Good morning, here's what the Oilman has for you today:

• Crypto Miners Move into Shale

• Europe Has No Idea about Cost of Transition

• Tweet of the Day

Crypto Miners Move into Shale

The world’s top Bitcoin miner has entered U.S. shale.

MARA Holdings will be using excess gas to generate power for its operations.

It’s the latest chapter in the Big Tech vs Crypto Miners saga.

So much demand, so little electricity

The saga is all about access to enough electricity.

Crypto mining is very energy-intensive.

So is powering artificial intelligence.

There is only so much electricity.

And there’s clearly not enough to go around.

The crypto crowd has been flexible.

Some are selling their supply to Big Tech data centers.

Others, like MARA, are tapping shale resources.

“We want to avoid putting additional load on the grid,” CEO Fred Thiel told Reuters.

That’s very noble of them, for sure.

It’s also quite smart. They’re getting their electricity cheaper.

“We can bring energy markets to where the energy is,” Thiel also said.

MARA is making the first step with a 25-MW generation plant.

It buys associated gas from independents in Texas and North Dakota.

And it uses the gas to generate power.

Green crypto mining

Besides the obvious advantages of cheap power, there is a bonus.

The bonus: the gas that the crypto miner buys would’ve been flared otherwise.

So, MARA is effectively helping curb emissions.

It plans to exploit this fact by selling carbon credits.

Point to Team Bitcoin. Team AI, your move.

Europe Has No Idea about Cost of Transition

Europe’s political elite has no idea how expensive the transition will be.

The shocking revelation comes from the continent’s business circles.

These circles are worried about their future.

“Hundreds of billions in subsidies”

Europe went happily all in on the transition.

It happily allocated tens of billions to wind, solar, and EV subsidies.

Billions are being planned for green hydrogen as well.

But Europe would need a lot more than that to have its transition.

That’s what business executives are saying.

Wind, solar, and EVs are just too expensive without massive government support.

That’s the case all around, even in China…

Although China has years of R&D in those industries going for it.

It still needs to subsidize that tech to make it cheap.

That should ring an alarm bell, but it hasn’t.

None of those calling for more subsidies is asking where the money would come from.

Because it would have to come from somewhere.

And that can’t be end consumers.

Slumping the whole financial burden on consumers will just end in poverty.

And no demand for all the glorious transition tech.

Money talks but is anyone listening?

Slumping EV sales.

Slumping heat pump sales.

Negative electricity prices.

The transition in Europe is failing on all fronts.

The market is saying no, but no one seems to be listening.

It will be a long, drawn-out death—and super expensive.

Tweet of the Day

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