Energy News Beat
Daily Standup Top Stories
Postal Service’s plan to electrify mail trucks falling far short of its goal
The United States Postal Service unveiled a plan to buy a fleet of all-electric mail trucks for its mail carriers back in 2022, of which 3,000 were supposed to be delivered by now. Unfortunately, those […]
Biden’s DoD Doubles Down On Climate Action As Trump Promises Military Reset
The DoD’s focus on climate change over national security reflects Biden’s top policies. Trump pledges to refocus on defense priorities. Given the state of affairs in Ukraine and the Middle East and the rise […]
North Korean troops join Russian assaults ‘in significant numbers’ – Oil for Troops Trade
ENB Pub Note: In an interesting twist, the North Korea/Russian Troop trade may be the first Oil for Troops agreement. Russia has begun using North Korean troops in significant numbers for the first time to […]
Trump is a nightmare for the EU in more ways than one
ENB Pub Note: This article from RT has some interesting points. While I do not agree with everything, it is worth noting that President Trump is looking at the U.S. / EU relationship on an […]
Gov. Newsom’s EV Mandate Set To Fail As Sales Lag, Power Shortages Persist
California’s EV mandate faces failure as sales lag, power shortages persist, and budget deficits undermine its unrealistic green goals. California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s electric vehicle (EV) mandate is set to fail, as sales of EVs […]
Highlights of the Podcast
00:00 – Intro
01:50 – Postal Service’s plan to electrify mail trucks falling far short of its goal
03:34 – Biden’s DoD Doubles Down On Climate Action As Trump Promises Military Reset
06:03 – North Korean troops join Russian assaults ‘in significant numbers’ – Oil for Troops Trade
07:24 – Trump is a nightmare for the EU in more ways than one
10:41 – Gov. Newsom’s EV Mandate Set To Fail As Sales Lag, Power Shortages Persist
13:5 – Markets Update
18:21 – Texas Oil Company Asks Federal Court to Stop Insurance Companies’ $250 Million Demand for Additional Collateral
23:15 – Outro
FollowStuartOn LinkedIn and Twitter
Follow Michael On LinkedIn and Twitter
– Get in Contact With The Show –
Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
Michael Tanner: [00:00:09] What’s going on, everybody? Welcome into the Monday, December 16th, 2024, edition of the Daily Energy News. Beat Stand up. Here are today’s top headlines. Postal Service plan to electrify mail trucks falling short of its goal. Who would have thunk that? Next up, Biden’s DoD doubles down on climate action as Trump promises military resettlement. We’ve got it’s it’s very interesting what’s going on between the transition team and the current administration right now. Next up, North Korean troops join Russian assaults in, quote, significant numbers in an oil for troops trade. Very interesting there. And then next up, Trump is a nightmare for EU in more ways than one. Will end with Governor Newsom’s mandate set to fail as sales lags and power shortages persist. Nothing like ending with good old oil slick himself. Good friend of the show stool then tossed over me. I will quickly cover what happened in the oil and gas markets on Friday and talk a little bit about some insurance in some interesting moves in the insurance business that’s going on specifically for offshore companies. There’s a nice little article from RBC Richardson. We will then let you get out of here and start your week, as always. I’m Michael Tanner, back from vacation. You know, I tell people are asking where I was last week and I said, well, I’m in Miami for business. If that’s not the biggest oxymoron you’ve ever heard. I don’t know what else is. There was some good business going on to do. I appreciate you holding down the fort last week. Hopefully everyone wasn’t we didn’t drive off too many of our listeners. [00:01:43][94.1]
Stuart Turley: [00:01:44] Yeah, we only got a few drills. [00:01:45][1.0]
Michael Tanner: [00:01:46] Only a few. Try use. Good. I’m going to kick it over to you. Where do you want to begin? [00:01:50][3.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:01:50] Hey, let’s start with my buddy Biden. Holy smokes, Batman. Postal Service plan to electrify mail trucks falling short of its goal. Michael, how short do you think it’s. I saw this on Jesse water primetime. And I put this in here. 3 billion on 32 mail trucks, $32 million per mail truck. What is going on? This is not the United States Postal Service unveiled a plan to buy a fleet of all electric trucks for its mail carriers back in 2022, 3000 were supposed to be delivered and they only delivered 32. [00:02:30][39.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:02:31] I mean, it’s insane. We were talking about this right before we jumped on the show. I actually think these look, you know, visually a little bit better than the little stumpy ones. It looks like they’re not going to die if they all so much is skid off the road. But, I mean, it’s pretty unbelievable. You’re talking about 93 vehicles delivered. That almost sounds like the federal funding for a plug in abandoned wells, $10 billion and they’ve plugged nine wells. I mean, it’s a twin. It’s trust. When the government gets involved with stuff, this type of stuff happens. [00:02:58][27.7]
Stuart Turley: [00:02:59] Absolutely. This is the last part in the article here. The failure of these plans doesn’t affect just the Postal Service ability to modernize its fleet of aging mail trucks. It could also throw a wrench into President Biden’s plan to combat climate change. We got another story on that one. [00:03:15][16.2]
Michael Tanner: [00:03:16] Yeah, pretty unbelievable. 3 billion on 32 mail trucks. Man, I’d like that contract. Can we get that contract right before Doge comes in? [00:03:24][8.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:03:24] Well, there’s a little bit of a problem. Michael. We do have something called ethics. [00:03:28][3.8]
Michael Tanner: [00:03:29] That’s a good point. That’s a good point. Speaking of ethics, let’s talk about the dog. [00:03:32][3.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:03:33] Holy smokes, Batman Biden D.O.D. Doubles Down on Climate Action as Trump Promises Military Reset. Michael you can’t buy this kind of stupid climate change does not constitute a current threat to U.S. national security. But the DOD leaders think otherwise. Quote, In fact, the DOD believes the climate crisis is a national security priority. On December 11th, the DOD announced its concern with climate change in Africa. What climate stressed areas are recruiting areas for terrorist groups? What is got to do that is just unbelievable. Here’s another horrible quote. The Department of Defense has identified climate change as a national security issue and threat multiplier and top management challenge and must take bold steps to accelerate adaption to reduce adverse impacts of climate change. This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Do you remember, Michael, when we talked about them putting solar panels on Tang? [00:04:36][62.9]
Michael Tanner: [00:04:36] Yeah. I mean though that that’s not going to work. Again, this is not the Department of Defense‘s job to worry about climate change. Let’s say. Let’s just play this out. Even even if I was full board climate change, you know, again, remember climate change, They’ve done a sleight of hand here. When I was, you know, when I was growing up, it was global warming. And they’ve done a little sleight of hand to say, climate change to account for the fact that if it happened to get colder, they’d be covered as well. So good sleight of hand, but let’s just say climate change, as sold by the corporate media was correct. Let’s assume that alternate universe. Let’s assume climate change is the corporate media says it is is true. It’s still not the Department of Defense’s job to worry about climate change. It should be the Department of Energy. It should be. Any one of the other depart the Department of Interior or any other of these departments that actually deal with the environment, the Bureau of Ocean Management or whatever, not the D.O.D.. And hopefully this is stuff that Doe is able to come in and clean up. Yes. Do we need to just gut the Department of Defense? No. Are they spending a lot more money than they should? Yeah, they probably should. They probably should take a little bit of a budget hit and we’d probably be just fine from a defense standpoint. So, again, this is classic government, just idiotic, you know, idiocy thinking that the DOD should be the ones worried about climate change. [00:05:56][79.9]
Stuart Turley: [00:05:56] Absolutely. Well said, Michael. Outstanding. You should take me. [00:06:01][4.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:06:01] I’ve got a week off. I’ve got a lot of pent up stuff. [00:06:03][1.9]
Stuart Turley: [00:06:03] Well, speaking of pent off, let’s go to North Korea. North Korean troops join Russian assaults in significant numbers. Oil for troops in trade. Michael, I did not have that on my bingo card when I saw that we were going to. How are they paying for this? Kim Jong un calls up Putin and goes, Hey, I got bodies. You want bodies in? And Putin goes, I got oil. You want an oil? This is hilarious. Today we begin the preliminary data that Russians are being in to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults. This will. You and I are laughing about this right now, but it does not underpin the importance of low cost energy from Russia. As Chancellor Schroeder has had several calls asking for more natural gas, and I guarantee you he is prompting the end the war in Ukraine so he can buy Russian natural gas. I thought that was very important. [00:07:02][58.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:07:02] Yeah, I mean, it’s a little crazy. I’m all about getting people oil. But if you got to trade literally just bodies that are revenge, I mean, because these these these North Korean ships are going straight to the front line. They’re basically just going they’re going to end up just being killed because of the way things are going on. It’s pretty unbelievable. [00:07:18][15.9]
Stuart Turley: [00:07:20] It is brutal. And it breaks my heart that the let’s just end all wars. All right. Let’s go to the next one. Speaking of Trump, Trump is a nightmare for the EU and more of the ways. And one, this actually came in and I thought it was from it’s from R.T., which is the Russian your. [00:07:36][16.8]
Michael Tanner: [00:07:36] Favorite news source? Russia Times. [00:07:38][1.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:07:39] Yeah, Russia Times, maybe. But it was interesting. I don’t agree with everything in it, but it has some great points. Well, first, there’s Russia. Regarding Moscow, Trump seems ready to talk in a substantial manner, which we’ve not seen since since the Cold War. Trump is realizing he would rather do business with Russia, then rather try to have a Cold War. I applaud Trump’s methodology there, but he’s also put out that challenge to Russia and saying, Wait a minute, BRICs hold off on trying to have another thing. So I actually like what President Trump is doing. [00:08:15][36.2]
Michael Tanner: [00:08:15] Shocker. You like what Trump’s doing. I do think it’s it is. It is. I would have never guessed he might. Trump is a nightmare for the EU in the standpoint of I think what he does is he does what Elon Musk does and he’s got Elon Musk in his ear. They think from first principles. He was back in 2017 when he was talking about, hey, you guys, you are to it. You’re addicted to Russian gas. That may cause a conflict at some point. What he was he was thinking from first principles. Hey, if you do see Russia as this threat, if you do see Russia as somebody who’s going to be aggressive, maybe think about getting your gas from alternative sources, snaking from first principles. That’s why I think he’s going to do here. I think that’s what he’s doing specifically with going to be reversing a lot of the the green energy policies here. Specifically, I think there’s, you know, the LNG export ban, that alone is going to be a huge boon for the EU and it would play them and it would do them well to understand that, that if we at home can get LNG export facilities approved, all that gas is going overseas. Why? Because there’s a huge arbitrage of pricing. We’ve got enough natural gas here. We’ve got so much natural gas here. There are companies in the specifically the Delaware Basin, so we’re talking about the Permian Basin. But on the New Mexico side, who can’t produce their wells because there’s not enough capacity in the pipelines to put the natural gas and you can’t flare because it’s on federal land. So what do you have to do, shut the well in we’ve got so much natural gas that it would behoove them to do it. Yet what I fear is going to happen is exactly what this article talks about, is there’s going to end up being a budding of hedge because, yes, Europe’s got to show that they’re, you know, smart, they’re wiser. It’s like, guys understand what we’re trying to do here. [00:09:55][99.7]
Stuart Turley: [00:09:55] And it’s the Germany green energy policies. As Germany’s economy goes, so does the EU. Well, they’ve killed the great Germany manufacturing machine through their green. Policies and now Chancellor Schultz is begging for Russian oil again. I mean. [00:10:13][17.8]
Michael Tanner: [00:10:13] I got to say it. He sees nothing. [00:10:15][1.5]
Stuart Turley: [00:10:16] Nothing. I see nothing. We’ve got to do that on a mean man. That would be a great meme. I see no Russian gas, in fact. [00:10:24][7.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:10:24] We got to put that in a mug. All right, let’s let’s talk about friend of the show, Gavin Newsom. [00:10:27][2.9]
Stuart Turley: [00:10:28] My gosh. A just in. This is the Bay Patrol. Bay Patrol is calling. Wait a minute. Oil slick. He’s taking a bath in the bay. Holy crap. The only man that could have a bigger oil slick than the Exxon Valdez. Governor Newsom, Governor Newsom, taking every mandate said to fail as sales lag, power shortages persist. We ran a story last week, Michael. The number one reason people don’t want to buy an EV is because of the lack of grid infrastructure to charge it. The cost to do it. And here it is right here. Governor Newsom’s electric vehicle mandate is set to fail as sales of EVs in his bleak blue state lag far behind the level necessary to reach 100% of the vehicle marketplace. Unbelievable. This guy is a knucklehead. Headwinds are fueling fresh doubts as Governor Newsom’s mandate for all new cars by California 2020 2030 5B0 emission. This is unbelievable. This came out of Breitbart. [00:11:26][58.2]
Michael Tanner: [00:11:26] Yeah, I mean, again, we’re telling you this. If you were listening to the show four, four years ago when we were back at the old regime under a new I mean, we were talking about this then and it’s just and now people are just waking up. You know, you call us Nostradamus. I’m serious. But if there’s no way this is going to happen now, your friend Elon Musk’s do, he actually would disagree with our argument. He thinks that everything is going to be electric much sooner. I don’t know if you saw some of his tweets going on this week, so it’ll be very interesting. You know, again, and I put. [00:11:56][29.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:11:56] That out there, Michael, that Elon will be the surviving TV by right because of you. Your comments are dead on, Michael and you have said his technology and it people are buying Teslas for a reason don’t mandate them make them but. [00:12:13][16.3]
Michael Tanner: [00:12:13] Government always chooses incorrectly. Always. [00:12:16][3.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:12:17] There’s a coffee mug. We got coffee mugs galore today. [00:12:20][2.7]
Michael Tanner: [00:12:20] I know. If only we had a merch site. We don’t. Maybe we need to create one. [00:12:23][3.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:12:24] I think we ought to. [00:12:24][0.7]
Michael Tanner: [00:12:25] We ought to create one. So. All right. Well, let’s go ahead and jump over to finance, guys. But before we do that, we’ve got to pay the bills. Thank you, as always, for checking us out on the world’s greatest website energy newsbeat.com. All the news and quote unquote analysis you’ve just heard is brought to you by said website. Stu and the team do a tremendous job making sure that website stays up to speed. Everything you need to know to be the tip of the spear when it comes to the energy and the oil and gas business. Go ahead and hit that description below for all the links to the timestamps, links to the articles, and also subscribe to our substack the Energy news beat.substack.com. We appreciate all of our premium subscribers over there. That’s a great, great way to support the show. If you like the content we are putting out, go ahead and subscribe to our Substack. You can also check out, I guess, add timestamps links to the articles. We’re coming up towards the end of the year, guys. 15 days. Laughter As you’re listening to this, 14 days left, if you guys have a tax problem, I promise you we have a way to help solve your tax problem. It’s a direct investment in oil and gas. Become Billy Bob Thornton from Land Man. You can tell everybody at the holiday how cool would it be to be your holiday Christmas party? And you could just start going off like Billy Bob thought. You know, it gives you, you know, and really what you could be going off about is how you’ve paid very little in taxes because you were able to reduce your taxable income because you invested directly in oil and gas. Go to invest in oil dot energy news beat.com. If you want to learn more, we will get you all the information and connected with the right people that’s invest in oil.energy news beat.com. [00:13:53][88.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:13:54] Let’s give you just the markets the markets had a great last week we ended up really ripping we are a S&P 500 and Nasdaq both touched all time highs on Friday. They were basically flat for the S&P 500. Nasdaq was actually up 7/10 of a percentage point to a ten year yield spike. Tremendously ten year yield outperform at 1.69. Two year yield was 1.24 percentage points. Bitcoin up, up 100 up above 100,000 per point. Holy smokes, 100,000. Over this weekend, crude oil was up 1.8 percentage points on Friday. That’s 7129. Brant oil’s only up of a half a percentage point, 7452. Nasdaq was actually up five percentage or excuse me, natural gas was down five percentage points, $3.28 after spiking above $3.55 earlier on December 12th. And then we did see our XLP contract shed about 8/10 of a percentage point one 3596, which is pretty interesting to consider. You’ve got oil prices up, oil companies down. I don’t know what that shows it. Again, not to harp on. It shows you investing directly in oil and gas is better than buying stocks because you are stocks aren’t necessarily correlated to the price of oil if you want oil price X. Invest truck. I’m off my soapbox. Let’s move back to oil, guys. Like I said, about 2%. Really? A three week high. Well, looking like is going to happen is we’re going to have some massive, massive sanctions on Iran. This is an analyst at Root of Bergin Associates. The strength is being driven by expectations of tighter sanctions against Russia and Iran, more supportive Chinese economic guidance, Mideast political havoc and prospects for a Fed rate cut. Next week, we are listening and watching out to that. I do think it is critical to talk about what’s going on in Syria right now. Stu. I didn’t I only listen to your Tuesday show and you mentioned Syria a little bit, but give us an update from your on what’s going on there and what’s the impact specifically you’re going to see on energy. You think. [00:15:49][114.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:15:49] Well, add a nice great to our conversation with George Macmillan yesterday about Syria. And it is unbelievable. The deep state is alive and well and the amount of cash that a US dollar bills has been found shrink wrap from the New York Fed. And it just is criminal that there’s that much cash from the U.S. The U.S. does not need to be destroying government, and the Syrian government is a pathway for pipelines. And that’s what this is all about. Believe it or not, if Assad had actually allowed the pipelines to go through, he’d still be in power. Unbelievable. It’s about pipelines. [00:16:31][41.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:16:32] Maybe it is about pipelines. An interesting note here at the IEA, our friends over there, the International Energy Administration, they actually increased on Thursday. Their 2025 global oil demand growth to 1.1 million barrels per day, up from 990,000 barrels per day last month. And they specifically cited some stuff they’re seeing in China, specifically the stimulus stuff. New bank lending in China actually rose by far less than expected, which is actually, you know, prompted some of these more stimulus measures. Now, what they are saying is that there is a they are at the on the same token, forecasting an oil surplus for next year, specifically citing the fact that Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Guyana and the U.S. are expected to boost supply somewhere around 1.5 million barrels per day. And again, these are a lot of non OPEC plus nations, The UAE, which is the second largest or I would say the third largest OPEC plus member. If you if we’re talking about OPEC plus plans to reduce oil shipments early next year as they are attempting to see, quote unquote, tighter discipline, it’s going to be very interesting to see what comes around here, specifically with rate cuts next week. We know Trump would love that. You know, it’ll be very interesting to see where prices go relative to to what’s going to happen. I think these next six months, as I say, this often are going to be fairly frothy. I think the fact that we’re we’ve held steady above 71 tells you that or $70 tells you there is some strength there. You know, I have heard the other side of the coin, Tricia Curtis, She’s a great, great analyst over at Petronas, CEO over there. I was reading some of her stuff and she was actually taking the opposite. She was saying that considering the political chaos going on in the Middle East, considering the craziness that’s going on with Iran, Syria, the craziness that’s going on in Europe, the Ukraine war, she says that oil should be $10 higher under normal circumstances. But the fact that we have so much supply on the market, that’s why we’re seeing $70 oil. So interesting case. It’s it’s whatever you want to believe on one side or the other. Last article I have Texas Oil Company Asks federal court to Stop insurance companies $250 million demand for additional collateral. This is really interesting, guys. Okay. So Houston based offshore is asking a federal judge to declare insurers have, quote, colluded to damage the company by jointly demanding additional collateral and premiums. Okay. So at the heart of this dispute, what’s going on is, as we mentioned, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, known as the b o e m, requires energy producers specifically in the Gulf of Mexico, but specifically on the Outer Continental Shelf to provide a bond, which is basically a hey, here’s an upfront money that just is going to sit in a escrow account to pay for well platform pipeline of facilities, clean up if the operating company fails through. It’s very similar to an onshore bond. If you’re an oil and gas operator, you’re very familiar with that. The state of Texas, specifically, if you have X number of wells, require you put up a certain amount of money in an event that you are unable to actually remediate your well site, a.k.a., plug them, make the land look good. But on offshore, the rules are a lot different. It’s a lot more costly to do that. And basically what they’re saying in their legal firing says that it’s insurers, also known as the surety providers, which include Endurance Assurance Corp, which is owned by a Japanese insurance holding company, and others begin demanding additional collateral and indemnity agreements that WTI already utilizes, for which it has already paid premium. You know, to give you some background here, I’m now running straight from the article. In July, one of these companies demanded W and T fully and immediately collateralize their bond by paying an additional 99 million as collateral, then filed suit in November, demanding 93.5 million despite never having missed a previous payment. Other surety companies fail to do any full and immediate collateralization of their bonds. Here’s a quote from CEO. Tracy a w crone. These insurance companies and their unreasonable demands for increased collateral pose an existential threat to independent operators like w t. We cannot afford to keep paying for insurance we’ve already paid for in the course of our operations. This is no different than your auto insurance carrier, and I love when people put it in non oil and gas terms because everybody can understand it. This is no different than your auto insurance carrier all of a sudden demanding you put 100% of your car’s cash value. In addition to doubling or triple your existing premium, it’s not just it’s it is not just possible or practical. How these unfair begs one question. If insurance companies require full cash collateralization of these bonds the issue, then what is the purpose of paying millions of dollars to issues these bonds? It’s a great, great question. Now, I do think what’s happening is that there’s a push to in taxes. One of the big things I was at a conference last year, two months ago, talking about specifically orphan and abandoned wells. It’s a big issue. It’s you know, obviously we don’t want abandoned wells onshore. We really don’t want them offshore. They pose a significant of threat. So I think there’s you know, I do think specifically having robust bonding for offshore oil companies demand. But this seems like a little bit of a stretch. And especially when you’re dealing with these type of government regulations, these insurer companies feel like the government’s going to back them up. And if they can bully these companies into paying a little bit more insurance, maybe they can’t sue. Talk to me a little bit about you. You you’ve been in kind of the orphan well, business. What are you hearing about some of this? Is this, if true, this is scary. [00:21:36][304.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:21:36] It is. There’s and like when you take a look at serious anger out there trying to do the the orphan wells thing out there, she is absolutely on fire because orphan wells are a problem now. They are getting better. As we know, our T from Pecos operating is charged for every operating well for that he is in and any of the new folks with the older leases you know if they’re 100 years old you got some orphan well problems I. [00:22:04][27.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:22:04] Could talk about this for a while. I was having a conversation about it. But point is, you’re right. In my opinion, we have to figure out a way for the free market to solve this. But if the free market is going to use, the government is going to basically be bullies and feel like the government is going to back them up in being a bully, then you’ve got a misalignment of the sentence. Very interesting. Guys. Watch out for your insurance companies. That’s all I’ve got to do. What should people be worried about this week? [00:22:26][22.5]
Stuart Turley: [00:22:27] Well, I’ve got more stuff coming out on the Syria and geopolitical stuff going on around the world, because the more money that is invested in renewable energy, the more fossil fuels will be pumped and sold. So Turley’s law and where we’ve got some more things coming around the corner, I still think there it is going to be around that 80 to 85 instead of the 70. And I agree with Tricia is that it is being held down for some reason. [00:22:56][29.3]
Michael Tanner: [00:22:56] Yeah, she would say it’s due to the fact that we are in oversupply. I don’t know where I fall on that, but we will let you. [00:23:02][5.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:23:02] All the charts are saying that we are down at the five year low. I disagree. [00:23:06][4.0]
Michael Tanner: [00:23:06] Gasoline stocks. No gasoline, Not crude oil. [00:23:09][2.9]
Stuart Turley: [00:23:10] I’m talking all of our other charts I’ve been looking at and following the charts. [00:23:14][4.0]
Michael Tanner: [00:23:15] All right, guys. Well, with that, we will let you get out of here, get back to work, start your week. We appreciate appreciating you starting your week with energy news beat. For Stuart Turley I’m Michael Tanner. We’ll see you tomorrow. [00:23:15][0.0][1363.2]
– Get in Contact With The Show –
The post Trump Challenges EU Policies appeared first on Energy News Beat.
