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With the current stimulus relief package that was put in place at the start of the pandemic set to expire today, Congress has yet to pass another relief package. After last efforts to extend the $600 stimulus failed Thursday and the Senate gone for the weekend, millions of Americans are left with much uncertainty moving forward.

Tuesday, The Wyoming legislature’s Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee has sponsored a bill proposing tax relief for oil and gas companies in a bid to stimulate an increase in production. The bill, if approved, calls for tax exemption on oil production until the price of WTI reaches $45 per barrel. A year ago, Wyoming produced 102.1 million barrels of crude with 37 drilling rigs. “We’re recognizing that if [the] price is too low, companies are not going to come back anyway. So, we’re gonna set it at maybe a break-even to get a company over the hump to choose Wyoming over North Dakota, to choose Wyoming over New Mexico,” said the president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, Pete Obermueller, as quoted by Wyoming Public Media.

The COVID-19 virus may have provided a future view to the trade show industry. The global health crisis has caused hundreds of conferences, meetings, and trade shows to be postponed or cancelled this year. As a result of CDC social distance guidelines, the traditional in person conference may be changed forever. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), announced recently that their annual Trucking Safety Summit will be configured to a virtual meeting through GoToWebinar. Many others will be utilizing technology as the alternative method to communicate ideas, stay connected with members, and enable vendors to present their products and services by way of the computer screen.

March 2020, when life as we know it stopped in the US, the production of crude oil kept on pumping. This continual pumping has led to a crude oil surplus, and in April when the demand for oil waned, the need for storage increased. As storage option are finite and they began to get full, according to David Deckelbaum, an oil analyst with the investment bank Cowen, “oil companies had to start getting creative as they were unable to continue to store or sell the oil. It was said some companies went bankrupt, while others bought oil tankers and pushed them out to sea, completely full. “

COVID-19 has hammered global energy markets, but renewable energy is taking the opportunity to capture a new record share of electricity generation. Energy producers everywhere have been hit hard by the enormous drop in electricity demand, but renewable energy has managed the declines the best, in part due to their lack of variable costs. Coal and natural gas tend to be pushed out of the market first due to operating costs, opening the door for renewables and potentially leading to the expediting of a transition from fossil fuels to renewables.