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

• Shell Wins Major Emissions Appeal

• U.S. Oil Industry Goes on the Offensive

• Tweet of the Day

Shell Wins Major Emissions Appeal

Shell has won an appeal against a court ruling about emission cuts.

The ruling would have forced Shell to cut oil and gas production.

Substantially.

Now, a higher court has overturned that, which is a major win for the industry.

45% emissions cut no more

The case in short:

A green group accused Shell of generating emissions, which is apparently a crime.

The court sided with the Greens and ordered a 45% emission reduction by 2030.

That would have meant slashing oil and production.

So Shell appealed.

And the court decided to side with the reason for a change.

“There is currently insufficient agreement in climate science on a specific reduction percentage that an individual company such as Shell should adhere to,” the court said.

The greens, needless to say, were unhappy.

“This hurts,” their chief executive said.

It probably does.

But no more than it would have hurt everyone if Shell had gone along with the first ruling.

That would have spurred even more lawsuits.

And more production cuts.

A return of reason?

The higher court’s ruling is definitely a good sign.

This means that the court system is not totally lost to the climate alarm crowd.

But, of course, the Greens are now appealing the latest ruling.

It will be up to the Supreme Court to make a final decision.

But that can take years.

In the meantime, Shell can keep pumping as much oil and gas as it wants.

And the planet will most likely not die of overheating.

U.S. Oil Industry Goes on the Offensive

Oil and gas producers are going on the offensive.

With Trump in office, they want Biden's climate policies scrapped.

And they might just get what they want.

Cancel fuel efficiency standards, bring LNG back

The API is asking for the removal of fuel emission standards.

These essentially amount to EV quotas.

The industry group also wants the “pause” on LNG permits gone.

Its third request is to cancel methane emission standards.

That last one’s really unfortunate.

Biden just greenlit those standards.

And they come into effect immediately.

Emitters are in for a fine of $900 per metric ton.

From their perspective, Trump can’t take office soon enough.

API seems to have it in for California, too.

The lobby group wants Cali’s tailpipe emission standard-setting freedom taken away.

So it can’t set more stringent norms than federal ones.

Make people—and companies—happy again

Millions of California drivers will probably be happy if Trump agrees to grant all this.

It won’t be just California drivers.

Carmakers will breathe a sigh of relief if EV mandates are lifted.

They’ve been losing billions on those.

Oil and gas producers will also be happy.

At least for a while.

If they’re not careful, they might “drill themselves out of business,” as Trump put it.

But chances are they will be careful.

Many expect a surge in U.S. oil and gas output under Trump.

But that would only happen if it makes financial sense.

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 👇👇