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All Andy Johnson wanted to do was build a stock pond on his sprawling eight-acre Wyoming farm. He and his wife Katie spent hours constructing it, filling it with crystal-clear water, and bringing in brook and brown trout, ducks and geese. It was a place where his horses could drink and graze, and a private playground for his three children. But instead of enjoying the fruits of his labor, the Wyoming welder says he was harangued by the federal government, stuck in what he calls a petty power play by the Environmental Protection Agency. He claims the agency is now...

Climate change skeptics are headed the way of Christians in Egypt and the left is readying the machetes and torches. Yesterday Harry Reid declared “Climate change deniers still exist. They exist, I’m sorry to say, in this Congress. … Climate change exists and it’s time to stop denying it.” That's pretty clear. The skeptics must be eliminated. Not one to be outdone in logic fallacy, Chuck Schumer added: “If you went to 100 doctors and 98 of them said you were sick and should take medicine but two told you that you were find, what would you do?” Sen. Chuck...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry‘s cross-country campaign to promote his state’s favorable tax and regulatory conditions and attract businesses and jobs throughout his tenure hasn’t been based on him just talking the talk; Texas can absolutely walk the economic walk, too, as WaPo reports: Texas experienced stronger job growth than the rest of the nation from 2000 to 2013, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Not only that, a pair of researchers note in a Thursday research publication, but Texas leads the nation in creation of jobs at all pay levels, too. “Texas has also created more ‘good’ than...

This week the environmental movement suffered its biggest defeat since Climategate. And at the hands of its most hated enemy: Big Oil. ... the court ruling by a US federal judge that Chevron should not have to pay $9.5 billion in damages to victims of oil pollution in Ecuador is a victory for common sense and justice which we should all be celebrating. The reason this case is so important is because it very nearly didn't happen. Though environmental activists like Michael Mann, James Hansen and Al Gore often like to claim that their enemies are in the pay of...

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked U.S. courts from being used to collect a $9 billion Ecuadorean judgment against Chevron for rainforest damage, saying lawyers poisoned an honorable quest with their illegal and wrongful conduct. "Justice is not served by inflicting injustice. The ends do not justify the means," U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote. The judge said it was a sad outcome to have to rule that the Ecuadorean court judgment "was obtained by corrupt means," because it will likely never be known whether there was a case to be made against the San Ramon, Calif.-based oil company…....

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) today released the 2012 Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data indicating that highway deaths increased to 33,561 in 2012, which is 1,082 more fatalities than in 2011. The majority of the increase in deaths, 72 percent, occurred in the first quarter of the year. Most of those involved were motorcyclists and pedestrians. While the newly released data announced today marks the first increase since 2005, highway deaths over the past five years continue to remain at historic lows. Fatalities in 2011 were at the lowest level since...

Though you wouldn't necessarily know it based on news coverage, the United States in the reign of President Barack Obama is enduring the most prolonged period of slow growth and high unemployment since World War II. The president asserts that he saved us from another Great Depression, which, like his claim that the stimulus would "create or save" millions of jobs, is about as provable as the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin. The Obama administration has done little to spur job creation, but a great deal to inhibit it. The president mocks the...

The Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to address climate change. That shouldn’t be a controversial statement, but in some quarters, it is. Indeed, it’s at the heart of a set of legal challenges that will be heard by the Supreme Court on Monday. As administrator of the EPA from 2001-03, I served in the administration of President George W. Bush. I may sometimes disagree with his successor on the best way to address climate change as a matter of policy, but I absolutely agree that the EPA has broad authority to issue regulations addressing climate change, including those being...

True to his word, President Obama bypassed Congress this week with a trifecta of new Executive Orders. Concerned that trucking firms are “needlessly wasting money on gas-guzzling semi-trucks,” the President ordered haulers to “improve their MPGs.” As Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx explained, “no one cares more about this country and its well-being that President Obama. These truckers may be satisfied to fritter away costly fuel, but the President is not. Unless they clean up their act we will shut them down.” In a bid to end the debate over global warming, President Obama issued an Executive Order declaring that...

Sierra Club San Diego Chapter suspended The Sierra Club’s national board voted Friday to suspend its San Diego chapter for four years, a step that leaders said was needed to curb “ongoing conflicts and divisions” among local activists. “We have one objective, having a healthy, effective, working Sierra Club chapter in San Diego,” Sierra Club President Dave Scott said after the vote, saying the board had received many complaints about strife within the chapter. The organization’s leaders have provided few details about the nature of that conflict, but San Diego members and former officials attributed it to the Sierra Club’s...

I repeat: I’m not a global-warming believer. I’m not a global-warming denier. I’ve long believed that it cannot be good for humanity to be spewing tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. I also believe that those scientists who pretend to know exactly what this will cause in 20, 30, or 50 years are white-coated propagandists. “The debate is settled,” asserted propagandist-in-chief Barack Obama in his latest State of the Union address. “Climate change is a fact.” Really? There is nothing more anti-scientific than the very idea that science is settled, static, impervious to challenge. Take a non-climate example. It...

"Take a good look at them," I said, "because the state plans to exterminate them." I kind of agree with the department's main reason for exterminating New York state's resident mute swans (by the way, that's the species' name, because they're usually silent). Non-native species often pose problems. I just have two problems with the plan. One, I don't think mute swans are really too much of a threat to anything or anyone in New York state. They live mainly on Long Island and the lower Hudson, with a few on the Great Lakes. They number just around 2,200 birds,...

“Fracking,” a dangerous and destructive gas drilling technique, has used 250 billion gallons of water and 2 billion gallons of chemicals since 2005, according to a September report from Environment America Research & Policy Center, Environment Florida’s national federation. Unfortunately, some of those same impacts may be coming to South Florida near Big Cypress and the western Everglades. Last spring, an out-of-state drilling company applied for a permit to drill a 13,900 foot deep exploratory gas drilling well in close proximity to a relatively densely populated residential area known as Golden Gate, just miles from a string of parks created...

The climate science maverick believes catastrophe is inevitable, carbon offsetting is a joke and ethical living a scam. So what would he do?In 1965 executives at Shell wanted to know what the world would look like in the year 2000. They consulted a range of experts, who speculated about fusion-powered hovercrafts and "all sorts of fanciful technological stuff". When the oil company asked the scientist James Lovelock, he predicted that the main problem in 2000 would be the environment. "It will be worsening then to such an extent that it will seriously affect their business," he said. "And of course,"...

The subject of climate change has been discussed on Political Realities more than a few times. In recent days, Mike's America has been kind enough to share with us some of the data surrounding the hype that is climate change. Today, I would like to bring our attention back to something I have alluded to several times. That is, President Obama's singular focus on climate change. My friends, he is a true believer of the hype and false science that has driven climate change into the forefront of many stages, including the political stage in America. How long have we...

Over the past 6 years, our oppressive government has essentially forced me to buy numerous items prior to them being banned. 1) Increased CAFE standards lead to one of my vehicles being discontinued 2) Closing of lead smelting company 3) EPA about to put the hammer down on wood stoves by introducing particulate filters and other ridiculous controls. 4) Lightbulbs....well, you know the story So, I've invested in gas cans, lightbulbs, ammo, a new wood stove (1990 regs), guns, etc. What items have you purchased simply because you fear they will be phased out of existence?

Real time events highlighting how environmentalists have caused "climate change DISRUPTION" prompt this post. These "green" meddlers cause the problem then demand that we change our lifestyles to worship at the altar of their green, social engineering religion. Barack Obama is starting his "green" push and deep bow to environmentalists: Obama pledges help for drought-stricken California John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State is moving forward with "green" push and deep bow to environmentalists: John Kerry to make clarion call for more action on climate change John Podesta aka Hillay's man in the WH to get things in place has his...

A stretch of the Mojave Desert has been transformed by hundreds of thousands of mirrors into the largest solar power plant of its type in the world, but the milestone is being met with criticism from environmental groups concerned about the effect of solar energy on desert wildlife.

Every Spring, farmers plant; every Fall, they harvest. In so doing, they make their land productive and feed the nation. So important is the bedrock role of farming in our culture that even Congress, when it established the onerous wetland permitting requirements of the federal Clean Water Act, expressly and clearly exempted farming. The reason is clear: a nation that would require its farmers to spend, on average, two years and $270,000 to get a federal permit to plant and harvest crops would not long be able to feed itself. But despite that clear exemption, and without a hearing, the...

I say “probably” because I haven’t had time to research the factual claims behind the legislation. But if anyone thinks conservatives are against all government action, then this might be a time to set the record straight. If the facts are correct then I think if is quite likely that the NY legislature is doing exactly what it needs to do. In that case, I hope other states, or even the Federal Government follows their example. Here is Newser.com’s summary: