Free Republic

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden reinstated oil and gas sanctions on Venezuela on Thursday, a recognition that lifting the sanctions did nothing to entice the socialist regime to host a free and fair election. The Biden administration lifted some of the strictest U.S. sanctions on dictator Nicolás Maduro’s regime last year as part of a dialogue in which Maduro agreed to host a presidential election sometime in 2014. The deal collapsed rapidly; Maduro scrapped it in October and launched a new wave of violence against anti-socialist dissidents, likely bankrolled by new oil profits. The Biden sanctions relief lasted...

On Tuesday’s “CNN Newsroom,” CNN Military Analyst and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Wesley Clark (Ret.) stated that American sanctions against Iran won’t be effective in part because “the United States really doesn’t want to seal off Iran’s oil exports” to keep oil prices from spiking, and the real issue is “will the United States really extend its nuclear guarantee to Israel, and will that be sufficient to keep Iran back from this ring of fire? That’s the question. And then, can Israel finish off Hamas in Rafah?” Host John Vause asked, “The U.S. already has an arms ban...

The USA has called for Ukraine not to attack Russian refineries despite Russia's widespread offensive against several energy facilities in Ukraine. The Department of Defense has warned that such an attack could bring another spike in fuel prices worldwide. Michaelo Podoliak, advisor to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, claimed that such facilities were legitimate military targets. In a recent interview, he also claimed that such an attack was not only legitimate but desirable on a worldwide level in order to weaken Russia's hold on the energy lobby. “Ukraine must destroy Russia's refineries. They have no impact on worldwide pricing, and are...

The Interior Department on Friday finalized a rule making it more expensive for oil and gas producers to drill on federally owned lands. Several of the provisions in the rule — like raising the rent the government charges to oil companies for using its land and increasing the government’s share of the profits from that oil — were set out in law by the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act. The Biden administration will additionally make it more expensive for drillers to abandon their oil wells after use instead of cleaning them up. The administration argues that current bonding rates do not...

Reporting from Western New York: gas price at my local gas station jumped $0.13 in the last 24 hours. I've never seen a hike that fast. Is anyone else seeing the same thing? I already see gold prices shooting up. Is this gas price? Starting to catch up to it now?

John Sabo and Josh Thieler grew up in Pittsburgh-area communities that were hit hard as 200,000 steel and manufacturing jobs disappeared from the region, upending their parents’ generation and leaving main streets pocked with empty storefronts. Sabo, the son and grandson of mill workers, says his father rarely found steady work after losing his job in a U.S. Steel mill, leaving Sabo to “know what government cheese tastes like.” Thieler spent part of his childhood in a trailer park in a small city that shed nearly half its population as families hunted elsewhere for work. Today, both men have good...

Reuters said Novatek had stopped operations at its Arctic LNG 2 project, which processes gas from the Utrenneye field on West Siberia' Gydan Peninsula, in the latest blow to Russian fuel exports. It comes as Russian exports funding Putin's war have been hampered by repeated drone strikes on oil facilities, blamed on Ukraine. One energy industry expert told Newsweek that state oil giant Rosneft had reduced daily oil processing in March by a fifth. Sanctions have caused a lack of specialist tankers to transport the LNG from Russia through thick sea ice. Six Arc7 tankers were due to be built...

Bidenomics is really about insane money printing after Covid and the installation of Biden as President. Biden and The Federal Reserve are both pushin’ too hard. Biden to fundamentally change the US and The Fed trying to cope with the inflation reaction. With Covid and then Biden’s selection as President, Federal outlays exploded (blue line) and remain elevated under Biden. To help finance the (outrageous) spending The Federal Reserve massively increased the M2 Money supply (green line). Now, The Fed has withdrawn some of the excessive monetary stimulus, but there is a staggering amount monetary stimulus still swimming around the...

One of the officials of the US Treasury Department reiterated EAM S Jaishankar’s words on Russian crude oil. Anna Morris, Acting Assistant Secretary for Terror Financing (US Treasury), was in Delhi on April 04. She was asked about US buying a large portion of refined oil from India, the country which imports crude from Russia.

President Joe Biden’s administration dropped its plan to buy oil to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) due to rising oil prices. The oil would have gone to Louisiana’s Bayou Choctaw SPR site in August and September. The administration canceled the purchase despite depleting the emergency supply by 43%, the lowest since the 1980s. U.S. Won’t Buy Oil to Refill Strategic Petroleum Reserve The administration canceled the purchase despite depleting the emergency supply by 43%, the lowest since the 1980s. Posted by Mary Chastain Wednesday, April 3, 2024 at 05:00pm 18 Comments FacebookTwitterTelegramLinkedInWhatsAppRedditEmail President Joe Biden’s administration dropped its plan...

The Biden administration on Wednesday barred drilling and mining in a Colorado landscape known as the Thompson Divide, an area of mountaintops, foothills and valleys in the center of the state. The administration said it would bar drilling and mining in 221,898 acres of the divide’s lands for 20 years as part of an effort to preserve it for the future. “The Thompson Divide area is a treasured landscape, valued for its wildlife habitat, clean air and water, and abundant recreation, ecological and scenic values,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a written statement. “The Biden-Harris administration is committed to...

The Vermont Legislature is advancing legislation requiring big fossil fuel companies pay a share of the damage caused by climate change after the state suffered catastrophic summer flooding and damage from other extreme weather. “In order to remedy the problems created by washed out roads, downed electrical wires, damaged crops and repeated flooding, the largest fossil fuel entities that have contributed to climate change should also contribute to fixing the problem that they caused,” Sen. Nader Hashim, a Democrat from Windham County, said to Senate colleagues on Friday. It’s a polluter-pays model affecting companies engaged in the trade or business...

The long, convoluted, and somewhat disgusting history of KSA to the present day.

Rehabilitating the dessert with ground water aquifer reserves, how it happened.

ecurity and economic benefit - David McNew/ReutersMore The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in January that US domestic production of crude oil for September 2023 set a new all-time high of 13,247,000 barrels per day.

She hasn’t ever held a public post or campaigned for office. But 80-year-old Corina Yoris, a widow and grandmother to seven children, had been plucked out of her quiet life in academia, one of scholarly tomes on philosophy and classes on Venezuela’s 1940s-era history, to challenge that country’s strongman in July’s presidential election—if she isn’t banned from participating first. Marriage Therapy & Counseling - Alma: High Quality Teletherapy secure.helloalma.com/Marriage/therapy Marriage Therapy & Counseling - Alma: High Quality Teletherapy Ad “It’s totally surreal because I’ve dedicated my life to academia, to the university life,” Yoris told The Wall Street Journal. “Aspirations...

DEFIANCE, Ohio (WANE) — An area of southeast Defiance has been shut down due to an explosion at an oil refinery Wednesday afternoon. The explosion happened at the Glycerin Traders oil refinery plant in southeast Defiance. Around 4:15 p.m., the Defiance Police Department posted on Facebook warning residents to avoid the area of Columbia Street near Ottawa Avenue, Greenler Street and Sauers Avenue due to an “emergency situation.” An employee at Clifford R. Hunt Inc., a business located across the street from the explosion, told WANE 15 he could feel the explosion from his office and could see flames at...

Oil and gas will play a role in the global energy needs for a "long, long, long time to come," said Shell chief executive Wael Sawan today. Sawan is working to move beyond a dialogue that "seems to fixate" on the notion one must choose between fossil fuels like oil and gas or renewables like solar and wind. "It's all. And we need them in abundance," Sawan told participants at CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston today. Stable oil production is deemed necessary by Shell as it transitions its customers to lower carbon solutions over the course of decades....

SUMMARIES: • Ukraine launches mass drone attack • Fire at NORSI refinery, drone downed near Kirishi • NORSI is badly damaged - sources • Russia says it repels cross-border attack by Ukrainian proxies