Today we had the pleasure of hosting Nancy Jacobson, Founder & CEO, and Ryan Clancy, Chief Strategist, from No Labels. No Labels is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. dedicated to seeking common sense, bipartisan solutions to America’s most pressing issues and advocating for policies that benefit the American people. Since their establishment in 2010, No Labels’ congressional allies have played a significant role in shaping important legislation including the $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill, the infrastructure investment and jobs act, and the bipartisan safer communities act. Today, No Labels is preparing for the possibility of nominating a third-party candidate to run in the 2024 Presidential Election through a unity ticket.
 
From our perspective, one of the factors that is always a big variable in energy is the political world’s ability to lead thoughtfully around energy, which is also directly related to the political world’s ability to cooperate, debate, and come to good answers with all objectives and all considerations at the table. We’re interested in how the policy debate changes, which is directly influenced by the country’s leadership. We were thrilled to visit with Nancy and Ryan to hear about their team’s latest efforts.
 
In our discussion, Nancy provides background on No Labels’ ongoing efforts to secure a ballot line in every state, which would enable them to present a unity ticket option in the 2024 Presidential Election. As you will hear, No Labels recently released the “Common Sense Policy Booklet” (linked here), which presents 30 ideas they believe most Americans agree on. Nancy and Ryan share the extensive surveying and work that went into crafting the booklet as well as the prevalent dissatisfaction among the public with the political system. We discuss the importance of civic education, reactions No Labels has received from other groups in Washington, support and criticism they’ve encountered, the challenges with America’s primary system, and No Labels’ social media strategy. Nancy and Ryan also share No Labels’ measures for success and their overall goal to get both parties to listen to the common sense majority and offer alternative ideas that resonate with a broader base of Americans. We learned a lot about No Labels’ efforts and hope you find the discussion as fascinating as we did.
 
For further reading, we found this article (linked here) by Joe Lieberman in the Wall Street Journal about No Labels particularly interesting. 
 
Mike Bradley kicked us off by highlighting Wednesday’s FOMC meeting, where the FED is expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points. He flagged that WTI crude price was closing in on $80/bbl. which is well above the high end of its recent 3-month trading range. He also highlighted that WTI price has blown through its 200-day moving average (the first time in roughly 12 months) and that Brent & WTI crude oil time spreads (prompt & 12-month spreads) have moved into steeper backwardation signaling a tighter "physical" crude oil market. He further highlighted that trader sentiment has quickly shifted from one of serious oil market "demand" concerns to one of supply concerns, which is a much better setup for investors. Mike also mentioned that over the last few weeks, equity market breadth has broadened to S&P sectors that have lagged this year. He rounded out the discussion by noting that this week will be heavy on Q2 energy results across a broad range of energy & mining subsectors including natural gas E&Ps, onshore & offshore oil service, US oil majors, coal & metal miners and leading US solar companies. Jeff Tillery chimed in with his observations and ques