Podcast appearances and mentions of Jones Act

US Navy Control and the Opening of the Strait of Hormuz. Guest: Rebecca Grant and Gordon Chang. Despite Iranian claims of closure, the US Navy maintains tactical control over the Strait of Hormuz, ensuring sea lanes remain open for international shipping. Advanced mine-clearing technology and persistent patrols have neutralized threats, though economic signals like the Jones Act waiver remain points of discussion. 21919 PARIS

SCHEDULE THE JOHN BATCHELOCR SHOW, 6-24-2026MEXICO CITYThe Imprisonment of Jimmy Lai and the Future of Hong Kong. Guest: Mark Clifford and Gordon Chang. Jimmy Lai has spent over 2,000 days in prison, becoming a symbol of resistance against the Chinese Communist Party. His fate mirrors that of Hong Kong, which is transforming into a national security state where surveillance and espionage extend to international cities like London. 1US Navy Control and the Opening of the Strait of Hormuz. Guest: Rebecca Grant and Gordon Chang. Despite Iranian claims of closure, the US Navy maintains tactical control over the Strait of Hormuz, ensuring sea lanes remain open for international shipping. Advanced mine-clearing technology and persistent patrols have neutralized threats, though economic signals like the Jones Act waiver remain points of discussion. 2Canadian Public Opinion on the Chinese Threat and US Trade. Guest: Charles Burton and Gordon Chang. A majority of Canadians perceive China as a threat following revelations of election interference and malign influence operations. Meanwhile, concerns grow regarding the reliability of the United States as a partner under the Trumpadministration and the potential abrogation of the USMCA trade agreement. 3Strengthening Defense Ties Between the Philippines and Canada. Guest: Charles Burton and Gordon Chang.Canada is deepening security cooperation with the Philippines to counter Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea. This partnership includes logistical agreements and military training, even as Canada faces challenges protecting its own Arctic sovereignty against increasing Russian and Chinese strategic reach in the North. 4Ukrainian Drone Attacks Cripple Russian Oil Infrastructure. Guest: Michael Bernstam. Cheap Ukrainian drones have successfully targeted Russian refineries and fuel transport, causing significant shortages of gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuel. This technological warfare has forced Russia to ban exports and implement rationing, as traditional air defense systems struggle to counter swarms of small, maneuverable drones. 5Declining Russian Oil Production and the Shadow Fleet. Guest: Michael Bernstam. Russian oil production is falling due to aging fields and a lack of investment, failing to meet OPEC quotas. While Russia utilizes a "shadow fleet" to bypass sanctions, it must offer steep discounts to India and China as Brent crude prices decline and fiscal pressures mount. 6European Heatwave, Commodity Prices, and UK Political Shifts. Guest: Simon Constable. A "Godzilla El Niño" has triggered record-breaking heatwaves across Europe, impacting energy demand and agriculture. Amid falling Brent crude prices, attention shifts to UK politics, where the potential rise of Andy Burnham within the Labour Party signals a move toward higher taxes and increased government spending. 7The Infrastructure and Economic Impact of Data Centers. Guest: Simon Constable. Data centers have become essential infrastructure for AI development, consuming vast amounts of water and electricity. While they provide significant tax revenue for localities, particularly in states like Virginia and Texas, their construction often faces local opposition due to their immense resource requirements and costs. 8Colombia's Presidential Shift Toward Security and Law and Order. Guest: Evan Ellis. Abelardo de la Espriellaappears to have won the Colombian presidency, promising a crackdown on insecurity and organized crime modeled after El Salvador's policies. His victory signals a likely return to strong security cooperation with the United States and a departure from the policies of Gustavo Petro. 9Keiko Fujimori and the Return of the Fujimori Dynasty. Guest: Evan Ellis. Keiko Fujimori has likely secured the Peruvian presidency, narrowly defeating her socialist opponent through overseas votes. Her administration faces a deeply divided nation, widespread illegal mining, and cocaine production, but may benefit from a new bicameral Congress intended to provide greater political stability than previous years. 10Political Instability in Bolivia and Regional Alliances. Guest: Evan Ellis. President Rodrigo Paz has survived a 50-day crisis in Bolivia after declaring a state of emergency to clear blockades led by Evo Morales. While regional allies have supported Paz, Brazil's absence from this coalition highlights President Lula's role as a principal counterweight to US influence. 11Mexico's Economic Growth and USMCA Renegotiation Tensions. Guest: Evan Ellis. The Mexican economy saw its sharpest expansion in five years, yet the upcoming USMCA renegotiation creates significant uncertainty. While Mexicoattempts to appease the US through high-level investigations into cartel-linked officials, the Sheinbaum government remains hesitant to fully confront powerful political figures within its own party. 12Pope Leo XIV's Warning on Artificial Intelligence. Guest: Peter Berkowitz. In a 43,000-word encyclical, Pope Leo XIV warns that artificial intelligence risks dehumanizing society and excluding God from the human experience. While acknowledging technological benefits, the Pope emphasizes the danger of treating humans as mere means and the erosion of authentic human relationships in favor of machines. 13AI in Education and the Necessity of Liberal Learning. Guest: Peter Berkowitz. The rise of AI in academia tempts students to bypass the essential struggle of thinking, leading to intellectual atrophy. Educators argue that liberal education is now more vital than ever to help students cultivate a flourishing mind and recognize the limitations of technological shortcuts. 14Private Innovation and Infrastructure Challenges in Space. Guest: Bob Zimmerman. SpaceX successfully defeated legal challenges in Texas while NASA's aging infrastructure faces funding gaps and restrictive laws. Meanwhile, private startups like Catalyst are attempting robotic satellite rescues, signaling a shift toward a capitalist model in space operations as government agencies struggle with delays and inefficiencies. 15New Discoveries in Planetary Science and Cosmology. Guest: Bob Zimmerman. The Lucy probe's flyby of asteroid Donaldjohanson revealed a "tumbling peanut" shape, providing insights into its 155-million-year history. Additionally, observations of asymmetric radio galaxies highlight galactic movement through the intergalactic medium, while debates continue among cosmologists regarding the existence and properties of dark energy. 16One correction folded in: Labour Party (UK spelling) in file 7. I also expanded the file 9 headline's "Law Order" to "Law and Order" — flag if you wanted it left verbatim.

The Islamification of America is HERE, and Texas is ground zero! Muslims are now pushing Sharia law over a Denton County cemetery. Meanwhile, actor Giancarlo Esposito — who played Gus Fring on “Breaking Bad” — converts to Islam and calls for REVOLUTION in America. However, some Texans have had enough and are calling out the Islamic cult. Former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard just dropped a bombshell report proving Fauci gave taxpayer funds to the Wuhan lab behind the COVID outbreak and let Americans die of COVID to push an experimental vaccine and emergency powers. But the New York Times and Washington Post are working overtime to misdirect the American public. Trump was right all along: The media is the enemy of the people. Black Americans have more rights than ever but still demand that white people not celebrate Juneteenth, go to work, and pay reparations. Violence exploded in Chicago over the “holiday” weekend, and Mayor Brandon Johnson blamed Nixon instead of those responsible while choosing to promote the protection of trans residents over black lives. Democrats will stop at nothing to make our country less safe. Seizing on President Trump's goodwill, now the Left wants to repeal the Jones Act and hand our coastal shipping over to China. But that's only going to make us even more America last. 0:00 - Sharia Law Now in Cemeteries? 20:31 - Tulsi Drops Fauci Bombshell 35:35 - Juneteenth Turns Deadly 47:05 - Democrats Push to Make America Last ► Catch up on my H-1B visa investigations: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkJEwf2wliqrtNlYs9D78nmE_Gnja_PpC ► Email me at saratips@blazemedia.com if you have uncovered potential fraud in your area. ► Subscribe to my second YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SaraGonzalesTX?sub_confirmation=1 ► PREBORN Donate securely at https://www.preborn.com/sara or dial #250, keyword BABY. ►MD HEARING Shop https://www.MDHearing.com and use promo code SARA to get a pair for hearing aids for JUST $247. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe Raia, Chief Commercial Officer at Abaxx Exchange, had a fun interview as he stopped by to give us an update. As a commercial tanker captain who moved into commodities trading, he has the knowledge and background to help guide the US Markets.Connect with Joe on his LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-raia-4982a417/Follow Joe on X here: https://x.com/JoeRaia5Check out Abaxx Exchange information here: https://abaxx.exchange/1. Abaxx Exchange & LNG Futures ContractsThe core focus is on ABEX's innovative physically deliverable LNG futures contracts. Joe Rea explains how these contracts are unique because they price actual waterborne LNG molecules rather than using proxy benchmarks like Henry Hub or Brent crude oil. The contracts cover three key regions: Gulf of Mexico (FOB), DES North Pacific Asia, and Northwest Europe. This addresses a major gap in the market where there was no transparent, regulated pricing instrument for LNG.2. Pricing Benchmarks & Market InefficienciesA significant discussion centers on why traditional pricing proxies fail for LNG. Henry Hub has remained at $3 for 15 years while waterborne LNG ranges from $11-15, and Brent crude oil has no correlation to delivered LNG in Asia. ABEX's contracts provide proper pricing correlation, which is critical for midstream suppliers to get fair value for their molecules.3. Global LNG Market DynamicsThe conversation covers Europe's energy crisis following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the shift from long-term contracts (40-50% of the market) to spot and shorter-term contracts, and the EU's struggle to refill natural gas reserves to 85-90% capacity. There's also discussion of Russia's new icebreaker LNG carriers and potential sanctions implications.4. Expansion of LNG Production & InfrastructureTopics include the U.S. becoming the world's largest LNG producer, with 200 MTPA coming online this year. There's discussion of floating LNG terminals (FSRUs) as faster alternatives to building permanent facilities, and potential expansion in the Middle East with pipelines connecting to floating LNG infrastructure.5. Precious Metals TradingAbaxx has expanded beyond energy into metals, launching gold and silver futures contracts with physical delivery capabilities in Singapore vaults. The silver contract has been particularly successful, and these contracts address logistical issues that previously plagued gold trading between London and New York.6. Energy Security & U.S. PolicyA major theme is energy security, including discussions of the Jones Act, U.S. tanker capacity, and the importance of American-flagged vessels. The conversation highlights how a 60-day Jones Act waiver resulted in more U.S. energy exports to Puerto Rico in 2 months than in the previous 20 years, and the need to rebuild U.S. shipbuilding capacity.7. Geopolitical ImplicationsDiscussion of Middle East pipeline infrastructure (Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, UAE expansion, Kuwait's plans), Iran's territorial claims, and how geopolitical tensions affect energy markets and shipping routes through critical chokepoints like the Panama Canal and Strait of Hormuz.8. Technology & Market IntegrationAbaxx's integration with major pricing platforms like Refinitiv, Bloomberg, and TradingView to make pricing data accessible globally. The conversation emphasizes the importance of having standardized, transparent pricing that can be referenced in trading agreements.This episode essentially showcases how ABEX is revolutionizing commodity trading by creating transparent, physically backed futures markets that better serve the global energy and metals industries.Thank you, Joe, for your service in the United States Merchant Fleet as a Captain and for your continued service in helping balance the markets.Check out the Energy News Beat SubStack https://theenergynewsbeat.substack.com/A shout-out to Steve Reese and the Reese Energy Consulting group for sponsoring the Podcast https://reeseenergyconsulting.com/.Data2 if you have any business systems, can you trust A? Well, they have the patent on validation. . https://data2.zoholandingpage.com/energyAnd we have WellDatabase rolling in as a new sponsor. https://welldatabase.com/

Day Break | Inflation, Energy, and Election Battles --- 00:00 - Monologue 19:14 – Kent Strang, Managing Director for Americans for Prosperity. Strang discusses recent inflation trends, economic policy, and ongoing debates surrounding the Jones Act. He explains how AFP views inflation's impact on consumers and businesses and why some policymakers are advocating reforms to maritime shipping regulations. 28:11 – Erik Holt, former federal employee and rural Colorado fire chief. Holt discusses his allegations of election irregularities, the circumstances surrounding his dismissal, and his ongoing federal court appeal. The conversation focuses on whistleblower protections, election administration, and government accountability. 38:26 - Monologue 47:25 – Laura C. Volpe, Founder of ManeInk HairLoss Solutions. Volpe discusses hair health, hair loss prevention, and the benefits of HydraLift Shampoo. The conversation covers common causes of hair thinning and practical strategies for maintaining healthy hair and scalp health. 57:33 – Paul Teller, President of Teller Strategies and former Trump-Pence White House advisor. Teller discusses the economic impact of tariffs, arguing that trade policy can affect affordability, consumer prices, and economic opportunity. He outlines policy proposals he believes could help strengthen economic growth and expand access to the American Dream. 1:06:30 – David Covey, newly elected Vice Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. Covey discusses leadership changes within the Texas Republican Party following its convention and analyzes the political prospects of Texas state representative James Talarico and other emerging figures in Texas politics. 1:16:39 - Monologue 1:25:39 – James David Dickson, Michigan-based strategist, founder of the Make Politics Local Again (MPLA) movement, and host of the James Dickson Podcast. Dickson discusses Michigan's ongoing energy policy debate, including criticism of Governor Whitmer's green energy initiatives and concerns about how energy costs affect Michigan families and businesses. 1:35:48 – Kaitlyn Buss, columnist for The Detroit News. Buss discusses controversy surrounding proposed data center developments in Michigan, including concerns raised by residents and comments from Governor Whitmer regarding public input, economic development, and energy infrastructure planning. --- Check out our brand new podcast, 'Forgotten America'... Episode 19 is live NOW at Steve Gruber on YouTube! Link below: https://youtu.be/rulxGa_tTeE

Host: Cindy Allen Published: June 12, 2026 Length: ~15 minutes Presented by: Global Training Center Summary In this week's episode of Simply Trade: Cindy's Version, Cindy Allen examines a series of significant developments that continue reshaping the trade landscape—from ongoing IEEPA litigation and Section 122 court challenges to growing uncertainty surrounding USMCA negotiations. But the heart of the episode focuses on the administration's Executive Order on Strengthening Customs Enforcement and the concerns emerging as the trade community begins to digest its potential consequences. Cindy breaks down three areas drawing particular attention: escalating bond requirements, restrictions on foreign importers of record, and new ownership disclosure requirements. Using Taylor Swift's The Black Dog as a backdrop, Cindy reflects on the idea that some longstanding trade practices may be coming to an end. While CBP views many of these changes as necessary tools to combat transshipment, shell companies, and duty evasion, the trade community is grappling with the possibility that enforcement-focused reforms may also affect legitimate importers and trusted traders. As Cindy notes, some old habits may indeed be "dying screaming"—but the larger question is what replaces them. This Week in Trade • The Court of Appeals indicated that Section 122 tariffs are likely lawful while litigation continues • CBP confirmed IEEPA refunds continue to be processed and announced reconciliation entries will be eligible for CAPE beginning June 29 • CBP reiterated that it believes court direction is needed before refunding finally liquidated entries • House Agriculture Committee hearings highlighted strong support for continued USMCA trade integration • Debate over the future of the Jones Act continues as some groups push for its repeal • Trade associations continue analyzing the Executive Order on Strengthening Customs Enforcement Main Topic / Discussion This week's episode centers on three major concerns emerging from the Executive Order on Strengthening Customs Enforcement. First, Cindy discusses the growing pressure surrounding customs bonds. As duty exposure increases, bond amounts are reaching unprecedented levels, creating challenges for importers and sureties alike. Questions remain regarding how CBP intends to apply mitigation limitations and whether liquidated damages could be affected. Second, the Executive Order's language regarding foreign importers of record has generated uncertainty throughout the trade community, particularly among Canadian companies that have historically operated under long-established customs practices. Finally, ownership disclosure requirements raise new questions about how CBP intends to evaluate importer eligibility and whether foreign ownership percentages could influence future customs treatment. While many support stronger enforcement against bad actors, Cindy emphasizes that additional clarification is needed to ensure legitimate importers are not unintentionally caught in the process. Key Takeaways • Section 122 tariff collections will continue while litigation proceeds • Reconciliation entries become eligible for CAPE beginning June 29 • CBP maintains that liquidated entries require court direction before refunds can be issued • USMCA negotiations appear likely to continue beyond the upcoming review deadline • Bonding requirements are becoming increasingly burdensome for some importers • Foreign importer of record restrictions may have significant implications for Canadian trade • Ownership disclosure provisions remain one of the least understood portions of the Executive Order • The trade community continues seeking clarity on how enforcement reforms will be implemented Resources & Mentions • Global Training Center • Trade Force Multiplier • United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit • Jones Act • USMCA Credits Host: • Cindy Allen – LinkedIn Producer: • Lalo Solorzano

This was a fun discussion about the serious issue of gasoline, diesel, and fertilizer price increases for farmers, ranchers, and consumers in California. Make no mistake, the actions taken by the Newsom administration have driven consumer prices to some of the highest in the United States. Gavin has taken California from almost energy independent to total dependence on imports.We have Mike Ariza, a downstream expert, who has been on the podcast several times. A great resource for boots-on-the-ground information on the California downstream market. Connect with Mike on his X account. @MikeAriza4531Also, we had Joseph Huitt, who is with the Bordin-Huitt California Almond Ranch. Check out their family products for honey and specialty almonds at https://bhalmondranch.com/1. California's Energy Crisis & Fuel DependencyMike Ariza, an energy expert, explains that California has become dangerously dependent on fuel imports (40% dependent). Two major refineries were converted to renewable diesel in 2023, taking 350,000 barrels of crude oil processing offline. This resulted in no gasoline or jet fuel production from those facilities. The Iranian conflict further disrupted supply chains, cutting off jet fuel, diesel, and gasoline shipments from Asian refineries. President Trump's waiver of the Jones Act allowed fuel from Gulf Coast refineries to reach California, preventing potential $10+ gasoline prices and shortages.2. Agricultural Challenges & Rising CostsJoseph from Borden Hewitt Ranch discusses the severe economic pressures on family farms:Red Diesel prices skyrocketed from $3.17/gallon in February to $4.79-$6.60/gallon by MarchFertilizer costs doubled from $300-$500/acre to $400-$700/acre due to Strait of Hormones closureAlmond prices have remained below the $2/pound break-even point for five yearsPayment delays: Farmers receive paychecks every 3-4 months, not weekly, creating cash flow challenges3. Water Rights & Agricultural RestrictionsJoseph describes severe water restrictions in California's San Joaquin Valley, where farmers are prohibited from irrigating during peak heat seasons (June-July) despite canals being full. Banks only finance half the land value due to water limitations, effectively halving farm viability.4. Regulatory Overreach & Equipment RestrictionsEPA regulations prevent farmers from repairing their own equipment without manufacturer accessA diesel mechanic was jailed for helping farmers and truckers repair enginesSoftware restrictions: Farmers can't access tractor software updates, limiting their ability to fix equipment independentlyTuning restrictions: Rice farmers need extra horsepower to navigate clay fields but face penalties if caught modifying engines5. GMO Seeds & Agricultural ContractsDiscussion about restrictive seed contracts where farmers must purchase new seeds annually and cannot replant saved seeds from previous years, creating ongoing dependency on seed companies.6. State Taxes & Economic BurdenMultiple taxes burden California farmers:Cap and Invest (called "Theft and Invest")Road taxes37 cents for bullet train funding80 cents for other state initiatives These taxes are passed directly to consumers through higher food prices.7. Food Supply Chain VulnerabilityIf California loses refinery capacity, diesel shortages would collapse logistics, resulting in:Only 3-5 days of food supply in metropolitan areasPort of Los Angeles unable to operateFood distribution across the entire country disrupted (LA is the largest food importer during winter)8. Family Farm Viability & Future GenerationsJoseph, at 25 years old, represents the challenge facing young farmers. While passionate about farming, he's pursuing a master's degree in biological science (studying avian influenza) because farming alone cannot support a family. His mother advised all children to pursue other careers while farming as a side activity—a common reality for modern family farms.Overall Theme: The podcast highlights how interconnected energy, agriculture, and regulatory policy are in California, and how state policies are making it increasingly impossible for family farms to survive while threatening regional and national food security.Hat tip to the Great John Rich for being named the Special Envoy to Farmers for the USDA. We have reached out to him to see about getting him on the podcast.Check out the Energy News Beat SubStack https://theenergynewsbeat.substack.com/A shout-out to Steve Reese and the Reese Energy Consulting group for sponsoring the Podcast https://reeseenergyconsulting.com/.Data2 if you have any business systems, can you trust A? Well, they have the patent on validation. . https://data2.zoholandingpage.com/energyAnd we have WellDatabase rolling in as a new sponsor. https://welldatabase.com/

Dr. Beatriz Canamary stopped by the Energy News Beat podcast, and we had a great discussion about energy, exports, and our maritime industry, including shipbuilding and the Jones Act. I am going to just be brutally honest for a moment, and say that I have been for totally repealing the Jones Act for years. After my discussion with Dr. Canamery, my opinion has shifted toward more of a "let's get the problem solved and leave the Jones Act in place long-term" stance. But we need a plan to get to a balance. Dr. Canamary has a new book coming out, and we will be getting an interview lined up. Connect with Beatriz on her LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beatrizcanamary/1. U.S. Maritime Industry RevitalizationThe core focus is rebuilding America's shipbuilding capacity. The U.S. currently represents only 0.4% of global ship production (down from over 50% post-WWII), while China dominates with 60% and South Korea adds another 20%. The discussion emphasizes the need for strategic investment in shipyards, workforce development, and creating predictable cargo demand to justify shipbuilding expansion.2. Energy Security & Dominance Through MaritimeEnergy exports (oil and LNG) are central to U.S. dominance, but they're currently transported on international vessels rather than U.S.-flagged ships. The podcast explores how securing cargo on American vessels strengthens both energy security and the maritime industry. The Strait of Hormuz crisis is cited as a wake-up call about supply chain vulnerabilities.3. Global Choke Points & Geopolitical RisksEight major maritime choke points (Strait of Hormuz, Red Sea/Houthis, Strait of Malacca, etc.) are contested and sometimes weaponized. Insurance companies can effectively shut down shipping by canceling coverage, as Lloyd's of London did during the Iran strike. The discussion highlights the need for U.S. insurance alternatives and control over critical passages.4. Nuclear Technology in MaritimeNuclear propulsion for ships and floating nuclear power plants are presented as innovation differentiators for the U.S. The ABS (American Bureau of Shipping) has frameworks for approving nuclear projects, and companies like Nano Nuclear are developing micro-reactors designed for maritime use. Nuclear is positioned as cleaner than traditional fuel oil and a competitive advantage.5. Autonomous & Advanced Maritime TechnologyA new IMO (International Maritime Organization) framework for autonomous commercial ships was recently approved, with a mandatory code coming in 2032. The U.S. is positioned to compete through innovation in automation, AI, and autonomous vessels rather than on cost—since labor-intensive competition with China/Korea is unwinnable.6. Maritime Prosperity ZonesThe U.S. should develop regional maritime clusters (similar to Europe's model) with specialized capabilities—some regions for tankers, others for icebreakers, etc. The American Maritime Industrial Coalition is mapping supply chains and regional expertise to accelerate production.7. Trade Agreements & Bilateral PartnershipsStrategic trade agreements with U.S. allies can secure cargo flows through American ports on U.S.-flagged vessels, creating demand signals for shipbuilding without direct government subsidies. This creates a win-win for allies seeking energy independence.8. The Ships for America ActA bipartisan bill with 126+ seats of support, expected to pass by year-end. It includes tax incentives and supports the broader maritime revitalization strategy outlined in the National Security Strategy and Maritime Action Plan.9. Geopolitical Shifts & New Trading BlocsThe podcast discusses emerging energy-based trading blocs, China's port dominance (129 ports globally), and concerns about China's influence in South America (Peru, Brazil). It also touches on the Monroe Doctrine and regional security in the Western Hemisphere.10. Ports as Strategic InfrastructureDr. Canamari's forthcoming book explores ports as intelligence hubs, infrastructure assets, and strategic military/trade assets. The discussion covers climate resilience, digital twins, automation, and how ports are increasingly weaponized in global trade wars.This is a comprehensive discussion of how maritime infrastructure, energy, innovation, and geopolitics intersect to shape U.S. competitiveness and national security.Check out the Energy News Beat SubStack https://theenergynewsbeat.substack.com/A shout-out to Steve Reese and the Reese Energy Consulting group for sponsoring the Podcast https://reeseenergyconsulting.com/.Data2 if you have any business systems, can you trust A? Well, they have the patent on validation. . https://data2.zoholandingpage.com/energyAnd we have WellDatabase rolling in as a new sponsor. https://welldatabase.com/

In this episode of Driving Discussions, Argus editors Jared Ainsworth, US gasoline editor, and Stephanie Crawford, associate editor and US Atlantic coast gasoline reporter, analyze how the US–Iran conflict has rapidly reshaped gasoline fundamentals ahead of the summer driving season. What began as a well-supplied market has tightened significantly, with exports rising, imports lagging, and regional imbalances emerging across key hubs. The discussion unpacks the evolving impact on pricing, flows, and blending behavior across US gasoline markets. Key Takeaways Tightening supply:S. gasoline inventories fell more than 16% since late February, signaling a sharper-than-normal seasonal draw. Global pull on barrels: Strong export demand—up ~32% vs. the five-year average—has redirected Gulf Coast supply into international markets. Shifting regional balances: Early Atlantic Coast tightness gave way to late-spring oversupply as imports and pipeline flows rebounded while demand lagged. Policy impacts: Jones Act and EPA waivers reshaped flows and blending dynamics, with limited Northeast relief but increased Gulf Coast-to-West Coast shipments. Atypical pricing signals: RBOB spreads widened despite regulatory flexibility, reflecting stricter blending behavior and altered summer demand patterns. Stay ahead of evolving gasoline market dynamics with Argus' expert analysis on pricing, flows, and regulatory impacts shaping the summer 2026 outlook.

We have 8 huge stories, and David Blackmon, Forbes, Daily Caller, and Substack Author stopped by. Connect with David on his SubStack: https://blackmon.substack.com/1. Data Centers & Infrastructure DevelopmentWest Texas Data Center Project: A Forbes story about a responsible data center development near Fort Stockton that addresses activist concerns through sustainable practices (minimal water usage, closed-circuit cooling, local hiring, onsite housing)Data Centers Moving to Unincorporated Areas: Developers are shifting massive data centers to rural, unincorporated areas to avoid citizen decision impacts and regulatory hurdlesGrid Interconnection Challenges: Texas ERCOT is grappling with 410 gigawatts of large load interconnection requests, 87% from data centers2. Oil & Gas Production & Federal LandsNew Mexico's Dominance: Lea and Eddy counties account for 78% of onshore federal oil production, representing 14% of total U.S. onshore productionFederal Lands Significance: 29% of total U.S. production comes from federal lands and the Gulf of MexicoTrump Administration's Role: Companies stockpiled federal leases during the first Trump administration, allowing continued drilling during Biden's lease sale moratorium3. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) DrawdownThe SPR is being drained at record pace and approaching "deadpool" (critical minimum levels)Current levels around 365-378 million barrels, with projections to hit deadpool by AugustCalifornia facing severe refined product shortages (jet fuel, diesel)4. Renewable Energy & Climate Policy CostsClimate Lawfare: Democratic state attorneys general sued the Trump administration over ending offshore wind projectsFinancial Impact: $2 trillion spent on net zero pathways, including $690 billion on renewables, with only 3% energy gainsComparison: $10 trillion could build 267 nuclear reactors instead of wind/solarCalifornia's CARB Program: Gavin Newsom expanded emissions regulations despite energy challenges5. Refinery Operations & SafetyU.S. crude refiners pushing runs to maximum levels, creating safety concernsSkipping periodic maintenance to meet demand increases risk of incidentsValero stock performance highlighted as investment opportunity6. Geopolitical Tensions & Energy SecurityIran Strikes: Iran's Revolutionary Guard striking targets in the Gulf, including Kuwait's airportLNG Tanker Concerns: Multiple LNG tankers going dark (transponders off) in the Persian Gulf, raising security concernsRisk of Escalation: Potential for major price spikes if geopolitical tensions worsen7. Maritime & Shipping PolicyDiscussion of the Jones Act and its impact on shipping efficiencyUpcoming interview with maritime expert Dr. Beatrice Canamara about alternative solutions$5 billion Texas shipyard upgrade for Coast Guard Icebreakers8. Agricultural Land & Environmental ConcernsDebate over data center development on farmland vs. renewable energy installationsWind and solar farms permanently damage agricultural land through chemical leaching and deep foundations$89 billion land reclamation fee coming due for renewable installationsThe podcast presents a comprehensive energy news briefing with emphasis on the intersection of energy policy, geopolitics, environmental concerns, and economic impacts.We had 8 big stories today: 1.West Texas Data Center Project Addresses Activist Concerns Head-On2.Unprecedented Dominance: Two NM Counties Account For 78% of Onshore Federal Oil Production3.Data Centers Are Moving to Unincorporated Areas to Avoid Citizen Decision Impacts – Energy News Beat Exclusive Analysis4.State Attorneys General Sue Trump Administration Over Payment Ending Offshore Wind ProjectsHow Much Has Climate Lawfare Cost US Consumers?5.SPR Draw Down at Critical Levels and May Surpass the Biden Abuse6.US Crude Refiners Are Pushing Run Rates to Maximum Levels: Safety Concerns, Maintenance Trade-offs, Export Boom, and Investor Implications7.Iranian Strikes in the Gulf Raise Stakes for Gulf States8.Vitol Says Europe and US Aren't Facing Up to Oil Supply Crunch: How Will This Rubber Band Snap Impact Consumers and Investors?Thank you, Todd, for your great industry leadership.We have some great interviews lined up next week.Check out the Energy News Beat SubStack https://theenergynewsbeat.substack.com/A shout-out to Steve Reese and the Reese Energy Consulting group for sponsoring the Podcast https://reeseenergyconsulting.com/.Data2 if you have any business systems, can you trust A? Well, they have the patent on validation. . https://data2.zoholandingpage.com/energyAnd we have WellDatabase rolling in as a new sponsor. https://welldatabase.com/

This week we talk about the Merchant Marine Act, trade routes, and incentives.We also discuss Wesley Jones, foreign competition, and artificial monopolies.Recommended Book: The Quantum Thief by Hannu RajaniemiTranscriptIn 1920, the then-Senator for the state of Washington, Wesley Jones, who was also the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, introduced the Merchant Marine Act as a method by which the American merchant marine could be sustained and remain competitive in the face of external competition, and in the wake of the destruction of a bunch of ship during WWI.The US Merchant Marine is all the commercial water-going vessels that are US flagged, and the crews of these vessels. During peacetime, these boats and ships conduct trade and other services along the United States' coasts and throughout its internal waterways, its rivers and lakes. During wartime, these vessels and their crews are tapped to help move troops and weapons and supplies for offensive or defensive military efforts.The theory of this proposed Act, then, was to ensure that the US Merchant Marine would remain well-funded and well-taken-care-of, because lacking some kind of government support, there was a good chance it would either slowly degrade, not having enough business to pay for itself, or—and this has been a persistent concern for similar pseudo-fleets of merchant vessels around the world for the past few hundred years—it would fall into disrepair because it would be outcompeted by vessels and crew coming in from elsewhere that would charge lower prices, creating unsustainable economics for the locals and thus slowly degrading this economic and military asset.When this Act was proposed, in 1920, the preservation of this asset was on the mind of many US politicians, as the world had just emerged from World War I, and in that and previous conflicts, the US Merchant Marine had been pretty vital to ensuring the US eventually came out on the right side of things. It was also fundamental to the rebuilding of the US economy following difficult conflicts, because the moving of cargo from city to city along coastlines, and throughout long expanses of rivers—getting food from place to place, getting building supplies where they need to go—has always been important, especially following periods in which there isn't a lot of building going on, and when supplies chains are reoriented toward other purposes, like fighting.So in addition to all the language the helps regulate trade within US waters and between US ports, and which says how the crew of such vessels have to be treated, this Act was also meant to provide protected status to US Merchant Marine vessels and crew, giving them a pseudo-monopoly on certain types of trade activities in the US.It was also—and this is important context—meant to give Senator Jones' state of Washington a de facto monopoly on trade with Alaska. But it was sold to the rest of Congress and the country as a means of bolstering the funds flowing into the US Merchant Marine. Section 27 of this act, often called the Jones Act, requires that all goods transported between US ports be carried by US vessels built in the US, flying the US flag, owned by US citizens and with majority US citizen and permanent US resident crews.What I'd like to talk about today are the other consequences of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, and in particular the Jones Act component of it, and why there's been renewed opposition to the Jones Act in recent months.—The logic of the Jones Act, at least on the surface, is pretty straightforward.If you're worried about foreign competition coming in and taking all the shipping jobs, swooping in from areas where crews aren't paid as much, and where ships can be built cheaper, so they can charge less than US-made and -manned ships, all you have to do is require all the ships and people on the ships are of US-origin, and you're good to go. Those foreign competitors aren't allowed to take the jobs, and that sets the standards in a different place, allowing US vessels and their crew and owners to charge whatever they need to charge to sustain themselves.This, in theory at least, should also stimulate the US ship-building industry, as that monopoly means anyone who builds new ships stands a pretty good chance of making their money back. After all, there's no dramatically cheaper competition out there, so you've got relatively little downward price pressure and seemingly plenty of customers, because there's a lot of US coast, and a lot of internal waterways that have traditionally be used for trading purposes.In practice, though—and this isn't uncommon with protectionist measures; things that seem like they should work for the intended purpose actually leading to other, less ideal outcomes—the Jones Act is often blamed for increasing prices on pretty much everything, and for increasing prices dramatically in places like Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and other US territories, like American Samoa and Guam, that are reliant on imports to survive.If open competition isn't allowed, prices don't tend to go down, and in fact they can instead go up, especially if the number of entities providing these services drops over time.That means places without other options, without the ability to ship food and electrical equipment and other such fundamentals using highways or regularly flying, large cargo planes, they are forced to pay increasingly high cargo ship prices, instead. And there's no chance that a competitor will emerge, because there just aren't enough ships available to haul all the stuff these places need at a regular, sustaining, cost-effective cadence.These higher prices are kind of built into the monopoly model, but they're made even worse by the state of the US shipbuilding industry, which for a while, from about the mid-1800s until the mid-20th century, was top of the line, producing more ships than any other country during WWII, and before that churning out some of the best and fastest ships in the world for trade purposes.But after the two world wars, and a surge in shipbuilding infrastructure that was rapidly deployed in the first half of the 20th century, US government subsidies for the industry began to dry up, many of the ships built during the war were sold to foreign countries and private owners for a quick buck, and most of that infrastructure was mothballed, the more efficient processes it developed decommissioned in favor of less-efficient, more expensive approaches.During WWI, the US churned out more then 5,000 ships at the over 100 shipyards it had operating at the time, and was able to produce more naval tonnage in three years than it had produced in the entire history of the nation's existence, up till that point.Post-WWI, though, the US was already less efficient than foreign competitors, especially European competition, and post-WWII, the emergence of overland infrastructure in the US, like the burgeoning national highway system, made shipping via trucks increasingly competitive with the previously dominant approach of shipping via internal waterways.Airline shipping became a competitor, too, around that same time. So the technological developments and new overland infrastructure of the post-World War era meant that in the US, although coastal shipping in particular remained a solid option for many types of shipping, using trucks on the nation's growing highway system usually ended up being cheaper and easier, and in some cases much faster, too, and eventually air cargo became even more competitive for some types of jobs and clientele.The oil crises of the 1970s amplified this trend, collapsing the market for oil tanker ships and seriously damaging the overall shipbuilding industry, including in the US. Even with new US government subsidies meant to support the flailing industry, building ships in the US usually just didn't make much economic sense, the cost of building on US soil costing nearly twice as much as it did in some foreign ports.During the Reagan administration, even those 1930s-era subsidies were dropped, and that led to further collapse in the US shipbuilding industry. Before the end of these subsidies, the US was producing about 20 commercial ships per year, already a catastrophic drop from the World Wars era, but after the end of the subsidies, it produced five commercial vessels in the next eight years, combined.Some new subsidies were introduced in the 90s, when the Cold War ended, but the industry was in such bad shape at that point, orders from the US military and from commercial traders often went unfulfilled, or went wildly over budget. Some ships were finished, but riddled with so many flaws that they were unusable.US shipbuilders blamed foreign government subsidies, claiming they were really bad at their jobs because other countries were giving their shipbuilding entities more money to exist, and President Bill Clinton was able to secure an agreement with many of the US's trading partners to temper these subsidies a bit, in response to those complaints. Though when US shipbuilders realized this agreement would also mean they would lose some of their subsidies, in the tradeoff, they switched to campaigning against it, and the US ultimately wasn't involved in that agreement.The US's shipbuilding efforts improved a bit in the late-90s and early 2000s, but efforts elsewhere were better, and while the US produced about 3% of all commercial shipping tonnage, of all trade-related naval vessels, basically, in the early 1970s, by 1999, that was down to 0.25% of global tonnage.At this point, following that aforementioned agreement to reduce subsidies and others like it, much of the world's shipbuilding industries are on pretty solid footing without government support, while the US's is protected by the Jones Act, and very much not in solid shape; it's completely uncompetitive and wildly unproductive, and this has led to many secondary, knock-on issues, like increased prices, especially in places like Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, but this actually reportedly costs the US economy something like 0.1 to 0.4% of its total GDP, so about $31.8 billion to $127.4 billion each year. And it's also hobbled our efforts to invest in things like offshore wind farms and other such infrastructure, because we simply don't have enough ships in operation to do that sort of thing. These ships also just cost so much to use, even when they're available, that the price of shipping and deploying things is overwhelming, especially compared to doing the same in other countries.In mid-March of 2026, the second Trump administration issued a Jones Act waiver for some types of product, including energy products, fertilizer, and related inputs, like ammonia. That means on an emergency basis, foreign-flagged, built, and staffed ships can operate in US waters, bringing these types of trade goods from US port to US port, without penalty.Within just two months of the waiver going into effect, dozens of foreign vessels entered the US trade market, reinforcing slumping trade routes and even creating new ones. The Gulf Cost to West Coast route has proved to be especially popular, seeing four times the trade activity from the Gulf to California in just those two months as we previously saw over the whole of 2025, combined, and a an entirely new route emerged, too, shipping naphtha from California to Texas.More shipping also arose between the US mainland and Puerto Rico, bringing propane to Puerto Rico in a usable volume for the first time because there are no liquified petroleum gas tankers in the Jones Act fleet; this meant that despite the large amounts of LPG produced in the US, Puerto Rico usually has to import their LPG from Chile and other foreign sources; this waiver allowed them to get it from the US mainland, instead.In April of this year, the Trump administration announced a 90-day extension of the Jones Act waiver. This waiver is intended to help moderate surging prices on all sorts of good, especially energy products, at a moment in which the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has created shortages of such products on global markets. That shortage has stoked inflation, all over the place, but especially in the US, hence this effort to temper that inflation; it is an election year in the US, after all.The waiver seems to be helping, in some limited regards at least, and it's providing all sorts of data for groups that oppose it, illuminating what seems to be latent demand for such trade routes, that demand typically unmet because of the limitations of the Jones Act on waterway and coastal trade in the US; there just aren't enough US-made and created and flagged ships performing this kind of trade because of that artificial monopoly.The American Maritime Partnership, however, which is a lobbying group put together by the US domestic maritime industry, recently launched an ad campaign aimed at ending the waiver, saying, basically, that the Jones Act protects the US maritime industry from unfair foreign competition, and that it protects the US from foreign threats that might otherwise infiltrate and negatively impact US markets; the implication being that terrorists or some such might come to the US with trade vessels, and then wreak havoc by doing terrorist things via these vessels, or maybe use them to bring more drugs into the country.Given the power such lobbying groups have in the US, there's a solid possibility that when an agreement is eventually reached with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, and if global trade then returns to something like its previous default, this waiver will go away. That would be the politically expedient move by the Trump administration, because most people don't know enough about the Jones Act to care, but the maritime industry very much does, as without this artificial monopoly, they would probably be required to fundamentally change if they wanted to stay alive.There's evidence that getting rid of the Jones Act permanently might be beneficial on multiple fronts, especially in terms of inflation and overall economics, but also in terms of forcing the US maritime industry to make those costly, foundational changes. Despite the many possible benefits of doing away with this act, though, the ‘protect our borders from foreign invaders' aspect of the Jones Act might be enough to sway this administration toward fully reinstating it as soon as the conflict in Iran and inflation allows.Show Noteshttps://apnews.com/article/jones-act-trump-trade-abcac596db839bff3679b3117d2e81b2https://www.cato.org/blog/jones-act-waiver-data-reveals-universe-blocked-american-tradehttps://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2019/04/local-content-requirements-and-their-economic-effect-on-shipbuilding_f81e0027/90316781-en.pdfhttps://www.cato.org/blog/jones-act-contributes-offshore-wind-growing-painshttps://www.engine.online/news/us-maritime-group-urges-end-to-jones-act-waiver-7c1bhttps://gcaptain.com/chinese-cosco-tanker-delivers-asphalt-to-connecticut-under-jones-act-waiver/https://gcaptain.com/jones-act-waiver-reshapes-u-s-oil-trade-as-foreign-tankers-flood-domestic-routes/https://www.investopedia.com/terms/j/jonesact.asphttps://www.winston.com/en/legal-glossary/what-is-the-jones-acthttps://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/jones-act-burden-america-can-no-longer-bearhttps://www.atlasnetwork.org/articles/the-jones-act-is-costly-harmful-and-dangeroushttps://www.maritime.dot.gov/ports/domestic-shipping/domestic-shippinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Merchant_Marinehttps://www.cato.org/blog/jones-act-contributes-offshore-wind-growing-pains This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe

We cover 10 big stories on the Energy News Beat Stand Up - The deal has no signatures, and we are running low on oil, gas, and diesel inventory levels within weeks. 1. Iran Nuclear Deal & Middle East TensionsThe podcast opens with discussion of a pending Iran peace deal involving a 60-day memorandum of understanding (MOU) to extend a ceasefire and restart negotiations on Iran's nuclear program. Key concerns include whether Iran can be trusted, control of the Strait of Hormuz, and conflicting narratives between Iran and the Trump administration about shipping restrictions.2. Oil Market Dynamics & PricingWTI crude at $89 and Brent at $94.82Analysis of why oil prices dropped despite the unsigned Iran dealDiscussion of inventory levels running critically low, with predictions that prices could spike to $150-160 for Brent and $110 for WTI once inventories hit bottomThe role of Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) releases in mitigating price increases3. Strait of Hormuz Shipping & Tanker TrafficCoverage of commercial shipping through the critical chokepoint, including VLCC (Very Large Crude Carriers) and LNG tankers heading to China and India, with concerns that only 2 tankers passing through versus the normal 20 per day signals serious disruption.4. China's Oil Market Re-entryDiscussion of China drawing down its strategic reserves and the potential shock when China returns to buying oil again—potentially driving prices significantly higher due to the current 9 million barrels per day supply deficit.5. Germany's Energy CrisisGermany's power prices surged over 30% due to high demand and low wind speeds, highlighting the vulnerabilities of renewable energy dependence. The podcast criticizes the unreliability of wind and solar and questions Germany's ability to meet its 80% renewables target by 2030.6. Russia-Kazakhstan Nuclear DealRussia and Kazakhstan signed agreements for Russia to finance and build Kazakhstan's first nuclear power plant, with Russia providing 85% of project financing—presented as a model for energy security and dominance.7. U.S. Strategic Oil Reserve Exports to CaliforniaFor the first time, crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is being shipped to California (460,000 barrels to Chevron's Richmond refinery), enabled by President Trump's 60-day Jones Act waiver.8. Aluminum Market Supply CrisisCritical supply shortages in aluminum with inventories at dangerous levels, affecting manufacturing and presenting investment opportunities. Key companies mentioned: Alcoa, Century Aluminum, Kaiser Aluminum, and Rio Tinto.9. Europe's Natural Gas CrisisEurope's gas storage sits 55 points below required levels for winter, with reliance on Qatar and other LNG suppliers facing their own production challenges. This threatens European manufacturing and industrial competitiveness.10. Russia's Oil Exports to IndiaRussia is capitalizing on elevated global oil prices by boosting crude flows to India, with Indian imports jumping 70%.Overarching Themes:Energy security and dominance through exportsThe impact of geopolitical tensions on global energy marketsCriticisms of green energy policies and their economic consequencesThe importance of oil and gas investment and infrastructurePolitical messaging about energy policy differences between statesAll stories can be found on https://energynewsbeat.co/1.Iran Peace Deal Pending President Trump Approval – And it was not approved by the IRGC2.Who is Telling The Truth on Control for the Strait of Hormuz?3.Two VLCC Tankers and Two LNG Tankers Pass Through the Strait of Hormuz en Route to China and India4.The Next Energy Shock Could Be China's Return to the Oil and Gas Market5.Germany's Power Prices Soar Over 30% on High Demand and Low Wind Speeds6.Russia and Kazakhstan Sign Nuclear Power and Currency Swap Deals as Putin Visits Astana7.Oil from US Emergency Reserves Heads to California for the First Time, Kpler Says8.Aluminum Market Facing Prolonged Supply Outage. What does this mean for consumers and investors?9.Europe's Gas Crisis Just Repriced 8 Of My 12 Positions – The Merchant's News10.Russia Boosting Crude Flows as India Imports Jump 70% Since FebCheck out the Energy News Beat SubStack https://theenergynewsbeat.substack.com/A shout-out to Steve Reese and the Reese Energy Consulting group for sponsoring the Podcast https://reeseenergyconsulting.com/.Data2 if you have any business systems, can you trust A? Well, they have the patent on validation. . https://data2.zoholandingpage.com/energyAnd we have WellDatabase rolling in as a new sponsor. https://welldatabase.com/

In a recent episode of this podcast, Ross dives into the world of the Jones Act, a federal law that's been around since the early 1900s. This law has a significant impact on the US shipping industry, making it difficult for Americans to trade and do business with each other. The guest, Colin Grabow, Associate Director at the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies, joins the conversation to break down the law's effects and explore its history. The Jones Act requires that any goods moved by water within the US must be transported on a vessel that meets specific criteria, including being US-flagged, owned by Americans, crewed by Americans, and built in the US. However, this leads to a limited number of ships meeting these conditions, resulting in higher transportation costs and a "tax" on domestic commerce. The law has been waived temporarily by President Trump, allowing for the importation of energy products, but its long-term effects on the US economy remain unclear. Colin Grabow shares some striking examples of how the Jones Act affects trade, including the fact that Puerto Rico buys more fuel from the Baltic countries than from the US, despite being farther away. He also highlights the law's failure to create a competitive US shipbuilding industry, citing the country's ranking of 19th in the world in shipbuilding. The conversation raises important questions about the law's continued existence and its impact on the US economy. With the temporary waiver in place, it's clear that there are benefits to be gained from repealing the Jones Act. If you're interested in learning more about this complex issue and how it affects the US, tune in to this episode to hear the full conversation with Colin Grabow.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

**On the podcast, the conversation is all about the intersection of technology, politics, and the outdoors.** This episode is a thought-provoking discussion that touches on some of the biggest issues of our time, from the impact of artificial intelligence on society to the importance of getting outside and enjoying nature. Ross shares his thoughts on the recent release of Pope Leo's first encyclical, which highlights the need for a new spiritual, ethical, and political framework to address the challenges posed by AI. They also delve into the world of data centers and the Jones Act, a federal law that's been around since 1920 and is still causing problems for American commerce. The conversation also takes a turn into the world of politics, with a fascinating interview with Christina Blunt, a Republican candidate running for the second congressional district in Colorado. She shares her vision for a more citizen-led approach to government, where bills are written by citizens for citizens, and not by bureaucrats in Washington D.C. The speaker also discusses the importance of getting outside and enjoying nature, with a fun interview with Chris Gerard, the Chief Brand Officer of Outside, a company that's all about helping people get outside and connect with the natural world. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in technology, politics, and the outdoors. With a mix of thought-provoking discussions and fun interviews, it's a great way to spend your time. So grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and tune in to this week's episode to hear more about these important topics. The conversation also touches on some of the biggest issues of our time, from the impact of AI on society to the importance of getting outside and enjoying nature. With a mix of thought-provoking discussions and fun interviews, this episode is a great way to spend your time.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The White House gave the green light on March 18 for foreign-flagged tankers to move crude oil and refined products between U.S. ports by waiving the Jones Act. In less than two months, about 60 waivers have been recorded. Today, we'll dig into the new patterns that have emerged. 

We cover 9 huge stories today. We would like to take a moment to wish all of our great Veterans a Happy Memorial Day, who gave their all so we could be free. Getting to spend time with my 91-year-old Vietnam Vet Dad, who was the only one who came back from Vietnam from College his friends, is very much appreciated, and it helps me be more grateful for the currently deployed great members of our military.Make no mistake - if the deal is done without the Venezuelan-style controls in place, it just means that the IRGC will be back again like a bad dream or an ex-wife.1. Iran Nuclear Deal & Strait of HormuzThe podcast opens with discussion of potential negotiations between the US and Iran regarding the Strait of Hormuz. Key points include:President Trump's efforts to broker a deal that could reopen the strait for 30-60 daysConcerns about financial controls over Iranian oil to prevent funding of proxy fightersThe IRGC's establishment of the Persian Gulf Strait Authority and their territorial claimsLNG tankers turning off transponders and navigating around the strait2. US LNG Exports & Natural Gas DemandExtensive coverage of America's energy export capabilities:The US is now the world's top LNG exporter with 11.9-14.9 BCF per day in 2024-2025Projections show exports doubling to 30 BCF per day by 2050Major projects like Cheniere Energy's Corpus Christi expansionThe technology that shrinks natural gas molecules 600 times for transport3. AI in Oil & Gas IndustryDiscussion of AI's transformative potential:AI could unlock $500 billion for oil and gas producers by 2030Emphasis on the need for accountability, validation, and explainability in AI implementationReal-world example: ADNOC reported $500 million in AI-driven revenueThe importance of data orchestration and legacy system integration4. Germany's Energy Crisis & DeindustrializationCritical analysis of Germany's net-zero policies:Germany's decision to shut down nuclear and coal plants has backfiredReal GDP contracted 3% in 2023 and 2% in 2024Volkswagen considering closing three German plants with 30,000+ layoffsComparison to similar policies in California and New York5. Ukraine War & Russian Oil InfrastructureBrief coverage of ongoing conflict impacts:Russian Black Sea oil port attacked by dronesDiscussion of the need to end the Ukraine warCalls for Ukrainian leadership change6. Jamie Dimon's Economic WarningsDiscussion of JPMorgan CEO's concerns:$5-6 trillion in leveraged corporate debt facing refinancing challengesParallels drawn to 2005-2007 financial crisisConcerns about equity values and market stressCommentary on the Federal Reserve's role and structure7. Jones Act & US ShippingDiscussion of maritime policy:Jones Act waiver creating opportunities for foreign tankersNeed for US-built tankers and shipyardsCritique of relying on foreign solutions to domestic energy crises8. Permian Basin ActivityCoverage of oil and gas M&A activity:Deal-making surge in the Delaware BasinDevon Energy's major acquisition of undeveloped acresImportance of oil and gas royalties for local communities9. Stock Analysis & Market TrendsTechnical analysis of energy sector stocks including:Nano Nuclear Energy (NNE)Devon EnergyCheniere EnergyChevronLiberty EnergyExxon MobilThe podcast emphasizes energy independence, the importance of reliable energy sources, and skepticism toward certain net-zero policies while advocating for balanced energy solutions.1.Good News but not Final News on the Iran War and Re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz2.QatarEnergy's Third LNG Tanker Exits the Strait of Hormuz Amid Fragile Diplomacy and Iranian Oversight3.What Does the Demand for Natural Gas and LNG Look Like for the Next 20 Years?4.AI Could Unlock $500 Billion for Oil and Gas Producers by 2030 — But Only with Accountability5.WSJ Writes – If the Road to Economic Hell is paved with Good Intentions, don't expect to see German Cars driving on it6.Russia's Key Black Sea Oil Port on Fire After Drone Attack: Grushovaya Terminal Hit in Latest Ukrainian Strike7.Jamie Dimon Warns of Serious Risks: US Economic Vulnerabilities, Fed Rates, Debt Refinancing Crunch, and Real Estate Implications8.The Jones Act Waiver has Turned Into a Boon for California at Our Nation's Expense9.There's a Party Going on in the Permian Delaware – Reese Energy ConsultingCheck out the Energy News Beat SubStack https://theenergynewsbeat.substack.com/A shout-out to Steve Reese and the Reese Energy Consulting group for sponsoring the Podcast https://reeseenergyconsulting.com/.Data2 if you have any business systems, can you trust A? Well, they have the patent on validation. . https://data2.zoholandingpage.com/energyAnd we have WellDatabase rolling in as a new sponsor. https://welldatabase.com/

Send us Fan MailHello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast; I am delighted to welcome Carra Miller, a maritime attorney. I have long wanted to bring to listeners a perspective of matters of law and passenger rights when it comes to cruising. I have been amazed at some of my findings regarding a cursory look at some those matters and I suspect, Carra will share some eye-opening information with you. Her visit is especially timely given the burgeoning Hantavirus crisis. With three passengers dead and 17 Americans among the nearly 150 people stranded off the coast of West Africa, the MV Hondius cruise ship Hantavirus outbreak raises urgent legal questions about what cruise operators owe their passengers when things go wrong at sea. Among other matters you should be aware of as a cruiser, Carra explains these passengers' rights and the duty the cruise ship operator owes them. Carra Miller is the founding attorney of Miller Smith, PLLC, a firm that represents cruise ship passengers, crew members, harbor workers, and others injured in maritime environments. Her practice centers on vessel incidents, injuries on navigable waters, and claims under the Jones Act, the Death on the High Seas Act, and other federal maritime statutes. Carra earned her JD from Tulane University Law School, where she received a Maritime Law Certificate and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal. She holds a B.S. in Maritime Administration from Texas A&M University. She has written and spoken on maritime law topics and has published commentary on maritime liability issues.Do you have a dream car? Support the showSupport thejoyofcruisingpodcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/supporters/newSupport Me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/drpaulthContact Me https://www.thejoyofcruising.net/contact-me.htmlBook Cruises http://www.thejoyofvacation.com/US Orders (coupon code joyofcruisingpodcast)The Joy of Cruising https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingCruising Interrupted https://bit.ly/CruisingInterruptedThe Joy of Cruising Again https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingAgainIntl Orders via Amazon

Donald Trump issues a five-month waiver of a 1920 law that says ships carrying cargo between U.S. ports must be American-built. Colin Grabow of the Cato Institute explains the results, as dozens of voyages now help to distribute oil and gasoline, and he argues the Jones Act is economic lunacy that should be repealed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Gary & Shannon Show Hour 1 (05.12) – California’s oil nightmare gets worse, LAUSD gets rocked by another corruption scandal, and Shannon officially compares Lakers fans to drunken Buffalo Bills superfans.• Gary & Shannon break down California’s looming gas crisis → as Middle Eastern oil access tightens and the Iran ceasefire hangs by a thread• President Trump reportedly pushes for lower energy prices while California’s own policies continue making fuel costs uniquely brutal in-state• The bigger frustration → why is one of the richest states in the country constantly making basic necessities harder and more expensive?• Gary & Shannon dive into Chevron leaving California, the Jones Act waiver, and decades of energy policy failures colliding all at once• Then: LAUSD is now trying to recover $22 million in what prosecutors call the largest money-laundering scheme in district history• Investigators say an IT manager secretly funneled contracts through shell companies while allegedly leaving behind hilariously incriminating notes and texts• Plus: #SportsTalk → the Lakers are done, the Dodgers are sliding, and Shannon says devastated Lakers fans are about two losses away from becoming full Buffalo Bills table-jumping degeneratesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Steve Moore reunites with veteran broadcaster and meteorologist Brian Sussman to critique modern environmental policy and promote Sussman's book, Climate Cult. The conversation centers on the economic burden of climate regulations, specifically highlighting how high gasoline prices in California are driven by unique fuel blends, environmental fees, and restrictive shipping laws like the Jones Act. Sussman argues that the current focus on carbon dioxide is a misguided "witch hunt," claiming that historical temperature extremes in the 1930s prove that modern warming is not unprecedented. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE on:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured  The century-old Merchant Marine Act of 1920 is under fire again after temporary waivers highlighted how the law restricts shipping between U.S. ports. Critics argue it drives up costs, weakens supply chains, increases traffic, and even forces places like Puerto Rico to import energy from overseas instead of the mainland U.S.

In this month's news episode, we break down four major developments shaking up global energy markets in May 2026. From the UAE's sudden departure from OPEC to a widening gap between paper and physical oil prices, the episode covers what these fast-moving events mean for royalty owners who are trying to make sense of their income outlook. We also discuss the Trump administration's meeting with major oil executives, a temporary waiver of the century-old Jones Act, and what the latest rig count data tells us about where the industry is actually headed. As always, links to the articles coverd in this episode can be found in the show notes at mineralrightspodcast.com.

Day Break | They Rigged The System—Now Republicans Are Taking It Back --- 00:00 - Monologue 18:54 – Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President of the White Coat Waste Project. Goodman discusses recent efforts to reduce the use of cats and dogs in experimental testing. He explains recent wins tied to the Farm Bill and broader efforts to reform animal research practices. 27:45 – Peter Gillooly, CEO of The Wellness Company. Gillooly discusses ongoing conversations surrounding anti-parasitic drugs and their potential role in cancer treatment research. He also talks about leadership changes involving the Surgeon General nomination and broader healthcare policy discussions. Visit twc.health/GRUBER and use promo code GRUBER to save 10%. 37:46 - Monologue Featuring Ivey Gruber 56:51 – Ashley Davis, national security expert and author of Power Pivot. Davis discusses the rapid expansion of data centers, including a proposed 40,000-acre project in Utah. She breaks down the potential economic benefits, infrastructure concerns, and national security implications. 1:05:45 – Garrett Rice, CEO of Master Boat Builders and Vice Chair of the Shipbuilders Council of America. Rice discusses concerns surrounding a potential Jones Act waiver during the Iran crisis. He explains why some in the industry believe such a move could benefit China and weaken American shipbuilding. 1:15:51 - Monologue 1:24:50 – Ron Rademacher, travel writer and Michigan backroads expert. Rademacher highlights major events and activities happening across Michigan this week. He shares travel ideas and seasonal attractions listeners may want to check out. 1:35:01 – Tim Golding, Michigan State Director for Americans for Prosperity. Golding discusses the results of Michigan's State Senate District 35 special election and what they could mean politically moving forward. 1:43:52 – Ivey Gruber, President of the Michigan Talk Network. Gruber discusses developments in California's Democratic primary race and broader political dynamics shaping the contest. --- Check out our brand new podcast, 'Forgotten America'... Episode 13 is live NOW at Steve Gruber on YouTube! Link below: https://youtu.be/iBGFsN7Xtbg

1. "Fueling America: 250 Years of Energy Innovation"Tom Hall introduces the Institute for Energy Research's special project celebrating America's 250th anniversary by highlighting the nation's leadership in energy innovation. Key points include:The U.S. has historically led in energy innovation (Drake well, Henry Ford, Wright brothers, first LNG terminal)Energy innovation has been a driver of progress, democracy, freedom, and prosperityThe project focuses on prominent figures and innovators in the energy sector throughout American history2. Property Rights and American Energy ExceptionalismA critical distinction is made about why the U.S. is uniquely positioned as an energy producer:American property owners own subsurface mineral rights, unlike most countries where governments own themThis uniquely American system of property rights, combined with the rule of law and common law system, has been fundamental to energy progressThis explains why the U.S. leads in shale production while other countries (Bulgaria, England, Germany) don't3. Iran Crisis and Geopolitical StrategyExtensive discussion of the current conflict with Iran, including:A 47-year struggle with a radical regime that finances terrorism through oil revenuesThe blockade strategy as a way to starve the government of revenue without ground warThe importance of preventing Iran from controlling the Strait of HormuzThe need for regime change (civilian government replacing the mullahs) for lasting successHow U.S. energy strength (shale revolution, LNG exports) enables this policy4. Global Energy Market RealignmentThe conversation explores how the geopolitical situation is reshaping global energy:OPEC is effectively dead as a controlling forceThe U.S. is now the "swing producer"Expected shifts in oil trade flows and relationshipsUAE's withdrawal from OPEC signals the organization's declinePotential strategic alliance between Saudi Arabia and Israel5. Trump Administration's Energy Policy ImpactDiscussion of how Trump's policies are reshaping energy regulation:Repeal of Chevron deference and the EPA's 2009 endangerment findingThese repeals dismantle the legal foundations of Obama and Biden energy restrictionsTrump is described as "American energy unleashed"Broader policy shifts including border control and NATO burden-sharing6. Venezuela's Energy RecoveryAnalysis of Venezuela's potential return as an oil producer:Venezuela previously produced 3+ million barrels per day before Maduro/ChavezExxonMobil is now exploring re-entry into the marketRecovery would supply Gulf refineries with heavy crudeThis would increase U.S. exports and reshape oil marketsBenefits would extend to Venezuelan people through economic improvement7. California's Energy CrisisDiscussion of California's self-inflicted energy problems:The state has transitioned from a major oil producer to being dependent on Middle East importsOne-party rule has created policies that drove out oil companies (Chevron, Valero)Climate policies have merely exported emissions rather than reducing them globallyTrump suspended the Jones Act to help alleviate the crisisThe state serves as a cautionary tale of poor energy policy8. Broader Geopolitical RealignmentThemes about shifting international relationships:The U.S. is becoming more naturally aligned with countries like India than FranceEuropean countries are moving toward authoritarian socialism and proving unreliable alliesThe Trump administration is reshuffling long-standing international arrangements (NATO, embassy moves, etc.)Focus on Western Hemisphere security (the "Don Roe doctrine")This podcast presents a comprehensive view of how energy policy, geopolitics, and innovation intersect to shape global affairs.Follow David on his Substack https://blackmon.substack.com/

Acting Konawaena High School principal Chelsea Qualey and Ramzi Mansour of the Department of Accounting and General Services share the progress being made following damages from the recent Kona low storms; Mike Hansen, President of the Hawaii Shippers Council, on President Donald Trump's extension of the waiver for the Jones Act till August

Thank you so much for listening to the Bob Harden Show, celebrating nearly 15 years broadcasting on the internet. On Tuesday's show, we visit with Managing Director of Americans for Prosperity Kent Strang about the need to repeal the Jones Act. Boo Mortenson and I discuss the rise of religion in America. We visit with video commentator Maggie Anders about the alt-right pipeline producing anti-male narratives in the progressive movement. We also visit with Linda Harden about the call for the cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel. Please join us tomorrow when we visit with Cato Institute Chairman Emeritus Bob Levy, Murray Sabrin, Professor and author Larry Bell, and VP of Landmark Legal Foundation's Michael O'Neill. Access this and past shows at your convenience on my web site, social media platforms or podcast platforms.

Thank you so much for listening to the Bob Harden Show, celebrating nearly 15 years broadcasting on the internet. On Tuesday's show, we visit with Managing Director of Americans for Prosperity Kent Strang about the need to repeal the Jones Act. Boo Mortenson and I discuss the rise of religion in America. We visit with … The post The Need to Repeal the Jones Act appeared first on Bob Harden Show.

Segment 1: The Corporate Welfare Problem Sarah Anderson, Global Economy Director at the Institute for Policy Studies, joins us to break down a staggering new report on America's 20 largest low-wage employers. While companies like Walmart, Amazon, and Home Depot report record profits and spend billions on stock buybacks, their median worker pay often falls below the threshold for Medicaid and SNAP. Key Discussion Points: The Buyback Betrayal: How Home Depot could have given every employee a $15,000 annual bonus with the money they spent on stock buybacks. Public Subsidies for Poverty Wages: Why taxpayers are effectively picking up the tab for corporate executives' ultra-wealth. The Policy Solution: Success stories from Portland's CEO pay-ratio tax and the movement to bring it to LA and San Francisco. Segment 2: Transportation Workers Under Fire Greg Regan, President of the Transportation Trades Department (AFL-CIO), returns for his monthly update on the legislative battles in D.C. From "clumsy" bill drafting to the ongoing struggle for TSA dignity, transportation workers are facing a multi-front war. Key Discussion Points: The Overtime Tax Flaw: Why workers covered by the Railway Labor Act are currently excluded from a $25,000 overtime tax deduction—and the coalition of 24 unions fighting to fix it. Second-Class Federal Employees: The urgent need for the TSA Workforce Rights Act to give TSOs the same Title 5 protections as their DHS colleagues. The Jones Act Smoke Screen: Why the administration's Jones Act waiver is "political theater" that won't actually lower your gas prices. Go Behind the Scenes of the Labor Movement Every victory at the bargaining table starts with workers standing together. Subscribe to the America's Work Force Union Podcast for daily interviews with the leaders and organizers building worker power across America.

Guest Kent Strang, Managing Director with Americans for Prosperity, joins to discuss the ongoing push for the Affordability Agenda. Discussion of ending the Jones Act, pushing for permitting reform, and the focus on the private sector for economic growth.  Could we see a new "official" language in the US for the 250th Birthday of the nation?  Trump grows impatient with Iranian talks, and impatient with the lack of momentum out of Congress as he officially calls for the end of the Senate filibuster. Will it work?

The band's back together for this one, but I'm not much needed til the end. We hear a bit about the M/V JOYCE HALE, Pilots Agree, the Professional Pilots Association, the American Inland Mariners and Gulf Coast Mariners Associations, Melvin and John Sutton, steersman, licensing, insurance, court proceedings, unions, marine casualties on the job, the Jones Act and its temporary suspension, and more.

President Trump is making another effort to combat surging oil prices by extending the Jones Act for 90 days. This move comes as the United States and Iran have yet to reach a peace deal to end the ongoing conflict. Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst at The Price Futures Group and FOX Business Network contributor, joins the network's Jackie DeAngelis to discuss how the administration has managed oil prices during the conflict and what drivers could affect prices at the pump next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on April 24 that a U.S. blockade on Iran is going global, adding that Tehran had a chance to make a "good deal" with Washington. Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. Central Command continues to maintain a strict blockade on all ports in Iran. Caine said 34 ships had been turned around as of Friday morning. He added that the U.S. military would continue to interdict Iranian vessels in the Pacific and Indian oceans.President Donald Trump has extended a waiver of the century-old Jones Act for 90 days, allowing foreign-flagged vessels to transport fuel and other goods between U.S. ports to ease price increases triggered by the Iran war and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. The waiver applies to a range of goods, including crude oil, natural gas, coal, fertilizer, and refined petroleum products.

AP's Lisa Dwyer reports on a waiver extension for shipping.

President Trump is making another effort to combat surging oil prices by extending the Jones Act for 90 days. This move comes as the United States and Iran have yet to reach a peace deal to end the ongoing conflict. Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst at The Price Futures Group and FOX Business Network contributor, joins the network's Jackie DeAngelis to discuss how the administration has managed oil prices during the conflict and what drivers could affect prices at the pump next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

President Trump is making another effort to combat surging oil prices by extending the Jones Act for 90 days. This move comes as the United States and Iran have yet to reach a peace deal to end the ongoing conflict. Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst at The Price Futures Group and FOX Business Network contributor, joins the network's Jackie DeAngelis to discuss how the administration has managed oil prices during the conflict and what drivers could affect prices at the pump next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It is a wild day on the News Desk, and we saw Brent hit $105, and the market tanked. This is not going to be over very quickly, as there is a lot to unwind in the oil and gas markets and supply chains. We are seeing new proposed pipelines, and Energy Security is really taking front and center stage around the world. 1. Oil and Energy Market DynamicsThe Podcast extensively covers how global oil markets are being affected by geopolitical tensions, particularly disruptions in the Middle East and the Strait of Hormuz. There's discussion about establishing a new baseline for oil prices (around $90-$95 range) and the risk of demand destruction if prices remain elevated. The speaker also analyzes the disconnect between how oil/gas companies are performing versus refineries in the current market environment.2. Energy Security and Self-RelianceA significant focus is placed on countries building domestic refining and drilling capabilities to reduce dependence on imports. The transcript highlights U.S. efforts to increase energy independence and export capabilities, with specific examples like the Golden Pass LNG facility and Japan's JAPEX expanding into the U.S. oil and gas market.3. Geopolitical DevelopmentsThe discussion addresses potential permanent disruptions to Middle Eastern oil supplies and their global market impact. There's also mention of U.S. government efforts to re-engage with Venezuela to boost oil production and exports.4. Regulatory and Policy ChangesThe podcast covers bipartisan efforts in Pennsylvania to maintain coal-fired power plants despite the broader shift toward natural gas and renewables. California's refinery issues and the Jones Act's impact on U.S. energy supply and pricing are also discussed.5. Stock Market and Investment AnalysisStu provides insights on the performance of various energy-related stocks, including oil and gas companies, refiners, and LNG players, identifying potential investment opportunities and risks in the current market.1.Is $90 to $95 Oil Is the New Baseline for 20262.When the Paper Price of Oil Catches Up with the Physical Price of Delivered Oil, It Will Be a Violent Swing UP3.Energy Security Starts at Home: More Countries Are Building Refineries and Drilling Programs4.Oil Disruption of the Strait of Hormuz May Be More Permanent Than a Few Weeks5.Golden Pass LNG: QatarEnergy/ExxonMobil Joint Venture in Sabine Pass Makes First Shipment6.Japan's Japex to Expand Oil and Gas Production, Including in the U.S.7.Two Clean Coal Plants in Pennsylvania Are Staying Open Thanks to Trump and Shapiro8.US Oil Executives Meet Venezuela President and What Does This Mean for Investors and Consumers?9.California is Within Weeks of a ShutdownCheck out the Energy News Beat SubStack https://theenergynewsbeat.substack.com/A shout-out to Steve Reese and the Reese Energy Consulting group for sponsoring the Podcast https://reeseenergyconsulting.com/.Data2 if you have any business systems, can you trust A? Well, they have the patent on validation. . https://data2.zoholandingpage.com/energyAnd we have WellDatabase rolling in as a new sponsor. https://welldatabase.com/

Nicole Johnson Murphy, CEO of ECO TLP, and Gordon Jackson join to discuss concrete floating wind foundations, production-line construction, and markets from Hawaii to Japan. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy’s brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Offshore wind obviously is a big deal right now. There’s a lot of, countries looking at it and investigating it, doing it, but not really at scale yet. And this is where ECO TLP comes in and. Nicole, let’s just start there with a background. What problem were you trying to solve when you started ECO TLP? Nicole Johnson-Murphy: Yeah, so, we were designing for, a site off of Hawaii in 2011, for the HECO RFP. And so we were designing for 300 meter water depth from the beginning. so we were always trying to find a way to work with the ports, with the vessel, with the infrastructure that was existing off Hawaii. And with, and that worked with Jones Act vessels. So we were always trying to meet that [00:01:00] requirement with, and meet the cost, try to, we saw there were much tighter margins in offshore wind than in oil and gas, for example, at that water depth. So we’re trying to find something that was cost effective.  Allen Hall: Next question, obviously is what makes those deep water foundations so difficult? Gordon Jackson: It’s the water depth, primarily, you need to put foundations down in, extremely deep water. and they’re gonna be pretty flexible. so you’re trying to control the amount of motion that you get at the surface through your, your deep water, facility. it’s really. Really that challenge, and, the weight of components through the water depth, likes of chain would be completely impossible. in 300 meters of water. you need to use something that’s a little bit lighter. Yeah, to mow you to the, to the seabed. Allen Hall: [00:02:00] Because it does seem a little odd just not to make the foundations taller, basically. More steel drive it down in, we know that process, we understand that process. It works offshore, near shore in a, lot of locations. But once you get to what depth as it becomes financially or engineering wise, impossible.  Gordon Jackson: For offshore wind, fixed, structures in, maybe a hundred meters of water are gonna be. Economic. they’ll be costly compared to what’s been done now because, of all the extra structure you need for the, for the deeper water. But, I think you’ll see, a crossover between fixed and floating, around the, 70 to a hundred meter water mark. that’s sort the range. Allen Hall: And that leads to the next question, which is. It’s all financial, right? At some point, the numbers [00:03:00] don’t work. If the cost of foundations don’t come down, especially in fixed bottom offshore or floating offshore, we lose a lot of offshore wind resource. Nicole can you gimme a scale at what we’re missing if we don’t get to a more economical solution for floating offshore? Nicole Johnson-Murphy: So we’ve estimated for our market for, a very deep water market. So we now actually have a solution that goes across all water depths. So we’re starting with, this, gravity based structure now with, and, Gordon’s team has been really involved in that, development. And then now we can take that same slip form, concrete cylinder. Format and take it across all the water depths. so we basically can hit every water depth now for a very low cost. It’s a very simple, just, local, regionally designed and built, system. We, crowdsource the labor and the inputs. and so we [00:04:00] try to, and we also try to give the procurement team of our clients their, an ability to do their job and, be able to bid out aspects of our design, across. Different vendors. So you always wanna give, in construction, you always wanna give, the procurement team a job to do so they can actually get that price, keep that price down on the installation.  Allen Hall: Yeah, that’s a unique look that ECO TLP is putting to this problem. Which is moving away from steel, which is expensive obviously, and it’s difficult to transport at times to a more localized solution, which is concrete. And thinking about the problem a little bit differently, does that open up a number of doors then in terms of the countries that can get involved in, floating or near shore, wind projects, but just because you’re driving the cost down?  Nicole Johnson-Murphy: Absolutely. And I’ll let Gordon speak to that.. He’s worked. His whole career in offshore concrete. But I think it’s, I think it’s a, great, it’s the only way we would do it. We actually have shipyards in our companies, our partners own [00:05:00] shipyards, and we, just would never probably ex try to create this many units across the world and scale and steel. We’d only do concrete.  Gordon Jackson: Yeah. My first concrete project broke the mold of how you do, construction of concrete offshore structures. it was entirely built within a dry dock and, After we’d gone on and delivered that project, that was in the late eighties. I spent the next 10 years, working on projects all around the world, looking at doing the same sort of thing in different countries. because you only needed, 10, 12 meters of water, at the shore and you could, build a structure and get it out there in the water. It really opened up the market for offshore concrete structures that, that, first project that we did.  Allen Hall: So using that first project as leverage and knowledge of how to do these things, how much advantage [00:06:00] does concrete give you over steel? Gordon Jackson: It’s difficult to say because it bends country to country. And, quite often you’re competing against, steel built in some, very low cost fabrication countries. so if you’re in a high cost, high labor cost country, I worked in Australia, and the labor cost there was extremely high. So concrete wasn’t particularly cheap, but the overall solutions that we came up with, were cheap. Allen Hall: So does that involve basically like slip forms or how are you, thinking about that problem? Because it’s a huge engineering task and you only learn. By doing it on some level because all great plans, always run into trouble as soon as you try to implement them. So you took all that previous knowledge and then applied it to this problem, and now you have, basically [00:07:00]trimmed or, slimmed, the design down into, you have a, very economical model, even in more uneconomical economies because of labor laws and cost of labor and access and those kind of things. What does that look like now? And what’s your thought process on, Hey, this is what it’s gonna look like? Can we get, quayside how do we do this and how do we keep this thing simple? Gordon Jackson: The key thing is we’re looking at, a production line approach, which has been, it’s tried and tested for, for marine, concrete construction, construction of quay walls and and the we’re using exactly that same system. We’ve just been tried and tested to create a production line of, ECO TLP units or ECO GBS units where we’re building, onshore and where we’re going from station to station, doing a task at each station. [00:08:00] So it’s exactly like a production line, that you’re be familiar with and, you load out the completed structure onto a barge, and then you. Submerge that barge and your structure floats off and that’s, the real key to getting the, the economy from the concrete basis.  Nicole Johnson-Murphy: Yeah, and I’ll say that the OpEX is really something we focus a lot on because it’s not just what you’re doing on the CapEx and the development and the port, it’s actually that 30 year lifetime maintenance. And this is a, when you, we fully submerge our floater, which is basically inert in the ocean. It’s, very eco-friendly with the ocean. There’s no paint, there’s no, maintenance on the floater over the lifespan. You’re, monitoring those, the moorings and the, weight of any marine, buildup on those moorings and things like that. But generally it’s a very low maintenance solution and it’s very heavy and a comfortable car [00:09:00] ride for the turbine. It really has slow motions. it’s, almost like a, a high skyscraper in the water. you’re just the top of that skyscraper is moving a little bit. But you’re, you’re really giving it that comfortable, slow ride over its lifetime. It’s not hitting a lot of turbulence, like a different type of floater.  Allen Hall: Yeah. It is a different concept, really, right? That you have this mass at the bottom and you have this mass at the top, which is the, cell on the wind turbine. And if you can design it just right, everything dampens becomes stable. Even in turbulent water. How long did it take you to figure out that aspect of the design? Because it does seem like a lot of projects hit a, an end point right there because the motion of the turbine is not good for the lifetime of the turbine.  Nicole Johnson-Murphy: We, look at it as a, kind of hybrid spar, TLP so, the original design came from my late father who was, who had designed Ekofisk for Phillips [00:10:00] petroleum in the early. Late sixties, And, so he’d come from oil and gas and he’d come from that concrete, construction background. And, he is very comfortable with it. And I think, Gordon, that’s part of why I like working with Gordon ’cause Gordon has that same, long-term view on, these construction principles. And I think that, what we saw though is the margins are so different from oil and gas, and so you have to have almost a poor man’s TLP is what we would call it because it’s. It’s gotta be a very simple version of a TLP that can roll out in mass quantities. And, as coming up with a company that, business plan, you’d wanna be able to really scale the business. And so we had to come up with something that you can make. In different parts of the world at the same time, you’re not tied to one shipyard or one construction. Allen Hall: Even in terms of ship usage, you’re going to reduce the size of the ship considerably. You’re not using big dedicated ships that are really [00:11:00]expensive to operate or to keep in the area, even just to have them there as a lot of money. You’re thinking about, a different design in terms of. Simple ships that you can find locally. How much does that really lower the cost of deployment?  Nicole Johnson-Murphy: Quite a lot actually. it depends on, so the other, there’s this other, aspect of installing the wind turbine on the foundation. So we have this fixed to fixed platform concept where you come further, a little bit further offshore and, give you that, draft depth that we need. And then we have a fixed platform that just stays in place and, we bring the turbines to it and, float them out. It’s all a self floating unit, whether it’s the GBS that, Gordon’s been working with us and or the ECO TLP. So we’re really independent of those large vessels. for the most part, we’re, really try and then you, once you install the turbine, you can tow the entire unit out with two tugs. Two to three tugs.  Allen Hall: That’s remarkable. So essentially because you [00:12:00] used a basic henry Ford type process to, to create these foundations and to think about the problem differently. Not only can you deploy it, easier than a lot of things we’re doing right now on top of it, it works over a variety of depths and I think that’s a the hard thing for people to grasp because when we talk about offshore particularly start getting off the continental shelves here, you’re talking about. More than a hundred meters typically of water. But you also have a, the gravity based system and the TLP system are all interconnected into the basic philosophy. can you explain like the, backbone of how that engineering works? Gordon Jackson: It’s essentially, it’s, we’re using the same structural form in both, fixed and floating. It’s basically, it’s two cylinders, one inside the other. A little bit of structure, which joins the two cylinders together. that’s it.  Allen Hall: Gordon, you make it sound so simple, but the, [00:13:00]engineering is complicated to get to that point. And once you get to that level of, oh, that design actually works in a variety of depths, that opens up your customer base quite a bit. Have you had inquiries from nearshore people? Or fixed bottom people thinking whoa, I could actually save myself a bunch of time and money, which is the real limiting factor on offshore wind at the moment. Are you starting to see some momentum there that, operators, developers are starting to rethink this problem and not just do what they did last week? Nicole Johnson-Murphy: Absolutely. one of the ways we came about the g you know, taking the ECO TLP and transforming it to the ECO GBS was, recommended by a client, was, that was their ask actions. That’s always the best way to start a product development cycle because, somebody’s interested. and I think, and part of the reason I found Gordon to work with early on in our, the life of our company is, his background in, in GBS development. He did, he developed the Gravitas GBS [00:14:00] 10 years ago. So I think we, we got lucky that our, civil structural engineering partner with ARUP was, already really comfortable with, looking at this. So I think that’s, part of, you always want the clients to be interested, before you start investing. You don’t wanna design a product that’s in your head or your, in your company lunchroom without a real ask for it.  Allen Hall: And I, think also you have a, once you have the engineering pretty well done and. Obviously do now you’re trying to touch a number of countries and every culture has its own way of, one of the construction business to do it slightly differently. South Korea does it different than Scotland, for example. You are working across cultures and trying to make the same design. apply to all those different areas. Are, have you learned [00:15:00] some things from that? Is it, are you able to basically set the same assembly line in every place? or are there different, kinds of concrete, different kinds of access, different kinds of ports that you have to deal with? What are those variables there that, that change the way you do business? Gordon Jackson: All the characteristics, ports are, obviously different. Really you just need space. And access to reasonably deep water from, that, from that space. And, it can get surprisingly difficult to find that, certainly in the UK and, in Northern Europe, people wanna build marines and, waterfront living, rather than having, an industrial facility, on the doorsteps. In, developed countries it can be hard to find that space. But, in some, parts of the world, there’s lots of [00:16:00] space, available. some good port facilities that can be utilized. and then it’s just in, in all civil engineering works, you go to do the job, you go wherever the job is, you mobilize there. You put in the systems, and equipment that you need to build, a structure, and then normally you go away at the end of the job, you hand it over to the client. you know what, what, would be good here is if we could set up some regional centers where you’ve done the, investment in the yard, and then you can, you can amortize those costs of development over a number of projects. Then you should start to see, real, real good cost savings.  Nicole Johnson-Murphy: Just one thing, our footprint of our, cylinders is about a third of the footprint of a semi-sub, for example. [00:17:00] So, our footprint on the land port is very small.  Allen Hall: I think that makes sense because if you watch the fixed bottom projects, particularly in the United States. The first thing they had to do is rebuild the ports. The ports weren’t set for the scale and so they needed to expand the ports. That means you have to acquire land, you’ve gotta develop it. There’s a lot of processes involved. ’cause you’re talking about city, state, and federal government being involved. Obviously federal in the United States is a problem. so just getting the port developed was a huge process for fixed bottom. You’re thinking about that differently though, because the reduced amount of space, the, you don’t have to be in a huge industrial area, but all obviously it would be nice, but you do run against that problem. Are you thinking, when you talk about regional centers, are you thinking kind of Mediterranean, west Coast, us, Australia, one in Japan? How do you think about that problem? Because [00:18:00] once you get a site established, it does seem like because of the, how fast you can move these things around that it’ll become a pretty good job center for a lot of people. Nicole Johnson-Murphy: Yeah. There’s a long-term maintenance, crew that needs to be developed while we build these. Yeah, I think, it’s been a moving target of what’s really gonna develop in offshore wind. It’s like Lucy and Charlie Brown with football. I think we, constantly try to, get lined up to, to kick football and then it falls. It’s more of the developers I, I feel for on that ’cause they’re these investing tremendous amount of money for these, development sites. We are open to any, we’ve been, we’ve looked at, some developers are looking at steel production and concrete production, two different reports servicing. An array and we’re really flexible. It doesn’t, matter. When we first started on that Hawaii project, we were gonna do floating barges to slipform. [00:19:00]And we talked about that with ARUP. Some still this floating dock idea and submerging that dock. And it’s just a matter of finding the right, a large enough, dock for that type of, so then you’re not even using the land base port. You’re learn, you’re using just to. Maybe a 400 foot frontage on the, along the port. Allen Hall: That’s amazingly small, right? Because if you look at some of these ports right now that are doing, fixed bottom offshore, they’re massive, they’re huge sites. You’re talking about something roughly a 10th of the scale to get the same end result, which is turbines in the water. Nicole Johnson-Murphy: For our part of it. We still, you still have the components and those are, that’s a, it’s another logistical challenge, and so I understand why the ports are. Looking at a lot more lay down space and things, maybe at a certain point these components are so large that they just stay on a vessel and they, and we take them off of a vessel directly and load them in. Allen Hall: Yeah, I think that’s one of the considerations [00:20:00] is do you really tie it to land in, terms of needing a, massive amount of space, acres of space, thousands of square meters of space. Do you need that or is this, or can you do it much more efficiently because that overhead adds up over time. Not only are you trying to save on, the ships and the, especially the dedicated ships, you’re also looking at smaller footprints on shore and doing it a lot more economically. What does that future look like now, because it does seem like we’re at a precipice where floating wind is no longer just being discussed. In theory, it’s, going to be implemented. What are those next steps here for ECO TLP?  Nicole Johnson-Murphy: So next week we’re headed to Tokyo, to Japan for the wind expo. And, ARUP is also presenting at the Asia Wind Offshore Show. I think we’re, we’re, good to learn. There’s just so much to learn about each culture, and I think this is something that, Gordon and I’ve talked about in terms of these international [00:21:00] projects, you’ve, gotta understand your culture that you’re moving into and you’ve gotta understand how to mediate across those different companies that come in. Our company has seven different. Countries represented in our team. So right now, so, we’re, a US company, but we’re barely, we’re just by name, but I think most of our team members are not in the us and that’s international collaboration is something, I, really, loved working on it. And I think, so when we go to Japan next week, it’s really mainly just to learn. we don’t. We have a lot to learn about Japan, and that’s what’s fun about each of these regions.  Gordon Jackson: And that’s where we can help because, we’ve got a presence in Japan. We’ve been doing offshore wind in Japan, so we’re there, to help eight to ECO TLP with our, those little contacts and h do business, in Japan and things like that.[00:22:00] We have a big international network, so you know, it can help. Some, in some areas, open some doors and, forge some, some friendships between, count companies.  Allen Hall: Gordon you did a big project out in Perth, Australia, which is a difficult place, Australia is a very difficult place to manufacture things. What are some of the lessons learned and what was that process like?  Gordon Jackson: So he had a, client, a very small client who was prepared to. Seed responsibility for delivering his project to a, team, an alliance team. And he just, interviewed a number of teams and, we were lucky enough to be selected, as the team to deliver their project. There was no tendering, it was just done on, how the, client felt about the, individuals that he met. And that, that was [00:23:00] very new to me. And, the whole project was delivered, by companies from the uk, from Australia, from Singapore, from be Netherlands, the Marine, the marine, vessels. A lot of ’em are coming from, from, Northern Europe, even though you’re in Australia. And, every company wants to do things differently and they all want to look after their interests, but the big thing about this alliance project was that, you were focused on one particular project and we were, we were coached and, facilitated, and trained to, to throw away our, our company affiliations and work together. And, to collaborate together. And, [00:24:00] we’re all working towards the, end goal of delivering a particular product. And I think that’s, I think it’s got a lot of, lot of potential to be used in the offshore wind sector. This, was, an oil platform that we were gonna build on the, the northwest shelf of Australia, which happened to be built in concrete, because the client. The client came to us with a notion of, doing something in concrete, which we, took his idea, decided we could do something a little bit cheaper and more straightforward and, went on to deliver it. We were given the opportunity to deliver it. And, yeah, I, it was my best project. it was a tremendous experience for all the companies involved. And everyone made money so everyone’s happy.  Allen Hall: That is difficult, right? You do see on these offshore projects, people coming from around the world to [00:25:00] work on this one big effort, a lot of money, and at times, thousands of people involved. Companies stu stumble there, obviously because you’re trying to tie cultures, you’re trying to tie companies together, but at the end of the day, you have to get this project done. Are, there some top level lessons learned from that of, how to bridge those differences?  Gordon Jackson: I did another project, this was a steel project, where we had a US oil company. And, The successful contractor was Hyundai in Korea. And they said to, me over the course of the project, we always lose money with, with American oil companies. Why are we doing business with them? And it, all came down to the, the approach to the [00:26:00] contract. Hyundai used to working in a more collaborative way with our clients. Whereas, this project, this is what the contract says, this is what you’ve taken on to do, there’s no negotiation, you’ll do it and that’s how much money you’re getting. And, but they find that very difficult. And, it was at the time when they were opening up their business more internationally. And I think it was a big learning experience for them. Yeah I think a lot of the offshore wind tried to follow the same path and, yeah, I think more collaborative working is to be encouraged for me. More talking to each other and negotiating rather than, imposing.  Allen Hall: Where should developers go to find out more about ECO TLP? [00:27:00] Because you have a gravity based system. You got the tension leg platform, there’s a lot inside of the company. What’s the first stop? Should they visit your website? Should they connect with you on LinkedIn? Where do they go?  Nicole Johnson-Murphy: The LinkedIn where website is great.  Allen Hall: So go visit ECO TLP. It’s ecotlp.com. Nicole and Gordon, this has been a great discussion. I’ve learned a lot. It’s very exciting because I think you’re on the precipice of something great. So thank you for joining me today. Gordon Jackson: Thank you. Thank you.

The Steve Gruber Show | Foreign Money, Fake Movements, Real Consequences --- 00:00 - Monologue 19:10 – Kent Strang, Managing Director of Americans for Prosperity. Strang explains why he believes President Trump was right to suspend the Jones Act. He discusses how the move could impact shipping, energy costs, and supply chain efficiency. 27:57 – Joe Rieck, Vice President of Sales at Longevity. Rieck encourages listeners to take the first step toward better health with Longevity products. He highlights a limited-time offer, including a free pouch of Strawberry Longevity with purchase. 38:15 - Monologue Featuring Ivey Gruber  47:08 – Ivey Gruber, President of the Michigan Talk Network. Gruber discusses the possibility of sending U.S. troops to Iran and the importance of trusting presidential decision-making. The conversation also touches on COVID-era fraud and a bizarre heist involving 12 tons of Kit Kat bars. 57:21 – Eric Eggers, Vice President of Research at the Government Accountability Institute and co-host of The Drill Down. Eggers discusses concerns about potential insider trading tied to developments surrounding the Iran conflict. He explains why increased scrutiny and investigation may be necessary. 1:06:21 – Dr. Jennifer Sperry, veterinarian with Spot Pet Insurance. Dr. Sperry discusses whether pet owners should be concerned about bird flu affecting animals. She also shares practical spring and summer safety tips to help keep pets healthy. 1:16:32 - Monologue 1:25:28 – John Vecchione, Senior Litigation Counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA). Vecchione discusses a major legal victory against government involvement in social media censorship. He explains what the ruling means for free speech protections moving forward. 1:35:29 – Marc Goldwein, Senior Vice President and Senior Policy Director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Goldwein outlines a new proposal to help shore up Social Security, including the idea of implementing a six-figure income cap. He discusses the potential economic impact and political feasibility. 1:44:06 – Ivey Gruber, President of the Michigan Talk Network. Gruber wraps up the show with commentary on the rising cost of sporting events and a story about a man selling his house to attend the World Cup. The segment also explores political protests and whether Hollywood can regain its cultural influence. --- Check out our brand new podcast, 'Forgotten America'... The seventh and eighth episodes are live NOW at Steve Gruber on YouTube! Link below: https://youtu.be/7r4XPsrY4bg

Another point goes to capitalism in the long war of economics, as Poland has overcome its once-communist decay and rocketed into becoming one of the world's largest economies. Meanwhile, socialist Cuba slowly crumbles amid a fuel embargo and the decades of communist economic influence. We will contrast and compare these two examples of economic systems and see which one is best (Hint: it's not the one represented by the hammer and sickle).Trump is temporarily suspending the Jones Act, which has had a major impact on energy shipping, especially for East-coast states, and we will look at how serious a threat AI is to white collar jobs. Andrew Yang says it will be catastrophic, but is that just hyperbole?And on UNHINGED: An attempted terror attack failed in New York City last week, amid a protest over the growth of Islam in the city.The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, S.T. Karnick, and Jim Lakely will talk about all of this and more on Episode #530 of the In The Tank Podcast. In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

Our Head of Public Policy Research Ariana Salvatore breaks down what's being discussed by policymakers around the world to try to cap the oil price spike. Read more insights from Morgan Stanley.----- Transcript -----Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Ariana Salvatore, Head of Public Policy Research. Today, I'll be talking about the ongoing conflict in Iran and the policy options to offset a rise in oil prices. It's Wednesday, March 25th at 8pm in Tokyo. The U.S.-Iran conflict is stretching into its fourth week, and markets are still trying to distill headlines for news of an off-ramp or further escalation. Even here in Tokyo, the global supply crunch is top of mind. But we're also watching for second order effects among a number of key supply chains, ranging from food to semiconductors. As you've been hearing on the show, the Middle East is a critical supplier of aluminum, petrochemicals, and fertilizers—all industries that are energy intensive and deeply embedded in global supply chains. There's also sulphur, which is needed to produce copper and cobalt, largely used for chip materials and components. And helium, which is a critical material for semiconductor manufacturing. So with all this supply chain disruption on the line, what are policymakers' options to mitigate that loss? Let's start by putting some numbers around the disruption. The Strait of Hormuz accounts for about 20 percent of global oil supply, and about a third of seaborne oil. Our strategists highlight three potential offsets. First, alternative pipelines. Saudi Arabia maintains an East-West pipeline and the UAE similarly has a smaller scale Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline. Those together can allow for some crude to bypass Hormuz. Second, the U.S. has publicly discussed potential naval escorts. We've written about the logistical difficulties with this plan, in addition to significant execution risks. Third, the IEA has coordinated a strategic stock release, which could translate to a sustained release of around 2 million barrels a day, depending on the duration of the conflict. There are also geographic considerations though that can add a lag to those strategic releases. On net, our oil strategists think these policy levers can mitigate about 9 million barrels per day from the lost 20, meaning that the global economy will still be short about 11 million barrels per day; more than three times the supply shock the market feared from the Russia-Ukraine conflict back in 2022. So, given those limitations, we're starting to see countries around the world – particularly in Asia – begin to implement rationing measures to conserve energy. The Philippines, for example, has implemented a four-day workweek for government workers and mandated agencies to cut fuel and electricity use. Myanmar has imposed driving limits, and Sri Lanka has introduced gasoline rationing. But what about in the U.S.? We've seen domestic gasoline prices climb due to this conflict, and the national average is now close to $4, almost a dollar up from where we were about a month ago. The President has announced a number of policy efforts – including a Jones Act waiver, which temporarily allows foreign vessels to transport fuel between U.S. ports, and a temporary pause on some Russian and Iranian oil sanctions. President Trump has also directed a release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but similarly to the IEA stockpile, the flow rate is going to be the key limit. The authorization was for 172 million barrels over a 120 period, which translates to just about 1.4 million barrels per day on average. So what should we be watching? Tanker transits, signs of upstream shut-ins as storage fills, refinery run-cuts, and—most crucially—whether policy announcements on insurance and escorted convoys can actually translate into reality. These are all going to be critical elements going forward. For now, our oil strategists have raised their near-term Brent forecast to $110 per barrel, which underscores our U.S. economists' outlook for weaker growth and stickier inflation than previously expected. And for now, policy tools seem to be unable to meaningfully offset that disruption. Thanks for listening. As a reminder, if you enjoy Thoughts on the Market, please take a moment to rate and review us wherever you listen and share the podcast with a friend or colleague today.

Let's talk about Trump not keeping up with the Jones Act....

War continues to rage in the Middle East, and energy infrastructure is being targeted. The price of oil has surged to $115 a barrel, and gas in the U.S. is now averaging $3.88 a gallon — up almost a dollar from before the war. President Trump recently waived the Jones Act in an attempt to lower oil prices. Will it work? Also: what's next for the Federal Reserve, and where U.S.-China relations currently stand.

War continues to rage in the Middle East, and energy infrastructure is being targeted. The price of oil has surged to $115 a barrel, and gas in the U.S. is now averaging $3.88 a gallon — up almost a dollar from before the war. President Trump recently waived the Jones Act in an attempt to lower oil prices. Will it work? Also: what's next for the Federal Reserve, and where U.S.-China relations currently stand.

A prolonged oil disruption is pushing gas prices higher. Arunima Sinha from our U.S. and Global Economics team joins Head of U.S. Policy Strategy Ariana Salvatore to discuss what that means for consumer spending, inflation expectations and the U.S. midterm elections.Read more insights from Morgan Stanley.----- Transcript -----Arunima Sinha: Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Arunima Sinha from Morgan Stanley's U.S. and Global Economics Teams.Ariana Salvatore: And I'm Ariana Salvatore, Head of U.S. Policy Strategy.Arunima Sinha: Today – what are the implications of the ongoing oil disruption for the U.S. consumer?It's Wednesday, March 18th at 10am in New York.Ariana, let's start with where we are in week three of this particular oil disruption and what you are thinking about in terms of what the paths to resolution could look like.Ariana Salvatore: Yeah. Great place to start. So, I would say before we get into what the resolution could look like, we need to think about how long could this conflict possibly last? And that's the most relevant question for investors as well. And there I would say there's very little conviction just because of the uncertainty associated with this conflict. But I'm keeping my eye on three different things.The first is a clearer prioritization of the objectives tied to the conflict. The Trump administration has laid out a number of different goals for this conflict, some of which are shorter in nature than others. The second thing I think we're looking at – that's really important – is traffic at the Strait of Hormuz. And there, the Trump administration has spoken about insurance, you know, naval escorts – all of these things that we think will take some time to really come to fruition. And at the time that we're recording this, it seems that we're still getting about low single digit number of tankers through the strait on a daily basis. So that's the second thing.The third point I would make is any type of escalation is really critical here. So, whether it's vertical – meaning different types of weapons used, different types of targets being hit. Or horizontal escalation, broadening out into different proxies and, and more so throughout the region. Those are really important indicators, and right now all of these things are pointing to a slightly longer-term conflict than I think most people expected at the start.Now, in terms of what that means for markets, for domestic gasoline prices, all these are really important questions that I'm sure we're going to get into. But what we should note is that the president has spoken about a number of policy offsets to mitigate those price increases, ranging from the Treasury actually loosening up some of the sanctions on Russia to sell some oil. You know, we've heard some talk of invoking the Jones Act waiver. That's a temporary fix.On net, we think that these policy offsets are not going to really be enough to mitigate that supply loss that we're getting. That's a 20 million barrel per day loss. Some of these efforts mainly will, kind of, target about 7 or 8 million barrels per day. You're still in a deficit of about 10 to 13 [million]. And that's really meaningful for markets, for consumption as you well know, and everything else in between.Arunima Sinha: That's really helpful perspective, Ariana. And it's also a useful segue to think about the note that we jointly put out a few days ago. And just thinking about what this means for the U.S. consumer. And there, I think there's the first point to start with is that the consumer is now going to be living through the third supply shock in about five years. So, after COVID, after tariffs, here comes the next. And I think this particular oil shock is going to be somewhat different from tariffs in the sense that this is going to hit consumers at the front end and directly. This is not something that is going to have to pass through business costs. And some of them could be absorbed by businesses and not fully passed on to the consumer. So, I think that's an important point.The second point here is that in terms of the share of spending of gasoline out of total spend, we are at pretty low numbers. We're somewhere in the 2 to 3 percent range. So, it could give a little bit of a cushion. So, the longer-term average can be somewhere about 4 percent. So, there could be some cushion. But we know that consumers have already been stretched by, sort of, several years of high prices.And so, the way that we thought about what some of the channels could be for how higher oil prices, which translate into higher gas prices, could matter for the consumer. I think there are, sort of, three to identify.The first one is that it is really just a hit to your real purchasing power because this is a type of good that is actually really hard to substitute away from. And you could look through some of it, at the start. So maybe in the first month you don't react very much. You pull down on some savings; you take out a little bit of short-term credit.But the longer it lasts, the bigger the consumption response is going to be. And the second channel then to identify is – you start to build up some precautionary savings motives because there's this uncertainty that's also lasting for some time. And what do you pull back on? You'll typically pull back on discretionary types of spending.And so, we sized out this impact to say that if oil prices were to be about 50 percent higher and they last for two to three quarters, it could hit real personal spending growth by about 40 [basis points] after 12 months. And most of that is really just coming from the impact on good spending, specifically through durable goods.So, there could be some meaningful impact to real consumer spending in the U.S., if this shock were to go on longer. And the last point I would just say is, you know, how do inflation expectations move? Because that's an important point for the Fed and it's an important point for just people who are thinking about their spending decisions over the next year or so.And one interesting thing I think came out in the University of Michigan survey that came out this Friday; and this was a preliminary survey. About half of it was conducted before the conflict started, and half of it was after the conflict started. And what we saw was that inflation expectations in the year ahead, so the 12-month-ahead expectations that had been trending down, paused.So, they are no longer trending down. And, in its release, the University of Michigan noted that for the responses that were collected after the conflict started, inflation expectations did tick up. And interestingly, the strains were the most for the bottom income cohort. So, they saw a bigger uptick in inflation expectations. They actually also saw a bigger uptick in their unemployment expectations over the next year.Ariana Salvatore: So, Arunima, if I can ask, we've been talking a lot about the K-shape economy this year, right? So, consumption really being led by the upper; let's call it the upper income cohort. When we think about this translation to consumption, like you said, more of the stresses on the lower income side, how do you square that with the economic impact that you guys are expecting?Arunima Sinha: The way that I would square it is the longer it lasts and the greater the, sort of, uncertainty in asset markets – that might actually begin to weigh on the upper income consumer as well. So that might make some of those wealth effects less supportive, than what we have seen, over most of 2025. Just given where consumption has been running in terms of its pace.So not only might we see a bigger strain on the lower-income cohorts as we see this shock lasting longer, we might actually see some pressures not through the direct spending channel on gas, but really just, you know, how it's impacting their balance sheets.Ariana Salvatore: And that's a really important point because it also, to me, resonates with the concept of affordability, which has been a really key political topic for the past few months, I would say.And the way we're thinking about this is, like I mentioned, there are limited policy offsets that can be used to mitigate the potential increase in domestic gasoline prices. And that matters a lot for the midterm elections. Typically voters don't really rank foreign policy as a top issue when it comes to their choice for candidates – in midterm elections and elections in general.But once you see that feed through to, you know, inflation, cost of living, job expectations, that's when it starts to really matter for people. And what we've been saying, it's not a perfect rule of thumb, but looking back at the past few elections. If gasoline prices here in the U.S. are something like $3 a gallon, that tends to be pretty good for the incumbent party. [$]4 [a gallon], let's say it's a little bit more politically challenging. And [$]5 [a gallon], you know, is when you kind of get into that even more challenging territory for the administration and for Republicans in Congress.So again, not a perfect benchmark, but something that we'll be keeping an eye on too as this conflict evolves.Arunima Sinha: Ok! So, we'll be keeping an eye on how that oil disruption plays out and matters for the U.S. consumer.Ariana Salvatore: Thanks for listening. If you enjoy the show, please leave us a review wherever you listen and share thoughts on the market with a friend or colleague today. Important note regarding economic sanctions. This report references jurisdictions which may be the subject of economic sanctions. Readers are solely responsible for ensuring that their investment activities are carried out in compliance with applicable laws.

In this hard-hitting episode of The Right Side with Doug Billings, we go beyond the headlines with proud conservative analysis you won't find anywhere else.President Trump is delivering massive wins: Iran on the ropes after decisive strikes in Operation Epic Fury, American families protected from oil price chaos via the Jones Act waiver, border security surging, and election integrity battles raging over the Save America Act.But why the panic? We debunk the "World War III is coming" fears—Russia and China aren't jumping in—and explain the nuclear "obliteration" claims from six months ago: it's follow-through strength, not failure.Plus, the real story on why some former big Trump supporters in the podcast world are suddenly flipping hard: it's the attention economy at work—clickbait testing for the next revenue wave, not deep betrayal. From Carrie Prejean Boller's "MAGA is dead" outburst to Joe Kent's resignation drama, Doug breaks down hardball politics vs. podcast survival math.Choose truth and credibility over negativity. Trump is winning—stay focused on the scoreboard.Timestamps:0:00 – Intro & Today's Big Themes2:30 – No World War III: Facts on Escalation Risks7:45 – Iran Nuclear Reality – Persistence Wins12:20 – The Podcast Flip Cycle: Hardball vs. Clickbait18:00 – Examples: Carrie Prejean Boller & Joe Kent23:30 – Compassionate Call: Truth Before Clicks29:00 – Closing Thoughts & Call to ActionSubscribe for exclusive conservative insights. Like, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts/Spotify to help spread the message. Share with a friend confused by the noise!America First. Always.– Doug Billings, The Right SideSupport the show

Live Mar 18, 2026 | Yaron Brook Show(Season 12 - Episode 53)War Update; Jones Act; Cesar Chavez; Robots; mRNA; Giving Pledge | Yaron Brook Show

Trump Suspends Jones Act To Curb High Fuel Prices, Israeli Military Kills Iran Intel Chief! Plus, DNI Gabbard Grilled By Congress Over Global Threats, Kent Resignation Fallout & Growing Iran War Dissent

Top of the hour: President Trump waiving a U.S. shipping law for 60 days to steady oil markets... but not helping prices or markets in the early trade. Carl Quintanilla, David Faber, and Michael Santoli broke down the news before turning to longtime market veteran and Evercore strategist Julian Emanuel - along with Goldman's Co-Head of Global Commodities Research - with more on what could come next. Plus: a new era at Disney as new CEO Josh D'Amaro takes the reins... Former executive, of 15 years and onetime TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer weighed in on challenges ahead.    Also in focus: a fresh read on whether AI disruption fears should be believed when it comes to software - with the CEO of Docusign, fresh off earnings from the company... and a look at Washington State's first ever income tax - which includes a hitch for married couples.    Squawk on the Street Disclaimer Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

//The Wire//1800Z March 18, 2026// //ROUTINE// //BLUF: PRESIDENT TRUMP SUSPENDS THE JONES ACT AS PETROLEUM INDUSTRY FEELS EFFECTS OF WAR IN IRAN. CONFLICT IN MIDDLE EAST CONTINUES AS ISRAELI FORCES INCREASE TARGETING EFFORTS IN LEBANON.// -----BEGIN TEARLINE-----  -International Events-Persian Gulf: The war continues as before, with multiple attacks on American military bases occurring overnight. The American Embassy in Baghdad has been persistently targeted over the past few days, with one drone strike being reported last night, which resulted in unknown damage. Other coalition positions were struck as well, with Australia reporting successful Iranian targeting efforts at Al Minhad Airbase in the UAE. No casualties were reported by the Australians regarding this attack. Within Iran, Israel/American forces struck the South Pars Natural Gas Facility, one of the largest LNG facilities in the world. Analyst Comment: Following this strike, several GCC states have condemned the action, as destroying infrastructure like this is a major escalation that indicates the nature of the war is more unrestricted, but also because the gas fields serviced by this facility are decently close to the Qatari's own gas fields.Lebanon: The war has intensified over the past few days as Hezbollah and Israeli forces have continued fighting along the main axis of advance in the east. Throughout Lebanon (to include downtown Beirut) the Israeli bombing campaign continues, with Hezbollah forces remaining effective in targeting Tel Aviv with guided rockets and cruise missiles.-HomeFront-New Mexico: Yesterday afternoon a shooting was reported at Holloman Air Force Base, which resulted in one individual being killed and one other wounded at the base shopette. No other details have been provided on this shooting, and the investigation continues.-----END TEARLINE-----Analyst Comments: In Washington, several items of note have been ongoing in the political realm, while attention has been focused on Iran. As one might expect, kicking off a war in the Middle East was expected to (and did) have secondary and tertiary effects. One of the immediate effects of this war has been found in the Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricant (POL) industry, which has experienced wildly fluctuating markets since the war began. This morning the average national gas price rose to $3.84 per gallon, which prompted the White House to implement their previously discussed tactic of suspending the Jones Act as an emergency means to bring prices down in the short term.For context, the Jones Act was implemented shortly after WW1 as a national security measure, to mandate that all goods that transit between American ports, must be transported using American ships with American crews. The general idea being that in the event of war, the maritime trade industry would need to remain effective...it wouldn't be super great for war to break out, and all of the merchant ships that keep the American economy afloat, were to sail back home. The American economy could be crippled without a shot being fired, solely by private companies in the US being allowed to use cheap foreign labor that is not loyal to the United States. In 1920 when the law was passed, the thought process was that companies might take advantage of the freedoms that America provides, to the legitimate detriment of national security. As a result, the Jones Act was a law intended to (somewhat begrudgingly) meddle in the free market, with the purpose of not allowing domestic American companies to rely on logistical infrastructure that isn't American and thus would be a vulnerability in war.As of this morning President Trump suspended this law in it's entirety for the next 60 days, with the White House's logic being that removing regulations will make shipping costs go down, as the free market of ships could carry cargo, and t

The Pentagon didn't just waste money on lobster and fruit baskets. It burned through $93 billion in one month because government incentives reward waste. In this episode of Good Morning Liberty, we break down the preliminary findings around the strike on a school in Iran, what "boots on the ground" would actually mean, and why skepticism of military intervention is still the only sane position. We also get into the Department of Defense September spending spike, luxury purchases, furniture, instruments, and the "use it or lose it" budget scam. We also cover the Jones Act, oil shipments, Puerto Rico, and how protectionist laws make energy and shipping more expensive while pretending to be pro-America. If you care about government waste, war accountability, military spending, energy prices, and libertarian analysis, this episode is for you.