Free Republic

One of President Obama’s radical eco-bureaucrats has apologized for confirming an indelible truth: This White House treats politically incorrect private industries as public enemies who deserve regulatory death sentences. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Al Armendariz, an avowed greenie on leave from Southern Methodist University, gave a little-noticed speech in 2010 outlining his sadistic philosophy. “I was in a meeting once, and I gave an analogy to my staff about my philosophy of enforcement, and I think it was probably a little crude and maybe not appropriate for the meeting, but I’ll go ahead and tell you what I said,” he...

CONCORD, Mass. -- Concord became the first town in the country to ban the sale of single-serving PET bottled water on Wednesday night, our news partner Wicked Local/Concord reported. After close to two hours of debate, Warrant Article 32, the Drinking Water in Single-Serving PET Bottles Bylaw, narrowly passed by 39 votes during Wednesday’s session of Town Meeting. The official teller count showed 403 voting in favor, and 364 opposed. The bottled water bylaw passed at this year’s Town Meeting bans the sale of non-sparkling, unflavored drinking water in single-serving polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles of 1 liter (34 ounces) or...

Last week, "an unelected group of people" over at the Environmental Protection Agency revised our national energy policy, approving a new gasoline blend with up to 15% ethanol, known as E15, which may be available in pumps this summer. Currently, most gasoline sold in the U.S. is E10, containing a maximum of 10% ethanol. To review the backstory: the last time ethanol was in the news, it seems like its opponents, who come from both the environmental left and free-market right, had won a significant victory. Last summer, "a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress," to use Obama's words...

Before I read the two reviews of this animated feature this morning, I had said to myself over the past few weeks: "Pharmboy, this movie must really be awful since you cannot look anywhere without seeing some sort of promotion for it. A cry for help if I've ever seen one."Well, it appears even worse than that. I read two reviews (The New York Times and the New York Post) and both HATED this dreck, and each said that the absolute preachiness was worse than Al Gore and Obama, respectively. You know what to expect: bad corporations raping the environment....

Gasoline: As pump prices hit $4 a gallon, Energy Secretary Steven Chu admits the administration has no interest in bringing them down. Is it any wonder Democrats are growing increasingly agitated with this White House?

SAN FRANCISCO -- Seeking to influence other states and Washington, California air regulators passed sweeping auto emission standards Friday that include a mandate to have 1.4 million electric and hybrid vehicles on state roads by 2025.

Robert Redford, actor and outspoken environmentalist, applauded President Obama's decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline on Wednesday. In a column on the Huffington Post, Redford – who questioned the president's commitment to the environment a few months ago – wrote:

He tells a concerned voter it's been dropped, but that's news to the author. DES MOINES, Iowa -- Newt Gingrich says he has killed a chapter on climate change in a post-election book of essays about the environment. But the intended author of the chapter, who supports the scientific consensus that humans contribute to climate change, says that’s news to her. Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech, confirmed in an e-mail interview that she had been asked to write a chapter on climate change for the former House speaker’s book. She said she was approached by former Palm...

The EPA went last-minute Christmas shopping for votes this year to stick in their boss’, um… ballot-box shaped stocking. Once he realized his economic plans wouldn’t create jobs, Obama has been like an employment Typhoid Mary, killing jobs wherever he can in order to boost support from his whack-job supporters in the hopes for some votes, any votes.   In a desperate bid to win back support of the enviro-whackos who have been critical of the Obama administration, the EPA issued a final ruling on MACT standards that will shutter up to 60 coal-fired power plants, costing an estimated 3000...

Congressional negotiators struck a deal Thursday that overturns the new rules that were to have banned sales of traditional incandescent light bulbs beginning next year.That agreement is tucked inside the massive 1,200-page spending bill that funds the government through the rest of this fiscal year, and which both houses of Congress will vote on Friday. Mr. Obama is expected to sign the bill, which heads off a looming government shutdown.Congressional Republicans dropped almost all of the policy restrictions they tried to attach to the bill, but won inclusion of the light bulb provision, which prevents the Obama administration from carrying...

Congressional negotiators struck a deal Thursday that overturns the new rules that were to have banned sales of traditional incandescent light bulbs beginning next year. That agreement is tucked inside the massive 1,200-page spending bill that funds the government through the rest of this fiscal year, and which both houses of Congress will vote on Friday. Mr. Obama is expected to sign the bill, which heads off a looming government shutdown. Congressional Republicans dropped almost all of the policy restrictions they tried to attach to the bill, but won inclusion of the light bulb provision, which prevents the Obama administration...

This guy (Headmaster Rob Benzie) has become Scrooge in England, except he doesn’t provide even one lump of coal, because, well that would mess up his “carbon footprint”. This is just too bizarre not to pass on, thanks to The Daily Bayonet who writes: A headmaster at a British school decided a great lesson in sustainability would be to turn off the heat for a day. In December: Pupils at Ansford Academy in Castle Cary, Somerset, were forced to grip their pens through thick gloves and wear their coats and hats in class as temperatures dropped to 1C. The school’s...

Include me among those crazed Americans who can’t walk into Home Depot, Target or my local grocery store right now without wanting to grab a king-sized shopping cart and stuff it to the gunwales with 100-watt incandescent light bulbs. Maybe it’s the sheer thrill of buying bulbs that in just a month, as of Jan. 1, 2012, will be banned for sale in America. What fun, in this incandescent twilight, to acquire legally what the federal government will soon treat as contraband. Or maybe it’s that gut sense that with the dollar teetering, those beloved old 100-watt bulbs will at...

American tax-payers learned recently that the US State Department is funding mosques all around the globe, including one in my native Bulgaria: To support the restoration of the Kurshum Mosque in Silistra. Although it is located in the center of town, damage has been caused by centuries of neglect and earthquakes. The mosque was built in the 17th century when Silistra was an important port city on the Danube River ruled by the Ottoman Empire. Research shows that it has nothing to do with Islam, but with ecotourism. According to a local report the restoration of the mosque and...

It appears as though the Obama administration has been caught red-handed trying to cover up evidence in relation to the “green” loans programs that helped finance Solyndra. CNBC reports that a number of press releases posted by the Department of Energy have been retroactively altered to remove the name a solar company thought by many to be the next “green” failure: The changes occurred in two press releases from the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program — the same program that has been the center of controversy surrounding the failed solar company Solyndra. Both were changed to remove the name...

When it comes to climate change denial, not all human beings are created equal. As a recent study shows, conservative white males are less likely to believe in climate change. "It's not surprising," said Aaron McCright, sociology professor at Michigan State University, who is a white male himself. But anecdotal evidence is not scientific, he said. "You really don't know what's going on until you crunch the numbers and find out." Besides the trend amongst skeptics, the study also found that conservative white men who self-report a high understanding of global warming -- dubbed "confident" conservative males -- are even...

An investigation by the Energy and Commerce Committee has revealed that, for political reasons, the White House rushed a $528 billion federal loan to solar firm Solyndra, which went bankrupt two weeks ago. Taxpayers should be outraged. Not just about Solyndra, but about the inherent corruption of government's entire push to pick winners and losers in the energy sector, and micromanage the economy in general. In case anyone has missed it, here's a refresher on what happened with Solyndra. After the Department of Energy had tentatively approved Solyndra’s loan, White House officials unduly pressured the Office of Management and Budget...

Actress Daryl Hannah has been arrested in front of the White House along with other environmental protesters who oppose a planned oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The sit-in Tuesday involved dozens protesting the Keystone XL pipeline. It would go through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas to refineries in Houston and Port Arthur, Texas.

When President Barack Obama announced an agreement to double fuel-economy requirements Friday, standing with him were industry executives and environmental, public health and labor leaders, all of whom, remarkably, had signed off on the deal. But the real credit for this historic achievement, which is expected to cut oil consumption by 1.5 million barrels per day and eliminate half of all carbon pollution nationwide, doesn't go to the White House. Instead, thank California. For decades the state has set the nation's clean-energy agenda; it's been the tip of the spear in the fight for higher fuel standards. Its huge automobile...

Threats could have chilling effect on climate research, science group says By Andrew Restuccia - 06/29/11 10:39 AM ET Personal attacks — including legal challenges and even death threats — on climate scientists have created a “hostile environment” that could result in a “chilling effect” on much-needed research, one of the country’s leading scientific organizations said this week. The board of directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science issued a rare statement Tuesday underscoring that it “vigorously opposes” personal attacks on climate scientists. It's the organization's strongest rebuke of efforts by conservative groups to criticize climate scientists....

On Monday, former Vice President Al Gore discussed climate change and pollution control at the Games for Change convention in New York City. Aside from his usual litanies of environmental advice nuggets, the 2000 presidential candidate delved into…family planning. Curiously, Gore said that couples need to learn to “feel comfortable having small families” so that pollution can be curbed. When asked about what could be done to address population growth, he said: “One of the things we could do about it is to change the technologies, to put out less of this pollution, to stabilize the population, and one of...

Air Force Academy Creates ‘Worship Space’ for 'Earth-Centered Community’ Friday, June 17, 2011 By Patrick Ryan (CNSNews.com) - The United States Air Force Academy has created a “worship space” on campus for the “Earth-Centered Community,” which, according to the Air Force, includes among other denominations the Wiccans, Druids, Heathens and Pagans. Col. Robert Bruno, chaplain at the Air Force Academy, told CNSNews.com that the academy created the space in response to a request from a few service members and cadets who belong to the Earth-Centered Community. “In the Summer of 2009, a small group of Earth Centered Airmen and cadets...

Beyond the dramatic YouTube videos and the devastating stories of lives lost, the recent swell of tornado news has left many people wondering what's driving the sudden swirl of destruction. Does global warming have anything to do with it? And how much more extreme is it going to get? For better and for worse, experts say, these are questions that they can't answer with certainty. Climate change doesn't act in any particular way on the level of tornadoes. What's more, the frequency of tornadoes in one month does not predict how many twisters will strike in the months that follow....

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...

This is some sick stuff. Far left teachers are now teaching first graders the “Boycott Big Business” song for

Ezra Levant, the King of Canadian conservatism, celebrates Earth Day...with a chain saw.Ezra Performs Tree Surgery

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has found another disguise for lining the pockets of “alternative energy” producers with consumers’ dollars directed there not by rational economic choices but by government mandate. Once a supporter of cap and trade, Graham now supports a “Clean Energy Standard” that would require utilities to generate increasingly high percentages of electricity from “renewable” sources like wind, solar, and biofuels, from nuclear, and from coal using “carbon capture and sequestration”—catching the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted when coal burns and forcing it, under pressure, into deep geological formations for long-term storage to keep it out of the atmosphere....

Time Mag Headline 'Holiday Blizzard: More Signs of Global Warming' By Noel Sheppard Created 12/29/2010 - 9:10am By Noel Sheppard | December 29, 2010 | 09:10 Noel Sheppard's picture In today's "Everything Is Caused By Climate Change" segment, the folks at Time magazine offer a howler destined to start your morning off right with a chuckle: "Holiday Blizzard: More Signs of Global Warming." The contents were even more hysterical: One theory is that a warmer Arctic may actually lead to colder and snowier winters in the northern mid-latitudes. Even as countries like Britain — suffering through the coldest December on...

Everything is grubby in countries run by statist moonbats — even dishes fresh out of the dishwasher. A couple of months ago, Sandra Young from Vernon, Fla., started to notice that something was seriously amiss with her dishes. "The pots and pans were gray, the aluminum was starting to turn black, the glasses had fingerprints and lip prints still on them, and they were starting to get this powdery look to them," Vernon says. "I'm like, oh, my goodness, my dishwasher must be dying, I better get a new dishwasher." But others are having the same problem all across the...

If you would like to believe that some people in Hollywood are sane then don’t look to the cast of Mad Men. The popular cable show has at least one guy who basically thinks having children is irresponsible and hurts the environment. He hopes the rest of us will learn to live as responsibly as him. Mad Men’s Vincent Kartheiser did an interview this week with MSNBC’s Tamron Hall to talk about how to go green. The progressive network thought the actor was qualified to interview, because he’s insanely green in his personal life. The guy has no car, thinks...

MIDLAND, Mich. – The government has spent many millions of dollars in recent decades cleaning up sites contaminated with dioxin and, in extreme cases, relocating residents of entire neighborhoods tainted by the toxin. But tough new pollution standards proposed by the Obama administration could require additional dioxin cleanups at scores of abandoned factories, military bases, landfills and other locations declared safe years ago, officials say. If the guidelines receive final approval, federal and state officials will examine sites with known dioxin contamination to identify those needing work and what the work will cost. Among those expected to be reviewed are...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7awFypTnrOw

Surprises ruled the day at the National Clean Energy Summit, held September 7 in Las Vegas. The Summit, coordinated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and the leftist advocacy group Center for American Progress, featured surprise appearances by SUVs, environmental protesters, praise for hydropower, and a dreary, steady rain as speaker after speaker sang the praises of solar power.

The rise of environmentalism poisoned liberals’ historical optimism.For the first two-thirds of the twentieth century, American liberals distinguished themselves from conservatives by what Lionel Trilling called “a spiritual orthodoxy of belief in progress.” Liberalism placed its hopes in human perfectibility. Regarding human nature as essentially both beneficent and malleable, liberals, like their socialist cousins, argued that with the aid of science and given the proper social and economic conditions, humanity could free itself from its cramped carapace of greed and distrust and enter a realm of true freedom and happiness. Conservatives, by contrast, clung to a tragic sense of man’s...

On June 9th, Prince Charles delivered a stunning speech to the Center for Islamic Studies at Oxford wherein he called for a western pantheistic religious synthesis with Islam to help save the world from the impending environmental catastrophe looming on the apocalyptic horizon. Shockingly, Prince Charles strongly believes that Islam can play a critical role in bringing back ancient religious traditions that will promote a much needed check on western man’s unbridled enthusiasm for capitalism, power and money where science has been inappropriately exploited by commerce since the Industrial Revolution. Prince Charles presumes that such a course of action will...

Proving that there is no folly fallacious enough that it can't be written down, both in a book and in an oped in the Washington Post, Stan Cox, an agricultural scientist, has proposed to ban or greatly restrict air conditioning.

The following is a news release from the University of Arizona. TUCSON, AZ (UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA) - A 4.88-meter-tall metal wall built along parts of the Arizona/Mexico border to try to keep out people is doing a good job of preventing the movement of some species of wildlife, University of Arizona researchers have found.Some animals that live near the border dwell in fragmented habitats that are separated by vast spreads of unsuitable land, said Aaron Flesch, senior research specialist with the UA School of Natural Resources and the Environment. "When you have habitat that is fragmented on the landscape, movement...

The state Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld regulators' approval of the $1.7 billion CapX2020 power-line project, shooting down citizen complaints that the enormous project is unnecessary and would harm the environment. The decision was a big loss for the United Citizens Action Network, NoCapX2020 and Citizens Energy Task Force, who were challenging the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission's 2009 approval of the major transmission buildout. The groups argued that since energy demand has been declining the expensive new power lines aren't needed. They also argued that regulators didn't adequately address the impacts on wildlife in certain areas such as the...

It's just a wasteful, reckless, unnecessary, ozone-destroying exercise Last Sunday, they ran the Coca-Cola 600 and the Indianapolis 500. That's about 1,100 unnecessary miles of tire treads wearing thin. My friends, auto racing is a road to nowhere. Ten years into a new millennium, it's time to put the exhaust pipes into an antique shop. It's time we engage in a new age of enlightenment, recognize auto racing as obsolete and end the around-the-oval madness. At the risk of being tossed out of the sports fraternity -- Who am I kidding? I was tossed out years ago; why do you...

One can imagine that living with Al Gore is a living hell. I would say that about all politicians but especially Al Gore. All of them are insanely driven to power, but in Al Gore’s case the 2000 election dispute changed him as a man. He started acting strangely. He took a teaching job for a spell which was metaphorically a time out from life. The long beard appeared soon after the recount, and then the fat Al Gore emerged as if he was eating every vote and voter. Al Gore became the butt of late night talk show monologues....

Climate Science: Noted scientists at a Chicago climate conference declare that global warming is not only dead, but that the planet faces a big chill for decades to come. What about those frozen wind turbines? It's not exactly Copenhagen or Kyoto, but the 700 scientists attending the fourth International Conference on Climate Change, sponsored by the Heartland Institute, had some chilling news of their own in the most liberal sense. "Global warming is over — at least for a few decades," Don Easterbrook, emeritus professor of geology at Western Washington University, told the gathering. "However, the bad news is that...

Three power plants on the San Diego County coastline face major changes — from shuttering operations to building new cooling towers — in the wake of a landmark ruling by California’s water-quality officials to protect sea life. The State Water Resources Control Board last week decided to phase out once-through cooling for seaside power plants because the process kills more than 2.6 million fish and 19 billion fish larvae annually, according to the agency. The policy may be contested by energy companies concerned about the cost of compliance, including fitting new infrastructure into existing facilities. Ratepayers statewide will pay the...

20 April 2010: An oil rig rented and operated by BP in the Gulf of Mexico explodes, killing 11 workers. 21 April 2010: All 115 workers are evacuated from the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig. 22 April 2010: The Deepwater Horizon collapses into the sea and sinks. 22 April 2010: President Obama delivers a speech on Wall Street to advocate more government intervention in the country's financial sector, but offers no reforms for Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which helped precipitate the 2008 meltdown. He also delivers a speech regarding the contributions of Earth Day to environmental awareness. Meanwhile, 200,000...

It’s appropriate that for Earth Day a British court has essentially confirmed Gaia’s status as a goddess who is worshiped by eco-acolyte. What so many have observed—that beliefs about the environment have morphed into a new cult—is now being openly acknowledged by its members. And like all cults, this one rots human brains and endangers the human species. First, the case: Tim Nicholson was an environmental sustainability expert working for Grainger, the UK’s largest residential landlord. He was fired, he maintained, because of his views on global warming and a list of environmental issues about which he harangued his bosses....

(CNSNews.com) – For E. Calvin Beisner and his colleagues at the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation (CASC), every day is Earth Day because Christians are called by God to be good stewards of the planet and its inhabitants. Beisner believes that it is not carbon emissions but global warming activism and international climate treaties that are a threat to the nation’s future and the world’s poorest populations.

It’s appropriate that for Earth Day a British court has essentially confirmed Gaia’s status as a goddess who is worshiped by eco-acolyte. What so many have observed—that beliefs about the environment have morphed into a new cult—is now being openly acknowledged by its members. And like all cults, this one rots human brains and endangers the human species. First, the case: Tim Nicholson was an environmental sustainability expert working for Grainger, the UK’s largest residential landlord. He was fired, he maintained, because of his views on global warming and a list of environmental issues about which he harangued his bosses....

Science: An Icelandic scientist says climate change spurs volcanic eruptions such as the one disrupting air traffic in Europe. Rather, the evidence suggests volcanoes cause global cooling and Arctic ice to melt. The stunning eruption of a volcano under Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier has disrupted air traffic over the continent of Europe as vast plumes of steam and ash were spewed into the atmosphere. Once again, we witness the power of nature over man even as man blames himself for nature's acts. Almost every malady on earth has been blamed on global warming, so it wasn't all that surprising when Freysteinn...

AS well-intentioned gestures go, Earth Hour is hard to beat. At 8.30pm on Saturday, March 27, nearly a billion people in more than 120 countries demonstrated their desire to do something about global warming by switching off their lights for an hour. Earth Hour is surely one of the most successful publicity stunts to be dreamed up. First organised in Sydney in 2007 by the local chapter of the WWF, its popularity and the level of participation that generates has exploded in recent years, to the point that there is barely a corner of the earth that the campaign hasn't...

For decades they have thundered along America’s highways and choked up parking lots, a symbol of extravagance unchallenged by politicians, emissions standards or common sense. They are the four-wheel-drive behemoths known to the US Government as “light trucks” and to consumers as SUVs (sport utility vehicles) — but their easy ride as the world’s most conspicuous mobile polluters ended this week. In a coup that achieves something President Clinton promised but never delivered, President Obama has forced the big three US carmakers, and their unions, to accept tough mileage rules for cars and SUVs. The rules will cut emissions from...

(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...