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April 13, 2020
It Would Be Wise for Government to Not Meddle in the Oil Market
The crude oil sector now is confronted by a sharp decline in demand conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and an increase in production attendant upon the price feud between Russia and Saudi Arabia. Whether the deal brokered over the weekend by the Trump administration among Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. will raise…
April 8, 2020
Prepared Statement of Dr. Benjamin Zycher and Dr. Patrick J. Michaels on S. 2754, “American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2019”
The Committee on Environment and Public Works of the U.S. Senate is considering the proposed bill S. 2754, the “American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2019,” (hereafter “AIM”) which would mandate a phaseout of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants, ostensibly to reduce the climate change (“radiative”) impacts of HFC leakage into the atmosphere. This would engender in…
April 6, 2020
Comment Letter to the Railroad Commission of Texas
To the Railroad Commission of Texas: Re: Motion for Commission Called Hearing on the Verified Complaint of Pioneer Natural Resources U.S.A. Inc. and Parsley Energy Inc. to Determine Reasonable Market Demand for Oil in the State of Texas Dear Commissioners: My name is Benjamin Zycher; I am the senior economic and policy staff member for…
March 30, 2020
Oil-market Central Planning: Not Just for Socialists Anymore
Hard times indeed are hard, and that adjective is wholly inadequate to describe the double whammy now afflicting U.S. crude-oil producers: declining demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the large increase in overseas production attendant upon the flood-the-market tug-of-war between the Russians and the Saudis. As a result, the domestic price of crude oil (West…
March 23, 2020
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the Fallacies of “Embargo” Thinking: Does the Private Sector Stockpile Too Little Oil?
President Donald Trump announced a few days ago that the US Department of Energy (DoE) will purchase “large quantities of crude oil” to be stored in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), created under authority of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, enacted in the wake of the 1973–74 oil “embargo” imposed by the Arab members of the…
February 19, 2020
The FERC Minimum Price Order and Federalism
In the Beltway, no inefficient policy deed goes unrewarded. That is an eternal truth illustrated well by the expansion of federal powers—at the expense of state and local authority—attendant upon efforts to ameliorate the adverse effects of prior policies to favor one set of energy technologies over others. The latest example of this dynamic is a recent order from…
January 29, 2020
Reform of the National Environmental Policy Act
The Trump administration proposed earlier this month a reform of the implementing regulations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a law enacted 50 years ago. The implementing regulations last were updated in 1978, a fact that might have induced many supporters (“environmentalists”) of the “bedrock environmental law” to consider, however briefly, whether such a modernization might…
January 21, 2020
Camels and Livestock and Methane, Oh My
As night follows day, my recent post on the near-zero climate effect of the methane emitted by feral camels in Australia elicited a torrent of criticism from all the usual suspects, in full stampede to be the first and most vociferous in terms of condemnations of yours truly. A denier. A tool of the fossil-fuel industry. A…
December 20, 2019
ExxonMobil and the Politicization of Law Enforcement in New York
The New York Supreme Court announced its landmark decision earlier this month in the first climate change-related securities lawsuit—“People of the State of New York v. Exxon Mobil Corporation”—to be tried to a verdict in the U.S. On December 10, Justice Barry Ostrager ruled that the New York Attorney General had failed, even under a…
December 3, 2019
Another Round of Energy Pork
Christmas is upon us, and the elves are busy in the North Pole suburb of Capitol Hill. The House has produced a draft piece of “green energy” legislation that would yield massive costs, massive economic distortions and massive environmental damage. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-California, justifies his “Growing Renewable Energy and Efficiency Now (GREEN) Act,” as…