Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 12/01/17

The American Trucking Associations was joined by eight trucking organizations and affiliates in a renewed effort to repeal the outdated and counterproductive federal excise tax, or FET, on heavy-duty trucks and trailers. The coalition sent a letter to the leaders of Senate Finance Committee and House Ways & Means Committee to express strong support for the Modern, Clean, and Safe Trucks Act. The bipartisan legislation would repeal the FET and immediately reduce the cost of new, cleaner, and safer trucks by 12 percent, making it easier for fleets to upgrade their equipment. “Eliminating this tax will remove a barrier to retiring older trucks that lack modern emissions control and safety technologies, allowing owners to replace them with modern, clean models that are safer and more environmentally friendly,” the coalition wrote.

UPM Energy answers to the urgent need for power flexibility with a revolutionary energy optimisation and trading service, Beyond Spot, helping industrial businesses thrive in the energy market disruption. The service helps industrial companies solve the most common pain points of energy management: energy cost optimisation and risk management. At the same time, it answers the growing need for flexible power to balance the power grid due to the fast increase in the supply of renewable energy. The energy market is in the middle of disruption. Tightening climate goals push countries to shift towards renewable energy, which pushes the power prices down and shakes up the market dynamics. The increase in renewable energy creates dramatic fluctuations in energy supply, posing significant financial risks for large energy consumers and causing new challenges for electricity grids. In order to cope with the volatile renewable energy supply, investments in electricity grids are required, but part of the solution lies in more efficient use of flexible consumption assets through energy optimisation. Regulators and transmission system operators also aim for better balancing of supply and demand with the help of new regulation such as the fifteen-minute imbalance settlement coming in 2023 in the Nordics.

Oil prices steadied on Wednesday, supported by a drop in U.S. commercial crude inventories and the loss of storage capacity in Libya, but under pressure ahead of a meeting of OPEC exporters which may increase global production. U.S. crude inventories fell by 3 million barrels to 430.6 million barrels in the week to June 15, according to an American Petroleum Institute report on Tuesday. Click Read More below for additional information.