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Lawmakers are up in arms over an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposal that they fear could give federal officials expansive new powers over private property and farmland. The EPA is seeking to redefine what bodies of water fall under the agency’s jurisdiction for controlling pollution. The scope of the final Clean Water Act (CWA) rule is of critical importance, as any area covered would require a federal permit for certain activities. The rule is facing a groundswell of opposition from lawmakers, who fear the EPA is engaged in a “land grab” that could stop farmers and others from building fences,...

Jun. 19, 2014 - 5:57 - Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray on the impact of regulations on the energy industry.

The Hill reports the Environmental Agency (EPA) has delayed its Renewable Fuel Standard compliance deadline for a second time and noted that its 2014 rulemaking “has been more time consuming than originally anticipated, involving over 300,000 comments”: Petroleum companies will get a breather from latest round of renewable fuel standard, as the Environmental Protection Agnecy (EPA) is once again delaying the deadline for compliance with the 2013 standards. The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is a program started under the Bush administration that requires that increasing amounts of renewable fuels that emit lower levels of greenhouse gases be mixed with gas...

A former EPA official tied to a controversy over allegations of federal overreach at an Alaska mine project has mysteriously gone off the grid, sources tell FoxNews.com, complicating lawmakers' efforts to question him. Emails from Phillip North, a now-retired Environmental Protection Agency employee, recently surfaced that seem to show the Alaska-based biologist tried to get the Pebble Mine project killed as far back as 2008. Those emails -- and memos indicating government officials worked early on with tribal leaders and environmental groups to oppose the venture -- raised questions about the agency's claims that when it ultimately vetoed the gold-and-copper...

The Environmental Protection Agency’s draft rule to limit carbon from existing power plants is just two days old, but it’s already sparked an ad war. The American Lung Association today will launch a national television ad buy featuring a sleeping baby drawing deep breaths, touting the fact that the regulation would close the “loophole” that allows industry to “pump unlimited carbon pollution into his air.”

Despite being soundly rejected a few years ago, cap-and-trade will soon get its U.S. encore — but not in Congress. The Obama administration will likely use its executive power to unilaterally impose carbon dioxide emissions trading systems. The plan is being sold as a “flexible” one. By allowing states a menu of policy options to meet federal mandates, the standards will ostensibly meet the unique needs of each individual state. But the stark reality behind the proposal is that it will be a boon for states that have already imposed cap-and-trade systems — which are overwhelmingly Democratic states. “While President...

The war on climate change may soon be moving inside the kitchen. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy is set to unveil on Tuesday six federal grants to universities to fund research on clean cookstove technology. The announcement will put the EPA’s resources squarely behind a United Nations’ quest for cleaner burning stoves and an end to deadly cooking pollution. “This research will help to improve air quality, protect public health and slow climate change,” the EPA said in explaining why the agency chief will preside over the announcement on Tuesday. To make the case for why these grants are...

When Andy and Katie Johnson built a pond on their property in 2011 to provide water for their cattle, they never dreamed it would result in threats of $75,000 a day in fines from the Environmental Protection Agency. The Johnsons believed they had done everything necessary to get permission for the pond, where the tiny Six Mile Creek runs through their property south of Fort Bridger, Wyo. The Wyoming State Engineer's Office provided the permit and even stated in an April 4, 2013 letter to the Johnsons: "All of the legal requirements of the State Engineer's Office, that were your...

President Obama on Wednesday will designate nearly half a million acres in New Mexico as a national monument, the latest in a series of executive actions intended to improve environmental protections of federal lands. The president will sign a proclamation establishing the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument, the largest such designation of his presidency, during a ceremony at the Department of the Interior, the White House said Monday. It will be the 11th time the president has established a national monument during his term, and the largest designation in terms of land mass during his presidency.By contrast, former President...

Alas for Ms Tennant, nothing can hide her big problem with coal: it divides Democrats. The party’s green supporters hate this dirtiest of fuels. Many would like to see it taxed or regulated so fiercely that it stays in the ground. New federal carbon curbs are expected next January, making it uneconomic to build coal-fired power stations. Blue-collar Democrats in coal states are aghast. As a union official in Farmington said: “Coal built the middle class here.” Plenty of big-city or college-campus Democrats don’t care.

Legislation aimed at preventing enforcement of potential federal limits on woodstove emissions has been introduced in the Michigan legislature. Senate Bill 910, which was introduced on April 24 by Sen. Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba, would prohibit the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality from imposing new state regulations limiting emissions from woodstoves and heaters, or enforcing federal regulations that do so. In January, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed rule changes that would dramatically tighten emissions requirements on new wood-powered heaters. Sen. Casperson "We believe environmental groups are really the ones behind those who have told the EPA they have concerns about wood...

The Environmental Protection Agency moved Thursday to beef up air quality regulations for oil refineries, an action officials said would cut toxic emissions by 5,600 tons per year. The agency maintained the updated standards would protect public health with negligible impacts on the cost of petroleum — a contention immediately disputed by the oil and gas industry. Under the proposed changes, companies would for the first time be required to monitor concentrations of benzene, a chemical compound linked to an array of health problems, surrounding the refineries. Results of the monitoring would be made available to the public. The new...

In case you ever wonder why the debate over global warming is important, remember that the left’s pushing of this notion has nothing to do with science and has everything to do with the big government expansion for which they need a rationale. And if you want a look at the real-life effect of this agenda, you can see it right now in the form of the EPA’s proposed carbon dioxide limits on new power plants. Not that liberals will listen, but the American Coal Council is doing what it can to warn of the effects this proposal will have...

The House Oversight Committee under Darrell Issa is slated to hear testimony today on another Obama administration cover-up. ... A unit run by President Barack Obama's political staff inside the Environmental Protection Agency operates illegally as a "rogue law enforcement agency" that has blocked independent investigations by the EPA's inspector general for years, a top investigator told Congress. The assistant EPA inspector general for investigations, Patrick Sullivan, was expected to testify Wednesday before a House oversight committee ... The office of about 10 employees is overseen by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy's office, and the inspector general's office is accusing it...

House Republicans have run out of patience with President Obama's administration, Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said Wednesday. Issa, who has been investigating employee misconduct at the Environmental Protection Agency, demanded that deputy administrator Bob Perciasepe produce documents within one month.

Inspector general's office accuses EPA of blocking internal probes citing national security WASHINGTON (AP) -- A unit run by President Barack Obama's political staff inside the Environmental Protection Agency operates illegally as a "rogue law enforcement agency" that has blocked independent investigations by the EPA's inspector general for years, a top investigator says.

Mark Levin reported on his radio show tonight that an illegal law enforcement unit run by Obama’s henchmen are blocking the Inspector General at the EPA from investigating any wrongdoing at the EPA and they’ve been doing it for years! This is from testimony that will be given tomorrow by the Assistant EPA Inspector General for Investigations: ASSOCIATED PRESS – A unit run by President Obama’s political staff inside the Environmental Protection Agency operates illegally as a “rogue law enforcement agency” that has blocked independent investigations by the EPA’s inspector general for years, a top investigator told Congress. The assistant...

The American coal industry is accusing the Obama administration of using the Environmental Protection Agency to end the use of coal despite the president's claim of having an "all of the above" energy policy. ... the EPA's MATS rules, which go into effect in January 2016, will devastate coal production in America and .. about 60 gigawatts of coal-fired generation coming off-line .. One of Monseu’s issues is the way she said the administration is targeting coal, which currently fuels around 40 percent of the electricity produced in the U.S. "Increasingly we face a situation where policy is dictated not...

A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the Environmental Protection Agency's first emission standards for mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants. In its ruling, the court rejected state and industry challenges to rules designed to clean up chromium, arsenic, acid gases, nickel, cadmium as well as mercury and other dangerous toxins. The EPA’s determination in 2000 that regulating emission standards is appropriate and necessary, and the agency’s reaffirmation of that determination in 2012, “are amply supported by EPA’s findings regarding the health effects of mercury exposure,” said the court. Congress did not specify what...

The federal government threatens a Nevada rancher with the loss of his private property. A Long Island man loses his life to Obamacare while a Virginia woman’s family says, “Obamacare killed my sister." IRS bureaucrat Lois Lerner is held in contempt of Congress, having emerged as the key figure in a scheme to deprive conservatives of their rights. With these stories and endless others spilling into the news cycle, F.H. Buckley’s new book — The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America — could not be better timed. Mr. Buckley’s writings are familiar on these pages...