Gov. Newsome in California has proposed new setback rules that make Colorado’s failed attempt look like pikers. 3200’ setback from schools, nursing homes, and other “sensitive” buildings AND require existing wells to retrofit with expensive new anti-pollution equipment to stay in production.
Good for them. I hope all oil & gas in the state of California is forbidden as soon as possible. It will only be billions of lost revenue for the state, its inhabitants, schools, etc. They should shut down the refineries too.
Todd- As much as the self-inflicted issues in California cause me to shake my head, I find no joy is seeing them. It harms our country as a whole, and is another precedent to spread to other states. I think it is dangerous to assume the same mindset will never spread to Oklahoma, Texas and the other producing states…
The NARO National Executive Committee has approved the following policy statement regarding forced divestitures or oil and gas investments, and the practice of redlining against oil and gas companies by lenders and capital markets:
The NARO National Executive Committee has taken an official position on the growing practice of forced divestitures of oil and gas investments by public, quasi-public, and private entities, as well as the increasing practice of trying to deny capital to oil and gas companies through redlining by an entire sector of the American economy. Recent events have shown that continued development of American oil and gas resources will be needed for many years to come. Regardless of the speed of the transition to less carbon intensive sources of energy, and all sources of energy have some carbon footprint, the fact remains that a modern economy cannot continue to function and develop without reliable sources of energy. Self-inflicted disruptions in that market through misguided policies harm all consumers, American economic independence, and eventually the environment itself. Distortions in energy development markets can cause price spikes, inflation, entrenched constituencies wanting to preserve these distortions, and lower the standard of living for Americans. Mineral and royalty owners need to have financially sound oil and gas operators who are willing to risk their capital to further develop, redevelop, or repurpose minerals into further oil and gas production, carbon capture, or carbon sequestration. These companies need healthy investor and capital markets to operate efficiently. Unfortunately, some public, quasi-public, and private entities such as pension funds, universities, banks, capital providers and hedge funds have been pressured into either divesting their oil and gas investments or refusing to provide new capital to them. In a misguided effort to try and reduce carbon emissions, these efforts ignore the fact that oil and gas production is a worldwide market. Other countries will gladly take up the slack of any self-imposed reductions by the United States. The energy market is too vast and too large a percentage of the overall world economy to be significantly impacted by artificial supply constraints. Lack of an investor base and capital does not mean that operators can simply shift to private firms and private lenders. This capital starvation has the effect of stunting energy development and reducing supply. This has become painfully obvious recently, where reduced demand due to Covid was coupled with state and federal governments ratcheting up burdens on oil and gas operators to make it more difficult to invest in development or redevelopment of oil and gas fields. Now that demand has rebounded, a large increase in prices is helping fuel another painful inflation cycle as did the Arab oil embargo in the 1970’s. The approved official position on forced energy divestiture and redlining is as follows:
The National Association of Royalty Owners, Inc. officially condemns the practice of forced divestiture in oil and gas investments or redlining against oil and gas companies in the capital and lending markets. These practices reduce the capital available for future oil and gas development, harm American energy independence, harm mineral and royalty owners through fewer development options, and achieve no reduction in carbon emissions. These restrictive policies are short sighted, cause artificial distortions to energy markets, fuel inflation, and harm the overall economy and the American standard of living.
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AAPL letter opposing the methane tax in Build Back Better.
Bill filed to allow FTC to go after “big oil” for gas prices being high. I wonder if there are possibly any other causes?
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City of Long Beach wants to force hundreds of producing wells to be plugged, with the “owners” (not sure if this includes mineral owners) being forced to contribute $10,000 toward the plugging. Some amazing stats about how much oil production has declined in Long Beach. California now imports about 75% of its oil, much from overseas.
EIA releases its report on methane emissions form marginal wells. The summary is that the top 10% of emitting sources made up 90% of the total emissions. Most of the locations were in the Permian.
Washington Post reporting Democrats are trying to work out a climate and energy bill with Sen. Manchin. Ii is part of their dedicated “Climate” column.
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California enacted a 3200 foot setback, which will ban new drilling in much of the state and is aggressively trying to regulate existing wells out of existence.
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Cities in California are starting to ban construction of new gas stations. Good way to raise gas prices and hurt workers who don’t happen to have the cash in their couch cushions to go buy an EV.
If We Just Choke Off the Access It Will Magically Disappear!
California natural gas prices have been averaging nearly $18/mcf lately at their two city gate hubs.
New York about to ban gas stoves in new housing construction.
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Opiela decision is out from the Austin Court of Appeals. Closely watched case about whether allocation wells are legal in Texas. Austin Court of Appeals split the baby on the issues and it looks like the RRC can cure it’s deficiencies by properly going through the rule making process.
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How will that effect Central Air and Heating units that use natural gas or propane to heat a home?
Call your Representative & Congressman and ask for their explanation.
Big news. Louisiana has been granted “primacy” by the EPA to regulate Class VI injection wells, which are CO2 injection wells, primarily. Bodes well for Texas also being granted primacy.
The last thing any oil and gas state should want is the EPA regulating any portion of the oil and gas extraction or CO2 injection business.
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