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The devastating fallout of the Biden administration's job-killing rampage continues after he canceled the sale of 80 million acres of Gulf of Mexico oil leases that was scheduled for Wednesday in New Orleans, KLFY-TV in Lafayette, Louisiana, reported Monday. “It would kill our state. It would kill workers,” Mike Moncla, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, said of the Biden administration's move. “It would kill jobs, and it would be a terrible thing.” According to the Moncla and the association, nearly 250,000 Louisiana residents work in the oil and gas industry, and 98,000 of them have offshore jobs.

A briefing between the State Department and congressional staff over Vladimir Putin's Russia-Germany gas pipeline got tense this week, with Biden officials deflecting questions about why they hadn't moved faster and more aggressively with sanctions to stop its completion. The Biden officials also denied negotiating with the Germans over a potential side deal to allow the pipeline to be finished.Why it matters: As we reported earlier this week, some allies are worried that Biden is shaky on Putin's Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and the fight is a significant test of whether the new president's tough rhetoric against Russia will be...

As Texans struggle through a prolonged cold snap that has left many homes dark and now flooded with burst water pipes, attention turns to the state-managed power grid and the relative merits of fossil fuels versus green energy. On Thursday, Texas Public Policy Foundation Vice President Chuck DeVore said Texas residents have a lot of "digging out" to do, but once that's done, it's time to consider the "resiliency" of power sources, in addition to reliability. “And as far as what to do in the future, I think that we need to assign a value to grid reliability and resiliency,"...

If President Trump had been colluding with Russia, the first thing he would have done would have been to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline and otherwise prevent our achieving energy independence. Russia was once described as being a gas station masquerading as a country. Its only commodities of value are weapons and oil. Building Keystone XL and unleashing fracking was Trump’s way of screwing with Putin’s ambitions, not rewarding them. We would have to wait for Joe Biden to collude with Russia on energy by banning Keystone XL and declaring war on fracking. As Helen Raleigh, writing in The Federalist,...

In one of the rare instances where the media has bothered to ask Joe Biden about anything of substance, he was forced to give an answer during the last presidential debate about whether or not he was planning on banning fracking. He flip-flopped on that issue yet again, saying that he would not be banning fracking, likely because he’s aware that the polls in Pennsylvania are hanging by a thread at the moment. But as C. Boyden Gray points out this week at Real Clear Politics, Joe Biden’s answer wasn’t just at odds with previous statements by both he...

Joe Biden is probably telling the truth when he says he won’t “ban” fracking. A president can’t do that by executive order. And even if Democrats seize the Senate, a legislative ban would be politically risky. Far more likely is that a Biden administration would end fracking via indirect means, by taking a regulatory nibble here and a legislative bite there. While Mr. Biden has flip-flopped on fracking, he has consistently pledged to outlaw drilling on federal lands. That would affect 8% of all U.S. oil production, 9% of gas production, and 6% of natural gas liquids production. He has...

The builders of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline are pulling the plug on the project as companies continue to meet mounting environmental opposition to new fossil fuel conduits in the U.S. Duke Energy Corp. and Dominion Energy Inc. said Sunday that they were abandoning the proposed $8 billion pipeline—which aimed to carry natural gas 600 miles through West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina and underneath the Appalachian Trail—citing continued regulatory delays and uncertainty, even after a favorable Supreme Court ruling last month. Dominion meanwhile said it was selling the rest of its natural gas transmission and storage network to Warren Buffett’s...

After years of ideologues and elites using the natural gas industry as a punching bag for politics and climate change activism, Nick DeIuliis, the CEO of CNX Resources, one of the largest natural gas producers in Western Pa., has had enough. At a Rotary Club speech in downtown Pittsburgh the blue-collar man who earned degrees in engineering and law, and his job at the top, decided to speak out 'to defend an industry' that has become a regional economic game-changer. ........“Natural gas and manufacturing have been demonized and ridiculed on a consistent and regular basis 'by a cabal of misguided,...

After three years of apocalyptic wailing and gnashing of environmentalist teeth over President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the job and economy killing Paris Climate Accord, it is ironic that the one country that faces the brunt of criticism from climate change zealots such as Greta Thunberg is leading the world and the European Union in lowering emissions and promoting cleaner energy, such as natural gas, all the while not hurting the economy: Despite shrieks of terror from the left about how President Donald Trump’s presidency threatens the existence of Earth and thus mankind, the fact is that under his...

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that she opposed U.S. sanctions on companies building the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline because they have extraterritorial effect. The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed legislation to slap sanctions on companies building the massive underwater pipeline to bring Russian natural gas to Germany, but it was uncertain whether the measures would slow completion of the project.

Washington (AFP) - The US Senate voted Tuesday to slap sanctions on companies working on Russia's Nord Stream pipeline, sending a bill to President Donald Trump that is sure to antagonize European nations counting on the project's natural gas. The measure, inserted into a huge annual defense spending bill, passed 86 to eight after easily clearing the House of Representatives last week. It aims to halt further construction of the $10.6 billion pipeline being built under the Baltic Sea and is set to double shipments of Russian natural gas to Germany. The German-Russian Chamber of Commerce said last week the...

Germany on Thursday (12 December) warned Washington to mind its own business after US lawmakers gave initial approval to a bill that would sanction contractors working on a Russian pipeline to Germany. The EU also opposed sanctions against ‘companies doing legitimate business’. “European energy policy is decided in Europe, not in the US,” Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Twitter. “We reject external interference,” he said. The €9.5 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline will run under the Baltic Sea and is set to double shipments of Russian natural gas to Germany. The German-Russian Chamber of Commerce (AHK) said the pipeline...

Smiles and waves between Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping on Monday (December 2). Though this isn't just a casual video chat between two of the world's most powerful men, but the launch of a landmark pipeline that will transport natural gas from Siberia to north east China - a boost to economic and political ties between Moscow and Beijing and part of Russia's attempt to pivot East, away from the pain of Western financial sanctions imposed over its 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea. (SOUNDBITE) PRESIDENT, VLADIMIR PUTIN, SAYING: "This is a remarkable, genuinely historical event not only for...

For months, the utility that provides gas to Long Island and parts of New York City refused to activate gas hookups for both new and returning customers, casting some real estate developments into limbo. The utility’s moratorium triggered a political standoff that intensified this month, when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued a threat: either the company, National Grid, turn the gas on for all its potential customers, or the state would pull its license to operate in southern New York. The threat apparently worked. On Monday, the governor and National Grid announced an agreement that would restore gas service to...

No excerpt from Bloomberg allowed, story here.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and a utility that provides gas to New York City and Long Island have been locked in a standoff since May, when New York regulators blocked the construction of a $1 billion natural gas pipeline that would have run from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and New York. The utility, National Grid, says the pipeline is crucial to meeting the rising energy demand in the region and has imposed a moratorium, refusing to activate gas hookups for both new and returning customers. On Tuesday, the fight took a sharp turn after Mr. Cuomo threatened to revoke National...

Natural gas developers in Pennsylvania are hoping a recent water quality report by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission could squelch plans for a fracking ban that’s currently being considered by the neighboring Delaware River Basin Commission. The SRBC’s Remote Water Quality Monitoring Network report, which was released last month, revealed that water quality scores at 14 of the 16 stations in the basin were in the “good” or “excellent” categories According to a fact sheet from the Susquehanna commission, the monitoring stations are located in areas where active drilling takes place, as well as areas free of development, in order...

* Kiev, allies want Ukraine to remain gas transit route for Europe * Current deal lapses at year-end * Europe stockpiling gas to guard against winter disruption * Russia previously halted transit, accused Ukraine of "siphoning" (Adds Novak quotes in paragraphs 11-12) MOSCOW/BRUSSELS, July 26 (Reuters) - Russia wants to strike a short-term deal with Kiev on gas transit to Europe when the current 10-year agreement expires in order to buy time to complete pipelines that will bypass Ukraine, four sources familiar with Russian thinking said. The current deal with Ukraine lapses at the end of this year. Moscow's stance...

MOSCOW -- Russia is boosting Arctic production of liquefied natural gas to counter growing competition from the U.S. while looking to Asia's major energy importers to buffer projects against Washington's ire. Russian gas producer Novatek agreed on June 29 to sell a 10% stake in its Arctic LNG 2 terminal to Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co. and state-owned Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. Two Chinese companies -- China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corp. and China National Offshore Oil Corp. -- have a 20% stake in the facility. The terminal is scheduled to go online...

Bovanenkovo (Russie) (AFP) - Deep in the Russian Arctic anticipation runs high ahead of the launch of a natural gas pipeline that has emerged as a source of tensions pitting Moscow and Berlin against Washington. Gas sourced from the giant Bovanenkovo field on the remote Yamal Peninsula far above the Arctic Circle will feed the Nord Stream 2, a multi-billion-euro energy link between Russia and Germany. Critics of the Gazprom-led project -- in particular Washington and Kiev -- say the pipeline aims to increase Europe's reliance on Russian gas and isolate Ukraine, which it bypasses. US Secretary of Energy Rick...