Oil expert on Baltimore bridge collapse: FBI must investigate dirty fuel theory

All right, the global economy and U.S. supply chains feeling the impact of the tragic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Shipping giant Maersk Stock closed down yesterday, although off of the lows when the company confirmed it was chartering the container ship that crashed into the bridge. The crash also shutting down the port of Baltimore's coal exports, as ship traffic in and out of the area are suspended until further notice. The port is the country's second largest terminal for coal exports, and we've been talking about imports of cars also getting impacted, and car parts. Joining us right now is the chairman and CEO of United Refining Company and Red Apple Group, John Katsimatidis. Kat's back with us. John, good to see you. Thank you for having me. You said a long time ago you felt inflation was not going to go down, that it was going to stay elevated. It's not going down. But you also said watch during an election year how the powers that be manipulate the energy market and get oil prices lower. What's the impact now, after this disaster on energy and commodities? Well, everything that President Biden has done to try to bring the energy prices down, they were counter-fought by the OPEC nations. And look what happened. What Iran did in the Red Sea, in the Suez Canal, the oil was blocked. And if they were afraid of President Biden, that they'd go in and use him and wipe out the hoodies and reopen the Red Sea, he would solve the problem. But he hasn't done so, and nobody understands why he hasn't done so. Why do you allow a terrorist group to shut down the Red Sea, shut down the Suez Canal, and create havoc on the prices of food and the prices of oil? Yeah. So do you think that's what's going to happen? Because I know that in 2023, that port was the second busiest for coal exports. You also had top commodities by weight in 2022 that were also important—liquefied natural gas, waste paper, ferrous scrap, automobiles, light trucks. So this is all government data, in terms of what comes through that port. The city of Baltimore is going to be devastated. And we'll deal with it, because the ships, instead of going to Baltimore, they'll end up in New York Harbor and New Jersey. And we'll deal with it. But we can't afford a second problem. And the bridge going down—it was a similar bridge that happened in Tampa, Florida, that went down and killed— Just 13 people. 35 people in that time, in Tampa, in 1980. And this bridge was not supported enough. You know, how you build it cheaply, and you just get it done? But this is a big ship. When it hit directly onto those pillars, it just brought it down, like a toy, almost. One of the problems that The Wall Street Journal this morning is quoting is that it had contaminated fuel. Potentially. Yeah, that's being investigated. Yeah. That's one of them. Because it is usual that a lot of these companies—and we've experienced it in New York, because contaminated fuel is being sold to the schools and sold to the MTA, when the MTA or the schools are not watching closely enough. Yeah. You know, you give them 80 percent real fuel and 20 percent garbage, and the FBI should be looking into that. Yeah. Monica, jump in here, because The Journal is reporting in an exclusive that the Baltimore Bridge crash investigators are examining whether dirty fuel played a role in the accident. Jump in here. I mean, that is going to be a question—there are so many outstanding questions here. But to the contaminated fuel, does that happen by accident? Does it happen by sabotage? This is something that needs to be investigated, right? I mean, what are the other questions? Because yesterday, I was asking all these questions, Monica, and I believe it was the White House who said that there was no foul play here, if that's what you're suggesting. We don't know any information. That's what the investigation is for, right? And then how does the contaminated fuel then, if in fact that is the case, get in to power this ship, right? It's just stealing money. The company's selling them—if nobody's watching closely enough, they'll give them contaminated fuel. It's a—like I said, they do it to the school system in New York. They do it to the MTA. If you're not watching closely enough, you lose. So look, you're the owner of the grocery store chain Gristini's here in New York City. You say some shoplifters in the Big Apple are now making a major profit from reselling those stolen items. I want to know, where's Amazon, OK? Where are all of these online companies that perhaps could be assisting in selling stolen goods? What's going on? Well, what's going on is that they're not watching enough. Nobody's watching. They go—there was an announcement today, another—all the Rite-Aids have closed in New York. There's a CVS closing on 84th Street and Lexington Avenue. It's just closing, closing, closing. And I said the other day that our cost between shoplifting and protecting our stores has gone from 1.5 percent to 6 percent. And if we don't improve that in the near future, guess what? You know, we're not a profitable business. So you've already raised prices. You've got to raise prices again. You have to raise prices. You have two choices. Raise prices and stay in business. Or cut jobs. And hope—no, you can't cut enough. You raise prices and stay in business, or you go out of business. Wow. Tiffany? Yeah, look, in the face of inflation, the Biden administration needs to take account for this, too. Crime is up in every city in this country. In Washington state, we have the same issue. Businesses are closing. They're trying to compete with the rise of inflation. And then at the same time, like you were saying, John, the cost of hiring security guards and making sure their goods aren't being stolen. I mean, we have—Nordstrom's is an amazing company in Washington state. And they were looted. Their windows were all broken. The flagship store in Seattle. So it's unfortunate what's going on, but, you know, our police are the best and the brightest in this country, and we need to make sure that they have every resource, funding, everything they need so we can get back to fighting for our American dream. When Macy's announced they're closing 150 stores, I mean, you know what it costs to build 150 stores? So the real write-off is not really evident, because to replace the 150 stores they're closing is astronomical. Well, your stores have implemented something to try and put a stop to the shoplift, right? What are you doing? Well, the story we were telling the other day is we put a special code on the Häagen-Dazs ice cream, because they're liquid assets. The people would steal it, but they would have to sell it to the nearest store. So they can't carry it around for too long. And they would steal, like, $500, $600, $700 at a time. And the smaller stores—part of the problem is it's Häagen-Dazs' fault. The smaller stores are not being sold by Häagen-Dazs. So for them to get Häagen-Dazs, they would have to go steal it—somebody has to go steal it to more stores, and sell it to the smaller stores. Where are they selling things online, if it's not the liquid assets, as you say? Well, they're selling it on Amazon. They're selling it on eBay. So what about Amazon and eBay? I mean, how—you know, are they on the hook? Should they be doing something to stop stolen goods being sold on their platforms? Well, the only thing they can do, if anybody's arrested and has an arrest record for stealing goods, then it should be put into the Amazon system. Mm-hmm. Adam? Well, you know, John, you mentioned the CVS that's being shut down. And I live right near there, on the Upper East Side. You walk in, and every shelf is covered with glass, and there are locks. So if you want to buy your Tylenol, your soap, your shampoo, you need someone to unlock every single different place within the store. It doesn't work, does it? It doesn't work anymore. I mean, what do you do— And— Yeah. I mean, what do you do? You walk. Unless there's a big difference this November. Mm-hmm. And, you know, I also notice that the city is a lot more empty these days, and this is before the congestion pricing kicks in, which is another left-wing thing coming out of Albany to try to reduce carbon emissions and the amount of traffic in New York City. But even prior to this, which kicks in, I think, next month or in June, the city is a lot emptier, because people just don't want to put up with what we're talking about, crime, quality of life, all of these issues that directly affect your business, too, right? Well, a half a million people have moved out of the city. I mean, we played a song on my show at 5 o'clock. We played a song, Exodus, because we're trying to laugh about it, but I actually want to cry about it. Yeah. And it's a lot more than that, because a lot of people are leaving with the intent of being in New York less than 181 days or whatever. Right. They don't want to pay city taxes. Let me get you one more take before we leave and before you go. John, the impact from this bridge collapse in terms of inflation, how much more elevated would you expect inflation to be, given the pressure upwards on things like oil and LNG and coal? It has an impact. Our country is going to deal with it, but prices of food are not going down. Prices of oil is not going down. I had hopes. I really had hopes they're going to bring it down. But between the bad guys, you know, are doing their job to keep it up. All right, John. Great to talk with you this morning. Thank you. Thanks very much, John. Katsimatidis there on inflation and the impact.