Free Republic

Some say that the casualty numbers are overhyped. Other say it is a serious problem. But at the Ivanpah Solar Plant in Nevada, birds are bursting into flames. The bizarre occurrences happen when the bird’s flight paths take them into the ultra-concentrated beams of sunlight produced by the panels at the plant. On spec, the plant seems like the very ideal of energy production for the future: three gleaming towers, forty stories in height capturing the energy from the sunlight reflected by five acres of massive mirrors. All told, the plant generates some 390 megawatts of power from its turbines....

The problem with environmentalists isn't merely that they have destructive ideas about the economy, but that so many of them embrace repulsive ideas about human beings. Take a recent NPR piece that asks, "Should We Be Having Kids In The Age Of Climate Change?" If you want to learn about how environmentalism has already affected people in society, read about the couple pondering "the ethics of procreation" and its impact on the climate before starting a family, or the group of women in a prosperous New Hampshire town swapping stories about how the "the climate crisis is a reproductive crisis."...

The deep waters off the coast of California could become home to the country’s largest offshore wind energy project and a test case for a technology that is still in its infancy.

Bill Clinton keeps telling coal workers to move on from the life “you had 50 years ago”—while his wife Hillary shouts, “I believe in science!” But isn’t it interesting that the “science” to which they cling is 2,000 years out-of-date? Greek Mathematician Hero of Alexandria invented the original windmill, a machine that harnessed wind for energy sometime around 50 AD. Do the math - 2016 minus 50 is 1,966—meaning windmill power is not “new” or “progressive” but a relic of 2,000 years ago. Truth hurts. Especially, if you’re a Clinton. Because Clintons prefer shadows to sunshine. When it was revealed...

First the Obama EPA came for coal mines, coal-fired power plants, miners, workers, investors, and all who depend on reliable, affordable electricity. Then the EPA, Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and other agencies came after oil and gas drilling and fracking, and the workers, industries and families that need petroleum. They’re also targeting farming, ranching, airlines and manufacturing. It’s all to stop “dangerous manmade climate change,” rising seas, warmer and colder weather, wetter and drier seasons, and other “unprecedented” calamities. Now the Feds want us to believe worsening forest fires threaten communities, wildlife and wildlife habitats because we continue...

The clock is counting down toward an important decision for Maryland’s economic future, namely whether to allow hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, to drill for natural gas in the state. Over a year ago, legislation that blocked fracking for another two years became law without Gov. Larry Hogan’s signature. That law barred the state from issuing drilling permits until October 2017 and required the Department of the Environment to adopt new regulations by October 2016. The passage of this law effectively delayed any decision on fracking until next year. To recap: the Marcellus Shale is a geological formation found...

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) officials knew about environmental data manipulation for years before they stopped the manipulation or notified scientists who may have used phony information, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has found. A USGS analyst resigned while under investigation for data manipulation from 1996 to 2008, but another analyst continued that distortion until 2014. But agency officials learned data was manipulated as early as 2004 when scientists found “test results did not make sense” and “were not accurate,” according to a Department of the Interior inspector general (IG) audit published 11 years later. “Our office wasn’t aware of...

Business owners in White Marsh are suing Baltimore County and the state over highway improvements and environmental projects that they say have caused chronic flooding on their properties. The Maryland Transportation Authority spent $1.08 billion widening Interstate 95, adding express toll lanes and reconfiguring exit ramps between Interstate 895 and White Marsh Boulevard. Baltimore County has spent $15.5 million on White Marsh Run over the past two years. The work was intended to improve the flow of highway traffic through the area and reduce runoff into local waterways. County officials say the stream restoration was designed so that it could...

Who is working overtime to paint themselves into the biggest political corner of this election cycle? Democrats obviously don’t recognize it yet, but they have placed themselves in an inescapable trap with extreme positions on energy and the environment – irresponsible positions that have fragmented their party and could easily produce dire consequences for Democrats at the polls in November.   The extreme fringe of the environmental movement has emerged as a powerful faction within the Democratic Party, in large measure due to colossal political spending by billionaire and former hedge fund manager Tom Steyer. Their new dominance has translated into...

Leading climate doomsayer Michael Mann recently downplayed the importance of climate change science, telling Democrats that data and models "increasingly are unnecessary" because the impact is obvious. "Fundamentally, I'm a climate scientist and have spent much of my career with my head buried in climate-model output and observational climate data trying to tease out the signal of human-caused climate change," Mr. Mann told the Democratic Platform Drafting Committee at a hearing. "What is disconcerting to me and so many of my colleagues is that these tools that we've spent years developing increasingly are unnecessary because we can see climate change,...

AUSTIN, Texas— In response to a notice of intent to sue filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Save Our Springs Alliance in May, the Texas Department of Transportation changed course on a major highway project in Austin, withdrawing its finding that the highway would have no impact on three federally protected species (two salamanders and a bird). The state’s transportation agency said in a letter that it has initiated consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the three species.The construction of the MoPac Intersections Project across the environmentally sensitive Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone, in...

Like a crazed serial killer, the liberal green groups are celebrating their “victory” of putting America’s major coal producers out of business — to say nothing of the tens of thousands of miners placed in unemployment lines. Several thousand more mining jobs were lost last month. Now to get their next homicidal high, the leftists have turned their ambitions on the oil and natural gas industries. Here is how the Sierra Club spokeswoman, Lena Moffit, explains the grand, green vision: “We have moved to a very clear and firm and vehement position of opposing gas. We oppose any new gas-fired...

New Map Shows the Dark Side of Artificial Light at Night ... The most fundamental difficulty, however, has been that no one knows exactly how severe the problem is.

New reports indicate the Cuomo administration tried to subvert information about a cancer-causing chemical in the water supply of the town of Hoosick Falls … and nobody seems all that concerned. Documents obtained by Politico show the New York State Department of Health dismissing warnings from the EPA, and refusing to alert residents of the very dangerous situation. Over a year ago, health department officials issued a ‘fact sheet’ indicating that “health effects are not expected to occur from normal use of the water” within days of a contradictory declaration by the EPA which advised residents not to drink or...

The White House’s Clean Water Act requires property owners to surrender possession of land that falls under its jurisdiction. The law, which has frustrated landowners for 40 years, was expanded last year when the Obama administration issued new rules for which bodies of water can be claimed as government property. Hawkes Co., Inc. was one of the businesses affected by the White House’s environmental guidelines. The company, which provides peat for golf courses, was prevented from using property in Marshall County, Minnesota, because it had been deemed federally controlled wetlands by the United States Corps of Engineers. The Supreme Court took up...

Shark attack incidents are expected to reach more than 100 this year Experts say shark populations have been on the rise since the 1990s Meanwhile rising temperatures mean more people are swimming in the sea Last year saw 98 people attacked by sharks - six fatally Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. As the summer beach season opens across the United States, experts are warning beach goers to take extra precautions as they predict a record number of shark attacks this year. George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at...

This election season has created an unprecedented alliance between the environmental Left and the anti-free market movement. The result is a well-funded juggernaut adept at conducting coordinated and sophisticated assaults on American businesses while attempting to influence crucial elections. Their goals are nothing short of shuttering our American manufacturing industry, halting the production of affordable energy and placing a ruling clique of radicals in office.One such tactic focuses on intimidating universities and other institutions into divesting their financial holdings of fossil fuel investments. Activists behind this campaign talk candidly about how they hope to “revoke the social license” of energy...

After nearly three days of environmental protesting, the Skagit County Sheriff's Office says trash was left littered on the side of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe train track.

Submitted by the Illinois Tollway. Downers Grove, IL - The Illinois Tollway is partnering with the Morton Arboretum to enhance aesthetics and expand tree canopy coverage along the tollway system as part of its efforts to increase environmental benefits and sustainability. In recognition of the new effort, the Tollway will celebrate Arbor Day on April 29 by giving away 15,000 tree seedlings to customers at the Tollway’s Downers Grove headquarters and at tollway oases. In partnership with the Morton Arboretum, the Illinois Tollway develop a systemwide landscape master plan for trees, shrubs and other native plantings on Tollway property. The...

Colorado Republicans blasted the EPA after an agency official refused to cover the full cost of damages done by the EPA’s release of toxic sludge from the Gold King Mine last August contaminated water supplies in Colorado and New Mexico after spreading from the Animas River to the San Juan River. EPA official Bill Murray explained that “people need to understand that when we took responsibility for the spill we were making a moral statement, not agreeing to compensate anyone for any injuries suffered. The government has ‘sovereign immunity’ and cannot be held liable without its consent. Obviously, we are...