“The hypocrisy of the Biden administration taking credit for lower gasoline prices as the summer driving season begins by fulfilling a Congressional mandate is unsurprising.”
“We now have the amazing scenario where days before the start of the hurricane season, Democrats in Congress and Biden are willing to empty the gasoline reserve.”
The Department of Energy announced Tuesday that it would begin selling the one million barrels of gasoline in the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve. Bids for the supply are due May 28th with delivery expected by June 30th. Bids will be accepted for lots of 100,000 barrels. The supply represents 42 million gallons of gasoline and is held in commercial storage tanks in Maine and New Jersey.
The sale was mandated by the omnibus Congressional spending bill (HR 2882) approved in late March with procedural hijinks by Senate Leader Chuck Schumer. …
“Do we need a clean energy industry that depends on government handouts forever? Yes, if you ascribe to the climate disaster mantra…. Does anyone consider letting market forces drive technology development?”
An op-ed in Monday’s Houston Chronicle, “Houston is making a losing bet on fossil fuels,” greeted visitors to CERAWeek. Author Randall Morton attacked oil company CEOs and Houston business leaders for defending a “declining” industry. His opening sentence? “Leaders of the oil and gas industry are in Houston for CERAWeek, grappling with the inevitable decline of the industry.”
Morton then goes after the “economic development leaders at the Greater Houston Partnership [who] are doubling down on this declining industry.” He specifically identifies the GHP’s Energy Transition Initiative – hydrogen and carbon capture – as failed technologies.
Fair enough, but he misses a critical point. …
“This isn’t the Field of Dreams: ‘If you build it, he will come.’ … Automakers are wrestling with the reality of the EV market as politicians continue to believe in fairy tales about them.”
A recent headline on The Drive website read: “Ford Slashes 2023 Mustang Mach-E Price by up to $8,100 With 0% APR.” More interesting was the tagline under the headline. “Now’s a really great time to nab a solid, yet slow-selling EV.”
Even the advertising department at Ford Motor Company cannot hide the company’s problem with EVs – “slow-selling!” Customers do not want them to the degree politicians believe and have incentivized and mandated. As a report on EV battery costs stated, technology should lead policy rather than the other way around. We are hard-pressed to cite any example of a policy leading the technology. …