December 15th, 2023

• Stay up to date on all things energy by visiting the TEA Newsroom.
• Natural Gas CARES: It is the world’s Cleanest, Affordable, Reliable Energy Source.
• Pipeline politics await Biden in Michigan.
• Biden’s climate agenda creates energy poverty in tribal nations.
• Opinion: Crazy rush to green energy will push us to endless blackouts.
• Here’s how much oil the U.S. is buying to fill the SPR.
• Ford slows down EV push with F-150 Lightning production cut.

The issue: The efforts at promoting American natural gas took great strides forward in 2023. Ohio and Tennessee adopted Natural Gas is Green (NGiG) legislation. Ohio also adopted a resolution, Natural Gas CARES, whose purpose is to urge investment in natural gas infrastructure — recognizing that domestic natural gas is

the Clean, Affordable and Reliable Energy Source (CARES).

Why it matters: We believe that unleashing natural gas is the solution to affordable energy, while also helping improve the environment and securing American energy independence. States like Ohio establishing themselves as the low-cost energy leaders in the U.S. will result in lower energy bills for households and businesses. And, even more low-cost energy reforms and a simplification of tax laws in states like Ohio can serve as a model to make doing business easy for everyone.

• Natural gas burns cleaner and has fewer emissions than other fuels.
• America leads the world in CO2 reduction and natural gas is responsible for 61 percent of carbon dioxide reductions in U.S. electricity generation.
• Increased use of natural gas — both domestically and through exports to our allies — will benefit the global environment because U.S. natural gas production is cleaner and safer than foreign sources like Russia and Iran.
• Natural gas has saved the average U.S. family $2,500 a year ($203 billion in total).
• American natural gas powers more than one-third of our nation’s total energy needs, compared with wind and solar, which generate roughly 12 percent combined.

Consider: Here is what happens when the government interferes. New home costs may rise as much as $9,000 in the state of Washington after it passed legislation aimed at building zero fossil-fuel greenhouse gas emission homes and buildings by the year 2031. The new effective date for all building codes is March 15, 2024.

The good news is that natural gas can reduce prices and make us energy independent now, not in 2030 or 2050, as U.S. Rep. Troy Balderson (R-Ohio) pointed out a year and a half ago. It helps the economy and the consumer — and it guards our sovereignty as a nation making us less dependent on other regimes.

Bottom Line: We encourage more state legislatures, as we head into 2024, to adopt similar resolutions declaring that Natural Gas is Green energy. Get more facts and on the TEA website and join America’s greatest green initiative.

The issue: The prospect of a deal to end fossil fuels faded on Monday in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, when organizers of the U.N. climate summit released a draft proposal that merely suggested reducing them instead. The reality is that global coal demand is rising, energy expert Robert Bryce points out.

Why it matters: That outcome falls far short of the demands that environmental groups, the U.S., the European Union and vulnerable island nations had laid out before the summit in Dubai, with some activists saying the talks would be a failure if they did not call for phasing out the production of coal, oil and natural gas.

The text avoided the demands from some countries to “phase out” fossil fuels. The U.S., EU, Australia and other industrialized countries specifically targeted “unabated” fossil fuels — those whose greenhouse gas pollution is not captured before entering the atmosphere.

Instead, it suggests that countries commit to “reducing both consumption and production of fossil fuels … so as to achieve net zero by, before, or around 2050.”

Consider: Former Vice President Al Gore unloaded on the proposal, saying in a statement that “COP28 is now on the verge of complete failure. The world desperately needs to phase out fossil fuels as quickly as possible … It is even worse than many had feared.”

This is a common-sense approach. However, green groups are furious and the fact that the king of fear mongering himself is upset tells us it was the right decision. Perhaps someone should remind Mr. Gore and the other green-at-any-cost zealots of these facts:

• Eliminating fossil fuels is like phasing out oxygen.
• Food, healthcare, housing and sanitation all rely on fossil fuels.
• Billions would die without low-cost fuel for fertilizer, heating, plastic, steel and cement.

We agree with noted energy expert Alex Epstein, who, several years ago, said:

“Fossil fuels are not an existential threat. They are an existential resource because they increase something much more important than the level of CO2 in the atmosphere: the level of human empowerment.”

Bottom Line: Phasing out the most reliable, affordable abundant energy sources available would be devastating to humanity. We’re glad the COP28 leaders resisted the anti-human demands to end fossil fuel use by 2050.

We’re nearing a benchmark that we haven’t seen since early 2021: sub $3 gas average gas prices. The national average for a gallon of gasoline is currently $3.09, which is 10 cents lower than a week ago. Will we get to the $2.99 mark? It’s going to be close, according to experts, as gas prices may begin to rise again after the Fed expressed optimism for 2024 rate cuts.

FERC Open Meeting: On Tuesday, December 19, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will hold an Open Meeting of the Commission.

*PROGRAMMING NOTE*

This will be our final CSE newsletter of 2023. We will resume our normal schedule on Friday, January 5th. On behalf of The Empowerment Alliance, merry Christmas and happy New Year!

“Trillions of dollars have been spent on wind & solar projects over the last 20 years, yet the world’s dependence on fossil fuels has declined only 4 percentage points: from 87% to 82%.”

— Energy consultant Brian Gitt on X.