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Russian energy giant Gazprom pledged to appeal what they described as an “unprecedented” fine after the Polish anti-monopoly watchdog UOKiK ordered them to pay some $7.61 billion (€6,47 billion) over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The Polish regulator said that building the pipeline would increase Gazprom’s dominance on the Polish market. The project, which would allow Germany to double its gas imports from Russia, is “tantamount to breaking the rules of law and of fair competition” and the current situation may trigger “serious consequences for Poland’s and the EU’s economy,” they added. Gazprom is spearheading the Baltic Sea construction effort...

An explosion was reported in an oil pipeline in Iran Saturday, the latest in a mysterious series of blasts and blazes that have occurred throughout the country. Several of the recent disasters have struck sensitive Iranian sites, leading to speculation that they could be part of a sabotage campaign engineered by Israel or another Tehran foe. The latest incident occurred in a pipeline in the Ahvaz region in the south of the country, according to reports in local and social media. Video shared on social media showed a large fire at the scene. There were no reports of casualties in...

The Dakota Access Pipeline, an oil route from North Dakota to Illinois that has inspired intense protests and legal battles, must shut down pending an environmental review and be emptied of oil by Aug. 5, a district court ruled on Monday. It essentially vacates a federal permit that had allowed the pipeline to operate while the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which had granted the permits for the pipeline, conducted an extensive environmental impact review. The decision, which could be subject to appeal, is a victory for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other Native American and environmental groups...

Who In The Hell Hired NSA Leaker Reality Leigh Winner After Her Twitter Rants?

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, working with counterparts in 17 other states, has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a West Coast federal appeals court criticizing a lower court’s decision that will could delay oil and gas pipeline projects. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in April canceled an environmental permit for the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline in Montana. Morris said that the U.S. Army Corps did not adequately consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on risks to endangered species and habitat when it renewed a nationwide permit in 2017 that allows dredging work on pipelines across water bodies....

If completed, the pipeline, which has spent the past decade in political and legal limbo, would help carry some 830,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Canada to refineries in Texas. Although Biden’s climate plan was more ambitious than anything proposed by Obama, it attracted criticism from liberals who faulted Biden for not pledging to ban fracking and for attending a fundraiser co-hosted by a co-founder of a natural gas company. Beyond that, Biden’s environmental critics worry he will not try to rein in greenhouse gas emissions as aggressively as climate scientists say is necessary. In 2018, a panel...

Source article is from Carlsbad Current-Argus newspaper, a USA Today paper so title and link only authorized on Free Republic.Permian Basin natural gas pipeline could be blocked by lawsuit filed by Sierra Club

A Canadian company said Monday that it’s started construction on the long-stalled Keystone XL oil sands pipeline across the U.S.-Canada border, despite calls from tribal leaders and environmentalists to delay the $8 billion project amid the coronavirus pandemic. A spokesman for TC Energy said work began over the weekend at the border crossing in northern Montana, a remote area with sprawling cattle ranches and wheat fields. About 100 workers will be involved in the pipeline’s early stages, but that number is expected to swell into the thousands in coming months as work proceeds, according to the company. The 1,200 mile...

Canadian pipeline operator TC Energy is moving forward with plans to build the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline, a project to move heavy crude oil from the tar sands region of Canada to Nebraska where it will then move on to refineries in Illinois and along the Gulf Coast. After years of legal battles, TC Energy confirmed Tuesday morning that the company plans to invest $8 billion on the crude oil pipeline project. The controversial pipeline project faced opposition and legal challenges from Native American groups, environmentalists and landowners. “We appreciate the ongoing backing of landowners, customers, Indigenous groups and numerous...

A Canadian company said Tuesday it plans to start construction of the disputed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline through the U.S. Midwest in April, after lining up customers and money for the project that is bitterly opposed by environmentalists and some American Indian tribes. Construction is set to begin at the pipeline’s border crossing in Montana, said TC Energy spokesman Terry Cunha. That would be a milestone for a project first proposed in 2008. The company said it lined up $1.1 billion in financing from the Canadian provincial government of Alberta to cover construction through 2020 and agreements for the...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A large group of pipeline protesters inside and outside of the TC Energy/old Columbia Gas building in Charleston drew a heavy police presence on Monday morning. The group, Appalachians Against Pipelines (AAP), stood in solidarity with the Indigenous Wet’suwet’en people for more than three hours at the facility starting before 7 a.m. Dozens blocked elevators, stood outside of the main entrance and stopped work from happening inside. More than 100 people participated in the protest. According to a AAP release, the Indigenous Wet’suwet’en people are defending their un-ceded land in Canada, from the Coastal GasLink Pipeline and...

After a four-year battle with the state, the proposed Constitution natural-gas pipeline project has been abandoned, as National Grid warns of a coming natural gas supply emergency next Winter. The State of New York has a natural gas shortage, the result of years of the administration of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and environmentalists fighting the construction of new supply pipelines. A June 2019 report by The Manhattan Institute documented the shortage and its causes, Out of Gas: New York’s Blocked Pipelines Will Hurt Northeast Consumers:

Canadian rail companies have announced temporary layoffs because of the ongoing protests against a natural gas pipeline which has shut down much of the country’s rail system for nearly two weeks. Today, VIA Rail announced it would lay off 1,000 workers: “Until CN Rail opens the remaining tracks for service, VIA Rail has no choice but to continue the cancellation of its services on a large part of its network,” Via Rail said in a statement. “It is with sincere regret that we must proceed with temporary employee suspensions.”Chief executive Cynthia Garneau called the service interruption due to a...

Protests against the Coastal GasLink pipeline in western Canada have been escalating for several weeks. Now the company which operates passengers and freight traffic on CanadaÂ’s rail system says travel is being disrupted for tens of thousands of people: Via Rail, the crown corporation that operates much of CanadaÂ’s commuter rail service, announced on Wednesday that trains on the Toronto-Montreal and Toronto-Ottawa routes would be halted until at least Friday. More than 150 passenger trains have been cancelled since the blockade began, forcing an estimated 24,000 people to find alternate travel routes.Canadian National Railway, which owns the tracks, warned...

Not too long ago, on Nov. 8, 2011, Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev, German Chancellor Angel Merkel, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte participated in an inauguration ceremony for the first of two natural gas pipelines laid in the sea bottom from western Russia along the Baltic States to Germany. You may have heard of this, known as Nord Stream I. This pipeline could deliver 27.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, equal to about 3.5% of the annual consumption of natural gas in the United States in 2016. A second pipeline of the Nord...

A recent hoax in Minnesota highlighted the lengths some activists will go to in order to persuade public opinion and shape their own narrative in the media.  An activist group called the “Yes Men” developed an elaborate plan about the fictitious development of a pipeline in Duluth. The goal of this stunt was to try and create fear about pipelines and prevent the construction of a major pipeline that is being upgraded and replaced for efficiency and improved safety. The Yes Men created the “Indigenous Pipeline Council”, a fake group behind their hoax that resulted in a local television station reporting...

As the impeachment inquiry hogs the spotlight in Washington, another drama in which Ukraine has a role is playing out more quietly -- and causing concern in Kyiv, which is watching warily as Russia brings its Nord Stream 2 pipeline closer to completion. Members of the U.S. Congress appear unified on the need to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin's $11 billion project to deliver natural gas to Europe via a new pipeline beneath the Baltic Sea. Bills that would impose sanctions on companies involved in Nord Stream 2 sailed through committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate last...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Mountain Valley Pipeline, one of the major construction projects crossing West Virginia, has extended the timetable and price for its expected completion. The pipeline’s developers announced last week that construction now isn’t expected to concluded until late next year at a cost of $5.3 to $5.5 billion because key aspects of the giant project have been challenged by federal regulators and in the court system. The original cost estimate when work began in February 2018 was $3.7 billion. The original estimated completion date was the fourth quarter of 2019 — now. The pipeline’s developers say it is...

A gas shortage threatens the Long Island region,” bleat six Long Island state senators, all Democrats, in a letter pleading for approval of a pipeline proposed to fix the problem — belatedly admitting that the policies they’ve long favored don’t work for their own constituents. This year, Sens. Todd Kaminsky, John Brooks, James Gaughran, Anna Kaplan, Monica Martinez and Kevin Thomas all voted for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Green New Deal law, whose very purpose is to further crimp energy supplies, and for a $100 million hike in taxes on energy. And, as Senate GOP leader John Flanagan (their fellow Long...

DES MOINES, Iowa – On September 19, 2019, a federal grand jury returned an Indictment charging defendants, Jessica Rae Reznicek and Ruby Katherine Montoya, with one count of conspiracy to damage an energy facility, four counts of use of fire in the commission of a felony, and four counts of malicious use of fire, announced United States Attorney Marc Krickbaum. Montoya was recently arrested in the District of Arizona and detained pending court proceedings to determine her appearance in the Southern District of Iowa. Reznicek appeared in Des Moines on October 1, 2019 and was conditionally released pending trial. Trial...