Free Republic

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is set to issue the first major federal regulations on hydraulic fracturing on Friday, with new mandates targeting oil and gas wells on public land. The Interior Department rule reflects years of work by regulators seeking to balance environmental interests and economic imperatives in setting baseline standards for the way wells are constructed and stimulated for oil and gas production. But the final version, set to be unveiled Friday by Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, according to stakeholders familiar with the timeline, is unlikely to appease environmentalists who have argued for strong protections or oil...

Nye's tweet apparently suggests that climate change is to blame for the supposed lack of snow on the slopes around Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Michelle Malkin and JunkScience.com have already debunked much of this tweet, the latter by showing that Nye's picture was not of Jackson Hole, but instead of Jackson – and the former by illustrating that there was anything but an absence of snow in Jackson Hole.

Forty-seven Senate Republicans are signaling in an open letter to Iran and the White House that a deal over Tehran’s nuclear program will be at risk once President Obama leaves office. “It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system,” the senators wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Bloomberg. “Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution — the power to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal offices — which you should seriously...

Kansas appears on the verge of becoming among the most welcoming states to people who want to pack heat. A bill promising Kansans the ability to carry concealed firearms — without taking safety training or weathering the background checks required in most of the country — won initial approval in the state Senate on Wednesday. The change, expected to pass Thursday to a likely receptive House, would make Kansas a “constitutional carry” state. That would mean citizens would not need a permit to carry a hidden gun. The bill would maintain the current permit process for people who want to...

More than two dozen states have joined the Texas lawsuit opposing President Obama’s executive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, but more eye-opening is the list of Republican governors whose names still do not appear on the suit. The seven Republicans who have thus far elected not to join the suit aimed at reining in Obama are Chris Christie of New Jersey, Terry Branstad of Iowa, Larry Hogan of Maryland, Susana Martinez of New Mexico, Matthew Mead of Wyoming, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Bruce Rauner of Illinois. Five of those seven states – Maryland, Iowa, New Mexico, Massachusetts and...

Mesa County commissioners on Tuesday directed Mesa County Attorney Patrick Coleman to draft a notice of intent to sue the federal government over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s listing of the Gunnison sage-grouse as a threatened species. Gunnison County filed its own notice of intent in December to bring civil action against the Fish and Wildlife Service for, the county believes, improperly listing the bird as a threatened species and naming Gunnison County and acreage in a handful of other Colorado and Utah counties, including Mesa, as critical habitat for the sage-grouse. Mesa County decided to follow with its...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A Wyoming legislative committee on Tuesday rejected a bill that would have required doctors to advise women seeking abortions at least 24 hours before the procedure that they could see an ultrasound image of the fetus and listen to its heartbeat. The House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee voted 6-3 against the bill sponsored by Rep. Tom Reeder, R-Casper. Reeder told the committee the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that requiring doctors to give such advice 24 hours before a scheduled abortion procedure doesn't violate women's right to abortion. Reeder said his bill would help...

When Sen. Jeff Sessions stepped aside to make way for Wyoming's Mike Enzi to lead the Budget Committee, many wondered if there were bigger plans ahead for Alabama's junior senator. It appears there is Sen. Sessions is set to take over the Senate panel that oversees immigration, reports indicate. The move was first reported in Politico and while the senator's office can't confirm the move ahead of the official announcement, the change is a perfect fit for Sessions who has emerged as the leading opponent of the White House's immigration plans. Sessions is set to take over chairmanship of the...

Washington, DC – Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today issued a Secretarial Order calling for a comprehensive science-based strategy to address the more frequent and intense wildfires that are damaging vital sagebrush landscapes and productive rangelands, particularly in the Great Basin region of Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Oregon and California. The strategy will begin to be implemented during the 2015 fire season. Goals include reducing the size, severity and cost of rangeland fires, addressing the spread of cheatgrass and other invasive species, and positioning wildland fire management resources for more effective rangeland fire response. “Targeted action is urgently needed to...

Utah passed a law in 2012 demanding the federal government give up about 31 million acres, about 50 percent of the state, by Dec. 31, 2014. ... Ivory and other supporters of the land transfer say the state’s legal claim lies in the Utah Enabling Act, which led to Utah’s statehood in 1896. .. If Utah pursues a lawsuit, the state attorney general’s office has warned lawmakers they need to avoid flawed theories or inconsistent arguments used by western states in the 1970s and 1980s during a similar push known as the Sagebrush Rebellion. ... Montana, Wyoming and Nevada have...

The repeal of ObamaCare is the priority of the Republican party, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said on Sunday. “There will be a vote on repeal. The president, in the White House, will veto that,” he said of the symbolic gesture offered by GOP lawmakers still unsatisfied with the healthcare legislation. However, Barrasso told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” that there would also be other bills that strike at other parts of the Affordable Care Act – some of which have gained bipartisan support – including a repeal of the medical device tax and the employer mandate. There is...

The state agency responsible for building and maintaining Wyoming’s K-12 schools will face huge revenue shortfalls in the years ahead. That’s according to a report by University of Wyoming economists. The vast majority of school construction funding comes from coal lease bonus payments—and those revenues are expected to dry up completely in 2017. The School Facilities Department expects to spend half as much in 2019 and 2020 as its spending now—as the state shifts from building schools to maintaining them. But in the same period, the associated revenues are expected to drop by 95 percent. The UW report found that...

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions is out as chair of the Senate Budget Committee. **"Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is giving up his bid to become the next Budget Committee chairman — deferring to Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and eliminating the only competitive chairmanship battle in the incoming GOP Senate majority. "Sessions has been the panel’s top Republican for the past four years but Enzi technically retains seniority over the Alabaman on the committee and said several weeks ago that he would challenge Sessions for the chairmanship."** This is going to portrayed as a simple matter of seniority. It isn’t. That story...

Wyoming could help finance the construction of a coal export dock in the Pacific Northwest, according to the executive director of the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority. Loyd Drain said he had a "serious" conversation with an unidentified party in the past six months about the possibility of financing a coal port. His comments come as state lawmakers ready a bill that would boost the WIA's borrowing authority to $3 billion and allow the agency to work on projects outside Wyoming. "If our ability to provide the financing for a facility is the catalyst to get the dang thing built, then we’ll...

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Wednesday afternoon conceded to Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) after a race to become the next chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. Sessions, currently the panel’s ranking member, said he reached an agreement with his “good friend” Enzi. “We have talked and I am deferring to his seniority so that he can lead the Budget Committee as its Chairman beginning in 2015,” Sessions said in a statement. “Mike graciously deferred to me two years ago after he timed out on HELP as Ranking Member, and it has been my enormous privilege to serve as the panel’s...

Alexander (R-TN) Ayotte (R-NH) Barrasso (R-WY) Coats (R-IN) Cochran (R-MS) Collins (R-ME) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Enzi (R-WY) Flake (R-AZ) Graham (R-SC) Hatch (R-UT) Heller (R-NV) Johnson (R-WI) Kirk (R-IL) McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Murkowski (R-AK) Toomey (R-PA) Wicker (R-MS) Not Voting Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK)

Officials at Magpul Industries unveiled Wednesday its new facilities in Texas and Wyoming, making good on a vow to leave Colorado in response to the state’s sweeping gun control legislation.

They are going there to get subsidized Section 8 housing vouchers to take to another state. Refugee resettlement is a euphemism for importing whole Muslim communities, importing jihad. I have long documented the targeting of gateway cities (smaller cities) overwhelmed with Muslim refugee immigration from countries like Somalia — cities like Emporia, Kansas, Nashville, Greeley and Fort Morgan, Colorado, Lewiston, Maine et al. The over-saturation and drain on city resources has driven these immigrants northward to settle in Wyoming, according to these reports. Organizations like Lutheran Family Services profit enormously from the Federal government handling these refugees. The sharia compliant...

It seems incredible, but a single missing word could turn a water law into a government land grab so horrendous even a U.S. Supreme Court justice warned it would “put the property rights of every American entirely at the mercy of Environmental Protection Agency employees.” The missing word is “navigable.” The Obama administration is proposing a rule titled “Definition of ‘Waters of the United States’ Under the Clean Water Act,” which would strike “navigable” from American water law and redefine any piece of land that is wet at least part of the year, no matter how remote or isolated it...

A Wyoming man named Andy Johnson got all the required state permits when he built a stock pond on his land a couple years ago. But now the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is threatening Johnson with fines of up to $75,000 per day, claiming that the two-foot wide, six-inch deep stream he used is subject to federal control.