Last prior edition:
Casper saw a big Chamber of Commerce Drive:
April 16, 2024
The BLM's new oil and gas leasing rules has effectuated new oil and gas leasing rules for the first time since 1988.
The new rules adjust bond amounts for the first time since 1966, increase royalty rates for the first time in over a century (leasing has only been in place for a century). Bond rates will go from $10,000 to $150,000 and state-wide bonding requirement for operators with more than from $25,000 to $500,000.
Governor Gordon criticizes oil and gas rule that raises costs to producers
CHEYENNE, Wyo. –Governor Mark Gordon is criticizing an announcement from the Department of Interior last week that will increase the costs to oil and gas companies seeking to drill on federal lands. The Governor used the following statement:
“If there was any doubt, it could not be more clear now that the Department of Interior has lost its way. Within a day of announcing its renewable energy rule designed to promote the equivalent of a modern-day gold rush of development for renewables by reducing fees and rents on federal lands by 80%, Interior issued an oil and gas rule increasing costs to Wyoming’s industry by 1400%.
America surely needs more energy, including from renewable sources. What our country does not need are policies that greatly reduce the return to our nation’s taxpayers while simultaneously increasing the impacts and burdens on states and communities. We don’t need policies that increase the costs to consumers while also reducing reliability, or rules that sharpen the threat of industrializing our open spaces and crucial wildlife habitat without recognizing the importance of balance in our energy portfolio. These policies should seem misguided to most Americans of every stripe who love our country. Instead of experience and practicality, DOI has doubled down on bias, dogma, and politics. America is suffering as a result.
It is time we get back to common-sense energy policy. I will continue to fight against federal policies that are short-sighted and antagonistic to Wyoming’s industries, our workers, and our way of life. We need to build a realistic, all-of-the-above energy strategy that correctly plans a future of reliable and dispatchable power and properly accounts for – and balances – the costs and impacts of all energy sources.”
April 19, 2024
Tensions in the Middle East have jumped the price of oil back up.
April 27, 2024
Ur Energy will reopen It's in situ uranium mine and processing plant in Shirley Basin in 2026.
The UAW has entered into a tentative deal with Daimler.
Wyoming is suing the Federal government over a methane rule.
Wyoming Sues Biden Administration Over Costly and Burdensome Methane Rule
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Wyoming has joined the states of North Dakota, Montana and Texas in suing the U.S. Department of Interior and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over a new rule that undermines existing state regulatory programs and harms Wyoming oil and natural gas producers.
The suit was filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota. The rule – commonly known as the “methane waste prevention rule” and released last month – is an attempt by the Department of Interior to re-introduce a similar rule adopted by the Obama Administration in 2016. That rule was previously blocked by a Wyoming federal court.
The new rule requires oil and gas companies to pay royalties on flared gas, driving up costs for producers and resulting in increased costs to consumers, the Governor said.
“This rule is yet another example of the Biden Administration attempting to use rulemaking to undermine state authority and suffocate the oil and gas industry,” Governor Gordon said. “We will continue to defend Wyoming’s interests in court whenever they are under attack by the federal government.”
Governor Gordon has previously pointed out Wyoming is a national leader in regulating methane gas, with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission working cooperatively with oil and gas producers to reduce emissions. The states’ complaint explains that the new rule conflicts with state regulations and in certain instances, creates less stringent standards.
The states’ complaint may be found here.
In a major action, a new EPA rule may actually end coal-fired power plants by 2032. Tom Lubnau on that matter:
That would be an epic level change in electrical generation in the United States, although its something we've seen coming for a long time:
May 9, 2024
There has been a 20% reduction in the demand for Wyoming coal in the first quarter of the year.
May 14, 2024
The US has changed regulation to make construction of high tension lines easier.
The US has banned imports of Russian uranium.
May 16, 2024
Governor Gordon Outraged by BLM’s No Coal Leasing Selection in the Powder River Basin
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon responded forcefully to an announcement by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that it had selected the “No Leasing” alternative in its Buffalo Coal Resource Management Plan Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS). The BLM’s choice means it is all but determined that coal leasing in the Powder River Basin will not be permitted past 2041. The Governor’s statement follows:
“With this latest barrage in President Joe Biden’s ongoing attack on Wyoming’s coal country and all who depend upon it, he has demonstrated his lack of regard for the environment, for working people, and for reliable, dispatchable energy. This decision, compounded by the recent EPA rules, ensures President Biden’s legacy will be about blackouts and energy poverty for Wyoming’s citizens and beyond.
All the cards are on the table now. At the highest levels the Biden Administration – including Interior Secretary Haaland – have shown a complete disregard for blue-collar workers and their families; local communities and neighborhood businesses; the aspirations of local governments and economic development entities; university scientists and others diligently working on viable solutions to climate concerns; as well as the livelihoods of power plant employees and anyone who relies on dependable, affordable, and attainable electricity.
This SEIS is not about making a well-informed decision. It is about Joe Biden’s partisan, vindictive, and politically motivated war on America’s abundant, cheap, efficient, and consistent energy sources – one that holds practical and achievable goals to remove carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. This administration touts its preference for “best available science” yet only chooses to highlight the science that advances their job- and career-killing agenda.
As Governor, I am profoundly disappointed that our nation’s highest executive leadership has chosen to ignore innovation and opportunity to grovel at the feet of coastal elites. I promise that the State of Wyoming will fully utilize the opportunities available to kill or modify this Record of Decision before it is signed and final. The issues we face globally right now are too important and too urgent to dither away with incoherent policies and wrongheaded initiatives. As with the other attacks on Wyoming’s fossil fuel industries, the Attorney General is actively pursuing options to challenge these destructive decisions.”
-END-
March 17, 2024
May 21, 2024
The price of Gold has hit a new high.
Last prior edition:
US troops captured Gaeta and Itri.
Forces of the Polish resistance recovered a German V-2 rocket which they would dismantle and ship to the UK for analysis. The rocket had landed near the Bug River in a test flight.
The Communist Party USA dissolved and voted to continue as the Communist Political Association. Apparently it got over it, as there's still a Communist Party USA. They did not run a candidate for the Oval Office in 1944.
Last prior edition:
April 24, 2024
And, yes, we already have yet another edition.
First, this:
Mike Johnson, after receiving intelligence briefings on the Russia war in Ukraine and praying about it, reversed his prior position heroically. Wyoming's two Senators, who undoubtedly are not in favor of Russian winning the war in Ukraine, and who must at least suspect that voting against aid to Ukraine might mean the butchered bodies of American soldiers in Europe next year or the year thereafter, voted against it anyway.
Politicians are rarely held responsible for willfully wrong votes. Cheney was penalized by the voters for doing the right thing, but had the courage to do it anyhow. Lummis and Barrasso are doing the wrong thing so as to avoid suffering her fate. When the day comes, and if Russia prevails there's a good chance of it happening, and Russia crosses the Curzon Line, or the Balkan frontier, and the US finds itself obligated by its NATO treaty to defend Europe, assuming that Donald Trump, who hasn't upheld his oath to the Constitution, or his marital vow(s) would honor our treaty obligations, will those Wyoming politicians, who are too old to serve themselves, at least recognize that they have blood on their hands?
Probably not.
Let's look just a little bit on some of the current local races.
Senate
Lummis isn't running for reelection, but Barrasso is.
Barrasso is in political trouble as his opponent, Reid Rasner, who is from the Populist Party, is giving him a real run for the money, or so it seems. Barrasso, therefore, is running to the right of himself.
No Democrat has announced as of yet.
Wyoming House District 35
NCSD employee Christopher Dresang is running against Rep. Tony Locke, R-Casper, a Freedom Caucus member. Dresang is a Casper native who is a graduate of the Catholic school system's St. Anthony’s, and then Natrona County High School, Casper College, the University of Wyoming, and Montana State University-Bozeman. Locke, unlike many Freedom Caucus members, is actually from Wyoming and has a MS in engineering, making him all the more unusual as he's highly educated and yet apparently a populist.
Wyoming House District 56
Jerry Obermeuller, who was a really good legislator, announced last weekend he was not running for reelection and expressed the hope that a Republican (non Populist) did.
Elissa Campbell announced her run for that seat yesterday. She's a Wyoming native, unlike the numerous imports that make up the Invader wing of the Freedom Caucus, and she owns a consulting agency in Casper. She has two BA's, one in Philosophy, one in Environmental Ethics from the University of Wyoming. The press interview lacked very much useful content, and all we really know is that she's a mammal. Those who know her, however, feel that she'll be much like Obermeuller in outlook.
Wyoming House District 57
Another Wyoming native, and a former teacher, Julie Jarvis, is running against Jeanette Ward, an Illinois Populist who the Wyoming Education Association has been taking on, and a prominent member of the Invader wing. Ward is amongst the most extreme in every fashion of the Populist, and was an extreme school board member in her native state of Illinois. Ward has managed to keep her patrim fairly quiet, so nobody has every really looked at it much, even though her presentation alone has a fish out of war element to it. Jarvis is Wyoming Basque from Buffalo, and came out swinging against her.
This promises to be an interesting race as every Basque I've ever known was really smart and extremely feisty. Jarvis grew up, it might be noted, in a farming family. What kind of family Ward grew up in is a mystery.
April 30, 2024
Wyoming House District 34
Freedom Caucus member Rep. Pepper Ottman will face rancher, businessman and conservationist Reg Phillips in the primary election.
Presidential Campaign.
In a semi amusing story, I've been watching some Democrats like Robert Reich be absolutely hysterical about the Robert F. Kennedy race all season long, as they insisted that Kennedy was a Trump funded effort to draw Democratic votes away from Biden. The same logic, I'd note, applied to the No Labels effort which failed. In both instances, it always seemed to me that these efforts would draw votes away from Trump, not Biden.
Well, turns out, I'm right. In recent polls, the RFK campaign is drawing Trump voters. Well, of course it would. It features at lease one of the goofball populist elements, anti vaccines, without the boatload of moral sludge that comes out of a box of Trump Toasties. There's really nothing in the RFK effort that would draw Biden voters. There's quite a lot that might draw Trump voters who otherwise don't quite like the smell of Trump. Now, reportedly, he's targeting Trump voters.
He stands no chance of winning. But in the general election, while he'll draw some voters from Biden as well, it's really those who would otherwise feel compelled to vote for Trump that are attracted to him. And there are no doubt still a surprising number of voters who aren't Democrats, but don't like Trump, but otherwise would feel compelled to vote for Trump.
May 7, 2024
Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan has endorsed Joe Biden, stating that Trump has no moral compass.
Meanwhile, Trump, in trial in New York, seems to be cruising to be jailed for contempt of court if his current conduct keeps up.
Wyoming House District 42
Rob Geringer, s running for the state House against incumbent Freedom Caucus member Ben Hornok, stating that Wyoming's Republicans are losing their supermajoirty advantages by focusing on small differences.
Geringer is the son of the former Governor by that name.
May 9, 2024
Wyoming County Clerk's acting pursuant to requirements of the law purged 83,000 voters from the rolls, eliminating those who did not vote in the 2022 general election.
Wyoming, acting out of an imaginary fear of voter fraud where it doesn't exist, has eliminated same day registration, which means that a lot of those 83,000 that will show up to cast their votes this fall or this summer will be told to pound sand.
The Deadline to Register To Vote in the Primary is May 15.
Lots of people will ignore that. A lot of them will then bizarrely blame the Democrats.
Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has indicated he won't vote for Donald Trump, and is going to write in a Republican.
May 10, 2024
Donald Trump reportedly asked for 1B for his campaign. His campaign is noting that no quid pro quo was asked for.
May 11, 2024
Barron Trump, age 18, has declined to be a RNC delegate.
May 12, 2024
Christie Neom has been banned from two more South Dakota tribes meaning she's been banned from 20% of the landmass of her state.
RFK Jr, who previously was in favor of no restrictions on abortions, has changed his position to oppose abortion of viable infants, which is still a bloody position.
May 15, 2024
The largest Hispanic organization in the US, UnidosUS, has endorsed Joe Biden.
May 20, 2024
Tyler Cessor, executive director of the Wyoming Outdoor Council, has announced that he's running as an independent for House District 57, meaning that whoever prevails in that district, now occupied by Jeanette Ward, will face a candidate in the fall.
Cessor immediately was accused by Ward of aligning with the "radical Democrats" but it's clear that Ward is in trouble. With a 100% failure of her bills in the legislature and a record of being amongst the most populist of the "Freedom Caucus", she appears to be facing a real fight to retain her seat.
My guess, and it's just that, is that Ward will go down in the primary, and Cessor do poorly in the general.
Trump received the NRA's endorsement over the weekend. The extent to which the firearms' users organization has been extreme, so that's not surprising. What was interesting is that in a speech to the organization, Trump completely froze up when his teleprompter failed for 35 seconds. Use of a teleprompter is sadly common amongst modern politicians, and sometimes explains the poor quality of their oration, but Trump supporters have been harsh on Biden for using one.
Recent related threads:
Last prior edition:
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
Matthew, Chapter 24.
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
May 11, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
Russian forces began an offensive operation along the Russian-Ukrainian border in northern Kharkiv Oblast on the morning of May 10 and made tactically significant gains. Russian forces are likely conducting the initial phase of an offensive operation north of Kharkiv City that has limited operational objectives but is meant to achieve the strategic effect of drawing Ukrainian manpower and materiel from other critical sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces have so far launched two limited efforts in the area, one north of Kharkiv City in the direction of Lyptsi and one northeast of Kharkiv City near Vovchansk. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense (MoD) reported that Russian armored assault groups of an unspecified size attempted to break through Ukrainian defenses near Vovchansk early in the morning and that fighting continued in the area after Ukrainian forces repelled the Russian assaults.[1] Russian and Ukrainian sources stated that Russian forces also began infantry-heavy assaults between Strilecha (north of Lyptsi) and Zelene (northeast of Lyptsi) on the night of May 9 to 10.[2] Russian and Ukrainian sources reported that Russian forces significantly intensified airstrikes, shelling, and MLRS strikes against Ukrainian positions, logistics, and infrastructure ahead of and during Russian offensive operations in these areas.[3]
ISW
May 12, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
Russian troops have seized Borysivka, Ohirtseve, Pylna and Strilecha in north east Ukraine. Russia claims to have taken Pletenivka as well, but Ukraine reports fighting in ongoing in Strilecha and Pletenivka, as well as Krasne, Morokhovets, Oliinykove, Lukyantsi and Hatyshche.
May 13, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
Russia's defense minister Sergei Shoigu has been replaced with Andrei Belousov.
Ukraine warns northern front has ‘significantly worsened’
Middle Eastern War
Secretary of State Blinken made statements yesterday which were highly critical of Israel.
May 14, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
Secretary Blinkin is in Ukraine
Russia gained ground in northeaster Ukraine again yesterday.
Ukraine is deploying reservists in the area, which gets to part of the extremely odd nature of the war. Ukraine has conscription, and has used it, but up until recently it didn't dip down to the lower 20s age bracket, and moreover almost all, or maybe all, of the troops it has deployed to the front are volunteers.
This is not true, of course, of Russia.
The US has banned imports of Russian uranium.
Middle Eastern War
Hamas conducted increased attacks in northern Gaza yesterday, demonstrating that it has the ability to reconstitute.
Cont:
China v. The West
Governor Gordon Expresses Support for Decision Blocking Chinese Bitcoin Operation From Owning Land Near FE Warren Air Force Base
CHEYENNE, Wyo. –Governor Mark Gordon has issued a statement supporting an order that prevents a Chinese-backed cryptocurrency mining firm from owning land near FE Warren Air Force base. The Governor’s statement follows:
“I am acutely aware and have been monitoring the concerns of surrounding property owners, as well as the potential threats to national security that this operation posed. I am pleased that the Administration recognized the potential threat and took steps to ensure the security of our military installations and the safety of Wyoming residents. Protection of our infrastructure remains paramount to protecting our national security and must always be our highest priority.
I am also grateful to Senator Nethercott for sponsoring SF077 -Homeland defense-infrastructure reporting and investigating to help protect Wyoming's critical infrastructure from foreign threats. I signed this bill, effective July 1, because it provides clear guidance and support to counties, under the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security, to investigate land sales near critical infrastructure.”
-END-
May 16, 2024
Middle Eastern War
The US humanitarian pier in Gaza has been completed.
Russo Ukrainian War
The Russian offensive northeast of Kharkiv has slowed.
May 17, 2024
Middle Eastern War
The U.S. House voted to force President Biden to send arms to Israel.
May 20, 2024
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
A coup attempt was put down over the weekend.
Iran
Iranian President and hardliner Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash with other members of the Iranian cabinet.
Last prior edition:
An interesting article:
The Allies took Gasta Itri, Monte Grande, Pico and n the Aquino airfield, in the Liri Valley.
Task Group 58.2 raided Marcus Island.
The Republican primary process concluded with the Oregon Primary. Dewey was the nominee.
Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca in the original Star Wars, was born.
Last prior edition:
Congress overrode President Coolidge's veto of the World War Adjusted Compensation Act.
I can't say that act was a big surprise.
An image was transmitted by telephone line for the first time. Over two hours, 15 photographic images were transmitted by AT&T from Cleveland to New York City.
Korean nationalist tried, but failed, to assassinate Japanese Governor General of Korea Makoto Saito. The attempt was a clumsy one, involving firing on Saito's boat from the Chinese side of the Yalu.
Dr. Roscoe R. Spencer, after giving himself some time prior his own vaccine for Rocky Mountain Tick Fever, injected himself with "a large does of mashed wood ticks" and did not die, proving that the vaccine worked.
Today it would inspire a bunch of countervailing extreme theories.
Turkey and the United Kingdom failed to reach an accord on the Mosul Question, i.e., who owned the region.
The Royal Australian Air Force completed the first aerial circumnavigation of the continent with a Fairey IIID.
Last prior edition:Apparently, the Bibles that Trump has been selling omit the deuterocanonical books. No surprise, as Trump claims to be a Protestant and his religion's backing is primarily from Evangelicals, who follow Luther's dislike of them, Luther's reasons for having omitted them now proven to be based on a misunderstanding though they may be.
However, the omission of all the amendments to the US Constitution following the Bill of Rights, which is included in the Bibles he's selling, is a bit harder to grasp.
Of course, why the US Constitution would be included with the Bible, along with The Pledge of Allegiance and the lyrics of God Bless The USA, is also hard to understand.
And in more ways than one.
The Germans had withdrawn, leaving only 30 men too wounded to be moved. The Poles were the first Allied troops in the monastery.
It would be rebuilt.
Stalin ordered the Crimean Tartars deported from their homeland. The action was carried out on the excuse that some Tartars had collaborated with the Germans, which was actually true of every Soviet ethnicity, including, in large numbers, the Russians. Repression of the Tartars would carry on for decades after the war, and the disaster has never been sufficiently redressed.
The Admiralty Islands Campaign and the Battle of Wakde ended in Allied victories.
Gerd von Runstedt as Commander in Chief of German forces in the west.
Von Runstedt was an old soldier by this point, having been born in 1875 and having entered the Prussian Army in 1892. Like MacArthur in the U.S. Army, he'd retired before the war, having left service in 1938, although he was five years older than MacArthur, who was old for a U.S. Army commander. An erasable character, he was not personally fond of Hitler, knew of plots to kill him which he kept to himself, but would not participate in them as he felt the concept disloyal.
After the war he was imprisoned for four years and upon his release found himself separated from his wife due to the division of Germany. She was in the American Zone of occupation, but he could not secure permission to visit her, as the US was upset by the British decision to release him. He died in 1953 at age 77.
It can be argued that his decision not to support the July 20 plotters was instrumental in the coup's failure.
Last prior edition:
Kīlauea erupted in Hawaii.
The last Olympic rugby union game was played, with the United States defeating France 17 to 3.
Last prior edition:
