New Headlamp Category: Climate Change Conversations
“Markets not Mandates” has been the position of AKHeadlamp with regard to efforts to address climate change. Now, more than ever, it is important to participate in the conversation as we prepare for many proposals about climate change solutions from the new administration – so we have added a new, daily category, “Climate Change Conversations”.
President-elect Biden’s transition team website lists climate change as one of the top four first day priorities, and reiterates his goals for the U.S. to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and carbon pollution- free power by 2035.
Biden will need Republicans in Congress to achieve his goals and his early comments seems to acknowledge that and focus on economic legislation highlighting climate with infrastructure and stimulus spending.
OIL
Oil jumps on vaccine hopes and OPEC+ supply signals
Oil & Gas 360, November 9, 2020
Oil jumped by almost 10% on Monday for its biggest daily gain in more than six months after Pfizer announced promising results for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate and Saudi Arabia said an OPEC+ oil output deal could be adjusted to balance the market.
A Fracking Ban Is Just One Way A Biden/Harris Presidency Will Impact The Oil And Gas Industry
David Blackmon, Forbes, November 9, 2020
Assuming that the various challenges being filed by President Donald Trump this week to election results in several states fail and Democrat Joe Biden does become the next President of the United States, the potential impacts to the oil and gas industry in the U.S. would be numerous and severe. While only one significant oil and gas-related issue was raised to high prominence during the general election campaign – Biden’s promises to ban hydraulic fracturing at various times and levels – it is a mistake to assume that that would be the only way in which a Biden/Harris Administration would impact the industry.
The first tranche of impacts will come in the form of executive orders. Like the Obama/Biden presidency before him, a great deal of President Trump’s energy-related policy has been enacted via executive orders. The obvious vulnerability of any executive order is that it usually can be easily reversed by a successor in office. Thus, the most immediate impacts of a Biden presidency will come in the form of efforts to increase regulation on the energy industry via the reversal of various Trump executive actions. Biden and Harris repeatedly promised to take these actions throughout their campaign, so we should expect a quick follow through on what amounts to low-hanging fruit. Those likely executive order reversals include…
GAS
From the Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy:
Positioning gas as a transition fuel: The Natural Gas Supply Association and the Center for LNG congratulated Biden while claiming the election “brought attention to the pivotal role of natural gas in the U.S. economy” and in reducing U.S. carbon emissions.
Another fossil fuel group, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, tried to spin Biden’s climate positions as favorable to the industry while complimenting his “build back better” agenda.
“The President-Elect acknowledged the importance of natural gas during his campaign, and any serious plan to both address global climate change and develop a modern, reliable and affordable energy system must include natural gas as a foundational fuel,” said INGAA president and CEO Amy Andryszak.
MINING
Exclusive: Biden campaign tells miners it supports domestic production of EV metals
Ernest Scheyder, Reuters, October 22, 2020
Joe Biden’s campaign has privately told U.S. miners it would support boosting domestic production of metals used to make electric vehicles, solar panels and other products crucial to his climate plan, according to three sources familiar with the matter, in a boon for the mining industry.
POLITICS
Five consequences of a Biden administration for US energy
Wood Mackenzie, November 7, 2020
Joe Biden offered American voters a radically different vision of energy policy from President Donald Trump, focused on addressing the threat of climate change. He will enter the White House with a goal of setting the US on course for net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and will take the US back into the Paris climate agreement. But there is a good chance the Republicans will retain control of the Senate, limiting how much of his agenda he will be able to deliver.
With the federal government constrained, state policies will continue to be important. The key influences shaping the US energy industry are likely to be market forces, just as they were under Barack Obama and Donald Trump. But the change of federal government will have some significant consequences. According to Ed Crooks, Wood Mackenzie Vice-Chair – Americas, these are some of the most important: