Free Republic

A new energy boom is taking shape in the oil fields of west Texas, but it’s not what you think. It’s solar. Solar power has gotten so cheap to produce—and so competitively priced in the electricity market—that it is taking hold even in a state that, unlike California, doesn’t offer incentives to utilities to buy or build sun-powered generation. Pecos County, about halfway between San Antonio and El Paso and on the southern edge of the prolific Permian Basin oil field, could soon host to several large solar-energy farms responsible for about $1 billion in investments, according to state tax...

U.S. oil fell closer to $39 per barrel on Friday, as traders continued a rout that is likely to hand the next-month contract its longest string of consecutive weekly losses since the bust of 1986. Fears that China’s economy may be sputtering and signals that global production is on the rise have driven oil lower for the past seven weeks, and barring a large recovery Friday, soon to be eight weeks. Those concerns combined once more on Friday as an early economic indicator in China came in at a six-year low. “(China’s) stock market problems, their currency problems, all these...

Moscow (AFP) - Russia's battered ruble fell Thursday on the back of weaker oil prices to more than 75 to the euro for the first time in over six months, deepening its recent decline. The ruble also tumbled against the dollar to near 67.44, its weakest against the greenback since February. Russia's currency has fallen more than 20 percent against the dollar in the past two months, sparking fears of more instability after a period of relative recovery. Russia's economy has slumped into recession amid lower oil prices and Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

We have a “moral imperative” to burn carbon dioxide-emitting fossil fuels because the energy they provide is a “liberator” of humanity, says Dr. John Christy, a climatologist and director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama, Huntsville. “We are not morally bad people for taking carbon and turning it into the energy that offers life to humanity in a world that would otherwise be brutal,” Christy wrote in a recent op-ed. “On the contrary, we are good people for doing so.” He also challenged what he says are contradictions in Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si, in...

Pioneer is the first oil and gas company to sign a long-term wastewater supply contract with Odessa, a city of about 110,000 people. The Dallas-based company recently began construction on a pipeline network that will transport the treated water from the city's sewage plant to one of its oilfields about 20 miles away. "The money has been approved," said Stephen McNair, president of Pioneer's water management group. Pioneer's goal is to eliminate the use of fresh water in fracking in 5 to 10 years, said McNair. The municipal reclaimed water the company intends to use comes from sewage plants that...

WILLISTON N.D. (Reuters) - Harold Hamm, the chief executive of North Dakota oil producer Continental Resources Inc , has stunned a bearish crude market by scrapping all of the company's hedges - a bold bet that prices will recover soon after sliding some 25 percent. Related Stories [$$] Saudi Oil Price Cut Scrambles Market The Wall Street Journal Saudi price cuts send New York oil prices to 3-year low AFP [$$] Saudi Price Cut Upends Oil Market The Wall Street Journal Gulf oil producers seen riding out price plunge AFP [$$] Occidental Petroleum’s Profit Falls 24% The Wall Street Journal...

Lightning struck an electrical transformer at the Valero refinery in Texas City Thursday morning, causing a fire. Officials with Texas City Office of Emergency Management (OEM) told Houston's ABC affiliate Channel 13 that the lightning strike occurred just before 6:20 am CST this morning. Firefighters on the scene told local media that there is currently oil burning inside of a container at the facility. Derek Duckett, Texas City Emergency Management Coordinator, told the Houston Chronicle that firefighters can't douse the fire with water due to the potential danger from electrical shock. They are now containing the fire to the transformer...

The chief environmental regulator in the United States had some blunt words of reality regarding the administration’s climate change regulations. The Clean Power Plan that will require drastic cuts in 47 states’ carbon dioxide emissions – consequently shifting America’s energy economy away from affordable, reliable coal – will adversely impact poor, minority families the most. When speaking about the higher energy prices caused by the administration’s climate regulations on power plants, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said, “We know that low-income minority communities would be hardest hit.”

The real winner of President Barack Obama’s so-called “war on coal” isn’t the EPA, nor is it the natural gas industry. It’s liberal billionaire George Soros.Last week, Obama’s EPA announced sweeping regulations for U.S. power plants, forcing them to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions 32 percent by 2030. The news sent shockwaves through the coal industry, sending stocks tumbling and forcing the industry’s two biggest players to consider bankruptcy filings.That’s where liberal billionaire Soros steps in. In the days after the Clean Power Plan was announced, Soros bought more than 1 million shares of Peabody Energy and 553,200 shares of...

The United States should consider allowing “strategic” crude exports to allies abroad while renegotiating the nuclear deal with Iran, Sen. Robert Menendez said. The New Jersey Democrat’s comments, part of a speech Tuesday at Seton Hall University to explain his opposition to the agreement, marked a shift in his approach to oil exports. Menendez historically has opposed moves to loosen the longstanding ban on exporting U.S. crude. But on Tuesday, Menendez highlighted oil exports as a geopolitical tool — a way for U.S. oil to compete in markets that might be customers for Iranian crude if the nuclear accord is...

There’s a “conceivable reality” U.S. oil prices may plummet to a new 11-year low of $33 a barrel or lower this year, according to a Citigroup report released Wednesday as oil prices dipped to a six-year low near $40.50 per barrel. The new “How low can oil go?” report contends that capital markets are “getting nervy” and one of the only ways to stop this downward trend is for North American shale companies to lose more access to capital during the next phase of borrowing negotiations in October, called redetermination. In February 2009, closing U.S. oil prices last bottomed out...

With West Texas Intermediate crude now below $42 a barrel, the edifice of America’s oil and gas boom is finally crumbling. The number of companies in bankruptcy or restructuring has increased, and the clouds will only grow darker in the months ahead. Declining revenues, evaporating earnings and shrinking values of oil and gas reserves will put the crunch on oil companies’ ability to refinance loans, let alone borrow new cash or sell shares. Last week two companies showed that having a heroic name is no defense. Hercules Offshore, a Gulf of Mexico drilling contractor, announced it had reached a prepackaged...

WASHINGTON – U.S. authorities on Tuesday proposed the first-ever federal regulations to cut the potent greenhouse gas methane by limiting emissions from the oil and gas industry. The four-part proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency is part of President Barack Obama’s Climate Action Plan, aimed at reducing pollution that is hastening human-caused climate change. However, the suggested changes will not, on their own, get the United States to its goal of cutting methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 40 to 45 percent from 2012 levels by 2025, officials said. “We do project that our proposal will achieve...

Shale oil producers from West Texas and North Dakota have harvested enough crude to overwhelm the global oil market and force Saudi Arabia's oil cartel to play offense on the world's energy stage. But U.S. producers have recovered only a small fraction of the oil that's trapped in those rocks, and though the oil-market crash has put the nation's energy boom on hold, some oil-technology companies are pursuing what they say will be a second American shale revolution. That belief lies partially in re-fracking - giving oil shale deposits a second blast of water, chemicals and sand - to get...

The lowest crude prices in six years might not be enough to put the brakes on the U.S. energy renaissance. Some parts of North Dakota’s Bakken shale play are profitable at less than $30 a barrel as companies tap bigger wells and benefit from lower drilling costs, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence analysis. That’s less than half the level of some estimates when the oil rout began last year. The lower bar for profitability is one reason why U.S. oil production has remained near a 40-year high even as crude prices fell more than 50 percent over the past year...

Ben Carson isn't pandering to voters in Iowa, telling them Sunday that he would phase out agricultural subsidies if elected president. The Republican candidate, however, said that he would allow 10 years for the policy to take effect. "Particularly when you're talking about renewable fuel standards and things, there are a lot of promises that have been made that really extend all the way out to 2022, and people have made plans based on those kind of things," Carson said Sunday. "You can't just pull out the rug out from under people." The reform was just one of several Carson...

Russian and Saudi officials to meet over Middle East issues -- just after news surfaces of a secret meeting between Russia, Iran. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir will visit Moscow on Tuesday to discuss Syria conflict and the Islamic State group with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign ministry said Saturday. The two ministers last met in Qatar on August 3 when Lavrov, Jubeir and US Secretary of State John Kerry held a three-way meeting, with the situation in Syria topping the agenda. The ministers will continue "a discussion on ways to resolve the crisis in Syria," the...

Saudi Arabia is discussing buying Russia’s Iskander tactical missile systems, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said after a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday. "Saudi Arabia is set to intensify relations with Russia in all the spheres, including in the military field," al-Jubeir said. "Intensive contacts are taking place between the military delegations and specialists from both countries and a wide range of intended types of armaments from Russia is being discussed, including Iskander missile systems," the Saudi foreign minister said. In general, the deliveries of Russian armaments are being actively discussed and a contract may be...

Hardline To Swallow: Obama’s causes are not common to us by Daniel Clark While pitching his Iranian nuclear deal to an audience at American University, President Obama said, “It’s those hardliners chanting ‘death to America’ who have been most opposed to the deal. They’re making common cause with the Republican Caucus.” The controversy that’s arisen over that remark is curious, considering that the president has all along condemned “hardliners” in both countries for criticizing the agreement. In fact, after Arkansas senator Tom Cotton voiced his objections in an open letter back in early March, Obama said, “I think it’s somewhat...

GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Sunday that Saudi Arabia is not properly compensating America for its diplomatic partnership. Trump called on Riyadh to share its vast wealth with the U.S. in exchange for the alliance between the two nations. “They make a billion dollars a day,” he told host Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Saudi Arabia, if it weren’t for us, they wouldn’t be here,” Trump said. “They wouldn’t exist.” “They should pay us,” he added. “Like it or don’t like it, people have backed Saudi Arabia. What I really mind though is we back it...