Free Republic

With President Obama poised to decide whether to allow construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline -- based on a second, more environmentally-sensitive path -- critics now appear focused on derailing the project over a climate change study. TransCanada Corp. submitted a revised application after the president rejected the first one in January because it took the 1,700-mile-long pipeline across an aquifer in Nebraska. However, environmental groups say producing oil from Alberta tar sands releases more carbon dioxide than conventional drilling, which would increase global warming, and that studies on the first application were inadequate. Jeremy Symons, of the National Wildlife...

In anticipation of a long-awaited Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality's (DEQ) public hearing on TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL (KXL) oil pipeline, the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday urged President Obama to approve the project. The DEQ's final hearing is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Central time Tuesday in Albion, Neb. On Oct. 30, 2012, the agency released its draft report on a revised KXL route that avoids the environmentally sensitive Sand Hills region in northeastern Nebraska. "With today's final [Nebraska] public hearing, the DEQ can conclude deliberations on this project," said API Central Region Director John Kerekes in...

A mysterious blob of frozen soil, rocks and trees is creeping toward the Dalton Highway, threatening to block the haul road that serves as a lifeline for Alaska's oil and gas industry. It could happen as soon as end of the decade. University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers who have been studying the slow-moving landslide just south of the Brooks Range since 2008 say it is crawling closer to the highway every day. The scientists suspect climate change may have caused the 300-foot-wide finger of debris -- once thought to be motionless -- to gain speed as it slides toward the...

Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations whose name has been floated as a possible secretary of state nominee, may soon face opposition from the environmental lobby over what the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) called a potential financial conflict of interest on Wednesday. According to her May 2012 financial disclosure, Rice has an investment in TransCanada Corporation worth between $300,000 and $600,000. TransCanada is angling for the State Department’s permission to build the final portion of the Keystone XL pipeline — a 1,700-mile conduit for crude oil between Canadian deposits and Texas refineries. If she were confirmed...

The Alberta government is paying the price for the success of efforts to develop the oilsands and the failure to develop pipelines to get that oil to market. The price - as measured by what is known as the differential, or discount, from global benchmark crudes - is currently about $29 on each of the 2.5 million barrels of oil pumped every day in Canada's biggest oil-producing province. That works out to $72.5 million a day. Over a year, that's $26.5 billion of potential revenue not circulating in the provincial economy. Finance Minister Doug Horner cited widening differentials as the...

Warren Buffett is by now no stranger to the national debate over federal tax policy. In 2009, he penned a New York Times op-ed calling for "truly major changes in both taxes and outlays." Two years later, he returned to the Times with a widely publicized call for large tax increases on the "super-rich," noting that his own effective federal tax rate (17 percent) was far less than his employees' rates (ranging from 33 to 41 percent). President Obama liked the idea so much, he called for Congress to pass "the Buffett Rule" in his 2012 state of the union...

A $21 price difference between crude oil in Midland and Cushing, Okla., is an all-time high, as oil production in the Permian Basin far outpaces the pipeline infrastructure to move it. The spot price for West Texas Intermediate crude was about $87 per barrel this week in Cushing – the delivery point at which the U.S. benchmark oil is priced – versus $65 per barrel in Midland. The two only differed by $3 in October, according to a Wells Fargo report. “If I produce a barrel of oil in the Permian, my ability to move it to market is restricted,”...

Now that the election is over, nine Republican and nine Democrats have asked the president to stop making excuses and build a job-creating pipeline that will close the revenue gap through economic growth. The truly bipartisan group of senators, led by Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat and powerful chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican, wrote President Obama on Friday urging him to quickly issue a permit for the northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring over 830,000 barrels of crude from Canada's oil sands to American refineries every day. "Setting...

I've wondered before about how this new, more "flexible" second-term Obama is going to approach climate change, energy policy, and environmental issues --- I remain unconvinced that "all of the above" was anything more than a rhetorical stalling tactic. I'm betting that we're going to see President Obama's more zealous nature re-reveal itself --- and the Keystone XL pipeline battle that the administration left unresolved before the election is likely to force the issue pretty quick here.Environmentalists (who long ago determined that the pipeline proposal warranted their especial fanatical attention) are planning demonstrations in DC next week to ask the...

Now that the election is over, the oil and gas industry is holding the president accountable for promises made during his campaign. American Petroleum Institute called on President Obama to move forward with the stagnant project and grant approval in a conference call with reporters Thursday. "In our exit polls last week … it showed that 73 percent of Americans support more American production of oil and natural gas," stated API's Executive Vice President Marty Durbin. "Ninety-one percent believe that that production will lead to more American jobs – and 75 percent support building the Keystone XL pipeline. We encourage...

As Canadian political and business leaders expressed optimism the proposed Keystone XL pipeline will win approval under a re-elected President Barack Obama, environmental opponents and the U.S. ambassador to Canada cautioned the energy megaproject isn’t a slam dunk. Obama’s Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, had vowed quick approval of the $7.6-billion pipeline if he had won Tuesday’s presidential election. But Obama, who earlier this year rejected TransCanada Corp.’s initial application because it needed more environmental review, has remained noncommital about the fate of the line, which would ship Alberta oilsands product to the U.S. Gulf Coast. In Ottawa, federal Natural Resources...

Proof Positive - In My Opinion True Source Found For "Innocence of Muslims." (Obama)This is a Youtube video produced by user Montagraph who speculated that "Innocence of Muslims" was a false flag op. So did I. He has done a lot of work tracing numerous websites connected to the original uploading of the now famous video. His narrative starts out very slow but give it a chance. He does explain it all in detail and has sourced it all with URLs below his vid. Montagraph declines to say that his evidence is definitive so you be the judge. The internet...

Obama pressed for quick decisionWith a second term now in hand, President Obama no longer can delay a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline and must either side with environmentalists within his party or greenlight a major step toward North American energy independence. The pipeline decision could be an early sign for the direction of Mr. Obama’s green agenda for the next four years, after a campaign in which he sparred with Republican opponent Mitt Romney over the pipeline and on issues such as subsidies for alternative energy companies, the future of the coal industry, and drilling policy on federal...

I dare The Obama to come back to New Jersey, to visit our gas stations and tell us some more of his ideas about wind and solar and renewable energy -- and explain again why he killed the Keystone pipeline -- and talk about why he cancelled oil leases on federal lands -- and discuss why his rogue EPA has shut down oil refineries -- and remind us about his illegal moratorium on drilling in the Gulf ... I dare him, I say. In fact, I double dare him.

The teams start rolling out before daybreak, a rumbling cacophony orchestrated under floodlights and black skies. They fan out, men carrying hardhats walking past trucks on the move, busloads of workers, and trailers carrying four-wheel-drive carts and heavy machinery. About 700 workers building TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline in Texas move out from a Mount Pleasant lot every morning in a mobilization fit for a war zone. The size of the effort, for just one segment of Keystone XL, is part of TransCanada’s sophisticated, 4,000-person operation to dig through nearly 500 miles of land and install a 36-inch diameter oil pipeline...

Energy Policy: Leases and production are down on federal lands, the EPA is waging war on coal, and as for building enough pipelines to encircle the earth, we'd settle for just one from Canada to the Gulf. When President Obama, in responding Tuesday to Mitt Romney's chiding about failing to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, claimed that his administration has added enough new oil and gas pipelines to "encircle the Earth and then some," we felt a perfect response from Romney would have been, "You didn't build that." In fact, energy companies have built some 55,000 miles of pipeline, including...

Energy Policy: Leases and production are down on federal lands, the EPA is waging war on coal, and as for building enough pipelines to encircle the earth, we'd settle for just one from Canada to the Gulf. When President Obama, in responding Tuesday to Mitt Romney's chiding about failing to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, claimed that his administration has added enough new oil and gas pipelines to "encircle the Earth and then some," we felt a perfect response from Romney would have been, "You didn't build that." In fact, energy companies have built some 55,000 miles of pipeline, including...

(CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration’s new ambassador to Azerbaijan raised eyebrows this week with a gesture interpreted by some as paying homage to the country’s late dictator – a one-time KGB general installed by military coup who oversaw an autocratic regime before handing power to his son. “The new U.S. envoy to Azerbaijan, Richard Morningstar, has honored memory of national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev,” the Azeri news site News.Az reported. “The newly appointed ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the United States in Azerbaijan visited the monument to great leader in the park in front of the Heydar Aliyev’s Palace....

In Canada we have a strange tradition of "spreading the wealth around." Provinces are divided into "Have" and "Have-Not" categories, and the federal government redistributes wealth from the Haves to the Have-Nots. Aren't you glad you're an American? But hold on. It gets worse. Sometimes, when politicians in a province think they're not getting enough redistributed wealth from the feds, their premier (equivalent to your state governor) will move heaven and earth to get a better deal. Such is the case right now, as the premier of the province of British Columbia (B.C.) is using every phony environmental concern in...

Mexico may someday realize its potential as a natural gas superpower, but in the lengthy meantime the country’s gnawing energy craving may feed off Texas pipelines. Mexico energy planners are pressing ahead with an $8 billion expansion of the country’s 5,500-mile natural gas pipeline system, focusing on central and northern industrial cities. And for the foreseeable future, they intend to fuel that network with U.S. natural gas, including from South Texas and Eagle Ford Shale fields. “Mexico has a unique opportunity, we have access to the world’s cheapest gas,” Mexican Energy Minister Jordy Herrera said of the U.S. supply in...