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The United States has removed nearly 2.7 million barrels (per day) of Iranian oil from global markets as a result of Washington’s decision to reimpose sanctions on all purchases of Iran’s crude, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday. In an interview with MSNBC, Pompeo said the US government was confident it could continue with its strategy. “We have managed to take almost 2.7 million barrels of crude oil off of the market, denying Iran the wealth to create their terror campaign around the world, and we have managed to keep the oil markets fully supplied,” Pompeo said....

Iran's president sent a bill to parliament Wednesday that would cut four zeroes from the value of the Islamic Republic's sanctions-battered currency, the rial, as tensions remain high between Tehran and Washington. By sending the bill to lawmakers, President Hassan Rouhani's government shows it is serious about an idea discussed for some time in Iran, where people discuss monetary transactions in both rials and informally, but more commonly, in tomans. A toman is worth 10 rials. If passed by parliament and approved by lawmakers, Iran's Central Bank would in effect devalue the rial and rename it as toman. The bank...

Oil fields, even abandoned oil fields, still contain significant amounts of oil. The researchers have found that injecting oxygen into the fields raises the temperature and liberates H2, which can them be separated from other gases via specialist filters. Hydrogen is not pre-existing in the reservoirs, but pumping oxygen means that the reaction to form hydrogen can take place. "This technique can draw up huge quantities of hydrogen while leaving the carbon in the ground. When working at production level, we anticipate we will be able to use the existing infrastructure and distribution chains to produce H2 for between 10...

The reaction to President Trump's sudden interest in buying Greenland from Denmark has been mostly one of derision. And Denmark, which owns the territory, appears to oppose any sale. But don't laugh — an American purchase of Greenland could represent an extraordinary deal in terms of America's national security, economic interests, and environmental protection. As much as it might seem out of the blue, U.S. acquisition of Greenland is not at all a strange or irrational idea. Following Denmark's fall to Nazi Germany in 1940, American forces defended Greenland. The roots of American-Greenland comradeship are thus old and formal. In...

A rumor spread when legendary football coach Lou Holtz announced that he was leaving the University of Minnesota to accept the head coaching job at Notre Dame. The rumor? That he had been offered a lifetime contract. When he was asked about it by the press, his response was classic Lou Holtz. He said yes, he had been offered a lifetime contract. But, he added that we needed to understand what a lifetime contract means in big time college football. He said, “It means that I cannot be fired, during the third quarter, of a game in which we are...

Been listening to the democrats and the talking heads for the last few days worrying about the China trade negotiations and tariffs hurting the Iowa farm economy, especially soybeans for export to China. Well, with every democrat running--including Biden--promising to eliminate coal, gas & oil if elected, I'm wondering how they expect the farmers to farm or get their products to market without fuel? Without tractors? Without farm equipment? Without trucks? Trains? Ships? Obviously, eliminating coal, gas & oil would devastate the coal, gas & oil producing states, but also the states that depend upon abundant supplies of coal generated...

As I discuss below, in the nineties the crooked Enron corporation paid purported scientists and environmental groups to claim that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would cause higher temperatures. In the previous post I mentioned that some professors may be so incompetent they actually believe the greenhouse gas myth. Those who have previously accepted money for supporting the myth may be reluctant to admit that they lied. Younger professors may fear punishment by corrupt department heads if they don't support the myth. Corrupt federal bureaucrats seem to have taken over Enron's role in supporting the global warming scam. Federal...

Bernie Sanders says the industry is a criminal enterprise. Joe Biden is vowing to take action against it. Other candidates are competing to say who will wean America from its products the soonest. The fossil fuel industry is squarely in the cross hairs of Democrats running for the White House as they move sharply to the left on climate change, evoking growing alarm from a sector that’s found a cheerleader in the Trump administration. It has moved to rescind regulations on oil drilling and proposed extraordinary measures to aid coal mining. “We are made to be just some kind of...

EXECUTIVE ORDER BLOCKING PROPERTY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF VENEZUELA... All property and interests in property of the Government of Venezuela that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of any United States person are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in... unrestricted immigrant and nonimmigrant entry into the United States of aliens determined to meet one or more of the criteria in section 1(b) of this order would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, and...

Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump on Monday ordered a freeze on all Venezuelan government assets in the United States and barred transactions with its authorities, in Washington's latest move against President Nicolas Maduro. Trump took the step "in light of the continued usurpation of power by Nicolas Maduro and persons affiliated with him, as well as human rights abuses," according to the order. The Wall Street Journal said the move was the first against a Western Hemisphere government in over 30 years, and imposes restrictions on Caracas similar to those faced by North Korea, Iran, Syria and Cuba. Asked...

United States carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the power sector and the broader economy have declined 61 percent between 2006 and 2014, mainly from "switching from coal-to-gas-powered generation," according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Second Installment of the Quadrennial Energy Review, January 2017.  These environmentally sound numbers from higher use of natural gas can also be translated globally to help with pollution in countries such as China, India, and the entire continent of Africa. The U.S. now uses natural gas converted to liquid natural gas (LNG) from shale deposits in states such as Texas, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania to...

An actual game changing technology is being demonstrated as we sit in our air-conditioned abodes reading this. And it is being demonstrated by North Carolina–based Net Power at a new plant in La Porte, Texas. The process involves burning fossil fuel with oxygen instead of air to generate electricity without emitting any carbon dioxide (CO2). Not using air also avoids generating NOx, the main atmospheric and health contaminant emitted from gas plants.

The Democratic debates tonight and tomorrow will likely stick to the familiar script from the first ones, with candidates tripping over each other to see who can promise the biggest tax-spend-and-regulate agenda. This doesn't make for compelling television. President Trump nailed the description of the first round with his one-word tweet, "BORING!" To make the debates more exciting to watch and to provide voters with a glimpse of reality into Democrats' fantasy-world policy proposals, the CNN moderators must press the candidates on the consequences of their proposals. A good place to start is by challenging their uniform support of the...

The U.S. economy is roaring. More voters rate the economy positively today than have since 2001. According to spending data from June, Americans spent more at restaurants and retail locations than expected, while U.S. manufacturing output continues to rise. As Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida recently put it, "The U.S. economy is in a good, good place. We have a solid growth rate. We have a strong labor market. Inflation is stable." He’s right. Economic growth has been north of 3 percent during much of Trump’s presidency. Employers are creating jobs, employees are happy with raises, bonuses, and newfound...

Wind power has surpassed coal for the first time in Texas, according to a new report. The numbers cap an enormous rise in wind power in the nation's top energy-producing state over the past decades. Wind has generated 22% of the state's electrical needs this year. It just edged out coal, which provided 21% of the Lone Star State's power, according to the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas, which manages electrical flow on about 90% of the Texan grid. Sixteen years ago, in 2003, wind made up just 0.8% of the state's power, and coal satisfied 40% of electrical needs,...

Iran is slowly taking off its gloves and has dropped its mask in the widening confrontation with Western countries and Israel. After the United Kingdom (UK) seized an Iranian tanker with oil bound for Syria on July 4, the Iranians embarked on a piracy campaign against British and other vessels in the Persian Gulf. The tanker, Grace 1, was carrying 2.1 million barrels of oil when it was detained by British Marines and will stay in Gibraltar for another month, a court in the British colony decided last Friday. Iran called the British action an “act of piracy” and again...

The largest energy project in the history of the State of Israel is reaching its final stages of completion and remains on schedule to deliver first commercial gas sales to the Israel domestic market and regional markets before the end of the year. In recent weeks the Leviathan partnership –comprised of Noble Energy, Delek Drilling and Ratio – completed the construction and testing of the production units (topsides) of the Leviathan Platform that will process natural gas from the reservoir and transport it to Israel’s national gas pipeline. ...For the first time in history, Israel will also become a significant...

The U.S. economy broke a record for its longest expansion ever Monday. Economic expansion has continued for more than 10 years. Growth is now in its 121st month since the Great Recession ended in June 2009, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. The economy set its previous 120-month record between March 1991 and March 2001. That growth period ended after the dot com bubble burst. The rate of growth, however, has been slower than during other periods of economic expansion. For example, during that previous record-holding period in the 90s, the average growth was 3.6 percent per year....

Of course, it’s a summer holiday week. So, this good news somehow slipped by most media critics of this president .But the latest government figures just showed that in April the United States produced a new record amount of oil per day — a stunning 12.16 million barrels of oil every 24 hours. That’s up another quarter-million barrels a day from March and the third straight monthly increase, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Of more significant interest, the oil production jump makes the United States the world’s largest producer of oil, ahead of the usual slippery suspects like...

The solar energy industry is telling its pals in Congress that it is willing the lose most of its subsidies. The current subsidy for solar is 30% of the construction cost. To that subsidy, an additional 10% subsidy is available due to special fast depreciation for solar energy plants. The 30% subsidy is scheduled to ramp down to 10% by 2022 and thereafter remain at 10%. This is not a consequence of declining costs of solar that makes the industry no longer in need of such a large subsidy. Solar electricity is a mature industry, and cost declines are moderate....