Free Republic

This woman is soooo on her game, Biden is just toast.

This past weekend, I had the privilege of joining Republican Leader John Boehner and nine other members of the House on an “American Energy Tour.” This trip explored the available natural resources that our nation has in Colorado and Alaska to increase domestic energy supply and decrease America’s rising gas costs. Like I knew it would, the American Energy Tour unveiled the truth about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) — what Democrats in Washington don’t want the American people to know: This is a treasure trove of energy that will yield a lot with only minimal intrusion. For far...

Even here in his home state of Georgia, Jimmy Carter does not receive universal acclaim. He is regarded by many as a weak-kneed appeaser or a naive do-gooder with a puritanical bent. Much of that reputation can be traced back to his widely noted July 1979 speech on the nation's "crisis of confidence," remembered as the "malaise" speech, though he didn't use that word. The response to that televised talk taught politicians one thing: Never ask Americans to make sacrifices. After all, it is now accepted wisdom that the speech — combined with hyperinflation, hostages and an oil spike —...

President won't ask Americans to conserve gasoline, despite rising oil costs. Photo: AP President Bush said Tuesday that he will not call on Americans to conserve gasoline despite the rising price of oil, saying consumers are "smart enough" to figure out for themselves that they should drive less. "They're smart enough to figure out whether they're going to drive less or not. I mean, you know, it's interesting what the price of gasoline has done," Bush said at a news conference in the White House press room, "is it caused people to drive less. That's why they want smaller cars:...

Landrieu among 'Dirty Dozen'Sunday, July 06, 2008 By Bruce Alpert The League of Conservation Voters last week put Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., on its "Dirty Dozen list," saying she has done more to protect "Big Oil" than "the future for the people of Louisiana" from the threat of global warming. According to the environmental advocacy group, Landrieu has a lifetime score of 43 percent on votes in which it took a position, lowest among Senate Democrats running for re-election. "For a senator from Louisiana, which faces severe consequences from global warming, to fail to protect Louisiana is disappointing," said the...

Olympia, Washington: Dee Williams wanted a simpler, greener life -- so she built her dream house, an 84-square-foot cottage on wheels, which is currently parked in a friend's backyard. Not only did she save money using salvaged materials (the front door came from a dumpster, for instance), but the entire house is small enough to fit into a standard parking spot. Says Williams, 'Right now, there's nowhere else I want to be.' Williams’ trailer cottage is surprisingly roomy inside, largely thanks to its clever use of height. For example, Williams’ bed is in a loft above her kitchen. Williams is...

By CHRIS MERRILL Star-Tribune environment reporter Tuesday, June 24, 2008 > LANDER -- Since Rainbow Family participants have chosen to stay put at Big Sandy in Wyoming's Wind River Mountains, leaders with the Boy Scouts of America have decided to alter plans for a major service project that had been scheduled to take place in the same general area. > > Leaders with the Boy Scouts' Order of the Arrow have decided to cancel a long-planned forest restoration project near Dutch Joe Guard Station in the Wind Rivers, said Mary Cernicek, spokeswoman with the Bridger-Teton National Forest. > > The...

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will formally declare today that the state has plunged into a drought, putting Californians on notice that rationing could be next if conservation efforts are not stepped up. “The governor is ringing the bell. We're heading over a cliff,” Lester Snow, director of the state Department of Water Resources, said in an exclusive interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune. Schwarzenegger will issue an accompanying executive order to launch an aggressive campaign to transfer water to parched regions, pursue federal aid, quickly funnel more state money to conservation projects and to lay the foundation for a...

Sure you want to save gas, but there's a lot of bad advice on how to do it. Some of it makes no difference, and some of it can wind up costing you. With gasoline prices hitting record levels, it seems everyone has a tip on how to save fuel. Much of the advice is well-intentioned, but in the end, much of it won't lower your gas bill. Here's a look at a few misconceptions: #1. Fill Your Tank in the Morning You may have heard that it's best to fill your gas tank in the early morning while the...

Pressured by the gun lobby and 51 US senators, the Interior Department proposes enhancing everyone's national park experience by letting people pack heat with a picnic. That's just what the nation's millions of park visitors don't need.

With all the kerfuffle over high gasoline and diesel prices, I've heard it said and seen it written that if only we Americans would use less oil, prices would drop like a stone, and we could return to the good old days of two-dollar gas. Unfortunately, that's not true, and it's not that simple. We need to reduce our consumption, yes, but we also need to increase domestic production and refining. Unfortunately, we've been going in the other direction for way too long a period of time. From 1990 to 2007, US production decreased by 31% at the same time...

An ambitious electronics recycling drive is scheduled for two days this month in the Twin Cities, with dropoff sites that should be very familiar to Minnesotans. At no charge, people can bring their unwanted electronics to the following locations on April 11 and 12 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.: • Canterbury Park, 1100 Canterbury Rd. S., Shakopee • State Fairgrounds, 1265 N. Snelling Av., Falcon Heights • National Sports Center, 1700 105th Av. NE., Blaine • Grace Church, 9301 Eden Prairie Rd., Eden Prairie • Ecolab Schuman campus (April 12 only) Eagan Building F, 655 Lone Oak Dr., Eagan...

BETHESDA, Md. — April is National Car Care Month, the time of year to focus on taking better care of your second largest investment. Especially now, with record high gas prices, regular vehicle maintenance is even more important as it can increase gas mileage by as much as 10 percent, according to the Car Care Council. "Consumers cannot control the price of gas at the pumps, but they can control the amount of gas they use," said Rich White, executive director of the Car Care Council. "The condition of tires, air filters and spark plugs can impact fuel economy and...

Authorities often learn about it from landowners who hear shooting at night and find deer carcasses in their fields the next day. One case came to light when a bloody deer heart was discovered in a girl's high school locker. And some incidents are solved when conservation wardens catch the criminals red-handed - shooting from roads with the help of spotlights and headlights, then leaving the wounded and dying animals behind. Conservation wardens call it "thrill killing" of animals, and it appears to be a growing problem throughout Wisconsin, said Chief Warden Randy Stark. Several dozen cases have been confirmed...

Good Neighbor Forum is proud to announce Mr. Lyle Laverty, US Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, will speak at the: 2nd Annual Good Neighbor Forum Topic: Food in the 21st Century How policies including conservation easements, ESA, Water, Roadless, EU, precautionary principles and trade will impact your food supply. March 15, 2008 9:00 am - 4:00 pm For more information contact: Roni 970-284-6874 Featured Speakers include Mr. Lawrence Kogan, Esq. - N.J. Will address Precautionary Principle, European Union and more. Dr. Corey Ciochhetti - CO Will address Ethics and Essence of being a...

The high cost of using less waterMunicipalities discover inconvenient truth: Lower consumption means less revenue Jan 26, 2008 04:30 AM Phinjo Gombu Staff Reporter Bud Harris, 78, and grandson David Moreira, 27, obeyed the message to conserve but it will soon mean higher water rates at their Mississauga home. ANDREW WALLACE/TORONTO STAR For years the message drummed into Bud Harris, 78, and his grandson David Moreira, 27, was conserve, conserve. And conserve they did, along with thousands of others across the GTA, watering their lawn less, replacing old toilets and installing water-efficient showerheads. "We are trying to be economical and...

Local citizens stand in line at the Iraqi Conservation Corps Force sign-up Dec. 27 in Al Huda, Iraq. Photo by Sgt. Natalie Rostek. FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — Soldiers and leaders of Company C, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, held an Iraqi Conservation Corps (ICC) sign-up Dec. 27 for citizens of Al Huda. According to Capt. John Horning, from Houston, Texas, commander of Company C, the members of the ICC conduct one of three services in their communities within the Nahia. These services are sanitation, construction, and security.“A program like this takes the Concerned Local Citizens Program to the next...

Mostly hunters do: The...media spin is so deceitful that even in these environmentally conscious times most Americans don’t know that by paying special surtaxes on guns, ammunition and other gear, hunters sent $294,691,282 to state conservation programs in 2005 - or that hikers, mountain bikers and environmentalists don’t pay those conservation taxes. Most people aren’t even aware that hunters’ money buys critical wetland habitat and funds wildlife research in every state. Most people don’t know that hunting reduces the risk of predators preying on us. From The Politically Incorrect Guide to Hunting, p. 5.

WITCHITA, Kansas (CNN) -- On a beautiful, crisp late fall afternoon, rock icon Neil Young took his 1959 Lincoln Continental for one last spin before a team of mechanics ripped out its gas-guzzling engine to make way for an electric motor. Car buffs may think it's sacrilege to tear apart an automotive classic, but Young wants it to have a new life as a fuel-efficient hybrid. "If we're going to make a difference, truly make cars more environmentally friendly," Young said, "we have to make that emotional connection." Young said everyone has a connection with an old car like the...

The last time the three-wheeled Aptera was featured on our site, we promised to keep you abreast of any new information that we found. Thanks to a tip from a reader named Matthew, we are pleased to let you know that Aptera is now accepting orders. Aptera has a Web site here, but there is not a great deal of information or raw-data to be found there. A better source of information is at their MySpace page, which is here. According to this article, Aptera is looking at around 300 miles per gallon along with acceptable performance numbers of about...

Holding local elected officials accountable for their words and deeds can be a frustrating experience. One day they are standing up denouncing the Federal government for making the wrong investments in our future and not tackling global warming or our addiction to oil by signing the Mayor's Climate Change Agreement. The next day they announce the latest in highway funding touting new roads, less traffic, more jobs. As we consider the collision course of peak oil and global warming, we should start look around our own communities and see if our transportation plans, policies, and construction projects are anticipating higher...

SIERRA VISTA — Fort Huachuca and the Bureau of Land Management were awarded Saturday for their roles in protecting a tributary of the San Pedro River from future development. The Nature Conservancy gave the Morris K. Udall Outstanding Conservation Achievement Award in the public sector to both the agencies for their work in conserving more than 1,400 acres and 4.6 miles of river to the east of Fort Huachuca. The land is a part of the Babocomari Ranch, nearly 28,000 acres between the Mustang and Huachuca mountains, owned and operated by the Brophy family since 1935. The Babocomari River, one...

Editor's Note: Next week, we'll be celebrating National Hunting and Fishing Day across the country. To help spread the word, National Hunting & Fishing Day has had a number of notable celebrities serve as honorary chairman of NHFD. It might be that none of the prior selections have been so unabashedly about the outdoors as this year's honorary chairman, Georgia native son Jeff Foxworthy. For all his extraordinary accomplishments -- best-selling comedy recording artist of all time, Grammy nominee, popular radio show host, best-selling author, star of hit comedy tours, television series and movies, plus host of a new hit...

In another apparent effort to prepare Marylanders for looming tax increases, Gov. Martin O'Malley released a recorded statement to radio stations suggesting corporations and higher-income earners will be among those asked to pay more. "When given a choice between decline and progress, the people of Maryland always choose to make progress," O'Malley (D) says in the message, which runs more than two minutes and was sent to more than 50 radio stations, an aide said. "Together we can overcome the deficit in our path, and we can get our fiscal house in order in a way that improves our state...

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A lake in southern Chile has mysteriously disappeared, prompting speculation the ground has simply opened up and swallowed it whole.

The major political issue on the island stems from the natives who rightfully take offense to the natural beauty of the Islands being eroded and privatized by wealthy haoles (a derogatory term for foreigners). Ironically, in order for the Hawaiian economy to grow, it has to devote more of its natural resources to the tourists.

Simple, clever, fun. That's the philosophy behind the vehicle you see pictured above, the Loremo (pronounced lo-ray-mo which is short for Low Resistance Mobile). Of course, there's nothing simple about designing and building a car, but there has certainly been a large need for cleverness to meet our current standard of "fun". Don't let the picture fool you. There's nothing really new here, aside from the impressive 50g/km CO2 figure. This car achieves its high level of fuel efficiency by taking current fuel-saving methods to a level almost beyond reason. A main part of this is weight saving. Every part...

COLLEGE STATION – When the weather turns dry, Texans may start thinking about the best ways to avoid high water bills and still maintain their landscaping. Gray water may be one option, said Dr. Bruce Lesikar, Texas Cooperative Extension agricultural engineer. Gray water is the water that has passed through showers, sinks, bathtubs or washing machines, Lesikar said. It makes up about half of the water used in the home and normally passes into onsite wastewater treatment systems or city sewer systems. "The typical resident will have about 30 gallons per person per day," he said. Gray water is a...

The preserved 19th-century ship the Cutty Sark is on fire, London Fire Brigade has confirmed. It is said to be 100% alight and eight fire engines are at the scene in Greenwich, south-east London. Greenwich town centre is closed to traffic and the Docklands Light Railway will also close because of a police cordon, Scotland Yard said. Local residents were also expected to be evacuated shortly. The ship, one of the capital's best-loved tourist attractions, is currently closed to the public for extensive renovation work. It was due to reopen in 2009. There are fears that gas cylinders that may...

Widespread use of a damaging conservation technique has seen many of Italy's Renaissance frescoes darken and crumble. That degradation can now be stopped in its tracks. In the 1960s conservators began coating frescoes in clear acrylic polymers to preserve them, but the treatment has had the opposite effect. "The acrylic makes the fresco look brilliant and well preserved initially," says Piero Baglioni, a chemist at the University of Florence. "But as the plaster can no longer breathe, degradation beneath the coating actually speeds up, due to calcium salt and humidity build-up."

BOSTON - The Boston City Council is lining up support for a proposed ban on plastic bags at supermarkets, pharmacies and other retail stores. Councilor Robert Consalvo has sponsored the measure, which has already been endorsed by nine of 12 council members. He said that littered bags dot trees, lots and sidewalks across the city and pose an environmental hazard. "They end up everywhere," Consalvo said. "They blow in trees, they’re floating in Boston Harbor. They’re an environmental nightmare. We need to rid our city of these plastic bags." Consalvo’s measure also proposes increased recycling for grocery bags. Mayor Thomas...

Singer Sheryl Crow and environmentalist Laurie David have been traveling across America on a two-week Stop Global Warming College Tour, which winds up today at George Washington University. Crow and David (co-producer of the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and wife of "Curb Your Enthusiasm's" Larry David) have been touting their cause and chronicling their travels in a rather idiosyncratic blog. Here, on Earth Day, are a few excerpts: David (4/10, Dallas): I am jogging outside in 40 degree freezing cold . . . 70 degrees in January and 40 degrees in April. That is exactly why Sheryl Crow and I...

As if our governor wasn’t already having a bad hair day last week, just as the Weekly was putting to bed its latest story on the Trans-Texas Corridor (“Brake Lights,” March 7, 2007), rookie State Sen. Robert Nichols, a former state transportation commissioner, was introducing two bills that should have made that famous coif turn white. The first would prohibit any non-toll road or bridge from being converted to a toll facility and stipulates that if toll lanes are added to a non-toll road, the number of free lanes cannot be reduced. The second would put a two-year moratorium on...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Change a light bulb and stop a war. Build smarter homes and keep the seas from rising. These are the kinds of arguments U.S. environmentalists use to promote their cause. Others say forget "save the planet," Americans respond better to "save some money." Regardless of the sales pitch, energy efficiency is an opportunity that Americans shun, as less than 5 percent of the world's population consumes almost 25 percent of global oil production. While gas-guzzling vehicles draw the most criticism, homes and businesses consume even more energy -- 40 percent of the U.S. total in 2005...

The Australia Government will use industry and product standards to force a phase out of incandescent light bulbs in prefence of new low watt compact fluorescent lights that can cut the typical lighting load of a house by 75% - even with all the house lights on at the same time. The step was announced by the Australian federal Environment minister Malcolm Turnbull MP who claims Australia's greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by 4 million tonnes through to 2012. The reduction in emissions will increase as the phase out progresses and the annual average reduction between 2008-2012 is estimated...

AUSTIN — Carrying signs with slogans of "Stop the Coal Rush" and "Shame on Texas," about 1,000 people rallied at the state Capitol on Sunday to call for lawmakers to slow down a plan to build up to 18 new coal-fired power plants. Environmentalists fear the new plants, with 11 proposed by energy giant TXU Corp., will pump millions of tons of pollutants into the air every year. "Coal plants seem so archaic," said Stacy Foss, an Austin teacher who brought her two young children to the rally in the 50-degree weather. "Texas is so environmentally incorrect." Organized by about...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It may soon be lights out for the traditional light bulb in California. Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, is proposing that the Golden State become the first to ban sales of incandescent light bulbs, by 2012. In their place, Californians could purchase more energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps. Those are the spiral-shaped bulbs that cost more upfront but save money and energy over the long haul. Switching light bulbs is an idea that environmentalists have long supported. But getting consumers to embrace change has been slow going. Banning energy-intensive incandescents "saves consumers money, saves the state money and...

Democrats in the state Senate on Thursday said California does not need to build new reservoirs as it tries to cope with the expected consequences of global warming. Instead, the state should rely on conservation, underground storage and boosting the height of existing dams. Their plan, outlined in a series bills, runs counter to Republicans' desire for new reservoirs to help California address the changes anticipated from global climate change. It sets up a potential clash in the coming months with Republicans and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who proposed $4.5 billion for two new reservoirs and underground water storage in his...

Environmentalists called Monday for a radical overhaul of fishing practices to prevent a worldwide collapse in tuna stocks as international conservation bodies opened their first joint meeting on the species. The five-day meeting in the western Japanese city of Kobe will look at ways to share information among regions to monitor tuna numbers and control illegal fishing vessels, officials said. Environmentalists called on participants to come up with substantive measures to protect the fish, which are highly prized in Japan. Greenpeace said it was "high time" for governments to recognize the seriousness of the tuna issue. Governments "must acknowledge that...

Conservation Group, Unions Joining Forces Saving Habitat, Ensuring Access Sought By Blaine Harden Washington Post Staff Writer SEATTLE -- In a first-of-its-kind alliance that could fundamentally reshape the environmental movement, 20 labor unions with nearly 5 million members are joining forces with a Republican-leaning umbrella group of conservationists -- the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership -- to put pressure on Congress and the Bush administration. The Union Sportsman's Alliance, to be rolled out in Washington on Tuesday after nearly three years of quiet negotiations, is to be a dues-based organization ($25 a year). Its primary goal is to increase federal funding...

TOKYO, Jan. 5 — In many countries, higher oil prices have hurt pocketbooks and led to worries about economic slowdowns. But here in Japan, Kiminobu Kimura, an architect, says he has not felt the pinch. In fact, his monthly energy bill is lower than a year ago. A reason is his new home fuel cell, a machine as large and quiet as a filing cabinet that sits in front of his house and turns hydrogen into electricity and cold water into hot — at a fraction of regular utility costs. But even with the futuristic device, which is available for...

The multibillion-dollar cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay, which government officials had pledged would succeed by 2010, will likely miss that deadline by a wide margin -- and, at the current pace, might drag on for decades more, an Environmental Protection Agency official acknowledged yesterday. ... Bay cleanup has a history of broken deadlines. In 1987, local and federal officials pledged to clean up the estuary by 2000. The current agreement, written after the first one failed, was signed by the governors of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania, the mayor of Washington and the administrator of the EPA. The officials pledged to...

Jerry Bagby is typical of the oil men who are prospecting for a fortune in the Midwestern biofuels boom. He's convinced there's oil in these hills — and he's found a well that no one else is using. Bagby and a longtime friend have cobbled together $5 million to build a new biodiesel plant on the lonely croplands outside this southeast Missouri town. They're betting they can hit paydirt by exploiting a generally overlooked natural resource that's abundant in these parts — chicken fat. There's a virtual gusher of the stuff at a nearby Tyson Foods Inc. poultry plant. Currently,...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (NZ Catholic) – A director of a Catholic family group has called a proposal to limit families to two children "almost laughable." The suggestion, from Sustainable Wellington Net, was one of several from “green” groups that want to ensure natural resources are used responsibly. Lynn Hill, co-director of the Passionist Family Group Movement in the North Island, said it would be sad for parents to lose the right to decide how many children they have. "Mothers and fathers of large families, or those who have grown up in large families, know it is a very rich way...

Fort Meade beekeeper David Adams is facing a mysterious plight shared by his counterparts in Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and elsewhere: Their bee colonies are being decimated at an alarming rate, and the cause is unknown. Starting in mid-August, Adams lost a third of his 900 hives within the course of a few weeks. The seemingly healthy colonies just disappeared, he said, echoing reports from beekeepers across the country. "It's become a serious problem for beekeepers, myself included," said Adams of Adams Honey & Pollination. "We're on the ropes." The phenomenon, termed "Fall Dwindle Disease," is discussed in a preliminary...

WASHINGTON - House Democrats in the first weeks of the new Congress plan to establish a dedicated fund to promote renewable energy and conservation, using money from oil companies. That's only one legislative hit the oil industry is expected to take next year as a Congress run by Democrats is likely to show little sympathy to the cash-rich, high-profile business. Whether the issue is rolling back tax breaks — some approved by Congress only 18 months ago — pushing for more use of ethanol and other biofuels instead of gasoline, or investigations into shortfalls in royalty payments to the government,...

Energy ministers from China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the United States – which, collectively, account for nearly half of the world's oil consumption – met in Beijing last Friday to see if they could agree on a coordinated response to high petroleum prices. On Saturday, the ministers reported that they will henceforth work together when engaged in the project of picking winners in energy markets, redouble their efforts to subsidize and mandate energy conservation and efficiency, cooperate in the management of their respective government-owned oil stockpiles, and improve flow of oil market data between their respective economies. Let's hope...

Prince Charles launched his 'green revolution' with a stark warning that we are all 'living on borrowed time' if we don't stop eating up the world's resources. In a forthright speech in front of leading figures, including Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Prince said: 'We are consuming the resources of our planet at such a rate that we are, in effect, living off credit and living on borrowed time. 'It is our children and grandchildren who will have to pay off this debt and we owe it to them and ourselves to do something about it before it is too...

Prior to Tuesday's vote, Republicans for Environmental Protection announced its slate of endorsed candidates for U.S. Congress. “Each of these candidates is a conservation-minded Republican dedicated to responsible environmental stewardship,” said REP President Martha Marks. “While our party as a whole is not where it should be when it comes to environmental stewardship, electing this slate of Republican candidates would represent a giant stride toward changing that.” Thought it might be interesting to see how they did in the election. Did being green garner them any turn-out-the-vote support?Here’s how things shaped up. Incumbents are denoted with an asterisk. Info in [...

The conservation status of fish and crustaceans in the world's oceans is "unacceptable" but dire predictions published Friday in the US magazine Science are "unlikely", according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. "To state that all exploited taxa will have collapsed by 2048, the authors have made a simple extrapolation of their results across the next 40 years. This is statistically dangerous," said Serge Michel Garcia, director of the FAO's Fishery Resources Division. He added: "Such a massive collapse ... would require reckless behaviour of all industries and governments for four decades, and an incredible level of apathy of all...