March 16, 2020 archive

Congressman uses “telework” to keep office open for business

Congressman Tom Cole (OK-04) announced Monday that while the U.S. House of Representatives is not in session, his staff in Washington, D.C. will continue office operations by telework. “Out of caution and to protect everyone’s health and safety in the midst of the public health emergency posed by COVID-19, staff in my D.C. office will …

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New Mexico fights President’s move to revise NEPA

While some Oklahomans in congress side with the President and his efforts to revise the National Environmental Policy Act, the state of New Mexico has come out against those efforts. New Mexico leaders have joined opposition to the administration’s plans to change the federal law that requires environmental studies be conducting during the construction of …

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Montana Faces Youth Lawsuit Over Its Energy Policy

  Teenagers in Montana have gone to court against their state’s energy policy saying Montana relies too heavily on fossil-fuel development and causes climate change. The lawsuit was filed Friday in Montana’s Lewis and Clark County District Court. The complaint claims the state’s energy policy is infringing on the youths’ constitutional right to a clean …

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Energy news in brief

** Conservation groups are cheering a federal judge’s finding last week that federal agencies improperly authorized hydraulic fracturing in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest. ** Oil giant Saudi Aramco reported its profits dropped 20% in 2019 to $88.2 billion, a sharp decline coming as the kingdom stands ready to flood an already-weakened global energy market amid the new …

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Chesapeake urges president to waive transport Act

Oklahoma City’s Chesapeake Energy is among those U.S. oil and gas companies that could benefit if the Trump administration waived a law that mandates only American vessels can be used in transporting goods among US ports. The American Exploration and Production Council sent a letter to congressional leaders asking them to support a temporary waiver …

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Confusion over whether Biden joins call to ban fracking in US

  Confusion reigns over the Sunday night Democratic presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders and whether Biden came out of the closet in support of banning fracking. At first it sounded as though he had joined Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren who had earlier called for a total fracking ban in the …

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County at St. Jo, Missouri bans wind farms

  County Commissioners in St. Joseph, Missouri have approved a total ban on commercial wind energy farms in their county. Buchanan County Commissioners took the move after their Planning and Zoning Commission recommended the action.   The Planning and Zoning Commission held a work session on Feb. 19 and recommended the total ban by a …

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Whiting Petroleum cuts spending over oil price war

Denver-based Whiting Petroleum Corporation has joined the growing list of oil and gas exploration companies that have cut capex budgets for the remainder of the year because of the oil price war and weak demand as a result of the coronavirus. Whiting cut its capital budget by 30% or about $185, leaving a new budget …

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