Free Republic

As one climate lawsuit gets thrown out of court in New York, another one takes its place in Baltimore. Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh announced the lawsuit Friday in joining about a dozen other cities and states in suing fossil fuel firms for their role in causing global warming.

Want to sip a refreshing beverage this summer? If environmental zealots and sycophants get their way, you won’t be allowed to sip it through a plastic straw. Actress Nina Nelson and other celebrities made a video claiming that plastic straws kill sea life: “In the USA alone, over 500 million straws are being used every single day, most of which are going into our oceans.” “I will stop sucking,” vowed the celebrities. In obedient response, Seattle banned plastic straws, and other places plan to follow. Starbucks, Hyatt and Hilton are all abandoning straws. Katy Tang, of San Francisco’s Board of...

Eitor's Note: The following is an excerpt from author Marc Morano's new book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change. If you can’t indoctrinate adults on climate change, who is a more willing and pliable audience than children? John Kerry signed the Paris climate pact at the UN with his two-year-old granddaughter seated on his lap for full effect. Kids from kindergarten through college are prime targets for the climate change fear promoters’ propaganda. Politicians, academia, Hollywood, and global warming activists have focused on kids, feeding them a steady diet of fear and doom, using vulnerable children to promote climate...

After a ban on non-biodegradable utensils went into effect over the weekend in Seattle, local officials are advising food service businesses to “[s]top using plastic straws and plastic utensils.”An ordinance pending before the New York City Council would make that city’s food service businesses the next front line in liberal politicians’ war on plastic straws.For the last two months, the New York City Council has deliberated over a bill that would make it a civil offense for any food service provider in the city to offer customers straws or stirrers “made of plastic or any other non-biodegradable material.” If passed,...

Miami-Dade commissioners on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to extending the 836 expressway 14 miles into West Kendall, rejecting warnings about environmental damage and urban sprawl in favor of bringing relief to commuters in the congested suburbs. "We've got to start somewhere," said Commissioner Javier Souto, whose district includes western areas in the county. "Do something. Do something." A final vote awaits later this year, but the 9-2 vote captured what appeared to be broad support for the signature transportation package from Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who cited the toll road's extension as a top priority as he prepares to leave office...

This is an actual letter sent to a man named Ryan DeVries regarding a pond on his property. It was sent by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Quality, State of Pennsylvania . This guy's response is hilarious, but read The State's letter before you get to the response letter. State of Pennsylvania 's letter to Mr. DeVries: SUBJECT: DEQ File No.97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec 20; Lycoming County Dear Mr. DeVries: It has come to the attention of the Department of Environmental Quality that there has been recent unauthorized activity on the above referenced parcel of property. You have been certified...

Some nights, Sean Harris is sitting watching the TV and he thinks he hears the fridge humming. On other occasions, he has been out on the road around his home in Ballyduff in West Waterford, and the engine sounds as if it’s a car approaching him from behind. Those are the more benign effects of the Barnafaddock Wind Farm, as he sees it. He is not alone, but neither are his problems shared with huge numbers in his rural community. In most people’s view, the wind farm is in the mountains and its developer has compensated the community with funds...

University of Delaware students, faculty, administrators and trustees must truthfully answer a simple, but important question: Would this conduct have been ignored or excused if the targets had been Muslim?A recent article by the editor-in-chief of the school’s student newspaper proclaimed “Green Dragon slayer for hire, in a geography department near you: To members of the Cornwall Alliance, environmentalists are satanic ‘Green Dragons,’ sent from the bowels of hell to threaten world order and harm the needy.”  Caleb Owens’ article links tenured UDel geography and climatology professor David Legates and his Christian faith to “far-right American evangelicals,” fossil fuel funding...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican lawmakers on Wednesday stepped up their scrutiny of environmental groups’ work with foreign countries, requesting that the Center for Biological Diversity turn in a list of documents detailing their work with Japanese officials. It was the third action that Representatives Rob Bishop and Bruce Westerman have taken this month to put a spotlight on foreign governments’ relationship with green groups, who they allege can be used to influence U.S. policy or national security. {snip} Last week, the lawmakers sent a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis asking him to provide information about environmental litigation against...

It’s no secret—conservatives have fallen behind on environmental issues for the past decade. In issues like clean energy and conservation, we have lost sight of the legacy of environmental stewardship left to us by conservative trailblazers like Ronald Reagan. A report from Duke University in 2014 detailed why many conservatives ignore the issue: solution aversion. Solution aversion is the notion that if someone does not like the solution to a problem, they will ignore the problem completely. This can be seen firsthand with conservatives and the environment. Conservatives see green policies as curtailing the rights and values they care about...

Over 16,000 pro-life Christians have recently signed a petition asking that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge be protected from drilling. The reason we are speaking out is because we are "called by God to be a steward of America's majesty." And the Arctic Refuge is one of the most majestic places in our nation. Unfortunately, the Arctic Refuge has never been more imperiled. After four decades of attempts, last year drilling proponents succeeded in attaching an amendment allowing drilling to a must-pass spending bill. Even past staunch Republican defenders of the Arctic Refuge voted the wrong way this time. Before...

The blatant use of science for political gain is not new, but it's clearly getting worse. All kinds of "science" is being used to justify policies that fit a particular political agenda. Case in point: Some Harvard scientists have examined the environmental policies of the Trump administration and concluded that up to 80,000 people a decade will die as a result of political decisions that they disagree with. It used to be that such pronouncements were dismissed as "unscientific." Today, it's front page news.

Environment: It has become an article of faith in the U.S. that recycling is a good thing. But evidence is piling up that recycling is a waste of time and money, and a bit of a fraud.

A recent media report on a peer-reviewed study based on 180 samples from water wells near Ohio fracking sites was headlined: “Univ. of Cincy fracking study finds surprising groundwater results.” What exactly was so surprising? The report is one of more than two dozen scientific studies published since 2010 that concluded fracking is not a major threat to groundwater. No fewer than 10 peer-reviewed studies examining more than 3,000 water wells across virtually every major U.S. shale play have been released in the past five years, with each one finding no evidence of that fracking has contaminated groundwater. The reason?...

After years in limbo, a plan to construct a new coal plant has been scrapped. That leaves Ohio without any proposals for new coal-power generation. Environmental groups see this as a critical turning point.Since the early 2000s, the Lima energy plant has been on again and off again. But now the company behind the project is officially bowing out. Neil Waggoner with the Beyond Coal campaign says it’s clear coal is near its end. “We see there are no coal plants under consideration to be built. The current coal plants that are already in the state are struggling to be...

Robert Mueller’s politicized investigation into allegations that President Trump or the Trump campaign or some Trump associate somehow colluded with Russians continues unproven but unabated. Many think partisan politics ensure it will not be concluded or terminated before the fall 2018 elections.Federal District Court Judge T. S. Ellis may have rebuked Mueller for attempting to wield “unfettered power” and actually being motivated primarily by a desire to hurt the President. But Mr. Mueller seems determined to find collusion somewhere – except where it seems blatantly obvious: in former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s dealings with Putin oligarchs and the Clinton...

President Trump is starting his own government-wide environmental sustainability and energy efficiency program through an executive order he signed late on Thursday. The order directs federal agencies to manage their buildings, vehicles, and overall operations in order to "optimize energy and environmental performance, reduce waste, and cut costs," according to the White House. It also calls on the White House Council of Environmental Quality 'to streamline pre-existing environmental orders' by "refocusing agencies on cost-effectively meeting mandates and goals" established by law, as opposed to executive fiat. The White House pointed out that the federal government manages more than 350,000 buildings...

The soggy spring and delays in obtaining the necessary environmental permits may push back the completion date of work to reconstruct Interstate 70 between Beau Street and the Route 519/Eighty Four interchanges. “We are behind schedule,” Scott Faieta, assistant construction engineer for the state Department of Transportation, said Tuesday. “We met last week with the contractor, and it may be necessary to push it back to summer of 2021. It was supposed to be done November 2020.” The contractor for the $117 million project is Lane Construction Co. The work includes widening the highway to three lanes in each direction...

WASHINGTON By Washington standards, it shouldn’t be that hard to get money for Interstate 73, a decades-in-the-making, $2 billion project to connect 75 miles of road from the North Carolina border to the tourist hub of South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach. But Rep. Tom Rice, R-S.C., the local congressman and the road’s key backer, is struggling to get the project going. He does have support from his state’s two U.S. senators. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., recently called the interstate the second most important economic priority for South Carolina behind dredging the Charleston Harbor. Al Simpson, a well-connected Washington lobbyist who was...

Environmentalists who have fought loggers for generations have a surprising new strategy to save California’s storied old-growth redwood forests: Logging. Save the Redwoods League, a venerable San Francisco organization that has preserved more than 214,000 acres of redwood forest since it was founded in 1918, is embarking on a $5 million plan to thin out 10,000 acres of redwoods, Douglas fir, tan oaks and other trees. The logging will begin at Redwood National Park and Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park near the Oregon border over the next five years. After that, the group plans to thin forests in nearby...