Free Republic

EPA chief Gina McCarthy issued a strong defense of controversial proposed new curbs on carbon emissions from power plants, telling a packed Senate hearing Wednesday the agency talked to all sides in the debate before issuing its draft recommendations. “This is the most respectful rule at the federal level that I have ever been involved in,” the Environmental Protection Agency administrator told the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, citing what she said was the flexibility given to the states to design their own plans to reduce carbon emissions 30 percent by 2030. But Republicans and many in...

Another round of layoffs for the coal industry – this one striking Wise County, Virginia. On Monday workers at both Cumberland River Coal’s Pine Branch Number One in Wise County, and a second mine in Letcher County, Kentucky, learned that the mines would be shutting down indefinitely. Derrick Saylor is one of the workers who learned that he would be losing his job. "Here in the mountains we are tight knit, like a family," said Saylor. "People we work with are like family cause we are with them as much as family at home" "It’s tough [and] it’s sad to...

The battle over where New Mexico’s electricity will come from after Public Service Company of New Mexico shuts down half of the coal-fired units at San Juan Generating Station near Farmington is growing. Environmentalists and renewable energy advocates adamantly oppose a PNM proposal to increase its share of coal-generated electricity from San Juan by 132 megawatts after some of the plant’s other co-owners abandon it. They fear PNM is committing New Mexico consumers to another two decades of coal-fired electricity despite rising costs from federal environmental regulations, while squandering an opportunity to double down on renewable energy for the future....

On July 8 I received the Climate Science Whistleblower Award at the Ninth International Conference on Climate Change sponsored by the Heartland Institute and other cosponsoring organizations held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The following are remarks I prepared for my acceptance statement:~~snip~~I wrote my negative comments on the Endangerment Finding support document because I believed EPA was using bad science ... But it is very encouraging to find that others agree with my decision to do so, which EPA clearly did not. My offending comments to EPA led to my being immediately muzzled at the same time that Obama was...

<p>MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Gov. Mark Dayton challenged energy policy and business leaders Thursday to find a way for Minnesota to eliminate coal from the state's energy production.</p> <p>Dayton, who has spoken of his aim to eliminate coal before, said it's time to start talking details so that Minnesota can lead the nation.</p>

Mississippi Power is looking for ways to make a positive economic impact as the Kemper Coal Plant is slowly nearing its finish line. The facility has completed construction and is now in the process of testing its equipment. And coal engineers say as they begin, they're doing their best to hire locally. "We sign long-term contracts with our customer," mine engineer Matt Jones says. "We've got a 40-year contract with Mississippi Power for this operation. We're part of the community, and we want to make sure we're hiring our neighbors as much we can." At its peak, the coal plant...

Conservative truck owners have a new way to rebel against environmentalists and the government’s obsession with carbon footprints: tricking-out diesel pickups with coal stacks that spew black smoke. Called “coal rollers,” these smoky renegades use their sweet chimney stacks to smoke-out hybrids by emitting black exhaust into the atmosphere. Here at The Daily Caller, we are going to give you the basics on how to modify your pickup, so every hybrid driven by some guy in a pink Argyle sweater will know exactly where you stand.

Pickup trucks customized to spew black smoke into the air are quickly becoming the newest weapon in the culture wars. "Coal Rollers" are diesel trucks modified with chimneys and equipment that can force extra fuel into the engine causing dark black smoke to pour out of the chimney stacks. These modifications are not new, but as Slate's Dave Weigel pointed out on Thursday, "rolling coal" has begun to take on a political dimension with pickup drivers increasingly viewing their smokestacks as a form of protest against environmentalists and Obama administration emissions regulations. Last month, Vocativ noted many coal rollers focus...

FULL TITLE: Conservatives Are Purposely Making Their Cars Spew Black Smoke To Protest Obama And Environmentalists Pickup trucks customized to spew black smoke into the air are quickly becoming the newest weapon in the culture wars. "Coal Rollers" are diesel trucks modified with chimneys and equipment that can force extra fuel into the engine causing dark black smoke to pour out of the chimney stacks. These modifications are not new, but as Slate's Dave Weigel pointed out on Thursday, "rolling coal" has begun to take on a political dimension with pickup drivers increasingly viewing their smokestacks as a form of...

Imagine if in America there were a coal mining magnate as famous as Donald Trump who was the founder of a political party named after himself (Trump United Party?). In addition, this well known person would be strongly opposed to a carbon tax. Obviously such a person would be considered an enemy by environmentalists. Well, think of the shock if none other than Al Gore held a friendly joint press conference with such a person. Many would suspect that money was the motive for such a strange alliance. Guess what? Something like this happened last week in Australia where Al...

121 people will be out of a job after Alpha Natural Resources closes one of its mines. Alpha told News 5 WCYB the Cherokee Mine near Haysi, Virginia is at the end of its life. 66 miners will be officially laid off in 60 days. 55 others will continue to work, removing equipment and infrastructure and buttoning up the mine, which should take until September. The mine opened in 1997 and became part of Dickenson-Russell Coal Company and Alpha in 2002. The company says the mine closure is a result of continued adverse market conditions and the high cost of...

You know those proposed EPA power-plant rules that we’ve been going on and on and on about? Now you can go on and on and on about them yourself. The Obama administration has opened up the official 120-day public comment period, after the proposal was published in the Federal Register. The EPA will accept feedback through Oct. 16, so now’s the time to speak your mind. Here’s how to comment. The big enviro groups are going to be pushing to make the rules stronger, while industry and Republicans are trying to undermine them. The EPA will consider all the feedback...

Various statements and events defy the claim of a ‘universal consensus’ on ‘harmful’ climate change. “Have you noticed that the nature of the crisis du jour may change, but the solutions always involve higher taxes and more power for the political class?” ... There’s a reason some global warming enthusiasts demand that the media refuse to print or broadcast skeptical views. Polls show Americans continually rank “climate change” near the bottom of lists of important issues. Apparently, “global warming is harmful because shut up” is the only argument many activists have left. And there’s a reason the Environmental Protection Agency...

The federal government’s decision to ban energy development across a wide swath of Colorado and eastern Utah to protect the Gunnison sage grouse habitat has raised concerns the action would inflict economic damage. Although the Obama administration was not expected to make its decision as to whether the bird warrants the endangered listing until November, the Bureau of Land Management’s decision this week effectively puts an oil, gas and coal moratorium on 400,000 acres – roughly 90 acres per bird. The final decision was “pushed back until after the election, because when people understand the impact on jobs, people get...

Have you noticed that prices are going up rapidly? If so, you are certainly not alone. But Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, the Obama administration and the mainstream media would have us believe that inflation is completely under control and exactly where it should be. Perhaps if the highly manipulated numbers that they quote us were real, everything would be fine. But of course the way that the inflation rate is calculated has been changed more than 20 times since the 1970s, and at this point it bears so little relation to reality that it is essentially meaningless. Anyone that...

Rasheed Wallace gained notoriety during his 16-season NBA career for being a hot-headed power forward. If called for a foul (or, as was often the case with him, a technical foul) that he thought was undeserved, and the opposing team missed the ensuing free-throw attempts, Wallace would often holler, “ball don’t lie,” as if the basketball itself was pronouncing judgment on the ref’s call. The “ball don’t lie” expression has gained fame and is even the title of a popular basketball blog. I’d be inclined to adopt a variation on Wallace’s catchphrase for whenever energy use or energy policy is...

One of the nation’s largest coal companies on Wednesday sued President Barack Obama’s administration seeking to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s new carbon emissions rules for power plants. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by Murray Energy Corp. EPA rules announced this month seek to reduce global warming by forcing a 30 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions from 2005 levels by 2030. […] “This is clearly an illegal attempt by the Obama EPA to impose irrational and destructive cap-and-tax mandates, which Congress and the American people have consistently rejected,”...

Federal authorities have issued a moratorium blocking oil, gas and coal leasing on 800,000 acres of public land in southwestern Colorado and eastern Utah that is habitat for the imperiled Gunnison sage grouse. ... restrictive measures that will impact jobs and economic development

I went to two different local concrete ready-mix plants on Friday, looking to get a small quantity (two buckets) of fly-ash for an R&D project. Both places mentioned the shortage of fly ash.

In January 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama essentially pledged to shut down the American energy market with new regulations when he said, “If somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them.” Two years later his destructive rhetoric continued to flow through the administration’s hallways as federal officials threatened to keep the government’s boot on the neck of oil companies that hadn’t fell in line. And unfortunately, as we learned last week, President Obama fully intends to keep his promise of dismantling the domestic coal industry once and for all. The Environmental Protection Agency...