Greg Gutfeld -- Must Watch TV -- March 19, 2025

Locator: 48534ARCHIVES.

Link here.

Tyrus on the relationship between Gavin Newsom and Tim Walz was priceless.

DAPL, Greenpeace, And $700-Million In Damages -- March 19, 2025

Greenpeace held liable for $700 million damages against Energy Transfer and DAPL. 

Locator: 48533DAPL.

Link here.

Jurors reached a unanimous decision in the Energy Transfer and Greenpeace civil lawsuit over the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

After two and a half days of deliberation, jurors unanimously found Greenpeace and its counterparts liable for damages against Energy Transfer in a historic North Dakota lawsuit.

Greenpeace was ordered to pay Energy Transfer and Dakota Access nearly $700 million in damages. Greenpeace was found liable for damages caused by trespassing onto Energy Transfer and Dakota Access' land, and for defaming them, creating a nuisance, conspiring against them, committing tortious interference and more.

This story has been on the periphery of my radar scope for the past two years. 

Social media comments over at x: link here.

 

Three New Permits; Eight Permits Renewed; Four DUCs Reported As Completed -- March 19, 2025

Greenpeace held liable for $700 million damages against Energy Transfer and DAPL. 

 Locator: 48532B.

WTI: $67.16.

Active rigs: 30.

Three new permits, #41715 - #41717, inclusive:

• Operator: Kraken
• Field: Green Lake (Williams)
• Comments:
• Kraken has permits for three Shannon West wells, NENW 26-159-100, 
• to be sited 325 FNL and 1601 / 1667 FWL. 

Eight permits renewed:

• CLR (7): Plano FIU; Baker oil field, Williams;
• Hess: EN-Hilleren, Big Butte oil field, Mountrail.

Four producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 40557, 1,586, CLR, Christopherson 5-14H,
• 40638, 1,556, CLR, Christopherson 6-14H,
• 40639, 1,833, CLR, Vandeberg 6-35H,
• 40640, 2,071, CLR, Christopherson 7-14H,

The California Budget -- Rambling -- For The Archives -- March 19, 2025

Locator: 48531CALIFORNIA.

Updates

March 20, 2025: link here.

Original Post 

Biggest economic story on my mind right now? California's budget. By this summer, this may be the #1 financial story among states. California has very little wiggle room. It already has highest tax rates; highest energy costs; highest Medicaid (Medi-Cal) costs. And an unfriendly administration.

Link here.

California has taken these steps to balance the budget:

• first, unprecedented, Governor Newsom proposed a two-year budget instead of the usual one-year budget which allows him to forecast rosy tax receipts two years out to cover the huge unexpected deficit now being forecast;
• to get to a balanced budget, even with that sleight of hand(s), Governor Newsom told the state lawmakers last week that the state needed a $3.4 billion loan to make "critical payments for Medi-Cal," as California calls Medicaid;
• well, that turned out to be a bit of smoke and mirrors; if he got the loan inserted into the spending bill, it would be easy to simply raise that loan to the amount really needed; and,
• that came this week -- it turns out the state needs $6.2 billion for "critical Medi-Cal. payments.

Governor Newsom is blaming it on two things:

• high prescription costs; and,
• uninsured illegal immigrants

The "high prescription costs" is bogus. That's been a problem for decades. Nothing new here. 

The problem is really about uninsured illegal immigrants -- 12 million of them, most of whom come first to Texas, and then spread out to friendly states (such as California) / sanctuary cities (such as San Francisco and Los Angeles). And, yes, uninsured illegal immigrants are prescribed high-cost pharmaceuticals just as those high-cost pharmaceuticals are prescribed for insured folks. 

To me, it doesn't matter. I have no dog in this fight. I don't live in California. 

But I find it fascinating to see how Governor Newsom gets out of this one.  

Population of California: 40 million.

Medi-Cal critical payments loan: $6.2 billion.

$6.2 billion / 16 million households = $400 / household. Or about $1 / day / household. Easily manageable. 

Warren Buffett's company holds about $350 billion in cash. $6.2 billion / $350 billion = 1.8%. 

By the way, on another note, there is an obvious way to end that phenomenon of sanctuary cities.

ARKK -- A One-Time Wonder? March 19, 2025

Locator: 48530ARCHIVES.

Macro-economy: the takeaway from the Fed's briefing today -- JPow -- implies — at least to me — that the Fed has no clue. Although in his prepared remarks he said otherwise, JPow’s remarks during the Q&A session suggested there would be no more cuts until at least 2027, assuming no recession. The Fed’s target on inflation is 2.6 or 2.5 in 2026 and trending toward 2.1 in 2027. Link here.

On another note, why is the Q&A with the Fed so much more civilized than the Q&A with the president of the United States?

From the link to The NYT:

Biggest economic story on my mind right now? California's budget. By this summer, this may be the #1 financial story among states. California has very little wiggle room. It already has highest tax rates; highest energy costs; highest Medicaid (Medi-Cal) costs. And an unfriendly administration.

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ARKK

One-hit wonder?

ARKK:

ARKK / the CEO of ARKK seems to get an impressive amount of exposure on CNBC. 

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Focus On Dividends

JPM. Increases its dividend by 12%.

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Texas -- LDCs

Link here.

Hump Day -- In North Texas, The Price Of Eggs Has Plummeted Since President Trump Took Office -- Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Locator: 48529B.

First things first! There is no shortage of eggs in north Texas. 

Walmart is overflowing with eggs. Price has dropped from over $8.00 when Trump assumed office (as reported by the national news to under $4.00 ($3.98 at Walmart) for a dozen large eggs. [from $8.29 to $3.98 is a 52% drop in the price of eggs since Trump became president, 58 days ago.] Waffle House will still charge a 50-cent surcharge on each egg served. What a great country!

Target practice over Yemen!  

Again, I don't think folks realize how good this is for all involved -- except perhaps those inside the target circle. We'll come back to this later. How come The India Times is the go-to news organization when one wants to get updates on international and US national events? Asking for a friend.

Must-watch: Victor Davis Hanson. YouTube. And elsewhere.

Must-watch: White House daily press briefing. Karoline Leavitt is a breath of fresh air. On YouTube, live, daily, M-F, starting about 12:00 noon CT. I catch it on Fox, Raw & Live on YouTube. 

March Madness: my brackets, after the first two play-in games, is still intact! The last two play-in games this evening.

• Mt St Mary's vs American
• Texas vs Xavier

Trump: sanctuary cities on notice.

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $67.33.

New wells:

• Thursday, March 20, 2025: 52 for the month, 167 for the quarter, 167 for the year,
• 41022, conf, CLR, Alfsvaag Federal 8-31H,
• 40156, conf, Hess, EN-Schroeder-157-94-1102H-3, 
• Wednesday, March 19, 2025: 50 for the month, 165 for the quarter, 165 for the year,
• 40032, conf, Hunt Oil, Oakland 154-89-31-29H 1,
• 39890, conf, Hunt Oil, Halliday 146-93-11-1H-1,
• 39889, conf, Hunt Oil, Halliday 146-93-12-36H 1,

RBN Energy: western Canadian gas prices stuck behind bars, even after winter price surges.

Western Canada’s natural gas market never really seems to catch a break. Prices this winter have remained well below those across much of the rest of North America thanks to an all-too-common combination of insufficient pipeline export capacity from the region, bloated gas storage and robust supply growth. Even with forward price prospects for much of the rest of the continent looking buoyant, with more gas expected to head to expanding Gulf Coast LNG terminals and a storage-refill season that will be stronger than last year, price upside for Western Canada looks to be minimal at best and will be partly dependent on the rate of gas intake to LNG Canada, as we explain in today’s RBN blog. 

We all love those movies about the wrongly convicted individual sent to prison, only to be released (or escaping!) later thanks to a combination of legal work, tenacity and plain stubbornness in overcoming the unjust imprisonment. Western Canada’s gas producers were probably hoping that this most recent winter heating season might provide a similar storyline for its primary price marker, AECO, and its regional cousin, Station 2, which have been imprisoned inside Western Canada’s all-too-often pipeline-constrained and oversupplied regional market, with prices that have frequently disconnected from pricing action elsewhere in North America.