Smog..

 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an emergency air-quality waiver through June 6 to boost supplies of gasoline in East Texas after production was cut at a regional refinery.

The waiver allows the sale in 34 Texas counties of higher-volatility, winter-grade gasoline. The Biden administration has released emergency oil stocks and is considering lifting smog rules nationwide to combat rising fuel prices.

Waivers typically are issued after hurricanes or other disasters that broadly cut fuel supplies and not for outages at a single refinery as in the Texas case.

Sanctions on Russia or Lifting smog rules nationwide to combat rising fuel prices?  Just a lost cause.

Blackout..

 

[By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com]

As many as six million British households could face blackouts this winter in case of a gas shortage, per a Sky News report citing government modeling of energy fundamentals next heating season.

The blackouts fall under a worst-case scenario with gas supply shortages, which would also involve limits being placed on industrial gas consumption, the report noted. The blackouts would be the result of gas supply rationing to gas-fired power plants.

The cost of living crisis "is going to get truly horrific" in October, when the twice-yearly-adjusted price cap is set to spike again, Keith Anderson, chief executive at one of the largest providers, ScottishPower, told a Parliament committee last month.  

"Thanks to a massive £90bn investment in renewable energy in the last decade, we have one of the most reliable and diverse energy systems in the world, and unlike Europe, we are not dependent on Russian energy imports," the spokesperson also said. But then a major problem here. Just a thought.  

Loss..

 

When gas prices exceed $5 per gallon, the economy tends to experience what's called demand destruction, whereby consumers and businesses reduce spending because of the higher prices. The prices continue to rise.

 Each 10 percent increase in gas and oil prices means consumers will have to spend an additional $23 billion a year to keep up with earlier spending patterns. So here is 500 billion Dollars loss to the economy.

Peace..

 

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke via phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, calling for a ceasefire and direct talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky amid Moscow’s continued invasion of Ukraine.

The European leaders also pressed Putin to release roughly 2,5000 “defenders of Azovstal held as prisoners of war by Russian forces,” according to a press release from the French embassy. Azovstal was the final holdout of Ukrainian forces before Russia fully seized the port city of Mariupol.

Putin reportedly conveyed “the openness of the Russian side to the resumption of dialogue” during the 80-minute call.

Macron and Scholtz also voiced an “urgent need for the blockade of Odessa to be lifted” in order to resume the export of Ukrainian grain, the release added. The Russian blockade is exacerbating food shortages and inflation across the world. 

Can Macron brokers a deal to this area?  Just a thought.

Sanctions..

 

Crude prices will likely go even higher still after already surging following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Europe is hugely dependent on Russian oil imports. It gets about a quarter of its oil from Russia, by far the biggest single source of oil imports into the continent.

Ultimately, it's expected that an EU ban on Russian oil imports will result in a loss of 2 million barrels a day from Russia.

 Russia could make up the loss of revenue from sales to the EU through higher crude prices.

European citizens will be hit hard for sure, but even in the U.S., it's hard to see any relief in sight to gas prices.

The U.S. is also approaching the summer season, and the Hurricane season, so higher prices are coming. Just a thought.

Investigate..

 

Spiral..

 

The desire to humiliate Putin and reinforce U.S. global military dominance is shortsighted and dangerous. It risks escalating, expanding, and prolonging the war in Ukraine. It will vastly increase the probability of a nuclear exchange, which could easily spiral into a global holocaust. 

The highest priority of the United States should be to bring this war to a swift conclusion through an immediate ceasefire and a negotiated settlement that is fair and durable.

Yet the Biden administration under pressure from Congress and the foreign policy establishment has only ratcheted up its war aims, from containing Russia to crushing it. 

 Following a high-level visit to Ukraine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin described the U.S. goal as seeing “Russia weakened to the degree it cannot do the kinds of things it has done in invading Ukraine,” while Democratic leaders called for an outright military “victory”. 

With that Food shortage, Oil Prices, Steady Inflation and increase poverty around the globe, all are very welcome to this Democratic Party to keep the focus away from Domestic Issues and Mid Term Election.  Just a thought.

Transitional..

 

Shortage..

 

The Russia-Ukraine war is already taking a dramatic toll on the world economy and placing a huge swath of the world’s population, especially those in developing nations, at an increased risk of harm, the United Nations warned.

The crisis has caused a “perfect storm” of disruptions to global food, energy and financial markets that “threatens to negatively affect the lives of billions of people around the world,” the UN said in a new report.

But they have been greatly exacerbated by the West impact of unprecedented sanctions on Moscow that have thrown global markets off balance.

Russia was also the world’s top exporter of natural gas and its second-largest oil exporter. Russia and Belarus also export roughly one-fifth of the world’s fertilizers.

As a result of the Sanctions, food prices are at the highest levels ever recorded by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, up 34% from this time last year, according to the report.

Crude oil prices, meanwhile, rose 60% year-over-year, and fertilizer prices have more than doubled.

 The Sanctions against Russia is a process of weaponizing economics, oil and food against the world.  Just a thought.

Polls..