Free Republic

South Dakota Senator John Thune, co-chair of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, has announced that the omnibus appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2015 includes an important provision championed by Thune preventing the Obama Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating lead in ammunition and fishing tackle for one year.

The United States has plenty of enemies in the world that want it to fail. It is insane that we harbor one as a federal agency. When the Republican Party takes over majority control of Congress in January, it will face a number of battles that must be fought with the Obama administration ranging from its amnesty intentions to the repeal of ObamaCare, but high among the battles is the need to rein in the metastasizing power of the Environmental Protection Agency. In many ways, it is the most essential battle because it involves the provision of sufficient electrical energy...

When the Republican Party takes over majority control of Congress in January, it will face a number of battles that must be fought with the Obama administration ranging from its amnesty intentions to the repeal of ObamaCare, but high among the battles is the need to rein in the metastasizing power of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Included in the massive, $1.1 trillion bill unveiled late Tuesday that would fund most of the government through next fall are several policy “riders” on energy and the environment supported by Republicans, adding fuel to what is already shaping up to be a fight between the GOP and the Obama administration over environmental policies next year. Republicans said the spending bill stops the listing of the sage-grouse as an endangered species — a move by the administration after the midterm elections that Democrats and the GOP alike had criticized. The federal move to protect the bird was seen as having...

EPA’s proposed guidelines for carbon dioxide (CO2)emissions from existing stationary sources are fatally flawed. The rule violates the language of the Clean Air Act; it arbitrarily and capriciously imposes emission reduction goals with no analysis from EPA on the actual warming impacts; it is not supported by the American people nor Congress; it will drive up electricity prices; and it will threaten the stability of the electricity grid. EPA fails to note that in exchange for higher electricity rates, the benefit of this rule is that the world is expected to be 0.018 degrees Celsius cooler than otherwise by 2100....

A coalition of 35 conservative and free market groups is urging state officials to “fiercely resist” the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) attempt to force them to implement “ruinous” new greenhouse gas emission rules that could double the current price of electricity or face harsh regulatory repercussions if they refuse. “You should send a clear message to the federal government that if it insists on pursuing the regulatory equivalent of punitive energy taxes, it must promulgate and implement that policy itself—and be held solely accountable for the disastrous consequences that will follow,” the coalition said a letter sent to governors, state...

Harvard University law professor Laurence Tribe, a mentor to President Barack Obama, said the administration's carbon rule for power plants is "a remarkable example of executive overreach" that raises "serious constitutional questions." Tribe, who submitted joint comments to the Environmental Protection Agency with coal producer Peabody Energy Corp., said the agency should withdraw its plan to cut emissions from power plants because it reverses decades of federal support for coal. "The Proposed Rule lacks any legal basis and should be withdrawn," Tribe and Peabody wrote in their filing, which law firms for the company said was submitted to EPA on...

If we could reclassify the EPA as pig flatulence, we could get the EPA to fund its own elimination. A report released by Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake found numerous examples of EPA mismanagement and excess, including employees illegitimately spending $15 million on agency credit cards and $9 million the agency lost track of funding projects in California. Happens to everyone. One time I lost track of $12 million in Arizona and couldn’t find it for a week. $1,500,000 annually to store out-of-date and unwanted publications at an Ohio warehouse” and another “$700,000 to attempt to reduce methane emitted from...

The EPA is not protecting anyone’s health. It is forcing them to pay more for what should be the most traditional and affordable sources of electricity in the world One of the lesser known attempts to prove that renewable energy, wind and solar power, can replace traditional energy sources—coal, oil, and natural gas—went belly up in much the same way current wind and solar companies depend on tapping the taxpayer for government subsidies in order to stay in business. Google’s Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative begun in 2007 and shut down four years later. Two members of the Institute...

Oil companies are getting thrashed by falling oil prices. Some analysts predict that there will be no new net investment in the U.S. oil and gas industry in 2015, and the possibility of declining investment in 2016. At the same time, the Environmental Protection Agency is pummeling the industry with a new set of National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone (NAAQS), released the day before Thanksgiving. Congress has little control over oil prices, which are set in world markets, but it does have authority over the EPA. The EPA’s new 626-page ozone regulation, accompanied by a 575-page Regulatory Impact...

EXCLUSIVE: Eight Environmental Protection Agency employees who racked up a total of more than ten years’ worth of paid “administrative leave” between 2011 and 2014 -- valued at more than $1,096,000 -- apparently did so because they were involved in “cases of alleged serious misconduct,” Fox News has learned. In a memorandum sent from EPA’s acting assistant administrator, Nanci E. Gelb, to EPA’s inspector general, Arthur Elkins -- a draft also was given to Fox News -- the agency has revealed that at least three of the affected employees have now left EPA. All of the eight “were or are...

Craig — Monday is the deadline to submit comments to the Environmental Protection Agency concerning the proposed Clean Energy Plan that aims to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. The next step is for the federal government to review submitted statements made during the past several months in order to make a final ruling on the plan by June. Originally, the deadline was Oct. 15, but it was extended to Monday after the EPA received nearly 750,000 comments before the first deadline, according to the EPA. Northwest Colorado houses two coal-fired power plants, Craig Station in Moffat County and...

ANALYSIS/OPINION: In the weeks after voters cast a vote of no confidence on President Obama and his fellow Democrats, the president has gone on a scorched-earth campaign, unilaterally declaring amnesty for some 5 million illegal aliens, firing the only Republican in his Cabinet and rolling out a new federal rule dubbed “the most expensive regulation ever.” Yes, this is the real Barack Obama, the one Americans cast their votes against Nov. 4 in an election in which the president had declared his agenda most definitely “on the ballot.” “We all knew that an unrestrained Obama would be dangerous, but we...

EPA is trying to remove the tiniest amounts of mercury in the environment, Congress passed a law eliminate the incandescent light bulb and required their replacement by fluorescent lights that contain mercury Is it surprising that the Environmental Protection Agency continues to tell big fat lies about anything it wants to ban, but is reluctant to show the “science” on which the bans are based? There is currently a piece of legislation under consideration by Congress, the Secret Science Reform Act, to force the EPA to disclose its scientific and technical information before proposing or finalizing any regulation. This is...

The GOP is preparing to mount a full-scale assault on President Obama’s regulatory agenda, using the party’s strengthened hand in Congress to delay, soften or block contentious administration rules at every turn. As long as Obama sits atop the executive branch, Republicans’ power to derail scores of rulemaking efforts now under way is limited. But control of both the House and Senate in the next Congress will enable GOP lawmakers to ratchet up their attacks on what they view as overzealous regulation. “So long as we have this president the federal agencies can go around Congress," said Sen. Jim Inhofe...

Supporters and opponents of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed carbon regulations for power plants talk about the benefits and costs as if enactment of the new standards is inevitable. But there are still many steps that have to be taken at the federal and state level to meet the Obama administration’s goal of slashing power plants’ carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2030. And the path ahead is fraught with potential obstacles, as critics strive to weaken the regulations or scrap them entirely. Here is a closer look at five of the greatest threats to President Obama’s landmark rule...

Does Missaukee County, Michigan, really have a dangerous air pollution problem? The 574-square-mile region, nestled in the northwestern part of the state's lower peninsula, is home to all of 15,000 people. Its economy consists mainly of Christmas tree, dairy and livestock farms, and summer vacationers. The nearest "cities" are Cadillac to the west (population 10,281), and Grayling to the northeast (population 1,863). Yet new smog rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday would treat this little county like Los Angeles...

Over 100 scientists worldwide, citing 800 studies, are demanding that the Obama administration follow Europe’s lead and put a moratorium on the use of a new-style pesticide blamed for the deaths of 30 percent of American honeybees every year. In a letter to the EPA and Agriculture Department, the scientists said there is overwhelming evidence from 800 studies that the pesticide family called neonicotinoids are to blame for the substantial declines in honeybees, bumblebees and butterflies, all pollinators needed to help farmers produce billions of dollars worth of food every year. “The 108 signers of this letter therefore urge you...

The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear a major challenge to the limits set by the Obama administration on emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants. It is the latest effort by industry groups to roll back regulations that would reduce emissions like mercury, soot, sulfur, smog and carbon dioxide. The case also threatens to undermine one of the administration’s most significant victories and chip away at President Obama’s legacy. John Walke, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, called the regulation of mercury emissions that are at issue in the new case “the greatest...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Environmental Protection Agency from taking action against a massive Alaska mining project that the agency says could be catastrophic for the best run of wild salmon remaining on the planet.