Preview Insights research — viewpoints cultivated with data to drive strategic decisions.
Many of Biden’s executive orders have received coverage in the press and appear to be generally hostile to the energy industry, but others are reported to be very supportive of renewables. While they may reveal a president’s views, executive orders often do not actually accomplish much and are often misconstrued as to their real-world impact.
DAPL shippers, and by extension the market in general, face tremendous uncertainty over the ability to move crude while the EIS is being prepared.
The DC Circuit issued a decision that upheld the lower court’s decision requiring the USACE to prepare an EIS to support its easement allowing DAPL to cross Lake Oahe. MVP also filed with FERC, indicating it was abandoning its efforts to build the remainder of the pipeline under NWP12 and would seek project-specific authority from the USACE.
Appointments and actions taken by President Biden on his first day in office and the actions taken and comments made by current FERC commissioners at Tuesday’s open meeting may lead to a complete halt in interstate natural gas pipeline construction.
Pipeline expansion projects are often underwritten by “long-term” contracts with shippers. Many projects at the beginning of the last decade are nearing the end of that “long-term” and if the project was anchored by producers, the changing gas markets may mean those contracts will not be renewed.
We look at the status of the larger FERC projects that are pending and at the more controversial items on the agenda for today.
A decision in the PEPL rate case that allows a 12.01% ROE may help the rest of the industry by essentially raising the ROE floor by almost 1.5%.
FERC took two actions on December 17 regarding oil pipeline rates and contracts for which Commissioner Glick filed dissents and in which Clements didn’t participate. If Glick is appointed chair, we would expect him to revisit both.
The Energy Act of 2020 that was signed into law between Christmas and New Year’s may be a good early indicator that all is not lost for the fossil fuel industry, and particularly natural gas, especially if it can learn to reduce its carbon footprint.