Links tagged “gnd”

Reuters: The Biden administration on Tuesday unveiled more than 700,000 acres it plans to auction to oil and gas drillers as it seeks to comply with a U.S. federal court order directing the government to resume its leasing program. The move represents a setback for Democratic President Joe Biden’s plans to fight climate change, which included a campaign vow to end new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters. Biden had paused drilling auctions after taking office in January pending an analysis of their impacts on the environment and value to taxpayers. In June, however, a federal judge in Louisiana ordered a resumption of auctions, saying the government was required by law to offer acreage to the oil and gas industry. […] The Interior Department was expected to unveil details for an offshore auction in the Gulf of Mexico later on Tuesday. #

In 2019, the top six primary energy-producing states—Texas, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and North Dakota—accounted for 55 quadrillion British thermal units (quads), or 55% of all of the primary energy produced in the United States.

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Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, State Energy Data System

Rare earth metals in Afghanistan were estimated to be worth anywhere between $1 trillion and $3 trillion in 2020.

Only hours after the Taliban overran Afghanistan, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said Beijing was ready for “friendly cooperation with Afghanistan.”

China has dominated the rare earths market globally and threatened to cut off supplies to the U.S. during the trade war in 2019. About 35% of rare earth global reserves are in China, the most in the world, according to the United States Geological Survey. The country is also a mining machine, producing 120,000 metric tons or 70% of total rare earths in 2018, compared to the U.S. which mined 15,000 metric tones of rare earths the same year, it said. U.S. reserves also pale in comparison to China. The U.S. has a total of 1.4 million metric tons of reserves, versus 44 million metric tons of reserves in China.

The U.S. was heavily dependent on China for rare earths in 2019, when the Asian country was exporting 80% of U.S. needs, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.