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The Biden administration's Department of Energy announced Monday that it would distribute $6 billion in grant funds to a number of climate projects, according to a department press release. The funds will be dispersed to 33 projects across the country as part of Biden's "Investing in America Agenda." The grant program aims to "decarbonize energy-intensive industries, reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions, support good-paying union jobs, revitalize industrial communities, and strengthen the nation's manufacturing competitiveness." Only projects that demonstrate a commitment to an "equitable and inclusive clean energy future" by "develop[ing] and ultimately implement[ing] a comprehensive Community Benefits Plan" are eligible....

The Biden administration finalized regulations for residential clothes washers and dryers on Thursday. The Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it is locking in the “energy efficiency” regulations for residential clothes washers and dryers, marking the latest development in the Biden administration’s wide effort to shape markets to decidedly favor more energy efficient appliances in the coming years. The agency stated that the rules will reduce carbon dioxide emissions and save consumers money on their water and electricity bills over the course of many years. “For decades, DOE’s appliance standards actions for clothes washers and dryers have provided loads of...

The Department of Education (DOE) released a “toolkit” laying out its plans to use taxpayer funds to turn out young voters who are likely to vote blue. The Biden administration has sought to use federal agencies — and their federal dollars — to conduct a “get-out-the-vote” scheme that appears designed to boost the president’s chances of reelection. Biden signed Executive Order 14019 within weeks of taking office. The order, as President of the Foundation for Government Accountability Tarren Bragdon explained in a 2022 column for The Federalist, “directs all federal agencies to do what they can to increase voter registration...

President Joe Biden’s climate change-obsessed Department of Energy (DOE) was wrong when it reversed Trump-era rules making dishwashers and laundry machines more efficient for Americans, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday. A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the agency acted in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner when it repealed laundry machine and dishwasher rules designed to cut down on wash times. The order, penned by Judge Andrew Oldham, also notes that “it is unclear that the DOE has any statutory authority to regulate water use in dishwashers and clothes washers.”

2023 was an unusually bad year for appliance regulations, and future years won’t be much better unless Congress finds a way to stop the nonsense. It all started last January when Richard Trumka Jr., a commissioner on the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), announced an investigation into the safety of natural gas stoves and boasted that a ban on them was "a real possibility." That sparked a powerful consumer backlash, followed up by strong denials from the Biden administration that any such ban was in the works. But CPSC has still gone ahead with its inquiry, and in February, team...

An investigation has been launched into the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) after Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration was found to have sent billions of dollars in taxpayers’ money to a fraudulent solar company. Biden’s DOE recently gave a $3 billion award to a solar energy company that has been accused of scamming vulnerable customers. Republican leaders in the House and Senate are probing the DOE over the move. The investigations are being led by House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-WY). In a letter to DOE...

I couldn't help but notice this rather interesting diagram.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona hosted a meeting this month with an anti-Israel activist who has praised Hamas and Hezbollah and called for violence against Israel. Cardona on Nov. 15 met with 13 activists—including Palestine Legal advocacy manager Lina Assi—to address the "extremely disturbing pattern of hate and threats of violence in schools and college campuses" following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Assi has called Iran and its terrorist proxy, Hezbollah, "crucial and important" in "resisting imperialism" in the Middle East. As a student activist, she led a crowd in a chant of "Viva, viva Intifada," a call for violent...

Ronnie Reagan is spinning in his grave right now, I tell you. Today, Biden Education Secretary Miguel Cardona was giving a talk in support of the Department of Education's priorities and here is how he ended his speech: I think it was President Reagan said, "We're from the government, we're here to help!"

President Biden invoked a Cold War-era law in a surprising move Friday to pour taxpayer funds into domestic manufacturing of electric heat pumps, an alternative to gas-powered residential furnaces. In a joint announcement with the White House, the Department of Energy (DOE) said the federal government would award a "historic" $169 million for nine projects across 15 sites nationwide in an effort to accelerate electric heat pump manufacturing. The significant level of funding was made possible after Biden utilized the 1950 Defense Production Act (DPA) to increase domestic production of green energy technologies. Under the actions announced Friday, the DOE...

The nation's largest Christian university says it's fighting a $37.7 million fine brought by the federal government over allegations that it lied to students about the cost of its programs. Grand Canyon University, which enrolls more than 100,000 students mostly in online programs, said it's filing an appeal with the U.S. Education Department on Thursday. If it fails, the Phoenix-based school said it's prepared to file a federal lawsuit. In a 40-minute speech, university President Brian Mueller called the fine “ridiculous” and questioned whether the school is being targeted because of its faith affiliation. He noted that the nation's second-largest...

Trump’s lawyers on Wednesday afternoon attended a hearing in Fort Pierce, Florida on whether Judge Cannon will agree to postpone the classified documents trial currently scheduled for May 2024. Judge Cannon signaled she may postpone Trump’s trial. She also admonished one of Jack Smith’s prosecutors, according to Julie Kelly who attended Wednesday’s hearing. Trump’s lawyers dropped bombshell revelations during the hearing on Wednesday, according to reporter Julie Kelly. Julie Kelly attended the hearing in person on Wednesday. According to Kelly, Trump’s lawyers revealed: Trump’s lawyers told Judge Cannon they discovered a June 2023 letter asking DOE to remove Trump’s ACTIVE...

Mich. officer fired after killing 'friendly' deer against department instructions"He acted independently [and] committed multiple policy violations in his decision to euthanize [Annie the deer],” Chief Mario RedLegs saidOct 30, 2023 By Joanna Putman Police1 VAN BUREN COUNTY, Mich. — An officer has been fired after he went against instructions from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and euthanized a deer that locals called “Annie,” News Channel 3 reported. While responding to an unrelated domestic incident on Oct. 20, Officer David Loza wrangled the deer with a neck strap and shot it to death. Residents were outraged, according to the...

A regional effort to build out a hydrogen hub in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky will receive up to $925 million as part of the Biden Administration’s effort to decarbonize the U.S. economy. The Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (Arch2), a West Virginia-led effort that combines the production of hydrogen from natural gas with carbon capture and storage, is one of seven regional hubs that will be funded over the coming years. The administration projects the Arch2 effort will create 18,000 construction jobs and 3,000 permanent jobs. Another winner is the Mid-Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub (Mach2), which envisions development...

A private trade association founded by the Biden administration’s energy loan czar Jigar Shah has become a gatekeeper for companies seeking billions of dollars in financing from Shah’s office. The Cleantech Leaders Roundtable has seen a surge in its influence and revenue since its former president, Shah, was tapped to lead the powerful $400 billion Department of Energy Loan Programs Office (LPO) in 2021. The group, which didn’t have a website until three years ago, now regularly hosts sold-out receptions featuring Shah for its paying members across the country. Last week, the DOE Loans Program Office and Cleantech Leaders co-hosted...

On June 30, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Biden v. Nebraska, the case that challenged the legality of the president’s executive order cancelling federal student-loan payments for millions of borrowers. In their ruling, the Court’s majority held that the president had no authority to declare such a cancellation. The statute that the administration had relied upon, the HEROES Act, could not be stretched, the Court decided, to mean that the president had been empowered to make a sweeping loan-forgiveness decree. Nor does anything in the Constitution give the president such authority. Thus, Biden’s loan-forgiveness plan was struck...

The Biden administration has approved a $72 million dollar student loan forgiveness initiative aimed at providing relief for students who were defrauded by an online school. The loan forgiveness will be applicable to over 2,300 students who attended Ashford University, a former online for-profit school based in San Diego, California, said an Aug. 30 press release by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). The loan forgiveness has been approved under the “borrower defense” student aid program that has been in place for decades. Under the program, student loan borrowers who were misled by for-profit colleges could apply for forgiveness. The...

Proterra, the electric bus company at the center of an apparent conflict of interest involving Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, has filed for bankruptcy, Reuters reported Monday evening. Granholm drew immense scrutiny when it was revealed that she maintained her financial positions in the firm, for which she used to sit on the board of directors, after she assumed her post as the leader of the Department of Energy (DOE) and began to direct policies which could have favored her own financial interests. Granholm eventually closed her position in the firm late in May 2021, and netted capital gains amounting to...

President Joe Biden appears to be facing increasing demands to declare a climate emergency, like the one declared for the COVID-19 pandemic that had a devastating impact on the country, warns a top advocate for the U.S. oil and gas industry. "They're leaning to that direction," U.S. Oil and Gas Association President Tim Stewart recently told Just the News. "If you grant the president's emergency powers to declare a climate emergency, it's just like COVID.” Stewart also said such a declaration would give the president “vast and unchecked authority to shut down everything from communications to infrastructure." He said infrastructure...

A senior Biden administration official responsible for overseeing a new rule that would push households to purchase electric stoves over cheaper gas-powered stoves said that she does not know how an electric stove is installed during testimony before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Economic Growth, and Regulatory Affairs on Tuesday. The Department of Energy (DOE) on Feb. 1 published a proposed federal regulation that would require millions of household gas stoves in the United States to be modified for “energy efficiency,” according to the rule’s text, which has provoked an outcry from Republicans. In testimony before the subcommittee,...