Showing posts with label Wyoming (Sinclair). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wyoming (Sinclair). Show all posts

Friday, August 26, 2022

Subsidiarity Economics. The times more or less locally, Part IX. The Russo Ukrainian War edition.

B-24 Liberator over Polesti in Operation Tidal Wave during World War Two, the low level American bombing campaign over the Standard Oil refineries in Romania.  The Axis power discounted the threat of American bombing, believing that the US would never bomb something that the Americans owned.  Vladimir Putin made the same calculation of the entire Western world's dependence on Russian oil.

March 8, 2022

We start with a couple of links to other threads, and the prior edition of this thread.

From:

Wars and Rumors of War, 2022. The Russo Ukrainian War Edition, Part Two.

March 8, cont:

The United States is going to announce today that it's banning the import of Russian oil.

 And from:

Subsidiarity Economics. The times more or less locally, Party VIII. Infrastructure Money

March 7, 2022

Oil topped $130/bbl yesterday briefly due to the Russo Ukrainian War.  It was at $121/bbl at the time this was posted.

Wheat prices are also up for the same reason, with there being little in the way of an American due to the drought that set in last year and which, at least right now, is continuing.

And we're off into a scary new economic regime we have not seen since, well ever really, but which is most comparable to the state of the global economy from 1939 to 1945.

The implications of this are vast.  The price of West Texas crude is $123/bbl, and Brent is $128.6/bbl.  That's going to go up, but at the same time, the consumption of petroleum is going down in the US overall, which will continue.  

How will this all develop?  

Well, stay tuned for our usual insightful analysis.

March 10, 2022

Upset over efforts to revive a deal with Iran on nuclear fuel, and feeling they have been ignored in their own regional conflicts, Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirate representatives are not taking President Biden's calls on petroleum production.

March 12, 2022

A nuclear power plant went online in Finland yesterday.

The wave, once again, of the future.

Uber added a fuel surcharge.

March 16, 2022

Petroleum is back down below $100/bbl.

March 18, 2022

A bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate to ban the importation of Russian uranium.

March 20, 2022

The company constructing the nuclear power plant in Wyoming has announced it will not use Russian uranium.

March 25, 2022

The United States has entered into a natural gas deal with the European Union to somewhat offset Russian imports to the EU.

And; 

Today, President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a joint Task Force to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels and strengthen European energy security as President Putin wages his war of choice against Ukraine.

This Task Force for Energy Security will be chaired by a representative from the White House and a representative of the President of the European Commission. It will work to ensure energy security for Ukraine and the EU in preparation for next winter and the following one while supporting the EU’s goal to end its dependence on Russian fossil fuels.

The Task Force will organize its efforts around two primary goals: (1) Diversifying liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies in alignment with climate objectives; (2) Reducing demand for natural gas.

Diversifying LNG Supplies in Alignment with Climate Objectives

  • The United States will work with international partners and strive to ensure additional LNG volumes for the EU market of at least 15 bcm in 2022, with expected increases going forward.
  • The United States and the European Commission will undertake efforts to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of all new LNG infrastructure and associated pipelines, including through using clean energy to power onsite operations, reducing methane leakage, and building clean and renewable hydrogen-ready infrastructure.
  • The European Commission will prepare an upgraded regulatory framework for energy security of supply and storage, as well as working with EU Member States to accelerate regulatory procedures to review and determine approvals for LNG import infrastructure. The United States will maintain its regulatory environment with an emphasis on supporting this emergency energy security objective and the REPowerEU goals.
  • The European Commission will work with EU Member States toward the goal of ensuring, until at least 2030, demand for approximately 50 bcm/year of additional U.S. LNG that is consistent with our shared net-zero goals. This also will be done on the understanding that prices should reflect long-term market fundamentals and stability of supply and demand.

Reducing Demand for Natural Gas

  • The United States and the European Commission will engage key stakeholders, including the private sector, and deploy immediate recommendations to reduce overall gas demand by accelerating market deployment of clean energy measures.
  • Immediate reductions in gas demand can be achieved through energy efficiency solutions such as ramping up demand response devices, including smart thermostats, and deployment of heat pumps. The REPowerEU plan estimates that reductions through energy savings in homes can replace 15.5 bcm this year and that accelerating wind and solar deployment can replace 20 bcm this year, and through EU’s existing plans such as “Fit for 55” contribute to the EU goal of saving 170 bcm/year by 2030.
  • As global leaders in renewable energy, the United States and the European Commission will work to expedite planning and approval for renewable energy projects and strategic energy cooperation, including on technologies where we both excel such as offshore wind.
  • We will continue to collaborate to advance the production and use of clean and renewable hydrogen to displace unabated fossil fuels and cut greenhouse gas emissions, which will include both technology and supporting infrastructure.

March 31, 2022


In a huge move that will have major industry implications, Canada has banned the production of internal combustion engines for passenger vehicles after 2035.  The move includes interim steps as well to reduce their numbers before that date.

Canada is effectively part of the American automobile production industry, with factories in Windsor Ontario being part of the Detroit system.  This means that a major part of the North American market, albeit one with a comparatively small population, is rapidly pulling away from fossil fuel powered automobiles.  This will have impacts in the United States in multiple ways, including production as the North American market pulls towards electric vehicles.  The move can be expected to be at least attempted to be replicated in some US states.

The US is releasing 1,000,000,000 bbls of oil from the strategic reserve to attempt to depress oil prices.  Middle Eastern countries which have been asked to do so have not been sympathetic, as they are generally not sympathetic with the position of the West in the Russo-Ukrainian War.

The United States is considering using the Defense Appropriations Act to boost the mining of minerals in the US associated with electric vehicle batteries.

April 2, 2022

Upping the ante on its neighbor to the north, the State of Washington signed into a law yesterday a bill providing:

A target is established for the state that all publicly owned and privately owned passenger and light duty vehicles of model year 2030 or later that are sold, purchased, or registered in Washington state be electric vehicles.

How this would be enforced is not clear.

Fuel economy averages will be mandated to go from 28 mph to 40 mpg by 2026.

April 4, 2022

Wyoming has acquired $24,000,000 in a Federal mandate to begin putting in electric charging stations on major corridors.

The UN issued a dire climate report.

April 15, 2022

On March 29 of this year, wind generators produced more energy than coal and nuclear, combined.

The inclusion of nuclear in this is for a real statistical reason, but a bit misleading.  If the US is to make its carbon targets, conversion to nuclear energy, the cleanest form of power generation, is an absolute must.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals approved President Biden's Cost of Carbon policy pollution rule.

April 16, 2022

The Federal government is resuming oil leases, albeit in much reduced numbers and with a 6% hike in royalties, bringing the royalty rate to 18.75%.   The old 12.5% rate had been in effect for a century.

April 21, 2022

The state's unemployment rate is well below 4% at the current time.

Utilities have estimated that complying with carbon capture retrofits would raise utility bills by $100/month.

April 26, 2022

Sunflower seed oil, the major cooking oil in some European countries, is now unavailable due to the war in Ukraine, that country being its source.  Only olive oil is available.

May 21, 2022

Wyoming is suspending the production of custom "vanity" license plates due to an aluminum shortage.

May 28, 2022

Justices decline to block Biden policy on social costs of greenhouse gases

June 3, 2022

Under a settlement reached in a Federal court, all of the Federal oil and gas leases issued between 2015 and 2020 will be reexamined for compliance with environmental provisions.  There is a strong chance that they will not all go forward.

June 13, 2022

Wyoming natural gas producers, hoping to take advantage of record high natural gas prices, would like to export the same by ship, but there are no West Coast gas shipping hubs, and the West Coast doesn't want them.

This story involves a lot of interesting ironies, but I'll deal with them elsewhere.

July 6, 2022

Gasoline prices have fallen for twenty-one days in a row.

That being the case, in spite of it being well known that the price of gas follows the price of petroleum, with a lag, and that this is heavily influenced by external forces, we can suppose that politicians who tweeted on this everyday for a while, with criticism of the administration, will now do the same with praise.

Right?

I suspect not.

July 7,  2022

And they fell again yesterday, with the price of crude now reported to be "cratering".

July 11, 2022

Headline from the Trib:

Average gas price falls 19 cents in past week; another new coronavirus mutant spreading; and more

July 15, 2022

Large scale layoffs are occurring at the Sinclair refinery in Sinclair. The company recently sold to a new owner.

July 27, 2022

2/3s of Americans have been reported to have adjusted their behavior in a recent poll so that they drive less.

July 28, 2022

Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin announced an agreement on a bill including $430 billion in spending on energy, electrical vehicle credits and health insurance and which is supposed to pay for itself and reduce the deficit by raising minimum taxes on large companies and more vigorous enforcement of existing tax laws.  The announcement is being hailed as a Democratic breakthrough.

According to its backers the bill would reduce U.S. carbon emissions 40% by 2030.

July 30, 2022

The anticipated last shipment of coal, which will supply its last existing coal fired power plant until September when it shuts down, arrived in Hawaii.

August 5, 2022


The Inflation Reduction Act was briefly held up while the parties bargained with Congressman Sinema.  As a result a tax break that principally benefits wealthy hedge fund managers, which had been removed, was preserved.

August 12, 2022

Benchmark crude prices are now back under $100/bbl.  Prices at the pump are generally once again below $4.00/gallon nationwide.

August 13, 2022

A Federal Court has halted Federal coal leasing, reinstating an Obama era rule on the same.

August 26, 2022

California will require all cars, trucks and SUV's sold in the state after 2035 to be electric or hydrogen fueled after 2035.

Some Republicans at the Federal level are threatening to take away California's ability to independantly regulate automobiles in this fashion, but they lack the power at this point to really do anything about this.

Thursday, April 7, 2022

Friday, April 7, 1922. Founding of Parco, Wyoming.

1922  Ground broken for the town of Parco.  Parco still exists, but it is now known as Sinclair, and is the site of the Sinclair Refinery.  At the time of its founding, it was the location of a very nice hotel on the Lincoln Highway. The hotel's buildings still exist, but the hotel itself is long closed.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

Echos of Parco. Sinclair Wyoming.

Parco was a company town, as noted below, built by a refining company in 1924-25.  The luxury hotel  was built by the company on the then fairly new Lincoln Highway, and the town no doubt benefited as it was also a stop on the Union Pacific.  Only seven miles away from the larger and older town of Rawlins, the Interstate Highway bypasses it and its a remnant of its former self.


Not too many people stop at Sinclair who are just passing through.  But at one time that wasn't true.  And that's why the town has what was once a luxury hotel (now a Baptist church), a spacious park, really nice tennis courts, and the like.  Only the sign on the hotel remains, as well as a historical monument, to remind us that Sinclair is the town's second name.  It was originally Parco, a company town founded by the founder of what is now the Sinclair Refinery, the Producers & Refiners Corporation.




















Also in Wyoming on this day:

1922 U.S. Secretary of Interior leased Naval Reserve #3, "Teapot Dome," in Wyoming to Harry F. Sinclair.

Quite a day for things Sinclair.

On the same day, the first midair collision between an airliner and another airplane occurred when a Grand Aeriens Farman F.60 hit a Daimler Airway de Havilland DH.18. The latter airplane was carrying mail.  All the occupants of both airplanes, seven people, were killed in the collision.  The tragic event took place over Picardie, France.

Cherry blossoms were in bloom in Washington D. C.


Lt. Mina C. Van Winkle, Director of the Women's Bureau of the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, was on trial for refusing to turn two girls over to two men purporting to be their father's. The panel was a police review board, and the charger was insubordination. As such things will do, the event brought attention to the fate of female runaways.


Of some slight interest, police dress uniforms of the era remained very much like the Civil War era Union Army uniform from which they were drawn.

Ms. Van Winkle would pass away in 1933 at age 57.

Sunday, November 15, 2020

Sunday Morning Scene. Churches of the West: Abandoned Church, Sinclair Wyoming

Churches of the West: Abandoned Church, Sinclair Wyoming

Abandoned Church, Sinclair Wyoming


Given the Spanish style of this abandoned, but apparently still maintained, church in Sinclair, my guess is that it was contemporaneous with the  construction of Parco, as the town was originally called.  All the principal buildings that were built in the early 20th Century along the refining town on the Lincoln highway, were built in that style


I'm not sure what denomination used this church, or even when it was last in use.  As noted, it's still receiving maintenance even though it is not serving as a church and is partially boarded up.  Oddly enough, the Baptist Church in Sinclair is using the giant Parco Hotel of the same vintage for its church.

Friday, June 22, 2018

Echos of Parco. Sinclair Wyoming.

 Echos of Parco. Sinclair Wyoming.:

This is linked over here, as it fits in quite well with the theme of the blog.  Parco was a company town, as noted below, built by a refining company in 1924-25.  The luxury hotel was built by the company on the then fairly new Lincoln Highway, and the town no doubt benefited as it was also a stop on the Union Pacific.  Only seven miles away from the larger and older town of Rawlins, the Interstate Highway bypasses it and its a remnant of its former self.



Not too many people stop at Sinclair who are just passing through.  But at one time that wasn't true.  And that's why the town has what was once a luxury hotel (now a Baptist church), a spacious park, really nice tennis courts, and the like.  Only the sign on the hotel remains, as well as a historical monument, to remind us that Sinclair is the town's second name.  It was originally Parco, a company town founded by the founder of what is now the Sinclair Refinery, the Producers & Refiners Corporation.




















Saturday, November 16, 2013

Sinclair Cannons

Sinclair Cannons: These cannons in Sinclair, Wyoming are proclaimed to be Civil War era cannons which were used by the Sinclair Refinery as safety ca...

Friday, November 15, 2013

The Golden Era of Classic Hotels: Parco

The Parco Hotel.

If you try to book a room in the Parco Hotel today, you won't be able to.  Indeed, you won't even be able to find Parco. But the classic building is still there, in another use, and the town is still there, under another name. 

Parco was a company town started by the Producers & Refiners Corporation to house their operations and workers in Carbon County Wyoming.  It was built in 1925.  It says something, perhaps, about the nature of transportation at the time that the company undertook this, as the existing town of Rawlins was very well established by that time and quite nearby.  I estimate Rawlins to be a mere seven miles distant, and the Wyoming Highway Department places it at three miles.  Not much.  But ParCo chose to build its refinery distant from the Union Pacific railroad town and county seat for some reason.

 Spanish architecture buildings in Sinclair.

That wasn't the only (perhaps) unusual thing ParCo did. It also hired an architect to design the company town with a distinct architectural style and to include a very distinct hotel.  The town was not only on the Union Pacific, a necessity for a Carbon County refinery, but it was also on the Lincoln Highway.  ParCo was apparently run by a type of visionary, who saw that at least travelers heading west from Laramie and who passed by Medicine Bow might be looking for attractive lodging for the night.

So the company built the Parco Hotel.  Covering an entire city block, the Spanish architecture hotel featured 60 rooms and had two bell towers.  It was quite the hotel.  ParCo, however, didn't survive the  Great Depression and sold out to Sinclair in 1934.  In the 1940s, the town, still owned by the main employer, with that employer being Sinclair, changed its name to Sinclair.  In the 1960s Sinclair sold the town's buildings to its residents.

Another view of the Parco Hotel.

When the Parco Hotel ceased to be a hotel, I have no idea, but it was long ago.  In some ways, it's almost a shock to think of there being a near luxury hotel in its current location, with the larger town of Sinclair so close, and the main employer in Parco being the refinery, which continues on in operation to this day.



Towns separated by only a few miles are unusual in Wyoming's interior. There are some other examples, but not many.  That Parco came about with Rawlins so close is a bit of a surprise, and a luxury hotel in Parco is an even greater surprise. But perhaps that says something about transpiration at the time.  Even at three miles, in 1925, could have been rough traveling in in the winter, and perhaps for refinery operations you need the workers right there.  If the refiner wasn't going to build in Rawlins, it perhaps had to have a company town where it built.  And town it built had nice buildings. That they thought of a hotel where they did, perhaps reflected the nature of travel on the early Lincoln Highway.  The trip by interstate highway from Laramie to Sinclair is 93 miles today. If a person is driving from Cheyenne its 142 miles. But on the Lincoln Highway those miles were longer, and harder.  I'd guess that the distance on the Lincoln Highway was more like 110 to 120 miles from Laramie, with an added 50 if you came from Cheyenne.  By the time you traveled that distance, in 1925, you were likely ready for a stop. Rawlins was only another few miles, but that few miles probably seemed like an unwelcome few miles in 1925.  Rawlins was, no doubt, catching all of the train travelers.  But Parco probably caught quite a few of the motorists.