Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 194
What Just Happened?
“The threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine is shaking up a fragile global oil market, pushing prices closer to $100 a barrel as traders calculate that supplies will struggle to cushion the effect from any significant disruption in Russian fossil fuel exports,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Demand for oil has outpaced production growth as economies slowly rebound from the worst of the pandemic, leaving the market with a small buffer to mitigate an oil-supply shock.”
“Emmanuel Macron has announced a ‘renaissance’ for the French nuclear industry with a vast program to build as many as 14 new reactors, arguing that it would help end the country’s reliance on fossil fuels and make France carbon neutral by 2050,” The Guardian reports.
“Gasoline prices across the U.S. are surging to the highest level in eight years as the price of crude oil rises, spiked by worries about geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe,” CBS News reports.
While addressing a roundtable of energy executives, President Biden asked: “Are you getting less resistance when you start talking about wind and the windmills? I know they cause cancer.”
As the table broke out in laughter, Biden declared it a “bad joke” and that he “shouldn’t kid about that.”
“Selling scrap coal has earned Sen. Joe Manchin millions of dollars over three decades, and he has used his political positions to protect the fuel from laws and regulations that threaten his family’s business,” Politico reports.
President Biden vowed Monday that if Russia invades Ukraine, “there will no longer be Nord Stream 2,” the planned natural gas pipeline from Russia into Europe, the Washington Post reports.
President Biden “has renewed for four years Trump-era tariffs on imported solar panels that were set to expire this weekend as his administration tries to boost US manufacturing of clean energy infrastructure,” the Financial Times reports.
New York Times: “But the Biden administration also moved to double the amount of solar cells that can come into the country without facing tariffs, and said it would begin talks with Canada and Mexico to export their products to the United States duty-free.”
“Board members of four major oil companies declined to appear at a House oversight panel hearing scheduled for Feb. 8 to answer questions about their companies’ climate change plans,” Reuters reports.
“With freezing weather expected to hit a large portion of Texas this week, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Tuesday tried to assure Texans that the state is better prepared this year than last, but said there could be local power outages throughout the state,” the Texas Tribune reports.
Dallas Morning News: Beto O’Rourke (D) goes on the road to skewer Abbott over Texas’ electric grid.
“A federal court has rejected a plan to lease millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore oil drilling, saying the Biden administration failed to conduct a proper environmental review,” the AP reports.
“Oil touched $90 a barrel for the first time in seven years on Wednesday, supported by tight supply and rising political tensions between Russia and Ukraine that added to concerns about further disruption in an already-tight market,” Reuters reports.
“Domestic violent extremists have been planning to try to disrupt the U.S. power grid and will probably keep doing so, according to a Department of Homeland Security intelligence bulletin shared with law enforcement agencies and utility operators,” CBS News reports.
“The Biden Administration announced on Tuesday that it was working with gas and crude oil suppliers from the Middle East, North Africa and Asia to bolster supplies to Europe in coming weeks, in an effort to blunt the threat that Russia could cut off fuel shipments in the escalating conflict over Ukraine,” the New York Times reports.
“European allies have been cautious in public about how far they would go in placing severe sanctions on Moscow if it invades Ukraine. Germany has been especially wary; it has shuttered many of its nuclear plants, increasing its dependence on natural gas imports to generate electricity.”
Robinson Meyer: “There is only one climate-change story that really matters in the United States right now. It is that, nearly a year after President Joe Biden took office, the Democratic Party has still not passed the great substance of its climate policy through Congress. Every day that goes by, the party takes another step toward political catastrophe and planetary misgovernance. Time is running out. By the end of the summer, the midterm campaigning season will begin in earnest and the window to pass major legislation will have closed.”
“It is really that simple. Given the United States’ importance in the global economy—it is the second-largest emitter of carbon pollution annually, and one of the planet’s biggest producers of oil and natural gas—its ability, or lack thereof, to pass climate policy will set the standard for the rest of the world.”
Rolling Stone: “At this point in human evolution, burning coal for power is one of the stupidest things humans do. Coal plants are engines of destruction, not progress. Thanks to the rapid evolution of clean energy, there are many better, cheaper, cleaner ways to power our lives. The only reason anyone still burns coal today is because of the enormous political power and inertia that the industry has acquired since the 19th century.”
“In America, that power and inertia is embodied in the cruel and cartoonish character of West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who, paradoxically, may have more control over the trajectory of the climate crisis than any other person on the planet right now.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced her backing for what would be the nation’s first statewide gas ban for new buildings, adding fuel to a simmering national battle, Energy Wire reports.
Sara Goddard: 22 climate actions we need to see in 2022.
“Russia and China appear to be making headway toward a new gas pipeline that analysts say would help both countries hedge against growing tensions with the West,” Asia Nikkea reports.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) “has rejected a provision that would prohibit all future drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts as well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico,” the Washington Post reports.
“He also expressed surprise at top Democrats’ decision to include language ending an oil and gas leasing program in the pristine refuge, a longtime priority for party leaders and their environmentalist allies, but he has not indicated whether he will oppose it.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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