Free Republic

San Francisco philanthropist Susie Tompkins Buell, one of the Democratic Party's most generous benefactors, is keeping her checkbook closed when President Obama holds high-priced California fundraisers this week."I want to look him in the eye and say, 'Thank you so much' " for his work, said Buell, who expresses deep disappointment in the president's leadership on environmental issues, especially climate change. With Obama's 2012 re-election campaign in full swing, "I would just love to write my big check ... or have a high-dollar dinner here" on his behalf, she said. "I can't."Buell, a co-founder of the Esprit clothing company, has...

In an obvious tongue-in-cheek propostion, Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter has sent Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber an offer to "replace" the collared wolf from Oregon that was shot by a hunter in Idaho. "I am offering to send you 150 wolves from Idaho," Otter wrote. "Idaho has more than a sufficient number, in fact many more than the federal government originally required we have, and can spare a few." Washington Times.

Proof electric cars DO cause more pollution than normal ones: Study shows impact is worse than petrol-powered vehicles Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2100936/Study-shows-impact-electric-cars-worse-petrol-powered-vehicles.html#ixzz1mNkAhlSk

Canadian Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in the midst of an official visit to China. His mission? To convince Beijing’s mandarins to buy Canada’s Alberta oil sands hydrocarbon production, now that Republican Congressional overreach has effectively sidelined the Keystone XL pipeline, designed to transit the oil to U.S. Gulf of Mexico refineries, for the foreseeable future. Harper faces an uphill struggle, as China is questioning the delays in implementing the Northern Gateway pipeline, to transit Alberta’s oil to Canada’s western coast for transshipment to China. Complicating the picture, Harper has a weak hand of cards, and both he and...

DAWSON CITY, Yukon - There are a lot of problems that can befall trail markers — treacherous conditions, dangerous overflow, deep snow and trails littered with fallen brush. But an unexpected challenge for the Canadian Rangers who broke the Yukon Quest trail in Canada? Wolves stealing trail markers.

The federal agency that sells and transmits most electrical power in the Northwest has proposed a plan to cover half of wind producers' lost revenue when they're forced to shut down wind farms during periods of excess hydropower production. The plan would affect Cowlitz PUD, which owns interests in two Central Washington wind farms, but would not lower or raise rates significantly, PUD officials said. "This is not going to do anything that would appear to be a rate-driver," PUD spokesman Dave Andrew said Wednesday. Over the objections of wind energy producers, the federal Bonneville Power Administration last spring ordered...

Learning how to exploit the rich vein of natural gas buried in the Marcellus Shale beneath Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York has been a boon to the nation, but another remarkable discovery’s gone along with it. The Keystone State has devised a system of environmental-protection regulations that actually works. Exploiting shale gas to its full capability has the potential to radically alter some fundamental economic and national-security equations. After all, oil imports account for about half of the total US trade deficit, and US policymakers suffer insomnia every time some random ayatollah starts making scary noises about the Strait of...

Sen. Maria Cantwell, a longtime opponent of oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, has helped defeat the latest Republican plan to open up the refuge for new energy exploration. The Washington Democrat and member of the Senate Finance Committee raised objections Tuesday when Utah GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch offered a plan that would have allowed drilling rigs into the refuge and protected waters off the coast of Florida and southern California “We all know that gas prices going up are a very big challenge to us and we need to find alternatives to foreign oil,” Cantwell said. “But...

MONTROSE, CO - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum took a new jab at Newt Gingrich, saying he wants to "endanger" the former Speaker. The dig came during a campaign rally in Montrose, CO., as Santorum railed against the federal government's environmental regulations. "These are your lands! Oh but they always say we're doing it for your benefit," Santorum decried. "We'll make sure that you don't do something to scar the land or you don't do something to endanger a newt. No not that Newt, different newt. I want to endanger that Newt - that's a different story." The line drew...

Students at a high school in Boca Raton, Florida, must step over rivers of urine and endure the stench of rancid waste after a plan to bring 'green' waterless urinals into bathrooms backfired. School officials at Spanish River High School thought they had found an environmentally-friendly, cost-saving solution for their bathrooms when they installed Falcon Waterfree urinals in their boys bathrooms.

It is called underground injection, a process that brings up oil by using a rush of steam, water and chemicals from old, depleted wells. And it is getting the ‘go ahead’ from California Governor Jerry Brown, a major supporter of alternative energy.

The first ozone hole above the North Pole has been aggravated by extraordinarily cold winter temperatures, say scientists. Cooling of the ozone layer enhances the effect of ozone-destroying substances such as chlorofluorocarbons - CFC. A repeated ozone hole above the Arctic is to be expected, say scientists from the KIT Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research. About a year ago, the scientists detected that ozone degradation above the Arctic for the first time reached an extent comparable to that of the ozone hole above the South Pole. At a level of around 13 miles above the ground, 80 per cent...

Former Vice-President Al Gore heaped praise on President Obama’s decision to block construction of the Keystone Pipeline, calling it “the medicine we need to break our addiction modern civilization.” “I know the President’s GOP critics have been harping on the negative impacts this will have on the US economy,” Gore admitted. “But they’re overlooking the very real environmental benefits of higher fuel prices and unemployment.” “If we were to build the pipeline more oil would flow into America,” Gore pointed out. “More oil means lower prices for gasoline. Lower prices mean more driving. More driving means more pollution. Avoiding this...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration says new rules to manage nearly 200 million acres of national forests will protect watersheds and wildlife while promoting uses ranging from recreation to logging. The new rules, to replace guidelines thrown out by a federal court in 2009, are set to take effect in early March. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the rule change on Thursday. Vilsack said in an interview that the rules reflect more than 300,000 comments received since a draft plan was released last year. The new rules strengthen a requirement that decisions be based on the best available science...

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.

Devastating fungus has already stripped shrubbery in Europe and New Zealand. Shrubs may be trembling by doorsteps across North America as an aggressive fungus disease of boxwood invades the continent. Boxwood blight, caused by a Cylindrocladium fungus, was unknown to science before 2000 but has now spread through Europe and New Zealand. In October, U.S. authorities confirmed that the blight had jumped continents, with infections confirmed in North Carolina and Connecticut. By mid-January, with growers and pathologists on alert, the fungus had turned up in at least five more states — Virginia, Maryland, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Oregon — and...

PHOENIX - With many of those crossing the border illegally shifting to remote areas in response to stepped-up enforcement, the trash they leave behind is becoming tougher - and riskier - to clean up, a state agency director told lawmakers Thursday. "These are dangerous areas," Henry Darwin of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality told the Senate Border Security, Federalism and States Sovereignty Committee. "These are known areas of illegal immigration, illegal drug trafficking." He called trash along the border "a fairly significant issue" that has persisted even as illegal border crossings have declined slightly. Showing pictures of trash-strewn landscapes,...

A person's intelligence is mostly inherited, it's in their genes, but whether a person can expect to be a clever grandma or grandpa relies on both genes and environment. "Until now, we have not had an estimate of how much genetic differences affect how people's intelligence changes across the lifetime," study researcher Ian Deary, of the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, said in an email to LiveScience. "These new results mean that researchers can seek both environmental and genetic contributionsto successful cognitive aging." Previous studies of the genetics of intelligence have been performed on sets of twins or...

Searching the Internet to further expose the internal threat of Islam, I found another Islamic school which is not happy with Muslims living in the “un-Islamic environment” of America. Other Mosques/schools that have echoed that call are in Philadelphia, and Houston. Ones in Buffalo and NJ have stated they have created their own Islamic environments. Like I have said, Muslims are not in non-Islamic countries to assimilate, they are in them to dominate. Tonight we take a look at Al-Ihsan Academy, which is located at 130-08 Rockaway Blvd South Ozone Park NY. History Founded in 1989 by immigrant Muslims who...

The recent news that Michigan corporate welfare “winner” GlobalWatt is being evicted from its Saginaw headquarters for nonpayment of rent is a reminder that even when no taxpayer cash changes hands, government “incentive” programs can hurt real people in a number of ways. GlobalWatt is (yet another) solar energy company that won a state and local government tax break/subsidy deal and that could have been worth as much as $42 million had the company met performance milestones. The deal was trumpeted by announcements from the company and Michigan corporate welfare officials of “500 potential Saginaw jobs,” at a time when...

Hydrogen vehicles are nimble, quiet and easy on the environment, and auto manufacturers are eyeing a commercial launch within a few years despite a lack of infrastructure for refueling stations. But the vehicles that the European Commission has touted for their low emissions are years away from capturing anything more than a niche market. Sales of hydrogen vehicles in Europe are expected to reach 100,000 by 2015 and 1 million in 2020, and could gain a 25% share of the total EU passenger car market in 2050, says a recent McKinsey & Company report. Today, Europe accounts for one-third of...

RENO - Canada's Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver unleashed a fire storm of debate after he published an open letter in the Globe and Mail claiming "environmental and other radical groups" seek to "stop any major project no matter what the cost to Canadian families in lost jobs and economic growth." "No forestry. No mining. No oil. No gas. No more hydro-electric dams," said Oliver in the open letter published in Monday's edition of the Globe and Mail. The letter was published on the eve of the beginning of oral hearings Tuesday on the C$5.5 billion proposed Northern Gateway project...

Carbon dioxide emissions from man-made sources are causing the acidity level of the world’s oceans to rise at what is probably the fastest rate in 65 million years, threatening global fisheries that serve as an essential food source for billions of people, according to a new United Nations report.

To understand how the Environmental Protection Agency operates, one must first understand that it lies all the time. Its “estimates” are bogus. Its claims of lives saved are bogus. It thrives on scare-mongering to a public that is science-challenged, but the science remains and the EPA must be challenged to save the nation from the loss of the energy it needs to function. It must be challenged to unleash the huge economic benefits of energy resources—coal, oil, and natural gas—that can reverse our present economic decline. The latest outrage is the MACT rule—an acronym for “maximum achievable control technology” intended...

Environmentalists' complaints about the Keystone XL oil pipeline ring hollow when the alternatives are considered. Saying no to the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline across the Great Plains states would not change the demand for oil by one barrel nor would it lessen the impact of getting that oil out of the tar sands of Canada's Alberta province. Despite the promise of alternative fuels and more fuel-efficient vehicles, and our need to develop them, demand for oil will remain high for several decades yet even in the most optimistic projections, here and in places such as China and India. And,...

s fracking environmentally safe? That's a key question surrounding the fast-growing method of gas and oil extraction-and one that's triggered debate since the process became more economically viable. It isn't hard to see where the concerns come from: The fracking process involves injection of fluids-mostly sandy water, but some chemicals as well-to bore holes in rock, releasing trapped gas and oil. The fluids are then pumped out of the well, treated and disposed (or possibly, reused). Few take issue with the injected water and sand. But the chemicals have long been a source of contentious debate. The anti-fracking crowd argues...

To recap:  Some 160 million Americans will watch their taxes rise about $1,000 each, if the current payroll-tax cut ends on January 1.  Millions of jobless Americans will see their unemployment benefits run out, if the federal government does not extend them by year’s end.  The Iranian government this week threatened to shut the Strait of Hormuz and bottle up a key route that oil tankers use to deliver petroleum to an energy-hungry planet.  President Obama could fix the first two problems and ameliorate the dangers of the third, if he would sign legislation to extend the tax cut...

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.

I usually don't post "pass it on" emails, but thought FReepers would enjoy this one. In the spirit of Sarah Palin's "Drill here, Drill now" philosophy, I am posting the following. Also, I know this isn't brand new info, but has a different twist: OIL - Got an open mind ? . . . try this on for size ! A U.S.oil company, Cruz Construction, started a division in North Dakota 6 months ago. They sent every Kenworth (9 trucks) we had here in Alaska to North Dakota and several drivers. They also just bought two new Kenworth's to add...

Barack Obama's contempt for America knows no limits: WASHINGTON (AP) — On issues from air pollution to contraception, President Barack Obama has broken sharply with liberal activists and come down on the side of business interests and social conservatives as he moves more to the political middle for his re-election campaign. Without a Democratic challenger who might tug him to the left, Obama is free to try to neutralize Republican efforts to tar him as a liberal ideologue by taking steps toward the political center. I have long said that democrats have zero long term memory and Obama's success depends...

BLUEFIELD, Va. — The Virginia State Corporation Commission announced Wednesday afternoon that it has approved a pair of rate increases for customers of Appalachian Power Co. – one related to a biennial base rate review, and the other meant to recover environmental expenses. The combined increases amount to $85.1 million — a sum that will increase the monthly power bill for APCO’s Virginia customers by $7 per month, based on the average usage of 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. “The important thing for our customers in Virginia to know is that these rate increases won’t take effect until February,” Todd Burns,...

So, I just discovered a product called "strawboard." Apparently it's been used in Europe for 40+ years, but it's kinda new in the US. Some sources say that a typical house requires about an acre's worth of clear-cut timber, which would take about 30 years to replace. That same house (according to these sources) could be built using 18 acres of straw -- which is a waste product from wheat production. I've been searching, but I haven't found any serious problems with using strawboard. Presumably, it doesn't hold up as well to moisture as traditional wood does, but I don't...

Electric-car sales are on fire. Okay, well, only a few electric cars have actually gone up in smoke. But with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opening a formal safety investigation into fears about fires started by the much-hyped Chevrolet Volt, it’s become clear yet again that electric vehicles are The Next Big Thing — and they always will be. Safety questions are the last thing that the electric-vehicle market needs. Indeed, the U.S. already has a huge excess of electric-vehicle (EV) battery-production capacity. This month, A123 Systems, one of the country’s highest-profile battery makers for the EV market, cut...

Arizona-New Mexico project aims to learn more about imperiled cats Camera network will focus on jaguars Starting next year, jaguars will be the target of an extensive network of remote cameras placed across Southern Arizona and southwest New Mexico. In a three-year, $771,000 project that has been greeted warmly by environmentalists but warily by cattle growers, University of Arizona researchers will try to learn more about the status and presence of the endangered animal.

President Obama and his advisers seriously misread the effect of the delay of the Keystone XL pipeline. The alternative Northern Gateway pipeline is not a dream, but close to a reality which can ship oil to China and expand the use of B.C. Natural Gas. The Keystone XL proposal would build a pipeline from the tar sands of Northern Alberta through Southern Saskatchewan into Montana and south to the Texas Gulf for end use of the recovered crude oil. Its ultimate capacity would be 900,000 barrels per day and would significantly reduce imports to the USA from OPEC nations, none...

The economy stinks. Employers aren’t hiring. The big money is staying on the sidelines. We hear these stories every day, and it’s certainly depressing. But as the Wall Street Journal notes, there is one exception to this rule which is providing some hope and relief in a number of areas across the country. If you got all of your information from White House press releases, you might think it’s in the “green economy,� and the development of solar panels, organic roof tiles or bovine flatulence inhibitors. (Go ahead… click on the link. I dare you.)But no… the boom in jobs...

President Obama’s decision to bar the extension of Canada’s Keystone XL pipeline into theUnited Statesis expected to result in diverting the oil to China. David Wilkins, a lobbyist for the pipeline’s extension on behalf of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, expressed disappointment. “Canada really wanted to sell this oil to theUnited States,” Wilkins said. “It would’ve been the best deal for both countries. But they can’t afford to just sit on it. Selling it toChinaseems like the only option now.” While the president’s decision will mean fewer jobs and higher fuel prices in theUnited States, Press Secretary Jay Carney...

  Human Sacrifice in America David C. Stolinsky Nov. 21, 2011 This is not a description of a primitive tribe living in some remote jungle (excuse me, rain forest). It is not an account of people clad in animal skins, cutting the throats of captives in front of crude stone idols. No, it is a description of “educated” people living in America and Western Europe. It is an account of people in modern clothes, but still causing other people to die in order to placate their gods. The false gods are environmentalism and liberalism. They deny that such noble...

Generation Y is more likely than older generations to support clean energy and environmental protection and to believe climate change is happening and is caused by human activity, according to new Pew polling and analysis. Generation X is close behind. Boomers aren't so bad either. It's the old folks, the so-called Silent Generation aged 66-83, that are the big problem. There's long been talk about how gay rights will continue to advance as homophobic old codgers die off. Looks like the push for a cleaner, greener society will get a boost from that same cohort replacement effect.

What is Newt Gingrich's environmental policy? He has not abandoned his stance that between he and Nancy Pelosi, "we do agree that our country must take action to address climate change." Newt told Fox News is that he does still believe government has a role in addressing climate change, and that he took somebody's advice to call the commercial dumb. From the Congressional Record, April 19, 1990: Mr. Gingrich: Mr. Speaker, I rise to say that I think that Earth Day is very important. I used to teach environmental studies. I think we are making progress. I think the recent...

Pressed by Denver Mayor Michael Hancock to select someone to represent them in negotiations with the City, Occupy Denver’s General Assembly elected a three-year-old border collie named Shelby. This move may have backfired, however, when the Mayor’s office announced that as best they could determine, Shelby has apparently agreed to have every participant in the Occupation spayed or neutered in exchange for unlimited access to the City’s trash bins. Rex Hund, spokesman for the mayor’s office, labeled the agreement a “win-win” outcome. “From the City’s perspective this will reduce the load on our landfill operations,” Hund pointed out. “To the...

The world has just five years to avoid being trapped in a scenario of perilous climate change and extreme weather events, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned on Wednesday. On current trends, "rising fossil energy use will lead to irreversible and potentially catastrophic climate change," the IEA concluded in its annual World Energy Outlook report. "The door to 2.0 C is closing," it said, referring to the 2.0 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) cap on global warming widely accepted by scientists and governments as the ceiling for averting unmanageable climate damage. Without further action, by 2017 the total CO2 emissions compatible with...

Yesterday Australia passed it's $23 a ton carbon tax. Leftist activist group Get Up emailed this message to it's members from Al Gore. "This is a historic moment. Australia's Parliament has put the nation's first carbon price into law. With this vote, the world has turned a pivotal corner in the collective effort to solve the climate crisis. This success is the result of the tireless work of an unprecedented coalition that came together to support the legislation, the leadership of Prime Minister Gillard, and the courage of legislators to take a vote that helps to safeguard the future of...

Mitt Romney faces an inconvenient truth on climate change. While the former Massachusetts governor often touts his decision not to sign up for a regional cap-and-trade compact, he also glosses over a six-year-old set of carbon dioxide rules that his aides touted at the time as the first in the country for electric utilities. Under Romney’s regulations, finalized in September 2006, Massachusetts’s six largest power plants faced mandatory CO2 limits with several market-friendly compliance options designed to help keep the costs down. Democrats and environmentalists panned Romney’s rules as weak tea. Many felt burned by the governor’s decision not to...

Yreka, Calif. — About 700 people attended a meeting at the Siskiyou Golden Fairgrounds on Saturday sponsored by the activism group Defend Rural America, founded by Idaho native Kirk MacKenzie. The meeting consisted of a film, a fundraising auction and discussions with a panel of eight sheriffs from Northern California and Southern Oregon. A charter bus brought more than 40 people from the Bay Area and around 250 people from other areas outside of Siskiyou County, according to Liz Bowen of Scott Valley Protect Our Waters (POW), who co-organized the event. More than 10 political action groups were in attendance,...

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The giant sequoia lies across the popular Trail of 100 Giants at Sequoia National Forest, Calif. No one was hurt when it fell. (Sequoia National Forest / September 30, 2011) Along the Sierra Nevada's famed Trail of 100 Giants, the mammoth sequoia had stood sentry since King Arthur's knights gathered at the Round Table. It witnessed the arrival of the first European settlers and the flurry of miners in search of gold. The onset of the Medieval Warm Period and the passing of the Little Ice Age. It stood, unperturbed, through the Great War and the one that followed. Then...

Power of the people? Hundreds voice opposition to rate hikeBy: Mike Conley Published: October 26, 2011 Hundreds of people packed the main courtroom at the McDowell County Courthouse to capacity Tuesday evening to show their strong opposition to Duke Energy’s request for another rate hike. Donna Edwards of Marion was one of those who testified to the N.C. Utilities Commission. “I don’t represent anybody except myself,” she said in her testimony. “We’re making choices in my house about whether or not to buy medications or pay the power bill. I am all for Duke Power making money. That is what...

The Institute for Energy Research projected that coal plants in Lansing, Litchfield and Holland would “likely” be shut down due to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations by 2016. The three Michigan plants were part of a nationwide look at coal plants expected to be impacted by new regulations recently enacted or proposed by the EPA. Ten percent of the country’s coal energy capacity is expected to go offline by 2016, according to the Institute for Energy Research. The country gets 60 percent and Michigan gets 66 percent of energy from coal-fired power plants, according to Russ Harding, senior environmental policy...

The Environmental Protection Agency has begun to feel our breath on their necks and they are lashing out. An article by Lisa P. Jackson entitled “Too Dirty too Fail — House Republicans’ assault on our environmental laws must be stopped.” appeared in the L. A. Times October 21st, 2011. In the article, the author says the following: “Since the beginning of this year, Republicans in the House have averaged roughly a vote every day the chamber has been in session to undermine the Environmental Protection Agency and our nation’s environmental laws. They have picked up the pace recently — just...