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BP Dumping Key Green Energy Business

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Owen Klinsky

 

European energy company BP has announced plans to sell its U.S. onshore wind business as it aims to concentrate on its core oil and gas business and improve investor sentiment, according to the Financial Times.

BP, along with its rival Shell, has looked to scale back on green initiatives over the past few years, rejecting further cuts to oil production in June 2023. Now, the company is looking to sell its roughly $2 billion U.S. onshore wind portfolio, which consists of stakes in ten operating wind farms and has a total net generating capacity of 1.3 gigawatts, the FT reported.

“We believe the business is likely to be of greater value for another owner,” William Lin, BP’s executive vice president for gas & low carbon energy, told Bloomberg. “This planned divestment is part of our strategy of continuing to simplify our portfolio and focus on value.”

The move comes as BP’s share price sits near a two-year low, and as the company is in the process of “shifting capital away from transition themes and back to the core business,” Biraj Borkhataria, head of European energy research at RBC Europe Ltd XYZ, told Bloomberg. It also comes as the U.S. onshore wind industry has struggled more broadly as installations have slowed due to elevated interest rates and permitting challenges, with BloombergNEF lowering its projections for new onshore wind by 22% through 2030.

BP’s offshore wind (OSW) efforts have also run into challenges, with the company writing down the value of its OSW  portfolio by $1.1 billion last year, and the company’s former renewables chief, Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath, telling the FT, “offshore wind in the US is fundamentally broken.”

BP’s competitor Shell has also pivoted away from a renewables transition in recent years, with its CEO Wael Sawan  describing cutting oil production as “dangerous and irresponsible.”

“I disagree with him, respectfully,” Sawan said in July 2023 in reference to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterrdaes’ comment that new oil and gas investments are “economic and moral madness.” “What would be dangerous and irresponsible is actually cutting out oil and gas production so that the cost of living, as we saw last year, starts to shoot up again.”

The onset of the Russia-Ukraine war in Feb. 2022 drove energy prices skywards, with gas surpassing $5 a gallon in June 2022, up from roughly $1.80 in April 2020, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

BP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Pastor Lectures Trump and Vance On Trans People, Illegal Immigrants

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Nicole Silverio

President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance visibly rolled their eyes as the Episcopal bishop of Washington, Mariann Budde, lectured them on being kind to transgender people and immigrants at Tuesday’s National Prayer Service.

Budde requested that the newly sworn-in president and vice president “have mercy” on gay, lesbian and transgender people as well as illegal immigrants who are allegedly “scared” by the new administration. The new leaders did not appear amused by her lecture, with Vance repeatedly shooting looks to his wife, Second Lady Usha Vance.

“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on the people in our country who are scared now,” Budde said. “There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives. And the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants, who work the night shifts in hospitals. They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors, they are faithful members of churches and our mosques, synagogues and temples.”

WATCH: 

Trump and Vance attended the National Prayer Service along with Usha, First Lady Melania Trump and their families at the Washington National Cathedral. The interfaith service was held to “offer prayers of thanksgiving for our democracy” at the beginning of the new administration, according to a statement from the National Cathedral.

Budde, a staunch critic of Trump since his first term, said during a phone call in 2020 that she was “outraged” by the president’s speech about the importance of law and order at St. John’s Episcopal Church after it was set ablaze by Black Lives Matter protesters. She further seethed at Trump for allegedly being given no notice that the area surrounding the church would be cleared with tear gas.

Trump signed a slew of executive orders Monday evening to terminate birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants, declare a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border and to direct the federal government to only recognize two sexes, male and female.

An Axios/Ipsos poll from Sunday found that 66% of Americans support deporting immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally, an action that Trump had promised to enact throughout his campaign. The poll surveyed 1,025 adults between January 10 to 12 with a 3.2% margin of error.

A national poll by PPRI in June 2023 found that 65% of Americans believe there are only two genders. The poll surveyed 5,000 adults between March 9-23 with a 1.5% margin of error.

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Trump Takes Firm Stand, Exits Paris Agreement Again

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Mariane Angela

President Donald Trump issued an executive order Monday to remove the United States from the Paris Agreement.

The United States joins Iran, Libya, and Yemen as countries not part of the Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit global warming, the New York Times reported. Trump had previously pulled out of the agreement during his first term, only to see his successor, former president Joe Biden, re-enter it in 2021 after taking office.

This decision aims to increase fossil fuel production and reduce investment in clean energy technologies like electric vehicles and wind turbines, the outlet stated. Additionally, Trump notified the United Nations, which manages the Paris Agreement, of the U.S.’s withdrawal with a signed letter, setting the official exit to occur one year after its submission.

Trump has said in the past that the U.S. involvement in the Paris agreement harms America’s economic competitiveness and would not make a significant impact on the climate. He also said previously that the agreement was poorly negotiated and did not put American workers first.

The Biden administration implemented new emissions goals as part of its efforts to solidify its climate strategy. The Trump administration plans to deregulate the energy sector and roll back funding from Biden’s key climate initiatives. Since Nov. 5, members of Biden administration have distributed $1.6 billion in “environmental justice” grants, secured significant loans for green energy firms, empowered  California regulators to influence the national auto market, and published a detailed analysis on the effects of liquefied natural gas exports, potentially hindering Trump’s efforts to expand them.

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