Free Republic

The American economy is flagging, and desperately in need of greater productivity and innovation. One presumes that President Obama understands as much; he has in fact suggested that he knows where this needed boost might come from. In this year's State of the Union Address, the president said that "nowhere is the promise of innovation greater than in American-made energy." His speech seemed to acknowledge that the American economy needs plentiful, affordable energy to thrive, and that the energy sector has a great deal of room to grow. Indeed, in his remarks, Obama touted the possibility of 600,000 new jobs...

PLUS: Celeb anti-frackers to descend on D.C. to demand Congress end the shale extraction technique altogether. An industry-funded independent investigation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s long-running probe into the effects of hydraulic fracturing found numerous flaws in everything from the EPA’s scope to its lack of consultation with oil and gas companies. “The study released today by Battelle—a highly respected independent science and technology organization—identifies numerous concerns with EPA’s ongoing hydraulic fracturing study,” said Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Subcommittee on Energy and Environment. The 166-page Battelle study, submitted to the American Petroleum...

Alessandra Ambrosio Lands in Hot Water with PETA for Dyeing Her Dog Pink The Victoria's Secret model came under fire from the animal rights group after stepping out with her pink and purple pooch in Malibu It looks like this Angel is barking up the wrong tree. Alessandra Ambrosio is used to turning heads every time she steps out on the street, but it seems the Victoria's Secret supermodel drew the wrong kind of attention when she took her dip-dyed pink and purple pooch for a walk in Malibu on Thursday. The brunette beauty and mom of two came under...

The suspicions of Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe were correct: Rather than sitting before the House Energy and Commerce Committee three weeks ago to explain theways he “crucified” oil and natural gas companies, insteadAl Armendariz – who cancelled his appearance at the last minute – met with the Sierra Club for a job interview. This time the recently resigned EPA’s Region 6 administrator will eagerly attack another fossil fuel, joining the litigious environmental group as part of its “Beyond Coal” campaign. If there was any question that Armendariz unfairly regulated the gas and oil businesses under his authority in Texas, Oklahoma,...

The massive western wildfires could have been avoided with intelligent forest management and less hysteria from the greens. As I write these lines, vast wildfires are sweeping through my home state of Colorado and other areas of the American west. Last week, two of my employees had to leave work early to rush home to evacuate their families from imminent danger. Hundreds of houses have already been destroyed, and thousands of acres of trees incinerated, and unknown myriads of wild animals burned alive. This disaster was predictable, and promises to get worse. Over the past decade, from British Columbia to...

TOMBSTONE — Temporary repairs were made at Gardner Spring on the Tombstone water line, City Clerk George Barnes reported. The Shovel Brigade organized earlier this month has hopes the repair will hold up during the upcoming summer storms, Barnes said. Work involved on Friday and Saturday, June 8-9, redirected and lifted the waterline out of the flow path. There was also construction of a diversion to protect the line as much as possible. Barnes said 60 people did the physical work, which involved moving large rocks and debris, along with pick and shovel work. The crew never made it to...

Tombstone, Arizona (CNN) -- The six Forest Service rangers suddenly crouched, whispering, on their way up the rocky mountain trail. It was early Friday afternoon, the first day of the Tombstone Shovel Brigade, and the rangers were out in force, hiking to the spot where dozens of volunteers worked with picks and shovels to move and bury Tombstone's makeshift water line. Shhh! Look! Do you see it?The rangers stopped in their tracks. Binoculars emerged from pockets, and fingers pointed to a stand of trees. And there it was, a Mexican spotted owl, perched high in a pine tree. It was...

The desert tortoise, a threatened species protected by the federal government, is fighting for its existence against the expanding encroachment of Big Solar into its native habitat of the Mojave Desert in California. The battle between environmental groups and the fledgling green energy industry has prompted a lawsuit against the government to block the multi-billion dollar Calico Solar Power project, which would cover 4,000 acres of the turtle’s vital habitat. The green groups want the company to relocate from its seven-mile campus to a less sensitive desert area. This isn’t the first time the turtles have been threatened by the...

This damning, inconvenient truth needs to be posted on EVERY Facebook page, and reTweeted over and over. Truth is always the enemy of Liberalism/Socialism.

Contemplating 1972 predictions of environmental doom, just in time for Earth Day Forty years ago, The Limits to Growth, a report to the Club of Rome, was released with great fanfare at a conference at the Smithsonian Institution. The study was based on a computer model developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and designed “to investigate five major trends of global concern—accelerating industrial development, rapid population growth, widespread malnutrition, depletion of nonrenewable resources, and a deteriorating environment.” The goal was to use the model to explore the increasingly dire "predicament of mankind." The researchers modestly acknowledged...

WASHINGTON— The Obama administration announced today that it is reissuing a Bush-era regulation that sharply limits protections for polar bears under the Endangered Species Act. Both the current proposal and the previous Bush rule exclude activities occurring outside the range of polar bears — such as the greenhouse gas emissions of industrial polluters like coal plants — from regulations that could help stop the bear’s extinction. Today’s announcement comes as a result of a court order that struck down the Bush rule in October 2011. “If polar bears are to survive we have to directly confront the greatest threat to...

Hey, take a look at what I found on the EPA's website (Yes, I have a life. Really. I do. Promise.): ********************************** "Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. Fair treatment means that no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, governmental and commercial operations or policies. Meaningful involvement means that: (1) people have an opportunity to participate in decisions about activities that may...

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any weirder… The Obama Administration now wants to demolish three dams in northern California to supposedly save the salmon… But the whole reason to support the move was based on shoddy and inconclusive scientific data.

D.C. resident Patricia White has received 8 fines, totaling $2000 for not recycling old newspapers which she uses as cat litter. Ms. White told Fox News DC that she wanted to help the environment by shredding old newspapers and junk mail instead of buying cat litter from stores. Unfortunately for her, it is illegal to not recycle in DC, and she has incurred the Department of Public Works' wrath. Dupont Circle resident Patricia White says she has been fined eight times for throwing homemade cat litter in her trash. The fines total $2,000. White says she shreds old newspaper and...

Government regulators, environmental groups and the news media tell us that the air we breathe is polluted, the water we drink is tainted, our orange juice contains a fungicide, and evil corporations are hoping to make a profit at Mother Earth’s expense. They also remind us that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal agencies are protecting us by fighting the greedy capitalists who seek our destruction. Don’t believe it. The United States is among the cleanest nations on the planet.

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...

Animal rights activists are behind the burning of cattle trucks at the Harris Ranch truck lot early Sunday, according to a statement from the purported arsonists. The statement, released Monday, describes how the fire, which heavily damaged 14 tractors and several trailers, was set and says the attack was aimed at "the horrors of factory farming." Spokeswoman Nicoal R. Sheen of the Animal Liberation Press Office, which released the statement, said the office doesn't take part in illegal actions but distributes communiqués from those who do. Fresno County sheriff's spokesman Chris Curtice said detectives are looking into the claim. He...

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,...

PRIEST LAKE, Idaho — Chantell and Mike Sackett’s dream house, if it is ever built, will have to be situated just so in order to minimize the view of neighboring homes and maximize the vista of pristine water and conifer-covered mountain. But their roughly half-acre lot in the Idaho Panhandle has proved to be the perfect staging ground for a conservative uproar over the powers of the Environmental Protection Agency. This month, the Supreme Court will review the Sacketts’s four-year-long effort to build on land that the EPA says contains environmentally sensitive wetlands. A decision in the couple’s favor could...

HOPATCONG, N.J. (AP) — A cable TV repairman got quite a surprise when he walked into the basement of a New Jersey home. There was a 500-pound bear sound asleep on the floor.