Free Republic

COLUMBIA — A controversial energy bill is heading to the House floor over the continued opposition of consumer and environmental advocates, who say changes fell far short of addressing concerns over fast-tracking a new power plant in South Carolina. A House committee voted unanimously Wednesday to advance the legislation introduced last month by Speaker Murrell Smith of Sumter, R-Sumter. The bill gives permission for Dominion Energy and state-owned utility company Santee Cooper to partner on a possible 2,000-megawatt natural gas plant on the site of a former coal-fired power plant along the Edisto River in Colleton County. But in the...

I have a friend who frequently says that, if you control CO2 outputs, you control everything. Let me explain: Every aspect of modern life is dependent on hydrocarbons and, when hydrocarbons are burned for energy, they produce CO2. By demonizing CO2, you demonize hydrocarbons, which means…ta-dah!...you get to block hydrocarbons and control everything. We’re getting a glimpse of that with Joe Biden’s new energy emission rules, which will effectively make it impossible to build a gas-powered car in a few years, forcing people into costly, dangerous, unreliable, and dirty electric vehicles. Here’s the report from Fox:The Biden administration has finalized...

Amish people go into Lancaster County Courthouse for a hearing regarding farmer Amos Miller's raw-dairy business on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. Upper Leacock farmer Amos Miller cannot sell raw milk or dairy products made from it to the public under an order issued by a Lancaster County judge Friday afternoon. Judge Thomas Sponaugle’s order also allows the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to inspect any location where Miller packages or distributes raw milk and to test Miller’s dairy products. The ruling is a win for the agriculture department, which sought to prevent Miller from producing and selling raw milk and products...

Without so much as a whisper of pushback from Congress, the White House is bulldozing forward with a regulatory proposal that could cost the average household up to $10,000 extra in water costs. But it’s not only President Joe Biden‘s campaign that is scared of this latest forefront of the president’s green agenda — Biden’s own Pentagon is panicking over the proposal. The World Health Organization now recommends that governments limit polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or “forever plastics” that are resistant to breaking down in either the environment or the human body, at a level of 100 parts...

Last week, Bitcoin broke the $52,000 mark, underscoring a double standard in the U.S. financial system. A gaggle of federal financial regulators largely known by their abbreviations (the FRB, FDIC, OCC, NCUA, SEC, FHFA, CFTC, CFPB and FSOC) and an array of regulators in each of the 50 states expend precious resources competing with one another to regulate every aspect and movement by banks. However, financial companies that are not banks but engage in bank-like activities — and make up most of the financial services market — are barely regulated when it comes to their financial health and strength. Bitcoin...

resident Biden's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently finalized an air quality rule that the manufacturing industry is warning could wipe out one million jobs and undermine efforts to build new manufacturing facilities in America. Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), is set to sound the alarm about the regulation in his annual state of manufacturing address on Thursday in Roseville, Michigan, according to an advance copy of his remarks provided to FOX Business. "In his State of the Union Address next month, President Biden will probably take credit for what manufacturers have achieved. That's...

FIRST ON FOX: A bicameral coalition of more than 130 Republican lawmakers penned a letter to the White House on Thursday, urging it to withdraw proposed tailpipe emissions regulations, forcing a transition to electric vehicles (EV). The Republicans — led by Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho — argued that the regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are a "de facto EV mandate" phaseout of traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. They addressed the letter to President Biden and Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, which is expected to soon finalize...

The Department of Education is, like many of the departments in the federal government, a waste of time, money, and an intrusion on local control. It doens't have many good reasons for its existence and, if we're being honest, acts more as a vanity project that administrations can use to say they're doing something new and good for the kids. It should rightfully be destroyed and that's what Kentucky's Thomas Massie is trying to do. On Wednesday, Massie announced on X that he introduced H.R. 899, a bill that would obliterate the DoE. "I introduced a bill to end the...

The Biden administration is poised to soon finalize gas-powered car tailpipe emissions standards that consumer advocates and energy industry groups have dubbed a "de facto electric vehicle mandate." The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed tailpipe emissions – which were in recent weeks submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget for final review – are designed to ensure a staggering 67% of new car sales are electric by 2032. Over the weekend, the New York Times and Washington Post reported the White House is set to double down on that lofty goal while loosening earlier targets. "The President...

Prices in the U.S. have been rising across the board, but the increase in airfares has been particularly acute. Part of that is due to a significant pilot shortage. A new report from the Oliver Wyman consulting firm finds that North America has about 90,000 pilots, falling approximately 8,000 pilots short of demand. And the problem is only getting worse, projected to rise to a shortage of 30,000 pilots over the next decade. We can blame three coalescing events: regulatory changes enacted under President Obama, vaccine mandates, and forced pilot retirements as airlines scrambled to stay afloat during the pandemic....

Here’s your daily (or hourly?) reminder that politicians have outlived their usefulness.According to a new article out at The Grio, Democrat Jamaal Bailey, a New York state senator, introduced a bill to revamp the hair industry and advance “hair texture inclusion” so people with all different hair types can pop in for a haircut anywhere, and expect trained staff. From Democratic New York Senator Jamaal Bailey understands firsthand how challenging it is to find a hair stylist trained in his hair texture.He told Allure magazine he often runs into scenarios where he’s not in his neighborhood but in need of...

As part of his Bidenomics agenda to lower costs for American families, President Biden is announcing nearly 30 new actions to strengthen supply chains critical to America’s economic and national security. These actions will help Americans get the products they need when they need them, enable reliable deliveries for businesses, strengthen our agriculture and food systems, and support good-paying, union jobs here at home. President Biden will announce these actions alongside members of his Cabinet and other senior Administration officials at the inaugural meeting of the new White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience. The Council, which President Biden is...

NEW YORK (AP) — Preston Cabral eats meat nearly every day at home, but his favorite meals at school are served on “Meatless Mondays” and “Vegan Fridays.” “Today I ate chips, tangerines and this thing that looked like chili but without the meat — just beans,” the 12-year-old said after lunch. Programs like these are among the few proven to work for one of the thorniest problems of the 21st century: How to get people to eat less meat. Experts agree that the urgency of climate change and the demands of a surging global population call for an overhaul of...

In December, Energy Secretary Granholm announced that the administration had taken 110 actions on energy efficiency standards in 2022 alone...and are moving forward with rules impacting dozens more appliances. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Joe Biden administration continues to use executive authority to regulate popular household appliances at an unprecedented level, with claims that their changes will save consumers money and help slow climate change and its alleged effects on the environment. Though the latest set of restrictions the administration is mandating is for gas powered furnaces, that is only the latest and far from the last. “According to the current federal Unified...

Two United States senators unveiled a bipartisan blueprint for artificial intelligence (AI) legislation on Friday, Sept. 8, as Congress intensifies its endeavors to regulate the emerging technology. The framework put forward by Senators Richard Blumenthal and Josh Hawley advocates for mandatory licensing for AI firms and makes it clear that technology liability protections will not shield these companies from legal actions. In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), Blumenthal expressed that this bipartisan framework represents a significant step forward — a robust and comprehensive legislative plan for concrete and enforceable AI safeguards. It is expected to be a guide in...

...In December 1958, economist Leonard Read, the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, published a short essay in FEE's periodical, The Freeman. In the 65 years since its introduction, this masterly work has become the most recognizable element of the Austrian School of economics. "I, Pencil" was conceived as a fanciful anthropomorphism, the genealogy of that most common of household tools, the lead pencil. In those few pages, Leonard Read demonstrated the magic woven by the Invisible Hand of the free market. In the generations since, millions of us have learned to respect how countless different industries, countless people,...

If I were a climate change fanatic, I wouldn’t stop at anything to cut carbon. This explains a lot about the Department of Energy’s proposed rules on energy efficiency for ceiling fans. Yes, ceiling fans. The DOE announced the exciting news this past week that consumers would save between $28 and $39 over the life of a ceiling fan on energy costs. Meanwhile, Republicans on the Small Business Committee are questioning the wisdom of rules that will save consumers pennies a year but very well might cost thousands of jobs as some small ceiling fan manufacturers are likely to go...

"I'm with the government, and I am here to help": WEF, Big Ag and Corporate food processors“Who controls the food supply controls the people” , Attributed to Henry Kissinger (disputed)As we head into the weekend of August 26, 2023, I turn back to one of the key themes of this substack- the family farm. We previously published an essay titled “The Harvest of Deception” by Texas Slim, which provides an introductory overview of current trends in American (and western) food agriculture. Here is a quote from that essay which gets to the heart of the matter:The world's food supply is...

Rents are up nationwide, and that’s a real problem for lots of folks living paycheck-to-paycheck. It’s interesting, as a new article points out, that rents are down in the Austin area while being up in San Jose, when you consider the laws of supply and demand, and the population flows to/from those areas. Now, we see Illinois passing a new law prohibiting landlords from screening their prospective tenants’ immigration status, and you’re liable to see more rent defaults in that state—something that we’ll want to watch for in rental property trends in 2024.But there is more to it than just...

July 12 (UPI) -- The Biden administration has announced plans to continue its reduction of hydrofluorocarbons, releasing a new rule that aims to cut the United States' use of the greenhouse gases by almost half starting next year. Hydrofluorocarbon is a category of greenhouse gases used for refrigeration and air-conditioning as well as in a number of other applications, but is linked to global warming. The final rule announced Tuesday by the Environmental Protection Agency will reduce HFC consumption in the United States based on historic levels by 40% between 2024 and 2028. The reduction will be on top of...