Free Republic

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release) — On Wednesday, U.S. Congresswoman Aumua Amata participated in a House Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs hearing entitled: “Funding Priorities for and the United States’ Responsibilities concerning Indians, Alaska Natives, and Insular Areas in the President’s FY 2016 Budget Request for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Health Service, Office of Insular Affairs, and Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians.” Amata, a Republican who serves as the vice chairwoman of the subcommittee, addressed Esther P. Kia’aina, the assistant secretary for insular areas, Department of the Interior on many of...

Warmist efforts to shut down scientific skepticism – the very heart of the scientific method – have escalated from mere rhetoric to mobilizing the financial might of the federal government to punish those who dare doubt the orthodoxy. Even though the computer models that have failed to predict actual outcomes must be continually rejiggered, they are proclaimed to be “settled science,” and doubters are to be punished. Now, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is preparing to financially punish states whose governors are regarded as heretics. Philly.com reports:

Popular astrophysicist and anointed spokesperson for science Neil deGrasse Tyson is not impressed by the recent antics of Republican leaders, from Sen. Ted Cruz’s directive that NASA stop focusing on Earth to Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s reported ban on the term “climate change.” “I don’t know if our country has any precedent for emergent scientific truths to be debated on political grounds,” he said during a live appearance in Sarasota, Florida, referring to the aforementioned censorship. “I’m astonished by that. Astonished and disappointed. I thought as a nation we were above this.” Tyson, who is the director of the Hayden...

Senate Republicans are proposing a budget amendment that would let states opt out of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) controversial climate rule for power plants.Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) proposed the amendment Tuesday on behalf of Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who is up for reelection in 2016. ADVERTISEMENT Under the amendment, a state’s governor or legislature would be able to opt out of the rule’s requirements for a variety of reasons.In order to be exempt from the rule, a governor or legislature would have to cite one of the following reasons: that the rule would hurt low-income or fixed-income...

If you like your shower, you probably can’t keep it once the Obama administration bureaucrats are done. Nobody can altogether escape regulations, not even when bathing in the altogether. The Environmental Protection Agency denies wanting to compel us to shorten our showers, but that’s like President Obama denying you will lose your current doctor under Obamacare. EPA is funding research to create hotel guest monitoring systems so the front desk can track your shower time and water usage. It’s the scariest thing since Hitchcock staged the deadly shower scene in “Psycho.” The next step could be a water-use surcharge on...

Back in 1997, when Bill Clinton's EPA was pushing stricter air pollution rules, then-EPA administrator Carol Browner scoffed at complaints that the new rules would be so strict as to eventually ban backyard barbecues.

The Obama administration is set to unveil the first major nationwide safety restrictions on fracking, touching off a fresh political confrontation between the president and his critics in Congress and the energy industry. The Interior Department’s rules — expected to be released Friday morning — are the federal government’s most comprehensive foray to date toward regulating the technology at the heart of the U.S. oil and gas boom, addressing worries such as potential dangers to drinking water. They will also offer oil and gas supporters new room to accuse President Barack Obama of seeking to throttle fossil-fuel production, despite his...

WASHINGTON — President Obama signed an executive order on Thursday to set new goals for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of federal agencies, his latest use of his executive authority to address the root causes of climate change and press private companies and foreign governments to follow suit. Mr. Obama’s directive orders federal agencies over the next decade to cut their emissions by an average of 40 percent compared with their levels when he won office in 2008, and to increase their use of electricity from renewable sources by 30 percent. The goals are in line with a commitment that...

predation, not human activity, has reduced bird’s numbers. A coalition of rural Western counties and business interests is contesting the science being used to decide whether to list the Greater sage-grouse as endangered or threatened, accusing the Obama administration of relying on “selective, false and biased” research. Denver attorney Kent Holsinger filed three Data Quality Act challenges Wednesday with the Department of the Interior on behalf of the coalition, which includes the Western Energy Alliance, ranchers, mining and drilling companies and 19 counties in Colorado, Montana, Nevada and Utah. “We’ve documented real issues with transparency and scientific integrity ... The...

Business groups are waging war on the Obama administration’s proposal to reduce ozone pollution, arguing the regulations would cripple the U.S. economy. In order to comply with the proposed rule, many areas of the country would have to all but shut down land development and oil and natural gas drilling, industry groups charged on the final day for comments. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is being spurred on by greens and health groups, who argue that lower ozone emissions would benefit public health. The agency, they contend, is obligated to adopt the stricter standards. But the rules would translate to...

The initiative would also pressure guests to reuse dirty linens. Claims of bureaucratic overreach within the Environmental Protection Agency are nothing new; however, its latest initiative is ruffling a few more feathers than usual. With funding from a grant made to the University of Tulsa, the EPA hopes to develop a prototype for a device that would monitor and report the water use of hotel guests across America. “Most hotels do not monitor individual guest water usage,” the grant states, “and as a result, millions of gallons of potable water are wasted every year by hotel guests.” As per usual,...

It’s a good thing Uncle Sam is looking out for your best interests. If it weren’t for them, you might spend too long in the shower next time you stay at a hotel. Wait… what? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants hotels to monitor how much time its guests spend in the shower.The agency is spending $15,000 to create a wireless system that will track how much water a hotel guest uses to get them to “modify their behavior.”“Hotels consume a significant amount of water in the U.S. and around the world,” an EPA grant to the University of...

In 2014, American households saw the largest electricity price increases in 6 years, according to government data, as utilities are forced to use more green energy and invest in energy efficiency and grid improvements. Energy Information Administration data shows that U.S. residential electricity prices “experienced large increases in retail electricity prices during 2014, with the average U.S. residential price increasing 3.1% over the previous year.” Last year’s price increase was the highest of any year since 2008 when prices rose 5.7 percent. “Residential electricity rate increases during 2014 ranged from 1.3% in the Pacific Coast states to 9.9% in New...

resident Obama has found himself at odds with his old law school mentor over the Environmental Protection Agency. Laurence Tribe, a liberal constitutional scholar at Harvard University, told House lawmakers that EPA carbon dioxide regulations are tearing the Constitution apart. “EPA possesses only the authority granted to it by Congress,” Tribe told lawmakers in a hearing Tuesday. “Its gambit here raises serious questions under the separation of powers… because EPA is attempting to exercise lawmaking power that belongs to Congress and judicial power that belongs to the federal courts.” “Burning the Constitution should not become part of our national energy...

The Environmental Protection Agency has its eyes on pollution from backyard barbecues. The agency announced that it is funding a University of California project to limit emissions resulting in grease drippings with a special tray to catch them and a "catalytic" filtration system. The $15,000 project has the "potential for global application," said the school. The school said that the technology they will study with the EPA grant is intended to reduce air pollution and cut the health hazards to BBQ "pit masters" from propane-fueled cookers. Charged with keeping America's air, water and soil clean, the EPA has been increasingly...

- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants hotels to monitor how much time its guests spend in the shower. The agency is spending $15,000 to create a wireless system that will track how much water a hotel guest uses to get them to “modify their behavior.” “Hotels consume a significant amount of water in the U.S. and around the world,” an EPA grant to the University of Tulsa reads. “Most hotels do not monitor individual guest water usage and as a result, millions of gallons of potable water are wasted every year by hotel guests.” -

Just nine weeks on the job, Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel is already counting off the number of lawsuits he will see come across his desk. The state’s chief legal officer expects to see court action over the right-to-work law, the school accountability bill and drug testing of public assistance recipients, if the Republican-supported measures go into law. “I think that we are going to be very busy,” Schimel said at a March 4 Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce conference in Madison. Schimel, a Republican, said it?s something that he will savor. “I am going to enforce the law the way...

The Environmental Protection Agency has its eyes on pollution from backyard barbecues. The agency announced that it is funding a University of California project to limit emissions resulting in grease drippings with a special tray to catch them and a "catalytic" filtration system. The $15,000 project has the "potential for global application," said the school. The school said that the technology they will study with the EPA grant is intended to reduce air pollution and cut the health hazards to BBQ "pit masters" from propane-fueled cookers. Charged with keeping America's air, water and soil clean, the EPA has been increasingly looking at...

Energy companies are preparing to shut down nearly 16 gigawatts of power by the end of this year as the deadline for compliance with new federal environmental regulations looms. In total, some 85 coal-fired generating units at 36 locations are expected to close in the coming months in part because of Environmental Protection Agency regulations. The largest set of retirements is set for June, when electricity demand starts to peak as Americans turn on their air conditioners for the summer. Most of these retirements will come from coal-fired power plants in Appalachia. “We are currently showing nearly 300 GW of...

(CNSNews.com) - In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy said that “climate change puts the world’s coffee-growing regions at risk.” “Climate change injects volatility into the global marketplace. Volatility leads to instability,” McCarthy said. “Take coffee. Now coffee is a temperature sensitive crop. Climate change puts the world’s coffee-growing regions at risk.