Week Recap: Germany’s Decline, Ukraine’s Mineral Deal, and Trump’s Energy Plan

ENB Pub Note: What is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Why is the EU doubling and tripling down on stupid energy policies they don’t […]

Trump’s Plan To End The Green Spending Grift Once And For All

March 4, 2025 Mariel Alumit

Market realities will stymie Trump’s talking points. The United States and Ukraine reportedly came close in recent days to signing a landmark minerals agreement that the Kyiv Independent reports would have obligated Ukraine to pay […]

DAVID BLACKMON: Trump Zeroes In On American Energy In Congressional Speech

March 5, 2025 Mariel Alumit

Highlights of the Podcast

00:00 – Intro

01:11 – Can Germany Revive Its Industry Without Cheap Energy?
03:37 – Can Trump Force Ukraine to Accept a Peace Deal?

06:38 – DAVID BLACKMON: Trump Could Upend Every Facet Of The Obama-Biden Climate Agenda In One Fell Swoop

08:24 – EU Unveils Ambitious Plan to Slash Energy Bills by €2.5 Trillion

10:35 – Trump’s Plan To End The Green Spending Grift Once And For All

12:52 –  Ukraine’s Minerals Won’t Solve U.S. Supply Chain Problems

15:55 – DAVID BLACKMON: Trump Zeroes In On American Energy In Congressional Speech

17:52 –   U.S. Crude Stockpiles Climb as Oil Prices Tumble Below $70

19:28 – Outro

 

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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.

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Stuart Turley [00:00:09] Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Energy Newsbeat podcast. My name’s Stu Turley, president and CEO of the Sandstone Group. It is crazy out there and I’ve been having an absolute blast. Michael’s been out with a family office and he is really out there talking to investors and people that are wanting to know how to invest into oil and gas. Want to give a shout out to Steve Reese for their being a sponsor of the Energy Newsbeat daily standup. They are fantastic sponsors. they are also very important if you want to understand the cradle to grave solution from anything from having bitcoin miners you want to have a power plant data center and you want to know how to power it reeseenergyconsulting .com is the place you want to go to they know how to do it they can take natural gas molecules all the way from the united states to germany and guarantee So anyway, have a great day and sit back and enjoy the week’s summary that the staff puts together. Have a great day.

Stuart Turley [00:01:11] Can Germany revive its industry without cheap industry? So Germany used to be the poster child for what used to be green. They’ve had two years of negative growth. Their GDP has fallen again in 2024. Another 0 .2 % for the second annual contraction in a row. Take a look at Russia. Russia, even with its sanctions and a war going on, they had a 4 % increase in GDP. That tells you the whole difference is they’re using oil and gas, natural gas, nuclear, coal. They’re using all the above. Take a look at Texas. Texas is using all the above. It’s using wind, solar, but it’s also using natural gas. It’s half the cost of New York or California. So is it something that we’re making up? No, facts matter. Cyclical and structural pressures stood in the way of better economic developments in 2024. Ruth Brand, president of the federal statistic office. These include increasing compensation for the German export industry, key sales markets, high energy costs, interest rates that remain high and uncertain economic outlook against this backdrop, the German economy contracted again in 2024, and they had no wind for four months or low wind for four months with high electricity prices for consumers and their industry. If they don’t get low cost Russian neutral natural gas back, I don’t know that they’re going to be able to recover without slashing jobs. And once you start slashing jobs to the level they’re talking, it is difficult to ever regain that back. They are at a pivotal point. And as I’ve talked to Doug Sandridge many times, they cut their nuclear plants down. That’s cheap power. In fact, Doug, he had an outstanding article on it would be the least costly way forward for them is to fire up their nukes again, in order to get a low cost energy to their manufacturers, but you’ve got to have natural gas for some of the kinds of manufacturers just because of the way it works out.

Stuart Turley [00:03:38] Can Trump force Ukraine to accept a peace deal? I just want to say that this stunt that went on in the White House was absolutely sad for the Ukrainian people. The Ukrainian Congress actually approved the minerals deal for President Zelensky to sign all President Zelensky had to do was show up and he had 10 senators tell him to smile, say thank you to President Trump and sign the minerals deal and other guarantees would be done in the process. Well, it turns out there’s a, I don’t know this to be a fact, but there is enough evidence to show that he has tried to sell those mineral options an interest to the EU and the UK. So maybe that’s why he threw a fit in the White House because he’s already sold them to other people. It’s a little bit weird and he’s not doing the Ukrainian people any favors. So hats off to President Trump and Vice President Vance. And I’ll tell you what, I saw Mark Arubio, our secretary of state and hats off to him. He handled it very, he was very shocked and watching the Ukrainians, uh, ambassador to the United States with her head in her hand, she knew how bad president Zelensky was acting. He was acting like a spoiled child. So in this article, general Flynn, Zelensky, this is a quote from general Flynn and I love general Flynn, by the way, Zelensky should immediately escorted out of the white house and immediately exported back to Ukraine. What a despicable piece of a do this person is. How dare he speak to the president of the United States and have the people after all we and the people have done. And then you have a Nick Freitas. I absolutely love Nick. Nick is just a cool cat and he puts on necks. I didn’t realize the oval office had a woodshed. And then from a President Trump account, Donald Trumpo, we did send the little guy tossing. It was actually funny. And then you have SD Palty. Zelensky just got free proctology exam, will technically cost $350 billion. She is a class act, but a little humor and with a very sad day for the Ukrainian people because President Trump is not a man to be reckoned He is I would not want to play chess against him and I he deserves the respect He was I watched the whole thing and quite honestly president Zelensky if you watch this podcast I doubt you do but old Brett bear tried to throw you a Lifeline and you couldn’t even handle three lifelines from Brett bear. That was just pathetic.

Stuart Turley [00:06:38] David Blackman Trump could upend every faucet of the Obama -Biden climate agenda in one fell swoop This is an amazing story from David Blackmon. The Washington Post reported Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has privately urged the White House to strike down a scientific ruling under my underpinning much of the federal government’s push to combat climate change, according to three people briefed in the matter who spoke on the condition and with anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly comment. Oh my goodness. The legality and continuing of the applicability of the Administrator’s finding endangered men and cause for contribute for findings for greenhouse gasses under Section 202A of the Clean Air Act Final Rule. The Obama’s EPA finding was established in the 2007 5 -4 ruling by the Supreme Court in Massachusetts versus the EPA allowing the agency to regulate greenhouse gasses as pollutants in the context of the Clean Air Act. Given that the so -called greenhouse gasses or water vapor, methane and carbon dioxide are all naturally occurring elements, a ruling of classifying them as pollutants as a term intended by authors of the Clean Air Act in 1963 was absurd on its face, but that didn’t stop the five justices from imposing their political will. We are seeing a resurgence around the world, and the United States is taking the lead on the return to some kind of normalcy and sanity. This was an outstanding article from David Blackman,.

Stuart Turley [00:08:25] EU unveils ambitious plan to slash energy bills by $2 .5 trillion pounds, excuse me, or euros. When you sit back and take a look, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over. And if you take a look at what the insanity is in the European commission, and that is bad energy policies, shoveling money after green energy. The European commission has introduced an action plan to save 2 .5 trillion euros in energy bills over the next 15 years, addressing the rising energy poverty affecting 47 million people in the EU. This is critical. The plan focuses on bringing short -term relief to consumers. How are they going to do that? They’re going to, despite significant growth in the renewable energy, major hurdles such as grid volatility and regulatory delays need to be addressed to ensure successful energy transition. I don’t know if anybody needs to tell them that the energy transition will not happen without lots of nuclear and it just isn’t going to happen. Three years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the European Union is still dealing with the economic fallout resulting of an energy crisis. It has continued to reverberate through the European markets, blistering high energy prices are drastically impacting consumers throughout the block. It’s estimated that approximately 47 million people in the EU countries are living in energy poverty, a 57 % increase since 2019. This is really, really sad. The action plan outlined steps to bring short -term relief, but yet we’re driving down energy prices, but it’s not giving us any specifics. It’s saying we’re going to have an action plan. The action plan is not here. So you can’t buy stupid, but you can move to where stupid controls it. Anyway, this is for Haley Zimbura for OilPrice .com. It was an outstanding article.

Stuart Turley [00:10:35] Trump’s planned to end the green spending grift once and for all. This is what he promised on the trail. President Trump campaigned on ending what he calls the green new scam. Toward that end, he issued an executive order on his first day in office titled Unleashing American Energy that reads in part, all agencies shall immediately pause disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of IRA of 2022. While pausing the disbursement for the Green New Deal is a great start, it’s only a pause. The fastest way to clean the energy New Deal spending is for the Republican -controlled Congress to repeal it in upcoming budget reconciliation legislation. If that does not happen, It is only going to be a temporary pause to the tune of about 11 trillion dollars, which will bankrupt the country. About 80 % of manufacturing investments spurred by the Biden era climate law have flowed to Republican districts. Effort to stop federal payments are already causing pain. This is going to be a severe issue for the Republican Congress Cause they’ve got now voting blocks that are in this. So Trump may have to end the green new deal spending on his own in a way that will pass judicial muster at the Supreme court. They go ahead and go into the, the, here’s the path forward. The scientific basis for the green new deal spending is a 2009 Obama environmental protection agency rule called the endangerment finding, which endangered greenhouse gas emissions harm public health and welfare, the endangerment finding is not etched in stone and could be repealed by a Trump EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, who I think is just a cool cat. And you’re welcome on the podcast anytime, Lee. Conveniently, the same executive order calling for the Green New Deal to be terminated, contains a provision to the EPA to commence a process for reviewing the endangerment finding in a partnership with the White House Office of Management and Budget. So this is from the Washington Examiner and it’s an excellent article.

Stuart Turley [00:12:53] Ukraine’s minerals won’t solve U .S. supply chain problems. We’ve all seen this debacle going on and with President Zelensky in the Oval Office and hats off to President Trump and Vice President Vance. I absolutely love their response and throwing him out of the office. He subsequently has apologized today on the 4th on X. I don’t believe it for a nanosecond. I believe that he is very self -motivated and self -interested. And I think the only way that we will have peace in Ukraine is if we see an election and Zelensky is voted out. I believe that that is the only way that it’s going to happen and that you’re going to see then the Wilenskis replacement and President Trump and President Putin negotiate a peace plan that will work together with all. But in this article, the United States and Ukraine reportedly came close in recent days to signing a landmark mineral agreement that the given upon it reported obligated Ukraine to pay 50 % of the proceeds from future monetization to relevant Ukrainian government owned natural resources, including mineral oil and gas to a fund that two countries would own. That is very, very good and very, very critical. But at the minerals, this article points out, and also there’s also a rumor that a mineral deal was also signed with Ukraine. I mean, with the UK and Ukraine. So how valid does he, how much does he have that he can enter into deal with the United States. You almost have to pick or choose which one do you want to go with. Is it going to be the UK and Starmer, or is it going to be the United States? I got to see some numbers here. The new approach trading Ukraine’s potential resource wealth in return for vague assurances from the US support has been characterized by some, including former Ukrainian officials spoke with the Associated Press as a colonial agreement. I disagree with that. Both Zelensky and Trump have publicly lauded what Trump describes as very valuable rare earth minerals at a group of 15 to 17 trace rare earth minerals and applications such as magnet and others. But there is a real question of whether or not these minerals are in areas of the country that are viable, that needs to be seen. There is a report that’s out there. I have not gone through the geological report yet. I’m trying to get my hands on it to go through it to see how viable the whole thing is. But if President Zelensky has already signed a deal with the UK, I want to know how valid or how much interest or monetary value is going to be able to be given to the United States for all the money that we’ve put into the warm. And this article from David Blackman was in the Daily Caller, an outstanding article. Upon taking office, I imposed immediate freeze on all federal hiring, a freeze on the new federal regulations Trump set early on, and I terminated the religious new green scam. I withdraw from the unfair Paris Climate Accord, which is costing us trillions of dollars and other countries were not paying. We ended all of Biden’s environmental restrictions. They were making our country far less safe and totally unaffordable. And importantly, we ended the last administration’s insane electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto workers and companies from economic destruction. I think people need to also realize that he’s encouraging building machines here. So he’s actually encouraging Musk to build electronic cars. So you’d actually make a choice. Do you want an electric car? Buy a Tesla. I’m all in. And so I think that it is absolutely doing a wonderful on that. It was kind of funny. He also said last night to the I have a message for a wonderful people of Greenland. We strongly support your right to determine your own future. And if you choose, we welcome you into the United States. That’s right about the time when he said, oh, by the way, we’re now taking control of the Panama Canal. And sure enough, it looks like Blackrock and a few others bought those ports on each end of the Panama Canal that China had gotten control of. And I think President Trump is delivering on his word that should have never been given away for a dollar and it should be a win -win for Panama people as well as the American people. But we’ll see how that rolls out.

Stuart Turley [00:17:44] But this story, U .S. crude stockpiles climb as oil prices tumble below 70 bucks. This is off of oil price by Julian Geiger over at Oil Price. Crude oil inventories in the United States saw an increase of 36 .3 .6 million barrels during the week ending February 28 from the United States Information Administration, the EIA. crude oil prices were down considerably and for middle distillates the EIA estimates inventory decrease of 1 .3 million barrel for the last week production averaging 5 .2 million barrels daily. This compares to the inventory increase of 3 .9 million barrels for the week prior. Total product supplied over the last four weeks decreased to an average of 20 .2 million barrels per day, excuse me, a 3 .4 increase over this time last year. So I think that we are going to be seeing some really, I wouldn’t want to bet on things right now because we don’t know how the markets are going to play out because as president Trump weeds through the tariff, or right sizing, I’m calling them tariff right sizing because the rest of the world has been tariffing the United States and we’re just now starting to tariff them. This is called right sizing and I really respect President Trump for what he said. Bear with me, it could be a little bumpy. I’ll deal with a little bit of bump to get some right sizing and with everything that he’s got going on, I’ll tell you what, I couldn’t be happier. This is exactly what I voted for.