Afternoon Musings And News; The Watchdog On The Road To New England; "Marginal Profits" -- Whatever That Means, From Tesla

At the time I am writing this, the market had just closed. It was a great day with the Dow up 118 points and oil up 1.25%. Several companies reported their earnings for the day; we are still waiting for CLR and QEP to report.

Meanwhile, while waiting:

A reader sent this story from Connecticut. He noticed that with the legislative changes regarding recycling and burning trash to generate electricity, it is likely that the state has taken more electricity off the grid.

For me linked that story just keeps on giving. I particularly enjoyed this paragraph:

One of the most controversial sections dissolves the Connecticut Energy Advisory Board, a panel created in the 1970s that reviews energy issues and develops plans to ensure citizens and businesses have access to a safe, diverse and reliable energy supply."I believe they deserve better than to be eliminated in an amendment without any advance notice," said Rep. Mary Mushinsky, D-Wallingford.

"They were the watchdogs that worked in concert with the state to press us for energy efficiency and to question the energy plan for the state.'

Based on what I'm hearing coming out of Connecticut, it doesn't sound like this Board did much to help the residents. They were the watchdogs on the road to New England.

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SandRidge Energy, Inc. beats by $0.05, beats on revenue

• SandRidge Energy, Inc. (SD): Q1 EPS of $0.07 beats by $0.05.
• Revenue of $443.05M (-13.4% Y/Y) beats by $36.62M.
• Shares +1.8%.
• Press Release

Remember, this was a terrible, terrible winter which is being used to blame all the bad earnings reports. But a lot of energy companies did very well this quarter. Or at least better than expected.

Richard Zeits on SandRidge this quarter. 1Q14 a slight bump in the road due to weather; 2Q14 will be better.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on what you read here or what you think you may have read here. 
 
Reporting Wednesday. Note to readers: I drove straight through from Williston, ND, to Grapevine, TX, 1,408 miles, leaving at 4:00 a.m. Monday morning, arriving home at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday night. On Monday I stopped for breakfast, lunch, and had it been England, afternoon tea, with friends in Bowman on the way home. I took power naps along the way. No problems. It was a great trip. So, today I am relaxing. I will blog slowly, and won't get to e-mails, comments, news, etc., until later. It will be a slog to catch up on everything. But I am buoyed by the earnings being reported by companies I follow. It should be noted that of the companies I list below, I have invested in almost none of them -- in fact, I think I have invested in only three; it's possible I sold one of them but don't remember. So, just because I list a company, it doesn't mean I have "skin in the game," as they say. I follow them because they help me put the Bakken in perspective:

• Calumet Specialty CLMT (9 cents): actual -- 50 cents.
• CenturyLink CTL (61 cents): after market closes
• Chesapeake CHK (48 cents): 54 cents; stock surges;
• Devon Energy DVN ($1.26): beats by 7 cents; revenue jumps
• Duke Energy DUK ($1.12): swings to loss, but beats by 5 cents; wrote down value of coal-powered plants;
• Enbridge ENB.TO (57 cents): beats by 3 cents;
• WPX (2 cents): actual, 9 cents or 21 cents, depending; huge beat from what I can tell; 
• HK (2 cents); 3 cents (but there's another number suggesting a loss of 19 cents/share available to shareholders);
• CLR ($1.54): misses, but not bad; $1.47
• QEP (25 cents): misses by 3 cents; comes in at 22 cents;
• Sanchez Energy SN (24 cents): after market closes
• SandRidge SD (3 cents): beats by 2 cents; stock up about 2%
• Tesla TSLA (1 cent): beats expectations but stock plummets;

Wow, Tesla, talk about burning through cash, from the linked article at MarketWatch:

Revenue for the latest quarter was $620.5 million, up 10% from a year earlier but less than 1% from the fourth quarter of 2013.

The company forecast a marginal profit for the second quarter excluding certain costs.

Research and development costs rose to $81.5 million in the latest quarter from $54.9 million a year ago. The company said it expects R&D expenses for the second quarter to grow by 30% from the first quarter.

In a letter to shareholders, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said the company plans to start work developing two sites for a proposed large-scale battery factory, or “gigafactory.”

Mr. Musk said discussions with battery supplier Panasonic and other potential production and supply partners “continue to go well and we are pleased with the high interest level in the project.” But the company didn’t disclose commitments for funding.

 From Tesla's press release: The company forecast a marginal profit for the second quarter excluding certain costs. That would be like XOM saying if we do not count drilling new wells and work over costs associated with old wells, we would expect a marginal profit.

Tesla might do fine, but I keep seeing A123 flash before my eyes.

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Wow, talk about burning through cash. The US Air Force spent $150/gallon of "green" aviation fuel. One can only assume the general officer who approved this boondoggle will a) be promoted; and, b) be given the Medal of Honor Medal by President Obama. I can only say I am glad I am no longer part of this one-esteemed military branch. FreeBeacon is reporting:

The Department of Defense (DOD) paid $150 per gallon for alternative jet fuel made from algae, more than 64 times the current market price for standard carbon-based fuels, according to a report released on Wednesday. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted in its report that a Pentagon official reported paying “about $150 per gallon for 1,500 gallons of alternative jet fuel derived from algal oil.”

Before this is all over, maybe Tesla will run on algae-generated electricity stored in Musk batteries.