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Biden’s Energy Extremism
By: Chris Bischof | Senior Writer, Bakken Oil Business Journal
Dec22/Jan23
President Biden’s energy policies are a danger to the country. They are hurting consumers and restraining energy producers, which, for now, is resulting in exactly the opposite of what the administration hopes for. Ironically, instead of achieving the goal of driving them out of business, oil and gas companies are reporting rising profits. However, the current boon is likely to be temporary.
Canary is an oilfield services company headquartered in Denver. Canary CEO Dan Eberhart said, “U.S. oil production is 10 percent lower than it was during the Trump administration, even with higher oil prices. Why is that? Because the administration is not being helpful and not trying to increase supply, and it’s hurting consumers, and they just don’t seem to care.”
[Read more. Page 8]
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The Political Crisis in Diesel Fuel
By: Alex Epstein, Center for Industrial Progress
Dec22/Jan23
According to Alex Epstein, the highly regarded and nationally known energy expert, the US is facing a dangerous diesel shortage caused by our clueless anti-fossil-fuel politicians. He’s right. Diesel prices send the signal. Over the last year, the price of diesel fuel has surged about 50 percent. At the end of November, the US average price at the pump was about $5 a gallon. In California, the pump price was about $6 a gallon.
The price is rising due to a reduction in refining capacity, declining inventories, and a strained export market, all driven by political opposition to fossil fuels.
Why does this matter? Because no fuel is more essential to the global economy than diesel. Diesel is the fuel that powers trucks, trains, boats, and barges, and is crucial for the transport of nearly all products people consume. It is also used in city buses, school buses, most farm machinery, and construction equipment in the US.
[Read more. Page 18]
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North Dakota: Oil Fields & Agriculture
…All-American, like Baseball & Apple Pie. And now China is in Grand Forks?
By: Chris Bischof | Senior Writer, Bakken Oil Business Journal
Oct/November 2022
North Dakota is famous for the Bakken Oil Fields and the million barrels of oil extracted from those reserves each day. However, agriculture is its biggest industry. In an unusual turn of events, an agricultural issue in Grand Forks has become a lightning rod of dissent.
Last year, Fufeng USA, the US subsidiary of a Chinese company that makes ingredients for animal feed, expressed its desire to build a corn-milling facility in a field outside Grand Forks.
Prior to the announcement, Fufeng Group had conducted an extensive search for a location that could support the project. About 25 sites were considered. After a year of intense evaluation, Grand Forks was selected. The chosen site is approximately 370 acres. It is expected to process 25 million bushels of corn a year.
[Read more. Page 18]
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“A four-step recipe for destroying the American Energy Industry” — The Inflation Reduction Act
By: Chris Bischof | Senior Writer, Bakken Oil Business Journal
Oct/November 2022
On August 16th Congress passed the $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and on that day President Biden signed the legislation, making it law.
What is the IRA Supposed to Accomplish?
Supporters claim the legislation will accomplish wonders. This complex bill has been touted as a plan to cut inflation by reducing the deficit, lowering prescription drug prices, and spurring the production of renewable energy. The law, as passed, will raise about $740 billion. About $390 billion will be spent on energy and fighting climate change. Roughly $240 billion will fund deficit reduction, three years of Obama Care subsidies, prescription drug reform, and tax reform.
Will the IRA Achieve its Goals?
[Read more. Page 8]
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The Future of the Refining Industry
By: Chris Bischof | Senior Writer, Bakken Oil Business Journal
August/September 2022
There is an expression that seems right for today: May you live in interesting times.
The Covid pandemic made sure of that. It disrupted every part of life and it hit the global oil refining market especially hard. Over the preceding two years, the pandemic imposed historic supply and demand fluctuations, which have been magnified by several other powerful forces. The industry was already facing simultaneous longer-term headwinds combining technological advances, electric vehicles, changing regulations, and fears about climate change.
[Read more. Page 8]
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The Global Search for Energy Security
By: Daniel Yergin | Vice Chairman of S&P Global and author of “The New Map.”
August/September 2022
The amnesia about energy security is over. The global energy crisis fueling record high inflation is shaking governments as consumers are stunned and angry at high prices and the prospect of shortages.
The general concern with energy security had dissipated over the past decade, in part because of the emergence of U.S. shale oil. Fracking transformed America from the world’s largest importer of oil to the largest producer and, after decades of promise, delivered energy independence. [Read more. Page 12]
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The SEC and Climate Change
By: Chris Bischof | Senior Writer, Bakken Oil Business Journal
April/May 2022
Since the day President Biden was inaugurated, his administration has sought ways to expand the government’s war on fossil fuels. It appears the cost to consumers doesn’t matter to him or anyone involved in decisions about the nation’s energy future.
[Read more. Page 12]
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Energy Security Crisis
By: Alex Epstein | CENTER for INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS
April/May 2022
Europe’s energy insecurity, which has rendered it impotent to act against Putin, has been caused by its foolish abandonment of domestic fossil fuel production.
The cause of the insecurity is simple: When you restrict domestic fossil fuel production on the false promise of replacement by unreliable solar and wind, you become dangerously dependent on foreign production. [Read more. Page 14]
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Coining a Currency
By: Chris Bischof | Senior Writer, Bakken Oil Business Journal
Feb/March 2022
There’s new money in town. A lot of it. Instead of Dollars, Euros or Pesos, the new money is Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Litecoin and several others. They’re cryptocurrencies. Digital money, and they’re revolutionizing investing, banking, trade, low-cost money transfers, private transactions, non-cash remittances and more. The possibilities are so numerous that Eric Adams, newly elected mayor of NY City, has chosen to receive his first paycheck in bitcoin and ethereum, showing his desire to turn the Big Apple into a major crypto hub.
[Read more. Page 7]
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Media Bias — It’s Everywhere, and It’s Dangerously Driving US Energy Policy in the Wrong Direction
By: Geoff Simon | Executive Director, Western Dakota Energy Association
Feb/March 2022
If you don’t believe the mainstream media is biased, you’re either delusional or highly partisan. A recent Gallup poll found that 63 percent of likely voters don’t trust the political news they receive. It’s no surprise there’s a partisan split in the numbers. Among Democrats, 68 percent said they trust the media, but only 11 percent of Republicans share that view.
Nowhere is media bias more evident than in its coverage of the energy sector and the debate (yes, there is a debate) about what is now referred to as “climate change.” … [Read more. Page 24]
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Fossil Fuels: They May be Old, but They’re Never Out of Date
By: Chris Bischof | Senior Writer, Bakken Oil Business Journal
Dec 2021/Jan 2022
The energy markets have been on a roller coaster ride the last two years. Their ups and downs have occurred in response to events no one saw coming.
In December 2019, oil averaged about $67 per barrel. Prices had risen through 2019 due to consumer confidence for a prosperous 2020.
Then, out of nowhere, came the corona virus and everything changed, almost overnight. No longer were analysts predicting higher prices. Suggestions of a return to $100 oil vanished. Oil demand evaporated in early 2020 when travel was restricted, and most in-person entertainment was halted. Even retail shopping was thrown into chaos.
[Read more. Page 7]
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It’s Not the End of the World — Another climate conference has come and gone.
By: Chris Bischof | Senior Writer, Bakken Oil Business Journal
Dec 2021/Jan 2022
The COP26 meeting in Glasgow brought together representatives from almost all the world’s nations in an effort to spread fears of gloom and doom while attempting to wheedle trillions of dollars from wealthy nations to save the world from the imaginary existential crisis they envision.
A review of the media coverage of the conference would convince many that the world is facing biblical plagues — fires, floods, hurricanes, drought, and disease. But the facts say otherwise. Over the last century humanity has solved far more dangerous problems than climate change.
Global warming does pose problems, but it’s not the uncontrollable disaster often described in the headlines. The real disaster–the solutions activists propose are likely to be far more damaging than the climate change they’re trying to prevent.
[Read more. Page 23]
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