A Free-Market Energy Blog

Federal Oil and Gas Well Bonding: Undoing Biden

By Timothy Terrell -- September 1, 2026

“BLM is proposing to shift the state bonding minimums back to what they were prior to 2024, consistent with the White House’s intent to reduce regulatory barriers to energy production…. The large majority of oil and gas well operators are responsible, and it makes no sense to treat them all as though they were reckless and financially unstable.”

The Biden Administration enacted hundreds of punitive actions against the domestic oil and gas industry. The Trump Administration has worked to reverse this overreach. The latest reversal concerns a Bureau of Land Management’s proposal to lower statewide bonding on oil and gas leases from $500,000 to $25,000.

In protest, the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN) and other left-of-center environmental organizations claim that companies will be incited to abandon wells and stick taxpayers with the cleanup bill.…

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Energy & Environmental Review: August 31, 2026

By -- August 31, 2026

This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a free fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. Droz is also the author of the popular Substack Critically Thinking About Select Societal Issues.

Unreliables (General):
*** Grid Instability
Geopolitical Reality Has Ended the Rush to Renewables
The Renewable Data Center Fantasy
New York’s New Solar Religion is Absolutely Devastating to Wildlife, Farmland

Nuclear Energy:
America is Watching the World’s Movement to Nuclear Power Generation
Billion-dollar machine aims to set a fusion-energy record — and study nuclear weapons

Fossil Fuel Energy:
*** Trump announces ‘biggest oil deal in world history,’ says it will substantially lower gas prices
*** Why Gasoline Costs More in Democratic-Controlled States
Trump administration to pay German firm to halt US wind projects – and ‘re-invest’ in gas schemes
Yes, Coal Clearly Has A Future

Electric Vehicles (EVs):
They were told to park outside – then their cars burst into flames

Miscellaneous Energy News:
*** Shockingly vulnerable US power grid could result in 18-month nationwide blackout, expert warns
*** Energy War: Iran, China, AI and the fight to control the future
*** A sort talk: Meredith Angwin and the Two Grids in the Hudson Valley
Battery System Capital & Operating Costs, Energy Losses and Aging
Hydrogen: Not Market Ready

Manmade Global Warming — Miscellaneous:
*** Climate ‘Experts’ Are 0-54 with Their Doomsday Predictions
*** Climatologist Says a Century of Weather Data Contradicts Claims of Record Heat
*** Net Zero Won’t Fix Climate Change.

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Adapt, Europe (stop whining)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 28, 2026

“Crank up the cooling.” (WSJ, below)

It is adaptation time. Mitigation has failed, and no policy change, however radical, can affect global or regional climate for decades, if ever. As stated in a recent article in the New York Times:

Climate change means that the issue is most likely here to stay. Across Europe, “we think the summers are hot now,” said Joan Ballester Claramunt, a research professor at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health who focuses on climate change and health. “The future that we’re seeing, it could be much worse.”

So why didn’t the alarmist community push for A/C and other appliances to cool the air during the summer peak? They warned about ‘hothouse Earth’ but did nothing about it.

Did climate mitigation policy work against adaptation directly and indirectly?…

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“We Don’t Have Time” (climate pity party)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 27, 2026
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Peak Gas, Peak Demand? McKibben in Fantasy Land

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 26, 2026
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Renewables: Energy Addition, not Substitution (a retreating narrative)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 25, 2026
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AI: Peak Demand and Peak Supply Postponed (fossil future)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 24, 2026
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The 1970s Oil Crisis: Never Forget

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 21, 2026
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Psychedelics for Climate Action (12,000 cultists)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 20, 2026
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Blue States. High Rates ($0.55/gallon premium)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 19, 2026
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