Free Republic

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher argued that when people try to get off fossil fuels before there is a replacement ready, “they wind up going back to even worse fossil fuels.” And that this has happened in the United States and President Joe Biden going to Saudi Arabia “hat in hand, begging them for oil” after vowing to reduce oil drilling is an example of that. After citing Biden’s pledge to end drilling on federal lands, Maher stated, “Let’s just talk about why these things really happen, it’s because people think that they can —...

At Greece's largest coal mine, controlled explosions and the roar of giant excavators scooping up blasted rock have once again become routine. Coal production has been ramped up at the site near the northern Greek city of Kozani as the war in Ukraine forced many European nations to rethink their energy supplies. Coal, long treated as a legacy fuel in Europe, is now helping the continent safeguard its power supply and cope with the dramatic rise in natural gas prices caused by the war. Electricity generated by coal in the European Union jumped by 19% in the fourth quarter of...

Biden admin 'pursuing this green agenda at all costs ... Biden has .. yet to back boosting domestic oil production. ... In recent months, Biden has ordered three separate releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and issued a waiver allowing the sale of gas with higher biofuel concentration . ... Biden administration has doubled down on its climate agenda, canceling multiple oil and gas lease sales, revoking the Keystone XL pipeline permit and begging Middle Eastern producers to boost output. ... "This is an election year gimmick," Daniel Turner .. It has nothing to do with the energy industry, it...

Israel-Iran Shadow War on Verge of Exploding Into the Open By Sri Lanka Guardian •June 10, 2022 •Espionage feature World View •Comments : 0 Iran removing UN monitoring cameras, poised to move troops into Syria by Jonathan Broder On the evening of May 31 in the central Iranian city of Yazd, an Iranian aerospace engineer was returning home from dinner with a colleague when he suddenly felt ill and collapsed into unconsciousness. Ayub Entezari was rushed to hospital, where he died after several unsuccessful attempts to resuscitate him, according to an Iranian opposition media outlet. The cause of Entezari’s death:...

WASHINGTON (AP) — One month ahead of President Joe Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia, the District of Columbia is renaming the street in front of the Saudi embassy Jamal Khashoggi Way, trolling Riyadh for its role in the killing of the dissident Saudi activist and journalist in 2018. With members of the D.C. Council in attendance, a Jamal Khashoggi Way sign was unveiled directly in front of the embassy’s main entrance. “We intend to remind the people who are hiding behind these doors ... that we hold them responsible and we will hold them accountable for the murder of our...

Day 110. Today, we discuss the latest updates from across Ukraine and Europe, look at how much money Russia has made from selling fossil fuels this year and discuss the history behind the policy of Russification in the occupied regions of southern Ukraine.

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.

urkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday warned Greece to demilitarize islands in the Aegean Sea, saying he was “not joking” and posting tweets in Greek and English, in a marked harshening of rhetoric against Turkey’s neighbor and historic regional rival. Turkey says Greece has been building a military presence in violation of treaties that guarantee the unarmed status of the Aegean islands. It argues the islands were ceded to Greece on the condition they remained demilitarized. Athens counters that the islands, which have been garrisoned for decades and lie within close striking distance of a large Turkish landing fleet,...

Nearly three years after promising to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah," President Joe Biden is set to extend an olive branch to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman following months of reproach. The White House confirmed Monday that Biden will visit the oil-rich nation this summer, the culmination of an 18-month rollercoaster that started with Biden ostracizing Crown Prince Mohammed, commonly known as MBS, and ends with his administration trying to win back MBS' affections as gas prices soar due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Attempts by US officials to convince the Saudis to pump more oil have been unsuccessful so...

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to arrive in Israel on Monday, as Jerusalem, Cairo and Brussels make strides toward a natural-gas export deal. The European Union Embassy in Israel said von der Leyen was arriving “to advance relations between the EU and Israel, especially cooperation in the area of energy. The president will also discuss with Israeli government representatives the global reaction to the food crisis and the situation in the Middle East.” During her two-day visit, von der Leyen is expected to meet with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, President Isaac Herzog and Foreign Minister Yair...

◾The focus of the most recent rift between Israel and Lebanon is an offshore field called Karish. ◾While Lebanon has yet to make a commercial find of gas in its waters, Israel is already producing from a couple of giant fields. ◾The Israel-Lebanon dispute could lead to a delay in the development of East-Med gas resources. At a time when the world’s gas supply is having to catch up with demand, two prospective gas majors in the eastern Mediterranean have locked horns over a disputed field that could delay the development of local resources. Israel and Lebanon have been...

The buckets of cold water Turkey is pouring on Finland and Sweden’s bids to join NATO may be coming from the sea around the shore of Cyprus, the divided Mediterranean island that is a bargaining chip for the Turkish president, Tayyip Erdogan. There is mounting evidence that Turkey could be using its status as a member of NATO to wield its veto power over the anticipated accession to the alliance of the two Nordic countries as a lever to force the international community to confer legitimacy on its de facto Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. London’s Sunday Express recently reported...

On election night in 2016, Jessica Reznicek and Ruby Montoya set fire to a bulldozer and construction equipment at a Dakota Access Pipeline construction site in Iowa. Over the next few months, the activists used oxy-acetylene torches to melt holes in pipeline valves at three other locations in the state. It was at the height of the Indigenous-led protests against the 1,172-mile-long pipeline, which opponents like the Standing Rock Sioux tribe argued would pollute local water sources and contaminate soil. When Reznicek and Montoya’s actions failed to halt pipeline construction, they held a press conference and publicly took responsibility for...

The United States has confiscated Iranian oil held on a Russian-operated ship near Greece and will send the cargo to the United States aboard another vessel, three sources familiar with the matter said. It was unclear whether the cargo was impounded because it was Iranian oil or due to the sanctions on the tanker over its Russian nexus. Iran and Russia are facing separate U.S. sanctions. The Iranian-flagged ship, the Pegas, was among five vessels designated by Washington on Feb. 22 – two days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – for sanctions against Promsvyazbank, a bank viewed as critical to...

US President Joe Biden has decided not to remove Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from its list of terrorist organizations, Politico reported, refusing to concede to a key Iranian demand in the negotiations to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. According to several sources, Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett of his decision during a phone call on April 24, and that decision is final. In March, it was reported that the Biden administration was considering removing terrorism sanctions from the IRGC as part of negotiations to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign...

The United States will participate in Israel’s largescale drill simulating a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities as part of the broader Chariots of Fire exercise later this month, Channel 13 reported on Tuesday evening. According to the unsourced report, the US Air Force will serve as a complementary force, with refueling planes drilling with Israeli fighter jets as they simulate entering Iranian territory and carrying out repeated strikes. The unprecedented Israel- US aerial collaboration in a drill simulating a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities is seen as a potential message to Iran amid long-stalled negotiations in Vienna over a return...

While the Biden administration continues to insist the record high prices at the gas pump are largely due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a video montage of the president's vows during the 2020 campaign to crush the industry that provides the vast majority of energy, along with his actions on his first day in office, suggest there are other factors in play. In a July 2019 primary debate with his Democratic Party opponents hosted by CNN, Biden was asked, "Would there be any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking, in a Biden administration?" No," he replied. "We would...

The desolation of U.S. energy security has bolstered Vladimir Putin’s dangerous geopolitical aims.Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is illuminating an ugly truth: the anti-fracking war on America’s energy security is being waged by well-funded, radical U.S. environmental groups, as well as interests tied directly to Vladimir Putin. For years, the U.S. government has investigated Russian financial ties to environmental groups that push for ending U.S. fossil fuel production and have successfully shut down fracking sites and pipelines, to the detriment of U.S. workers and consumers. Who benefits? Putin, because the desolation of U.S. energy security has bolstered state-owned Gazprom and his...

Days after taking office as Germany’s vice chancellor and economy minister in December, Robert Habeck asked his most senior officials for a detailed assessment of his country’s dependence on Russian energy. The result shocked him. The country heavily relied on Russian hydrocarbons to power vehicles and factories and heat homes, and there was no contingency plan to secure other supplies, Mr. Habeck said. The government had no viable alternative to Russian imports.

Ben Bernanke, who served as Federal Reserve Chairman under Presidents Bush and Obama, warns that the U.S. economy is headed for a repeat of 1970s “stagflation.” Economists refer to a period of low economic growth, high inflation, and rising unemployment as “stagflation.” “Even under the benign scenario,” the U.S. is likely to go through “a period in the next year or two where growth is low, unemployment is at least up a little bit, and inflation is still high,” Bernanke told the New York Times. “So you could call that stagflation.” That “benign scenario” is if current Fed chair Jerome...