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Israel Navy commando forces carried out their largest drill in a decade last week. Soldiers of the elite Shayetet 13 and the 916 Detachment, together with the Snapir port security unit and the Israel Air Force, practiced "operational scenarios that could arise at any moment," reported Yohanan Levin in the Israel Navy Website. The senior leadership of the Detachment attended the exercise, in which soldiers simulated a number of scenarios. These included neutralization of an enemy force at sea, ship malfunctions, and evacuation of an injured soldier by helicopter – all carried out within severe time restraints. The exercise was...

All over the United States, school children are being taken out of their classrooms, put on buses and sent to "alternate locations" during terror drills. These exercises are often called "evacuation drills" or "relocation drills" and they are more than a little disturbing. Sometimes parents are notified in advance where the kids are being taken and sometimes they are only told that the children are being taken to an "undisclosed location". In the years since 9/11 and the Columbine school shootings, there has been a concerted effort to make school emergency drills much more "realistic" and much more intense. Unfortunately,...

RIPLEY, Okla. — President Obama stood in a red-dirt field before acres of stacked pipeline pieces on Thursday to illustrate his support for expedited construction of the southern half of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline. But his public declaration of support for the project has pleased neither the industry and its Republican supporters nor environmentalists. Environmentalists nationwide have rallied to oppose the entire Canada-to-Gulf Coast pipeline because its owner, TransCanada, wants to transport what environmental groups consider dirty oil from the tar sands of Alberta. The groups say such oil would hasten climate change, threaten spills and pollute air,...

<p>WASHINGTON — It's the political cure-all for high gas prices: Drill here, drill now. But more U.S. drilling has not changed how deeply the gas pump drills into your wallet, math and history show.</p> <p>A statistical analysis of 36 years of monthly, inflation-adjusted gasoline prices and U.S. domestic oil production by The Associated Press shows no statistical correlation between how much oil comes out of U.S. wells and the price at the pump.</p>

WASHINGTON _ The Senate on Tuesday resoundingly rejected a sweeping measure to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other protected areas to oil drilling, as well as to approve construction of the Keystone pipeline project. Tuesday's vote was the first time in four years that the Senate has voted on a measure including ANWR drilling, and it failed miserably.

The United States can meet President Barack Obama's goal of producing 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022, but it better get moving. That's according to Tom Vilsack, secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. According to a 2010 Agriculture Department report, the agency plans for the U.S. to produce 13.4 billion gallons of biofuels from grasses and sugars. The rest would come from oil seeds, crop residues and wood waste. The EPA is exploring other sources, such as animal fats, municipal solid waste and algae. The push for more biofuels comes as other industries, such as commercial power companies,...

White House defends Obama on gas prices after poor poll numbersBy Andrew Restuccia - 03/12/12 01:41 PM ET Interior Secretary Ken Salazar took to the White House briefing room Monday to defend President Obama’s energy plan after a new poll suggested high gas prices are eroding the president’s approval numbers. Salazar insisted that Obama is reviewing short- and long-term actions to lower gas prices, while also noting that there are no quick fixes to the problem. “All options are on the table because the president obviously feels the pain that the American people are facing,” Salazar said when asked if...

GOP: Fight high gas prices with more oil drilling, KeystoneBy Justin Sink - 03/03/12 06:36 AM ET Republicans used their weekly address to slam President Obama on rising gas prices, part of what the GOP says is a "coordinated campaign" to push energy to the forefront of national politics. House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) pushed what Republicans are calling their "all-of-the-above" energy approach, which would encourage additional drilling in federally owned and offshore areas, the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, and a loosening of regulations on the oil industry. "When we responsibly develop these resources, we don’t...

The talk among college professors, students and those in the conservative southern community I live in, is that Barack Obama is going to win big, whether one wants it to happen or not. The other day, someone said it could be as big a victory as FDR's overwhelming reelection in 1936. I pointed out that Democrats would do well to remember the lessons of the 1980 election. Others in the conversation dismissed such talk. After all, Obama's got a big lead in the polls. According to realclearpolitics.com polls, Obama is opening up big leads in Associated Press polls and even...

The penetration to relict water of subglacial Lake Vostok happened at last on 5 February at 20.25 Moscow time. On 4 February there was a contact of the drill with the water lens at the borehole depth of 3766 m. The ice core bottom segment extracted from this depth served as evidence – the surface of the lower 70 cm of the ice core was glazed, as if it were submerged to water just before recovery. No ducts or capillaries in the ice core body were visually observed at this. Exactly this contact with the water lens in the borehole...

An American professor and expert of the Antarctic said he believes contact with a team of Russian scientists that has not made contact with colleagues in the U.S for seven days has merely been busy as they drill into a lake buried beneath the Antarctic ice for 20 million years. Professor John Priscu told usnews.com in an email that the crews have been working ‘round the clock’ to beat the end of Antarctic summer, which ends Tuesday. Afterwards, temperatures will fall to deadly levels.

Last night, I wondered if four of the “Not Romneys” would “have the self-control to stop hitting the other Not Romneys and focus on Romney?” For much of this morning, it appeared there would be two fewer of them, with indications that Perry and Bachmann would depart the race. But now, perhaps not; Perry’s personal Twitter account just chirped, “And the next leg of the marathon is the Palmetto State…Here we come South Carolina!!!” It featured this photo:

The Department of Homeland Security makes fake Twitter and Facebook profiles for the specific purpose of scanning the networks for 'sensitive' words - and tracking people who use them. Simply using a word or phrase from the DHS's 'watch' list could mean that spies from the government read your posts, investigate your account, and attempt to identify you from it, acccording to an online privacy group. The words which attract attention range from ones seemingly related to diseases or bioweapons such as 'human to animal' and 'outbreak' to other, more obscure words such as 'drill' and 'strain'. The DHS also...

The Department of Homeland Security makes fake Twitter and Facebook profiles for the specific purpose of scanning the networks for 'sensitive' words--and tracking people who use them. Simply using a word or phrase from the DHS's 'watch' list could mean that spies from the government read your posts, investigate your account, and attempt to identify you from it, acccording to an online privacy group. [Snip] The DHS outlined plans to scans blogs, Twitter and Facebook for words such as 'illegal immigrant', 'outbreak', 'drill', 'strain', 'virus', 'recovery', 'deaths', 'collapse', 'human to animal' and 'trojan', according to an 'impact asssessment' document filed

Iran discovers gas field in Caspian SeaAP – Sun, Dec 11, 2011 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's oil minister says the country has discovered a huge gas field containing an estimated 50 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Caspian Sea. **SNIP** Iran sits atop the world's second largest proven reserves of natural gas and is the second largest OPEC oil producer.

A new report from a New Orleans-based group reveals that the Obama administration is approving just 35 percent of the oil drilling plans for the Gulf of Mexico so far this year. It is also taking an average of 115 days — nearly four months — to secure approval from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. Those numbers contrast sharply from previous years. This historical average is a 73.4% approval rate. The approval time has nearly doubled; the historical average is 61 days for the government to approve plans. For plans that require drilling activity, the numbers...

Good news, domestic energy fans! After extraordinary delays, it looks like there will finally be some energy production activity in the Gulf of Mexico once again. This time it’s in the fertile fields to the south and west of Florida, employing some brand spanking new deep-water drilling rigs with all the latest technical features. This is terrific, and I’m sure you’ll all join me in congratulating President Obama for moving forward with this much needed expansion of … What’s that? We’re not the ones doing the drilling? Then who is? “Before the end of the year, a Chinese-made drilling platform...

This is cool!

Election '12: A governor of an energy-rich state would use the "energy of the past" to create the jobs of the present rather than placing bets on solar panels and tilting at windmills. During the GOP presidential debates, Gov. Rick Perry was criticized for taking all the credit for Texas' job-creation record since he was not responsible for the oil and gas in the ground that created many of those jobs. True enough. But like Sarah Palin, the governor of another energy-rich state, he did foster a business-friendly climate as free from NIMBY regulations as possible, making the extraction of...

As state, local and federal officials brace for a major offshore drilling operation to begin between Cuba in Key West in December, another exploratory well may be drilled a year later in the Bahamas. The Bahamian and Cuban governments on Oct. 3 signed an agreement delimiting the two nations’ maritime borders after nearly 40 years of negotiations. The move cleared a major obstacle in the way of the Bahamas’ oil exploration goals since leases identified for their potential oil finds are near Cuban waters.

North Dakota is poised to surpass California and Alaska to become the nation's No. 2 oil producer behind Texas. North Dakota's rise in oil production from the Bakken and Three Forks shale formations has propelled it from the nation's ninth-biggest oil producer to fourth since 2006. ... North Dakota is producing about 444,000 barrels daily.

Should the State Department approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline?

The petroleum industry is amid a tremendous wave of hiring that's occurring in response to the gradual retirement of the so-called "baby boom" generation, which was spawned in the wake of World War II. Much of the hiring focuses on the very young—both blue collar labor and newly minted petroleum geoscience and engineering grads. Another important trend is on the re-training of mid-career professionals into more labor-tight technical and management positions. The American Petroleum Institute says that it has no statistics on how much hiring is directed toward the young and middle-aged, but other statistics are compelling on how badly...

A source on the Rick Perry campaign tells Hot Air that the Texas governor conducted some Texas-size fundraising in the third quarter. Coming in just a little over halfway through, Perry raised $17.1 million. That number would put Perry somewhere between $4-6 million ahead of Mitt Romney’s rumored total for Q3, according to this report last week from the Boston Globe. It’s also likely to far outpace Herman Cain’s fundraising or that of the other Republicans currently in the race. The pace is even more impressive. Perry had 49 days in which to raise funds, rather than the full 92...

Since the beginning of the 21st century, a fear has come to pervade the prospects for oil, fueling anxieties about the stability of global energy supplies. It has been stoked by rising prices and growing demand, especially as the people of China and other emerging economies have taken to the road. This specter goes by the name of "peak oil." Its advocates argue that the world is fast approaching (or has already reached) a point of maximum oil output. They warn that "an unprecedented crisis is just over the horizon." The result, it is said, will be "chaos," to say...

Russia has sent two nuclear-powered submarines to patrol Eastern Mediterranean waters around Cyprus and enforce the island's right to explore for undersea oil and gas in its territorial seas, according to information from Defencenet.gr, citing a Russian FM spokesman.

A new report that predictably found huge potential natural gas supplies in the U.S. also contained news its own writers found surprising - that oil is more abundant than they thought. "Contrary to conventional wisdom the North American oil resource base also could provide substantial supply for decades ahead," the report said.

The recent debt ceiling debate has prompted increased focus on deficit reduction, with President Obama and congressional leaders proposing various cuts and tax increases aimed at moving the budget towards balance. As has become typical, for President Obama and his friends in Congress, this means targeting the oil and gas industry with proposals to nix tax credits and deductions that are broadly available across industries well beyond oil and gas. But a resumption of drilling would pour $44 billion into the American economy, create 230,000 jobs and, what’s more, increase tax revenues from American oil and natural gas companies by...

As Congress undergoes painful negotiations on whether or not to raise the debt ceiling, a lot of opinion has been offered about the government’s “discretionary” spending. One item on America’s credit card that typically prompts universal outrage is the amount of taxpayer money sent overseas for oil imports—and it’s easy to see why. According to data derived from the Energy Information Administration, Americans have already spent $200 billion – that’s billion with a “b” – on imported oil since the start of this year. The fact that the U.S. has spent this much on imported oil in just over seven...

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/145262 and also previously, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/139163

VIDEO: Victims of the Obama Drilling MoratoriumPosted May 24th, 2011 at 7:05pm in Energy and Environment In the midst of the worst oil spill in U.S. history, President Obama imposed a moratorium on deepwater oil drilling one year ago this week. What was supposed to be a months-long ban on Gulf of Mexico operations has dragged on for a year in what’s now been dubbed a “permitorium” by critics of the administration. The Department of Interior justified last year’s moratorium as a necessary step to develop new regulations for offshore drillers. But a year later, those closest to the action...

You know, in about 15 years or so, Barack Obama might actually come up with an energy policy that increases energy and grows the economy. After five months of escalating political heat, Obama finally decided that we could drill our way out of our problems — or at least his problems: Facing continued public unhappiness over gas prices, President Barack Obama is directing his administration to ramp up U.S. oil production by extending existing leases in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska’s coast and holding more frequent lease sales in a federal petroleum reserve in Alaska.Obama said Saturday that...

So the Republican led House passes three bills to expedite and expand drilling for oil: In a 243-179 vote Thursday, the House passed a measure that would open up areas off the West and East coasts, Alaska and the eastern Gulf of Mexico to drilling. The Obama administration pulled back on leasing in some of those spots after the Gulf oil spill last year to further evaluate the environmental consequences. It never considered drilling in the Pacific. Obama doesn't like it one bit: The White House had announced its opposition to all three bills, which are unlikely to pass...

Increasing U.S. energy independence is a top priority for America's Energy Citizens, and leveraging Canada's reserves - which are rivaled only by Saudi Arabia's - is crucial to achieving this goal. A pivotal part of our energy mix? Developing Canada's oil sands resources - which will help fuel our domestic energy needs, and stimulate new jobs, with particularly big gains in Indiana and the Midwest.

Why would President Obama want high gas prices? It's a matter of ideology for him. He thinks it's good for the environment for gas prices to be high. The higher gas prices are, the less you will drive. Also, higher gas prices make his beloved "alternative fuels" more competitive. That is because these alternative fuels are inherently more expensive, and so can't compete with cheaper gas. Note this is not a prescription for easing the financial burden on working people. High gas prices make it more likely you will buy expensive "alternative fuels." But either way, your wallet will still...

(CNSNews.com) – Although the Obama administration officially lifted the six-month ban on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in October 2010, a new report finds that the “de facto” moratorium still in place is harming American consumers and the budgets of local and state governments. Since October, the Department of the Interior has approved only a handful of deepwater drilling permits in the wake of last year’s BP well explosion and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The report, issued by the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), said increasing offshore drilling production could add nearly $5...

New Study: Oil and natural gas companies provide strong support for public pension funds Carlton Carroll |202.682.8114 | carrollc@api.org WASHINGTON, April 25, 2011 – Oil and natural gas company holdings in state pension funds are providing disproportionately strong returns for retirees, according to a new study by Sonecon, commissioned by API. While oil and natural gas stocks make up an average of 3.9 percent of public pension holdings in four key states, they accounted for an average of 8.6 percent of the returns in these accounts from 2005 to 2008. “During vigorous expansion or deep recession, oil and natural gas...

Shell Oil Company has announced it must scrap efforts to drill for oil this summer in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coast of Alaska. The decision comes following a ruling by the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board to withhold critical air permits. The move has angered some in Congress and triggered a flurry of legislation aimed at stripping the EPA of its oil drilling oversight. Shell has spent five years and nearly $4 billion dollars on plans to explore for oil in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The leases alone cost $2.2 billion. Shell Vice President Pete Slaiby says obtaining...

The US' Bakken Shale oil field, which spans Montana and North Dakota, has become so prolific that at least one big independent operator there estimates industry's output potential there at a whopping 1.2 million b/d by year-end 2016.That's a heck of a lot of oil for a play that was barely breathing six or seven years ago. And that figure is even higher than the 700,000 b/d or so North Dakota officials were citing as a  peak awhile back.  Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm, presenting his estimate of a Bakken peak of 1.2 million b/d at Platts' Rockies Gas & Oil...

Stop grousing about the numbers on the pump. All of this could be good for you and good for America. As you pump 13 gallons into your Honda CR-V -- American's best-selling SUV and a thrifty 28 on the highway and 21 in town -- it's near impossible to view the $50 you're spending with a positive attitude. It's easy to label oil executives as pond scum, but try to remain open-minded. Think of the big picture: While that promised road trip to Disney World just went up in carbon monoxide, $5 gasoline may actually have an upside if it...

Did I read what Trump just told Hannity right? That he has Osama's college grades and papers? Now that would be a treasure trove, cuz I firmly believe that regardless of where Osama was born be attended college as a foreign student, lied all thru college and claimed various affiliations which he benefited from. Did I hear Trump right?

Winning formula for America...trade opening up drilling everywhere, onshore, offshore...for a one time yes vote on raising debt ceiling. No way Obama and Dems can say no without losing big time politically. Result is that oil prices will plunge overnight..

The price of oil reached a 30 month high of $108 per barrel on April 1. Almost as if a signal was given, a host of articles appeared recently all saying exactly the same thing. You Can't Drill a Way to Cheap GasWe can't drill our way to energy independenceThe United States can't drill itself to energy independenceIn 2006, Obama said of oil dependence: We cannot drill our way out of the problem. All assert that increasing domestic oil supply will have no effect on prices and cannot solve our dependency on foreign oil. All are entirely wrong. Recently...

Senate Republicans are making another bid to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling — but this time they are trying to sweeten the offer by dedicating a quarter of the revenue to renewable energy projects. The ANWR drilling plan is embedded in energy legislation unveiled Thursday by more than two dozen lawmakers, led by David Vitter of Louisiana and John Cornyn of Texas. The bill also would restrict environmental groups from filing legal challenges to energy projects, force the government to approve a pipeline that would bring Canadian oil sands crude to the Gulf Coast and clear the...

PASCAGOULA, Miss. — Documents provided by the administrator of BP's claims fund for Gulf oil spill victims show the oil giant agreed to increase his law firm's monthly compensation from $850,000 to $1.25 million. The documents furnished Friday to The Associated Press include a letter from former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to claims czar Kenneth Feinberg. Mukasey stated his belief that the extra money was warranted because Feinberg's duties had grown. Mukasey was asked by Feinberg to weigh in on how reasonable his compensation was. The pay hike, detailed in a Tuesday letter from Mukasey to

Foes of illegal immigration are up in arms over plans for a weekend disaster exercise in western Iowa with a fictitious scenario in which young white supremacists shoot dozens of people amid rising tensions involving racial minorities and illegal immigrants. The exercise is planned for Saturday at Treynor High School in Pottawattamie County and will involve more than 300 people, confirmed Doug Reed, the lead exercise planner for the county's emergency management agency. Some 30 to 40 "victims" will be transported to area hospitals. He said a terrorism scenario is required by federal officials for the exercise to be eligible...

WASHINGTON, March 18 (UPI) -- Washington has given Petrobras America Inc. permission to start oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, a regulator said. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement gave Petrobras approval to use a floating production storage offloading facility at its Cascade-Chinook project in the Gulf of Mexico. The approval marks the first time FPSO technology will be used in U.S. waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The oil and gas project is about 165 miles off the coast of Louisiana in 8,200 feet of water. The FPSO has a production capacity of...

<p>Obama wants to develop Brazilian offshore oil to help the Brazilian economy create jobs for Brazilian workers while Americans are left unemployed in the face of skyrocketing energy prices by an administration that despises fossil fuels as a threat to the environment and wants to increase our dependency on foreign oil.</p>

Democrats try to win gas-price PR battleBy DARREN GOODE | 3/18/11 4:13 PM EDT Democrats have historical and modern hurdles to overcome in winning the public relations battle over steep gas prices. **SNIP** While Obama urged more caution than some other Democrats on using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to boost supplies in the market, he also echoed congressional Democratic rebuttals to GOP accusations that his policies are causing the rise in fuel costs. Democrats are also attacking Republicans’ proposals to cut energy research and technology programs. And they believe they’re successfully debunking GOP claims that blocking EPA action on climate...

We are at that point; actually FAR beyond that point where we need to be drilling wherever we can in this vast land of ours. We need to wean-off and eventually remove ourselves from dependence on mid-east oil. Why won't, why don't the dims understand this???? Time has come today. Jobs/Oil/Productivity. No brainer. Where are the dims?