Free Republic

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...

Poland and Norway opened a new gas pipeline via Denmark on Tuesday, hailed as a much-needed alternative to Russian-controlled routes. At a ceremony in Poland, Norway’s Energy Minister Terje Aasland said the opening of Baltic Pipe was “a milestone on the important path towards European independence”... Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said it “marks a crucial geopolitical step for all of us.” “Putin uses Russian energy as a weapon to destabilise Europe, to divide us. He cannot be allowed to succeed,” Ms Frederiksen said, referring to the Russian president. Poland, one of the fiercest advocates in Europe of isolating Moscow,...

CHICAGO -- At least 30 people have been shot, four fatally, in shootings across Chicago since Friday night, police said. After being struck by a car Friday evening while riding a scooter in South Shore, a man tried to run but was gunned down by an occupant of the Hyundai Sonata that collided with him, Chicago police said. Two men were shot, one fatally, near a CTA Red Line stop on the Near South Side early Saturday morning, police said. A person was found shot to death inside a car early Sunday in Englewood on the South Side. The person...

Blue Origin launched its 23rd New Shepard rocket mission this morning, featuring science payloads designed for experimentation. The mission needed early, however, after it was aborted during the first ascent stage of the rocket, prompting the abort process to take over and firing the parachutes on the capsule, which drifted back to Earth shortly after take-off. This was not a crewed mission, so there was no one on board the capsule, though it is the same vehicle that the company uses for its private spaceflight tourist missions. This marks the first time ever that Blue Origin has encountered a problem...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos oil company acknowledged Thursday it released a huge plume of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, in the Gulf of Mexico late last year. A report published in June by Spanish university researchers in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters estimated that the leak contained about 40,000 tons of methane. The article estimated that would be equivalent to releasing about 3.3 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The gas release came in December when one of the company’s oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico stopped flaring, or burning off...

More than two dozen environmental organizations petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to ban the use of natural gas for home heating nationwide, arguing the federal agency must regulate “deadly pollution from heating appliances.” The petition, sponsored by the Sierra Club, claims fossil fuel-fired home furnaces, water heaters, clothes dryers and stoves emit enough nitrogen dioxide (NOx) and carbon dioxide (CO2) that they must be classified as “new stationary sources” of air pollutants, placing them in the same regulatory regime as power plants and factories. The petition resembles – but goes beyond Gov. Jared Polis’ Greenhouse Gas Roadmap for a clean...

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said that targets set by the government for the filling of gas storage facilities had been reached ahead of schedule, staving off the worst fears of severe gas shortages this winter. "The reservoirs are filling up quicker than planned," he told German magazine Der Spiegel according to a report published on Sunday. The government target of reaching 85% storage capacity by October could be achieved by the beginning of September, according to Habeck's ministry. Germany is currently trying to secure alternative sources of gas to prevent an acute shortage during the cold winter months, as...

NEW YORK (AP) — As winter nears, European nations, desperate to replace the natural gas they once bought from Russia, have embraced a short-term fix: A series of roughly 20 floating terminals that would receive liquefied natural gas from other countries and convert it into heating fuel. Yet the plan, with the first floating terminals set to deliver natural gas by year’s end, has raised alarms among scientists who fear the long-term consequences for the environment. Some scientists say they worry that the floating terminals will end up becoming a long-term supplier of Europe’s vast energy needs that could last...

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose relations with Israel are an unsteady whirligig, up, down, and around and where it will stop nobody knows – has now let loose with a barrage of criticism against Israel for its just-completed Operation Breaking Dawn. This comes after many months when Erdogan had been reaching out to Jerusalem, in the hope both of establishing an agreement with the Jewish state on gas fields and maritime economic zones in the eastern Mediterranean, and on promoting Turkey as a way-station for Israeli natural gas being sent to Europe. During that honeymoon, Erdogan hosted Israeli President Isaac Herzog,...

Environmental Protection Agency says it will conduct helicopter overflights to look for methane “super emitters” in the nation's largest oil and gas producing region. EPA's Region 6 headquarters in Dallas, Texas, issued a news release about a new enforcement effort in the Permian Basin on Monday, saying the flights would occur within the next two weeks.The announcement came four days after The Associated Press published an investigation that showed 533 oil and gas facilities in the region are emitting excessive amounts of methane and named the companies most responsible. Colorless and odorless, methane is a potent greenhouse gas that traps...

Industrial-scale agriculture has changed the make up of our atmosphere. So "exofarms" ought to be visible on Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. One of the key developments separating modern civilization from the hunter gatherer societies of the past is the invention of farming, which took place about 10,000 years ago. This began with the cultivation of wild plants and the domestication of various animals for dairy products and meat. The big advantage of farming is that it sustains a much larger population than hunting and gathering. This led to the emergence of cities, the sharing of natural resources and of...

Israel and Egypt will aim to boost natural gas exports to Europe under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on Wednesday as the continent looks to replace Russian energy imports. The framework deal signed with the European Union (EU) will be the first to allow "significant" exports of Israeli gas to Europe, Israel's energy ministry said.

Possibly the world’s biggest leak of methane has been discovered coming from a coalmine in Russia, which has been pouring out the carbon dioxide equivalent of five coal-fired power stations. About 90 tonnes an hour of methane were being released from the mine in January, when the gas was first traced to its source, according to data from GHGSat, a commercial satellite monitoring company based in Canada. Sustained over the course of a year, this would produce enough natural gas to power 2.4m homes. More recently, the mine appears to be leaking at a lower rate, of about a third...

The climate-damaging greenhouse gas methane has risen at a record pace worldwide in the past year. It is produced to a large extent in agriculture by the fermentation of feed. In New Zealand, a major agricultural exporter, the sector will soon pay for emissions. The farmers are not averse at all, in the sense of the climate. The draft of the project was published on Wednesday. A price for agricultural emissions is to be set in order to curb the large source of climate-impacting greenhouse gases. New Zealand would thus be the first country in which farmers have to pay...

President Joe Biden should do an ad for his energy policies ala Game of Thrones, “Bundle up! Winter is Coming!” Since Biden was installed as President in January 2021, natural gas futures prices are UP 216% and heating oil is up 199%. The average price of home electricity has SOARED under Biden, as has the prices of many things. Fortunately for Biden and Congress, they live in well-heated (and air-conditioned) digs in the DC area and are not exposed to the damage done by Biden’s executive orders on energy.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Satellites have detected methane emissions from belching cows at a California feedlot, marking the first time emissions from livestock - a major component of agricultural methane - could be measured from space. Environmental data firm GHGSat this month analyzed data from its satellites and pinpointed the methane source from a feedlot in the agricultural Joaquin Valley near Bakersfield, California in February. This is significant, according to GHGSat, because agricultural methane emissions are hard to measure and accurate measurement is needed to set enforceable reduction targets for the beef-production industry. GHGSat said the amount of methane it detected...

A ‘sharp recession’ lies ahead for Germany should it be cut off from the Russian gas it is so badly addicted to. Germany’s energy situation does not appear to be getting any better, with a recently released report suggesting that the country would fall into a “sharp recession” should it suddenly lose access to Russian gas. While Europe as a whole appears keen to implement harsh embargos on Russian energy imports, Germany’s chronic addiction to Russian gas has put a wrench in such works, with authorities in the country having expressed disbelief as to how the addiction issue was ever...

Diggings related to construction of a gas pipeline from Iran to Armenia has partially destroyed remains of the oldest city called "Dragon Stone" (Azhdaha Dashi) in East Azerbaijan province of Iran. "Dragon Stone" includes ruins of an ancient city built 1000 years before Christ and is located at 40 kilometers east of Andarjan village of Varzighan county... "Dragon Stone" was declared a historic site and a protected area... However, Iran's gas company has started digging in the area despite the declaration... The representative of Cultural Heritage and Tourism office has added that studies of the 3000 year old "Dragon Stone"...

DOHA, Qatar—This tiny Persian Gulf kingdom is emerging as one of Europe’s best hopes for weaning itself off Russian natural gas, in another sign of how the war in Ukraine is changing the world’s energy relationships. Germany, France, Belgium and Italy are in talks with Qatar to buy liquefied natural gas on a long-term basis, said Qatari and European officials. Germany’s Economy Minister Robert Habeck flew to Qatar this month to announce an energy partnership and a commitment to build his country’s first-ever terminal to receive shipments of liquefied natural gas from Qatar and other gas producers. ... Qatar is...

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...