The Road To New England -- A Forbes Udpate -- June 14, 2016; Uff-Da

Forbes has a long article / interview comparing two different models "to keep the lights on" in New England and in Texas. Both models have significant problems.

The article is too long and too complicated to provide bits and pieces so I will simply link it. If the link is broken, the article has been archived.

But two things jump out at me:

• this problem creates an opportunity for engineering students with an energy background (and possibly an MBA)  looking for their first job
• this problem might lend itself nice to Federal "energy" insurance much like Federal hurricane or commercial earthquake insurance

It is a bit of irony, I suppose, that in a country with access to incredibly inexpensive fossil fuel, we have this problem at all.

***************************

Market Update And All That Jazz

Posted around 2:55 p.m. Central Time. 

So, what did the market do today? What's in the news?

The NYSE:

• new 52-week highs: 52 including Duke Energy, NextEra Energy
• new 52-week lows: 45

US retail sales rose "strongly" in May, increasing 0.5% after surging 1.3% in April. Economists had forecast a more modest 0.3% increase, so this is good news, I guess. The market was held back, apparently, due to concerns about Brexit.

How's the 2Q16 GDP forecast looking?

The GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the second quarter of 2016 is 2.8 percent on June 14, up from 2.5 percent on June 9. After this morning's retail sales release from the U.S. Census Bureau, the forecast for second-quarter real personal consumption expenditures growth increased from 3.5 percent to 3.9 percent.

The Washington Post headline: cable and telecom companies just lost a huge court battle on net neutrality. A federal appeals court sided with President Obama and Google, I guess, requiring intern providers such as Verizon and Comcast to obey federal reglations that ban blocking or slowing of internet traffic to consumers.

• Verizon: up slightly; up 0.7%; pays 4.3%; priced at 12x earnings
• ATT: up slightly; up 0.33%; pays 4.8%; priced at 17x earnings
• Comcast: up slightly; up 0.4%; pays 1.75%; priced at 19x earnings

Halcon?

• on May 23, 2016: 22 cent/share
• yesterday: 51 cents/share; today down to about 48 cents

*************************

 Minor Note: Par Pacific Holdings To Acquire Refinery, Gathering System

An eagle-eyed reader caught this one: Par Pacific Holdings to acquire Wyoming refining and related logistics assets: will establish downstream presence in the Rocky Mountains. Data points from the press release:

• 18,000 barrels per day refinery
• Strategic logistics asset base with 140 mile crude gathering system, 40 miles of refined product pipelines, and 650 MBbls of tankage
• Refinery was expanded from 14,000 to 18,000 barrels per day at the end of 2015

The gathering system caught my eye.

Price: $275 million (rounded).

Laying new pipeline runs about $1 million / mile (personal rule of thumb).

And then the Bakken connection:

In addition to the refining assets, the transaction includes the 140-mile Thunder Creek crude oil gathering system in northeast Wyoming that sources crude oil from the Powder River Basin. 

The Thunder Creek gathering system is also connected to the Butte pipeline, which allows Wyoming Refining to directly access Bakken crude from North Dakota. 

The transaction also includes a 40-mile clean products pipeline system that serves the Rapid City markets through the Magellan Products pipeline, two truck racks, a proprietary jet fuel terminal in Rapid City and a jet fuel pipeline that connects Wyoming Refining's proprietary aviation fuel terminal to Ellsworth Air Force Base.   

Any update on the Dakota Access Pipeline in Iowa? Yup. Work has begun in Iowa on the pipeline. The project faces at least five lawsuits. An opposition group self-identified as "Bold Iowa" says 60 CAVE dwellers have signed a pledge to risk arrest if necessary in nonviolent protests. They did not use the term "CAVE dwellers" in their communique. They simply said "members."

Most recent on Katie Ledecky, from June 6, 2016, the "Arena Pro Swim Series": Katie Ledecky in first place with 55 points; #2, Maya DiRado with 42 points; #3, Melanie Margalis, 38 points; #4, Leah Smith, 36 points; and #5, Missy Franklin, 31 points At the linked site, it appears that Ms Ledecky is turning down tens of thousands of dollars to remain eligible to swim at Stanford this autumn. The male and female winner of the series will receive a BMW lease and a $10,000 series bonus. As noted, Katie will turn those down even if she happens to win the series.

Uff-da. (see wiki)