Free Republic

Tom Steyer's climate-focused political group is already gearing up for the 2016 presidential race, announcing on Monday a new effort that will focus on putting Republican candidates on the defense when it comes to global warming. NextGen Climate's chief strategist, Chris Lehane, said in a call with reporters that the group's mission heading into 2016 is to "disqualify" candidates who deny that climate change is real or caused by human activity by proving that "they don't have what it takes to be president." The effort will be called Hot Seat, and NextGen Climate says it will involve media and on-the-ground...

San Francisco activist Tom Steyer’s NextGen Climate Super PAC Monday announced the billionaire Democrat will wage a campaign to put Republicans on the “hot seat” about climate change and spend “what it takes” for an aggressive new high-tech “war room” to track — and attack — GOP candidates in 2016. The program, based at the NextGen headquarters in the Financial District — with satellite offices in Washington, D.C., and other cities — aims to make climate change a “top tier” issue next year. It will focus its firepower on turning environmental concerns into a “wedge issue,” especially with young voters,...

Dr. Nafeez Ahmed, who has taught at University of Sussex’s School of Global Studies and and Brunel University, has written an article in which he claims that “global warming,” among other crises, are “gendered,” and men are at fault. The piece, titled “Patriarchy is killing our planet – women alone can save her,” appeared in “The Ecologist.” Dr. Ahmed specifically pins the world’s problems specifically on men; not specific men, but men as a whole. The way to solve it is by destroying the patriarchy. He explains, “The global epidemic of violence against women and their systematic exclusion from the...

ABC anchor Martha Raddatz pressured Brown on criticisms that the new requirements he placed on California’s agricultural industry, which uses a reported 80% of the state’s water, were soft. To put this into perspective, Raddatz reported that more water is being used for almond production than by the combined businesses and homes of Los Angeles and San Francisco. “They’re not watering their lawn or taking long showers,” Brown said in response. “They’re providing most of the fruits and vegetables of America to a significant part of the world.”

Signing far-reaching executive orders seems to have become contagious in American government, at least among Democrats. Gov. Jerry Brown went on national TV Sunday to explain his newly-announced mandatory water restrictions that will, among other things, require California residents to shower less. And if you've ever visited France, you know what that means. Last week Brown, now in his fourth term as chief executive of the nation's most populous state, said California has not properly prepared for the kind of long-term drought it appears to face now. Brown, who turns 77 Tuesday, did not blame George W. Bush, but instead...

In 2005, I changed my mind about climate change: I concluded that the balance of the scientific evidence showed that man-made global warming could likely pose a significant problem for humanity by the end of this century. My new assessment did not please a number of my friends, some of whom made their disappointment clear.At the 2007 annual gala dinner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a D.C.-based free-market think tank, the master of ceremonies was former National Review editor John O'Sullivan. To entertain the crowd, O'Sullivan put together a counterfeit tale in which I ostensibly had given a lecture on...

After Saturday night’s unprecedented success with Earth Hour, the White House announced today that, by Executive Order, April has been declared “Earth Month”, the next step in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. For the month of April, U.S. residents and businesses are being required to turn off all electrical appliances and lights. A special waiver is being given to electric cars and homes running entirely on solar-powered electricity. Compliance will be monitored by volunteers who report infractions to a special EPA hotline. White House press secretary Josh Earnestly stated, “The President’s science advisor has informed us that the...

Climate change will be catastrophic to national security unless countries address it with measures such as a U.S. carbon tax, says retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who will speak Monday in Portland. Clark, a former Democratic presidential-primary candidate who remains influential in policy circles, believes climate change helped cause the war in Syria and conflict across East Africa.

Joe Bastardi's forecast and rant.

You’ve got to admit, liberal are masters at describing every initiative they launch as “the moral thing to do.” Their campaign for draconian energy regulations and a new global warming treaty is no exception. Protecting people, wildlife and ecosystems from climate catastrophes is the greatest moral cause of our time, alarmist scientists, activists, politicians, bureaucrats, clerics and journalists insist. Rubbish. It has nothing to do with morality. It’s all about money, power and control. It narrowly defines “morality” to ignore the incredible benefits that fossil fuels and electricity bring to people everywhere – while dismissing the enormous harm their policies...

After Friday afternoon's release of 94,000 emails between Cylvia Hayes and former Gov. John Kitzhaber's staffers, reporters poured over the documents dating back to the beginning of his third term in 2011. Now it's your turn. Cast of characters The Governor's office Mike Bonetto, Kitzhaber's chief of staff, had a front-row seat to the blurring between Hayes' public and private roles. No longer working in the governor's office. .........snip........ You can access the same archive as reporters by going to this link on Gov. Kate Brown's state site.

The White House has announced a goal to train 75,000 workers in the solar industry by 2020, many of them veterans. "These are good-paying jobs that are helping folks enter the middle-class," President Barack Obama said on Friday at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The plan will expand on the Department of Energy SunShot Initiative's Solar Instructor Training Network currently running at more than 400 community colleges. The White House also announced the Solar Ready Vets program aimed at helping veterans transition into the solar industry. A joint program between the Department of Defense and the DOE, it's currently...

U.S. employers added 126,000 jobs in March as the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.5 percent, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had expected net job growth of 250,000 last month. February was revised down from 295,000 to 264,000. The drop in March is under the average 269,000 jobs added over the previous 12 months. Job creation jumped in February despite harsh winter weather, and the U.S. has added at least 200,000 jobs per month for 12 consecutive months, a feat not seen in 20 years. However, the sharp gains in job creation in recent months...

People in the U.S. trust Fox News more than President Barack Obama when it comes to climate change, a new poll has found.

As much of New England continues to dig out from late winter’s massive snowstorms, the climate change lobby is doubling down. When Boston was inundated with snow in January and February, they were quick to blame – what else—global warming? That’s still the favored explanation. Beantown got nearly two more inches on March 20, the first day of spring, and has now recorded 110.3 inches, easily shattering the record. In the last 21 years, Boston has had four of its top five heaviest snow seasons, according to weather.com. But before you suggest that this puts the kibosh on global warming...

Climate Change: President Obama's proposal to cut U.S. emissions by 28% over 10 years as America's contribution to a global climate treaty will devastate our economy while doing nothing to reduce temperatures. The "Clean Power Plan" that the Obama administration submitted Tuesday to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change met an end-of-March deadline for contributions to a treaty in the final stages of negotiations. But the proposal, known to climate negotiators as an Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, isn't new. Obama announced the goal of reducing emissions by 28% below 2005 levels by 2025 as part of a joint climate...

A new study out of Germany casts further doubt on the so-called global warming “consensus” by suggesting the atmosphere may be less sensitive to increases in carbon dioxide emissions than most scientists think. A study by scientists at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Meteorology found that man-made aerosols had a much smaller cooling effect on the atmosphere during the 20th Century than was previously thought. Why is this big news? It means increases in carbon dioxide emissions likely cause less warming than most climate models suggest. What do aerosols have to do with anything? Well, aerosols are created from human...

WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday introduced President Obama’s blueprint for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the United States by nearly a third over the next decade. Mr. Obama’s plan, part of a formal written submission to the United Nations ahead of efforts to forge a global climate change accord in Paris in December, detailed the United States’ part of an ambitious joint pledge made by Mr. Obama and President Xi Jinping of China in November. The United States and China are the world’s two largest greenhouse gas polluters. Mr. Obama said the United States would cut its emissions...

WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday morning unveiled President Obama’s blueprint for cutting United States greenhouse gas pollution by nearly a third over the next decade. Mr. Obama’s plan, part of a formal submission to the United Nations ahead of efforts to forge a climate change accord in Paris in December, detailed the United States side of an ambitious joint climate change pledge the president made in November in Beijing with the Chinese president Xi Jinping. In an effort to spur other countries to enact their own domestic climate change plans leading to the Paris accord, the leaders of...

Already pegged by The Hill as one of the most vulnerable U.S. Senators facing re-election in 2016, and the only Democrat on that list now that Sen. Harry Reid has decided to retire, Michael Bennet is still scrambling to consolidate his base. With his polling numbers hovering just above the 50% mark among Democrats and Democrat activists actively protesting his fundraisers, we cannot blame him one bit. Bennet’s latest pander was an amendment he introduced last week that effectively declared climate change to be a national security issue. While this might mollify the environmental extremists who comprise a meaningful spot...