Today’s Key Takeaways: Chevron doctrine ruling plays in Alaska’s favor. BP’s latest energy outlook: fossil fuel’s are here to stay. AK gold project gets funding. Trump vows to boost U.S. oil production.
NEWS OF THE DAY:
The Chevron doctrine and the future of Alaska
Fairbanks Daily News Miner Editorial Board, July 17, 2024(subscription required)
News-Miner opinion: With the overturning of the Chevron deference in a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court has sharply cut back the power of federal agencies to interpret the laws they administer. The June 28 ruling, which shifts the power of interpreting ambiguous laws away from agencies and back to the courts, is sure to have far-reaching consequences for Alaska and the rest of the nation.
The 1984 decision in Chevron USA v. National Resources Defense Council instructed lower courts to defer to federal agencies when laws passed by Congress were not clear. That opened the spigot for myriad alphabet agencies to pour their own interpretations of onerous regulations onto the populace. “Perhaps most fundamentally, Chevron’s presumption is misguided because agencies have no special competence in resolving statutory ambiguities,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion overturning the 40-year-old doctrine. “Courts do.”
Overturning the ruling likely plays heavily in Alaska’s favor. It’s a limit on future federal overreach, from resource development to fisheries; it returns control to the state over issues traditionally managed by federal agencies, which could result in policies better tailored to the needs of Alaska; and with less federal red tape, industries vital to the Alaska economy (think oil, gas, and fish) could see an economic growth spurt.
OIL & GAS:
Oil and Gas Are Here To Stay
Irina Slav, OilPrice.Com, July 14, 2024
- BP’s latest energy outlook forecasts oil demand to peak in 2025, but the decline will be gradual, with consumption remaining high in 2035.
- The energy transition is losing momentum due to slowing EV sales, insufficient renewable capacity expansion, and rising electricity costs.
- The developing world’s growing energy needs are a major factor in the continued reliance on oil and gas, even as developed nations attempt to reduce consumption.
The energy transition is showing signs of losing momentum over the past few months. EV sales are slowing, wind and solar capacity additions are not expanding fast enough, and electricity is getting more instead of less expensive.
With those signs, others have been flashing red, too. Despite the push against oil and gas, these are here to stay for the long haul—and demand won’t even decline that much after peaking, according to the latest energy outlook of BP.
The supermajor, which used to compile the Statistical Review of World Energy, now does its own review. And according to its latest edition, oil demand will peak next year. And it’s not the first time it’s called the peak for oil demand.
The last time its statistical review said that demand growth had peaked—in 2019—it turned out to be very wrong. In reality, oil demand soared after the end of the pandemic lockdowns to reach new all-time highs.
Now, BP has noted that over the past five years, oil demand has been growing at an average of half a million barrels daily since 2019, but that is about to end, with demand on the decline over the next couple of decades. But here’s the thing. Before, BP forecast that this decline would be quite substantial. Now, it expects that in 2035, the world will still consume 97.8 million barrels of oil per day in 2035, which would be a relatively minor decline from the current rate of consumption, which is about 100 million barrels daily, which may rise above that this year if demand strengthens in the second half.
In other words, BP acknowledges that the human civilization’s dependence on hydrocarbons will not be so easy to shake simply by embracing alternative energy sources. What’s more, primary energy demand is still on an upward trajectory, and hydrocarbons will be the energy sources to respond to much of that—until we start needing less energy.
MINING:
Tectonic Metals gets funding for gold exploration in Alaska
Staff Writer, Mining.Com, July 15, 2024
Tectonic Metals (TSXV: TECT) has secured C$3 million ($2.2m) to support its 2024 drilling at its Flat gold project in Alaska. The financing is led by Crescat Capital, a mining industry investor and a strategic shareholder in the company.
The financing consists of 50 million units priced at C$0.06 per unit. A majority of the units — totalling C$2.5 million in proceeds — will be freely tradeable under the listed issuer financing exemption of NI-45-106.
Tectonic Metals traded at nearly 20 times its daily average volume on Monday and closed the session at C$0.065 apiece for a market capitalization of C$20 million ($14.6m).
“Tectonic is one of our top ten holdings in the Crescat portfolio. Our support for Tectonic and their Flat project is underscored by us doubling our ownership level to 22.3% in the company last year,” Crescat Capital chief investment officer Kevin Smith said in Monday’s press release.
POLITICS
Trump Vows to Boost U.S. Oil Production if Elected President
Tsvetana Paraskova, OilPrice.Com, July 17, 2024
Donald Trump has pledged to ramp up U.S. domestic oil production and undo some regulations to make that happen, the Republican presidential candidate told Bloomberg Businessweek in an exclusive interview published on Wednesday.
The interview with the former U.S. president took place at Mar-a-Lago in late June, two days before the first presidential debate and two weeks prior to the assassination attempt on Trump this weekend.
In a wide-ranging interview on many domestic and global issues, Trump said that energy costs will need to go down and America has the energy resources to help that happen.
“We have more liquid gold than anybody,” Trump told Bloomberg Businessweek.
“We need energy at low prices. The advantage we have all over almost every country including the very large ones is that we have more energy than anybody. We have more of the real energy, the energy that works,” the former president vying for another term in office said.
“Wind does not work. It’s too expensive,” said Trump, claiming that solar and wind farms are neither too good for the environment, nor too suitable to provide energy at low costs and prices.
Although Trump was light on details regarding domestic U.S. energy issues, it became clear that he would continue to support American oil and gas production if elected president.
If he wins in November, Trump is set to overturn or at least try to dismantle many of President Biden’s energy and climate policies, including methane rules, the pause on new LNG export permits, EV mandates, federal oil and gas leasing, and even parts of the Inflation Reduction Act.