Free Republic

As the Line gigaproject continues to grow in the Saudi desert, some new construction details have been announced that highlight the mind-boggling challenge of turning a huge tract of rugged landscape into a futuristic megacity, including its reported use of one fifth of the entire world's currently available steel.To recap, the Line is the key part of Saudi Arabia's Neom project, which is itself part of a larger push to transform the country's predominantly oil-based economy into a tourism-focused one as fossil fuel use is inevitably reduced in the coming years.The plan is for the Line to eventually have a...

Research led by Burkhard Militzer, University of California Berkeley This false color photograph of Neptune was made from Voyager 2 images taken through three filters: blue, green, and a filter that passes light at a wavelength that is absorbed by methane gas. (Credit: NASA/JPL) In a nutshell Uranus and Neptune have weird, disorganized magnetic fields because their interiors naturally separate into two distinct layers—a flowing water-rich upper layer and a stable hydrocarbon-rich lower layer. Using advanced simulations of 540 atoms under extreme pressure and temperature, Berkeley physicist Burkhard Militzer discovered that planetary ices (water, methane, and ammonia) spontaneously separate rather...

An artistic representation of Chiron’s nucleus surrounded by debris and a coma of dust and gas. Credit: William Gonzalez Sierra UCF researchers utilized the James Webb Space Telescope to uncover unique characteristics of (2060) Chiron, a distant “centaur” that exhibits traits of both a comet and an asteroid. These findings provide valuable insights into the origins of our Solar System. Although our Solar System is billions of years old, we’ve only recently gained deeper insight into one of its most dynamic and intriguing members: (2060) Chiron. Chiron belongs to a group of celestial objects known as “Centaurs.” These objects orbit...

Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life is one of cinema’s most enduring classics, a sentimental yet profound exploration of how one person’s contributions ripple through a community. The story’s alternate timeline, where George Bailey never existed, paints a grim picture of what life would be like without his sacrifices. Inspired by this tale, let’s imagine an alternate reality of a different sort—a world where fossil fuels never existed. Could we, like George’s Bedford Falls, find ourselves in a global Pottersville? Let’s explore how the absence of fossil fuels might affect the very fabric of our lives, from economic systems to...

Roughly 10 years after California tried and failed to ban plastic bags at grocery stores, state lawmakers have passed a law that they say will forever end the choice of "paper or plastic" in checkout lanes. “Instead of being asked do you want paper or plastic at checkout, consumers will simply be asked if they want a paper bag,” said state Sen. Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas). “This easy change eliminates plastic bags from the point of sale and helps California significantly reduce the plastic waste that is contaminating our environment and waters.”

When are we going to run out of energy? You don’t hear that as much as you used to, since Those Who Know Best are working to plug up all our energy sources anyway. Most energy sources put out carbon dioxide, and that’s going to make all the plants grow and devour us all, or it will heat the planet up and make Minneapolis a desert — and we’ll all fry. Or something. But we don’t hear much any more about running out of energy. What do the experts say about it? “According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA)...

Scientists have solved a decades-long mystery of a red glow that permeates our Milky Way Galaxy and other galaxies. The red glow is most prominent in a strange, dying star called the Red Rectangle, named for the bizarre structure that surrounds it. The red light, astronomers now say, radiates from invisibly small clusters of dust that are now believed to glow because of newly described molecular forces that oppose each other on very small scales. The glow, called the Extended Red Emission (conveniently ERE for short) has been known but inexplicable for more than 30 years. Researchers suspected carbon-rich molecules...

Explanation: Why would the surface of Titan light up with a blinding flash? The reason: a sunglint from liquid seas. Saturn's moon Titan has numerous smooth lakes of methane that, when the angle is right, reflect sunlight as if they were mirrors. Pictured here in false-color, the robotic Cassini spacecraft that orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017 imaged the cloud-covered Titan in 2014 in different bands of cloud-piercing infrared light. This specular reflection was so bright it saturated one of Cassini's infrared cameras. Although the sunglint was annoying -- it was also useful. The reflecting regions confirm that northern Titan...

Norway’s revenues from oil and gas production hit a record high this year and are showing no signs of slowing down Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre believes that a total end to oil exploration and production would harm the transition to renewable alternatives in a world still so reliant on oil and gas. He stated, "If we were to say from one day to the other that we close down production from the Norwegian shelf, I believe that would put a stop to an industrial transition that is needed to succeed in the momentum towards net zero . ....

Announced today, Apple's program is designed to store some 240 megawatt-hours of energy — enough to power more than 7,000 homes for a day — at the company's 130-megawatt California Flats solar farm. The project is being hailed by the tech giant as one of the largest battery projects in the country.According to documents filed with the Monterey County Board of Supervisors in 2020, and unearthed by The Verge, Apple plans to use 85 Tesla lithium-ion Megapacks as part of the initiative. Some of the energy stored in the batteries will reportedly be used to power Apple Park in...

Just last week Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg floated a funding idea for President Biden’s upcoming multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure bill that would hit poor and middle-class Americans that hardest. Buttigieg suggested a mileage tax, which is based on what he called the “user pays principle—the idea that part of how we pay for roads is you pay based on how much you drive.” Drivers would thus be hit with this tax in addition to facing steadily climbing gas prices since President Biden took office. Now, however, he’s walking back that suggestion. In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday, the former...

Joe Biden's Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has caused outrage among voters by touting a plan to tax Americans for every mile they drive. The Biden administration is considering taxing motorists by the mile to fund their $3 trillion climate-friendly "green" infrastructure plans.

WASHINGTON (DTN) -- Crude and refined products futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange reversed higher in early trade Wednesday, with the international benchmark trading as much as 2% higher amid reports a massive Evergreen container ship ran aground in the Suez Canal, choking off passage through one of the world's busiest arteries for oil transit. The 200,000-tonne vessel en route from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean suffered an extensive blackout early Wednesday, causing the ship to turn sideways in the middle of the critical corridor for global oil trade, blocking both...

The IEA said daily gasoline demand dropped by a record 2.9 million barrels in 2020, down more than 10% from the previous year.The world's thirst for gasoline isn't likely to return to pre-pandemic levels, the International Energy Agency forecast, calling a peak for the fuel that has powered personal transportation for more than a century.The Paris-based energy watchdog, in its closely followed five-year forecast, said an accelerating global shift toward electric vehicles, along with increasing fuel efficiency among gasoline-powered fleets, will more than outweigh demand growth from countries in the developing world.The forecast comes as auto makers have pivoted recently...

Anticipated federal policy changes to oil and gas leasing and permitting on federal lands “could shift oil production, prompting a realignment of Permian Basin activity between Texas and New Mexico,” a new report by the Dallas Fed says. The Permian Basin is the world’s largest shale oil and gas field, located in the Dallas Fed’s Eleventh District service area, straddling the Texas-New Mexican borders. On the New Mexico side, half of the oil and gas produced in the Permian Basin occurs on federal land. On average, even during the state’s shutdown in 2020, the state produced 1 million barrels of...

It contended that such an increase in prices at the pump could lead the national average to rise to $2.65 to $2.75 per gallon—the highest prices seen since 2019 and the highest seasonal prices in more than five years. More than forty states are already seeing gas prices higher than last year, with half seeing double-digit increases. “The quicker the affected refineries are able to come back online, the better, and perhaps less painful for motorists than if they remain out of service for even longer,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said in a statement, adding...

Last weekend President Trump vowed to travel to Alaska and campaign against Lisa Murkowski in her reelection bid. On Thursday Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) went to Mar-a-lago to beg President Trump to support dead weight Lisa Murkowski. Trump reportedly would not budge on opposing the worthless Murkowski.

The U.S. oil and gas business is already in a modest boom, and the Biden Administration will be powerless to stop it from growing. Here’s an excerpt from a piece I wrote yesterday: The history of the oil and gas business in the United States is that every time the “experts” all line up to declare it to be dead, it finds a way to come roaring back. This scenario has played itself out at least half a dozen times across my own 42-year career in the business or writing about it. Well, guess what: It appears to be happening...

While the West wages war on coal, hydro-carbons power China’s industrial and military might. China uses massive amounts of coal to generate electricity, smelt metals, and manufacture cement -- they generate almost twice as much electricity as the USA, and two thirds of that is coal-powered. In China, wind power is a token 5% (probably earning carbon offsets from western shysters). But the stop-start power from wind/solar is not allowed to interrupt reliable base-load generators like coal. In Australia, wind and solar are promoted, protected and subsidized. Their variable output requires quick-start electricity from gas, hydro or batteries to maintain...

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.