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I learned so many things from our guests, and today is another great example. Carolina Ortega, VP of Sustainability at Milestone Environmental, was a fantastic resource for our listeners. There are so many regulations, and it is almost impossible to keep up. The penalties for not keeping up would be worth companies visiting with her before the auditing started.

Check out Milestone Environmental HERE: https://www.milestone-es.com/

Thank you, Carolina; I had an absolute blast!

Highlights of the Podcast

00:00 – Intro

01:06 – Introduction of Carolina Ortega, VP of Sustainability at Milestone Environmental Services.

01:26 – Overview of Milestone’s sustainability efforts and waste management for oil and gas companies.

02:27 – Discussion on handling slurry waste and its environmental impact.

04:23 – Introduction to regulatory issues and scope one, scope two, and scope three emissions in the oil and gas industry.

05:43 – Explanation of how Milestone’s services impact scope one and scope three emissions.

06:39 – Importance of waste management for net-zero goals in oil and gas.

07:00 – Discussion on methane fees and financial impact on EMP operators.

10:27 – Clarification of scope one, scope two, and scope three emissions and waste management.

12:09 – Challenges in accounting for scope three emissions, especially in waste management.

13:08 – Milestone’s role in providing clarity and data on carbon emissions in waste management.

14:31 – Potential ROI for oil and gas companies using Milestone’s services.

15:54 – Introduction to Milestone’s exploration of value creation and plans for sustainable ROI data.

18:29 – Excitement about the upcoming release of Milestone’s 2023 sustainability report and plans for specific value data.

19:46 – Introduction of Milestone’s triple verified framework.

21:57: Discussion on the workload and the upcoming release of Milestone’s 2023 sustainability report in April.

24:35 – Emphasis on Milestone’s commitment to being a partner in the energy transition.

26:21 – Description of Milestone’s facilities and locations in Texas and New Mexico.

26:52 – How to reach out to Carolina Ortega – LinkedIn and Milestone’s website.

27:09 – Outro

Stuart Turley [00:00:07] Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Energy News Beat podcast. My name’s David Hurley, president CEO of the sandstone Group. And I’ll tell you what, our first responders, our military and everything that’s going on right now, mental health and PTSD are incredibly important. I’ve just interviewed Kyle Reese and we had some great talk about PTSD, and he said, get rid of the D because it is treatable. And I’ve got Nick Burns here and he’s with Petro Fit. Now let’s also talk about his, duty to our service to our country in the Army. Welcome. And, thanks for coming by.

Nick Burns [00:00:50] I appreciate you. Thanks for having me. It’s gonna be fun to talk about. You’re a lot to talk about.

Stuart Turley [00:00:53] Is Petro fit?

Nick Burns [00:00:56] So Pedro fit? We’re. We are a health and fitness coaching company. Cater to oil and gas workers. So that could be a feel guy. Could be someone in the office who could be. Someone is living at airport. I mean, we’re just trying to make the energy, stronger and healthier, right? But so we we focus on custom nutritional protocols, custom training, custom lifestyle, lifestyle coaching, being being the biggest thing for a lot of our, that are oil and gas workers because they’re on, you know, the hit schedules and it’s there a lot away from home. So it’s very demanding. So it’s a big one on one custom six month coaching program for, oil and gas workers to get healthy again.

Stuart Turley [00:01:35] Right. And so you also, as we are visiting so, you know, our great, oil and gas workers have a tough life. And so when you get back and you got to get back into it, you got to release that stress because you’re working on that rig all that time. You gotta get you gotta keep in shape that. But you also talk about all your help that you do with our, our veterans and stuff. Tell us about that.

Nick Burns [00:01:59] Yeah. So we we launched to 14 Fit on Veterans Day last year. It’s crazy. Sorry 2024 last year. Veterans day 214 fit. So 214 obviously the 214 veterans when they leave the service, whether you’re honorable or dishonorable, obviously we we want we want the honorable guys. But anyway, you know, we we we focus on the, the the rehabilitation of a veteran through health and wellness. And so we are talking about a little bit the thing like your mental health, you know, increases by as much as 40%. If you’re actually in the gym, you’re releasing endorphins, you’re eating healthy, good whole food. And that myself too. And I got out of military, I was six years Army active duty as a combat engineer in Fort Bragg. I had PTSD, and I’m still have PTSD today, but the gym saved my life. And so that’s what we’re bringing back to veterans now instead of obviously pills and alcohol. So let’s this is what we’re substituting it with.

Stuart Turley [00:02:59] Oh that’s fabulous. I’ll tell you. PTSD. And again, as Kyle said, you know, the D is treatable, for people that have been in, post-traumatic, it is real, I have suffered for it from all of my life through stepping in and saving someone in a horrific situation. My poor wife has put up with me all this time, and she knows when I have not worked out. So your mission is critical to those folks that are first responders?

Nick Burns [00:03:37] Yeah, everybody. I think technically you don’t have to be a military veteran or anyone to go through to get PTSD, right? So I think it’s, you know, if you’re looking to get. You know, healthy and counteract this, right? Because you mentioned earlier, without the D, most people just forget about, you know, the simplicity of life, eating healthy and exercising, what that does to a person and how it can change your life if you actually dedicate your life to it. Right.

Stuart Turley [00:04:05] So now, when you help folks, and you help the veterans coming out of the military and do you help get them into the oil field because there’s good money in the oil field. If you’re coming out of there, how does that work? Or you got some good ideas on helping them, or do you go to the ranch or what do you do there?

Nick Burns [00:04:26] Yeah, we we got a lot of things. It’s a two part. We’re in, we’re, we’re hoping the the fact the Warrior Ranch, that’s a nonprofit we just started where we bring veterans out, just very.

Stuart Turley [00:04:36] Much at all.

Nick Burns [00:04:38] And that’s what my wife says. You can get some sleep, right? Yeah. It’s. This is great. This is what this is. But great question, because it’s like it’s me as a military guy, very high, strong, fast paced environment. If I don’t, if I’m not staying busy like my my mental state. Right. So it’s like I gotta stay busy. But yeah, the Warrior Ranch is great because we are helping transitioning veterans get place Border Patrol oil and gas as well, but we bring them out to a ranch for, 7 to 14 days. And we we teach them the ins and outs of a working ranch, working with their hands, equestrian therapy, and paired up with a horse. Teach them how to how to work cattle, you know, fit, fix fences, branding, all that good stuff. So it’s it’s going to be good. It’s going to be really fun.

Stuart Turley [00:05:21] The veterans and police guys that I hang out with do not fall asleep because I if I could, because I’m such a practical joker, I’d wake up with a brand on my bunk. It’s I know that somebody would do that to me.

Nick Burns [00:05:35] Yeah, yeah. Oh it’s a it’s a good thing. It’s like Yellowstone, right? Like the vets leave, we’re going to brand them. But like, yeah, it’s, you know, I think with it’s going to be big. Just equestrian therapy in itself. Like I think we underwrite there’s a lot of horse programs out there I think. But I think we underestimate like the true nature of what a horse can do to a guy. Right. Like, oh yeah, you’re out on the ranch. You’re you’re that is, it’s like you’re out of prison in a way. Like you’re in the military. Your gun is by your side everywhere, right? You don’t leave anywhere without it. You protect it. You ever with it. It’s kind of the same mentality that we’re taking is we’re going to pair you up with a horse. This is gonna be your horse for almost a month right now. So 31 days. And so, yeah. And, you know, if we if we have the capabilities or the that has the capabilities to take that horse with them, we’ll we’ll let them keep the horse.

Stuart Turley [00:06:25] No way.

Nick Burns [00:06:27] Yep yep yep. Just.

Stuart Turley [00:06:28] Okay.

Nick Burns [00:06:29] We’re going through all those. That’s the plan.

Stuart Turley [00:06:31] Okay. Okay. I’m going to ask a couple questions here because my wife and I were on, vacation. We went up to Robert Redford’s place up at Sundance, and they gave me, she they gave her some nag. I mean, she’s not the nag, but they gave her an egg, so it was kind of nice. She got a nice one. I got one, and I’m like, anybody rode before. Yeah, I have, and they gave me a rocket. Okay, so I have this thing I had to stand on, and, I mean, it was great. And then when a bear came out, I mean, I didn’t have any problem getting away from that bear. It was like, no, it was gone. I had to stand on it. So now. Yeah. Do you have any horses that you work with your vets named rocket because this thing was no easy to ride.

Nick Burns [00:07:17] Yeah, we a lot of those we get kind of donations from dude ranches and, and what have you. And we there’s a lot of horses in West Texas. Right. And we have.

Stuart Turley [00:07:25] Oh yeah.

Nick Burns [00:07:26] There’s a lot of ranches with, you know, my in-laws and they have, you know, a lot of ranches as well. They have, you know, a lot of good horses and repairing them up with gentle horses. But I think, you know, it’s the first week of the program is teaching them how to ride. Right. It’s it’s giving them the actual horsemanship skill sets that they need getting integrated. And, you know, the hope is that, you know, this is just getting started, right? You know, we’re putting all this together. We’re we’re looking for donations to start getting this rolling, for this nonprofit. But yeah, we want we want them we want them to walk away. If they want to go get play some border patrol, we have contacts or that they want to go get placed in oil and gas. We have contacts for that. Or if they want to go work on a ranch as a hand, we have that that capability as well. So they know how to horse. They know how to ride a horse, they know how to rope, they know how to do everything they need to to go work on a ranch.

Stuart Turley [00:08:17] You know, my dad was in, Vietnam, and he was an F-4, fighter pilot. And so, it was awful. Of his five, fraternity brothers that went over to Vietnam, he’s the only one that came back and and so they were shooting down all of our airplanes pretty good back then. So, he had some serious problems, going through. And, I as he retired. His chief of staff in the Air Force. I kind of understood the military mindset as somebody who had been shot at and, blown up because, his hooch in Saigon was getting blown up a bunch.

Nick Burns [00:09:00] So, yeah, that’s intense. And that’s, that’s what I did the military as a combat engineer. So we did route clearance and IED disposal. So I had six concussions. And that’s just, you know, we want the vets that are combat vets to come be able to have that, that that offset. Right. Come out the ranch. You got five other veterans with you. So the brotherhood you’re creating.

Stuart Turley [00:09:22] So yeah. Oh how cool is that? Now you also have a podcast as well too. What is the podcast?

Nick Burns [00:09:30] It’s Burns Brigade, so it’s my wife and I, we we teach and we kind of talk about our own personal stories because we, we have three kids and how do we run businesses and how do we create unity within our family and the things that we do personally, but also how to create a better camaraderie and habits within companies and families unit to create more camaraderie. And so we like to talk about a lot. A lot of that is health and wellness focused. But but it’s obviously it’s leadership development, personal development as well.

Stuart Turley [00:09:57] So you know, you’ve got she’s.

Nick Burns [00:10:00] She’s way prettier than I am. So.

Stuart Turley [00:10:02] Well, I don’t know, you’ve got the, voice for radio. I’ve got the face for radio, as John combines. I mean, I mean, you look. Yeah, I’m such a homely beast, but I have so much fun. You would be fantastic in doing more podcasts. Even possibly without your wife talking to other veterans, or having your wife run part of the segment, talking to the other, other things as well, too. So you might visit with her about separating that out a little bit.

Nick Burns [00:10:34] They’re running their own mottos. Yeah. She’s she’s, she’s a lawyer. She does pageantry. She’s done Mrs. World and Mrs. America know.

Stuart Turley [00:10:43] She was Miss.

Nick Burns [00:10:44] Texas for a bit and and now she does. But she’s she’s a Houston Texans cheerleader for almost four years, and she, she’s still cheering for them. So she has her own spin of things of like, moms who want to keep their glam right, doing the things they love they grew up doing while also being a mother. Right. And she’s really good at delivering that message.

Stuart Turley [00:11:06] I’ll tell you. I just got to interview Grace. Thank you. She is this, last year’s, Miss America, and she was okay in, in Dubai. And she is a nuclear engineer. Just graduated. And, I mean, the future is bright with those kind of a young lady. Yeah, yeah. So she’s she’s.

Nick Burns [00:11:26] Intense. She runs. She runs the show, I’ll tell you that much.

Stuart Turley [00:11:30] Yes. So when you sit back and kind of go with your wife, Michael Tanner is my podcast host. We have the Daily Show, and then I have my long form podcast. So Michael, my wife laughs and says he’s my work wife. So we separated it out. So we have that podcast and then I get my own fix with my podcast. Resume was so good. I did get that same kind of deal. Use the same podcast.

Nick Burns [00:11:59] We’re always butting heads to is like what we’re talking, which is like, I want to buy this. She’s like, no, I want to go like this. It’s like, well, how do we figure out what to talk about? Right? So it’s it’s like she has her own spin on my own spin. It’s actually probably pretty good.

Stuart Turley [00:12:11] But, you know, in our nick when we sit back and you were so great because I talked to so many other podcast host that we can’t even get a word in edgewise. I don’t know how you got the voice for it, and it would be fun to hear you visit with other veterans and other oilfield guys. Nick, you know, I am so glad that we’ve saved your marriage today. And so as we get ready to visit here, you’ve got your podcast. Tell us about how people can get Ahold of you.

Nick Burns [00:12:41] Yeah, if you want to kind of see what we’re doing over petrified of 214 fit. You can do Petra Fit training.com reach out to us or Nick at Petra fit.info. Or if you’re a veteran who needs some help, you need some structure in your life again, and some camaraderie and brotherhood. You can meet Nick at 214 fit dot net.

Stuart Turley [00:12:58] So help to engage. Yeah. Thank you for your service to both our country and our other fellow vets and the other folks in the oil field. So, they are front line on the energy. We need them really bad for energy security. So thank you for stopping by the podcast.

Nick Burns [00:13:17] Appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me.

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Biden’s Inflation Increase Act intends to spend $7.5 billion taxpayer money to build charging stations for electric car owners. Two years later, no EV chargers were built. And that’s good.

The modern sheen of the electric car is running into the medieval state of American cities.

Seattle began installing dozens of EV chargers only for thieves to show up and raid at least eight of the charging cables for copper requiring thousands of dollars worth of repairs.

In response, the city is planning to put the chargers high up on poles that can only be lowered by an app. This will cost even more money and in an environment in which brazen copper thieves toppled an FM radio tower in Oklahoma, isn’t likely to deter the criminals.

EV owners who suffered from copper theft while leaving their cars to be charged in public places were told by the Seattle Police Department to “stay with the vehicle if you can while it’s being charged,” Considering that it can take an electric car hours to charge, that’s gonna be a wait.

In Oakhurst, CA , every cable was cut on a Tesla ‘supercharger’ station almost as soon as it had been set up. At a nonprofit in Van Nuys, 38 cables were stolen. Since the thieves rarely see any real punishment in cities where property crime has effectively been legalized, it’s getting worse.

The problem has become commonplace enough that Biden’s Department of Energy rolled out a special guide to stopping charging cable theft by warning that “the theft of EV charging cables can lead to a decrease in the use of EVs, which can have a negative impact on the environment.” Proposals from the DOE include charging your electric car at home.

Not that only charging electric cars at home is enough because thieves have taken to going after charging cables right in driveways as the EVs are being charged overnight.

Charging cables for the already overpriced electric cars can cost over $1,000.

Thieves on bicycles ride from suburban house to house, seizing cables and riding away with them. It’s estimated that an experienced crook can make off with one cable in 13 seconds.

And so electric car owners are warned to make sure that they lock their car in the garage. Then they’re told to lock their cables with padlocks and make sure their insurance covers their cables.

The incredible convenience of electric cars is now such that owners can only charge them while locked in their garages, with a padlock on the cable and the cable under the car’s wheel.

But it’s not just Teslas. Copper thieves are coming for every piece of ‘green’ infrastructure.

In Fresno, CA, $100,000 in copper wire was stolen from a solar farm, but wind farms, because they’re often far away from people, are an even more attractive target for copper thieves. And wind turbines have massive amounts of copper in them, making them even more desirable.

Copper thieves cut into a turbine, haul out cables and then drive away causing as much as millions of dollars in damage. Such thefts have been reported from Arizona to Minnesota to Iowa to Massachusetts, Internationally in the UK, there was a 48% increase in solar and cable ‘green’ copper theft, and 5,000 major solar thefts across Europe.

But where is all that copper going? The answer is appropriately green. It’s being recycled.

After the copper is stolen, it’s taken to recycling centers, many of which boast of their “sustainability” and contributions to the planet. There the copper is resold, often to China, which spurred the original copper boom, and transformed into more green energy equipment that the copper thieves will steal and then recycle to continue the cycle of environmental crime.

Green energy gear, from EV charging cables to solar panels and wind turbines, require a lot of copper. This demand for copper raises the price of copper and drives copper thefts.

Recycling soda and beer cans depended on homeless people digging through the trash and hauling giant garbage bags full of cans to be exchanged for 5 cents each. Copper theft is a more advanced version of the same game. The perpetrators are often addicts stealing copper and turning it over to organized criminals or selling it to recyclers and buying fentanyl.

Videos have documented trucks picking up ‘harvested’ copper and providing fentanyl.

That’s the kind of dysfunctional misery that the green revolution rests on and always has. The recycling junkie thieves aren’t just looking through the trash for Coke cans, they’re tearing up copper wire, but that’s a difference in scale, not in substance. Recycling was always theft.

Biden’s Department of Energy claims that looting electric cars is a threat to the planet. “EVs are an essential part of the transition to a more sustainable future, and any obstacles to their adoption must be addressed,” it warns. But it doesn’t call for cracking down on crime.

And it’s the electric cars and other green tech that’s driving the copper theft wave.

Electric cars use four times as much copper as real cars. One Tesla needs a mile of copper just to hook up the battery packs. Solar panels need 5.5 tons of copper for each megawatt. A wind farm can use as much as 7,000 tons of copper. There’s nothing ‘green’ about any of this.

Green energy demands a lot of mining and then outsources that to Communist China. And China helps the cartels manufacture fentanyl which they trade to junkies for copper.

From the Chinese Communist perspective, it’s a beautiful virtuous cycle.

The zombies they create steal our copper, send it to them and they resell it to us. The more we go ‘green’, the more copper we need, and the more China makes money by selling us ‘green’. And the more Americans it can turn into fentanyl zombies to steal it back to China.

Source: Frontpagemag.com

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Artificial intelligence is taking over the world, not literally, or rather, not yet anyway. However, the use of AI and machine learning is having a butterfly effect. Besides all the standard implications of AI taking jobs and concerns about the responsible use of it, AI is also putting a strain on the power infrastructure around the United States. With this, companies are looking to keep their fossil fuel power generators online a little longer to support the demand.

A recent Bloomberg report details a small patch of northern Virginia, which has been called “data center alley,” which has seen explosive growth in the era of artificial intelligence. This growth has significantly strained the local power grid, leading the power company to temporarily suspend new data center connections in 2022. Of course, this problem has continued, but not without its share of curious solutions, such as the consideration of allowing data centers to run diesel generators during power shortages.

This power problem is not limited to Virginia, though, and has been seen across the United States. It is expected that data centers will triple their power consumption over 2022 levels, up to 390 terawatt hours. To handle this incoming surge, power companies are “reconsidering plans to mothball plants that burn fossil fuels, while a few have petitioned regulators for permission to build new gas-powered ones.” While this is an imperfect solution, it will prevent potential rolling black or brownouts across the nation as the power needs increase.

At the World Economic Forum last week, executive of OpenAI and face of ChatGPT Sam Altman was quoted as saying, “We do need way more energy in the world than we thought we needed before,” and that “we still don’t appreciate the energy needs of this technology.” This also only accounts for AI energy needs, and there also has to be consideration for the growing number of electric vehicles.

Long story short (paywalled), the United States needs more energy, and while reverting back to coal power is a solution, it isn’t a good one. Perhaps rather than go fully into silicon production, Altman should hedge some bets on renewable energy, including nuclear, as higher and cleaner power output is going to become a necessity long before more people need more technology. It’s hard to use a fancy new device if you don’t have any power to keep it on.

Source: Hothardware.com

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(WO) – During the first day of the Baker Hughes Annual Meeting on Monday in Florence, Italy, a U.S. DOE official tried to explain the Biden administration’s sudden move to stop issuing LNG export licenses. Supposedly, the action was taken on Jan. 26, to give the administration time to analyze how LNG shipments affect climate change, the economy and national security.

But many industry entities and Biden critics in general have criticized the ban heavily, noting that any moratorium lasting more than a few days is likely to disrupt plans for billions of dollars in projects along the U.S. coastline. They describe Biden’s action as nothing more than an election-year ploy to hold onto the President’s climate change adherents at the ballot box in the fall. How convenient, they say, that this moratorium on new LNG export licenses could delay decisions on new plants until after the Nov. 5 election. And, they point to the disruption this could cause to U.S. LNG exports continuing to replace Russian natural gas supplies in much of Europe.

Addressing the ban at Baker Hughes’ annual meeting. So, fast-forward to Monday morning’s panel at the Baker Hughes Annual Meeting entitled, “Ministerial Panel Discussion: Is Global Governance the Solution for the Energy Trilemma?” This was a panel discussion intended to discuss how governmental policies around the world are adapting to accelerate the achievement of energy transition targets. But that didn’t stop panel moderator Dan Murphy (a CNBC anchor and correspondent based in the UAE) from asking one of the panel participants, Assistant DOE Secretary for Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, Brad Crabtree (Fig. 1), for an explanation of the LNG controversy.

Dazzling the crowd with facts and statistics. At first, Crabtree tried to deflect the question by going through a litany of U.S. natural gas achievements and statistics. “let me start by taking a just a short step back,” he explained, “and recognize the absolutely essential role for gasoline in the energy security and national security of our European countries and allies and around the world, and especially following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a new source of gas on the market, the U.S. natural gas industry stepped into the breach and, I would argue, helped underwrite political and economic stability in Europe and other parts of the world. I take that first step very seriously, as do my colleagues at the Department of Energy and others in the Biden administration. It’s also important, though, and bear with me, because this is not just for me, because you’re not going to just walk through where we’re really at with natural gas production and exports in the United States. You all in this audience know that one of the most consequential and transformative things to occur, probably in the history of energy, is the shale gas revolution in the United States. In the early part of the last decade, we were poised to become a natural gas importer. And then we started exporting natural gas in 2016. By 2018, we had export capacity of 4 Bcfd, or around 40 MMm³ per year. Now, our export capacity stands at 14 Bcfd. Today, we’re a little over 140 MMm³ per year. We’re exporting well.

And then, there were more statistics. Obviously not satisfied that he had dazzled the audience with details of U.S. natural gas exports, Crabtree continued. “We have authorized export additional exports of 12 Bcfd, or over 120 MMm³ per year. It will come online between now and 2030. That is essentially a doubling of our current production and exports today that will be going to our overseas markets. On top of that, we have authorized an additional 20 Bcfd, or over 200 Bm3 per year for exports that do not yet have a financial investment decision. The total volume of authorized exports in the United States is 48 Bcfd, or over. Again, it’s a little bit more than 480 MMm³. To put that in context, that’s about 45% of our domestic natural gas production that’s already authorized for export…We were very careful to make sure that our decision did not affect intermediate-term exports and infrastructure that will come online in the next two years. Our situation is that we have had the most rapid, dramatic expansion in natural gas production and exports, probably in history.

More reasons to “be responsible.” Crabtree commented on the pause further. “From five years ago, we are duty-bound as a regulator to make sure that we’re using the most up to date information our national labs are working with us, and we will make it in a few months’ time, that analysis is available for public comment. That is not just limited to public comment in the United States. Our allies, both in government and industry around the world, can feel free to provide comment. It will be a robust analysis. I actually believe that it will serve the industry well. In terms of responding to criticism, whether it’s about domestic pricing in the United States or climate implications of our exports, it is a sense of responsibility to our domestic consumers, and we have a special role as the world’s largest oil and gas producer/exporter to take our findings and obligations very seriously.

So, what will be assessed? But Murphy would not be deterred. “So, help me understand what exactly will be assessed in the public interest here, because U.S. LNG, we know, is markedly cleaner than coal and oil, for example, which is why critics have said this is a shortsighted decision.” This line of questioning seemed to cause discomfort for Crabtree, who looked like he was composing his answers on the fly and not feeling very comfortable doing it.

“So, we will look at domestic and international economic impacts, explained Crabtree. “We will substantively look at energy security and national security implications. And then of course, environment. And in the case of environment, it’s both greenhouse gas emissions and local and upstream environmental impacts. And these those factors are what we apply in determining whether additional exports are in the national interest. So that’s the process that becomes the analysis that we’re updating.

What should the industry think? Ever tenacious, Murphy then asked Crabtree, “And just finally, what’s your message to the industry and those who say this decision undermines the ability and willingness to invest in the sector and jeopardizes national security? And it sends a message, finally, to America’s friends and allies that they can no longer rely on the U.S., particularly given this uptick in regulatory uncertainty that we now see coming into.

“Well, let’s take the last first,” said Crabtree. “As a matter of fact of where we’re at in our domestic production and exports, and where we are going to. We are playing the biggest role in the world in terms of providing products to the global marketplace. That has not changed so much in terms of the energy security of the United States or our allies. It’s unaffected. Now, I recognize in the administration that for those projects that are in the development pipeline, they don’t even have the permits from our Federal Energy Regulatory Commission before they can come to the Department of Energy. They are faced with more uncertainty, and that’s why they’re there. This is a pause while we update our analysis. It’s not a ban. And I want to make that very clear. That’s the position of my Secretary, and it’s also in a statement from the White House that we are pausing in our analysis, and our authorizations, to update our analysis, so we can be more responsible, with informed decisions from an economic environmental potential.

Final thoughts. After all of that back-and-forth between Murphy and Crabtree, one could not fault the audience from looking a bit fatigued. And this editor found himself still musing as to the real motivation for Biden pausing LNG export licensing.

Source: Worldoil.com

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