Free Republic

A North Dakota judge finalized a potentially fatal verdict against Greenpeace on Friday, affirming a $345 million jury award against the storied environmental group that Greenpeace has said may force it into bankruptcy in the United States. The verdict was reached last year after a bruising trial brought by the pipeline company Energy Transfer over Greenpeace’s role in protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, an 1,172-mile pipeline that carries oil from North Dakota to Illinois. Energy Transfer claimed Greenpeace had played a major role in the protests a decade ago, forcing construction delays and costing the company money. Greenpeace has...

The first attack against a ship in the Strait of Hormuz occurred on Sunday morning.Oman's Maritime Security Centre announced that an oil tanker named Skylight, flying the flag of the Republic of Palau, was targeted around five nautical miles (9.26km) north of Khasab Port.In a statement shared on X, Oman authorities confirmed that there were 20 crew members on board, including 15 holding Indian nationality and 5 of Iranian nationality, and they were all evacuated.Preliminary information also indicates that at least four people were injured and have been transferred to receive medical treatment.It has not been specified who attacked or...

LONDON, March 1 (Reuters) - Brent crude jumped 10% to about $80 a barrel over the counter on Sunday, oil traders said, while analysts predicted that prices could climb as high as $100 after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran plunged the Middle East into a new war.

For the past half century, successive Presidential administrations and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have thwarted the development of advanced reactor designs...That all changed last May, when President Trump issued four executive orders aimed at reinvigorating the U.S. nuclear energy industry.

President Donald Trump is set to visit the Port of Corpus Christi on Friday to deliver remarks focused on the economy and his administration's push for expanded domestic energy production, just days before the primary election.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday announced a new licensing policy to streamline the resale of Venezuelan oil to Cuba, with the goal of supporting the island’s private sector and bolstering humanitarian efforts amid ongoing fuel crises. The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) will extend the new licensing policy to specific applications seeking authorization for the resale of Venezuelan oil for use in Cuba.The move was done “in accordance with the United States’ support and solidarity for the Cuban people,” reads the new policy.The policy does not cover entities or persons connected to the Cuban military, intelligence services, or...

Donut Lab commissioned VTT to validate its bold solid-state claims, and the results show near-full capacity retention even after ultra-fast charging... Rapid charging under test VTT Technical Research Centre ran the tests in what engineers described as a worst-case scenario. The lab did not use active temperature controls. It also let the cell’s heat rise freely at high charging rates. Experts measured performance using C-rates, where 1C equals a one-hour charge from empty to full. Under that scale, 5C roughly equals a 12-minute charge, and 11C is about a five- to six-minute charge. The process began with a standard discharge...

(The Center Square) - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a case over whether states can sue fossil fuel companies for damages related to climate change.The nation’s highest court agreed to hear arguments in Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County. Justices on the court asked both parties to submit briefs on whether it has constitutional authority to decide the case.The case, based out of Colorado, challenges the authority of state and local governments to use nuisance laws in proceedings against fossil fuel companies.“There is no constitutional bar to states addressing in-state harms caused by...

To avoid It Kiev must resume oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline, Robert Fico saidPRAGUE, February 21. /TASS/. Slovakia will suspend electricity supplies to Ukraine from February 23 if Kiev does not resume oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline, Prime Minister Robert Fico said. "Slovakia is a proud and sovereign country, and I am a proud and sovereign Slovak. If oil supplies to Slovakia are not resumed on Monday, I will ask SEPS to stop supplying electricity to Ukraine," Fico wrote on Facebook (banned in Russia, owned by Meta Corporation, recognized as extremist in Russia). According to the prime minister,...

In 2010, I was a roughneck on a drilling rig in West Texas. These were the early days of the American shale revolution, before we truly understood what horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing would mean for the country. The work was brutal: 12-hour shifts, covered in drilling mud, wrestling pipe in 110-degree heat. But even then, you could feel something shifting. Rigs were popping up across the Permian Basin. Engineers were figuring out how to crack open formations and produce oil from rock that had been written off as uneconomic for decades. I watched that technological revolution unfold from the...

In America’s most populous state, a self-inflicted energy crisis is brewing—one that threatens not just California’s economy but the nation’s security. Governor Gavin Newsom’s aggressive push toward Net Zero emissions by 2045 has accelerated the decline of the state’s oil and gas industry, leading to refinery closures, skyrocketing fuel prices, and increased reliance on foreign imports. This vulnerability exposes California—and by extension, the U.S.—to geopolitical risks from unstable oil suppliers like Brazil, Iraq, and Ecuador. But there’s a viable solution on the horizon: new pipelines from Texas that could deliver domestic gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, bolstering energy independence while...

Environmental scholar Bjorn Lomborg recently calculated that across the globe, governments have spent at least $16 trillion feeding the climate change industrial complex. And for what? Arguably, not a single life has been or will be saved by this shameful and colossal misallocation of human resources. The war on safe and abundant fossil fuels has cost countless lives in poor countries and made those countries poorer by blocking affordable energy. Since the global warming crusade started some 30 years ago, the temperature of the planet has not been altered by one-tenth of a degree -- as even the alarmists will...

Oil smuggling has been so enormously profitable that no matter how many obstacles Washington and Brussels put up, the barrels kept flowing. With a daily turnover of $1 billion, the black market has been just too attractive. For the first time, however, I see cracks in the illicit business. Millions of barrels of unsold Iranian and Russian crude are accumulating in storage. The reason isn’t just more U.S. and European sanctions and political pressure. Sure, they’ve helped. But the key factor is more mundane: The buyers of sanctioned crude oil have plenty of alternative aboveboard barrels available — at reasonable...

California is increasingly importing gasoline through the Bahamas — a workaround to a 106-year-old US shipping law that forces domestic fuel shipments onto costly American vessels. More than 40% of the gasoline California imported in November was routed through the Caribbean hub, a record high which comes as drivers in the state are paying an average of $4.58 per gallon, the most in the country, according to Bloomberg News. Gasoline refined along the US Gulf Coast — primarily in Texas and Louisiana — is first shipped roughly 1,100 to 1,300 nautical miles to Freeport in the Bahamas, where it is...

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced plans for a $33 billion natural gas-fired power plant in southern Ohio, describing it as the largest gas generation project in U.S. history and a cornerstone of a broader $550 billion investment commitment from Japan. The Ohio facility, to be built near Portsmouth, is part of the first group of projects under a new U.S.-Japan trade agreement aimed at strengthening economic and national security ties between the two countries. Under the agreement, Japan has committed to invest $550 billion in the United States. In exchange, U.S. tariffs on Japanese imports will be reduced to...

When Winter Storm Fern swept across much of the United States in mid-January 2026—bringing snow, ice, and sustained sub-zero temperatures from Texas to New England—millions of Americans braced for power outages. In some areas, those fears were realized. Tennessee alone reported more than 245,000 customer outages at peak conditions. At the same time, natural gas prices spiked dramatically, exceeding $30 per MMBtu at certain constrained delivery points within the PJM Interconnection.Yet despite the severity and duration of the storm, the national electric grid largely held. Hospitals remained open. Emergency services stayed online. Most homes stayed warm. That outcome was not...

(Bloomberg) — US supplies of gasoline are being shipped out of the country to travel thousands of miles via the Bahamas before finally ending up in California, a state battling shrinking fuelmaking capacity and high pump prices. Shipments on the circuitous route are increasing. California imported more gasoline in November than ever before, with more than 40% coming from the Bahamas.

Iran is pursuing a nuclear agreement with the U.S. that delivers economic benefits for both sides, an Iranian diplomat was reported as saying on Sunday, days before a second round of talks between Tehran and Washington. Iran and the U.S. renewed negotiations earlier this month to tackle their decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program and avert a new military confrontation. The U.S. has dispatched a second aircraft carrier to the region and is preparing for the possibility of a sustained military campaign if the talks do not succeed, U.S. officials have told Reuters. “For the sake of an agreement’s durability,...

These are draining times for your bank account at the gas pump. California gas prices have jumped up to 40 cents in two weeks, as refinery closures tighten fuel supplies across the state. The statewide average now stands at $4.582 per gallon, up from $4.463 a week ago and $4.182 just 14 days ago, according to the American Automobile Association. Energy experts say the spike is tied directly to shrinking refinery capacity. Specifically, Valero’s Benicia refinery — a key Northern California supplier — is in the process of idling operations. The move follows other major pullbacks, including Phillips 66’s Los...

Mineral gas deposit of 80.70 billion cubic metres has been confirmed at Bhairabi Rural Municipality-1 of Dailekh district. This is confirmed in the final exploration report submitted to the Government of Nepal by the Chinese Company, China Geological Survey. Spokesperson at the Department of Mines and Geology Dharma Raj Khadka stated that the storage data was released after a comprehensive study by the Chinese team. In the preliminary report made public earlier, it was estimated that there could be 1.12 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the area. He said further testing and the final study have proved larger...