Free Republic

...we need to go back to when agriculture was inefficient. Good idea. There are too many proles anyway, right? Time to thin the herd. ... Climate change hysteria is a magic force in the hands of an elite that has been preaching deindustrialization and mass culling of human beings since the early 1960s. What was once a fringe movement led by the truly insane Club of Rome and Paul Ehrlich has gone mainstream, at least among the Leftists who are at the top of the social pyramid these days. The UN, WEF, IPCC, MSM, and of course the EU and...

Democrat Climate Change Cult: Ban Everything! Ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) nations have agreed to eliminate all coal-fired power plants by 2035. The countries that are members of the Group of Seven (G7) are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the European Union. This declaration was made by Andrew Bowie, a UK minister at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, during an interview in Turing, Italy. “We do have an agreement to phase out coal in the first half of the 2030s,” Bowie said. “This is, by...

The Biden Administration’s regulations are coming so fast and furious that it’s hard even to keep track, but we’re trying. On Thursday the Environmental Protection Agency proposed its latest doozy—rules that will effectively force coal plants to shut down while banning new natural-gas plants. “With the announcement today, the power sector can make planning decisions with a full array of information,” EPA’s press release declares. Translation: Get moving with the green-energy transition because we’re determined to eliminate fossil-fuel power. Barack Obama’s regulation spurred a wave of coal plant closures. Now President Biden is trying to finish the job by tightening...

On Thursday’s broadcast of “NewsNation Now,” White House National Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi denied that the Biden administration is attempting to shut down the coal industry or slow any industry down, and stated that the issue is “about how do we speed up to a stronger economy, a more durable economy, and one that, frankly, puts less pollution into the sky?” Host Connell McShane asked, “[C]oal executives, for the most part, are coming out and saying this — we can’t meet this. So, the real goal here is to kind of shut our industry down. Is that what’s happening?” Zaidi...

The Interior Department on Friday finalized a rule making it more expensive for oil and gas producers to drill on federally owned lands. Several of the provisions in the rule — like raising the rent the government charges to oil companies for using its land and increasing the government’s share of the profits from that oil — were set out in law by the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act. The Biden administration will additionally make it more expensive for drillers to abandon their oil wells after use instead of cleaning them up. The administration argues that current bonding rates do not...

'Congress alone has the authority' to breach federal dams, lawmakers write in letter to White House.. The Biden administration is quietly discussing a potentially far-reaching settlement with environmental groups that advocate for tearing down four hydroelectric dams in Washington... ... In the filings, jointly submitted by the federal government and eco groups... However, the filing failed to detail exactly what conditions were included in the secretive package .... We find it necessary to remind you Congress alone has the authority not only to order the breach of the Lower Snake River Dams, but also exclusive authority to direct the study...

Colorado utilities regulators will consider the new plan, which was revised in hopes of capturing lucrative renewable energy credits while slashing greenhouse gas emissions... Xcel Energy has a vision for Colorado’s clean energy future — one independent power producers, consumer advocates and regulators didn’t see coming — a vision that is both expensive, with a $15 billion price tag, and unparalleled in its sweep. Xcel Energy’s preferred electric resource plan submitted to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission in September includes 7,100 megawatts of new generation and storage, mainly wind and solar and nearly $3 billion in new transmission lines. “We...

Solar should be competing for sales in the marketplace, not for subsidies in Washington,' ... The Biden administration quietly issued a 59-page report outlining the current scope of federal energy-related subsidies revealed that the renewable energy sector enjoys significantly larger taxpayer backing than the fossil fuel industry. The report — authored by the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) and published in August — represents the first of its kind since 2018. The EIA analyzed data from 2016 through 2022, and determined that, during that time period, the federal government doled out $183.3 billion in direct and mainly indirect...

On June 2, the U.S. Department of the Interior blocked oil and gas leasing for the next twenty years within a ten-mile radius of Chaco Canyon — the site of a Puebloan civilization in now-northern New Mexico dating back over a millennium. Despite some support from people within the Pueblo tribes and Navajo Nation which surround the land, the vast majority of Navajo leaders have opposed these drilling restrictions. It’s essential that climate advocates hear them out. Between high-profile cases of extractive industries seizing and polluting Indigenous land and the fact that climate change exacerbates the many environmental and economic...

The utility’s 1.6 million Colorado customers will see their bills rise 4.4% — about $4 on the average residential bill — on Sept. 1 ... lectricity bills for 1.6 million Colorado customers of Xcel Energy will rise 4.4% — about $3.99 on the average residential bill — on Sept. 1, under a settlement approved Wednesday by the state Public Utilities Commission. In 2022, Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest electricity supplier, filed for a $312 million rate hike, but under the settlement it will get an increase of $96 million. The reduced revenue figure was reached in a settlement between Xcel Energy...

Nearly every lease and permit issued in Wyoming since 2021 has faced litigation from various anti-fossil fuel groups. As a result, 2 million acres are languishing in a holding pattern awaiting court decisions that will take years. ... The Bureau of Land Management is withholding oil and gas drilling permits on leased acres on public land, if the leased acres are in litigation. Pete Obermueller, president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said the agency is doing this by its own choice. Nearly every lease and permit issued in Wyoming since 2021 has faced litigation from various anti-fossil fuel groups,...

Although it's reported the world is going through a transition away from fossil fuels to so-called 'green energy,' the data doesn’t support it. The use of coal in China has exploded thereby making overall coal consumption increase. As much as it’s reported that the world is going through a transition away from fossil fuels to wind and solar energy, the data doesn’t support it. The International Energy Agency released its 2023 Coal Market Update on Thursday, which shows that global coal consumption in 2022 rose by 3.3% to a record 8.3 billion tons. While the use of coal in European...

The Bureau of Land Management announced new rules that will greatly increase the cost of oil and gas development on public lands. Critics say if the rules become final, it will likely make oil and gas production in Wyoming uneconomical. The Bureau of Land Management has announced new rules that, if finalized, will increase bonding requirements, royalty rates and minimum bids for oil and gas drilling on public lands. Statements by the bureau on the proposed rules say they will lead to more responsible leasing and development processes. Critics say it’s just a step toward the elimination of oil and...

The Biden administration’s war on the ability of American Indians and tribal nations to develop their energy resources is finally receiving the probing attention it deserves, resulting in an aggressive pushback from American Indians and tribal leaders. The tipping point came last month when Biden’s Department of the Interior announced a 20-year moratorium on new oil and gas leases on 350,000 acres of federal land within 10 miles of Chaco Culture National Historic Park in northwestern New Mexico. Navajo Nation, which earlier withdrew its support for a 5-mile park buffer due to the economic cost to tribal members, had lobbied...

The House voted Thursday to reverse the Biden administration’s energy policies that Republicans say are eroding U.S. energy security and raising prices for consumers – and picked up support from a small number of Democrats even though President Biden has said he would veto the bill.

But banning oil and gas too soon would be technically and financially unrealistic, the industry believes. "We can't bet on an all-electric solution, which would require an urgent and crazy-sum power network expansion," A ban would also close the door to hybrid systems that could gradually introduce more home-produced solar thermal and photovoltaic energy, and fill existing gas pipelines with renewable-derived gases, he added.

Twitter users appeared disgusted at the rising price of eggs and called it “ridiculous” as some labeled them a “luxury item.” Multiple users noted the high cost of a carton of eggs at Whole Foods and posted photos showing prices as high as $11.49. “I never thought EGGS would become a luxury item,” conservative commentator Mike Cernovich wrote. The price of eggs has tripled in certain places across the U.S. in the last year, according to CBS News. The price per carton surged as high as 49.1% in November, according to the Consumer Price Index. “$11.49 for eggs at Whole...

While America's national average gas price has come down a few cents from its all-time high of $4.331 reached on March 11, Americans are still being socked in the wallet every time they have to fill up. As many Republicans have pointed out, this isn't the way it has to be, nor has it always been this way. Meanwhile, President Biden and Democrats in Congress have blamed everything but themselves and their policies for the increase in gas prices that have risen along with prices on other consumer goods to four-decade highs since Biden took office. The scapegoat created by...

Between 2021-2024, Biden’s leasing ban will eliminate 5,172 jobs annually, wipe out $2.8 billion in oil and natural gas investments, $1.3 billion in production, $546 million in much-needed tax revenue and a whopping $1.6 billion in high-paying wages. Colorado’s neighbors to the north and south face similar threats from President Biden’s ban. As the fifth-largest oil and natural gas-producing state, New Mexico extracts nearly half of its oil and 67% of its natural gas from leases on federal lands. Before the pandemic, tax revenue generated from oil and production overall comprised 20% of the state’s budget. With 62,000 jobs at...

A Native American tribe this week criticized the Biden administration’s order halting agency approvals for oil, gas, and coal permitting on federal lands including tribal lands. As the Washington Times reported Friday: The Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, which has run an oil-and-gas operation on its 4.5 million-acre reservation for more than 70 years, requested Thursday an exemption for tribal lands from the Interior Department order that halts agencies from issuing permits and leases on mineral production for 60 days. In a letter Thursday, chairman of the Ute Indian Tribe Business Committee Luke Duncan wrote, “The...