 gasoline — gasoline that uses more ethanol from home-grown crops — to be sold across the U.S. this summer in order to increase fuel supply and lower prices.
We have been down the ethanol road before with the Obama Biden team in 2011. They were all for making food inflation skyrocket back in the day. At the time there was concern over the harm ethanol would do to older cars. Even then, Obama and team defied court orders.
The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to raise the maximum amount of ethanol that can be blended with gasoline for vehicles manufactured since 2007.
According to people with knowledge of the announcement, the EPA may say as soon as Wednesday that the newer vehicles are able to handle 15 percent ethanol, up from the current maximum of 10 percent for the corn-based fuel.
But the auto industry, environmentalists and a broad coalition of other groups have argued against an increase and called for more testing.
Opponents argue that the increase in production of corn and its diversion into ethanol is making animal feed more expensive, raising prices at the grocery store and tearing up the land.
Manufacturers of smaller engines – used in everything from lawn mowers to boats – also oppose increasing the use of the fuel, saying those engines are not designed for the higher concentrations.
Financial Times — “U.S. ethanol refiners are consuming more domestic corn than livestock and poultry farmers for the first time, underscoring how a government-supported biofuels industry has contributed to surging grain demand.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that in the year to August 31 ethanol producers will have consumed 5.05 billion bushels of corn, or more than 40% of last year’s harvest. Animal feed and residual demand accounted for 5 billion bushels.”
Meanwhile, we proceed to destroy the world’s food supply: Robert Bryce writing in the Washington Examiner:
“Today, about 40 percent of all U.S. corn — that’s 15 percent of global corn production or 5 percent of all global grain — is diverted into the corn ethanol scam in order to produce the energy equivalent of about 0.6 percent of global oil needs.
And recent harsh weather, including floods in the Midwest and drought in the South, will likely mean a subpar U.S. corn harvest. That, in turn, will mean yet higher prices for corn, which will translate into higher prices for meat, milk, eggs, cheese and other commodities.
“Livestock producers, restaurants, food manufacturers and consumers at the grocery store are all being penalized by this profligate biofuel policy,” said Bill Lapp, president of Advanced Economic Solutions, an Omaha, Neb., commodity consulting firm.”
This includes the increased global demand for fertilizer outpacing production, pandemic-related and weather-related supply chain disruptions and increases in production costs, which includes soaring prices of natural gas required for making inputs.
Finally-
Let’s not forget to include what the efforts of Biden to shut down our energy output has done as well.
Global fertilizer prices soared to multi-year highs in the past few months following surge in prices of key feedstocks natural gas and coal, and certain export restrictions put in place by supplying countries.
Around the globe, natural gas is used as a raw material as well as fuel for nitrogen fertilizer production. In some countries such as China, coal is gasified into ammonia and used for manufacturing fertilizers.
Nitrogen fertilizers are the most used fertilizers in the world. Ammonia, phosphorous and potash are the other important fertilizer components.
According to the European crop nutrient company Yara Fertilizers, in several of their transformation steps, natural gas, essentially methane, is upgraded by combination with nitrogen from the air to form nitrogen fertilizer.
“While 80% of the gas is used as feedstock for fertilizer, 20% is used for heating the process and producing electricity,” according to Yara.
Unsurprisingly, when natural gas prices rose, prices of nitrogen fertilizers also shot up. In fact, prices of nitrogen—as anhydrous ammonia, urea, or liquid nitrogen, phosphorus as diammonium phosphate, or DAP, and potassium as potash—all gained significantly over the past year.
The best of the swamp today.
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NBC’s Chuck Todd on Sunday asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken an interesting question. He had no Answer. It wasn’t just because of Trump, and it wasn’t NATO that Putin did or didn’t escalate with Ukraine while Trump was President.
I have some possible answers.
Pipelines of Ukraine. Keep this in mind as we go through the post.
To look for answers, Mikheil Saakashvili wrote an article for the magazine Foreign Policy back in March 2019. I will give you excerpts a bit later.
Just who is he? One thing is for sure, he’s put a lot on the line for Georgia.
Mikhail Saakashvili worked for a better relationship with the United States during his presidency.
Saakashvili (right) and George W. Bush in the White House during Saakashvili’s visit to the United States on May 10, 2005. (Photo Credit: Public Domain)
Saakashvili was the third President of Georgia for two consecutive terms from 25 January 2004 to 17 November 2013. From May 2015 until November 2016, Saakashvili was the Governor of Ukraine’s Odessa Oblast.[1][9] He is the founder and former chairman of the United National Movement party. Saakashvili heads the Executive Committee of Ukraine’s National Reform Council since 7 May 2020.[10]
More on his interesting history and background here.
Former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili has reported that he arrived in his motherland for the first time since 2013 on October 1 2021. However, that same evening Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili stated that Saakashvili was arrested and had already been taken to the penitentiary. There Saakashvili went on a hunger strike that lasted until November 20.
Given his deteriorating health, on November 8, he was transferred from a prison in the city of Rustavi to a prison hospital in Tbilisi (Gldani district).
We now pick up the story and what Saakashvlii had to say in 2019.
….
From Georgia in 2008, to Ukraine in 2014, to Syria in 2015, Putin has always laid the blame for Russian aggression squarely at the West’s feet. Kremlin-backed media outlets amplify this message, subjecting audiences to a constant deluge of scaremongering about “NATO encirclement” and pointing to the West’s condemnations of Putin’s actions as evidence of “Russophobia.”
Those who attempt to answer this question miss the point. In Crimea, eastern Ukraine, South Ossetia, or anywhere else Putin considers Russia’s backyard, territorial gain has never been an end in itself. Putin’s goal today is the same as when he invaded my country in 2008: to tighten his grip on the levers of power in Russia.
Whenever Putin’s domestic popularity dips, he either escalates an ongoing conflict or launches a new offensive.
And, clearly, it works. Putin has ruled the largest country in the world for nearly two decades, consolidating more control as he weathers each crisis. Ordinary Russian voters may struggle to survive on pensions of $200 each month, but Putin’s base can be proud to live in a superpower.
Putin is both predictable and logical: Invading a weaker neighbor delivers a cheaper and faster ratings boost than, say, improving Russia’s dystopian health care system. It’s no coincidence that Putin’s approval rating peaked in 2015, after the annexation of Crimea.
Later that year, as the Russian economy foundered, the intervention in Syria served to shore up patriotism. Moreover, Russia’s actions in Syria marked Putin’s graduation from military adventurism in the former Soviet states to power projection beyond Russia’s “near abroad.”
From the invasion of Georgia to the hybrid offensive in Ukraine, Western leaders have demarcated red line after red line for Putin to trample with impunity.
The weakness of international norms, of the rules-based liberal order which many in Washington and Brussels endorse but few dare to defend, makes Moscow look ever stronger. In the eyes of his domestic supporters, Putin is calling the West’s bluff.
But the status quo cannot hold. If we have learned anything from the past two decades, a new crisis is on the horizon. According to a March 7 poll (2019 )by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, Russian voters’ trust in Putin has fallen to 32 percent—the lowest level since 2006.
True to form, Putin has been escalating provocations in recent months as his popularity has declined. In November, Russian forces fired upon and detained three Ukrainian naval ships attempting to pass through the Kerch Strait into the Sea of Azov.
More than 100 days have passed, and the outcry from the international community has long since died down. But the 24 Ukrainian sailors arrested during that incident remain in illegal detention.
Putin’s violations of laws and norms in Russia’s “backyard” no longer seem to shock the world. He has already redrawn the borders of Europe by force and gotten away with it.
Like any economy, however, Russia has not been immune to global and domestic events — both under and out of Russia’s control — that have unseated its growth trajectory and caused financial hardship to its citizens.
This was most evident in 2014 when a fall in global oil prices, combined with Russia’s decision to annex Crimea from its neighbor Ukraine, put massive pressure on the economy and society. This was due to lower government revenues for oil-exporting Russia and newly-imposed international sanctions on the country for its Crimea land grab.
The big decline in the ruble led to rampant inflation and prices on basic products soared, seriously affecting Russian consumers.
GDP for Russia was a minus 2.95 for 2020.
Where does Russia’s GDP come from?
Oil and gas are responsible for more than 60% of Russia’s exports and provide more than 30% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). The effect of the 2014 oil price collapse on Russia’s economy was fast and devastating.
When oil prices drop, Russia suffers greatly. Oil and gas are responsible for more than 60% of Russia’s exports and provide more than 30% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Between June and December 2014, the Russian ruble declined in value by 59% relative to the U.S. dollar.
At the beginning of 2015, Russia, along with neighboring Ukraine, had the lowest purchasing power parity (PPP) relative to the U.S. of any country in the world. Declining PPP lowers living standards, as goods purchased using the home currency become more expensive than they should be.
Moreover, Russia receives less economic benefit from lower pump prices than the U.S. does, as Russians consume much less oil and gas than Americans. Less than 30% of Russia’s oil production is retained for domestic use, while the remainder is exported.
Oil prices also affect imports for Russia, as was seen in 2014. Because the country is a net importer of goods like soybeans and rubber, the sharp increase in import prices caused by a falling ruble touched off major inflation, which the Russian government attempted to tamp down by raising interest rates as high as 17%. As the U.S. discovered in the early 1980s, a sudden and significant interest rate hike can precipitate a deep recession.
Conclusion: Follow the map above.
Now Russia need only threaten a disruption in the energy supply and we watch as the prices soar.
Mr. Putin is getting exactly what he wants. Rising energy prices. Putin needs to acquire/control the Ukraine pipelines to insure the export of his energy. Germany will get down on bended knee for it and if that fails, there will be plenty of other countries that he can ship his precious cargo to, even the United States.
Even the Boston Globe opined that “Massachusetts’ reliance on imported gas from one of the world’s most threatened places is also a severe indictment of the state’s inward-looking environmental and climate policies.”
A win-win already for Putin.
Pres. Biden says Russian invasion of Ukraine could impact energy prices.
“I will not pretend this will be painless…We’re preparing to deploy all the tools and authority at our disposal to provide relief at the gas pump.” https://t.co/D9IPWPkiUhpic.twitter.com/OzJrnsBQx4
Russia is the second largest oil producer in the world, and if it invades and U.S. sanctions then keep its oil from the world market or make it more expensive, and ABC News Chief Business Correspondent Rebecca Jarvis reports some analysts predict prices at the pump in the U.S. could jump as much as 50 cents.
In January, senior administration officials said they had been working with countries in North Africa, Asia, Europe and Asia to “ensure the continuity of supply” and lessen the price shock that comes with a shortage.
President Biden discussed global energy supplies with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud on Feb. 9 and when he hosted Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani at the White House on Jan. 31.
Despite the outreach and calls to pump more oil, Saudi Arabia has decided to abide by a five-year-old deal between OPEC+ countries and will not increase its production to full capacity, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The fool that Biden is, means of course he will do nothing to increase our energy supply and he continues to shut down and make it more difficult to produce our energy needs.
The very worse of the swamp. Follow the Benjamins. It is usually about the money.
Biden approves the Russian pipeline to Germany but nixes the EastMed pipeline that Trump managed to achieve for Israel Cyprus and Greece. The claim of course is it is a fossil fuel as opposed to the “new energy.” Sheer madness. Of course the less energy for Europe the higher the prices for all of us in this now “Zero Sum Game” that Biden is putting us and the world through. Here we go:
If you needed any more proof that the anti-American, pro-Russia, pro-Iran, pro-China, anti-Israel wing of the Democrat Party has captured the White House flag, last week we learned Team Biden plans to put the kibosh on a natural-gas pipeline with US involvement that would reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.
Turkish state media channel TRT last week aired a documentary opposing the EastMed pipeline titled The Pipe Dream, which includes footage of State Department Senior Advisor for Energy Security Amos Hochstein discussing the matter before he was appointed to his current position.
Hochstein said he would be “extremely uncomfortable with the US supporting this project” because of its environmental implications.
“Why would we build a fossil fuel pipeline between the EastMed and Europe when our entire policy is to support new technology… and new investments in going green and in going clean?” he asked. “By the time this pipeline is built we will have spent billions of taxpayer money on something that is obsolete – not only obsolete but against our collective interest between the US and Europe.”
The Eastern Mediterranean Gas Pipeline, which would carry Israeli and Cypriot natural gas, is yet another energy resource serving America’s strategic interests that the Biden White House wants gone. EastMed joins a long list that started on Day One with the Keystone XL pipeline, a ban on oil and gas leases on public lands and the October federal court ruling that ended drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.
…
The Trump administration backed the $7 billion EastMed pipeline, a project of Israel, Cyprus and Greece, well before it was signed in January 2020. The 1,200-mile-long pipeline would bring 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Israel’s Leviathan and Tamar offshore to Europe, offsetting supplies that otherwise would come from Russia. Plans called for doubling capacity in future years.
US oil major Chevron is the main operator of the Israeli gas fields. And thanks to the Abraham Accords that opened trade and diplomatic relations between Israel and four of its Arab neighbors, the United Arab Emirates bought a 22% stake in the Tamar field from Israeli interests in May.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on President Biden to make use of emergency petroleum reserves in an effort to lower gas prices ahead of the holiday season.
Schumer then added that once the oil reserves were released it was time to end oil production in the US — to hell with them.
The South China Morning Post reports that President Biden asked President Xi, during their virtual meeting overnight, to release China’s oil reserves as part of an economic cooperation pact.
US reduces stocks and strategic petroleum reserve by 3.2 million barrels
The reserves are now at the lowest level since June 2003
Yesterday the acting head of the EIA said that any release from the US strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) would have only short-lived impact on oil markets.
I have absolutely no doubt that they are trying to destroy America. I also know there’s no cost too high to protect and preserve our way of life for future generations!
They are not done with the oil and gas companies yet.
Biden is asking the FTC to investigate whether “illegal conduct” by large oil and gas companies is pushing up gasoline prices, saying there's “mounting evidence of anti-consumer behavior."
President Biden sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan Wednesday asking the agency to determine whether “illegal conduct” by large oil and gas companies is pushing up gasoline prices.
What they’re saying: In the letter, Biden claimed that there is “mounting evidence of anti-consumer behavior by oil and gas companies.”
“The Federal Trade Commission has authority to consider whether illegal conduct is costing families at the pump. I believe you should do so immediately,” he added.
The other side: “This is a distraction from the fundamental market shift that is taking place and the ill-advised government decisions that are exacerbating this challenging situation,” the American Petroleum Institute said in a statement.
“Demand has returned as the economy comes back and is outpacing supply. Further impacting the imbalance is the continued decision from the administration to restrict access to America’s energy supply and cancel important infrastructure projects.”
The Reality!
They do not have a plan how they are going to replace oil and coal to provide electricity. Without having a viable option available NOW, they are going to plunge us into another Dark Age.
Don’t they understand that we won’t have ANYTHING made out of plastics (think cell phones, computers, food containers), Buying electric cars won’t help if there’s no way to charge them. Without electricity your frozen food will spoil, you won’t be able to charge your phones. THINK!!
.@PressSec: "Our view is that the rise in gas prices over the long term makes an even stronger case for doubling down our investment and focus on clean energy options." pic.twitter.com/rdDIm2spwY
BUNKERVILLE | God, Guns and Guts Comrades! 