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According to a Space Force press release, which went out on May 6, another payload aboard the X-37B will be an experimental system designed by the Naval Research Laboratory that is capable of capturing solar power and beaming that energy back to Earth in the form of microwaves. Naval Research Laboratory’s head of beamed power has explicitly stated in the past that this system has enormous implications when it comes to long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In addition, it could allow satellites to provide reliable power anywhere on the planet or even to spacecraft or other satellites in orbit. In...

The U.S. military is removing Patriot antimissile systems from Saudi Arabia as part of a shift of forces and equipment in the region following a buildup last year in response to Iranian threats, a U.S. official confirmed on Thursday. The Wall Street Journal first reported that Washington is moving four Patriot missile batteries from the region. The U.S. official confirmed to The Hill that two Patriot systems will come from Saudi Arabia — along with the roughly 300 military personnel deployed to man them. The two systems had been sent to the country last year after a Sept. 14 strike...

Source article is from Carlsbad Current-Argus newspaper, a USA Today paper so title and link only authorized on Free Republic.Permian Basin natural gas pipeline could be blocked by lawsuit filed by Sierra Club

Hundreds of millions of dollars in cash has been shipped from Russia to Venezuela, providing a lifeline to the South American country as U.S. sanctions limit its access to the global financial system. A total of $315 million of U.S. dollar and euro notes were sent in six separate shipments from Moscow to Caracas from May 2018 to April 2019, according to data reviewed by Bloomberg from ImportGenius, which compiled Russian customs records it obtains through private sources. ...As a consequence of the scrutiny, the central bank is conducting more transactions in cash, sometimes offering local clients access to euro...

Global energy demand could slump by 6% in 2020 due to the restrictions placed on homes and industry in what would be the largest contraction in absolute terms on record, according to Paris-based IEA, which advises industrialised nations on energy. The slump would lead to a drop in carbon dioxide emissions of 8%, six times larger than the biggest fall of 400 million tonnes recorded in 2009 following the global financial crisis, according to the IEA, which described its estimate as conservative. ... Carbon intensive coal demand has so far been hit the hardest by the pandemic, with demand in...

WASHINGTON/LONDON/DUBAI - As the United States pressed Saudi Arabia to end its oil price war with Russia, President Donald Trump gave Saudi leaders an ultimatum. In an April 2 phone call, Trump told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that unless the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) started cutting oil production, he would be powerless to stop lawmakers from passing legislation to withdraw U.S. troops from the kingdom, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The threat to upend a 75-year strategic alliance, which has not been previously reported, was central to the U.S. pressure campaign that...

it’s appropriate to mourn the passing of one notable longtime New Yorker .. Unit 2 reactor at the Indian Point Energy Center. The workhorse, Westchester-based nuclear-power generator, which could have run for several more decades, is scheduled to be unplugged Thursday. Cause of death: political expediency .... the 1,028-megawatt Westinghouse machine delivered about 8,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity a year from a site on the Hudson River that covers less than a half square mile. Unit 2’s prodigious output left its more politically popular rivals — solar and wind energy — in the shade. Ivanpah, the biggest thermal-solar project in America,...

An artificial depression created around the coronavirus outbreak by American leadership will kill thousands of Americans, explained Jacki Pick, host of the Jacki Daily Show on BlazeMedia, warning of the consequences of varying economic shutdowns across the nation ostensibly aimed at addressing the viral spread. She offered her analysis on Tuesday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow. In her recently-published article, “What a Prolonged Shutdown Will Cost in Human Life,” Pick wrote: A prolonged shutdown could bring tens of thousands of deaths through spikes in rates of suicide, heart attack, missed cancer diagnoses, domestic violence deaths,...

Moore comes at the issue from a far-left perspective: Michael Moore presents Planet of the Humans, a documentary that dares to say what no one else will this Earth Day — that we are losing the battle to stop climate change on planet earth because we are following leaders who have taken us down the wrong road — selling out the green movement to wealthy interests and corporate America. This film is the wake-up call to the reality we are afraid to face: that in the midst of a human-caused extinction event, the environmental movement’s answer is to push for...

As oil prices have plummeted to levels never before seen, a rift has opened among the companies that extract crude. Some of them say state regulators should force producers to pump less in the hopes such regulation will raise prices. Others say no, just let the market do its job. While Texas, an oil-producing behemoth, is weighing the controversial idea of imposing limits, New Mexico, now an oil powerhouse in its own right, has largely stayed out of that debate. Depending where oil prices go and what other states decide to do, there may come a point when the state...

Fewer drivers on the road, means fewer and fewer people are filling up their tank. “With consumers are staying at home and the economy in troubled waters, I think that’s kind of the best summary. People are just not driving,” said GasBuddy Head Petroleum Analyst Patrick De Haan. At one point Friday morning, the Francis Creek Shell station was selling the cheapest gas in the country at just 75 cents a gallon. Experts say while you're saving now, you may have to pay for it later. “It’s exciting to see the gallon count go up as fast as the dollar...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. shale producers, refiners and pipeline companies are scrambling for cash and face likely restructuring as they struggle under heavy debt loads while engulfed in the worst crisis the oil industry has faced. SNIP About half of the top 60 independent U.S. oil producers are in danger of restructuring and will need to find ways to boost their cash pile, according to energy lawyers at Haynes and Boone. SNIP Demand, however, is down by roughly 25% in the United States, and oversupply is expected to linger for months. An April survey of energy producers by the...

Hackers are trying to infect organizations throughout the world with a popular strain of malware by sending emails that appear to be from an Egyptian oil company. In research published Tuesday, Romanian antivirus company BitDefender noted a surge in attempted phishing attacks that try to trick users into downloading malware by masquerading as Enppi, an oil company owned by the Egyptian government. The malware, known as Agent Tesla, is a spyware tool which enables hackers to monitor keystrokes, steal data about file downloads and collect username and password credentials from internet browsers, among other capabilities. The number of attacks spiked...

April 23 (Reuters) - The largest oil producer in North Dakota has halted most of its production in the state, notifying some customers it would not supply crude at current pricing, according to people familiar with the matter. Continental Resources Inc, the company controlled by billionaire Harold Hamm, stopped all drilling and shut in most of its wells in the state’s Bakken shale field, said three people familiar with production in the state. North Dakota is the second-largest oil-producing state in the United States after Texas. Global oil prices have plunged this spring because of excess supplies and a lack...

The collapse of the price of a barrel of oil this week was something to see. It was cheaper for producers to pay people to take it away than it was to store it themselves, as capacity had been reached. They were offering almost $40 per barrel to take the oil. Made me wish I had an Olympic sized swimming pool I could fill up for a rainy day. While people watched dumbfounded at how this could happen, people working in the energy industry were terrified - what would this mean for the jobs, millions of them? The answer isn’t...

The COVID-19 outbreak has made a lot of things uncertain. Americans don't know the next time they'll see toilet paper in a grocery store, let alone whether or not they'll stay healthy or have a job in a week. But even amid the chaos, Americans don't have to worry about fueling their vehicles or powering their homes. The U.S. energy industry has what it takes to weather a crisis of this magnitude, and has already taken steps to secure the nation's energy supply during the pandemic. Unlike other major industries, the energy sector always prepares for disaster. It has no...

The Trump administration on Tuesday ordered Chevron Corp. to “wind down” operations in Venezuela by Dec. 1, barring the California-based oil giant in the meantime from drilling or exporting, as the U.S. increases pressure on President Nicolás Maduro to give up power. Chevron is the last major U.S. oil company to do business in crisis-wracked Venezuela, investing in the South American nation’s oil fields and machinery over the last century with an estimated value of $2.6 billion, which analysts say Maduro’s government will likely take over. It’s the latest in a series of steps the White House has taken against...

President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered key figures in his administration to put together a plan to get funding to the struggling U.S. oil and gas industries as a historic selloff in crude continued. “I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future!” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning, as West Texas Intermediate crude futures for May delivery again traded in negative territory.

On Monday, U.S. oil prices fell below zero for the first time ever, shocking observers and raising doubts about the solvency of oil and gas companies coming out of the coronavirus crisis and the oil selling war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. These negative prices were distressing news for the U.S. economy, threatening livelihoods of oil and gas workers and the availability of the gasoline Americans will need after the crisis ends. Yet Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) saw them as a reason to celebrate. "You absolutely love to see it," AOC tweeted. "This along with record low interest rates means...

Leave it to CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta to look for any opportunity, even a coronavirus-induced oil crash, to get in an amateurish zinger at the president. When the price of oil crashed below $0 to mark the lowest level for a contract on record, Acosta took to Twitter to find an older April 2 Trump tweet to prepare his one-liner. Trump tweeted: “Just spoke to my friend MBS (Crown Prince) of Saudi Arabia, who spoke with President Putin of Russia, & I expect & hope that they will be cutting back approximately 10 Million Barrels, and maybe...