Free Republic

The Russian economy's industrial sector is in decline, according to air-pollution readings from satellites.A Wall Street Journal report showed that the decline may be worse than what Moscow officially reports.Pollution in Russia's industrial regions fell 1.2% in the six months to April, and is 6.2% lower annually.Russia's economy is suffering from an industrial decline as Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine drags on, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing data from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-5P satellite.

The Supreme Court on Monday announced it will hear a case that could significantly scale back federal agencies’ authority, with major implications for the future of environmental and other regulations. The justices next term will consider whether to overturn a decades-old precedent that grants agencies deference when Congress left ambiguity in a statute. Named for the court’s decision in Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, the Chevron deference has become one of the most frequently cited precedents in administrative law since the decision was first handed down in 1984. It involves a two-step test: First, judges decide if Congress...

For decades, environmentalists have been bemoaning the fact that Lake Tahoe’s waters were losing their clarity and blaming humans. The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection:Between 1968 and 2000, approximately one-third of Lake Tahoe’s unique clarity was lost.The presumption was that humans must fix the problem that we must have caused: To address this issue, NDEP collaborated with the California Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board (Lahontan Water Board) to develop the Lake Tahoe Total Maximum Daily Load. the Lake Tahoe TMDL was a robust science-based effort to: better understand the causes of the loss in lake clarity, determine how much...

The Biden administration is proposing to tighten standards for pollution coming from coal-fired power plants. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Tuesday that it is proposing to strengthen restrictions under the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for the first time in more than a decade. The agency said it will update limits for pollutants, including lead, nickel and arsenic, by 67 percent for all coal power plants. Exposure to these substances raises the risk of developmental delays in children, as well as heart attacks and cancer. It will also increase mercury controls by 70 percent for some power plants —...

But the claims underpinning South Pole’s success have been losing ground like the ice underfoot that day two summers ago. The company’s biggest moneymaker is a mega-project in Zimbabwe called Kariba, which South Pole claimed has prevented the annihilation of a forest nearly the size of Puerto Rico. That’s South Pole’s business model: help finance projects that can credibly counteract rising levels of greenhouse gas, such as by stopping deforestation, and then sell the resulting credit to corporate clients who want to compensate for their own planet-warming pollution. Yet according to several outside experts and South Pole’s own analysis, the...

In addition to the disadvantages of a high purchase price, lengthy recharging times, difficulties in finding charging stations, and occasional spontaneous combustion, it now turns out that electric vehicle batteries are extremely fragile. Fender-bender collisions are resulting in damage to the vehicle's battery that cannot be repaired. Consequently, many of these vehicles are considered "totalled" for insurance purposes. Unsurprisingly, insuring EVs is becoming more costly. The scrapping of these damaged low-mileage EVs is also undermining the promised "sustainability" performance claims for the EVs. Matthew Avery, research director at automotive risk intelligence company Thatcham Research, said "replacing gasoline powered cars with...

San Francisco Bay Area regulators voted March 15 to eliminate the sale and installation of natural gas-powered furnaces and water heaters, supposedly to cut pollution. The ban starts in 2027 and will be implemented over eight years. It seems strangely fitting that this should’ve happened on the Ides of March; San Fran authorities seem to love to stab their citizens in the back with idiotic woke policies. Natural gas is a relatively clean power source and it is also reliable, unlike “green” energy. But why let reality interfere with ideology? Breitbart reported that the ban does not affect gas stoves,...

Comments were made on 3/6/23.

We’ve had enough of the left’s guilt-tripping anyone who drives a gasoline-powered car. If anyone should be ashamed, it is those who are smugly plugging in their cars each night. They are the ones responsible for raping the planet, poisoning entire communities, enriching genocidal tyrants, and creating a massive hazmat problem while doing nothing to stop “climate change.” Does that sound harsh? Here’s one recent bit of evidence. A Bloomberg investigation found that the aluminum Ford is using to build its “eco-friendly” EV pickup comes from Brazil.

Millions of metric tons of plastic are produced worldwide every year. While half of this plastic waste is recycled, incinerated, or discarded into landfills, a significant portion of what remains eventually ends up in our oceans.In fact, many pieces of ocean plastic waste have come together to create a vortex of plastic waste thrice the size of France in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii.Where does all of this plastic come from? In this graphic, Visual Capitalist's Freny Fernandes and Louis Lugas Wicaksono used data from a research paper by Lourens J.J. Meijer and team to highlight the top...

U.S. taxpayers will be on the hook for $30 million in new cooperative grant funding to reduce plastic pollution in India, according to a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) posted by the United States Agency for International Development MIssion in India. "The purpose of the activity is to reduce plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, through improvements in solid waste management and advancing a plastics circular economy in selected regions of India," according to the posted synopsis for the program, Innovations for Reducing Plastics for a Cleaner Environment in India (inREPLACE). Under the terms of the grant's cooperative agreement...

The Biden administration is apparently looking to ban gas stoves, calling them a “hidden danger”. But while that sounds bad enough, a deeper dive shows – as usual – it’s not really about what they say it’s about. Talk of banning gas stoves and “unregulated indoor air quality” could be a Trojan horse designed to get even more “smart” monitoring technology into your home. Let’s jump in.

The Biden administration is proposing to tighten a key air pollution regulation after the Trump administration declined to do so. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed on Friday to tighten limits on how much soot can be in the air, though some environmentalists are calling on the agency to go even further to protect public health. Exposure to soot pollution, also known as fine particle pollution, has been linked to heart attacks, asthma and premature deaths. This type of pollution can come from burning fossil fuels in cars or at power plants or from other places like fires or construction...

Shell Chemicals’ new cracker plant in Beaver County has exceeded its air permit limits for two months in a row, prompting a notice of violation from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The petrochemical plant near Monaca was officially pronounced to be in commercial operations last month, but start up activities began months earlier. In September, the facility had by far its worst air quality month, releasing 492 tons of volatile organic compounds from its high-pressure flare, according to data submitted to the DEP by Shell. The emissions ate up 95% of the annual limit included in Shell’s air permit....

A law signed by Gov. Tom Wolf on Nov. 3 encourages doctors to test pregnant women, and children up to 2 years old, who they believe have been exposed to lead. Act 150 is a smart move, but it doesn’t go far enough. Lead is everywhere — especially in industrial regions with older housing, which means Pittsburgh and vast swaths of Pennsylvania. Sen. Lisa Baker, R.-Luzerne, wanted Act 150 to make testing mandatory, but it was watered down in the amendment process. Now she’s reintroducing a bill to switch “encourage” back to “require,” making lead testing mandatory for all young...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week denied a legal petition by Center for Food Safety, Pesticide Action Network of North America and others, demanding that the agency fix its failure to regulate pesticide-coated seeds, which are known to be widely harming bees and other pollinators.Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denied a legal petition by Center for Food Safety (CFS), Pesticide Action Network of North America and others, demanding that the agency fix its failure to regulate pesticide-coated seeds, which are known to be widely harming bees and other pollinators.These crop seeds are coated with systemic insecticides...

We constantly hear that electric cars are the future—cleaner, cheaper and better. But if they’re so good, why does California need to ban gasoline-powered cars? Why does the world spend $30 billion a year subsidizing electric ones? In reality, electric cars are only sometimes and somewhat better than the alternatives, they’re often much costlier, and they aren’t necessarily all that much cleaner. Over its lifetime, an electric car does emit less CO2 than a gasoline car, but the difference can range considerably depending on how the electricity is generated. Making batteries for electric cars also requires a massive amount of...

Electric Cars Are Not ‘Zero-Emission Vehicles’While praising California’s decision to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, Governor Gavin Newsom declared that this will require “100% of new car sales in California to be zero-emission vehicles” like “electric cars.” In reality, electric cars emit substantial amounts of pollutants and may be more harmful to the environment than conventional cars.Toxic PollutionThe notion that electric vehicles are “zero-emission” is rooted in a deceptive narrative that ignores all pollutants which don’t come out of a tailpipe. Assessing the environmental impacts of energy technologies requires measuring all forms of pollution they emit...

California .. the bill is coming due. ... no comprehensive plan to dispose of them. Now, panels purchased under those programs are nearing the end of their typical 25-to-30-year life cycle. Many are already winding up in .. contaminate groundwater with toxic heavy metals such as lead, selenium and cadmium. Sam Vanderhoof, a solar industry expert and chief executive of Recycle PV Solar, says that only 1 in 10 panels are actually recycled ... The looming challenge over how to handle truckloads of waste... “The industry is supposed to be green,” Vanderhoof said. “But in reality, it’s all about the...

By a vote of 339 to 249 Members of the European Parliament (MEP) voted to outlaw fossil-fueled vehicles by the year 2035. Netherlands MEP Jan Huitema characterized the decision as "our last best chance to save the planet." BMW CEO Oliver Zipse pointed out that "a focus on tailpipe emissions neglects to take into account the total pollution impact of switching to battery-powered vehicles. First of all, they are more expensive. Many of the components require rare minerals—some of them from unreliable sources of supply like China. Worn out batteries cannot be safely disposed of without creating environmental problems. The...