Free Republic

Climate regulation could be the next Democratic priority to fall to the Supreme Court. The court released two major decisions this week - on guns and abortion - and is expected to soon rule on a case that has major implications for what powers the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has to regulate climate change. Experts say a court ruling in favor of those seeking to curb the EPA’s authority could stunt the agency’s ability to prevent climate change from worsening. “The more tools the court takes away from the EPA, under the Clean Air Act to address greenhouse gas emissions,...

BERLIN — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seemed like an unexpected opportunity for environmentalists, who had struggled to focus the world’s attention on the kind of energy independence that renewable resources can offer. With the West trying to wean itself from Russian oil and gas, the argument for solar and wind power seemed stronger than ever. But four months into the war, the scramble to replace Russian fossil fuels has triggered the exact opposite. As the heads of the Group of 7 industrialized nations gather in the Bavarian Alps for a meeting that was supposed to cement their commitment to the...

The world’s biggest fossil fuel firms are quietly planning scores of “carbon bomb” oil and gas projects that would drive the climate past internationally agreed temperature limits with catastrophic global impacts, a Guardian investigation shows. The exclusive data shows these firms are in effect placing multibillion-dollar bets against humanity halting global heating. Their huge investments in new fossil fuel production could pay off only if countries fail to rapidly slash carbon emissions, which scientists say is vital. The oil and gas industry is extremely volatile but extraordinarily profitable, particularly when prices are high, as they are at present. ExxonMobil, Shell,...

A proposed California desalination plant that would produce 50 million gallons of drinking water per day failed a crucial regulatory hurdle on Monday, possibly dooming a project that had been promoted as a partial solution for sustained drought. The staff of the California Coastal Commission recommended denying approval of the Huntington Beach plant proposed by Poseidon Water, controlled by the infrastructure arm of Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management. The commission’s staff said the project was more susceptible to sea-level rise than was understood when it was first proposed more than two decades ago. The plant is expected to produce 50 million...

Link only - https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/wind-power-s-colossal-market-failure-threatens-climate-fight

WASHINGTON - White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy is expected to step down next month, a person familiar with her decision confirmed. McCarthy had initially expected to wrap up her service by the end of February, but she agreed to stay a bit longer, the person said. She is expected to return to her native Boston. In a tweet late Thursday, McCarthy pushed back against the reports. "Reports that I have resigned from my position as President Biden’s National Climate Advisor are simply inaccurate. We’ve made great progress these past 14 months, but we have much more work to...

The 2021 project, reports Sarah Cascone for Artnet News, was a joint effort between Interpol, Europol and the World Customs Organization (WCO), and was led by the Spanish authorities.Officials recovered stolen statuettes, musical instruments, archaeological finds, pieces of pottery, paintings, furniture and more, according to the statement.Amateur metal detecting is a popular—and profitable—pastime for many Europeans in recent years, but some have employed the hobby illegally. Seven European countries confiscated a combined total of 90 metal detectors used for illicit looting at archaeological sites, per the Guardian.Highlights of the past four months include the recovery of a trove of golden...

WASHINGTON - In a decision that could dramatically undercut President Joe Biden’s ambitious climate goals, the Commerce Department said Monday it is investigating whether imports of solar panels from Southeast Asia are circumventing anti-dumping rules that limit imports from China. Clean energy leaders said the investigation - which could result in retroactive tariffs of up to 240% - would severely hinder the U.S. solar industry, leading to thousands of layoffs and imperiling up to 80% of planned solar projects in the U.S. Such an outcome would jeopardize one of Biden's top clean energy goals and run counter to his administration's...

The Internal Revenue Service plans to hire 10,000 employees in a push to cut into its backlog of tens of millions of tax returns by recruiting for jobs across the agency that have gone unfilled for years, according to four people familiar with the plan. The agency will accelerate recruiting in the coming weeks for 80 distinct positions, from entry-level clerical workers to advanced engineers and tax attorneys, one person familiar with the plan said. Among the recruiting targets are high-skill technology professionals to modernize its outdated infrastructure, according to those familiar with the plan, who spoke on the condition...

The impacts of the climate crisis are proving much worse than predicted, and governments must act more urgently to adapt to them or face global disaster, the UK president of the UN climate talks has warned on the eve of a landmark new scientific assessment of the climate. Alok Sharma, who led the Cop26 climate summit last year, said: “The changes in the climate we are seeing today are affecting us much sooner and are greater than we originally thought. The impacts on our daily lives will be increasingly severe and stark. We will be doing ourselves and our populations...

RENO, Nev. (AP) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed designating critical habitat for a Nevada wildflower it plans to list as endangered amid a conflict over a mine to produce lithium batteries for electric vehicles critical to the Biden administration’s plans to combat climate change. The agency on Wednesday proposed designating critical habitat for Tiehm’s buckwheat on a high-desert ridge near the California line halfway between Reno and Las Vegas. It’s the only place in the world the delicate, 6-inch-tall (15-centimeter) wildflower with yellow blooms is known to exist. It’s also the site where Ioneer USA Corp....

The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano has nothing to do with climate change. Despite some arguments that the two phenomenons are inter-related, there is no clear evidence of the connection. That’s the view of two renowned geologist who’ve lived and worked in the region for several years. Even the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) also noted that volcanic eruptions are often discussed in relation to climate change. This was largely because of the release of CO2 (and other gases) into our atmosphere. However, it pointed out that human contributions to the carbon cycle are more...

PHILADELPHIA (StudyFinds.org) - The climate crisis will cause more people to suffer from kidney stones, a new study predicts. Researchers from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) say kidney stones is a condition in which hard deposits of minerals build up in the urine, causing great pain as they pass through the urinary tract. Their study finds the incidence of this condition has increased in the last 20 years and is more prevalent among women and children. “While it is impossible to predict with certainty how future policies will slow or hasten greenhouse gas emission and anthropogenic climate change, and...

Beginning in 2022, women’s faces will circulate through the nation’s currency on quarters - something long overdue, according to Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat who has been working on this legislation since 2017. “I wanted to make sure that women would be honored, and their images and names be lifted up on our coins. I mean, it’s outrageous that we haven’t,” Lee said. “Hopefully the public really delves into who these women were, because these women have made such a contribution to our country in so many ways.” Maya Angelou (April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) Dr. Sally...

Our civilization is crumbling right in front of our eyes. We have become accustomed to soaring murder rates, mass shootings, extreme degeneracy throughout the entire entertainment industry, violent rioting in our streets, and severe corruption on all levels of government. To a certain extent, a lot of these things seem “normal” to many of us at this point. But the truth is that what we are experiencing is not even close to “normal”. We are literally watching our entire society slowly but surely go down the tubes, and it is heartbreaking to watch. If you think that I am being...

A group of four young men are wanted for robbing $20,000 worth of merchandise from an Apple Store, all caught on security cameras in broad daylight - the latest in a series of lootings across California.

Early on Friday morning, a group of “organized burglars” conducted flash raids at several Chicago stores hours before shoppers gathered for Black Friday sales. Between 1:30 a.m. and 3 a.m. a group of men traveling in a 3-car convoy broke into and burglarized four stores in Chicago’s Wicker Park area. A fifth store had its front entrance damaged, but it was not clear if the place was also rifled through, according to a Chicago Police Department report highlighted by crime watch website CWBChicago.com.

At least 85 percent of the global population has experienced weather events made worse by climate change, according to research published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change. Using machine learning to analyze and map more than 100,000 studies of events that could be linked to global warming, researchers paired the analysis with a well-established data set of temperature and precipitation shifts caused by fossil fuel use and other sources of carbon emissions. These combined findings - which focused on events such as crop failures, floods and heat waves - allowed scientists to make a solid link between escalating extremes...

The battle over the Democrats' proposed $3.5 trillion infrastructure plan is just beginning, but the House Ways and Means Committee has already started to outline measures that will be included in the package. One measure that's in the panel's markup of the Build Back Better Act: 12 weeks of universal paid family and medical leave. It's a measure intended to guarantee workers with time off to raise newborn children or deal with a medical emergency. "Later this week, the Ways and Means Committee will put an end to the idea that only some workers are worthy of 'perks' like paid...

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (CNS) -- Jury deliberations are expected to begin in the federal trial of former political donor Ed Buck, who is accused of providing methamphetamine to two men who died in his West Hollywood apartment. A prosecutor told jurors Friday that Buck caused the deaths of Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean as a result of his "fetish" for injecting men with increasing doses of methamphetamine until they became comatose, but the defense countered that the victims had underlying medical conditions that ended their lives. "He would find desolate, vulnerable victims and push meth on them over and over...