Highway Robbery at the Pump

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently released a significant assessment identifying undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in the Mowry Composite Total Petroleum System, which includes the Niobrara Formation, spanning southwest Wyoming, northeast Colorado, […]

Why Is Ethanol Still Being Mandated? How Much Does It Cost Consumers and Taxpayers?

This needs to be shut down while taking care of the farmers and providing a path to work that is free from subsidies.

Highlights of the Podcast 

00:00 – Intro

01:35 – Is the Trump Tariff War with China Over, and What Is the Final Impact to Investors?

03:45 – Data Centers Surge U.S. Power Demand by 92%: Opportunities in Utilities, Grid Equipment, and Oil and Gas

06:26 – Natural Gas is Booming: Unlocking Opportunities in the Energy Sector

08:09 – USGS Releases Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources in the Niobrara Formation of SW Wyoming and NE Colorado

10:00 – Why Is Ethanol Still Being Mandated? How Much Does It Cost Consumers and Taxpayers?

13:30 – Outro

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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.

Stuart Turley: [00:00:00] Highway robbery at the gas pump, why are we paying for all of the extra subsidies and waste? Don’t you want to find out how much you could save at the Gas Pump? Stay tuned on the Daily Energy Newsbeat Standup. [00:00:12][12.5]

Stuart Turley: [00:00:20] Hello everybody, welcome to the Energy Newsbeat Daily Standup, my name is Stu Turley, President CEO of the Sandstone Group. I have a lot of fun things going on. Today is June 12th. Buckle up. Is the Trump tariff war with China over, and what is the final impact to investors? Let’s talk up a little bit about that. Next around the corner, data centers surge with U.S. Power demand by 92% opportunities for investors in the utilities, grid equipment, oil and gas. We’re watching all of those. Natural gas is booming is the next story, unlocking opportunities in the energy sector. USGS releases an assessment of undiscovered oil and gas reservoirs in The Nairobi formation in southwest Wyoming and northeast Colorado and some parts of Utah got a little bit on that for investors. Last story is, why is ethanol still being mandated? How much of it costs consumers and taxpayers? This is out of the energy newsbeat substack. So, buckle up, hang on, and here we go. [00:01:34][74.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:01:35] Is the Trump tariff war with China over? And what is the final impact to investors? This is very interesting. Looking at a post from Truth Social, our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me. Full magnets and any necessary rare will be supplied up front by China. Likewise. We will provide the China what is agreed to, including Chinese students using our colleges, universities, which has always been a good thing for him. We’re getting a total of 55% tariffs and China is getting a 10% relationship is excellent. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Interesting post from president Trump and let’s take a look at this. The tariff reductions will impose a 55% tariff on Chinese imports. That’s a lot of money, down from a peak of $145 while China will apply a 10% tariff, but what nobody’s talking about is the trade roadblocks that are there. They don’t buy anything from the United States, so that 10% on our stuff is actually Kind of silly, but the 55% is a huge win for the U.S. Critical minerals and rare earth China has committed to supplying in magnets up front. That is critical. Additional educational access, in the conventional term China will gain access for its students to the U.S. I’d like to make sure that we monitor them, because as it is, there’s several Programs that have come out that have not been favorable that the CCP requires their students to check in on things Sounds like a very good spy opportunity to me, but that’s just me But then we have petrochemicals and feedstock the United States supplies China with a lot of feedstock and so that is actually very important for the Thing that they have not gotten up and running in China. [00:03:45][130.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:03:45] Let’s go to the next story here. Data center surges, U.S. Power demand, 92% increase opportunities in the grid, equipment, and oil and gas. This is very, very important. Hyperscale data centers operated by tech giants like Amazon Web Services, AES, Microsoft, Azure, ad. Google Cloud and Meta. These are all big AI driven data centers and the rise of generative AI such as chat, GBT and other languages, Nvidia suppliers of eight chips are all indirectly driving data center growth. Edge data centers, smaller localized facilities supporting 5G, internet of things and real-time applications are plating in urban areas to be adding to the grid load. This is also changing the dynamics of the grid to distributed management systems as well as micro grids very much as you’ve heard on the podcast. Stargate and Abilene is going to be a natural gas power plant made up of smaller natural gas power plants and turbines that are able to be Installed once the data center is up and running and the larger natural gas turbines come online, those smaller ones will be a backup system. Not a bad plan. When we take a look at what is good for investors in the data centers, renewable energy product data centers like Google and Microsoft have sustainability goals. I’m a little bit watching that and leery, but when you take a look at regional utilities and data centers such as Dominion in Virginia or CenterPoint, CNP in Texas are driving grid upgrades in new capacity. I’m looking heavily at their stock portfolio and seeing how that that rolls through. Oil and natural gas and again there’s several different ways as we do our day job and have a lot of fun at that is taking a look at whether or not it is a private company or a public company when we evaluate deals and is the deal a tax for a tax benefit investment or is it a just a strictly a stock transaction whether or we’re buying or selling oil or gas leases a lot to having a lot of fun there. The data center boom is not going away anytime soon, but make sure you’re careful as what you’re looking for. And we’ve got more lists coming up in future episodes. [00:06:25][159.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:06:26] So let’s take a look here. Natural gas is booming, unlocking opportunities in the energy sector. This is really cool when you sit back and take a look at the production in the different areas and basins. We have the Haynesville which is right down there in Louisiana and that is an outstanding basin when you’re sitting there considering that a lot of that goes right into Chenier and right out the door to LNG export facilities there right in there. You have the Balkan up in North Dakota and Montana. You had the Nairoba up in Colorado and Wyoming and got another story on that. And then you have the Permian and the Permia in West Texas and New Mexico. But they’re having some serious water problems. So we are active in a lot of those and taking a look at the different deals. And you have Chevron, EQT, Diamondback, Chenier, Kinder Morgan, Nintexo Partners, lots of opportunities for investors in there and how to profit from the natural gas boom. There is a difference. [00:07:31][64.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:07:32] And Steve Reese is, I wanna give Steve Reese and his company a shout out, Reese Energy Consulting. Has really brought to my eyes the light that the molecule is changing and that is we are looking at a very large demand we used to just burn natural gas in called flared gas and now it’s being sought after so people are wanting the molecules in natural gas and then the by-product is actually the oil that is then sold off, so. Got a lot of great financial things going on and it’s great changes. [00:08:09][37.3]

Stuart Turley: [00:08:09] Let’s go to this next article here. USGS releases assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Nairobi formation of southwest Wyoming and northeast Colorado. This is really very cool and Wyoming ranked 8th nationally in crude oil production and producing 96.8 million barrels up from 90.8 million in the state holds 978 million barrels of proven oil reserves accounting for 2.4 percent of the total U.S. Reserve and 15.5 billion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves. That is huge. Colorado has been seeing significant oil production growth, particularly in the D.J.’s Wattenberg field driven by the Nobera and Codell formations. In 2012, the state produced over 48 million barrels at a 24% increase of 2011. And here’s where poor ol’ Colorado’s left-leaning government is really ruining the state. I have a hard time looking at assets for buying or selling in Colorado. We do, but there are some severe challenges in drilling for oil and gas. And I personally have got a, a non-investment tendency in Colorado because of the management and the leadership very much like the leadership in, in California. So as we take a look, way to go USGS. We’re proud of you and taking a look at all the undiscovered and more resources for the US. Very, very strong. [00:09:59][109.9]

Stuart Turley: [00:10:00] Last article. I had a lot of fun writing this story. This is only on the Energy Newsbeat sub stack, theenergynewsbeat.substack.com Why is ethanol still being mandated? How much does it cost consumers and taxpayers? Let’s rumble through the numbers here. And as you see a guy sitting there in a nice t-shirt, he’s kind of looking at a corner cop going, how am I going to put this in the car? Pretty much why are we putting corn in a car? I get a ballpark about two miles per gallon better mileage when I don’t use ethanol. Harder on an engine, it takes more energy to run. Why are we doing it? It’s because the lobbyists. Producing ethanol corn, growing corn, milling it, firming it into ethanol, and distributing cost include agricultural input, seed, fertilizer, water, energy for processing and transportation. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, ethanol production cost have fluctuated with corn prices averaging $3 per bushel in 2007, but spiked to $6.03 in 2008 and hit record highs in $8 during the 2012 drought. In 2024, ethanol was priced about 49 cents per gallon less than reformulated gasoline, offering a costed savings at the pump. Now, however, these savings mask the cost of the pump. Hidden cost ethanol’s energy return on investment ero is low it is one to five to one compared to oils 11 to one meaning it requires significantly more energy to produce subsidies including on crop insurance tax credits further distort the market between 1995 and 2010 corn subsidies totaled 90 billion dollars excluding ethanol specific incentives. In 2012, crop insurance payouts reached 20 billion. I’ve got some great charts in there from Sandstone Asset Management and it just does not make any sense. So if you’re in the White House and we can get past the lobbyist for the farmers, let’s look at a planned phase out of this entire program. I’m not saying let’s stop this cold turkey and say boom farmers are hung out to dry. I understand a plan but let’s get a escalated plan and stop this waste of money to consumers. The net savings charts per household income is in the billions and I can speak from just moving. But going on a regular basis between my houses, I save about two miles per gallon and that’s a lot of money, as many miles as I have to travel. So when you sit back and take a look, savings and calculations are absolutely there. We have to get rid of ethanol. It does absolutely no good except the attorneys and the lobbyists. [00:13:28][208.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:13:30] With that, like, subscribe, give Steve Reese a shout out if you’re a CEO in the data center and you want to try to figure out what state am I going to put my data center in. Go to Texas, go to wherever there’s a nuclear power plant that can guarantee low cost. Or if you want to go to Texas. Texas is a great state for business and we love data centers. So, with that, like, subscribe, share, read this to your pets. And be epic out there. Have a great day. [00:13:30][0.0][796.4]