Free Republic

Former Vice President Al Gore today lauded what he called “the best, most hopeful step” in years to contain global warming: 16 state prosecutors joining New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s crusade against energy giants that they assert have fraudulently fought caps on greenhouse gas emissions. Mr. Gore joined Mr. Schneiderman and a contingent of attorneys general ranging from Vermont to the Virgin Islands at the Empire State pol’s Lower Manhattan office. The official occasion was a joint amicus brief the lawyers filed with the federal district court currently weighing the fate of President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which...

The North Fork Valley is now down to one operating coal mine after Friday’s announcement that the Bowie No. 2 Mine near Paonia is being idled. Kentucky-based Bowie Resource Partners said in a news release that the action is occurring “as a result of continued market deterioration.” “The mine will remain idle while the market for Bowie No. 2 coal is evaluated,” the company said. The mine employs 108 full-time employees and one contractor. Bowie said it expects that 68 positions will be eliminated ... Just a few years ago, Bowie No. 2 employed more than 300 miners ... Another...

Across all sectors of Colorado the cost of electricity has skyrocketed more than 67 percent between 2001 and 2014, easily exceeding median income growth and the expected rate of inflation . ... For all sectors between 2001 and 2014, the cost per kilowatthour jumped from just over 6 cents to more than 10 cents, or 67.11 percent. ... the data for the remaining sectors emphasizes the double impact that increased energy costs have in the form of rapidly escalating electricity rates on Colorado ratepayers, who see not only their own personal energy costs rise, but are hit a second time...

The Environmental Protection Agency's "Clean Power Plan," an enormous regulatory monster unilaterally cooked up by federal bureaucrats and attempted to be foisted on states, utility companies and consumers, was dealt a huge blow at the Supreme Court this week when the regulations were put on hold pending the numerous legal challenges that have been percolating through the court system. The importance of this stay cannot be overstated. In the past, some EPA regulations that have been overturned in the court system were not put on hold and their damage was already done while other states and groups were challenging their...

As President Obama travels to Illinois Wednesday to celebrate the beginnings of his presidency, he's also watching his legacy erode before his very eyes. On the eve of the president’s nostalgic trip to Springfield, the Supreme Court dealt a stunning blow to his Clean Power Plan Tuesday night, ordering a stay of the EPA's regulation to cut carbon emissions. White House aides said they were surprised by the ruling and vowed to fight on in federal appeals court. The results of the New Hampshire primaries Tuesday night weren't exactly promising for a so-called third Obama term, either. In the Democratic...

A U.S. federal court on Thursday rejected a bid by 27 states to block the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of its strategy to combat climate change. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a brief order denying an application seeking to stay the rule while litigation continues.

With the start of a new year, President Obama and his army of unelected bureaucrats are resolving to acquire more power and increase regulations. Throughout his tenure, President Obama has shown that he will do anything to achieve his personal policy agenda. Whether by passing new regulations through federal agencies or issuing executive orders, the Obama Administration has repeatedly bypassed Congress and the will of the American people. In the realm of energy policy, Obama has made it clear that nothing will stand in the way of his so-called climate "legacy," not the economy, not the livelihood of millions of...

FULL TITLE: "Maryland Deputy Attorney General, Flirts, Gives Confidential Info, Admits Inability in Undercover Video" In an undercover video recorded by an activist outfit named Project Veritas, Maryland Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah is seen flirting with a woman secretly recording him in a bar and hotel room, as well as divulging information he says the public shouldn't know and admitting his own ineptitude at the position he holds. In the recording, Vignarajah admits "it would be really bad" if the public heard about Maryland's plan to join President Obama's lawsuit for the Clean Power Plan before the information was...

I've been blessed to contribute and participate in our country's oil and gas renaissance, which has helped to lower energy prices. It is rewarding to know this benefits the poor and middle class the most, facilitating job creation while creating more discretionary income. At my roots I'm a geoscientist, having studied geology and geophysics at the University of Texas. Part of my job is modeling what's under the surface in an attempt to predict where the oil and gas deposits are. In my profession I'm continually frustrated by the lack of knowledge and flagrant misinformation being perpetuated about the...

The cost of electricity for Colorado residents skyrocketed 63 percent between 2001 and 2014, far outpacing median income in the state at just 24 percent over the same time period ... Retail residential electricity rates increased from 7.47 cents per kilowatthour in 2001 to 12.18 cents per kilowatthour by 2014, a 63.1 percent hike. Coloradans median income, however, went up just 24.1 percent, from $49,397 to $61,303. Median income in Colorado actually declined between 2008 and 2012. ... Not to mention the state's many business owners, including small business owners, who face the same hikes in energy costs that could...

Over 600 Democrat politicians from 32 states have joined together to oppose the centerpiece of Pres. Obama's climate change agenda, the Clean Power Plan. "As Democrats committed to a prosperous America and a healthy environment, we believe the United States has a unique opportunity to lead the world in addressing the global climate challenge, and yet do so, as we must, without unduly burdening the American economy or the American people," the Democratic coalition called CoalBlue said in a letter sent Tuesday to Obama. "The letter was signed by 626 state and local officials from nearly three dozen states, including...

Sen. Ted Cruz and Attorney General Ken Paxton denounced a new federal emissions regulation as illegal, expensive and pointless Thursday during an energy conference organized by the Texas Public Policy Foundation.The Environmental Protection Agency's new regulation, known as the Clean Power Plan, was finalized last month and immediately challenged in court by 26 states and an array of companies and associations in the energy industry."The regulation is neither clean nor does it have anything to do with power, other than the Obama Administration's power to harm our energy production," Cruz, a Republican, said in a taped message. "The CPP would,...

The legal barrage to halt the Environmental Protection Agency’s radical Clean Power Plan has begun. A broad coalition of U.S. industry and business, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and an armada of other business and industry organizations, has asked the D.C. District of the federal Court of Appeals to prevent any further action on the Plan until the court can decide its overall legal status. The coalition filed a motion at their first opportunity on Friday to stay EPA’s long-awaited final rule governing the plan, immediately after the agency published the rule in the...

The chief environmental regulator in the United States had some blunt words of reality regarding the administration’s climate change regulations. The Clean Power Plan that will require drastic cuts in 47 states’ carbon dioxide emissions – consequently shifting America’s energy economy away from affordable, reliable coal – will adversely impact poor, minority families the most. When speaking about the higher energy prices caused by the administration’s climate regulations on power plants, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said, “We know that low-income minority communities would be hardest hit.”

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan, which aims to reduce carbon pollution, contains an antipoverty transfer program to help offset the harm it does to the poor, a Wall Street Journal editorial explained.According to WSJ, the EPA has stated that they are concerned about low-income communities and wants to ensure that they benefit from the implementation of their regulations.“At the federal level, the EPA is creating a program that gives twice as large a subsidy for renewable and efficiency projects that are built in inner-city neighborhoods and disadvantaged rural areas,” states the article. “There will be job retraining...

U.S. households are saving hundreds of dollars a year because natural gas prices are low, but that’s about to change. Astudy by NERA Economic Consulting has found new regulations on power plants mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) will increase natural gas prices to 2007 levels, virtually guaranteeing these savings will soon be wiped out. A study by the Brookings Institution found natural gas prices have plummeted as horizontal hydraulic fracturing, also known as horizontal “fracking,” has caused U.S. natural gas production to skyrocket to all-time highs, making the United States the world’s top producer of...

European wind and solar industries have welcomed US President Barack Obama’s new climate plan while European politicians see Washington’s move as a positive signal ahead of UN climate talks in Paris. "We have a moral obligation to leave our children a planet that’s not polluted or damaged", said Obama on Monday (3 August). The Clean Power Plan establishes for the first time national standards for limiting carbon pollution from American power plants and aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. It also says that renewables should account for 28 percent of US energy...

President Obama is surreptitiously colluding with radical anti-growth environmentalists to force ideologically driven carbon-emission controls on the energy industry that will devastate the U.S. economy, congressional investigators have discovered. As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) drew up rules aimed at limiting carbon emissions from power-generation plants, "key stakeholders — including the American public — had little to no influence over the debate while powerful environmental activist groups were given unprecedented access to and influence over administration officials," the Washington Times reported yesterday. Collusion between the EPA and the green's isn't exactly breaking news. They've been doing it for years, but...

This week, President Obama is hailing his Clean Power Plan as "the single most important step America has ever taken in the fight against global climate change." Obama is posing as the environment's savior, just as he did in 2008, when he promised his presidency would mark "the moment when ... the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." Seven years later, that messianic legacy is in doubt. Obama's Clean Power Plan has never had legislative support, even when his own party controlled both houses of Congress. Now he's trying to impose it without...

The EPA may be making some major changes to its carbon dioxide emissions regulatory scheme, the details of which have been leaked to the media just days ahead of its expected release date. The EPA will be getting rid of its energy efficiency building block of its Clean Power Plan over legal concerns the agency was overstepping its bounds by controlling how efficiently people used their electricity, reports The Wall Street Journal. The Journal also reported the Clean Power Plan will encourage nuclear power production. An EPA spokeswoman would not confirm the reported changes to the rule as it has...