Free Republic

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...

A Louisiana man issued a federal oil and gas lease in 1982, but denied the right to explore his property since approval of his application for permit to drill (APD) in 1985, recently responded formally to a brief filed by the United States government in which it argued that it has authority to cancel his lease and will cancel his lease as soon as its proposed schedule for doing so is approved by the federal court. Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF) represents Sidney Longwell of Baton Rouge, whose company Solenex, LLC owns the Reagan-era lease, and which sued Secretary of...

Gas prices in Chicago are still falling, but the price at the pump is having a negative impact on the economy. ... as the cost to fill up your tank goes down, could this also be a sign -- the economy is tanking? Commodities trader Scott Shellady thinks so. "It's bad for everybody. We are going to lose one-fifth of the jobs we created in 2008," said Shellady. And he doesn't expect a market rebound anytime soon. So if you were hoping to cash in your 401K or IRA and retire in the next year, Shellady says, rethink your plans....

The Utah Attorney General's Office filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Department of the Interior and Department of Agriculture, claiming the agencies' strategy to disallow new mining on or near greater sage grouse habitats is a breach of "numerous federal laws and regulations." The lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeks an order voiding the federal government's land-use plan amendments submitted last year that would directly prohibit new hard rock mining on 233,300 acres in Utah. "The state of Utah claims that the 2015 federal plan amendments disregarded the hallmark of federal land management -- multiple use and sustained yield --...

On September 24, 2015, the federal Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) published a Notice of Proposed Withdrawal (“BLM notice”), proposing to withdraw from mineral location and entry federal lands identified as “sagebrush focal areas” in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. The BLM notice commences a two-year temporary segregation period, prohibiting location and entry of new mining claims on BLM and U.S. Forest Service lands in these sagebrush focal areas. If the BLM decides to withdraw the area at the end of the segregation period, the withdrawal will last up to 20 years, but could be extended in the...

Inventories will continue to rise, but the momentum is slowing. The following are some observations as to how we got here and how we’re gonna get out. 9 reasons why oil has taken so long to bottom: 1. OPEC increased production in 2015 to multiyear highs, principally in Saudi Arabia and Iraq where production between the two added 1.5 million barrels per day (mb/d) to inventories after the no cut stance was adopted. 2. Russian production increased in 2015 to post Soviet highs. 3. Long planned Gulf of Mexico production began coming on in late 2015. 4. An overhang of...

CNBCJanuary 18, 2016 While gas prices are low nationwide, some stations are slashing the fuel's price to rock-bottom levels to the tune of less than 50 cents a gallon. The drastic price cuts are part of a gas price war at three Houghton Lake, Mich., stations. During the last three days, the prices dropped below a buck per gallon, falling as low as 46 cents at Sunrise Marathon. Meanwhile, the Beacon & Bridge gas station was as low as 47 cents, said employees of each station in interviews with CNBC.(snip)

Gasbuddy.com says several stations in Houghton Lake, Michigan have lowered their prices under $1 per gallon, in what appears to be a price war. According to GasBuddy it appears these stations are currently the first stations in the country to see prices under $1 per gallon in years. As the situation unfolds, it's possible these stations re-raise prices back over $1/gallon. 78 cents per gallon was recorded at Beacon & Bridge Market while 95 cents per gallon was recorded at the Marathon in Houghton Lake. Prices were verified by GasBuddy after a review of photographs uploaded to GasBuddy's app.

I live a half hour away and it's $1.77. Just got word from a friend. Check it with Gas Buddy.

Police in Hudson and Pelham alerted citizens last week that skimming devices had been found on gas pumps at different stations. The devices appear like legitimate card scanners, but have actually been rigged to the machine in an attempt to gain the account information as the customer slides the card and uses the personal-identification number to complete the transaction. Dairon Julio Jimenez Roja, 25; Francisco Tamayo Noguera, 35; and Elvis Barban Chavez, 44, also known as Elvis Barban, were first arrested.

Barack Obama has come under fire for extending a formal invitation to a shamed African dictator who has ruthlessly plundered billions of dollars from his own country. The U.S. President will today have a coveted private meeting with President Ali Bongo of Gabon in the Oval Office despite his appalling track record. Bongo’s family has ruled the impoverished African nation with an iron fist for five decades and have used its oil riches to fund a life of outrageous luxury. Meanwhile one third of people in Gabon live on less than $2 a day and thousands starve to death each...

The Art Lacey Story is one of brilliant marketing -- placing a retired WWII B-17 fighter plane as a gas station roof. Lacey knew this structure would attract and draw in drive-by customers,

A growing number of state organizations seek to remedy what they consider negligent policies and shoddy oversight of public land on the part of federal agencies. Under the umbrella name Transfer of Public Lands, the movement offers a solution to the problem that is simple in concept: transfer ownership and management of public lands administered by federal agencies to equivalent state agencies. These agencies, being accountable to governors, state legislators and citizens, will manage the public lands in a more conscientious, cost-effective way. ... Unlike states east of the Continental Divide, public lands in Western states such as Washington and...

The latest dilemma facing economists is why "unequivocally good" low oil prices haven't sparked excuberant consumer spending across America. We have discussed the simple (though awkward for the establishment) answer many times - soaring costs for 'shelter' and healthcare have hoovered up every penny saved (and more); and now, a new study proves it- exposing the reality that many Obamacare customers pay more than 10 percent of their incomes toward coverage (and some paying considerably more). The shocking findings show that, as CNBC summarizes, One in 10 Obamacare customers who earn between just two and five times the federal poverty...

BURNING fossil fuels and cutting down trees causes global COOLING, a shock new NASA study has found. Major theories about what causes temperatures to rise have been thrown into doubt after NASA found the Earth has cooled in areas of heavy industrialization where more trees have been lost and more fossil fuel burning takes place. Environmentalists have long argued the burning of fossil fuels in power stations and for other uses is responsible for global warming and predicted temperature increases because of the high levels of carbon dioxide produced - which causes the global greenhouse effect. While the findings did...

The state of Michigan is enjoying low gas prices (and on Nov. 30 had the lowest prices at the pump in the nation), something analysts are saying can be attributed in part to the increased production of oil in the U.S. Crude oil production in the U.S. has increased 63 percent from 5.4 million barrels a day in 2009 to 8.7 million barrels a day in 2014. That’s the most production on U.S. soil since 1986, according to the Energy Information Administration. That increase in domestic oil production can be attributed to hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as “fracking.” That...

nergy expert Dr. Daniel Fine, left, in March predicted the current low gasoline prices. Pictured with Fine during a meeting in Roswell in March are local oil men Rory McMinn of Reed & Stevens, center, and Bob Armstrong of Armstrong Energy Corp. (Jeff Tucker Photo) An energy expert’s prediction in March that gasoline prices in New Mexico would dip to $1.65 a gallon has been proven true.' Dr. Daniel Fine, associate director of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, said at a landmen’s association’s meeting in Roswell in March that gasoline...

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, left, speaks at a campaign event on Nov. 28, 2015, in Iowa as U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, far right, looks on. (Photo by Patrick Svitek) LENOX, Iowa — On Black Friday, Ted Cruz went out and bought a new pair of boots, knowing he will be spending a good chunk of the next two months in a place more wintry than his humid hometown of Houston. "I surrendered to Iowa's snow and ice," Texas' junior U.S. senator admitted to a group of voters here Saturday afternoon, lifting his pant leg to reveal his purchase. The new footwear...

Ted Cruz is under attack. The Texas senator's rise in Iowa presidential surveys has attracted criticism from all sides. America's Renewable Future, a bipartisan political group with the support of ethanol and agricultural industry workers, unleashed new digital and radio ads attacking Cruz in Iowa. The senator's opposition to ethanol mandates has drawn the ire of ARF, whose ads claim that Cruz's policy proposals "threaten rural Iowa and thousands of jobs." "Politicians like Ted Cruz are the worst kind: Hypocrites," the ad says. "There are millions of reasons Ted Cruz supports Big Oil instead of Iowa farmers. Call politician Ted...

The cost of electricity for Colorado residents skyrocketed 63 percent between 2001 and 2014, far outpacing median income in the state at just 24 percent over the same time period ... Retail residential electricity rates increased from 7.47 cents per kilowatthour in 2001 to 12.18 cents per kilowatthour by 2014, a 63.1 percent hike. Coloradans median income, however, went up just 24.1 percent, from $49,397 to $61,303. Median income in Colorado actually declined between 2008 and 2012. ... Not to mention the state's many business owners, including small business owners, who face the same hikes in energy costs that could...