Energy Tomorrow Blog
Policies That Constrain Natural Gas Pinch Massachusetts Consumers
consumers massachusetts natural gas infrastructure pipelines
Mark Green
Posted February 21, 2019
Update: Middleborough, Massachusetts, has joined parts of New York’s Westchester County on a list of places in the Northeast U.S. where they’ve announced moratoriums on new natural gas service.
As is true in Westchester, there’s not enough pipeline infrastructure to deliver natural gas to everyone in Middleborough who wants it. No question, the situation in Middleborough is unfortunate – as it is in sections of Westchester County affected by the natural gas moratorium there.
Blame short-sighted, agenda-driven opposition to constructing new natural gas pipelines or expand existing ones. Natural gas is near enough – in the Marcellus shale play in Pennsylvania that also extends into New York state.
Enhanced Safety Standard Helps Protect Workers, Environment
api standards program workplace safety environmental impact
Mark Green
Posted February 20, 2019
Over API’s 100-year history – we complete our first century next month – we’ve created more than 700 standards to enhance the safety, efficiency and sustainability of natural gas and oil operations. The newest of these updates Recommended Practice 54 (RP 54), which sets procedures to advance and maintain a safe and healthy work environment in drilling and well servicing operations.
Specifically, the new edition of RP 54 (first developed in 1981) includes a section on flowback operations, which is important for safe well testing. It also includes revised requirements for process hazard assessment for facilities and sites and introduces formal risk assessments and expanded provisions for offshore operations.
New Modeling Shows Impacts of Trade Policy Gone Awry
policy trade oil and natural gas
Jessica Lutz
Posted February 20, 2019
Earlier this month we talked about the unforced error of the administration’s tariff and quota policies that hamstring the economy, detailing the findings of recent report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Now, new modeling has reviewed those suspicions in the context of the energy trade, and the indications are clear: The escalating trade wars could significantly limit the U.S. energy revolution and the benefits to Americans that it would otherwise bring.
The recent report, part of BP’s annual “Outlook,” a macro-look at the global energy system over the next 30 years, models a number of different scenarios including one in which global trade disputes persist and worsen. The results of this “less globalization” scenario indicate that the continuation of these policies would slow global GDP growth by 6 percent and energy demand growth by 4 percent in 2040. To make matters worse, the effect could be intensified in countries and regions most exposed to foreign trade – like the U.S.
Unintended Consequences in Alberta's Limits on Crude Output
alberta canada crude oil refiners trade production
Dean Foreman
Posted February 19, 2019
A profound shift has taken place in North American oil markets over the past few months that’s now affecting trade between the United States and its biggest crude oil supplier, Canada.
It involves supplies of heavier crude oil – important for the manufacture of a multitude of everyday products consumers use, from local road surfaces to the roofing for their houses. While the U.S. is producing domestic crude at record levels, there’s still a need for heavier crudes.
With heavy oil from Venezuela declining for years, the importance of close ties with Canada and especially the oil-producing province Alberta has increased. Unfortunately, Alberta’s decision to limit oil production appears to be advancing uneconomic outcomes, where some U.S. refiners signaled they’ll shift away from Canadian heavy crude oil and seek supply elsewhere.
API is On the Move to Its New D.C. Home
Jessica Lutz
Posted February 14, 2019
A lot has been done since we first announced plans to move API’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and thanks to the work of highly skilled craft tradesmen and women those plans have officially become a reality. In step with the innovation and advanced technologies that have led the U.S. natural gas and oil industry to meet record world energy demand while driving record CO2 emissions reductions, the industry’s leading national trade association has a new, self-sustaining LEED Platinum-certified building to call home.
Petroleum Exports Retreat Suggests Global Economic Weakness
petroleum products refineries exports economic growth energy production
Dean Foreman
Posted February 14, 2019
API’s Monthly Statistical Report (MSR), based on January data, is a good news/challenging news proposition.
First the good. January data tell us the U.S. has never produced more oil (11.9 million barrels per day, mb/d) and natural gas liquids (4.9 mb/d).
At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at their highest rates (93 percent capacity utilization) and produced the most they ever have for the month of January (17.3 mb/d). Moreover, domestic gasoline demand also was the greatest on record for the month of January (8.9 mb/d). These are terrific milestones. ... But some interesting challenges also emerged.
Climate Change Threats are Real – Policy Solutions Must Be As Well
consumers climate change energy congress economic impacts
Mark Green
Posted February 13, 2019
The Green New Deal is getting quite a bit of attention in Washington right now, and naturally, people want to know what the natural gas and oil industry thinks about the proposal to revolutionize America’s economy and way of life – since it appears the plan aims to eliminate natural gas and oil, the nation’s leading fuels, right when there’s record energy demand by consumers.
My reaction is that any proposal that would fundamentally reorder American energy – and the way of life in this country – should first be measured by its impacts on American consumers, the economy and the country’s opportunity for future prosperity.
Especially this one. There’s little question that GND would significantly alter America as we know it.
The ‘Amazing’ U.S. Shale Revolution
us energy security oil and natural gas production oil imports shale energy hydraulic fracturing
Mark Green
Posted February 12, 2019
Recent tweet from the American Enterprise Institute’s Mark Perry includes a chart that vividly illustrates one of the biggest benefits of the U.S. energy revolution. First, it plots soaring U.S. net petroleum imports, which peaked at 60.3 percent in 2005, and then logs the plunge to just 12.1 percent last year. The thing that caught my eye in Perry’s tweet is that the time frame for his graph, 1957-2018, is pretty much the span of this blogger’s life.
Most importantly, in one generation, the United States has gone from steadily growing energy dependency to a nation that’s largely in control of its energy destiny. It’s a turnabout many of Americans never thought possible. Remarkable. Breathtaking. Or, as Perry tweets, amazing.
The Unforced Error of Trade Policies That Impede the Economy
economic growth gdp trade consumers exports
Mark Green
Posted February 8, 2019
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s new report, “The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2019 to 2029,” says what we’ve been saying for some time now – the administration’s tariff policies are a drag on the broader economy.
CBO projects that “the recent changes in trade policy in the United States and its trading-partner countries will reduce the level of U.S. real GDP by about 0.1 percent by 2022
Now, 0.1 percent might not sound like a lot over that time period, but potentially we’re talking about hundreds of billions of dollars subtracted from the economy. Dean Foreman, API chief economist, says it’s particularly concerning in the context of an economy that’s decelerating.
Advancing Worker Safety
safe operations pipeline construction workplace safety
Jessica Lutz
Posted February 6, 2019
Earlier this week, API President and CEO Mike Sommers and North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) President Sean McGarvey announced the start of new training courses on pipeline construction safety in West Virginia, Ohio and California as part of a groundbreaking partnership that was launched less than a year ago.
