79th Anniversary Attack on Pearl Harbor. Oil hangover; IMF’s “Green Wokery”.

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Monday Is The 79-Year Anniversary Of The Attack On Pearl Harbor
Editorial, The Daily Caller, December 7, 2020

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a massive sneak attack on the American naval base in Hawaii, and the course of history changed forever.

OIL

Oil Wakes Up with Hangover
Andreas Exarheas, Rigzone, December 7, 2020

For oil, the beginning of this week is like the morning hangover following a good night out that went a bit too far.

That’s according to Rystad Energy’s head of oil markets, Bjornar Tonhaugen, who said the decline of oil prices this morning is a perfect example of how a good run of bullish news gets the market too far, with traders scrambling to correct price levels once the dust settles.

“The end of last week was a great one for oil as the deal OPEC+ struck to only raise production by 0.5 million barrels per day instead of two million barrels per day from January relieved the market, which had been taken by surprise after a surprise deadlock earlier in the week,” Tonhaugen said in a statement sent to Rigzone.

“Brent in particular nearly touched the $50 mark, ignoring all logic of short-term fundamentals,” he added.

GAS

No Significant Impact Expected as DOE Prepares to End LNG Project Reviews
Ron Nissimov, LNG Insights, December 7, 2020

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) plans to stop conducting environmental reviews of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export and import projects beginning in early January. The decision is not expected to significantly reduce regulatory hurdles for LNG projects. They still would require extensive FERC environmental reviews for construction and operating permits, the Center for LNG’s Charlie Riedl, executive director, told NGI.

MINING

Soaring Metals Prices Signal Bets on Global Economic Recovery
Amrith Ramkumar and Joe Wallace, The Wall Street Journal, December 7, 2020

Investors are piling into wagers on industrial metals like copper and nickel, betting that coronavirus vaccines and stimulus programs will drive a boom in manufacturing activity as part of a global economic resurgence.

Prices for copper have risen to their highest level in almost eight years. Iron ore, the main ingredient of steel, is one of the best-performing assets in 2020. Other raw materials, such as aluminum and zinc, have added roughly 15% since the end of September and 40% or more since mid-May. And shares of metals producers, including Freeport-McMoRan Inc. and Century Aluminum Co., are on a tear, climbing alongside other stocks closely tied to economic growth.

POLITICS

With oil drilling in ANWR advancing and a possible end to Pebble mine, what could change for Alaska under Biden?
Alex DeMarban, Anchorage Daily News, December 6, 2020

On his first day in office, President-elect Joe Biden plans to take unprecedented steps to rein in carbon emissions and oil drilling on federal lands as he tries to build what he calls a “clean energy economy.” In Alaska, that would mark a dramatic reversal from President Donald Trump’s aggressive approach toward developing resources.

Many Alaskans say they’re wary Biden will roll back projects that advanced under Trump, including drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which Biden has said he “totally” opposes. The Trump administration is hustling to push ahead what it can in its final weeks, and in the past week scheduled an oil lease sale in the refuge on Jan. 6.

Members of Alaska’s all-Republican congressional delegation vow to fight any reversals Biden might attempt.

CLIMATE CHANGE CONVERSATIONS

The IMF’s Net-Zero Fairy Tale
Rupert Darwall, Real Clear Energy, December 6, 2020

With Britain, France, the European Union, and now America (soon to be under Joe Biden’s leadership) piling onto the net-zero bandwagon, you’d think that some objectivity about the economic costs and consequences about such absolutist carbon-emission policies would be in order. Traditionally, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) could be relied upon as a source of sound economic advice. No longer. Under its previous managing director, Christine Lagarde, and now its current one, Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF has traded economic integrity for green wokery – thus giving governments license to push radical green policies in the false belief that there are few or no downsides.

Covid-19 has put what might be called green millenarianism on steroids. In July, Georgieva told an interviewer that the pandemic presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of a transformation necessary for human survival: “you don’t like the pandemic, you’re not going to like the climate disaster.” A characteristic of climate millenarianism is over-hyping of the potential damage of climate change while at the same time claiming that avoiding this damage will cost next to nothing. Thus, in its most recent World Economic Outlook, the IMF implies that potentially catastrophic climate change can be avoided with a green fiscal stimulus amounting to 1 percent of GDP and carbon taxes of between $10 to $40 a ton in 2030.

The IMF’s analysis is riddled with errors and omissions. It correctly notes that renewable energy is more labor-intensive than generating energy from fossil fuels. As the American Enterprise Institute’s Mark Perry notes, in 2019 it took 5.2 workers in wind and an astonishing 45.8 in solar to produce the same amount of electricity as one worker in nuclear, natural gas, and coal generation. That’s more jobs in wind and solar, yes, but poorly paid ones – a critical dimension of employment that the IMF entirely neglects.