The Political, Energy, And Market Page, T+168 -- July 7, 2017

Poorly thought out: Volvo, all EVs and hybrids by 2019; Elon Musk batteries to "save" Australia; France to ban gasoline engines by 2040. My two-cents worth: none of this appears to have really been thought out. The only way one gets from "a" to "b" appear to accomplish all this:

• lots of other people's money
• more coal plants (but not "in my backyard")

Now, today, how coincident: Reuters suggests the same thing -- it appears the world is getting ahead of its headlights and not really thinking things through. From Reuters: EU countries lack investment strategy in shift to low-carbon economy.

Most European Union countries lack a clear strategy for redirecting public and private funds towards more sustainable investments as they shift to a low-carbon economy, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said Thursday.

"Only a few European countries have turned their climate and energy objectives into concrete investment needs and plans to date," it said as it released a new study.

It noted that only Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, and to some extent, Germany have a national strategy in place to track spending related to climate mitigation and adaption.

The EU estimates it should have investments of around 177 billion euros ($200 billion) per year from 2021-2030 to meet climate and energy targets, which will require a doubling of current investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Saudi IPO: apparently Saudi Arabia did not get the memo. The world is on the road to banning oil by 2019, starting with Volvo's announcement, and then the French fantasy. Whatever. Saudi Arabia plans to press on with its IPO:

Saudi Aramco, which is in the midst of auditing its oil reserves ahead of a planned stock market listing next year, said its crude oil and condensate reserves held steady last year despite record production.

The company's daily crude production hit a new high of 10.5 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2016, according to its annual review released on Thursday, up from 10.2 million bpd in 2015.

So much for that production cut (wink, wink), huh? Oh, my bad, that was before the "cut" (wink, wink) was to be put in place. On another note, is it just me or does anyone else note that Saudi reserves never decrease despite the fact that the kingdom has been producing oil for more than 60 years; and, Saudi's reserve estimates seem to be completely independent of the price of oil.