Notes From All Over -- The Energy Issue -- July 9, 2021

There are at least seven subjects with regard to energy that we could talk about today:

• comparing Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter; spoiler alert: there is no comparison. Period. Dot.
• renewable energy is useless: Minnesota, California, Texas, and the list goes on;
• coal is dead! Long live coal.
• peak oil demand is a "thing." Hardly.
• the OPEC+ spat over production quotas;
• the Mideast is getting noisy;
• finally, what's going on with shale? No one seems to understand what's going on.

1. Comparing Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter:

• Jimmy Carter: OPEC was in control of their destiny and OPEC knew it; inept president.
• Joe Biden: OPEC is not in control of their destiny and OPEC knows it; inept president.

2. Renewable energy is useless:

• Minnesota; wind, not blowing;
• California: drought; hydroelectricity not producing; Californians asked to voluntarily cut water usage by 15%;
  
• Texas: what can I say?
• even the EIA notes how useless renewable energy is;

3. Coal is dead! Long live coal:

• coal output in US seen rising most since 1990 on global demand! Link here. 

4. Peak oil demand; proxy: US gasoline demand hits all-time high:

• this data point might be "dialed back" when underlying ethanol numbers reviewed but ... that's quibbling; whether it's ten million bbls or nine million bbls, the writing is on the wall .. we're headed higher.
• this is a bigger story than most folks realize;
• there's more to come. 

5. The OPEC+ spat:

• This is perhaps one of the best articles I've read on the subject. 

6. The Mideast is getting noisy.

7. What's going on with shale? 

• I have no idea -- that's because I don't follow the Permian very closely and follow other US shale plays even less; I know the Bakken pretty well -- I figure I know one percent of everything that's going on in the Bakken and based on twitter experts, that's about twice as much as what others know. 
• the story over at twitter regarding US shale: DUCs
• spoiler alert: folks don't understand the Bakken; DUCs are simply the tip of the iceberg, as they say.