Something I see a lot of folks missing in discussions about what's happening Venezuela, particularly around oil, is the role U.S. oil majors' interest in Guyana—and the threat Venezuela posed to it—has in all of it. Explainer here: drilled.media/news/guyana-...

The economic idiocy on display is pretty wild. Apparently Trump created a new oil empire where he has a new unique power. "Washington would have the means to keep the oil price close to $50 a barrel" Brilliant. None of the US oil industry makes money at that price. What a great option to have!

I've seen a lot of commentary on the Venezuelan oil situation. Personally, I wouldn't trust anyone's estimates on the economics of VZ oil production just yet.

“This is just the latest chapter in a long history of extractive companies from North America profiting from poisoning and polluting in Latin America,” Mikulka said. Comment on current events? No. Something I said last month.

Seb Kennedy is a great gas market analyst. And he has lived and worked in Venezuela. His take on things is definitely worth your time.

It's technically true what they say: As a Flow Gas, Anthropogenic Methane wouldn't contribute much to global warming if emissions held steady for about 12 years. There's only one problem...

“If we just replace coal plants with LNG, that means the coal exit actually doesn’t lead to a green transition and merely shifts Korea’s addiction from coal to gas, which undermines the whole spirit of climate action," Lee said. Pretty easy to understand.

"If all the stars align — which is to say that government policy is supportive, industry delivers and the technology works — there could be a global fleet of 1,000 SMRs with aggregate capacity of 120 gigawatts by 2050" 120 gigawatts by 2050 is a rounding error in the global energy system.

"Coal India has been sitting on bloated inventories of unsold fuel after a milder-than-expected summer subdued demand for electricity last year. It has also seen its sales squeezed by intensifying competition from rival miners as well as growing output from renewables."

AI overlords: "we are all-knowing and will deliver higher intelligence that will solve all of the world's problems" Also AI overlords: "we are going to build all of the water hungry data centers in areas without water"

"The US power sector is poised for a landmark transition in 2026, with all net new generating capacity expected to come exclusively from renewable energy and battery storage, according to forecasts from the US Energy Information Administration"

"In roughly five years, according to Lanzerac’s operations manager, Tiaan Lategan, electricity for the estate will essentially be free. 'The pros definitely outweigh the cons,' he said" Simple math.

"We are losing an information war because we want to fight it with a volunteer effort." A few thoughts on my career in journalism and analysis.

When it saves you money and improves your life to put solar on your roof. You put solar on your roof (South Africa edition). "Today, solar and battery systems are deployed across a variety of businesses — auto factories and wineries, gold mines and shopping malls. "

FYI - Trump and the Republicans no longer consider if new LNG projects poison the local population (protip: they do!). Real quality people, that crew.

In 2019 I wrote the following in an article about how renewables would beat out gas in the future. "Estimates predict the cost of storage alone could drop 80 percent by 2040. Who wants to own a gas power plant in 2040 knowing that?" Updated timeline:

"Excess fuel supplies, a hardware backlog and a more competitive alternative bode ill for LNG market incumbents. A crash is looming." I'm used to making forecasts a few years ahead. But things are moving fast now. I wrote this story in Sept and now Reuters is running with the same message

Good morning. How about 2000 words about the state of the US oil industry? "Hamm admitted the Bakken is 'tapped out.' The reason he is buying shale assets in other countries is because the reality is that the U.S. oil industry is tapped out."

It's a good thing we didn't build a bunch of new EV charging lounges based on the idea it would take 30 minutes.

Using CO2 to push more oil out of old oilfields (enhanced oil recovery[EOR]) is a bad idea for many reasons but one of the biggest is that much of the CO2 doesn't stay in the ground and even worse, some can be converted to methane. Issue could use much more attention.

Perhaps the economy isn't working for everyone these days?

This is a big piece on Yahoo Finance about targeting methane emissions. It gets some of the facts wrong. First up: "Methane emissions from oil and gas operations account for almost a third of the global total and are caused primarily by leaks and flaring." Leaks are less than 10% of emissions.

"Cicio noted that for every $1 increase in the Henry Hub price, U.S. consumers pay roughly $34 billion more for natural gas and $20 billion more for electricity — about $54 billion annually." (paywalled)

Some of my stories this year included: - how the gas industry pushed state bills to redefine gas as “clean” energy - how the DOE partnered with plastics lobbyists - how Exxon is building CO2 pipelines through communities after Trump withdrew safety regs More: www.exxonknews.org/p/exxonknews...

Jigar and I don't agree on everything but it's good to see him calling out the US media's energy "reporting." "...despite the glass-half empty reporting out of the USA."

"The key question for 2026 is whether China will, and can, continue to buy excess crude when prices drop, effectively providing a floor." While the US is issuing threats and tariffs to try to implement global energy policy, China has legit economic levers it controls.

I will be publishing a new piece that focuses on Harold Hamm and the Bakken very soon. Interesting timing to have this come out today. "Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources, donor to President Donald Trump and friend and associate of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum..."

Blue collar workers were convinced to vote against their own financial interests quite successfully in this country. Will white collar workers do the same?

Watching this play out over the last five years or so has been interesting. I don't subscribe to Bezos' paper so can't see the details of this article but it's likely the same stuff of the past five years.

@autoschmidt.bsky.social: "Despite individual months surpassing the total, with November being no exception at 25.5%, it is the first time on an annual cumulative basis that the volume has surpassed 20%, and it is expected to remain above that figure with just one month of the year remaining." ⚡️⚡️⚡️

My work has been translated and published in Spain. My high school Spanish teacher would likely be proud.

The day after Trump's ongoing efforts to create more economic hardship for Americans by stopping wind projects with an absurd "national security" argument, the NYT runs a big piece on how Trump's team of geniuses are putting the country at risk by not supporting battery tech.

Not sure if it’s the fossil fuel social media buys, trolls, bots or what, but mentioning that EVs are going to transform the grid with V2G at a top, foundational, level, sure brought all the ol’ FUD takes out of the woodwork. Oil’s scared.

Oil for water deals. I don't know my Mad Max lore but isn't this a thing in that world?

This is actually the strategy of the most powerful industry to ever exist on the face of the earth, not just his.

"Abundance bros, from Yglesias to Trembath to Stapp, ride on the perception that they are politically savvy, data driven thinkers. But they're just a bunch of hacks who get shit catastrophically wrong." That last bit should count for something. But apparently not to the NYT.

"Woodside’s decision to purchase a 'high-cost, near-bankrupt LNG facility in Louisiana for over $1 billion,' referring to Louisiana LNG, previously known as Driftwood LNG, which Woodside purchased from Tellurian." Lake Charlies LNG is out. Will Louisiana LNG be next?

“That’s their product, they make nurdles,” said Lauren Godshall, a senior attorney with Earthjustice representing Wilson. “For them to be losing this much of it into the drainage system is kind of ridiculous.” Legend.

It’s a dangerous fiction. For those wanting a whole website of vetted science on all the ways it’s both dangerous and fictional and also scammy, my colleagues and I put one together: www.carboncapturefacts.org

It's not hard to find examples of the cost for closing old oil wells is much higher than the estimates we are given. Here is another example in California. My favorite example is the $40 million it cost to close the 19 oil wells on the Beverly Hills high school campus.

"We have an administration that is deciding to side with scammers over the hardworking American taxpayers" Scammers: Oil companies Issue: Letting them walk away from their financial obligation to clean up their mess.

"Australia will make exporters of liquefied natural gas from the country's east coast keep up to a quarter of their output for domestic use from 2027, under a scheme unveiled on Monday to curb price spikes"

"In fact, this summer, renewable energy sources often powered between 40-50% of the Texas grid on average each day — which means that, if not for wind and solar, Texas’ grid would have likely entered emergency conditions and experienced rolling blackouts."

"No wonder AI backers today are fighting against regulation of any kind. They want us to help pay for it while they reap the profits." See also: oil and gas industry.

Utilities have always had a monopoly. They aren't ready for what is coming.

Trump takes booze.

The willful ignorance by the fossil fuel media is impressive. They can't ignore that China isn't buying LNG like they told us but they have a really interesting reason - SMRs. Ok. Meanwhile the article doesn't mention china's solar growth or electric trucking.

Last month on the Jon Stewart show when China's energy policy came up in an interview he immediately responded that china was building new coal power plants as fast as they can. We need to get people to understand reality and the US media is not helping.

Trump’s rant against the Somali community in Minnesota is disgraceful Nazi incitement and then he pivots to endorsing Mike Lindell for governor

DOJ broke the law today by refusing to produce all the Epstein files. It also broke the law by redacting information other than to protect victims. Yet, the corporate media is acting that DOJ did us a huge favor. Now, more than ever, help build independent, pro-democracy media. hubs.ly/Q03CbHTt0