Free Republic

In a significant ruling late Thursday, Judge James Cain of the Western District of Louisiana sided with American energy advocates, striking down the Biden administration’s eleventh-hour restrictions on a pending offshore oil and gas lease sale. The injunction, favoring the plaintiffs – the State of Louisiana, the American Petroleum Institute (API), and energy giants Chevron and Shell – puts a halt on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) restrictive measures concerning Lease Sale 261. This crucial sale, encompassing vast expanses in the Gulf of Mexico, was scheduled for the following week. The ruling by Judge Cain reiterates the federal...

Obama on federal coal mining is a throwback to Carter administration failings. resident Obama's plot to use the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to kill federal coal mining with a thousand paper cuts is not the first time he has used NEPA to try to end energy development. Disturbingly, his scheme is a throwback to President Carter and a decade-long moratorium that ended only when President Reagan took office. Meanwhile millions of Americans, vast regions and the nation's economy will suffer. In 2009, the Obama administration settled a "sweetheart lawsuit" by environmental groups by agreeing to a NEPA study on...

Two environmentalist groups filed suit Tuesday seeking stronger protection for a bird found only in Colorado and Utah ... The Center for Biological Diversity and the Western Watersheds Project said in court papers that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should go back and produce an “adequate finding” on the status of the Gunnison sage grouse ... The threatened designation could result in restrictions on oil and gas drilling, agriculture, recreational and other land uses. ... both camps will be watching litigation closely, in part to see how it might influence policy on the more common greater sage grouse. The...

Federal wildlife officials have granted protection to the Gunnison sage grouse, a move that could to bring restrictions on oil and gas drilling and other land uses to preserve the bird's habitat in Colorado and Utah. ... They're related to the greater sage grouse, which is at the center of a separate and larger debate over federal protection across 11 Western states.

In the past, we’ve talked about a lot of the hysteria and hype among environmentalists when it comes to regulation of natural gas drilling in general and fracking in particular. Many of the scientific studies we have cited in response to their claims were commissioned by people with an interest in the industry, such as The American Petroleum Institute or Chesapeake Energy. This resulted in much boo-hooing from the Green Caucus, questioning the motives rather than the science.In case any of them are truly interested in finding out the facts, we now have a new study from the University of...

Our nation was, is and always will be the most exceptional country on earth because of its abundant natural resources and the uniquely driving force of the American spirit. The current occupant of the White House and his collection of fringe thinkers don’t understand this, but we have no time to let them get up to speed about America’s greatness. We have to save America ourselves. We are once again reminded of our ability to grow and thrive by a new report on the exciting prospects of using our vast stores of natural gas as the fuel to stoke America’s...

HARRISBURG -- Gov. Ed Rendell has carried out an executive order placing 1.5 million acres of state forest land off-limits for natural gas drilling, getting praise from environmental groups but sharp criticism from Senate Republican leader Joe Scarnati. Brickbats were flying Tuesday between Democrat Rendell and Republican Scarnati over the moratorium order, which bans any more drilling pads from being located in state forests, other than on the 700,000 acres of forest land already designated for gas drilling by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Penn Future's leader Jan Jarrrett and Sierra Club Director Jeff Schmidt applauded the decision....

A state investigation sparked by a local environmentalist who rented an airplane to gather photographic evidence has revealed an unreported contaminate release at a natural gas drilling site in Wayne County. A preliminary investigation of the Oregon Twp. well pad, operated by Chesapeake Appalachia, found in October that a "weathered petroleum product" of unknown quantity was discharged onto the site and into a forested area, in breach of state environmental laws, according to the notice of violation issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The drilling firm reported no incidents, and DEP had been unaware of any problem. But...

The Marcellus Shale play is the latest huge thing in natural gas, considered by some to be a "super giant" gas field. Read more here http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/246893563.shtml The edge of the Marcellus Shale in Northeast PA and NY is about 100 miles from NYC, which means the gas needs only a very short trip by pipeline to the major metropolitan centers. Natural gas is the cleanest of the fossil fuels and also is a source for hydrogen for hydrogen powered vehicles. So here are a bunch of "concerned citizens" planning to oppose it with all their might. "The Damascus group has...

Ted Turner has an embarrassing amount of gas. Embarrassing, that is, for an "environmentalist." "The media mogul gives millions to environmental and conservation causes, but finds himself in the awkward position of having to drill more gas wells on his pristine wilderness ranch in New Mexico," the New York Post reported today in an article headlined "Ted sacrifices green goals for greenbacks." "Having to"? More like wanting to. "Some environmentalists have been on the warpath in Washington, D.C., for months to control gas exploration in his area and along the eastern face of the Rocky Mountains." Now that energy prices...

Energy Department Cites Remarkable Advance In ‘Smart' Oil, Gas Drilling San Antonio, TX - Government and industry officials today announced a major innovation that turns an oil and gas drill pipe into a high-speed data transmission tool capable of sending data from the bottom of a well 100,000 times faster than technology in common use today. The new system, aptly named IntelliPipeTM, could revolutionize the way companies probe for oil and gas. It was developed by an engineering team of Grant Prideco, Houston, Texas; and Novatek Engineering, Provo, Utah, under a project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. "The...