“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” – Samuel Johnson (2) Liz Cheney on X: “Damn right, @Elon. I’m proud of what America did to win the Cold War, defeat Soviet communism, and defend democracy. Our nation stood for … Continue reading →
via Real Climate Science
February 6, 2025 at 04:41PM
As Trump’s energy agenda comes to focus, Texas is already leading the way
In his massive flurry of executive actions after being sworn in, President Donald Trump made clear that he intends to follow the Texas pro-energy model for energy success based on deregulation, innovation, and exploration.
Perhaps most consequentially, he declared a national energy emergency and put permits for oil and gas infrastructure on a fast track. He also signed executive orders to roll back oil and gas restrictions in Alaska and along our nation’s coasts and restarted the approval process for liquid natural gas exports. These actions — with more certainly to come — will incentivize a marked increase in energy production and exploration here in America.
But it would be wrong to think of these actions as mere energy policy. On the campaign trail, President Trump regularly spoke about how domestic energy is the key to success on the seemingly unrelated issues of global stability, clean air, clean water, and lower prices on utilities, housing, groceries, and more.
Take inflation and the economy. Energy impacts the price of everything else because it takes energy to manufacture products, grow crops, and move goods to stores, consumers, and construction sites. High energy prices drive up the costs of transportation, groceries, housing, healthcare, and everything else the American people rely on. To solve the affordability crisis, we must solve the energy crisis.
The power of American energy can also be seen in environmental protection. The U.S. has one of the cleanest economies in the world, which means to have a clean environment we must produce as much energy as possible in the U.S. This is especially the case with natural gas. When American production goes up, usage of cleaner energy goes up and dirtier energy goes down.
President Donald Trump already proved this was the case. During his first term, he cut red tape and empowered U.S. energy producers. Not only did these moves increase domestic energy production, under President Trump emissions declined. In fact, the Biden-Harris administration had higher emissions than Trump did despite years of heavy-handed green energy policies. Clearly our LNG production and export capacity is as much an environmental issue as it is an energy and cost issue.
On the foreign policy front, America’s leverage in the world plummets if other nations rely on Russia, Iran, or Venezuela for their energy needs instead of on the U.S. If we want a free and stable world, we must produce enough energy not only for ourselves, but also enough to keep our allies strong and adversaries in check.
Not to mention according to the International Energy Agency, AI, cryptocurrency, and data centers could double their 2022 energy consumption levels by 2026. To take advantage of these technologies that will drive American prosperity in the next generation, we must increase energy production substantially.
Simply put, America’s strength at home and abroad demands more energy, and Trump is already starting to deliver.
If President Trump’s pro-energy agenda — an agenda that drives down prices, promotes global stability, fuels technological innovation, and delivers a cleaner environment — sounds familiar, that’s because it’s exactly what Texas has been doing for decades.
Texas is the friendliest state for energy production. We are the top energy producer in the nation, and in 2023, we produced 27% of our nation’s clean natural gas. We have long-welcomed energy exploration, offshore drilling, and innovative extraction techniques like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
But we also haven’t rested on our laurels on oil and gas. With regard to renewable sources, we have the second most solar installations of any state, more nuclear reactors than all but five states, and even produced enough hydroelectric power to serve nearly 3 million Texans.
With our all-of-the-above energy approach, Texas has already proven that Trump’s energy agenda will be a success. In recent years, the Texas economy has grown well over twice as fast as America as a whole while delivering comparatively lower energy bills than other states and increasingly clean air. Costs are down, economic strength is up, and our environment is clean.
Texans know that when our energy industry thrives, our citizens thrive. As President Trump continues to embrace the full potential of American energy, our nation as a whole will start to experience the Texas success story.
Catherine Frazier is a communications strategist based in Texas and founder of Eberly Advisors. She previously served in senior roles for Texas Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.
This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.
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via Watts Up With That?
February 6, 2025 at 04:06PM
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Cunningham
More bad news for the idiot Miliband:
Norwegian energy giant Equinor is halving investment in renewable energy over the next two years while increasing oil and gas production.
Chief executive Anders Opedal said that the transition to lower carbon energy was moving slower than expected, costs had increased, and customers were reluctant to commit to long term contracts.
Mr Opedal told the BBC he was confident that Rosebank – a giant new oil field in the North Sea – would go ahead, despite a recent court ruling that consent had been awarded unlawfully.
He also warned that gas prices could rise next winter as European gas storage levels were lower now than this time last year.
"We are scaling down our investments in renewables and low carbon solutions because we don’t see the necessary profitability in the future," Mr Opedal said.
It will cut investments in renewables to $5bn over the next two years, down from about $10bn.
It will also drop a target to spend half of its fixed assets budget on renewables and low carbon products by 2030.
By contrast, Equinor will be increasing oil and gas production by 10% over the next two years.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1jg7k1kjwyo
This is of course part of a much wider trend, as we saw today with Orsted’s decision to call a halt to offshore wind development. Renewable energy is wholly dependent on govt subsidy, which as President has shown is illusionary.
Incredibly the far-left BBC still believe that “Rosebank is not straightforward”
What could not be more straightforward than a British oil field which could supply ultra cheap oil and gas to the country, sustain thousands of well paid jobs, send millions in tax revenues to the govt, provide an element of energy security and actually reduce emissions in comparison with importing the stuff.
Only the British hating BBC could object to that!
BTW
I cannot help but be reminded what the Xi’s useful idiot, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard said last week, when he said that the world’s investors were chasing green energy because that was where the money was!
Dream on, Ambrose!!!!!!!!!!!!!
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
February 6, 2025 at 03:48PM
By Paul Homewood
Orsted, the Danish owned wind power company, has been in deep trouble for a while now, as the combination of rising costs, the end of cheap money and shrinking subsidies have wrecked profitability.
Billions in capital write downs have already occurred, but now the cash is drying up:
Today, Ørsted’s Board of Directors approved adjustments to the company’s business plan towards a focused capital allocation to strengthen the capital structure. The company will prioritise the most value-accretive growth opportunities through a self-funded investment programme.
During 2024, Ørsted delivered full-year results in line with expectations, reaching an EBITDA excluding new partnerships and cancellation fees of DKK 24.8 billion. In addition, commissioning of 2.4 GW of renewable capacity took place, 3.5 GW of offshore wind capacity was awarded in the UK, and the final investment decision on the offshore wind farm Baltica 2 in Poland was made last week. All of which contribute to the strategic progress of the company.
Despite delivering full-year results in line with expectations and the strategic progress, Ørsted has experienced challenges, especially related to the US offshore wind portfolio, which have led to further pressure on our credit metric. This development, in combination with the wider renewable industry challenges, has led Ørsted to reduce its investment programme towards 2030 by around 25 % compared to its previous strategic ambition on a like-for-like basis. The reduced investment programme is in line with our commitment to ensure a capital structure that can support a solid investment grade credit rating
We’ll reduce our investment programme towards 2030 through a stricter, more value-focused approach to capital allocation. We do this to ensure a stronger balance sheet, supporting a solid investment grade rating, and to ensure that we only invest our capital in the most financially attractive opportunities.
“Our number one priority throughout the next three years will be to deliver on our committed 8.4 GW offshore wind construction programme, which will almost double our installed offshore wind capacity. The market remains challenging, but delivering on this programme will solidify our position as the undisputed global leader in offshore wind.”
These adjustments will not affect the execution of the 9 GW of renewable projects that Ørsted is currently constructing. The construction portfolio brings line of sight to an expansion of renewable capacity from 18 GW to more than 27 GW.
The previous ambition for installed renewable capacity of 35-38 GW by 2030 and the targeted EBITDA (excluding new partnerships) of approx. DKK 39-43 billion in 2030 have been discontinued.
In layman’s language, they are carrying on with 9 GW of projects already under construction, given that it would be far too costly to back out now.
But that’s it! The other 11 GW of new capacity planned has gone by the wayside.
This is necessary for two reasons:
1) They do not have the cash to invest
2) The new projects would not be profitable, given the current state of the market.
Orsted is the leading offshore wind developer in the UK, and probably the world.
In last year’s CfD auction, AR6 , Orsted won a contract to build the offshore wind farm Hornsea Project Four, with a capacity of 2400 MW.
It has however not yet been given the Final Investment Decision by Orsted. As construction has not started yet or even been approved, it is to be presumed that it will be one of the projects on the chopping block.
This would leave a massive hole in Ed Miliband’s plans to triple offshore wind capacity by 2030.
AR6 brought in 3363 MW of offshore wind, so three quarters looks like disappearing just like that.
Moreover it seems impossible that Orsted will bid at the next allocation round, AR7, and there appear to be no other major players willing to step up.
ScottishPower Renewables have already stated that East Anglia Two, which won the other AR6 contract, will be their last in that part of the North Sea. And Vattenfall pulled out of their CfD for the 1400 MW Norfolk Boreas in 2023.
The days of easy money for offshore wind developers, made possible by obscene subsidies are long gone. It already appear that AR7 is running well behind schedule, which suggests that there is a lack of interest amongst developers for the prices on offer.
My guess is that Miliband will be forced to substantially raise the strike prices if he wants more capacity.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
February 6, 2025 at 12:53PM
