(Washington)

Elizabeth Warren’s ascendency to being the leading candidate for the Democratic presidential bid, coupled with her strongly leftist policies, has begun spooking various sectors. Energy is ground zero. The reason why is a tweet recently fired off by Warren: “On my first day as president, I will sign an executive order that puts a total moratorium on all new fossil fuel leases for drilling offshore and on public lands … And I will ban fracking—everywhere”. If that eventuality happened, it would greatly wound the US oil industry. Entire oilfield services industries would cease to exist in the US, and Canadian shale would be the big winner, along with huge oil companies, where the price gains from the tightened supply would offset other losses.

FINSUM: Analysts estimate this would send oil prices up around 60%, but it would really hurt the US oil industry.