A US federal court today denied a request to block the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from issuing waivers that have slashed federal fuel blending requirements.
The Advanced Biofuels Association (ABFA) "has not satisfied the stringent requirements for an injunction pending court review," a three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals said.
EPA and the ABFA did not immediately comment on the decision.
ABFA requested the injunction in late April, citing still-redacted documents from a separate lawsuit challenging EPA's rapid increase in waivers of renewable fuel blending standards under former administrator Scott Pruitt. That lawsuit continues.
The association argued that EPA arbitrarily increased waivers to issue as many as possible. EPA has responded that the decisions were not a rulemaking that could be challenged in federal court and said it has followed the law to administer the program.
Friday, May 17, 2019
US Court Sides With Trump's EPA On Fuel Blending Requirements -- May 17, 2019
From ArgusMedia:
Biggest Non-Energy Story This Week For North Dakota? -- May 17, 2019
Link here to press release.
Full access.
Re-posting from March 31, 2019:
Later, 5:28 p.m. CT: unless they move the cut line to +5, Tiger Woods will miss the cut.
It looks like the PGA is doing what it can to keep Woods from missing the cut.
Throughout almost the entire day the cut was +3, the top 70 golfers (plus ties).
Woods went to +4 with a bogey at the fourteenth hole.
The PGA / Bethpage Black moved the cut to +4 which is now up to almost 90 players (87 to be exact). Seventeen are tied at 70 (+4). For newbies, the number that make the cut in most PGA tournaments is 70, not 90. But for Tiger it looks like they will stretch it a bit.
Twenty-two are tied at 87 (+5).
With four holes left, certainly Woods can pick up one stroke, letting him play the weekend.
Full access.
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Beef
Re-posting from March 31, 2019:
In case you were wondering, or if you need something for that cocktail party later this week: Japan's "top three" wagyu brands — Matsusaka Ushi, Kobe beef, and Ohmi (Omi) beef — all hail from the Kansai region of Japan.
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Golf
Updates
Later, 5:28 p.m. CT: unless they move the cut line to +5, Tiger Woods will miss the cut.
Original Post
It looks like the PGA is doing what it can to keep Woods from missing the cut.
Throughout almost the entire day the cut was +3, the top 70 golfers (plus ties).
Woods went to +4 with a bogey at the fourteenth hole.
The PGA / Bethpage Black moved the cut to +4 which is now up to almost 90 players (87 to be exact). Seventeen are tied at 70 (+4). For newbies, the number that make the cut in most PGA tournaments is 70, not 90. But for Tiger it looks like they will stretch it a bit.
Twenty-two are tied at 87 (+5).
With four holes left, certainly Woods can pick up one stroke, letting him play the weekend.
Rimrock With Six New Permits -- May 17, 2019
Active rigs:
Six new permits:
| $62.72 | 5/17/2019 | 05/17/2018 | 05/17/2017 | 05/17/2016 | 05/17/2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active Rigs | 65 | 60 | 52 | 26 | 83 |
Six new permits:
- Operator: Rimrock Oil & Gas Williston LLC
- Field: Heart Butte (Dunn County)
- Comment: Rimrock has permits for a 6-well Skunk Creek pad in lot 3/section 7-148-92, Heart Butte oil field
- BR (4): three Patton permits in Dunn County; and a Gladstone permit in McKenzie County
- EOG (3): two Austin permits in Mountrail County and one West Clark permit in McKenzie County
- Kraken (3): a Banner, a Pratt, and a Parshall permit, all in Mountrail County
Another Nice MRO Bailey Oil Field Re-Frack -- May 17, 2019
MRO may, again, get recognized as the best / most interesting "medium" operator in the Bakken for 2019.
See this link, #18842, Tescher 11-27H.
CLR has its Brooklyn oil field; MRO has its Bailey.
See this link, #18842, Tescher 11-27H.
CLR has its Brooklyn oil field; MRO has its Bailey.
Consumer Sentiment Surges To Highest Level In 15 Years -- Trump Does Not Deserve Credit -- WSJ -- May 17, 2019
Updates
May 18, 2019: I just showed this to a Harvard MBA who had not seen the most recent survey. I showed him the graph below with the two ovals. He said that the survey was a "lagging indicator" and that in fact the Obama administration put this all in motion. So, there you have it. From the mouth of a(n) Harvard MBA.
So, let's take a look: google "is consumer sentiment a leading indicator or a lagging indicator?" First hit: investopedia. Confirms what I thought. However, yes, the current economy is the result of things that occurred in the past.
Original Post
The University of Michigan’s preliminary print on its consumer sentiment index rose to 102.4, up from 97.2 in April and well ahead of expectations.
Ahead of expectations. And that rise from 97.2 to 102.4 is not trivial.
The last time consumer sentiment was this high was in 2004, five years before Obama took office.
Link here.
- The University of Michigan’s preliminary print on its consumer sentiment index rose to 102.4, up from 97.2 in April and well ahead of expectations.
- “Consumers viewed prospects for the overall economy much more favorably, with the economic outlook for the near and longer term reaching their highest levels since 2004,” says Richard Curtin, chief economist for the Surveys of Consumers.
And yet the WSJ has an editorial today: Trump does not deserve credit for this economy.
Link here.
The delta between the two ovals in the graphic above is not trivial.
Of course, CNBC reminds us, it's important to note that the optimistic consumer outlook was mostly recorded before U.S.-China trade deliberations soured earlier this month.
Significant achievements of the 115th US Congress, Pelosi's house:
And we move on.
Airport Update -- May 17, 2019
Airport itself still on schedule (?) to open later this autumn, 2019.
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Meanwhile, In California
Link here.
Go ahead, make my day.
"Road-to-California." LOL. Roads may not be needed. Oh, that's right -- EVs.
Such small thinkers.
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The Book Page
Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution, Nathaniel Philbrick, c. 2016
Summer of 1776. Multiple regions of concern for the patriots in the northern campaign: a) Lake Champlain, Fort Ticonderoga, Skenesborough; b) the coast: Sandy Hook, the Delaware River, the Chesapeake Bay, Philadelphia; c) Albany, Mohawk River, Fort Stanwix, German Flatts.
Fort Stanwix: had been rechristened Fort Schuyler but still commonly referred to by its original name; commanded by a 28-year-old patriot of Dutch heritage, Colonel Peter Gansevoort. West of Albany, all that stood between Albany and the Brits coming from the west, from the eastern shores of Lake Ontario, was Fort Stanwix.
Fort Stanwix came under siege by the Brits and their Indian allies. Benedict Arnold agreed to a crazy plan concocted by one of his officers, Lt Col John Brooks, to persuade the Indians to give up the siege. His plan worked, the Indians gave up the siege, and the Brits had no choice but to abandon their attack on Fort Stanwix.
Back story, from p. 134:
During the march through the wilderness of Maine in the fall of 1775, [General Benedict] Arnold had been accompanied by a group of Abenakis that included Natanis, who along with his brother Sabais had been there during the storming of Quebec. According to a tradition not recorded until the 1870s, Natanis prophesied that Arnold, whom he called "The Dark Eagle," would ultimately fail in accomplishing his overly ambitious objectives. Although the account of the prophecy is probably apocryphal, Arnold had nonetheless extensive experience working with native peoples by the time he had led the rescue mission up the Mohawk River. While in German Flatts, he began to realize that the Iroquois might hold the key to saving the Americans at Fort Stanwix.
The six tribes of the Iroquoi were the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora, whose territories stretched from the Hudson River and Champlain Valley into western Pennsylvania. The Iroquois had enjoyed centuries of peace within their nation and developed a highly sophisticated culture and political structure that some have argued contributed to the Americans' evolving ideas of how thirteen English colonies might become a single nation. But the Revolution had changed everything. Most of the tribes of the Iroquois had sided with Great Britain, but the Oneida, due in part to their proximity to the American settlements along the Mohawk River and the influence of the Presbyterian missionary Sameul Kirkland, had sided with the United States. With the unity of the Iroquois broken, Arnold recognized an opportunity.
US Cancels Almost $1 Billion For The Bullet Train -- Ball Back In The Governor's Court -- May 17, 209
At an earlier post, a reader offered this comment:
My reply:
From that link: the Feds and the state of California are no longer talking to each other with regard to the bullet train.
Federal payments for that high speed rail are dead. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-rail/us-cancels-929-million-in-california-high-speed-rail-funds-after-appeal-rejected-idUSKCN1SM2F9.
The state was warned before, but now action has been taken.
California was already showing signs of possibly giving up project themselves but now they can blame it on the Feds. Doesn't matter...no reason to throw good money after bad.
My reply:
There was not much news after the February announcement that the "bullet train was dead / not dead." I did find this from about a week ago: https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-bullet-train-trump-dispute-20190508-story.html.I had not yet read the Reuters story that the reader linked.
From that link: the Feds and the state of California are no longer talking to each other with regard to the bullet train.
- the Feds are not answering phone calls from California regarding the bullet train -- literally not answering phone calls
- the Feds are not acting on federal permits, environmental statements
- the project will simply die on the vine unless the governor of California wants to double down on this project
Three Wells Coming Off The Confidential List Today -- Happy Syttende Mai, 2019
Permian: infrastructure update -- Howard Energy, partnership with WPX --
Three wells coming off confidential list today -- Friday, May 17, 2019: 51 wells for the month; 145 wells for the quarter --
RBN Energy: western Canada gets its first propane export terminal.
- announced this crude oil and natural gas gathering and processing project in June, 2017
- supported by more than 600 square miles of activity in New Mexico and Texas
- Delaware Basin
- includes: Reeves County, TX, known as the County Line Facility, is a two-plant 400 million cubic feet per day cryogenc processing complex
- September, 2018: 200 mmcfpd plant
- recently: commissioned a second 200 mmcfpd plant
- more than 50 miles of crude oil gathering pipelines with 100,000 bopd capacity
- 50,000-bbl crude oil terminal in Reeves County
- a 23-mile, 24-inch trunkline natural gas pipeline
- still constructing a 21-mile, 16-inch high pressure pipeline; to be completed this summer: 800 mmcfpd
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Back to the Bakken
Three wells coming off confidential list today -- Friday, May 17, 2019: 51 wells for the month; 145 wells for the quarter --
- 34901, SI/NC, Hess, SC-Gene-154-98-0805H-8, Truax, no production data,
- 34860, SI/NC, MRO, Bruhn USA 21-17H, Reunion Bay, no production data,
- 35586, SI/NC, XTO, Halverson 13X-33A, Capa, no production data,
| $63.24 | 5/17/2019 | 05/17/2018 | 05/17/2017 | 05/17/2016 | 05/17/2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active Rigs | 65 | 60 | 52 | 26 | 83 |
RBN Energy: western Canada gets its first propane export terminal.
The AltaGas/Royal Vopak Ridley Island Propane Export Terminal in the Port of Prince Rupert, BC, is poised to receive and load its first Very Large Gas Carrier (VLGC) any day now, a milestone that will make it Western Canada’s first LPG export facility and only the second such terminal in the greater Pacific Northwest region. With a capacity of 40 Mb/d, the facility is likely to provide a healthy boost to Western Canadian propane exports in 2019, easing oversupply conditions in the region while also providing producers with enhanced access to overseas markets, particularly in Asia. Today, we take a closer look at the new Prince Rupert facility and what it means for the Western Canadian propane market.