Another Green Energy Car Company Folds; Frac Daddy In the Kentucky Derby (40-1); Another Winter Storm (May, 2013); Keystone Kops In Boston, DC

The Oil & Gas Journal is reporting that this is the reason for falling crude prices: rising unemployment in Europe.

Oil prices fell Apr. 30 with crude dropping 1.1% in the New York futures market after the Euro-zone reported record high unemployment of 12.1%. There also was continued concern of possible US intervention in Syria.

Another green energy car company folds: Coda. Reuters is reporting: 

U.S. green car startup Coda Holdings Inc filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday after selling just 100 of its all-electric sedans, another example of battery-powered vehicles' failure to break into the mass market.

The filing with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware will allow the Los Angeles company to exit the auto sector and refocus on energy storage, a far less capital-intensive business.

The company uses the same technology it used in cars to build systems for utilities and building operators to store power. A group of lenders led by Fortress Investment Group LLC plan to extend debtor-in-possession financing and will seek to acquire the company for $25 million through the bankruptcy process, Coda said in a statement.

Coda launched its five-passenger electric car in California a year ago, delivering a range of 125 miles (201 km) on a single charge. The $37,250 vehicle was criticized for its no-frills styling, and its short history also included a recall due to faulty airbags.

Must have been the no-frills airbags. They come inflated from the factory.  

Enbridge will build east Texas cryo plant. The Oil & Gas Journal is reporting: 

Enbridge Energy Partners LP, Houston, will build a 150-MMcfd cryogenic natural gas processing plant near Beckville in Panola County, Tex., the company has announced, estimating the cost of the project at $140 million.

Construction will begin in late 2013 with start-up by early 2015.

For newbies: the ONEOK ones in North Dakota are 100-MMcfd processing plants.

Looks like XOM's Kearl field not ready for prime time. Platts is reporting:

ExxonMobil has gotten its Kearl Canadian oil sands production off the ground, but you can’t say that yet about the other key component of such a project: the price.

Canadian crude, still pretty much a bottleneck despite all the projects in the pipeline, remains heavily discounted to US benchmark West Texas Intermediate. (That fact was driven home today in the Energy Information Administration’s weekly report, which reported record crude oil stocks of about 395.3 million barrels.)

ExxonMobil affiliate Imperial Oil spotlighted its struggles with Canadian prices during its recent earnings call. Its average Q1 bitumen realization was down 34% year-on-year at C$43.63/b. (The exchange rate with the US dollar has been mostly flat.)

However, the second phase of the project will necessitate the sale of some product to third parties. “We’ve got till 2015, ...."

Snowy spring breaks records across the US. Yahoo News is reporting:

The unusually frigid spring is the latest in a string of cold winters to hit Alaska during the 2000s. The Alaska Climate Research Center attributes the shift to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. This 20-year climate oscillation is in what is called a negative phase, meaning it is directing Arctic storms across Alaska.

Alaska isn't the only state with a record snowy spring this year. Wichita, Kan., had its seventh-coldest April on record, with record lows on April 23 and 24, according to the NWS.

And a storm moving through the Rockies this week is expected to drop up to a foot (30 cm) of snow in Denver, Cheyenne, Wyo., and the Great Plains, the NWS has forecast. Denver is already buried under 11 inches (28 cm) more snow than average for April.

No mention of global warming. Yahoo!News is reporting May Day storm also hit Colorado, Wyoming. :

South Dakota's largest city, Sioux Falls, got its first May snowfall in 37 years. A winter storm warning was also in effect for parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The storm is welcome in Colorado and Wyoming because it boosts the snowpack that provides the region's water supply. Both states are in a drought but have benefited from several rounds of spring snow. However, the recent storms have largely missed southwestern Colorado, which remains dry and at risk for wildfires.

About 5 inches were forecast for Denver, where the snow was making the roads a sloppy mess. The snow wasn't sticking much to the pavement, still warm after recent temperatures in the 70s, but it clung to grassy areas and flowers.

Frac Daddy, from Billings, MT, is in the Kentucky Derby, May 4, 2013. Sent in by a reader; thank you. Next to the USGS 2013 assessment, this may be the biggest story of the week. Disclaimer: this is not a gambling site. Do not make any bets on what you read here or what you think you have read here.

More and more it looks like the Keystone Kops, from President Obama's Homeland Security and Immigration folks, down to the Boston Police Chief and his folks, looking for the bombers. Had this been an oil company, all hell would have broken loose, but as long as it's President Obama and his minions, the mainstream media will avoid asking the hard questions. The individual was less than 400 yards from where he abandoned the getaway car, and he was found AFTER the police chief gave the "all clear sort of" call.

Speaking of Keystone Kops, it didn't take long for Washington to pass a bill and the president to sign the bill ending FAA (air traffic controller) furloughs. Wow, that plan backfired -- the plan to make the sequester as painful as possible. I don't know who won: FAA or the public. I know who lost.

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With regard to the FAA furloughs. Some random, not-ready-for-prime-time thoughts:

This is a very interesting story. I don't think folks have thought about it much, except to say the whole FAA furlough thing was ridiculous. But it was much more than that.

This is a huge loss of President Obama.

He bluffed on the sequester; the GOP called him on it, and we end up with the President's sequester.

The president, we are told, told his staff to make the sequester as painful as possible, and air travel was probably the quickest, most visible way to do it, and THEY LOST. And they lost big. Not only did the president have to ban FAA furloughs, he did so most publicly because his own party had had enough. This was not the GOP that forced his hand. Harry Reid pushed this bill through so fast his staffers are probably still trying to find the original document for Harry to sign.

Who won? The FAA certainly won. And they won big. They asked for increased funding this past year and they got it, and when faced with a measly 2% cut, they held firm, and President Obama blinked.

Never again will the FAA have to worry about funding. They learned a lot since the Reagan presidency.

So, now, two big losses: a) the gun bill; b) the sequester. Sure, the sequester remains in effect, but wherever it "hurts" the 47% the most, the President will back down.

I think the FAA story is a huge story and the reason it moved so quickly was because the president's party did not want this story to get any traction. The story will be off the front page in less than a week.

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Some folks are already asking whether President Obama is a lame duck. (A reminder: he took the oath of office on/about January 20, 2013, for his second term; it is now May 1, 2013 less than five months into a 48-month presidency. It's going to be a long slog.)

In fact, President Obama may be worse than the "standard" lame duck. I think even when Bill Clinton was a lame duck (and to some extent George Bush) he was still liked by his party. In Bill Clinton's case, he was actively sought out to campaign for others.

Not only will Obama be a lame duck, he will be worse. Folks in his party running for office will run from him.

Obama may be seen more as a rabid skunk than a lame duck.