Free Republic

Vacuum cleaners sold in Europe are to be more cost- and energy-efficient, as a result of EU rules which outlaw new vacuum cleaners using more than 900 watts and emitting more than 80 decibels. Updated ecodesign requirements will lower appliances’ maximum power, annual energy consumption and noise levels. The European Commission says it is is making use of latest state-of-the-art technologies to ensure that European consumers have the most energy efficient products available. They will also increase their minimum ability to pick up dust. […] For Europe as a whole, more efficient vacuum cleaners will put it in a position...

The New York Times has quietly updated its Tuesday front page article on a “sweeping” global warming report some scientists fear “would be suppressed” by the Trump administration. TheNYT reported they had obtained an unreleased draft copy of the National Climate Assessment (NCA), which is set for release in 2018. The paper claimed the NDA draft had “not yet been made public” and “concludes that Americans are feeling the effects of climate change right now.” However, TheNYT published a “third order draft” of the NCA that’s been available online since January. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published the draft...

French President Emmanuel Macron says he worked his charm on President Donald Trump during the U.S. leader's visit to Paris – so much so that he may have changed Trump’s mind on climate change. Trump and Macron -- who said his interaction with Trump was carefully calculated -- discussed their main point of contention: U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. Macron told French news outlet Le Journal du Dimanche that Trump “listened” to him when the two discussed climate change, adding: “He understood the reason for my position, notably the link between climate change and terrorism.” The presidents spoke...

Donald Trump regrets the “bizarre mistake” of withdrawing the US from the Paris climate agreement, Sir Richard Branson has said. The British billionaire also urged the president to help phase out the ailing US coal industry. Speaking in Brooklyn on Friday, the Virgin Group founder said businesses and cities were firmly behind a transition to low-carbon energy, which made Trump’s decision to exit the Paris deal “very, very strange”. “With climate change, it’s America first and our beautiful globe last, and that seems incredibly sad,” said Branson. “I’ve got a feeling that the president is regretting what he did. Maybe...

France’s new environment minister said Monday nearly a third of the country’s reactors could be shut under plans to scale back the amount of electricity produced from nuclear power. In 2015, the previous Socialist-dominated parliament passed a law obliging the government to reduce the proportion of electricity generated from nuclear to 50 percent by 2025 compared with around 75 percent now. “We can all understand that to reach this target, we’re going to have to close a certain number of reactors,” Nicolas Hulot told RTL radio. “It will be perhaps as high as 17 reactors, but we need to look...

The Trump administration said Thursday it is taking steps to expand oil drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans as President Donald Trump continues to push for U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. The Interior Department is rewriting a five-year drilling plan established by the Obama administration, with an eye toward opening areas in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans that now are off-limits to drilling. It’s one of six initiatives that the president unveiled Thursday in hopes of generating more energy exports and jobs. “The golden era of American energy is now underway,” Trump said in a Thursday speech...

Wisconsin Democrats have demanded Gov. Scott Walker (R) join the U.S. Climate Alliance, a newly formed coalition of states that intends to move forward with the terms of the Paris climate accord after President Trump’s decision to pull out of the agreement. "President Trump’s rejection of fact, science and of the Paris Climate Agreement is an act that endangers every American. Gov. Walker’s silence on this issue echoes this shared anti-environment, anti-middle class agenda,” read the letter to Walker signed by 35 state representatives and 11 senators. "Given the recent reports on Wisconsin’s dismal slump in job creation, we cannot...

Peter Wohlleben’s bestselling book claims that trees can talk to one another and have relationships and social structures. A petition started by German academics is now circulating to denounce these “fairy tales.” “Trees are very social beings,” says German forester Peter Wohlleben; “the parents, the ‘mother trees’, look after their offspring…they like to stand close together and cuddle.” They also talk to each other, have sex, form friendships and feel physical pain, he told the Canadian documentary series “Intelligent Trees.” Wohlleben’s bestselling book “The Hidden Life of Trees,” caused a stir at Britain’s Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts...

The company that owns the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, site of the worst nuclear disaster in U.S. history, announced that it plans to shutter the facility in 2019 unless the state of Pennsylvania steps in to keep it open. The plant near Harrisburg, Pa., hasn’t been profitable for the past five years, according to owner Exelon Corp. The company announced last week that it failed to auction off future energy production from Three Mile Island for the third year in a row. “Today is a difficult day, not just for the 675 talented men and women who have dedicated...

No more petrol or diesel cars, buses, or trucks will be sold anywhere in the world within eight years. The entire market for land transport will switch to electrification, leading to a collapse of oil prices and the demise of the petroleum industry as we have known it for a century. This is the futuristic forecast by Stanford University economist Tony Seba. His report, with the deceptively bland title Rethinking Transportation 2020-2030, has gone viral in green circles and is causing spasms of anxiety in the established industries. Seba’s premise is that people will stop driving altogether. They will switch...

A coal-export terminal proposed in Washington state would increase cancer risks for some residents, make rail accidents more likely and add millions of metric tons of climate-changing greenhouse gas globally every year, according to an environmental study released Friday. Millennium Bulk Terminals-Longview wants to build the facility along the Columbia River near the city of Longview to handle up to 44 million tons of coal a year. Coal would arrive by train from Montana, Wyoming and other states to be stored and loaded on ships heading to energy-hungry markets in Asia. The yearslong fight over the deep-water port comes as...

Working to dismantle his predecessor’s environmental legacy, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday aimed at expanding drilling in the Arctic and opening other federal areas to oil and gas exploration. With one day left to rack up accomplishments before he reaches his 100th day in office, Trump signed an order reversing some of former President Barack Obama’s restrictions and instructing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review a plan that dictates which federal locations are open to offshore drilling. It’s part of Trump’s promise to unleash the nation’s energy reserves in an effort to reduce reliance on foreign...

Secretary-General António Guterres has nominated Achim Steiner of Germany to be the new head of the U.N. Development Program. Steiner led the U.N. environment agency for 10 years. U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said Tuesday that Guterres nominated Steiner to succeed former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark for a four-year term after consultations with UNDP’s executive board. He said Guterres has asked the General Assembly to confirm Steiner. …

California’s attorney general announced Friday he is seeking documents that could show conflicts of interest and ethics violations by the man President Donald Trump appointed to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, the latest episode in the ongoing feud between Golden State officials and the Trump administration. Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking the agency for documents related to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. Becerra’s office said Pruitt has conflicts of interest in his new role overseeing federal environmental regulations because he sued the agency multiple times while he was attorney general of Oklahoma. Pruitt sued...

“Rich western countries are now siphoning up the planet’s resources and destroying its ecosystems at an unprecedented rate,” said biologist Paul Ehrlich, of Stanford University in California. “We want to build highways across the Serengeti to get more rare earth minerals for our cellphones. We grab all the fish from the sea, wreck the coral reefs and put carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We have triggered a major extinction event. The question is: how do we stop it?”

New Jersey environmental regulators on Friday approved a hotly contested plan to run a natural gas pipeline through a federally protected forest preserve amid raucous protests that included drums, tambourines and choruses of “This Land Is Your Land.” The 15-member New Jersey Pinelands Commission voted to approve a plan by South Jersey Gas to run the pipeline through the federally protected Pinelands preserve, where development is drastically restricted. […] It was the most emotionally charged jobs-vs-environment clash in recent New Jersey history, and was closely watched by environmental and energy groups around the nation, particularly with a new presidential administration...

Over the strong objections of environmental groups, the Senate confirmed Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday, giving President Donald Trump an eager partner to fulfill his campaign pledge to increase the use of planet-warming fossil fuels. Pruitt was sworn in later Friday by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. In six years as Oklahoma’s attorney general, Pruitt filed 14 lawsuits challenging EPA regulations that included limits on carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. He also sued over the EPA’s recent expansion of water bodies regulated under the Clean Water Act, a federal measure opposed by industries that...

Fox News host Tucker Carlson interviewed the Sierra Club’s Executive Director, Michael Brune, on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Feb 2, 2017. Carlson, a former Sierra Club member himself, dove right into asking Brune the tough questions. Puzzled by some of the Sierra Club’s recent position statements on such varied topics as President Trump’s border wall, the women’s march, abortion, and transgender bathrooms, Carlson asked Mr. Brune why the Sierra Club was veering away from protecting the environment to taking positions on the unrelated issues. For those who still naively believe that the Sierra Club is focused on protecting the environment, Brune’s...

Environmentalists facing a hostile Trump administration and a Republican-dominated Congress say the courts may offer their best chance to block changes they oppose. Advocacy groups nationwide are hiring more staff lawyers and coordinating with private attorneys and firms volunteering their services. They are seeking donations, setting priorities and reviewing laws that could be the basis of lawsuits against Trump policies concerning climate change, endangered wildlife, pollution and other issues. …

The former head of President Donald Trump’s transition team at the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday he expects the new administration to seek significant budget and staff cuts. Myron Ebell said in an interview with The Associated Press that Trump is likely to seek significant reductions to the agency’s workforce — currently about 15,000 employees nationwide. Ebell, who left the transition team last week, declined to discuss specific numbers of EPA staff that could be targeted for pink slips. Asked what he would personally like to see, however, Ebell said slashing the agency’s size by about half would be a...