Notes From All Over -- Saturday Morning Edition -- April 3, 2021

Big Oil wins one: federal appellate court rules in favor of five major oil companies; not to blame for global warming. Link here. 

France: another lockdown. The gap will continue to widen between the countries that have opened up and the countries that go back into another lockdown (or remain locked down). 

Example: US auto sales surge, as more states come out of the lockdown. Data points:

• 1Q21 sales rebound but volumes were capped by global semiconductor chip shortage;
• Covid-19: folks pivoting to personal vehicles; wow! Who wudda thought?
• March auto sales could exceed pre-Covid levels;
• GM: 1Q21 sales rose 4%
• units sold: 642,250
• increased demand for its Escalade sport utility vehicle; and, Encore subcompact crossover SUVs;
• average transaction price: $40,353;
• Fiat Chrysler: 1Q21 sales rose 5%:
• units sold: 469,651
• Fiat is now a unit of Stellantis NV
• Ford: 1Q21 sales up 1% (held back by semiconductor chip shortage)
• units sold: 521,334
• retail sales rose 23%
• I'm not sure of that difference, 1% sales vs 23% retail sales, but I think I understand; if so, that's remarkable; stunning;
• higher demand and tight supply has allowed automakers to raise prices in the United States, with average price of a new vehicle reaching $37,314 in the first quarter, up nearly $3,000 from a year earlier and over $4,000 higher than 2019
• BUT LOOK AT THIS:
• Toyota: US sales jumped 22% to 603,066 vehicles;
• Hyundai: US sales surged about 28% to 167,130 vehicles

Saudi Arabia: crude oil production increases every year about this time in preparation for summer heat / air conditioning. 

When you see headlines that Saudi Arabia wants to increase production keep that in mind. Production numbers are important for some reasons, but actual exports important for other reasons. See this link. Also, this link. Example of an echo chamber.

Rigs, frack spreads, link to S&P Global Platts:

• Bakken lagging in rig counts (remember: spring road restrictions)
• Permian Basin, Eagle Ford each add four rigs
• US rig fleet is up 113 in 2021
• frack spread count hits "magical" 200;

Apple, Tesla batteries, link here. Good, bad, or indifferent, this is pretty amazing. I don't care a whit about the emission story here, this is why this is important: Apple is getting off the grid which is incredibly unreliable in California, and getting more and more expensive. Getting off the grid is the story here. Also, by getting off the grid, Apple is "giving back" more electricity to the surrounding community. A win-win for everyone. By the way, what's a "whit"?

Apple's newly announced California solar farm will use 85 of Tesla's 60MV battery packs to help power ‌Apple Park‌.

According to Apple, the new solar farm, initially spearheaded by the company in 2015, will store enough battery to power more than 7,000 homes. 

Apple is constructing one of the largest battery projects in the country, California Flats — an industry-leading, grid-scale energy storage project capable of storing 240 megawatt-hours of energy, enough to power over 7,000 homes for one day. 

This project supports the company's 130-megawatt solar farm that provides all of its renewable energy in California, by storing excess energy generated during the day and deploying it when it is most needed.

MDU's Knife River acquires Oregon aggregates business, link here to press release.

• acquires Mt Hood Rock
• provides construction aggregates in the eastern Portland area, including Gresham, Troutdale, Happy Valley, and Sandy
• this is really, really cool: our younger daughter, son-in-law, and two grandsons live in Portland/Gresham; we know Troutdale, Happy Valley, and Sandy very, very well;

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Oldest Granddaughter Accepted To USC

Our oldest granddaughter was accepted to the University of Southern Califonria. She did it on her own. We did not have to pay USC $200,000 to consider her application.

Most remarkably, she did this without being on the row team.