Free Republic

Its a tough time for hundreds of coal miners across southwest Virginia. That's because they're getting pink slips from A & G Coal, which is owned by Southern Coal Company. Mark Whooten is a spokesman for Southern Coal. He told News 5 who made the decision. "These layoffs are a decision by our corporate headquarters. They are market driven due to metallurgical coal market fluctuating violently at the present time." The company wouldn't tell us how many jobs they have cut, but we do know its sizeable according to the manager of the local employment office, Gary Hale. "On Monday...

Justice Samuel Alito seemed none too pleased last week with the government’s argument in a case pitting property owners against the Environmental Protection Agency. Four years ago, Mike and Chantell Sackett bought property to build their dream home near a lake in Idaho. After obtaining local permits the Sacketts began work, pouring in some land fill. But their work came to a screeching halt when they were visited by officials from the Environmental Protection Agency. The couple was slapped with a compliance order asserting that the land is subject to the Clean Water Act and that they had illegally placed...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The most detailed data yet on emissions of heat-trapping gases show that U.S. power plants are responsible for the bulk of the pollution blamed for global warming. Power plants released 72 percent of the greenhouse gases reported to the Environmental Protection Agency for 2010, according to information released Wednesday that was the first catalog of global warming pollution by facility. The data include more than 6,700 of the largest industrial sources of greenhouse gases, or about 80 percent of total U.S. emissions. According to an Associated Press analysis of the data, 20 mostly coal-fired power plants in...

In an apparent attempt to shore up support from environmentalists ahead of the presidential election, President Barack Obama made a trip to the Environmental Protection Agency to thank employees for what he said was the “historic progress” they’ve made in protecting the environment. “You protect the environment not just for our children but their children, and keep us moving toward energy independence,” Mr. Obama said in a speech to about 200 employees at the EPA’s headquarters in D.C. The president also sought to tamp down criticism from some business groups and Republican presidential candidates that environmental regulations hamper economic growth....

Since 2007, Mike and Chantell Sackett have been fighting to build their dream home on the Idaho lot they bought years ago. The Sacketts say they had gotten local permits and spent thousands prepping the land for construction - then the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) showed up. The EPA told the Sacketts their property contained wetlands and issued a compliance order mandating that they return it to its original state or risk facing fines starting at $37,500 per day. The Sacketts say they were stunned, and asked the EPA for a hearing on the matter. The agency denied their request,...

The government’s actions in a dispute between the Environmental Protection Agency and a husband and wife targeted by the agency when they bought a residential lot in Idaho and started building their dream home are both “outrageous” and “very strange.” There were comments today from justices on the U.S. Supreme Court about the Environmental Protection Agency’s actions in a fight with Mike and Chantell Sackett, of Priest Lake, Idaho. Their case began in 2005 when the Sacketts were working on their dream home. Their land, purchased for $23,000, is about two-thirds of an acre and is about 500 feet from...

Will President Obama’s Thursday address be the worst speech ever? Kevin Hassett almost thinks so: It might be that this jobs report stimulates the Obama team to drop all the Keynesian nonsense, but I doubt it. Frankly, I expect Obama’s jobs speech to be the worst presidential speech in my lifetime. I don’t know how old Kevin is, but my lifetime stretches back to Jimmy Carter’s “malaise� speech of 1979. The Washington Post‘s David Nakamura remembers it, too: Obama is not Carter. But when asked if there were historical parallels between the high stakes Obama is facing in his...

Energy: It won't matter which light bulbs we use as the administration's implementation of cross-state pollution rules shuts down coal plants across the country. Where will the jobs be when the lights go out? It's called the Cross-State Pollution Rule, announced last month, and its implementation over the next 18 months will likely result in the loss of a fifth of the nation's electricity-generating capacity. The result will be likely power shortages, skyrocketing rates and inevitable brownouts and rolling blackouts. Based on Bush-era EPA proposals that the federal courts threw out in 2008, this latest example of legislation is designed...

We’ve had the opportunity to previously discuss the Obama administration’s proposed changes to CAFE standards for the nation’s fleet of passenger vehicles and the downstream effects this will have on auto prices and jobs. Never satisfied with half measures in “helping� us in this struggling economy, the White House has apparently decided to double down and apply similar new standards to long haul, big rig trucks now. WASHINGTON–President Obama announced the first-ever fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for long-haul rigs, work trucks, and other heavy duty vehicles Tuesday, the second mileage pact with manufacturers in less than a month.The...

This column was co-authored by Niger Innis From New York, Washington and Atlanta to Chicago, St. Louis and Dallas, America is baking in a furnace. As millions swelter and gasp, they thank their lucky stars for air-conditioned cars, homes, offices and other places of refuge. And for the reliable, affordable electricity that makes AC possible. Previous generations weren’t so fortunate. When a record heat wave slammed the nation in July 1936, Midwest temperatures hit 100-107 for a week. With most homes and businesses lacking even fans in this pre-AC era, millions suffered heat prostration. In Wisconsin, 449 died. Nationwide, thousands...

President Obama wants to control all the land and all the water in the United States. Legislation that would have deleted the word "navigable" from the federal Clean Water Act and given the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers jurisdiction over every drop of moisture in the country crashed and burned last Congress, ending the 36-year congressional career of its lead sponsor, Jim Oberstar, in the process. But Obama's EPA, as usual, won't take no for an answer, and is now attempting to ignore two Supreme Court decisions, commonsense, and the American people and vastly expand federal Clean Water Act...

HOUSTON– Nearly 140 Texas plants, including some of the nation’s largest refineries, have reached a deal with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to receive new permits even though a long-standing battle between the Lone Star State and the federal agency is far from over.The EPA’s announcement Tuesday that it reached a deal for all 136 companies to apply for new permits came more quickly than initially expected when the agency ruled last year that Texas’ so-called “flexible permits” violated the federal Clean Air Act. At the time, Texas blasted the EPA ruling, challenging it in court and saying

<p>With 9.1% unemployment and gasoline prices in the stratosphere, President Obama must sometimes wish that some big corporation would suddenly show up and offer a shovel-ready, multibillion-dollar project to create 100,000 jobs and reduce U.S. reliance on oil from dictatorships.</p>

In January 2008 Barack Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle: “Under my plan of a cap and trade system electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Businesses would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that cost onto consumers.” He promised that his plan would cause electricity rates to skyrocket. He wasn’t kidding. In January, 2011 the Obama Administration, for the first time ever, blocked an already approved bid to build one of the largest mountaintop removal coal mines in Appalachian history. And, today it was reported that Obama’s energy plans will cause electricity rates to necessarily...

The EPA's New MoveIs the NAT GAS Act an EPA Trojan horse? The debate over the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act of 2011, or NAT GAS Act, has focused mostly on the question of whether the federal government should use hefty subsidies — $64,000 per truck — to interfere with the free-market allocation of resources. On that point, a surprisingly large number of Republicans are siding with their central-planning-advocate colleagues on the other side of the aisle. But why are so many Democrats enamored with big corporate-welfare giveaways to the natural-gas industry in the first place? The...

By WILLIE SOON AND PAUL DRIESSEN The Environmental Protection Agency recently issued 946 pages of new rules requiring that U.S. power plants sharply reduce their (already low) emissions of mercury and other air pollutants. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson claims that while the regulations will cost electricity producers $10.9 billion annually, they will save 17,000 lives and generate up to $140 billion in health benefits. There is no factual basis for these assertions. To build its case against mercury, the EPA systematically ignored evidence and clinical studies that contradict its regulatory agenda, which is to punish hydrocarbon use. Mercury has always...

You can't make this up.  First, a Spotted Owl destroyed the timber industry of the Pacific Northwest, then a minnow turned the most productive agricultural land in the world into a dustbowl, and now, as energy prices spike and the economy sputters, they're going after Texas with a scurrilous reptile.    Specifically, the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard.  That's the latest more-important-than-people critter being used to lock-up resources in the name of planet Earth.  The drilling moratorium didn't cause enough pain, so onto the Endangered Species Act - known at the Sierra Club as "Ol' Reliable" - to make certain Texas has...

EPA: ‘Nothing to fear’ on climate regs By Andrew Restuccia - 04/26/11 10:43 AM ET Environmental Protection Administrator Lisa Jackson said Tuesday that the public has no reason to fear the agency’s pending climate regulations. “I believe there is nothing to fear from common-sense use of the Clean Air Act to begin to put this country in the direction of moving towards addressing our greenhouse gas emissions,” Jackson said during remarks at an energy conference in Washington. The EPA has begun phasing in greenhouse gas standards for new and modified power plants and refineries. The regulations have come under attack...

Shell Oil Company has announced it must scrap efforts to drill for oil this summer in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coast of Alaska. The decision comes following a ruling by the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board to withhold critical air permits. The move has angered some in Congress and triggered a flurry of legislation aimed at stripping the EPA of its oil drilling oversight. Shell has spent five years and nearly $4 billion dollars on plans to explore for oil in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The leases alone cost $2.2 billion. Shell Vice President Pete Slaiby says obtaining...

A story broke yesterday concerning the retrofit of more than 100 trucks from Mexico that do not meet United States environmental standards. Our federal government is paying to upgrade these trucks, yet when the state of California and the EPA set new rules for US-owned trucks, they fine companies who do not comply. This post is not about the environment, it concerns how US trucking companies are treated by the federal and state government as compared to Mexican-owned rigs. From AzCentral.com. For air-quality regulators, the border creates a legal barrier. State and federal agencies can’t force vehicles manufactured and bought...

The right to own private property unfettered by excessive government control is under attack in Virginia. Private property is a fundamental right that distinguishes us as a free people, The framers of the constitution understood the importance of protecting private property rights. The Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights states, “No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.” (Related: Agenda 21 Resource Page and also The Path To Agenda 21 Sustainable Development) Despite constitutional protection against property confiscation, state...

The plot thickens: White House aides Monday were mum about what would happen to the Office of Energy and Climate Change except to declare that Browner, a former Senate staffer to Al Gore, believed energy issues would remain front and center for the president. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/48098.html#ixzz1C1zPcOwb One wonders now if Obama will even mention climate during the State of the Union Address Tuesday night. With jobs and economy taking front and center and Browner’s announcement right before SOTUA, government climate initiatives may be relegated to the back-burner. We’ll have to wait and see.And it gets stranger, Haunting the Library...

E.P.A. Faces First Volley From the House By JOHN M. BRODER Green: Politics The newly empowered Republicans in the House aren’t wasting any time making good on their pledge to throttle the Environmental Protection Agency. On the first full day of legislative business, House Republicans introduced measures on Wednesday to block the environmental agency’s proposed regulation of greenhouse gases and new rules limiting toxic air emissions from cement factories. The bills represent what is certain to be a concerted effort by the new House majority to address what they consider to be burdensome environmental rules, part of a broader assault...

After failing to get climate-change legislation through Congress, the Obama administration plans on pushing through its environmental policies through other means, and Republicans are ready to put up a fight. On Jan. 2, new carbon emissions limits will be put forward as the Environmental Protection Agency prepares regulations that would force companies to get permits to release greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Critics say the new rules are a backdoor effort to enact the president's agenda on global warming without the support of Congress, and would hurt the economy and put jobs in jeopardy by forcing companies to...

On December 23, 2010, the EPA issued a series of rules that put the necessary regulatory framework in place to ensure that industrial facilities can get Clean Air Act (CAA) permits covering their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when needed and ensure that facilities emitting GHGs at levels below those established in the Tailoring Rule do not need to obtain CAA permits. The agency says these actions will ensure that the largest industrial facilities can get CAA permits that cover GHG emissions beginning in January 2011. These actions are part of EPA’s common sense approach to GHG permitting outlined in the...

The Obama administration is expected to roll out a major greenhouse gas policy for power plants and refineries as soon as Wednesday, signaling it won’t back off its push to fight climate change in the face of mounting opposition on Capitol Hill. The Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to a schedule for setting greenhouse gas emission limits, known as “performance standards,� for the nation’s two biggest carbon-emitting industries, POLITICO has learned. Under the schedule agreed to by EPA, states and environmental groups, the agency will issue a draft greenhouse gas performance standard for power plants by July 2011 and a final...

In 2010, the EPA granted exactly two new coal mining permits in West Virginia. There are fifty outstanding permits, because according to the EPA, bugs are more important than jobs. Mayfly populations are disrupted when coal companies dig beneath the surface of the earth, which the EPA says affects the amount of food and thus the populations of indigenous fish. Other research has indicated that as soon as those bugs leave, other ones take their place, and fish populations are unaffected. As the result of this standoff, coal cannot expand in Appalachia, and some of the highest paying jobs in...

With reports predicting brutally-cold weather to envelop much of the U.S. in the coming weeks, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations could make it harder for Americans to stay warm. According to the National Center for Public Policy, the EPA’s regulatory war on greenhouse gas emissions will drastically increase costs for the majority of Americans who get their heat generated from coal. Coal happens to be the chief emitter of carbon dioxide and other pollutants, making it the EPA’s public enemy number one. And in absence of a comprehensive energy bill, the agency’s strategy has instead been to regulate and cap...

Getting a grip on the Environmental Protection Agency must be at the top of the upcoming Republican-controlled House’s “To Do” list. Of immediate concern are the EPA rules for regulating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Unless stopped by a federal court, the Obama EPA will implement on Jan. 2 a flagrantly illegal scheme to regulate emissions from power plants and other large emitters. This enactment will kill jobs and raise the prices of energy, and thus of all good and services. The Obama administration originally designed the scheme as a regulatory sword of Damocles to pressure Congress and industry into agreeing...

It's high time we recognize that carbon dioxide has been treated unfairly. Not only have the good deeds of that wonderful molecule so essential to rain forests, begonias and plants that feed God's creatures been ignored, it has even come to be demonized as an endangering pollutant and climate-ravaging menace. What real evidence has been offered up to support these defamatory charges? Absolutely none. Take the EPA's CO-2 endangerment finding, for example. Shrouded under the ever- expanding blanket of the Clean Air Act, it is being applied to validate an unprecedented regulatory takeover of carbon-emitting energy and construction industry permitting....

Environmental activists are pressing the Obama administration to ban the manufacture, processing and distribution lead shot, bullets, and fishing sinkers under the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, but hunting and Second Amendment groups say the EPA lacks the authority to do so, for starters. A petition submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency on Aug. 3 says ammunition and tackle manufacturers are now marketing a wide variety of non-lead, nontoxic bullets, shotgun pellets and fishing tackle, which can and should be used instead of lead projectiles and weights. “There is no technological or commercial reason why nontoxic ammunition and fishing...

The Environmental Protection Agency has rejected 10 petitions -- including one filed by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli -- challenging the climate science research it is using to formulate regulations limiting manmade greenhouse gas emissions. The petitions asked the EPA to reconsider its finding and reopen its hearings on the subject, arguing that the methodology and conclusions of the climate science research used by the agency were flawed and unverifiable. "After months of serious considerations of the petitions and of the state of climate change science, EPA finds no evidence to support these claims," the agency said in a statement....

The Environmental Protection Agency Thursday rejected an effort to keep it from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, saying that e-mails released in last fall’s “Climategate” scandal gave it no reason to reconsider the science of global warming. In a sternly written opinion, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said she didn’t agree with requests from the GOP attorneys general from Texas and Virginia, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other conservative groups that questioned the underlying science linking humans to global warming and also warned of the potential economic burdens from new climate rules. Jackson said the groups’ arguments lack merit. “These petitions...

NAVARRE, Fla. -- British Petroleum says its latest fix is working to stop the oil leak, but it doesn't look like it. More oil is spewing out and more tar balls are washing ashore on Florida beaches. Now, people are frustrated crews are standing around instead of cleaning them up. Crews are working for only five minutes at a time to clean up the tar balls, because it's so hot to work on the beach. They have to follow federal rules and take lots of breaks.

Leading U.S. independent refiner Valero Energy Corp faulted the decision. San Antonio-based Valero has six Texas refineries, the most owned by a single company. The plants employ 2,700 people. "When the flex permit program was rolled out in 1994, EPA and environmental groups applauded it, and EPA approval seemed implicit," said Valero spokesman Bill Day in a statement. "Now, 16 years later, EPA is reversing course, and our facilities are caught in the middle, creating significant uncertainty at a time when our economy can least afford it."

Politics: The Senate just claimed the title of the world's most delusional body by refusing to strip unelected EPA bureaucrats of the power to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant. This was the day freedom died. One wonders why we have a Congress at all. The 53 profiles in cowardice that could not get a cap-and-tax bill through the U.S. Senate voted Thursday to let the Environmental Protection Agency keep the unprecedented power Congress did not expressly give it. It is power that the EPA arrogated to itself through regulation to control every aspect of the American economy and our...

Overregulation: The Senate votes on blocking a government bureaucracy from usurping power never delegated to it by Congress. This administration may put Copenhagen above the Constitution, but we the people have other plans. The GOP's 1994 "Contract with America," a gift that keeps on giving, hopefully will rescue us once again from the clutches of an unelected bureaucracy, the Environmental Protection Agency, which has been allowed by the Supreme Court to regulate every breath we take and every machine we operate. When cap-and-tax legislation was introduced in Congress, the Obama administration threatened that if Congress failed to act, the EPA...

Take a gander at the EPA website. Air Data >> Air monitoring conducted through May 21, 2010, has found that air quality on the Gulf coastline is normal for this time of year. Water Data >> Water samples collected along the Gulf coast through May16, 2010 did not reveal elevated levels of chemicals usually found in oil. Sediment Data >> The sediment samples collected through May 16, 2010 along the Gulf coast did not reveal elevated levels of chemicals usually found in oil.

If I had told you five years ago that this government would bypass the Congress — and thus you — and go through the EPA to get climate change done, by having them declare that when you exhale you poison the air, you wouldn't have believed it. And, if I had added that the government is going to merge with churches under Democrats, you'd have said I was stark raving insane. That's is why I told you this, a couple of months ago: (BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) GLENN BECK RADIO PROGRAM: I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or...

Contact Information: Dave Ryan (News Media Only) Ryan.dave@epa.gov 202-564-7827 202-564-4355 WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched an online map that shows the locations of federal air and water enforcement actions in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The map is part of EPA’s increased focus on enforcement of federal pollution laws in the Chesapeake Bay region, including a new strategy of targeting geographic areas and pollution sources contributing the greatest amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment to streams, creeks, rivers and the bay. Improving water quality is one of EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s top priorities. “Transparency and accountability...

A Democratic congressman is seeking to strip the word "navigable" from the 1972 Clean Water Act to allow the Environmental Protection Agency to surpass the limits imposed by a 2001 Supreme Court ruling on the kinds of waterways the agency can regulate. A Democratic congressman is seeking to strip the word "navigable" from the 1972 Clean Water Act to allow the Environmental Protection Agency to surpass the limits imposed by a 2001 Supreme Court ruling on the kinds of waterways the agency can regulate.

EPA mandate New renovation rules to push up costs BY ALESHIA HOWE April 12, 2010 Renovation companies nationwide are preparing for a new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s mandate beginning April 22 and local experts say homeowners should be prepared to see a higher bill because of it. According to the EPA’s new Renovation Repair and Paint rule, beginning on April 22 builders performing renovation, repair and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in homes, child care facilities and schools built before 1978 must be EPA certified and must follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination. “Some things won’t change,...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed several changes to its greenhouse gas (GHG) registry, a new mandatory program requiring thousands of facilities economy-wide to monitor and report their emissions of global warming gases. EPA is proposing to add oil and natural gas facilities and facilities that inject carbon dioxide (CO2) underground for storage, along with other facilities. EPA also wants to collect additional data from all covered businesses to get a better understanding of emissions at the corporate level and within whole industry sectors, not just by facility. Overall the changes would strengthen the registry and provide the agency...

The Environmental Protection Agency wants to dump more corn into your fuel tank this summer, and it's going to cost more than you think. The agency is expected to approve a request from 52 ethanol producers known collectively as "Growth Energy" to boost existing requirements that gasoline contain 10 percent ethanol to 15 percent. The change means billions more in government subsidies for companies in the business of growing corn and converting it into ethanol. For the rest of us, it means significantly higher gasoline and food prices. It's time that this shameless corporate welfare gets plowed under. In 2007,...

CHARLESTON, W.Va., April 2 – CHARLESTON, W.Va., April 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Thursday mandated a totally new and virtually unattainable water quality standard for all coal mining permits across Appalachia in a move that threatens thousands of jobs and the economic future of mining communities. The announcement comes days after the EPA began the veto process for an already approved permit for the Spruce No.1 mine in Logan County, WV. The EPA has only used this veto authority 12 times since 1972, and has never used its authority to veto an existing permit. "Thursday's EPA...

So much for the spectacle of Democrats and Republicans fighting their way through Congress over the future of Cap and Trade energy legislation. Thanks to EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson in little noticed press releases from March 29 and April 1, the “final decision” that “greenhouse gases (GHGs)” and “carbon pollution” will be regulated (taxed) by the federal government is complete and the imposition of “construction and operating permit requirements for the largest emitting facilities will begin.”

(CNSNews.com) – Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said her agency’s inaugural regulations on greenhouse gas emissions on cars were only “the first” of such regulations, promising that her agency would move “deliberately” to institute regulations in other areas of the economy as well. Speaking to reporters on a conference call on Thursday to announce the new regulations on cars and light trucks, Jackson explained that – for now – the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was only regulating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from cars and light trucks. “These are the first regulations that cover greenhouse gas emissions in the United...

Abandoning all loyalty to the democratic processes this nation holds dear, President Obama has made the decision that getting energy tax legislation through Congress with the approval of the American people is just too much of a pain to bother with. Instead he will have the EPA declare as early as next week that CO2 is a dangerous global warming gas and will start regulating its emissions immediately. Obama’s promise to open up vast stretches of ocean on the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico to energy exploration is simply a ruse to soften up the public for soon to...

Voter anger is building on issues beyond ObamaCare. The large group of people already angry over runaway spending and ObamaCare are now being joined by those angry at the EPA for moving forward with controls on greenhouse gases without congressional action -- and without considering the economic impact on the economy. Like the Tea Party movement, this group cuts across geographical and political lines. A bipartisan mix of eighteen governors signed a letter to congressional leaders last week. This move is supported by Washington Democrats such as Senator Jay Rockefeller and the Democrat congressmen from the eastern coal mining region. Rockefeller is calling for a two-year suspension of EPA greenhouse...

At least 15 U.S. states have sued the Environmental Protection Agency seeking to stop it from issuing rules controlling greenhouse gas emissions until it reexamines whether the pollution harms human health. Florida, Indiana, South Carolina and at least nine other states filed the petitions in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, states said. They joined petitions filed last month by Virginia, Texas and Alabama. The Obama administration has long said it would attack greenhouse gas emissions with EPA regulation if Congress failed to pass a climate bill. The state petitions call for the EPA to...