Free Republic

Recent news stories underscore the tremendous benefits brought by America’s fracking revolution. * The shale oil production boom could boost US crude production to 9.5 million barrels of oil per day (bopd) next year, reducing America’s crude oil imports to 21% of domestic demand, the lowest level since 1968. Output from fracked wells represents 43% of all US oil production and 67% of natural gas production; its oil could reach 10 million bopd by 2016, the Energy Information Administration says. * The global economy saves $4.9 billion per day in oil spending because of the shale oil boom. Without it...

The world spins, the seasons change, someone breaks a sweat in November -- and the next thing we know, liberals find another excuse to grow the government. This time it's about climate change; you know... that thing that's been happening four times per year since the dawn of creation, with rainy springs, hot summers, dry falls, and cold winters or, sometimes, dry springs, cool summers, wet falls, and warm winters. Liberals freak out over anything (or anyone) that doesn't neatly fit into their carefully controlled tight box of how things should be. A few days of 100-degree temperatures or...

The activist group Environmental Defense got a taste of what it used to dish out this week when its Washington, D.C., offices were invaded by another green group, the Global Justice Ecology Project. The Global Justice Ecology Project (GJEP) essentially accused Environmental Defense (ED) of collaborating with the enemy -- big businesses that want cap-and-trade global warming legislation. Noting that her father was one of ED’s founders, GJEP head Rachel Smolker said she was now “ashamed” of ED because it advocated cap-and-trade. Smolker said that the European version of cap-and-trade, the Kyoto Protocol, had “utterly failed” to reduce emissions and...

The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) has announced the winners of its 4th annual Tarnished Halo Awards. CCF awards these prizes to America's most notorious animal-rights zealots, environmental scaremongers, celebrity busybodies, self-anointed public interest advocates, trial lawyers, and other food & beverage activists who claim to know what's best for you. The Reverend Rooster Category Awarded to Al Sharpton, the publicity-seeking preacher, for joining PETA to crow at KFC restaurants and attempting to instigate a boycott from the African American community. It's odd that Sharpton would stand side-by-side with PETA, which advocates a complete end to chicken consumption. When the...

"If you ask me, it'd be little short of disastrous for us to discover a source of clean, cheap, abundant energy because of what we would do with it." That very bizarre statement was said by Amory Lovins, who received a quarter of a million dollar Heinz Award for the Environment from the $1.24 billion war chest of foundation money that is controlled by Teresa Heinz Kerry. Such statements illustrate the irrational mindset of environmental extremists. The Capital Research Center watchdog group reports that Heinz Kerry has been active in funding radical groups that have blocked U.S. efforts to achieve...