Free Republic

On a recent cold winter day, residents of Munich were surprised to see people skiing in the street. Yes, that is how much snow fell in the German city and other parts of Europe during the early winter of 2023-2024. Despite a disruption to both ground and air travel, the Germans survived the freezing weather with access to heating and basic utilities. But not everyone in our world is as fortunate as those living off reliable energy sources in Western economies. Billions of people all over the world do not have access to secure sources of heat and electricity. For...

The Biden administration has continued the modern Democrat tradition of perverse federal land use policy. It comes as a surprise to most Americans that the federal government owns nearly one-third of the nation’s land mass, in excess of 640 million acres. (It also owns 1.7 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), but that is another story.) Most know of the National Park Service in the Department of the Interior and its 80 million acres of parks, preserves, reserves, monuments, memorials, historic sites, battlefields, and recreation areas, in every state. Many Americans may be familiar with the 141 national...

OPINION The USA, Canada, Australia, Norway and the UK which had the moral responsibility to rapidly phase out oil and gas production are responsible for planned expansion from new oil and gas fields for next decade and half. How can these countries advise India to cut on coal consumption? Our greenhouse gas emission is nearly 3 Giga tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually. We are distant third behind the two top emitters China with 14 Giga tonnes and the US with 8 Giga tonnes Among the important outcomes, COP 28 text proposes to triple renewable energy capacity and double the global...

The Biden administration made two virtue-signaling proclamations at last week’s COP28 conference in Dubai that it says will help save the planet from climate change. The policies aren’t likely to change the planet’s temperature by even one-tenth of a degree, but they might just destroy the 21st-century American industrial economy as we know it. First, Team Biden announced it will stop production of all new coal plants in the United States. This comes on the heels of President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency saying this year it would impose new power plant emission regulations that are virtually impossible for coal plants...

The European Commission on Monday said Germany should be allowed to pay the energy giant RWE some €2.6 billion ($2.8 billion) in state aid for the closure of coal power stations. Under German law, no more electricity is to be produced from coal from 2038 onward. However, the three-way "traffic light" coalition that makes up the German government had agreed to move the date forward to 2030. The Commission found that although the payment did constitute a form of state aid for the industry, this was necessary to achieve the goal of phasing out coal. "The Commission concluded that the...

The Biden administration made two virtue-signaling proclamations at last week’s COP28 conference in Dubai it says will help save the planet from climate change. The policies aren’t likely to change the planet’s temperature by even one-tenth of a degree, but they might just destroy the 21st-century American industrial economy as we know it. First, Team Biden announced it will stop production of all new coal plants in the United States. This comes on the heels of President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency saying this year it would impose new power-plant emission regulations that are virtually impossible for coal plants to comply...

Colorado utilities regulators will consider the new plan, which was revised in hopes of capturing lucrative renewable energy credits while slashing greenhouse gas emissions... Xcel Energy has a vision for Colorado’s clean energy future — one independent power producers, consumer advocates and regulators didn’t see coming — a vision that is both expensive, with a $15 billion price tag, and unparalleled in its sweep. Xcel Energy’s preferred electric resource plan submitted to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission in September includes 7,100 megawatts of new generation and storage, mainly wind and solar and nearly $3 billion in new transmission lines. “We...

Colorado-based cooperative Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association will accelerate the closure of a coal-fired unit in the northwestern part of CO, and announced a retirement date for an Arizona coal plant. Tri-State said it wants to acquire at least another 1,250 MW of renewable energy generation over the next several years. The not-for-profit company, which serves rural electricity consumers across four western states, said the ERP filed with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission seeks to take advantage of funding from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s $9.7 billion Empowering Rural America program, part of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. The...

John Kerry, special presidential envoy on climate matters, announced Saturday that the United States has "proudly" committed to not to build any new coal plants and to get rid of existing ones entirely."To meet our goal of 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035, we need to phase out unabated coal," Mr. Kerry said in a Dec. 2 statement, in which he announced that the United States had officially joined a coalition of 56 other countries who all plan to ditch coal in the name of climate change.“We will be working to accelerate unabated coal phase-out across the world, building...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United States committed to the idea of phasing out coal power plants, joining 56 other nations in kicking the coal habit that’s a huge factor in global warming. U.S. Special Envoy John Kerry announced over the weekend that America was joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance, which means the Biden Administration commits to building no new coal plants and phasing out existing plants. No date was given for when the existing plants would have to go, but other Biden regulatory actions and international commitments already in the works had meant no coal by 2035.

It came after the Munich freezeout where the private jets of global elites were snowed-in. But apparently most made it to Dubai for COP28. Or more apt, the Cop-out meeting where the global elites meet eating caviar and guzzling champagne and telling us to die off, eat bugs and drive idiotic EVs that most Americans can’t afford. (A $100,000 Ford F-150 Lightning??) But at least we can hear England’s royalty, King Charles, bloviate about the weather. Along with American royalty, VP Kamala Harris and Climate Envoy John Kerry who committed the US to closing down out coal burning plants. It...

French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the COP28 summit on Friday as world leaders gathered in Dubai for the second day of UN climate talks. Macron urged G7 nations at UN climate talks on Friday to set an example to other countries and "commit to putting an end to coal" by 2030. Speaking at COP28 in Dubai, Macron said investing in coal was "truly an absurdity".

India produced a record amount of electricity from coal in October ... Coal remains fundamental to the country’s energy security ... India will depend on its mines and rail network to satisfy rapidly growing electricity demand and ensure reliability. Total electricity demand met increased by 24 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) (+21%) in October compared with the same month a year earlier. ... the electricity system turned to gas (1.6 billion kWh, +103%) and especially coal (28 billion kWh, +33%) to meet demand. Coal-fired generators produced a seasonal record of 111 billion kWh in October 2023 up from 84 billion kWh in...

Weather pundits on TV and even The Old Farmers Almanac are telling us key factors like Solar Cycle 25, El Nino, and a polar vortex moving south from the North Pole will combine to give most of the U.S. a colder and a much more snowy winter. Are we ready? Is the Biden administration ensuring our gas and coal-fired power plants are winterized and have enough fuel? Of course not. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a not-for-profit regulatory authority whose stated mission is "to assure the effective and efficient reduction of risks to the reliability and security of...

FONT SIZE: The Biden administration is set to back a plan that would crush the coal industry at the upcoming United Nations (UN) climate summit, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The U.S. will reportedly support a French plan to get the countries of the world to ban private financing of coal-fired power plants during the upcoming UN conference, known as COP28, according to Reuters. The plan is likely to drive a rift between countries like the U.S. and France and those like China and India, which are reliant on coal to feed their economies cheap and reliable electricity. The proposed plan...

The operator of a power grid in the mid-Atlantic is warning that the planned shutdown of a coal-fired power plant could disrupt and short-change electrical supply before people can replace it. PJM Interconnection, the company that manages wholesale electricity in parts or the entirety of 13 states and provides electricity for more than 65 million Americans, said that they expect the shutdown of the Brandon Shores coal power plant outside of Baltimore to disrupt the power there and leave it wanting. The plant's owner, Talen Energy, made a deal with the environmentalist group Sierra Club to deactivate it by 2025...

News of record installations of so-called renewable energy electric generation in China may have kindled the hopes of those supporting the "green" agenda and hostile to fossil fuels. However, China is in no position to give up hydrocarbons, particularly coal.During the first half of 2023, China approved 52 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power, which was more than all the approvals issued in 2021. These new approvals are in addition to the 136 GW of coal capacity that are already under construction. Together, these new plants represent more than 67% of all new approvals in the world. Why is China...

A 71-year-old investor who bought an old Wyoming coal mine sight-unseen for $2million has learned that it may contain $37 billion worth of 'rare earth' minerals. Randall Atkins, the CEO of Ramaco Rescources, bought the Brook Mine in Sheridan 12 years ago - but it wasn't until years later that researchers checked if the ground contained elements that are used for semiconductors, missiles and solar cells. He was shocked to find out that his mine may contain the largest rare-earth deposit in the United States - and the materials may be worth 18,500 times what he paid for the land....

American coal is rebounding! Yay. Enough of Unicorn Farts.

A cargo train derailed Sunday afternoon near Pueblo, Colorado, and spilled coal along the highway. According to Colorado State Patrol, it appeared the train derailed on a collapsed bridge at an overpass. Footage of the wreckage shows a semi-truck trapped beneath the overpass where the cargo train derailed. The derailment caused I-25 to close in both directions. Several agencies in Colorado reportedly are assisting with the cleanup. VIDEO AT LINK.............. “I 25 mile post 106 northbound and southbound near PUEBLO is closed due to train derailment. Expect extended closure in the area due to train cars and coal on the...