Free Republic

A state lawmaker said Friday he wants to reclaim Utah's lands and resources from the federal government so the public can use them for recreation and energy development. Rep. Michael Noel, R-Kanab, said he's declaring another Sagebrush Rebellion. The original Sagebrush Rebellion took place in the 1970s and 1980s, when a coalition of mining and grazing interests pressured federal policy makers to cede greater control of federal lands to state and local authorities. Noel said that Utah can "take care of itself," and that the federal government shouldn't be allowed to regulate what the state can do with its own...

Colorado lawmakers claim state withheld budget figures on enforcing oil, gas regulations . The Department of Natural Resources told Colorado lawmakers in 2007 that developing state oil and gas regulations could cost less than $7,000 the first year, while an internal department estimate put the cost of implementing the regulations at more than $1 million... "This is a major breach of trust," said McNulty, who said he was assured by state budget officials last year that any initial enforcement of new oil and gas regulations would not require a substantial increase in state spending. "We have rules on how we...

A senior official with the International Monetary Fund expressed concern over the Democratic Republic of Congo's levels of debt to China, in a report released Wednesday after a 18-day visit here.

OTTAWA: Canada is stepping up its military alertness along its northern frontier in response to Russia’s “testing” of its boundaries and recent Arctic grab, the prime minister said yesterday. “We are concerned about not just Russia’s claims through the international process, but Russia’s testing of Canadian airspace and other indications ... (of) some desire to work outside of the international framework,” said Prime Minister Stephen Harper. “That is obviously why we are taking a range of measures, including military measures, to strengthen our sovereignty in the North,” he said, highlighting a new sensor net, navy patrols and a military training...

It was a tiny entry in the Aug. 17 online edition of People’s Daily, China’s most influential newspaper. The headline read, “East China port does booming trade with Africa.” The port in question was Longkou, in bustling Shandong Province, which is preparing to launch two additional ocean carrier routes to Africa later this year. In the past seven months, the article quoted Shandong Provincial Bureau of Port Shipping Services as saying that 41 ships carrying cement and “sundry goods” — machinery, electronics, chemicals, textiles, garments and leather products, all of which are manufactured in Shandong — left the port bound...

Just one paragraph tucked toward the end of a column. But Judith Warner's words offer a revealing insight into how liberals view economics and the world. In the lefty mindset, making it isn't a matter of doing or making something of value. It comes down instead to contriving to get a piece of the action, a share of the wealth that some undefined other has created in some undescribed way. The gist of Warner's column, Compassion Deficit Disorder, is that Americans have become increasingly cranky and suspicious of how others are gaming the system. She cites Michael Savage's accusations that...

China is preparing to move into Africa on a scale that far outstrips its acquisitions on the continent to date, according to the South African bank that is laying the groundwork.

CONAKRY, July 31 (Reuters) - Guinea and China are discussing a deal which could see billions of dollars of Chinese investment in return for mining rights in the West African country, which has a third of the world's bauxite, a Guinean minister said. A delegation including officials from the Chinese Development Bank recently spent a week in Guinea and is due to discuss a range of investment projects with state and private sector investors back in China, he said. "The first phase has just happened in Guinea. A mission is expected to go to Beijing in the next few months...

China is readying to move into Africa on a scale that far outstrips its acquisitions on the continent to date, according to the South African bank that is laying the groundwork. High-level groups of bankers from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Standard Bank, respectively China and Africa's biggest banks, are examining potential targets in Africa's oil and gas, telecommunications, base metals and power sectors, executives at the Johannesburg-based lender told the Financial Times.

Buying into 'the petroleum for the next century' ROB CARRICK Friday, June 13, 2008 Looking to jump into an investment in a scarce resource with lots of upside potential? There's a clear case to be made for water. Oil and gas, metals and fertilizers and food are still going strong, while investors have only recently started to talk about water. And yet, water has much the same imbalance between supply and demand as traditional resources. The investment dealer Goldman Sachs recently described water as the “the petroleum for the next century.” Mutual funds and exchange-traded funds focusing on water have...

China consumes more than double what its natural resources can supply... China uses 15 percent of the world's total biological capacity—resources such as water, land and timber... "In the next 10 to 20 years, China's consumption will likely continue to pose threats to China's own ecosystems and place increasing pressures on global biocapacity," Water and electricity are priced below their market value in China, causing it to be inefficiently used ...

A survey of onshore oil and gas resources show public lands contain 31 billion barrels of oil and 231 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, but not all of it is available for development - something the Bush administration would like to change, according to a new report. The so-called Phase III inventory, ordered up as part of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, and released today by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, looks at the potential for energy development, as well as development's obstacles.

The classic definition of socialism is: government control of the sources of production. A bill now before Congress, H.R. 2421, will give the federal government absolute control over all sources of production. This bill, if enacted, will instantly convert the United States into a socialist nation. The debate, however, is not about the merits of socialism over capitalism and free markets; the debate is about water. The bill will give to the federal government control over all water in the United States, and control over all "… activities affecting these waters." Water is essential in the production of virtually everything....

Is this the beginning of water wars? 18:00 11 April 2008 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic As Barcelona runs out of water, Spain has been forced to consider importing water from France by boat. It is the latest example of the growing struggle for water around the world – the "water wars". Barcelona and the surrounding region are suffering the worst drought in decades. There are several possible solutions, including diverting a river, and desalinating water. But the city looks like it will ship water from the French port of Marseilles. The water services authority in Marseille say that no...

Afghanistan is sitting on a wealth of mineral reserves -- perhaps the richest in the region -- that offer hope for a country mired in poverty after decades of war, the mining minister says. Significant deposits of copper, iron, gold, oil and gas, and coal -- as well as precious gems such as emeralds and rubies -- are largely untapped and still being mapped, Mohammad Ibrahim Adel told AFP. And they promise prosperity for one of the world's poorest countries, the minister said, dismissing concerns that a Taliban-led insurgency may thwart efforts to unearth this treasure. Already in the pipeline...

LOS LUNAS, N.Y., Aug. 7 (UPI) -- A waste digester that can separate water from cow manure on a farm in New Mexico is believed to be the first of its kind aimed at restoring clean water. The Raymond L. Jarrett farm, which has 400 cows in Los Lunas, has been awarded $64,686 to treat the cows’ wastewater and reuse it to irrigate fields and recharge aquifers, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported Tuesday. The digester is one eight projects sharing $274,000 in grants from the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service. The other projects include a portable windmill and wireless...

The Western World's dependence on flush toilets could be its environmental downfall. Toilets that use less water, such as the "squat toilet" in which one squats over a hole in the ground, are prevalent in parts of Asia, Europe and Africa, but a new historical study suggests that after decades of flushing, it will take radical innovations for the mainstream West to adopt any new system. "Most people can hardly imagine that other ways of handling human waste have ever existed," said study author Maj-Britt Quitzau, an environmental sociologist with the National Environmental Research Institute of Denmark. "But actually, systems...

I've been in Las Vegas this week for an American Membrane Technology Association desalination conference. I'll leave today for home haunts in Mclean, VA. Flying in on Monday from the east coast the old desert valleys of western Utah and Nevada look like old dead lakes. Come to think of it -- they are old dead lakes. Except there's a blue tangle of finger lakes among the carved brown mountains to the south. These mark Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Man made lakes. Both are now half full. There was a legislative breakfast on Wednesday morning. On the panel for...

HUMANS are just one of the millions of species on Earth, but we use up almost a quarter of the sun's energy captured by plants - the most of any species. The human dominance of this natural resource is affecting other species, reducing the amount of energy available to them by almost 10 per cent, scientists report. Researchers said the findings showed humans were using "a remarkable share" of the earth's plant productivity "to meet the needs and wants of one species". They also warned that the increased use of biofuels - such as ethanol and canola - should be...

Prince Charles launched his 'green revolution' with a stark warning that we are all 'living on borrowed time' if we don't stop eating up the world's resources. In a forthright speech in front of leading figures, including Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Prince said: 'We are consuming the resources of our planet at such a rate that we are, in effect, living off credit and living on borrowed time. 'It is our children and grandchildren who will have to pay off this debt and we owe it to them and ourselves to do something about it before it is too...