Former Trump energy secretary says releasing oil from reserves is ‘bad policy choice’

Published

3 years ago

November 25, 2021

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Oil wells pumping outside of Midland Texas.

Joe Sohm | Visions of America | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

The Biden administration’s decision to release oil from U.S. reserves is a “mistake,” former U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette told on Wednesday.

“I do think it’s a bad policy choice. There’s no question about that,” he told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” one day after President Joe Biden announced that 50 million barrels of oil would be released from the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

China, India, Japan, South Korea and the U.K. will also be releasing their oil reserves as part of global efforts by high energy-consuming countries to cool energy prices.

The SPR in the U.S. is a national security asset meant to protect the country and its citizens from supply disruptions, such as during emergency situations, said Brouillette, who served as energy secretary under former President Donald Trump.

“It’s not a supply emergency, and the only emergency I can … see in this case is a political emergency,” he said.

The Biden administration’s action shows they are concerned about the midterm elections in 2022, Brouillette said.

“This is driving the decision — perhaps more than anything else — because as I said earlier, it’s not a supply emergency,” he said.

It’s a mistake, we should not be using it for these purposes.

Dan Brouillette

Former U.S. Energy Secretary

Oil producers in the U.S. pump around 11 million barrels per day, according to the Energy Information Administration.

“The issue for the United States is not [oil] supply, it’s politics,” Brouillette said. “I hate to see these types of decisions … the Strategic Petroleum Reserve being used in this way. It’s unfortunate.”

“It’s a mistake, we should not be using it for these purposes,” he added.

Three presidents have used the SPR as an emergency response tool in the past, according to the Office of
Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. The drawdowns were ordered to help stabilize the market during Libya’s civil war, Hurricane Katrina and the Persian Gulf War.

Energy inflation

Oil prices have risen more than 60% so far this year as economies reopened and there was a sharp rebound in demand.

The U.S. asked OPEC and its allies to increase production in order to tamp down prices, but the oil alliance stuck to its plan of adding supply gradually.

Brouillette said using the SPR to “strike back” at OPEC is “absolutely … the wrong approach,” and there are other levers the U.S. can use.

Instead of tapping the reserves, the U.S. should allow projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline, a major U.S.-Canada oil pipeline that was expected to carry about 830,000 barrels per day of Alberta oil sands crude to Nebraska. It was officially canceled in June after Biden revoked a key permit needed for a U.S. stretch of the 1,200-mile project.

Washington could also allow oil production on federal land, the former energy secretary said.

One of the first things Biden did when he was inaugurated in January was to sign a slew of executive actions on climate change, including one to halt new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and water. The suspension has been blocked for now, and a record offshore lease sale opened this month.

Increasing production is a better way to influence prices, Brouillette said, noting that the U.S. was a swing producer for many years and essentially set the world’s oil prices.

“Our ability to produce 13 million barrels a day of oil really did shape the marketplace for three to four years,” he said. “It’s important that we return to that approach — not using a national asset like the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to affect pricing.”

— CNBC’s Pippa Stevens, Matt Clinch, Natasha Turak and Emma Newburger contributed to this report.

Environment

The first giant 15 MW turbine is up at Germany’s largest offshore wind farm

Published

10 hours ago

April 28, 2025

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The first giant 15 MW turbine is up at Germany’s largest offshore wind farm

Germany largest offshore wind — Photo: EnBW

Germany’s largest offshore wind farm under construction, EnBW’s He Dreiht, just hit a big milestone: The first enormous turbine is now up in the North Sea.

He Dreiht – which means “it spins” in Low German – is using Vestas’s massive 15 megawatt (MW) turbines, the first project in the world to install them. Just one spin of one of the rotors can generate enough electricity to power four households for an entire day.

When it’s finished, He Dreiht will have 64 mega turbines cranking out 960 megawatts (MW) of clean power – enough to supply around 1.1 million homes. And it’s being built without any government subsidies.

EnBW, one of Germany’s major energy companies, has been working in offshore wind for more than 15 years, but He Dreiht is their biggest project yet. “It will play a key role in helping us to significantly grow our renewable energy output from 6.6 GW to over 10 GW by 2030,” said Michael Class, who heads up EnBW’s generation portfolio development.

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The project is a win for Vestas, too. “With the installation of the first V236-15.0 MW, we have reached an important milestone for both the He Dreiht project and our offshore ramp-up, which helps Germany build a more secure, affordable, and sustainable energy system,” said Nils de Baar, president of Vestas Northern & Central Europe.

He Dreiht is located about 85 kilometers (53 miles) northwest of Borkum and 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of Helgoland. At peak times, more than 500 workers will be out at sea building the farm, using a fleet of more than 60 ships. EnBW’s offshore team in Hamburg is running the show.

The installation process is a major operation. The 64 foundations were already set in the seabed last year. Parts for the turbines are loaded onto the installation vessel Wind Orca in Esbjerg, Denmark, and shipped out in a 12-hour journey to the construction site. From there, the turbines are lifted into place. Meanwhile, crews are also working on internal wind farm cabling.

A partner consortium made up of Allianz Capital Partners, AIP, and Norges Bank Investment Management owns 49.9% of the shares in He Dreiht.

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Tesla gives update on Tesla Semi factory, says on track for volume production in 2026

Published

11 hours ago

April 28, 2025

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Tesla gives update on Tesla Semi factory, says on track for volume production in 2026

Tesla has released a quick update about its Tesla Semi factory in Nevada. It says that it is on track for volume production of the electric semi truck in 2026.

The Tesla Semi was first scheduled to go into production in 2019, but it has faced numerous delays.

Now, it appears that there is finally some momentum to bring it to volume production.

For the last two years, Tesla has been working to build a new factory next to Gigafactory Nevada, where it builds the battery packs and drive units for most of its electric vehicles built in North America.

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Today, Tesla released a “progress update on the factory, confirming that it finished building and it’s now working on deploying the production lines:

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Tesla had previously mentioned aiming for volume production by 2025, but it is now only talking about starting production toward the end of the year and ramping up next year.

The automaker reiterated its planned production capacity of 50,000 units.

We recently reported that an early Tesla Semi customer, Ryder, stated that the electric truck program is experiencing more delays and a price increase described as “dramatic.”

They now expect to take deliveries of their first trucks later in 2026 and said that the price has increased “dramatically,” leading them to scale back their pilot program from 42 to 18 Tesla Semi trucks.

When originally unveiling the Tesla Semi in 2017, the automaker mentioned prices of $150,000 for a 300-mile range truck and $180,000 for the 500-mile version. Tesla also took orders for a “Founder’s Series Semi” at $200,000.

However, Tesla didn’t update the prices when launching the “production version” of the truck in late 2022. Price increases have been speculated, but the company has never confirmed them.

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Vietnamese solar giant Boviet opens first US factory in North Carolina

Published

12 hours ago

April 28, 2025

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Vietnamese solar giant Boviet opens first US factory in North Carolina

Boviet Solar North Carolina — Photo: Boviet Solar

Vietnamese solar panel maker Boviet Solar just opened the doors to its first US factory — a huge new PV module plant in Greenville, North Carolina.

The company dropped $294 million into the state-of-the-art facility, which will pump out Boviet’s Gamma Series monofacial and Vega Series bifacial solar panels. They’re using advanced PERC and N-Type solar cell tech, which basically means these panels are built to deliver higher efficiency and better performance across residential, commercial, industrial, and utility-scale projects.

The Greenville factory’s first phase is now online with an annual PV module output capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW). For Phase 2, which is scheduled to come online in the second half of 2026, Boviet will invest another $100 million to add 600,000 square feet and ramp up to another 2 GW. It will make high-efficiency solar cells.

Once both phases are complete, Boviet’s campus will cover more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing and R&D space. It’s one of the biggest clean energy manufacturing projects North Carolina has ever seen.

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The jobs impact is significant, too. The first phase will create 460 skilled local jobs. Phase 2 is expected to add another 908, bringing the total to over 1,300 direct jobs, plus nearly 2,000 more indirect jobs across the region. That’s good news for Pitt County’s economy, real estate market, and workforce training programs.

“This facility is not just creating jobs, but creating opportunity, innovation, and a stronger foundation for eastern North Carolina,” said Senator Kandie Smith. Governor Josh Stein added that Boviet Solar’s move shows how North Carolina is leading the way in clean energy growth.

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