Free Republic

SANTA FE — New Mexico congresswoman Deb Haaland has been tapped as President-elect Joe Biden’s interior secretary, according to The Washington Post and other national news outlets. If confirmed, Haaland, 60, would make history as the nation’s first-ever Native American cabinet secretary and would lead an influential federal agency that oversees more than 500 million acres of public lands and tribal issues. Haaland, who is a Laguna Pueblo member and former San Felipe Pueblo tribal administrator, had been touted as a potential Cabinet pick by many fellow House members and Native American groups. As head of the Interior Department, Haaland...

Embrace the flow, says a duo of mechanical engineers at North Carolina State University—the flow of energy, that is. The mantra you might normally hear from your yoga instructor could be an entirely new way of looking at the universe. 🌌The universe is badass. Let's explore it together. The two theorists, Larry Silverberg and Jeffrey Eischen, suggest that fragments of energy, rather than waves or particles, may be the fundamental building blocks of the universe. The bedrock of their theory is the foundational idea that energy is always flowing through space and time. The authors suggest thinking of energy as...

ODESSA, Texas (KOSA) - Innovex Downhole Solutions says it was recently denied an order of jackets by The North Face, a popular outdoor recreation company, because Innovex is an oil and gas business. “I was surprised but not surprised, if that makes sense,” said Innovex CEO Adam Anderson. Innovex is based in Houston and has nearly 100 workers in the Permian Basin. Each year, the company gets a Christmas gift for its employees. This year, it was supposed to be a North Face jacket with an Innovex logo, a company Innovex has ordered gear from in the past. The company...

Donald Trump embraced coal during his 2016 campaign. The crowd at a Charleston rally four years ago broke into wild applause when he told them, “I’m thinking about miners all over this country. We’re gonna put the miners back to work. We’re gonna get those mines opened.” It has not worked out that way. In fact, employment and production are levels are behind where they were when he took office. We will get to the reasons for that in a moment. But first, the Trump administration has tried to lend a helping hand to coal. Taylor Kuykendall, energy and mining...

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday that electricity consumption will double if the world’s car fleets are electrified, increasing the need to expand nuclear, solar, geothermal and wind energy generating sources. Increasing the availability of sustainable energy is a major challenge as cars move from combustion engines to battery-driven electric motors, a shift which will take two decades, Musk said in a talk hosted by Berlin-based publisher Axel Springer. There’s no unicorn energy source or free lunch. Currently, electric cars are primarily powered by coal, natural gas, and nuclear. Those are the sources we use to generate electricity,...

THE HAGUE - A group of environmental organizations backed by thousands of Dutch citizens launched a civil case Tuesday against the energy giant Shell, asking a court to order the multinational to commit to reining in its carbon emissions 45% by the year 2030. Lawyer Roger Cox told a panel of three judges at The Hague Court that Shell’s corporate policy is “at odds” with global climate goals. “The claimants therefore conclude that Royal Dutch Shell’s corporate policy is on collision course with global climate targets,” Cox said as he opened four days of hearings spread over the coming weeks....

WASHINGTON - President-elect Joe Biden’s promise to end U.S. fossil fuel subsidies worth billions of dollars a year for drillers and miners could be hard to keep due to resistance from lawmakers in a narrowly divided Congress, including from within his own party. The challenge reflects just one of the obstacles that Biden will need to overcome as he seeks to usher in sweeping measures to combat climate change and transform the nation’s economy to net-zero emissions within three decades. Biden has said axing fossil fuel subsidies will generate money to help pay for his broader $2 trillion climate plan....

We have all heard on the media and on TV that solar and wind electrical energy is getting cheaper, and often much cheaper than that generated by coal, gas, oil, or nuclear. Here are some recent article titles: "Solar and wind costs continue to fall as power becomes cleaner," Forbes, April 30, 2020 "Solar power will cost less than coal, Bloomberg Green, June 2, 2020; Solar and wind power will cost less than coal by 2030 according to one analyst's math," Barrons, Energy Features, Nov 25, 2019 However, there are enormous scientific, technical, and economic barriers that these "new" energy...

LANSING, MI -- Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is shutting down Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline, citing multiple violations by the company of the 1953 easement with the state, along with a duty to protect the Great Lakes. Enbridge now has until May 2021 to stop the flow of oil and natural gas through the Great Lakes, according to a statement from Whitmer. “Here in Michigan, the Great Lakes define our borders, but they also define who we are as people,” Whitmer said in a statement. “Enbridge has routinely refused to take action to protect our Great Lakes and the millions of Americans...

First Energy, one of the region’s most prominent energy suppliers, today announced a pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The company also set an interim goal of 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gases within the company’s direct operational control by 2030, based on 2019 levels. First Energy is a major source for power customers in West Virginia through Monongahela Power Company, commonly called Mon Power, and Potomac Edison Company. There are 986,800 people in First Energy’s service territory in West Virginia. Electric power is provided to FirstEnergy’s West Virginia service area by: Potomac Edison Company Monongahela Power Company (Mon...

Many industries use heat-intensive processes that generally require the burning of fossil fuels, but a surprising green fuel alternative is emerging in the form of metal powders. Ground very fine, cheap iron powder burns readily at high temperatures, releasing energy as it oxidizes in a process that emits no carbon and produces easily collectable rust, or iron oxide, as its only emission.

Schematic depiction of the asymmetric supercapacitor with the porous COF as the negative electrode shown on the left. Credit: KAUST, Osama Shekhah ========================================================================= Carefully designed covalent organic frameworks could make supercapacitor electrodes that have a greater ability to store electric charge. A porous organic material created at KAUST could significantly improve energy storage and delivery by supercapacitors, which are devices that are able to deliver quick and powerful bursts of energy. Supercapacitors use technology that is significantly different from the reversible chemical reactions used in rechargeable batteries. They store electrical energy by building up a separation of positive and electric...

President Donald Trump on Saturday announced the signing of an executive order to protect both the fracking and oil and gas industries following former Vice President Joe Biden’s pledge to “transition from the oil industry.” “Just signed an order to protect fracking and the oil and gas industry,” the president wrote on Twitter. “This means JOBS, low energy bills, and continued AMERICAN ENERGY INDEPENDENCE! Sleepy Joe would BAN fracking and destroy American energy jobs! He has NO clue!!” Just signed an order to protect fracking and the oil and gas industry. This means JOBS, low energy bills, and continued AMERICAN...

Shhhh! Poppy, what were you thinking when you spoke out loud on CNN the very inconvenient truth just days before the election that there would be fewer fracking jobs in a Biden administration? Here's the quote: "One thing that is clear is that there would be fewer fracking jobs under a Biden administration than under another Trump administration." Although it seems improbable that anybody in Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, could now believe Joe Biden's pledge not to ban fracking in that state since there are numerous videos of him in the recent past promising to get rid of fracking, it is...

Biden struggles to cross the finish line VIDEO AT LINK.....................

No excerpt allowed from Bloomberg, story here.

During last Thursday's debate, Joe Biden said his goal as president would be to "transition away from the oil industry." He has also said the future is in cars powered by electricity. Biden would build 500,000 charging stations across the country. It wasn't the first time he attacked the oil and job-producing industry in his worship of the cult of "climate change." According to Energy Information Administration data, petroleum is America's No. 1 source of energy, providing approximately 40 percent of the nation's power needs. Biden claims oil is also a major pollutant. According to the website IQ Air, the...

Joe Biden wants to take one of the great American success stories of the last several decades — and drive it into the ground. He would turn his back on the stupendous wealth represented by proven reserves of oil and gas in this country. Rather than focusing on producing cheap, abundant energy — a key ingredient to human progress through all of human history — he would embark on the fool’s errand of trying to adjust the world’s thermostat 80 years from now. After a 50-year effort to diminish our reliance on Middle Eastern oil, which has miraculously happened at...

The Environmental Protection Agency has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations that U.S. environmental groups have received covert funding from China and Russia. EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler made the request after Rep. Lance Gooden (R., Texas) alleged that left-wing environmental groups—including the Sea Change Foundation, Sunrise Movement, and Sierra Club—have functioned as conduits for "foreign influence, financial involvement, and election interference." Wheeler noted that it is not against the law for a nonprofit to take contributions from foreign entities but nonetheless asked the DOJ to look into whether the groups should register as foreign agents. "Given heightened concerns that...

During the final presidential debate on Thursday, Joe Biden pledged to transition away from fossil fuels. The statement caused alarm for many who are worried about the economic impact of losing the energy industry, and the potential devastation on the labor force. POLL: Did you watch any of the 2020 Presidential Town Halls last night? Following the debate, the campaign and Biden himself "clarified" his comments about the oil industry that drew ire. "By the way, I have a transition from the oil industry, yes," Biden said during the presidential debate in Nashville, Tennessee.