Free Republic

Several groups that often are at odds over environmental rules are on the same side when it comes to easing methane regulations at oil and gas sites. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection joined major oil and gas companies, environmental groups and lawmakers from both parties last week in urging the Trump administration not to go through with its proposal to eliminate methane control requirements from well sites and pipelines across the country. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to roll back rules adopted in 2016 that require companies to identify and stop methane leaks from new and modified...

Yet another staffer for Rep. Adam Schiff served as a fellow for the Atlantic Council, a think tank that is funded by and works in partnership with Burisma, the natural gas company at the center of allegations regarding Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Sean Misko has been described as “close friends” with Eric Ciaramella, whom Real Clear Investigations suggests is the likely so-called whistleblower. Misko reportedly joined Schiff’s staff at the House Intelligence Committee in August – the same month the so-called whistleblower’s complaint was filed after first reportedly interfacing with a staffer for Schiff’s office. Misko in...

A New Mexico climate change task force released its first report Thursday, citing progress that has been made to combat the “climate crisis” and recommendations for the state climate strategy. Among other findings, the task force said New Mexico produced more than 66 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 – about 1% of the national total. The state is home to about 0.6% of the nation’s population ... Overall, New Mexicans produce 31 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per person per year, the report found. The national average is 18 tons per person. “It is not hyperbole...

When the plan to build a natural gas power plant in Killingly first came up in 2016, the objections from folks in this northeast corner town of about 17,000 were pretty basic – they already had one, didn’t want another about a mile away, and didn’t want its emissions. “Not another power plant,” was the rallying cry. Three years later, this remains the name of the local opposition group — or NAPP for short. But since then, the furor over the proposed Killingly Energy Center (KEC) has expanded into a statewide environmental cause célèbre and is now something of a...

Environmental groups on Wednesday filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's plan to open up hundreds of thousands of acres of land in California to oil and gas drilling. The Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity sued the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over the plan to open more than 700,000 acres of land to oil and gas lease sales. "Defendants failed to consider meaningful alternatives to the plan amendment, failed to analyze and disclose the environmental impacts, and denied the public the opportunity to comment on its environmental analyses as the law requires," the lawsuit reads. It...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Mountain Valley Pipeline, one of the major construction projects crossing West Virginia, has extended the timetable and price for its expected completion. The pipeline’s developers announced last week that construction now isn’t expected to concluded until late next year at a cost of $5.3 to $5.5 billion because key aspects of the giant project have been challenged by federal regulators and in the court system. The original cost estimate when work began in February 2018 was $3.7 billion. The original estimated completion date was the fourth quarter of 2019 — now. The pipeline’s developers say it is...

Hydraulic fracturing could be responsible for an increase in earthquakes in the Permian Basin in West Texas, as oil and gas operations increase during a boom in the region. A study published Tuesday by the University of Texas at Austin suggested the practice, known as fracking, could be linked to earthquakes in the region just across the state border to southeast New Mexico where oil and gas operations also increased dramatically in recent years. Research targeted the Delaware Basin, on the western side of the Permian in Texas and New Mexico which now produces more than 5 million barrels of...

Natural gas developers in Pennsylvania are hoping a recent water quality report by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission could squelch plans for a fracking ban that’s currently being considered by the neighboring Delaware River Basin Commission. The SRBC’s Remote Water Quality Monitoring Network report, which was released last month, revealed that water quality scores at 14 of the 16 stations in the basin were in the “good” or “excellent” categories According to a fact sheet from the Susquehanna commission, the monitoring stations are located in areas where active drilling takes place, as well as areas free of development, in order...

Iran announced on Sunday that it has discovered a new natural gas reserve with the capacity to produce nearly 400 million barrels of gas condensate, which could generate a total of $40 billion. The natural gas field, named Eram, is located near the Persian Gulf in the southwestern province of Fars and holds about 19 trillion cubic feet of gas, National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Deputy Managing Director Reza Dehghan said at a press conference. "We have the potential to identify more undiscovered oil and gas reserves (in the country) by using geophysical exploration techniques and discovery drilling and will...

A gas shortage threatens the Long Island region,” bleat six Long Island state senators, all Democrats, in a letter pleading for approval of a pipeline proposed to fix the problem — belatedly admitting that the policies they’ve long favored don’t work for their own constituents. This year, Sens. Todd Kaminsky, John Brooks, James Gaughran, Anna Kaplan, Monica Martinez and Kevin Thomas all voted for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Green New Deal law, whose very purpose is to further crimp energy supplies, and for a $100 million hike in taxes on energy. And, as Senate GOP leader John Flanagan (their fellow Long...

As Donald Trump began his meteoric rise to the presidency, the Obama White House summoned Ukrainian authorities to Washington to coordinate ongoing anti-corruption efforts inside Russia’s most critical neighbor. The January 2016 gathering, confirmed by multiple participants and contemporaneous memos, brought some of Ukraine’s top corruption prosecutors and investigators face to face with members of former President Obama’s National Security Council (NSC), FBI, State Department and Department of Justice (DOJ). The agenda suggested the purpose was training and coordination. But Ukrainian participants said it didn’t take long — during the meetings and afterward — to realize the Americans’ objectives included...

DES MOINES, Iowa – On September 19, 2019, a federal grand jury returned an Indictment charging defendants, Jessica Rae Reznicek and Ruby Katherine Montoya, with one count of conspiracy to damage an energy facility, four counts of use of fire in the commission of a felony, and four counts of malicious use of fire, announced United States Attorney Marc Krickbaum. Montoya was recently arrested in the District of Arizona and detained pending court proceedings to determine her appearance in the Southern District of Iowa. Reznicek appeared in Des Moines on October 1, 2019 and was conditionally released pending trial. Trial...

SANTA FE, N.M. — Methane sensors will be put on planes, trucks and atop towers in the West Texas and southeastern New Mexico desert in a new effort to gauge the extent of greenhouse gas emissions from surging oil and natural gas production, advocates with the Environmental Defense Fund announced Wednesday. The yearlong project in the Permian Basin petroleum production region involves researchers from Pennsylvania State University and the University of Wyoming, and low-flying planes from a Colorado-based atmospheric research company. The new methods will be used because traditional estimates of methane emissions have not kept up with the rapid...

Two environmental groups are suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in an effort to protect the dunes sagebrush lizard, also known as the sand dune lizard, under the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Defenders of Wildlife filed a lawsuit in federal district court on Tuesday. The small lizard only lives in southeast New Mexico and west Texas. It thrives in sand dunes and shrubs called shinnery oaks. In May 2018, the groups asked Fish and Wildlife to list the species as threatened or endangered. The lawsuit argues the agency should have responded within 90...

Author Scott Adams — one of the first political commentators to predict President Trump’s electoral success — says the Republican has helped usher in the “violating the corpse phase” of Joseph R. Biden’s 2020 campaign. The creator of “Dilbert” looked at a Nickelback parody video shared by Mr. Trump on Thursday and all but declared Mr. Biden’s presidential hopes extinguished. Mr. Trump’s clip of the Democrat and his son Hunter golfing in 2014 with Burisma Holdings board member Devon Archer was viewed over 2.7 million times in less than two hours. It also became a top-trending topic on Twitter under...

Winter is coming, to borrow a phrase. Every New Yorker knows that during our long cold season, we rely on utility companies to supply us with power and heat. Life would get darn uncomfortable otherwise.What many may not know is that Governor Andrew Cuomo and his climate-obsessed administration has been working hard to deprive utilities of the fuel they need to keep our lights on and our central heating systems operational. There were even power cuts in New York City this summer because of Cuomo's irrational aversion to fossil fuels, and one downstate utility company stopped accepting new natural gas customers because of...

Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden gave an interview to the New Yorker this week and spoke very candidly about his drug and alcohol abuse and also about his foreign dealings while his daddy was the Vice President of the United States. In a shocking admission, Hunter Biden, 49, told the New Yorker that he once accepted a diamond bribe from a shady Chinese business tycoon in exchange for his powerful contacts in the US. The 2.8-carat diamond was reportedly worth $80,000 and was sent to Hunter in 2016 in exchange for help making contacts in the liquefied-natural-gas industry in the...

Despite the fact that natural gas is the cleanest of the fossil fuels hands down (and now the cheapest), liberals continue to oppose it. The “keep it in the ground” folks scored another victory this week when the city of San Jose California voted to ban natural gas lines and appliances in all new construction projects going forward. This is allegedly part of the state-mandated goal of going 100% “carbon-free” by 2045. Of course, as with all things, the devil is in the details. (CBS San Francisco) San Jose became the biggest U.S. city to ban natural gas in...

The Seattle Times reports that Seattle's city council is considering legislation which would ban all new homes and buildings within city limits from using natural gas, and mandating that these edifices must use electric heating and cooking. Councilmember Mike O’Brien will likely introduce the legislation next week. If passed, it is expected that the regulations will go in effect next summer. "We know that some people rely on natural gas at home and on the natural-gas industry for jobs, so we want to be thoughtful about how we transition," O'Brien said. "But in the meantime, let’s not continue to make...

Seattle City Council will soon weigh a complete ban on natural gas in newly-built homes and buildings.Legislation for the ban will be introduced by Seattle City Councilmember Mike O’Brien. The measure would take effect on July 1, 2020 should it pass. “The science is very clear — (Puget Sound Energy is) selling a fossil fuel that is destroying our planet, and my hope is that they recognize they need to get out of that business,” O’Brien said. According to the bill, natural gas in buildings accounts for a fourth of Seattle’s greenhouse gas emissions. Just over half of the city’s...