A Slippery Slope: the Intertwining of Politics and Energy
Written by Matthew McKean, CEO and co-founder of Frontieras North America (LinkedIn)
Governments around the world continue to regulate, tax and exploit the energy markets. These actions, years in the making, have slowly deteriorated the core of today’s oil and gas energy leaders to proactively locate and process new available, affordable, and abundant energy sources. A review of the current global energy market (and specifically the lack of reliable energy) reveals that sins including poor legislation of the past are never left completely behind. These are not your typical sins, but sins of a political type created by self-promotion, following the “anti-oil” script, and putting today’s needs in front of what is best for the future.
Frontieras North America is in the middle of this energy debate as political leaders attempt to dismantle reliable fossil fuels while trumpeting unreliable renewable energy. As we step into 2023, Frontieras North America is poised to introduce clean technology, Solid Carbon Fractionation™ (SCF), with the construction of its first FASForm plant. The yields produced by the FASForm plant will change the way we process fossil fuels, capture and repurpose volatiles and address energy shortages created by a series of global events and bad legislation. Frontieras’ SCF, the epitome of clean technology, is the bridge to the future, and the key to energy independence and the ongoing delivery of reliable energy.
A quick chronological recap of the 2022 energy market can be summarized by a few key events. These include Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, soaring energy prices, a breakdown to the supply chain and increased inflation. On the political front, President Biden passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which will continue to prop up and subsidize the green energy market of renewables for years to come. If this was not bad enough, the Biden administration tapped the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to combat rising oil prices at the pumps and gain favor with voters as an election is right around the corner. Alex Epstein, author of “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels” and founder of the Center for Industrial Progress, commented, “Instead of using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to protect America’s oil security, the Biden administration is abusing the SPR to harm America’s oil security: depleting it when there isn’t a security threat to cover up the disastrous cost of his anti-oil policies.”
In 1975, the United States created the SPR to protect against future oil supply disruptions. At its high point in 2010, the SPR level reached 726.6 million barrels. Since December 1984, the level has never been lower than 450 million barrels, but we are closing 2022 with the SPR at 378 million barrels, a decline of nearly 40% since the beginning of the year. To combat rising energy prices, President Biden announced the largest release of oil from the SPR in history. The negative impact of these numbers cannot be denied and provides another hurdle that will have to be addressed as the current administration once again kicked the “proverbial can” down the road.
The true impact of the Inflation Reduction Act on the energy market will be measured years down the road. The IRA will continue to subsidize the renewable market for years and build revenue through higher taxes to traditional oil and gas companies. However, the government recognizes the important role fossil fuels play and inserted a provision that inextricably links renewable energy development to fossil fuel interests. Specifically, the IRA mandates that the government must offer at least two million acres of federal land for onshore oil and gas leasing before any proposed wind or solar lease is issued. This provision is important as it provides incentive to continue oil and gas exploration and continue to invest in new clean technology that generates efficiencies and maximizes the yields of fossil fuels. Enter Frontieras North America.
Frontieras North America’s innovative clean technology provides yields of Hydrogen, Naphtha, Jet Fuel, Diesel, and FASCarbon™, a “clean coal” as a superior metallurgical feedstock. These solutions will be sold to direct buyers, refineries, chemical companies, and brokers. Specifically, Frontieras’ FASForm plant deploys a continuous-feed refining process for coal and other solids that uses constant heat and pressure to reform, refine and liberate the constituents of solid carbonaceous materials containing volatile compounds. By deconstructing the coal to its core elements, the Frontieras FASForm clean technology process:
Removes nearly all sulfur, mercury, and arsenic, as well as the moisture, which upgrades the thermal value of the final carbon product.
Captures and repurposes energy elements contained within a solid hydrocarbon, so no waste is emitted into the air, water, and soil.
Repurposes the captured volatiles to lower the carbon footprint and reduce CO2 emissions.
While the rules continue to change, the need for reliable and affordable energy remains constant. Governments need to look out for the wellbeing of their citizens and deploy sensible regulations that foster the growth of reliable energy sources. 2022 was a landmark year as it exposed how fragile the global energy market is and the importance of energy independence.
Energy independence is critical to allow the U.S. to maintain its position as a world leader. Becoming independent allows the United States to regain energy security and to free itself from countries that have the power to manipulate supply and price without consequences. The path to energy independence is through the processing of fossil fuels with clean technology. Conservative estimates have the coal reserves in the U.S. lasting more than 350 years. Some experts believe this number is very low and that there are thousands of years of coal reserves on U.S. soil that are not yet identified because of location and the cost to access.
2023 will be a pivotal year for the oil and gas energy markets in the United States and countries around the world. Frontieras will continue to share our insights on all things energy related and continue to focus on the delivery of abundant, available and affordable energy with the construction of the first FASForm plant.
To learn more about Frontieras North America and its patented energy solution or to invest in the company, please visit www.Frontieras.com.
