Weather Report #12: New Fortress Energy Q1 Financials, a Fantasy Anarchist Novel About Building Utopia, and One of the Best Crime Thrillers of the 70's
Consuming 05/19/2025
No big intro from me this week, except for a heads up. Check on anything you own with a lithium ion battery because I found an old portable charger that was swollen up like a balloon this week.
Without further ado, here's the roundup:
- The bimonthly mental health podcast's newest episode.
- Brief look into New Fortress Energy's Q1 earnings call and financials.
- A fantasy utopian adventure novel that's a vehicle for anarchist worldbuilding.
- A film from the only director who seems to know what the hell is going on in tech right now.
- Articles and essays about what Palestine looked like before the Nakba, Instagram connecting kids with groomers, a license plate reader company building an "everything database," why "sources say" TV news sucks, what the unraveling of the United States could mean for the rest of the world, and scientifically proving fossil fuel companies owe you money for climate change.
- A new album I've been enjoying
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What I Did This Week...
New episode of the mental health podcast I edit (only available in Spanish):
New Fortress Energy's Q1 2025 Financials
New Fortress Energy – which sells LNG to Puerto Rico and manages ~60% of the archipelago's energy generation through its subsidiary, Genera PR – has been this newsletters punching bag since it started. However, more importantly, it has been the industry's punching bag for much longer, which is why they're on the verge of bankruptcy.
Their newest earnings call, which I broke down in a short Twitter thread, would give me insanely bad vibes if I was an investor. They closed the first quarter with a nearly $200 million net loss. However, they're planning on using the money from closing on the sale of their business in Jamaica to deal with not having any money. Their stock price dropped to slightly over $2 after the call, which didn't really dive deeply into how bad the business is going. So, I can only imagine what happens when they eventually have to put everything on the table.
Honestly, I'm pretty certain that they're trying to hold on long enough so that their business in Puerto Rico manages to bail them out. I mention the archipelago specifically because the Trump administration has been very open about expanding the use of fossil fuels, and who better to take advantage of that than a company that is already "well positioned" but is definitely not a monopoly, as the company's CEO said during the call.
The Energy Secretary signing two executive orders to "help" Puerto Rico's energy crisis is already sowing the seeds for NFE to bleed Puerto Rico even more dry.
You can find a transcript of the earnings call here.
That's it for this week's free stuff. If you want to access the media recommendations and the links, you can become a subscriber for as low as $3!
