COVID 19
Reports
suggest many have had coronavirus with no symptoms
Marilyn Marchione, AP Chief Medical Writer, April 20, 2020
A flood of new research suggests that far more people have had the coronavirus without any symptoms, fueling hope that it will turn out to be much less lethal than originally feared. While that’s clearly good news, it also means it’s impossible to know who around you may be contagious. That complicates decisions about returning to work, school and normal life. In the last week, reports of silent infections have come from a homeless shelter in Boston, a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, pregnant women at a New York hospital, several European countries and California. The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 25% of infected people might not have symptoms. The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. John Hyten, thinks it may be as high as 60% to 70% among military personnel.
OIL
Why Oil Is $11 a Barrel Now but Three Times That in Autumn
Ryan Dezember, Wall Street Journal, April 20, 2020
The price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude to be delivered next month fell 40% to $11 in Monday’s trading, the lowest price in two decades. If that barrel were to be delivered to a buyer in November, it would be worth nearly three times as much.
GAS
Fall
of Natural Gas Prices Speeds Energy Shift in East
River Davis & Andrew Jeong, The Wall Street Journal, April 20, 2020
Natural gas in East Asia costs about the same as coal for the first time, a milestone that is likely to accelerate the region’s U.S.-style energy transformation. Even before the new coronavirus rocked markets, governments in South Korea, Taiwan and China were pivoting to cleaner-burning natural gas. Since February, the pandemic has pushed the price of liquefied natural gas to record lows, enabling them to move faster.
Shell
greenlights $64 billion Australia natural gas project
Pipeline & Gas Journal, April 17, 2020
Royal Dutch Shell said on Friday it had made a final investment decision to develop the first phase of Australia’s biggest coal seam gas resource in Queensland state. The first phase of the Surat Gas Project would bring as much as 90 billion cubic feet per year of new natural gas to market at peak production, Shell said in a statement. The project is being developed by a Shell and PetroChina joint venture called Arrow Energy. Construction will start this year and its first gas sales are expected in 2021.
MINING
District Court Rules in Favor of EPA Changing Course on Pebble Project
Jason Lee, KSRM, April 20, 2020
U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency could withdraw an earlier determination made regarding potential negative impacts of the Pebble Project. That ruling came on Friday. The EPA has looked to change their original 2014 determination that the Pebble Project mine posed too great a threat to the salmon-rich waters of Bristol Bay.
Pebble CEO Tom Collier, in a Saturday statement, hailed the decision as a major victory for Pebble.
POLITICS
Alaska’s
finances aren’t as bad as you think
Ed King, King Economics Group, April 20, 2020
If you happen across some information about Alaska’s current financial situation, you probably get the impression that we are in dire straits. When oil prices crashed 77% in late 2014, the State’s oil revenues collapsed – leaving a gaping hole in the budget. By all accounts, we’ve been deficit spending ever since. But that is not the whole story. There’s an inconvenient truth hidden beneath the headlines. What if I told you Alaska isn’t in as bad of financial shape as you’ve been led to believe?