The Million Dollar Way (The Bakken Oil Blog)

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

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.