scotlandhawk

As a chemical engineer and an entrepreneur, I’ve spent most of my adult life in domains where reality has veto power. If a system doesn’t work, it fails. If a process doesn’t scale, it breaks. If a model is wrong, the data eventually exposes it. Physics doesn’t care about intentions. Markets don’t care about moral framing. Reality does not grade on a curve. That training shapes how you see the…

As Western policy makers continue to apply pressure on Russian and Iranian energy exports, the intent is clear: constrain revenue, limit strategic leverage, and reshape global energy behavior. But energy markets have a way of absorbing pressure and redistributing consequences. Molecules don’t disappear they just reroute. The result is an increasingly visible pattern: China is emerging as the…

As the West pivots back toward reindustrialization, energy security, and supply chain resilience, the overlooked layers of the physical economy like maintenance, uptime, and logistics are becoming both constraints and opportunities. For much of the past three decades, Western economic thinking assumed that globalization had permanently replaced industrial sovereignty. Manufacturing could be…

Why electricity costs are rising — and what AI-driven load growth gets right, wrong, and misunderstood. The Real Cost of Power With socialists like Bernie Sanders calling for a moratorium on data centers, and local neighborhoods fighting their county development efforts to prevent permitting, it is clear the plug has become unplugged on electricity markets. These populist responses have gained…

For decades, certainly for all of my life, the American industrial base has relentlessly thinned out, mostly through offshoring and supply chain repositioning to China. The covid pandemic created a questioning focus on the brittle condition this hollowing out of US industrial capacity had created, only to be followed by near panic in many industries after Russia invaded Ukraine. Regardless of…

NACS Show Insights While I love the fun and food of the show floor, and seeing so many friends in one place the State of the Industry update is always my favorite session. Chris Rapanick does a masterful job of translating mountains of data into sharp insights that provide instant clarity to key issues. This year he sure didn’t disappoint and I will do my best to summarize the high points, but…

With Trump scheduled to meet with Putin on the war in Ukraine and looking for any points of additional leverage India is finding it’s oil market trying to balance geopolitical pressure and a growing demand discounted Russian crude oil. I wanted to dig into the underlying market fundamentals in India first in a market that I see as one of the major drivers of global growth for the next few…

Over the past twenty years, the volumes produced by the U.S. lubricant industry have quietly—but steadily—been shrinking. From a peak of 136,000 barrels per day in 2004 to just 77,800 barrels per day in 2024. While imports and exports impact the amount actually supplied to the domestic US market, our local demand has fallen by roughly similar amounts from the peak in the late 1990’s based on U.S.…

When we talk about electric vehicles, the spotlight usually lands on passenger cars. But the biggest story for oil demand may actually be rolling on 18 wheels across China’s highways. In the first half of 2025 alone, sales of new energy trucks in China surged 175% year-over-year, with electric trucks making up the overwhelming majority of that growth. It’s a transformation with global…

This week’s announcement from New York Governor Kathy Hochul marks a potentially historic shift. For the first time in over 15 years, a state is planning to build a major new nuclear power facility, directing the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to develop at least 1 gigawatt of new nuclear capacity. If successful, this project could be the signal flare that U.S. nuclear advocates have long been…

The IEA’s World Energy Investment 2025 report is out—and it’s a data-rich 255 page reality check on how the world is actually putting its money where its energy mouth is. At a headline level, investment in the global energy sector is projected to hit a record $3.3 trillion this year. Of that, two-thirds—about $2.2 trillion—will go to clean energy. Expect many to proclaim victory for renewables,…

What happens to asphalt when oil refineries shut down? As the global energy landscape shifts toward decarbonization, industries reliant on petroleum-derived products face both challenges and opportunities. One such critical product is asphalt binder, the glue that holds together the world’s roads, runways, and infrastructure. A recent report by the Asphalt Institute Foundation and Wood…

In 2025 the United States stands at a pivotal moment in its journey toward energy dominance, a cornerstone of the Trump administration’s “America First” strategy. According to a recent Wood Mackenzie whitepaper, Horizons: Tough at the Top – The Threats to US Energy Dominance, the U.S. has emerged as a global leader in oil and gas production, outpacing traditional powerhouses like Saudi Arabia and…

The latest data on oil and products demand in China reveals that some energy transition trends are starting to hit demand in heavy-duty transport and the trade war and tariffs are showing up in the petrochemical sector. We haven’t seen any trends in the US that would indicate a threat to diesel demand due to EV’s or any appreciable growth in LNG/CNG use, which has been growing slightly but not…

Natural Gas – A Bridge or a Backbone? With oil prices declining so much this year are there other upsides in the oil and energy outlook that might cushion the blow of lost revenues and earnings from oil? The latest report from Morgan Stanley would offer some promising possibilities for companies with significant roles in the natural gas industry from production and processing to transportation…