Free Republic

The Supreme Court unanimously decided on Thursday to limit environmental reviews for major infrastructure projects in a case that will have sweeping impacts on President Donald Trump’s energy agenda. In a move that will restrict power of federal judges, Thursday’s decision reduces the scope of reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to focus solely on immediate impacts. Under NEPA, federal agencies are required to study any potentially significant environmental consequences of federal permits for infrastructure projects. “NEPA does not allow courts, ‘under the guise of judicial review’ of agency compliance with NEPA, to delay or block agency projects...

BATA, Equatorial Guinea—Classified American intelligence reports suggest China intends to establish its first permanent military presence on the Atlantic Ocean in the tiny Central African country of Equatorial Guinea, according to U.S. officials. The officials declined to describe details of the secret intelligence findings. But they said the reports raise the prospect that Chinese warships would be able to rearm and refit opposite the East Coast of the U.S.—a threat that is setting off alarm bells at the White House and Pentagon. Principal deputy U.S. national security adviser Jon Finer visited Equatorial Guinea in October on a mission to persuade...

Despite the dire predictions of peak oil demand, which will is expected to arrive during the next decade as the world transitions to a low-carbon economy, international energy companies are investing heavily in fossil fuel exploration and production. One region which has caught the world by surprise and is attracting significant attention is the Guyana-Suriname Basin. A swathe of world-class discoveries by ExxonMobil in offshore Guyana sparked considerable interest in the Guyana-Suriname Basin, which after poor drilling results during the 1960s and 1970s saw it largely ignored by energy companies. Recent discoveries with estimated recoverable oil resources of more than...

The recent appointment and ultimate withdrawal of Chas Freeman to head the National Intelligence Council has exposed much that is wrong with President Barack Obama’s first months in office, both in terms of policy and vetting, as well as the media coverage surrounding both. Many of Obama’s supporters said it was unfair to criticize Obama’s associations with people like the unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers and the anti-Semitic preacher of hate, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and called it guilt by association. It is now becoming clearer why those sorts of associations matter.On February 26, Chas W. Freeman Jr. was named by...

Here are some examples of wikipedia’s left wing bias that I cited, right before I got permanently banned.By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)January 21, 2025https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1881912002987315297Here are some examples of #wikipedia's left wing bias that I cited, right before I got permanently banned.https://t.co/b98lH3K7ir#MediaBias #Censorship pic.twitter.com/15ZDSpWdBx— Daniel Alman from Squirrel Hill (@DanielAlmanPGH) January 22, 2025https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents&oldid=321538315#Before_you_possibly_ban_me.2C_please_answer_the_following_questionsBefore you possibly ban me, please answer the following questions1) There was talk page consensus to have a single sentence about Van Jones resigning after it was revealed that he was a self described “communist” who blamed the 9-11 attacks on the U.S. government. Why should...

...Under the version of the Build Back Better Act that passed the House last month, new offshore drilling would be permanently prohibited in three major regions: the Atlantic, the Pacific and the eastern Gulf of Mexico... ...Other policies aimed at limiting oil and gas development have inspired fierce partisan divides on Capitol Hill. But coastal lawmakers of both parties have rallied around preventing drilling off their coastlines.. ...Still, the U.S. oil and gas industry has expressed serious concerns about the limitations on offshore drilling... ...Asked yesterday whether he supported royalty hikes, Manchin told reporters: "I think adjustments need to be...

“Louisiana officials say the state’s oil and gas industry is in danger. This comes after President Joe Biden cancelled a March oil lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico. Nearly 80 million acres of available leases would have been sold this week. The damage to Louisiana’s (and the nation’s) oil and gas companies started in January when President Biden signed an executive order banning all new oil and gas leases on public land and waters for 60 days," reports KLFY. Now for the cheering: “Cancelling this huge offshore Gulf oil auction helps protect our climate and life on Earth. President...

Republican Rep. Francis Rooney (Fla.), who this week refused to rule out impeaching President Trump, announced Saturday that he won't seek reelection. Rooney revealed his decision in a Fox News interview. A spokesman for Rooney confirmed to The Hill that the lawmaker won't run for a third-term. "I don't think I really do and I don't think I really want one," Rooney said in the interview when asked if he needed a third term. Rooney said he came to Congress to secure money for Everglades projects and for an offshore drilling ban to protect Florida. "I thought it might take...

A federal judge in Alaska has ruled an executive order by President Donald Trump allowing offshore oil drilling of tens of millions of acres in the Arctic Ocean is "unlawful and invalid." The ruling on Friday from US District Court Judge Sharon Gleason means a drilling ban for much of the Arctic Ocean off of Alaska will go back into effect. On April 28, 2017, Trump issued an executive order reversing three memoranda and one executive order in 2015 and 2016 by then President Barack Obama withdrawing about 125 million acres of the Arctic Ocean from oil leasing. The Obama...

Once again, with Florida's Republican governor, Rick Scott, unfortunately leading the way, unfounded environmental hysteria has greeted the proposed expansion of American energy development by President Trump, opening up formerly restricted offshore areas for exploration and drilling. This is not to say accidents can't and won't happen. Oil trains derail, tankers run aground, and even offshore oil platforms explode. But more oil leaks from cars driving to Florida and in hotel and restaurant parking lots than is likely to wash up on Florida's beaches. It doesn't make sense to worry about the occasional oily duck and ignore domestic resources while...

The Trump administration on Thursday moved to vastly expand offshore drilling from the Atlantic to the Arctic oceans with a plan that would open up federal waters off the California coast for the first time in more than three decades. The new five-year drilling plan also could open new areas of oil and gas exploration in areas off the East Coast from Georgia to Maine, where drilling has been blocked for decades. Many lawmakers in those states support offshore drilling, although the Democratic governors of North Carolina and Virginia oppose drilling off their state coasts. Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a...

The Trump administration is proposing to rewrite or kill rules on offshore oil and gas drilling that were imposed after the deadly 2010 rig explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The administration says the rules are an unnecessary burden on industry, and rolling them back will encourage more energy production. An offshore-drilling group is welcoming the rollback, while environmentalists say President Donald Trump is raising the risk of more deadly oil spills. …

The Trump administration is putting more than 76 million acres of federal water up for lease in the largest offshore drilling initiative in American history. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced the massive lease sale, slated for March 2018, on Tuesday morning, and said the move is a key component of the administration’s effort to tap U.S. energy reserves and reap the economic benefits that come along with them.

The Trump administration said Thursday it is taking steps to expand oil drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans as President Donald Trump continues to push for U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. The Interior Department is rewriting a five-year drilling plan established by the Obama administration, with an eye toward opening areas in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans that now are off-limits to drilling. It’s one of six initiatives that the president unveiled Thursday in hopes of generating more energy exports and jobs. “The golden era of American energy is now underway,” Trump said in a Thursday speech...

Working to dismantle his predecessor’s environmental legacy, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday aimed at expanding drilling in the Arctic and opening other federal areas to oil and gas exploration. With one day left to rack up accomplishments before he reaches his 100th day in office, Trump signed an order reversing some of former President Barack Obama’s restrictions and instructing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review a plan that dictates which federal locations are open to offshore drilling. It’s part of Trump’s promise to unleash the nation’s energy reserves in an effort to reduce reliance on foreign...

Bloomberg - link only http://gcaptain.com/trump-said-order-oil-drilling-study-off-california-coast/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Gcaptain+%28gCaptain.com%29

In his enviro-extremism, President Obama is attempting to tie President-elect Trump’s hands by blocking vast swaths of the Arctic Ocean and stretches of the Atlantic from oil and natural-gas drilling. The gambit, announced by the administration on Tuesday, is part of an eleventh-hour wave by which Obama is flooding the regulatory zone: Promulgating so many rules – of the unpopular, hard-left variety that Democrats dare not unveil before Election Days – that he hopes the Trump administration will find it too cumbersome to undo all of them. The incoming president should not let his predecessor get away with it. Obama’s...

Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer is calling on President Obama to permanently ban offshore drilling in the Atlantic and Arctic using his executive authority. From Politico: NextGen and White House officials have discussed the possibility of Obama using his executive powers under a section of the law governing offshore drilling that allows him to “withdraw from disposition” any section of the Outer Continental Shelf that has not already been leased for oil or gas drilling… Steyer’s group says more permanent protections are available using section 12(a) of the OCS Lands Act. Similar to the Antiquities Act, which presidents can use to...

resident Obama said last year that he would rather the U.S. “with all the safeguards and standards that we have, be producing our oil and gas, rather than importing it, which is bad for our people” and “potentially purchased from places that have much lower environmental standards than we do.” Except, it now seems, in resource-rich federal waters in the Atlantic Ocean. The administration backpedaled on its promise to implement an all-of-the-above energy approach by deciding not to consider potential future oil and gas leasing at least 50 miles off the southeastern U.S. coast through 2022, despite the lease sale...

Full title: AP: Offshore wells buried during Hurricane Ivan have been leaking oil into the Gulf since 2004 Down to just one full-time employee, Taylor Energy Company exists for only one reason: to fight an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico that has gone largely unnoticed, despite creating miles-long slicks for more than a decade. The New Orleans-based company has downplayed the leak’s environmental impact, likening it to scores of minor spills and natural seeps that the Gulf routinely absorbs. But an Associated Press investigation has revealed evidence that the spill is far worse than what Taylor — or...