Clearing Out The In-Box -- June 20, 2023

Locator: 44982MISC. 

Updates

December 9, 2023: BNSF bridge, Bismarck, ND; replace; WSJ article.

Politicians pretend to worry about crumbling roads and bridges while ignoring the red tape that helps keep them shabby. Even in the wild and free Great Plains, litigation is propping up a decrepit bridge that a railroad is paying millions to replace.

North Dakota’s Supreme Court heard a case this month that pits BNSF Railway against an activist group trying to stall it. The dispute is over a 140-year-old bridge connecting Bismarck to Mandan across the Missouri River.

The company received final state and federal approval this year to replace it, but appeasing the activists has delayed the process for five years and counting.

Friends of the Rail Bridge lay out their legal claim in a 58-page memo with a dubious theory of property rights. It concedes that a 19th-century federal law gave BNSF’s predecessor “right of way through the public lands . . . for the construction of a railroad,” but it says that ownership is void because the company lacks an original deed.

That claim has already been dismissed by the state of North Dakota, which the activists claim is the bridge’s rightful owner. Attorney General Drew Wrigley stayed clear of the fight for years, but he told a historic board last month that final say over the replacement proposal rests with “a private entity that owns the bridge.” A filing this month from the AG’s office warns that the court “should not reward” the activists’ legal maneuver.

Original Post 

As predicted:

• FOMO --> Rally --> Surge --> Short Squeeze --> Gamma Squeeze --> Profit-taking.

National politics:

• where's the GOP?

Fed rate:

• money isn't all that tight. Chart of the day.

Bear markets.

• a brief history, Investopedia.

Electricity:

• average prices across the US.

Pipeline, national interest:

• NPR.
• local reporting.

Wind:

• Japan pushes back; home of the Kyoto Treaty.

North Dakota:

• BNSF to replace Mandan-Bismarck bridge across the Missouri; million-dollar project.
• already being protested by FORB. It gets tedious.

US oil patch:

• deflation in the American oil patch; chart of the day.

The Bakken:

• Riverbend acquires Williston Assets to mark "rebuilding" campaign
• Houston company; acquired non-operated Williston Basin assets nearly a year after exiting the basin in a $1.8 billion deal.

The Permian:

• Civitas Resources nears $5 billion deal to expand into the Permian.

CO2 sequestration:

• new land grab, The WSJ.

Apple:

• next iMac.
• the great escape.
• what to buy now, Joanna Stern.
• MacBook Air 15 on sale.
  

Disney:

• CFO steps aside; internal discord.
• certainly sounds like Bob Iger did not go far enough in his "reorg."
• DIS ticker down 1.4% today.
• over five years, DIS is down 15%.

Mideast:

• Iran is shipping the most crude in five years.
• Saudi crude oil hits five-month low in April.
• Saudi's import of oil products to meet domestic demand surged.
• Saudi suckered again by Russia -- Simon Watkins.
• Russia screws Saudi Arabia; undercuts OPEC+ script.

Global demand:

• set at 101.01 million bopd for this year (2023) -- all-time record;
• in three days, WTI officially added to Brent dated (June 23, 2023)

Coal:

• quarterly reminder: Germany is the world's largest produceer of lignite, "the dirty coal."
• Vietnam: the iron law of electricity; developing countries are burning coal, lots of coal.
  

Bud:

• Bud marketing wins award(s) at Cannes Festival.

Music:

• one last effort, "The Story of Abbey Road."

Blog:

• flashback: Lana Del Rey.