Free Republic

Fossil fuel prices have surged in recent weeks, with coal prices more-than-doubling from the end of Febuary to March 10th. Demand for key fossil fuels has surged as the anxiety of supply chain disruptions sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has grown. China is expected to turn to Indonesia to fill the gap in its coal imports should Russian coal exports be further disrupted. ... China is the biggest importer of coal, followed by India, Japan, and South Korea. Coal prices rose from $186 per metric tonne on 23rd February to $462 on 10th March ... Asian governments are rapidly...

A video of Joe Biden speaking about the dangers of NATO expanding in 1997 has resurfaced and gone viral on social media. In the video, Joe Biden warns that the Baltic states, namely Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, joining NATO could result in hostility from Russia. ... The clip was from a speech Joe Biden made at the Atlantic Council of the U.S. on June 18, 1997. "I think the one place where the greatest consternation would be caused in the short-term for admission [to NATO], having nothing to do with the merit and preparedness of the country to come in,...

The White House moved last weekend to freeze, indefinitely, new federal oil and gas drilling. Why? Because a judge ruled the $51-per-ton figure it was using to calculate the “social impact of carbon” from fossil fuels “artificially” boosted cost estimates for new drilling. Instead of following the judge’s ruling and lowering its estimate, the resident simply turned everything off at the tap. It couldn’t have come at a worse moment. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is threatening to impact global energy supplies — and prices. ... Yet turning off the federal oil spigot will do just the opposite, putting America at...