Free Republic

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed an internal combustion engine that emits less than half the CO2 compared to a regular engine without compromising performance. This corresponds to fuel consumption of less than 2.4 l per 100 km. This natural gas-diesel hybrid engine is based on a system of sophisticated control engineering.The global energy markets are changing. New extraction methods are tapping into oilfields and natural gas deposits that have been inaccessible until now. The US, for example, is able to cover up to 83% of its total energy needs today; the government is even planning to increase exports...

The Federal Election Commission is examining whether dozens of political action committees and individuals contributed more than the legally allowed amount to House Speaker John Boehner during last year's election cycle. Letters the Federal Election Committee sent Monday to Friends of John Boehner indicated that donors including coal, energy, and gambling interests, exceeded contribution limits to Boehner's committee by more than $150,000.

You better at least get ready. There’s a buzz being fed. Warren gave a speech to the AFL-CIO today, and the “draft Warren” talk is starting. Elizabeth Warren is totally wowing @AFLCIO convention, Wonder if she'll enter the race if Hillary, for some reason, doesn't run. #AFLCIO13— Steven Greenhouse (@greenhousenyt) September 8, 2013 @greenhousenyt Outstanding speech. I would not be surprised at all if Draft Warren groups sprung up in Iowa, New Hampshire. — Mike Conrad (@mikeconrad1) September 8, 2013 @greenhousenyt @AFLCIO DEAR GOD YES, PLEASE, YES, OMG, THAT'S WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN #DRAFTSENWARREN (sorry for the caps!) — Organize...

OTTAWA--Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has told U.S. President Barack Obama that he's ready to work on joint plan between the two countries to reduce carbon emissions in the energy sector in an effort to secure approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday. The CBC, citing unnamed sources, said Mr. Harper wrote to Mr. Obama in late August, signaling he is ready to accept carbon-reduction targets proposed by the U.S. and prepared to work with the White House to address concerns raised about Keystone and its impact on greenhouse-gas emissions. A spokesman for Mr....

Today is a great day not only in Australian history, but also in world history. It marks the day when people of character and sensibility pushed back against an overwrought and pointless green agenda, and pushed back in a big way. They’ve had enough, and they’ve scraped the Krudd off their shoes and are moving forward. Tony Abbot has won the Australian election in a landslide, and vows to abolish the carbon tax as a first order of business. Abbott has declared Australia is “once more open for business” in claiming victory in Saturday’s election. It is a huge blow...

Today is a great day not only in Australian history, but also in world history. It marks the day when people of character and sensibility pushed back against an overwrought and pointless green agenda, and pushed back in a big way. They’ve had enough, and they’ve scraped the Krudd off their shoes and are moving forward. Tony Abbot has won the Australian election in a landslide, and vows to abolish the carbon tax as a first order of business. Abbott has declared Australia is “once more open for business” in claiming victory in Saturday’s election. It is a huge blow...

Reactions ranged from begrudging acceptance to outrage at a European Parliament event last night discussing an offer made by the EU yesterday (4 September) to back down on its insistence on including aviation emissions in its emissions trading scheme (ETS). EU negotiators offered to limit the ETS scope during a high-level meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) yesterday. In exchange, the ICAO council agreed to a draft text in which they pledge to work toward reaching a global deal to reduce aviation emissions by 2016. The 2016 deal would commit to starting, by 2020, one of three mechanisms...

THE federal Liberal-National coalition is likely to govern with a majority of at least 30 seats after a swing of just over three per cent against Labor. The ALP has become the first two-term federal government to be thrown out of office since Gough Whitlam's regime in 1975. Tony Abbott's coalition is on track to pick up 90 seats, with Labor holding 57, in the 150-seat parliament, but it won't have a majority in the Senate.

The ruling Labor Party’s probable collapse in Australia’s next election is largely the consequence of its qualified success in the last one three years ago. To form the coalition she needed to stay in power, then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard reneged on a promise and agreed to place a carbon tax on major polluters. On Saturday, the bill for that bargain comes due. Voters have never stopped hating the tax and its effect on their electric bills. Longtime Labor Party supporters—even people who have helped cut pollution by installing solar panels at home—have flocked to the opposition. … Opposition leader Tony...

The cut struck a dozen of the South American country's 24 states and caused traffic chaos in parts of Caracas and other cities. The OPEC nation's oil refineries, which are powered by separate generator plants, were not affected. A senior Venezuelan Energy Ministry official said a fault occurred in one of the national grid's major transmission lines, which caused power cuts in the west and center of the country. "It's going to take several hours to restart the generation plants so we can restore national service," Franco Silva, vice minister of electricity development, told state television. President Nicolas Maduro said...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I would not reject the possibility here that Bashar Assad's being framed. By the way, I've got no brief for the guy. He's not a friend of mine and I'm not particularly interested in this guy maintaining power or what have you. But I'll tell you, it is clear to me what our foreign policy is in the Middle East. It's just like Jimmy Carter -- we got rid of the Shah. He was a dictator but he was a stabilizing dictator. And, by the way, some of you might say, "Rush, what do you mean we're...

Libya is facing its most critical moment since the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi with armed groups blockading oil fields and terminals, choking output to a 10th of normal levels and threatening economic disaster. With the government forced to import fuel to keep power stations running and queues growing at petrol stations, the prime minister, Ali Zaidan, has repeatedly threatened to send troops to retake striking ports. But the leader of rebels blockading ports in Cyrenaica, home to the bulk of Libya's oil, said such a move would be tantamount to a "declaration of war". Ibrahim Ali Jathran, commander of troops...

This liberal now opposes Obama As a liberal who voted twice for Obama, I have now reached a point of opposition to him. One of my reasons is a resentment of his having played the race card too many times. The result is that his presidency is hurting race relations. Another of my reasons is that he shows no knowledge of how to create jobs for minorities or anyone else, but he knew how to bail out the big banks, and he knew how not to prosecute any of their officials. Also, Obama expanded provisions of the Patriot Act, and...

We stand on the brink of an illegal exercise of military power in a part of the world we have no need to be in, except that we have a president who purposefully keeps us there by suppressing our own development of energy resources and embroiling us in their internecine warfare. We could have walked away from the Middle East already and left them to their own savagery, but the president insists that we remain inextricably tied to their historical need to kill each other so that we can overpay for oil, both monetarily and with American lives. Thus, as...

Climate science alarming, irrefutable: Kerry AFP 3 hours ago US Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday the evidence for climate change was beyond dispute but it was not too late for international action to prevent its worst impacts. "The science is clear. It is irrefutable and it is alarming," Kerry told a climate conference in Majuro in the Marshall Islands in a video address from Washington. "If we continue down our current path, the impacts of climate change will only get worse." Kerry said without strong, immediate action, the world would experience threats to critical infrastructure, regional stability, public...

In a week when we celebrated one of the greatest speeches in history, we also saw discrimination win over science. Again. Ideology defeated reason. As a scientist, I was saddened in a way I am not usually wont. The Great State of Vermont threw away cheap clean energy this week out of ignorance and fear. Vermont chose to be stupid, and will hurt the environment as a sidebar.

DIRGIN, Texas (AP) — Ida Finley smiles wistfully, recalling how she used to cook for an entire East Texas community — nearly all descendants of slaves... Now, just weeks from her 102nd birthday, Finley faces the prospect of losing the land worked by her husband and his parents, slaves who toiled for a master. For three years, Luminant Mining Co. has tried to purchase this 9.1-acre plot, which is currently owned by a bevy of relatives spread across the country. The company owns more than 75 percent of the parcel but can't mine it because of a complex inheritance arrangement...

Energy is a super-resource. It is beneficial to several targeted economic problems and may even help some political conditions. The qualities of energy make it a special category of elements found in nature: a super-resource.Berries, broccoli, and beans are all considered superfoods which are defined as a special category of foods found in nature; a food that is considered to be beneficial to your health and that may even help some medical conditions. They pack a lot of punch.Oil, natural gas and coal, are all super-resources. They are found in nature. They pack a lot of punch. They are beneficial...

Five years of the Obama presidency have produced nothing but economic "roadblocks" that inhibit growth and job creation, Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., charged in the weekly Republican address on Saturday. He accused the Obama administration of "choking the engines of our economy," singling out the health-care reform law, the administration's energy policy and the government's excessive taxing and spending as areas of particular concern. Republicans have a better plan to "simplify the tax code" and "eliminate excessive regulations," Fitzpatrick said, touting a GOP jobs plan that would break down "the government roadblocks that are hurting our economy." "People want Congress...

Former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich told a meeting of the Republican National Committee that his party needs to move beyond its image of steadfast opposition to President Barack Obama and convince voters its goal is to improve the country. “We have to get beyond being anti-Obama and we have to convince people you can have hope in America,” Gingrich said on Wednesday. “What we have to do, in a sense, is be a party of optimism and a party of hope and show actual cases of how it can work.” Speaking at a Boston hotel adjacent to where Republican...