Category: Energy Security
Trump Hosts Romania’s President, Klaus Iohannis
Iohannis’ White House visit was reassuring for those Eastern European NATO countries that feel threatened by Russia. For the Western European leaders, the message sent by President Trump was that they must meet the 2% of GDP annual payment for … Continue reading
Bombs and Ballots: Intelligence Betrayals Before British Elections
The prevailing atmosphere of Washington, DC, what President Trump calls “the swamp” runs deeper and wider than any have ever imagined. The dysfunctional intelligence community raising its ugly head is becoming the revenge of the swamp monster. In fact, people … Continue reading
Powell: Portentious or Polarising
Enoch Powell, of course, was an esteemed scholar. He was the most brilliant classical scholar of his generation at Cambridge, becoming the youngest professor in the British Empire, the youngest Brigadier in the Army, and the youngest Cabinet Minister. This … Continue reading
EU Tusk Affair: Poland Is No UK
The new generation in Poland, born and raised in freedom, is absolutely worth watching – it is they, contrary to the popular narrative, and not the retirees, who swayed the last electoral cycle: the young, who don’t watch traditional TV, … Continue reading
The End of Palestine: Israel Has the Opportunity to Reclaim its Nation
Transnationalists are ideologically incapable of viewing a problem as unsolvable. Their faith in human progress through international law made it impossible for them to give up on the two-state solution. For two decades, pledging allegiance to the two-state solution and … Continue reading
Reviving the V4 alternative in Central Europe
Many Western Europeans ask: Why antagonize Moscow, thereby sacrificing comfort and relatively cheap natural gas, by defending second-class Europeans? But the answer is that, together, the V4 countries have 64 million inhabitants, which puts them in the same ranks as … Continue reading
Putin Meddling in Eastern Europe and the Middle East
Will President-elect Trump confront the Russian psychological operations in Europe and Moscow’s meddling in the Middle East? Will the new administration be capable of strengthening the NATO alliance, thus keeping the Germans in and the Russians out? By Nicholas Dima … Continue reading
Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts
May this complex situation in Europe, geographically so much closer to Russia, be a case in point? Russian modus operandi is radically different from the Western ideals of transparency and fair play. Open sources of influence alternate with semi-official or clandestine channels, just like in the case of email leaks during the presidential campaign in the U.S. Therefore, when a new American foreign policy is shaped and decisions are taken in 2017, one thing needs to be remembered: A gift needn’t be a token of friendship. Continue reading
French Center Right Gears Up for LePen with “Fillon Shocker”
The Republicans, in near-final returns from the party’s first-ever primary, dark-horse candidate and former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, 62, topped an eight-candidate field with 46 percent of the vote. The resume of Felon, of course, is like those of most … Continue reading
Boatlift to Chaos
FBI Director James B. Comey, who likely was ordered by higher-ups not to recommend indicting Hillary Clinton, recently warned of the dangers posed by migrants, “At some point, there is going to be a terrorist diaspora out of Syria like we’ve never seen before. Not all of the Islamic State killers are going to die on the battlefield.” Continue reading
Tsunami of goods from Panama Canal expansion to strain Texas roads
How much more will we be asked to shell out to handle the influx of Chinese goods coming through Texas and the United States? The global corporations always find a way to make the taxpayer foot the bill for them, so taxpayers beware. Continue reading
Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters
Without the multicultural demographic and ideological context, the holy warriors of the Caliphate would stand out like proverbial sore thumbs in the Western world. Currently, they enjoy a perfect environment. They will not let up until Dar al Islam dominates the world. Or at least they will keep trying. The West should oppose that.
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The Export Ban on U.S. Crude Oil Has Been Lifted: What’s Next?
The alternatives open to the country are basically exporting some of its increased production or to apply this new production to minimize and, eventually, to eliminate import requirements. It would seem that U.S. exports of crude oil, at this moment in time, will be more beneficial in almost all respects to the overall U.S. economy and national interest than trying to replace oil imports with the new domestic production. Continue reading
Making Middle-East Oil Obsolete!
Recognizing that oil is a fungible commodity, the solution begins with the United States becoming self-sufficient and independent of Middle East oil supplies. This is not hard to achieve; it can be accomplished by relying on our own oil, along with advanced drilling technology known as fracking. In July of 2014, the Energy Information Administration, EIA, forecast U.S. oil imports could be reduced to zero by 2037. Continue reading
Russia in Syria Reminds us of Soviet Actions in Cuba
Russian/Iranian actions in Syria represent a major gamble based on the perception of American weakness. An initial strong and swift response now will prevent the need for a riskier response in the future. Continue reading
The Tragic Tale of Montana Logging
The inability of Congress to act and provide proper funding, has advanced a strong movement in Montana, led by state Senator Jennifer Fielder (R-Thompson Falls) to push for the transfer of federal lands back to the state for proper management and supervision. Continue reading
The Fog of EPA’s Regulatory War on America
One president and founder of a coal mining company, who started his business in 1979, employs over 1,000 workingmen and women. He sees the Clean Power Plan (CPP) as a direct threat to the millions of dollars in investments he and his customers (power plants and mills) have already made to comply with the Clean Air Act. If implemented, the additional regulations of the CPP, “would force power plants to reduce carbon emissions to a level that is technically unachievable and would force the closure of coal fired power plants across our country.” Continue reading
Coal Can Save the Third World
The lack of access to low-cost electricity is one of the main contributors to poverty in the Third World. For those concerned about the environment, many of these countries can construct coal-fueled power plants by automatically using technology that can produce emissions that are extremely low. In addition to providing Third World populations with a source of energy to improve their lives so too can coal lift people up economically. Continue reading
The West’s Hindered Coal Exports and Delayed Terminal Expansion
At Powder River Basin in Montana, the coal is consistently high quality allowing export to America’s strategic partners such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and helping to maintain steady supply chains. It is coal that developing nations would welcome. Yet, thanks to the environmentalist lobby, coal export terminal construction is a slow and often stop-and-go process. On the West Coast of the United States, there are currently three potential terminal sites pending approval that could otherwise export Montana and Wyoming coal to East Asia. Continue reading
Coal in the West: Where Economics and Ideology Clash
Though Washington and Oregon are dominated by the Democrat Party, by taking an anti-coal stance, they hinder the creation of mainly union jobs. Railroaders, longshoreman, miners, construction workers, who are all unionized, suffer from lack of work as the Democrats cater to the environmentalist wing of the party. Continue reading
Foreign Interests Found Funding Anti-Fracking Campaigns in America
There is strong evidence the Russian government is colluding with radical environmentalists in order to disrupt and stop other oil companies, like Chevron, from competing with its own natural gas provider, Gazprom. Russian oil interests connected to Putin are also funneling money to anti-fracking protesters in the U.S., using offshore money laundering schemes to disguise the funding sources. Continue reading
P5+1 Iran Deal Reduces American Influence
The United States and Iran are not morally equivalent; we do not share the same creed, vision for the world, or idea of liberty and justice. The U.S. initiates violence only to defend the lives of its citizens or liberate people from tyranny. Tehran’s theocracy initiates violence to further expand its reach with an end goal of establishing a global caliphate under the banner of radical Shia Islam. The U.S. is a liberating force, while the Islamic Republic of Iran is a conquering one. Continue reading
SCOTUS EPA Decision a Setback for Obama Anti-Coal Agenda
Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) lauded the decision stating in a press release the “Supreme Court ruling sends a strong signal to the EPA that it must stop ignoring the economic damage its regulations are causing to our energy sector and our economy,” adding, “This ruling is an important step to rein in this out-of-control agency.” Continue reading
Montana’s Battle of the Titans: The Radical Environmentalists vs. the State’s Coal Future
Contrary to the charges made by these ideologically motivated environmentalists, coal exporting and transporting companies are going to great lengths to protect both their product as well as the environment. A good example of this is over the debate involving dust that blows off of coal being transported on trains. There is no incentive for coal companies to tolerate coal dust blowing off of their product, as it harms their profits. Therefore, these companies have begun to take new and effective measures to reduce the loss of dust. Continue reading
Keystone XL and Petroleum Development in Montana
Despite the massive economic growth of Montana oil in the first decade of the 21st Century, Big Sky Country still faces the issue of market access. The project creates a $140 million onramp in Baker, where capacity for 100,000 bpd Bakken crude could be sent from Montana to the proposed Keystone XL route.
Montana’s Fight in the War on Coal
Looking into the coal industry in Montana gives us a strong insight into the present state of affairs of American coal. Montana generally ranks around fifth in terms of coal output in the United States, while having the largest amount of reserves, roughly 25 percent of U.S. reserves, or 120 billion tons.
Russia’s Gift, Turkey’s Move
Moscow’s Vladimir Putin has resolved to send his energy to the European Union via Turkey. Ankara’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has accepted for his own geopolitical reasons and for the benefit of the neo-Ottomanist project, an attempt to re-create Turkic political, social, economic, and cultural dominion in its former imperial space, space some Western observers who have judged that the Islamic democracy has thus been merely assigned the inconsequential role of a transit area.
Can the U.S. Provide Europe with Energy Security in the Face of Russian Aggression?
It appears conditions are right for the U.S. to export oil and gas in significant amounts to Europe. This would be not only economically favorable to the U.S. but politically very favorable to Europe, since it could largely replace in the medium term an unreliable source of energy supply from Russia by a much more reliable and friendly source, the United States.
Texas Railroad Commission seeks to close eminent domain loophole, but critics say rule too vague
Ultimately, it’s crucial that the state has some mechanism in place to review whether or not private pipeline companies meet the legal requirements as a common carrier public use pipeline prior to eminent domain authority being conferred.
Ukraine and U.S. Natural Gas Exports: Right Policy, Right Now
For perhaps the first time since the 2010 election inaugurated divided control of Capitol Hill, there was actual excitement about energy legislation as the House took up a bill to expedite the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG). It’s not that the House hasn’t passed dozens of bills to encourage domestic oil and gas production, or discipline extralegal rulemakings by the EPA – it surely has. Rather, it’s been the automatic DOA status of these measures in the Senate that’s made the movie seem old and predictable. Well, that may be changing.
Global Warming Alarmists Suffering Glacier-Sized Setbacks
Global warming alarmists continue to suffer blow after blow, as more evidence comes out refuting their claims of man-made global warming. The end of 2013 marked the 17th consecutive year without global warming. Continue reading
Khartoum Meddling, Duplicity, Tribalism and the Uncertain Future of South Sudan
Although there is apparent peace in the recent civil struggle in South Sudan, the underlying causes of the civil conflict remain unsettled.
Making Good News Better: American Oil & the Outer Continental Shelf
October brought some very good news to American energy consumers. The numbers are wonderful, almost breathtaking. We’ve defeated the fashionably Malthusian theories of “peak oil” and the supposed “finiteness” of fossil fuels in a market economy. But there’s other news that we haven’t really heard – and federal policies that we’ve not pursued – that could make a more noticeable dent in heating bills and prices at the pump.
OBAMA’S ENERGY POLICY: SLOWING GROWTH HERE AND ABROAD
As a professional staff member on the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in 2011, I was able to visit several countries to check on how the U.S. Aid for International Development (USAID) agency was fulfilling its many missions. On the agency’s website is the statement, “Broad-based economic growth is essential to sustainable, long-term development. It creates the opportunities impoverished households need to raise their living standards, provides countries with the resources to expand access to basic services, and—most important of all—enables citizens to chart their own prosperous futures.” Absolutely true, and not just in “developing” parts of the Third World, but in all parts of the world as “development” is an ongoing process everywhere.
EPA in Wonderland: Fantasy and Falseness in Newest Coal Ban
Green groups swooned over the National Press Club appearance by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy, who unveiled her agency’s proposed 463-page second attempt to mandate carbon dioxide restrictions on “new” coal-fired power plants.
Back to Yucca Mountain?
In a suit brought by the states of Washington and South Carolina against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), a panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals decided 2-1 to grant a writ of mandamus against the NRC for the agency’s failure to obey 1987 amendments to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (the Act). The Department of Energy had submitted its 8,600 page Yucca license application to the NRC in June 2008, but the incoming Obama Administration, in league with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), worked to zero-out money for the program. Then, a former Reid staffer, Gregory Jaczko, even became NRC chairman, and unilaterally froze the agency staff’s evaluation of DOE’s application.
Coal liquefaction to produce clean fuels: Status and outlook
The energy used for transport is over 90 percent generated by oil, while the global amount of vehicles is increasing. The U.S. has 770 autos per 1000 people and China some 100 autos per 1000 people, a figure that might double by 2050. This means a rising demand for oil, forcing oil importing nations to search for alternative sources of energy.
Congressional Greens Taking Climate Package Home for August
Congress is beginning its August recess after a July whirlwind that subjected Washington to a multi-prong spin and promotion campaign for the White House’s announced plans to have EPA regulate carbon emission from existing coal-fired power plants.
Obama’s Climate Change Speech
President Obama’s climate change speech at Georgetown University on June 25 was heralded as something new and groundbreaking by the news media and by many in the anti-carbon “pollution” movement. Framed by White House spokespeople as part of a legacy issue, the President ordered EPA to fast track the regulation of carbon emissions from both new and existing coal-fired power plants…
Exporting Ideology: Anti-Coal Activists Open Second Front
It’s well known that that coal’s share of America’s electricity generation base has been under tremendous pressure from a squeeze play of forces. One is purely political, and based on an EPA climate change agenda that requires relentless contortions of the Clean Air Act never contemplated by Congress.
Cuban Oil Prospects Revisited
On January 18, 2011, I published on this website a report about Cuban oil prospects entitled, “Petroleum in Cuba: Current Situation and Mid-term Outlook,”.
Calling it a Day on Climate Change: Will the Supreme Court End the War on Coal?
Experts say that the spring of 2013 is cold. In fact, the month of May began as the second-coolest spring on record since 1975. That was a year after Time magazine wondered about “Another Ice Age?” in a famous June 1974 story.
Today’s Nuclear Power Moratorium
Gone was the finding that a mined geologic repository “will be available by the years 2007-2009 . . .” It was replaced by the NRC’s “reasonable assurance that at least one mined geologic repository will be available within the first quarter of the twenty-first century . . .” This was reasonable in 1990 because the official Yucca designation was relatively new, and focus had been lost between the 1982 and 1987 versions of the NWPA…
World outlook of shale gas: Slow but inevitable growth – Part IV
The spectacular growth of shale gas in the U.S. has opened the path for similar developments in other countries. The speed at which these other countries can progress could be much higher since the technology perfected in the U.S. can now be applied elsewhere.
TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline: Under Cover of Darkness
We still don’t know the answer to that question, but a critical segment of the Keystone XL Pipeline is mighty close to conclusion. The map segment referred to as the “Gulf Coast Project” is nearly complete, as a finite pipeline capable of carrying Canadian oil sands from Hardisty, Alberta to Nederland, Texas.
The impact of shale gas on the future of American energy – Part III
The shale gas boom we have described in previous articles is deeply influencing the way America’s energy picture will change in the medium term. Shale gas development has given fossil fuels a new impulse, delaying, possibly by decades, the time of their replacement by other sources of energy.
Keystone XL Pipeline: Oil for Export or American Prosperity?
TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline is back in the news with a vengeance and arrived NEAR the end game.
U.S. shale gas: The new kid on the block -Part II
Thanks to the improvement in drilling and production techniques developed jointly by the public and the private sectors during the last 20 years, shale gas is no longer an unreachable resource but a main contributor to the production of energy in the U.S.
Keystone Pipeline Oil to Cost Consumers More and Go to China?
Advocates for the Keystone XL pipeline boast that building itwill secure energy resources, diminish dependence on foreign oil and help reduce the soaring price of gasoline.
Petroleos de Venezuela
The most recent issue (November 2011) of $2.4 billion in bonds by Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) will have the main purpose of paying part of its debt to the Venezuelan Central Bank.
Geopolitics of Gas in Europe
The Nabucco natural gas pipeline project that would transport gas from the Caspian region and the Middle East to Europe, starting in Turkey and ending in Austria, began to be developed in 2004.
Politicizing Energy Independence
The problem was always one of goals. For environmentalists, alternative energy was never really about independence, it was about austerity and rationing for the good of the earth.
Alaska to Drill or Not to Drill
The discovery well in Prudhoe Bay was drilled in 1968. At the time, the field was estimated to hold about 10 billion barrels of recoverable reserves.
U.S. OCS Drilling: EPA vs Alaska
In 2010 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued Shell Offshore, Inc, an affiliate of Shell Oil Company, an air permit for exploration drilling in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea.
The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve: When and How to Use It
During the last five years the issue of U.S. energy security has fluctuated from being a top priority (2006-2008) to being less important (2009-2010) and, again, to becoming a top priority (2011).
Libya: A Political Cataclysm
By the end of February 2011 the political situation in Libya rapidly unraveled, as the grasp of Muammar Gaddafi on power weakened significantly.
China Secures Energy Resources Worldwide, Including in the U.S.
Communist China’s economy is nearly four times as large as India’s or Russia’s. With a population of over 1.3 billion and one of the highest rates of economic growth in the world, China is undertaking a massive, global hunt for sources of raw materials and energy.
Petroleum in Cuba: Current Situation and Mid-Term Outlook
Cuba currently produces about 48,000 barrels of oil per day and receives about 98,000 barrels per day of highly subsidized oil from Venezuela.
China’s Energy Development: Strategic Dominance And Exclusivity
At the July meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Washington has grown increasingly concerned about the competing claims for territory in the South China Sea.
Kremlin Stifles Pipeline Capacity
Oil is produced but it must be refined, transported and exported to become profitable. Ideally, this sequence should be guaranteed before the first stage of production begins.
U.S. Energy Policy Should Not be Based on Rare Events
In 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania suffered a cooling malfunction in its second reactor (TMI-2) which caused part of the core to melt.
Obama’s Offshore Overture
President Obama’s overture to energy-independence-minded Democrats and Republicans in Congress during his January 28 State of the Union Address was meant as an unabashed attempt at vote-getting in exchange for passage of his climate change and so-called clean energy agenda, specifically to pass “cap and trade.”
A Failing Russian Military and the Global Struggle for Energy
A seminar on the Russian Military conducted August 24th at the Washington-based Hudson Institute with panelists conveyed a picture of the Russian military being in poor shape, badly organized and burdened with obsolete weapons.
The Fiction Of Cap And Trade: Green Threat To American Prosperity And Security
The Congressional battle over health care has driven most other pending legislation off the front pages, but that doesn’t mean critical issues are not still out there.
Nabucci IGA Strengthens Europe’s Energy Security
The weakest link in the Nabucco natural gas pipeline project, which received the go ahead from five countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Turkey on July 13 in Ankara, Turkey, has been the guarantee of gas supply to the pipeline in the strategic 50-year Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA).
The Nabucco Pipeline Project: Russia And The Politics Of Natural Gas
Upon signing the definitive agreement to proceed with construction, July 13, in Ankara, Turkey, the countries participating in the pipeline consortium project: Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey will be forced to address both its technical requirements and its political complexity.
Energy and Russia’s New Cold War
In two recent articles we have described how Russian foreign policy is being built around its energy resources.
Pipelines: Russia’s New Weapons
In its efforts to increase political control over Europe Russia is utilizing new weapons, not the nuclear devices or missiles of the Cold War, but pipelines.
Russian Energy Resurgence
For many years, the Soviet Union and later Russia have been known to possess great resources of hydrocarbons, although much of it exists in extremely harsh and difficult physical environments: Siberia and the Artic Ocean.
European Energy Security: In the Paw of the Bear
Europe is becoming increasingly dependent on Russia for much of its energy requirements. The countries of the European Union already import about 80% of their oil and close to 55% of their natural gas requirements.
Caspian Oil and Gas Flows to the West Impacted by Russian-Georgian Conflict
The recent military conflict between Russia and Georgia illustrates the increasing fragility of the world energy equation.
