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

• Oil Billionaires Make Biggest Trump Bet Yet

• Wind Drought Prompts More Gas Generation

• Tweet of the Day

Oil Billionaires Make Biggest Trump Bet Yet

The oil industry has been a big supporter of Donald Trump before.

It is now an even bigger supporter.

Oil billionaires have donated $16 million for Trump’s 2024 bid. So far.

The energy agenda

Energy is going to be a big issue in the November elections.

And no two candidates could have more different priorities.

Trump is all about energy dominance and making “an absolute fortune” from oil and gas.

Harris is all about energy transition—and probably suing Big Oil.

No wonder those billionaires are supporting the fortune chaser.

It’s surprising they’re not donating even more.

But they sure are donating plenty in hopes for a new administration.

One that would loosen the noose around the industry’s neck.

Or maybe even take it off.

Trump is already promising less regulation and more pro-oil policies.

This would mean a rollback on a lot of Democrat legislation.

And it would no doubt cause a lot of outrage on the left and an even deeper political divide.

If it happens.

Oil and gas are better for the economy

According to one of the Trump donors, Dan Eberhart from Canary.

And he’s not wrong.

The more oil we produce, the lower the end price would be.

Yet the Biden admin has been trying to stifle growth.

At the same time, it blames the industry for high prices.

Oil billionaires are pragmatic folk.

It might be a good idea for the other camp to remember what pragmatism means.

There’s plenty of evidence you can’t run a country on ideology alone.

Wind Drought Prompts More Gas Generation

Wind power output dropped to a 33-month low earlier this month.

To keep the lights on, generators turned to gas.

It’s the fate of the transition in a single day.

Summer and wind don’t go together

Wind droughts are not an unusual occurrence during the summer months.

It’s how the weather works.

But this weather is affecting wind turbine generation.

Last week, forecasts were that wind would only generate a minuscule 4% of U.S. power.

Not a whole lot, especially given the growth in installations.

That 4% would be down from 10% on average for last year.

Meanwhile, gas generated 41% of U.S. power last year.

That rose to 46% earlier in July as gas picked up the slack from the wind.

There are more telling numbers, too.

Wind power capacity grew by an annual 9% over the past five years.

Output, however, did not.

Imagine that the total capacity is at 147.6 GW.

And those 147.6 GW only produced 4% of our power on a hot July day.

But sure, let’s retire gas plants.

Gas is not going anywhere

The latest EPA emission rules will make it hard for many gas power plants to survive.

Hopefully, those rules will be revised.

Because the alternative is power outages.

The EIA reported that gas generation had hit an all-time high on July 9.

Why? Well…

“because of high temperatures across most of the country and a steep drop in wind generation.”

But sure, let’s retire gas plants.

Tweet of the Day

Thanks for reading today's Oil Patch!

Stay oily, my friend.

Two quick requests before you go:

• If you found this useful, forward this email to a friend to spread the word. 👇

• Take 1 second to answer the poll below 👇👇