Daily Energy Standup Episode #203 – Energy News Update: China’s Impact, Clean Energy Challenges, and Generator Regulations

Stuart Turley: [00:00:15] Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Energy News Beat Daily Standup. My name’s Stu Turley President, CEO of the Sandstone Group. Today is Thursday. Can you believe you’ve made it to Thursday? It is Thursday, September 7th. And I can’t believe we’re already trending right along. I’ll tell you what. Thank you to all the fans that are out there. We’ve got some questions I’ve got to get to. I owe some people some answers. And thank you for all the wonderful feedback. Want to let you know we’ve got a crazy show. Michael’s on assignment. He’ll be back with you Monday morning. That is, if he chooses to come back. I’m just kidding. What would we do without him? China’s influence on oil market grows with BRICS expansion. China is getting its grip on the rest of the world. Here’s the second part of this is that Six Flags are warning or pointing to China’s economic slowdown. I saw this and I was like, I got to go to Six Flags over Texas. Now it’s Six Flags and there are flags that are pointing to China’s economic slowdown that could impact a lot. The next is near and dear to my heart as it’s really kind of irritating me around the world about us taking advantage of the poor nations. Clean energy projects are booming everywhere except in poor nations. There’s a lot going on in Africa, and as soon as I can announce some confirmed speakers, I’m really looking forward to, hopefully I can get them lined up and on the schedule to hear straight from the African leaders themselves. So I’ll keep you posted on that. Next, we have the wind. Speaking of renewables. US Offshore Wind Project seeks looser subsidies as subsidy rules in fight for survival. [00:01:57][102.8]

Stuart Turley: [00:01:58] This is kind of interesting. It’s really going to be kind of tough. And there’s pros and cons. We’ll kind of go through those here in a sec. This one in an unexpected move. New Hampshire Utilities voice support for show word net metering. This one really kind of sets. I think it’s a great idea. I like solar on the home to make it more stable, but there are some things in here that really work and eye opening. So Biden has targeting gas power generators is a cruelty. Vermont power grid expert says this is our own Meredith Angwin and she hits it out of the park again. I just guess she is a true American hero. So let’s get started around the corner with that. As Michael Tanner would say, like subscribe. I’m not a YouTuber, but hit that smash. Subscribe. Tell your neighbors to hug your dog. Tell your children. Have everybody listen. Let’s get the word out. Let’s educate folks. Let’s have a lot of fun about eliminating energy poverty around the world. All right. China’s influence on oil market grows with BRICS expansion. This one is an interesting read. It’s from oil price. Simon Watkins, good guy. I was going to interview him last year, but I had COVID and made a little tough turn to do the interview. I’m trying to get him back on. But when we take a look at China, is its geopolitical building blocks or another, it has several others that Simon is bringing up, and it is just unbelievable. Between the BRICS and Rhodes, you also have the G8, the G20. It is amazing what China is trying to do. China anticipates it will be dominated by yet the SCO, which is Shanghai five, that it was set up in 1996, China, Russian and three states of the former USSR, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and to education. [00:04:12][133.4]

Stuart Turley: [00:04:13] Aside from its vast scope, the CEO believes the idea that this practice of the multipolar world, which China anticipates will be dominated by the 2030 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has since stated. The Shanghai Shanghai Cooperation Organization is working to establish a regional and just world order, as it provides us with a unique opportunity to take part in the process, forming a fundamentally new model of geopolitical integration. All right, so we have the WEF, World Economic Forum. We now have the SCO, we have BRICS, we have the U.N., we have the EU. My heads are exploding with all the people that are trying to take over the world. And quite honestly, I would think this is more like a mike Myers film. When he was the oh, the comedian in oh, I can’t even think of the movie. But I know everybody knows what the movie is. And in fact, I was just talking to somebody about the other day. Anyway, this is horrible. There is so many plays going on around the world for control of the world. And who’s going to win? Don’t know. But the six red Flags in the following subsequent article is pointing to China’s economic slowdown. The red flags are GDP exports, consumer price index, the young, the youth unemployment, the one versus USD and new loans. So when we talk about GDP, it has averaged 9% since 1978. It is now looking around the 2.2 in Q1, which was due by a COVID, but it is expanded 6.3 over the. Below the forecast is 7.3. So they are 02. 2% growth. Some are even saying it could go negative as far as growth goes. What’s going on? Well, their exports fell by 14.5 in July. And this is kind of a snowball because of all of the supply chain issues with the wind turbines, with everything else that they can’t export. [00:06:44][150.8]

Stuart Turley: [00:06:45] There’s where some of your 14% exports are falling is in the big ticket items coming down. So imports fell 12.4%, reflecting the consumer mood. So Consumers Price Index has fallen 3%. Youth unemployment, I found this was pretty the urban youth unemployment is 21.3, the highest ever recorded in the country. Then you have the one versus the USD. The dollar 16 year low against the US dollar on since on August 16th, 2023. New loans. Our new bank loans are down. Large scale government intervention does not be appear to be in the offering. Beyond extortions for consumers to spend more and blaming Western media for engaging in cognitive warfare. Nobody wants to own up to their own mistakes or anything else. So you can see that this next stories are coming up. And clean energy problems with getting those moving down the road are intertwined with China’s consumer index and exports. And then you have China’s global push through the new MCO, the BRICS, which was in 1996, but it’s now coming back around to help counter again into BRICS. It’s kind of crazy, but they’re all related. Let’s come around the next corner. US Offshore Wind Project seeks looser subsidies in the fight for their survival. This is different than the article we talked about for several weeks that projects are being canceled. This one is the components in the I.R.A. The Inflation Reduction Act are actually have several requirements in them to be either built in the United States or assembled in the United States at some percentage, and then also in disproportionately impacted communities, which I love. I think that that’s fabulous. There’s not many disproportionately impacted communities. SHORE So it just kind of goes without saying that this really is causing some folks some heartburn. [00:09:03][138.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:09:05] You have Norway’s EQUINOR, France’s Engie, Portugal’s EDP, renewables and trade groups in the U.S. are assured, telling Reuters they are pressing to rewrite the requirements and warning the loss of jobs and investments. Otherwise, it is unbelievable mess. I like some of the restrictions that are on there, but let’s go through some of them. The provisions are key to supporting President Biden’s goals to try to reinvigorate US manufacturing jobs through clean energy investments and direct 40% of those to disadvantaged areas. The credits are worth 10% of a project’s cost and can be claimed on top of the Ira’s base for a 30% credit for renewable energy projects. Bringing a total subsidy is almost 50%. That, to me, is just. Believable. And then, as I said yesterday, and I’ve said many times, the lifespan of offshore wind farms is not 30 years. It’s not ten, it’s not 20 years, maybe ten. Fiscally, they become insolvent after the subsidies run out. And there’s a lot of subsidies here in order to get the maintenance done. Eight years is what I’ve found. If you have any other different numbers, please reach out to me so you can’t. I like what Don Harty is saying. He’s the executive of Orsted’s operations in the Americas. You can’t put requirements that no one can meet. Well, there’s got to be a way for these projects to be able to be self-sufficient and market priced so that they can get into the market and tied into the grid and not cost the consumers a lot of the extra money. Offshore wind industry already has loose requirements for claiming the bonus than other sectors, with domestic content to make up just 20% of the costs compared to 40 for solar and onshore wind. So they can’t even make the 20% costs this. [00:11:27][142.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:11:27] This is why we’re seeing some very, very large wind projects being held up. Orders are going to be being continue to be pushed out and that’s going to throw China’s economy even further down. But I really don’t want to support China all that much anymore. And I say that in an unexpected move. Let’s go to New Hampshire. New Hampshire Utilities Voice Support for Solar Net Metering. This brings up a couple of different points. When you have solar metering, I did not understand this. The program credits customers roughly 75% of the standard electricity rate for any unused solar generation that flows back into the grid and is used by other customers. This is a quote from Sam Evans Brown. I’m delighted that our utility friends have come over our way to seeing things. He’s the executive director of Clean Energy New Hampshire. At a Hampshire utility’s testimony as part of the New Hampshire’s current deliberations over whether or not the state’s net metering rules could should be adjusted. Here’s where I also think it’s interesting if they credit you back to kilowatt hour. There are taxes and fees that come in that when you buy in, it’s just not a kilowatt hour. There are fees, licenses and taxes and everything, bills on that. So if you generate a kilowatt hour, that’s where some of this number is coming in. Is that the meter? You’re not going to get kilowatt for kilowatt and it’s because there’s other fees in there. And I agree it’s just not a straight up transfer. Now, Evans Brown says they’re trying to get it packaged in easy for people, so they’re not having to do it, get their crayon out and do the calculating. Here’s where Thomas Mainzer, chief operating officer of Utah, testified. [00:13:26][118.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:13:27] Solar does not make the grid more reliable or resilient or improved power quality in any way. Part of this is because the New Hampshire’s metering policy is the most balanced in New England, has been effective in encouraging the growth. But it is tough to during the sunny days when they’re trying to bring it back out. Whether or not they need it, they still have to have standby. It’s a very complex issue. I’m glad to see that they’re trying to work on it and get it better. However, their decision is disincentivizing, rooftop and community solar projects right now. So we’re going to keep an eye on it because I would like to see if solar does make sense. I’m all in. I think it’s great. I love having some solar, but it’s got to make sense and it’s got to be renewable. If it’s not renewable, we shouldn’t be doing it. As in when the solar panels lose their resilience and have to be recycled at the end of the 10 to 15 years. Biden’s targeting. Gas powered generator is a cruelty, Vermont power grid expert says. Meredith, I love you. I think you’re absolutely a jewel. This is fabulous. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission puts out a document warning the public that these new rules will be under consideration. It says the federal government is seeking to implement prohibitive carbon dioxide emissions limits on gasoline powered generators. Early analysis shows that new regulations would make. Almost all existing models noncompliant. Can you imagine everybody throwing away their generators? Oh, yeah. Let’s have a blackout and an emergency. Excuse me while I go throw this generator out and try to survive. Keep my family and run the lights and protect my family. But it’s not meeting the CO2 emissions retroactively. [00:15:32][125.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:15:33] Not sure how that’s going to work. Portable Generators Manufacturers Association is committed to the CPSC. The modifications to make their machines compliant will make machines much hotter and create a higher risk for fires. That’s all we need right now. So Meredith Angwin, a wilder Vermont resident and published author on the Grid Reliability. Shorting the Grid is her book. I love the book quoted all the time. And she says the extra strain on the grid from electrifying everything or however far we get with that process and that extra strain on the grid with having more intermittent power plants on the grid, however far we get with that process. Both of those processes will make the grid more fragile, says Meredith. She says So people want generators so that anything blocks people from getting generators is kind of cruelty, in my opinion. People want to protect themselves the easiest way possible and I quite get quite upset in the idea We’re going to try and make it all harder for people to protect themselves. I couldn’t agree more. If you’re out in in the suburbs and my dad is 90, he is had a blackout in Abilene, Texas. We have a generator there. And I’m telling you, if he didn’t have a generator, it would be tough on rolling blackouts and things. So, you know, fortunately, ERCOT has done a good job. But we also have a place where power was intermittent. You got to have a generator, so be prepared. Always have a 72 hour bag in case of a tornado, in case of a power outage. You need to be able to protect your family and take care of your loved ones. [00:17:24][111.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:17:25] So with that, please, if you’re an industry thought leader and you want to give me a call, reach out. I’d love to talk to you on the podcast. Thank you for everyone. If you have any questions, send us a question. [email protected] and we will get right back with you. And if you need anything at all, give us a shout. Have a great day. I appreciate you. [00:17:25][0.0][1022.3]

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