Oil prices are swinging dramatically, with recent peaks pushing close to a major milestone: $100 a barrel.
The possibility of Russia invading Ukraine is the driving force, but there's more at play than the risk of war. And complicating predictions further, the possibility of a deal with Iran is hovering in the background.
Here's what to know as crude prices hover within striking distance of the triple digits last seen in 2014.
The report recommends hiking federal royalty rates for oil and gas drilling, which have not been raised for 100 years. The federal rate of 12.5% that developers must pay to drill on public lands is significantly lower than many states and private landowners charge for drilling leases on state or private lands.
The report also said the government should consider raising bond payments that energy companies must set aside for future cleanup before they drill new wells. Bond rates have not been increased in decades, the report said.
The Bureau of Land Management, an Interior Department agency, should focus leasing offers on areas that have moderate to high potential for oil and gas resources and are close to existing oil and gas infrastructure, the report said.
In a single day, these bubbling mudboils spew 20 tons of silt and sand into the creek and all the way down into Onondaga Lake. The sediment causes a number of problems beyond making the stream unsuitable for trout. It builds up to 4 feet near the lake, which could be causing some of the flooding in Syracuse seen in the past few years. It also flows into Onondaga Lake, degrading water quality in a lake that the county and Honeywell have poured at least $1 billion into cleaning up.
The result was the accelerated discharge from increasingly active mudboils. A mudboil is not a common phenomenon in nature. It is quite rare, occurring only where pressurized groundwater penetrates upward through overlying materials with enough velocity to transport sediments along with it. Mudboils are so rare that scientists have been coming to Onondaga Creek to study them for decades, providing ample information over time. ?The first documented mudboil erupted in Tully Valley in the late 1880s, just years after solution mining began.? And since most of this pressured water was passing through the deep salt chambers, the Tully mudboils are particularly unique because over time they came to reflect the brine pressure source and became very salty.
There may be “no collusion” between individuals with disabilities ♿ and the oil industry, but the big oil companies, that are depending on an ever expanding amount of disposable plastics to sell their product, 🛢are leaning on disabled people to make the case against corporations voluntary dropping the use of plastic straws in their products.
Useful idiots aren’t bad people per se, but they have their own interests hijacked by other special interests to propagandize their ideas. They are called useful idiots, because the policies they are advocating could be done in a cheaper way that doesn’t benefit those exploiting them.
Plastic straws are inexpensive — if person with a disability need them, they could bring them along in their bag. 👜 Reusable ones are a great alternative to disposable ones. Or restaurants could also offer them just upon request. It’s not expensive or difficult to have 10 of them in a cabinet for that one time a year they are requested. It’s a lot less waste then giving them out to every patron. But just because some people have disabilities, there is no reason for every restaurant to offer every patron a plastic straw even when they don’t need one.
I am sure many people in disabilities community, feel awful about being taken advantage of by the big oil companies. 😠But those in disabilities communities that do the propagandizing for big oil should be called out, 📢 and explained to why their actions are morally wrong.
Big Oil is standing on the precipice of something. But no one can agree what it is. A long, slow decline? An abrupt collapse? A remarkable reinvention?
Mounting urgency about climate change has finally reached the boardrooms of Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell and other international oil companies. Under intense pressure, these companies are universally pledging to prepare for a low-carbon or "lower-carbon" future. The Week That Shook Big Oil Business The Week That Shook Big Oil
But there's no consensus what a future with less oil would look like for companies that have been greatly enriched by the fossil fuels driving climate change.