Free Republic

Norway, a world leader of zero-emission vehicles, on Thursday proposed a “Tesla tax” aimed at cutting a tax advantage granted to large electric cars, in a heavily criticized move. Electric cars, which have hitherto been exempted from heavy taxes imposed on other vehicles, accounted for 20 percent of new registrations in the Nordic country since the beginning of this year, an unprecedented market share in the world. In a 2018 finance bill presented to the parliament on Thursday, the right-wing minority government suggested removing a one-off tax exemption for new electric cars weighing more than two tonnes. The proposal was...

Attorneys for the Trump administration said a federal judge has no authority to second-guess a presidential permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline as they seek to stop a lawsuit that would block the project. Justice Department attorneys are due in U.S. District Court in Montana on Wednesday to defend the administration’s March approval of the 1,179-mile pipeline — a lightning rod in the debate over what to do about climate change. The TransCanada proposal would transport Canadian crude oil through Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, where it would connect with an existing system of lines to carry oil...

Despite the promise of creating 600 permanent jobs, the ethane cracker plant being built about 40 minutes northwest of Pittsburgh by car continues to face scrutiny from environmental groups. Shell Chemical Appalachia decided in 2012 that Beaver County would be the site of a new $6 billion plant to manufacture plastics. Shell chose the Beaver County location because of its proximity to natural gas supplies and because the majority of North American polyethylene — the most common plastic — customers are in a 700-mile radius of Pittsburgh. In a statement published on its website, Shell said it expects to employ...

Maryland is suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to act on a petition requiring power plants in five upwind states to reduce pollution, the state’s attorney general and an official in Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration said Wednesday. The Hogan administration says 70 percent of Maryland’s ozone problem originates in upwind states. Maryland petitioned the EPA in November for a finding that 36 power plant units in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia are emitting air pollution affecting Maryland in violation of the Clean Air Act’s “good neighbor provision.” In January, the EPA issued a six-month extension to...

Pope Francis has warned history will judge world leaders who do not act as he blasted climate change sceptics in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. The pontiff said the recent storms meant the effects of climate change could be seen "with your own eyes". There have been four major Atlantic hurricanes in less than three weeks. But US Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt said it was an inappropriate time to discuss what role climate change may have played. Mr Pruitt - who has previously said he "would not agree" carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global...

Solar panel units for the roofs of Norwegian homes are to be sold in-store for the first time by electronics retailer Elkjøp. The electronics chain has noticed a strong growth in demand for the solar units in its online stores, reports Dagens Næringsliv. Now the technology will be available in physical shops for the first time. Solar panel power in Norwegian homes has tripled in the last year in terms of overall effectivity, according to the report. […] The technology developer said that he wanted to take solar power from the “niche market to the mass market”. …

WILLIAM NARDI - UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON SEPTEMBER 5, 2017 Earth as lover, not mother Four years ago, when art Professor Elizabeth Stephens filmed the documentary “Ecosexual Love Story,” in which she and her partner licked trees, played with mud, and made love with the environment while naked, the term “ecosexuality” was still somewhat unknown. But a lot has happened since then, and ecosexuality isn’t such a mystery anymore — Google trends show interest in the term has increased exponentially over the last 12 months, seemingly exploding. That interest can be traced in part back to Stephens, a UC Santa...

Vacuum cleaners sold in Europe are to be more cost- and energy-efficient, as a result of EU rules which outlaw new vacuum cleaners using more than 900 watts and emitting more than 80 decibels. Updated ecodesign requirements will lower appliances’ maximum power, annual energy consumption and noise levels. The European Commission says it is is making use of latest state-of-the-art technologies to ensure that European consumers have the most energy efficient products available. They will also increase their minimum ability to pick up dust. […] For Europe as a whole, more efficient vacuum cleaners will put it in a position...

The New York Times has quietly updated its Tuesday front page article on a “sweeping” global warming report some scientists fear “would be suppressed” by the Trump administration. TheNYT reported they had obtained an unreleased draft copy of the National Climate Assessment (NCA), which is set for release in 2018. The paper claimed the NDA draft had “not yet been made public” and “concludes that Americans are feeling the effects of climate change right now.” However, TheNYT published a “third order draft” of the NCA that’s been available online since January. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published the draft...

French President Emmanuel Macron says he worked his charm on President Donald Trump during the U.S. leader's visit to Paris – so much so that he may have changed Trump’s mind on climate change. Trump and Macron -- who said his interaction with Trump was carefully calculated -- discussed their main point of contention: U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. Macron told French news outlet Le Journal du Dimanche that Trump “listened” to him when the two discussed climate change, adding: “He understood the reason for my position, notably the link between climate change and terrorism.” The presidents spoke...

Donald Trump regrets the “bizarre mistake” of withdrawing the US from the Paris climate agreement, Sir Richard Branson has said. The British billionaire also urged the president to help phase out the ailing US coal industry. Speaking in Brooklyn on Friday, the Virgin Group founder said businesses and cities were firmly behind a transition to low-carbon energy, which made Trump’s decision to exit the Paris deal “very, very strange”. “With climate change, it’s America first and our beautiful globe last, and that seems incredibly sad,” said Branson. “I’ve got a feeling that the president is regretting what he did. Maybe...

France’s new environment minister said Monday nearly a third of the country’s reactors could be shut under plans to scale back the amount of electricity produced from nuclear power. In 2015, the previous Socialist-dominated parliament passed a law obliging the government to reduce the proportion of electricity generated from nuclear to 50 percent by 2025 compared with around 75 percent now. “We can all understand that to reach this target, we’re going to have to close a certain number of reactors,” Nicolas Hulot told RTL radio. “It will be perhaps as high as 17 reactors, but we need to look...

The Trump administration said Thursday it is taking steps to expand oil drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans as President Donald Trump continues to push for U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. The Interior Department is rewriting a five-year drilling plan established by the Obama administration, with an eye toward opening areas in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans that now are off-limits to drilling. It’s one of six initiatives that the president unveiled Thursday in hopes of generating more energy exports and jobs. “The golden era of American energy is now underway,” Trump said in a Thursday speech...

Wisconsin Democrats have demanded Gov. Scott Walker (R) join the U.S. Climate Alliance, a newly formed coalition of states that intends to move forward with the terms of the Paris climate accord after President Trump’s decision to pull out of the agreement. "President Trump’s rejection of fact, science and of the Paris Climate Agreement is an act that endangers every American. Gov. Walker’s silence on this issue echoes this shared anti-environment, anti-middle class agenda,” read the letter to Walker signed by 35 state representatives and 11 senators. "Given the recent reports on Wisconsin’s dismal slump in job creation, we cannot...

Peter Wohlleben’s bestselling book claims that trees can talk to one another and have relationships and social structures. A petition started by German academics is now circulating to denounce these “fairy tales.” “Trees are very social beings,” says German forester Peter Wohlleben; “the parents, the ‘mother trees’, look after their offspring…they like to stand close together and cuddle.” They also talk to each other, have sex, form friendships and feel physical pain, he told the Canadian documentary series “Intelligent Trees.” Wohlleben’s bestselling book “The Hidden Life of Trees,” caused a stir at Britain’s Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts...

The company that owns the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, site of the worst nuclear disaster in U.S. history, announced that it plans to shutter the facility in 2019 unless the state of Pennsylvania steps in to keep it open. The plant near Harrisburg, Pa., hasn’t been profitable for the past five years, according to owner Exelon Corp. The company announced last week that it failed to auction off future energy production from Three Mile Island for the third year in a row. “Today is a difficult day, not just for the 675 talented men and women who have dedicated...

No more petrol or diesel cars, buses, or trucks will be sold anywhere in the world within eight years. The entire market for land transport will switch to electrification, leading to a collapse of oil prices and the demise of the petroleum industry as we have known it for a century. This is the futuristic forecast by Stanford University economist Tony Seba. His report, with the deceptively bland title Rethinking Transportation 2020-2030, has gone viral in green circles and is causing spasms of anxiety in the established industries. Seba’s premise is that people will stop driving altogether. They will switch...

A coal-export terminal proposed in Washington state would increase cancer risks for some residents, make rail accidents more likely and add millions of metric tons of climate-changing greenhouse gas globally every year, according to an environmental study released Friday. Millennium Bulk Terminals-Longview wants to build the facility along the Columbia River near the city of Longview to handle up to 44 million tons of coal a year. Coal would arrive by train from Montana, Wyoming and other states to be stored and loaded on ships heading to energy-hungry markets in Asia. The yearslong fight over the deep-water port comes as...

Working to dismantle his predecessor’s environmental legacy, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday aimed at expanding drilling in the Arctic and opening other federal areas to oil and gas exploration. With one day left to rack up accomplishments before he reaches his 100th day in office, Trump signed an order reversing some of former President Barack Obama’s restrictions and instructing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review a plan that dictates which federal locations are open to offshore drilling. It’s part of Trump’s promise to unleash the nation’s energy reserves in an effort to reduce reliance on foreign...

Secretary-General António Guterres has nominated Achim Steiner of Germany to be the new head of the U.N. Development Program. Steiner led the U.N. environment agency for 10 years. U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said Tuesday that Guterres nominated Steiner to succeed former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark for a four-year term after consultations with UNDP’s executive board. He said Guterres has asked the General Assembly to confirm Steiner. …