Free Republic

The Department of Defense (DOD) paid $150 per gallon for alternative jet fuel made from algae, more than 64 times the current market price for standard carbon-based fuels, according to a report released on Wednesday. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted in its report that a Pentagon official reported paying “about $150 per gallon for 1,500 gallons of alternative jet fuel derived from algal oil.” GAO’s report examined the financial challenges facing increased purchases and use of alternative jet fuels by federal agencies. “Currently, the price for alternative jet fuels exceeds that of conventional jet fuel,” the report noted. The...

An adorable baby bald eagle whose parents were executed by solar panels. (AP) The Obama administration has opened up a new front in its war on America’s eagles. For years, the president has relied on wind turbines to orchestrate his eco-genocide. Biologists estimate that wind farms kill as many as 328,000 birds each year by chopping them out of the sky. The administration’s successful weaponization of solar farms will only accelerate the death rate. Studies indicate that the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California has proved to be an especially efficient apparatus for eagle extermination. The facility, which...

Four years have passed since President Obama visited Kansas City's main airport, rolled up his shirt sleeves and admonished the skeptics who said Smith Electric Vehicles was unlikely to make good on its promises to build 510 experimental electric-powered trucks and buses suitable for commercial use. “Come see what’s going on at Smith Electric," the president said, inspecting a table full of bright green truck batteries in what was once a maintenance hangar for TWA. "I think they’re going to be hard-pressed to tell you that you’re not better off than you would be if we hadn’t made the investments...

Sales of plug-in electric cars last month appear to be staying level with last month's, based on early figures from Nissan, Chevrolet, and Toyota. The Nissan Leaf battery-electric hatchback continued the stronger sales trend from March: 2,088 Leafs found new owners. And it widens the Leaf's lead over the Chevy Volt which logged 1,548 deliveries, bringing its total for the first four months of 2014 to 5,154. That's less than last year's 5,550 during the same period. Together, the 2014 sales figures so far may be an indicator that sales of the mainstream plug-in Chevy will remain flat again this...

"......................One wonders whether wealthy liberals even understand that the green diktats they favor [impose] regressive taxes on the poor. Do they care? Environmentalists used to fantasize that their policy mandates would lead to “green jobs” for working men and women, but that bubble popped awfully fast. Just ask the Germans, who are ditching expensive green wind and solar projects as fast as they can to save their flagging economy. The Left’s opposition to domestic energy production in America—and more broadly, a carbon-based industrial economy—offers conservatives and Republicans a once-in-a-generation opportunity to win back the old Reagan Democrat swing voters, perhaps...

They may be good at making movies, but Hollywood celebrities’ lifestyles are far from an environmentalist’s dream. Their globetrotting, multiple mansion owning ways are inconsistent with the environmental agenda they loudly promote. Showtime’s new climate change series, “Years of Living Dangerously,” premiered April 13, 2014, slightly more than a week before Earth Day 2014. It relies on several wealthy, Hollywood celebrities to spread fear about climate change. While these actors and directors talk a lot about reducing carbon footprints and saving the world, they haven’t given up their own enormous mansions and private jets. Director James Cameron, former Governor Arnold...

Voters in Osceola County's Sherman Township have overturned regulations for wind turbines in referendums twice in recent years. That was enough to make Heritage Sustainable Energy give up on plans to locate wind turbines there. Now, Next Era Energy wants to locate wind turbines in the township and local officials are looking for a fresh set of regulations that could allow that to happen. But the same local activist group that so far has been able to help keep the turbines away is poised to fight them off again. "It looks to me like we're probably going to end up...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will deliver the keynote address at a clean energy summit in Las Vegas this September. The National Clean Energy Summit, co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and liberal think tank Center for American Progress, will be held on Sept. 4 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. "I am delighted to welcome Secretary Clinton to Nevada for our seventh National Clean Energy Summit on Sept. 4 in Las Vegas,” Reid said on a call with reporters Friday. Reid touted Clinton's commitment to fighting climate change and boosting the nation's renewable energy resources....

Critics of Democrats calling for additional subsidies for electric vehicles are pointing to the financial troubles of one stimulus-backed car producer that just announced it is closing its U.S. plant. Missouri-based Smith Electric Vehicles said this week that it is suspending operations in the United States due to a “tight cash-flow situation.” Its financial troubles came despite nearly $30 million in funds from the Department of Energy (DOE) granted to the company through President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus package.

Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) did propose an amendment to eliminate all of the energy subsidies within the package, but it only garnered the support of five other Republicans–Senators Burr, Enzi, Hatch, Isakson, and Roberts. Democrats voted down the amendment, along with support from GOP Senators Grassley, Crapo, Cornyn, Thune, and Portman. Ultimately, the underlying bill was adopted unanimously by voice vote. Hence, both Republicans and Democrats profess a desire to clean up the tax code and close “loopholes,” yet they can’t even let a pair of subsidies that have already expired remain at rest. For all the talk about incorrigible...

Saving The Planet: It used to be said that socialism was the opium of the liberal intelligentsia. But now the drug of choice for the elite is environmentalism. The dirty little secret of the modern green movement is that it's become a luxury good for the uber-rich who espouse policies — from carbon taxes to renewable energy standards to closing down coal plants — that impose high costs on poor people who can least afford to pay the green tab.

Last week, the Detroit Free Press concluded that the massive giveaway of state tax dollars to electric vehicle battery makers failed to generate the thousands of jobs that were promised. In particular, a March 16 article noted that, "today, Michigan has only a few hundred battery workers in four plants — despite $861 million in Obama administration stimulus grants and $543 million in Michigan tax credits awarded by former Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s administration in 2009." Readers of Michigan Capitol Confidential are not surprised by this news given that the failures of the electric vehicle battery industry in Michigan have been...

<p>ST. CLOUD, Minn. – A $2.3 million federal stimulus project at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in St. Cloud is giving green energy initiatives a bad name. A 600-kilowatt wind turbine -- some 245 foot tall -- stands on the wintry VA grounds, frozen in time and temperature, essentially inoperable for the past 1 1/2 years.</p>

Right on cue, as it becomes obvious that Europe needs to be less dependent on Russian gas and oil, environmental groups here in the US have begun stepping up presure on President Obama to reject building the infrastructure necessary to help realize that strategic need. A coalition of environmental groups is calling on the administration to reject permits that would build Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) export terminals. Environmental groups called on President Obama Tuesday to reject pending applications to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals, citing the negative impacts from natural gas throughout its life cycle.The pressure from green...

Airplane pilots cruising over southern California have been complaining about a “nearly blinding” glare emanating from a massive government-funded solar thermal facility. The Ivanpah solar energy plant in San Bernardino County is the world’s largest solar thermal plant and has 173,500 large mirrors that reflect sunlight onto boilers in three 459-foot towers. A feat of modern engineering — to green energy advocates, but a flying hazard to pilots. The Federal Aviation Administration’s Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) got two anonymous complaints in August that mentioned a “blinding glare” coming from the Ivanpah solar facility. One complaint came from a Los...

After Orlando invested $8.5 million and years of its workers' labor, an experimental energy reactor at a city sewage treatment plant suffered a massive, violent blowout. The incident, which mangled a steel pressure-relief apparatus and blew the vents out of the city building, has sidelined a plant that had drawn international attention because of its promise to convert sewage sludge into electricity. "There was significant damage to the building," Public Works Director Rick Howard said. "Given timing, somebody could have been hurt." No one was injured because no one was standing nearby at the time. The blow-out happened last summer,...

[SNIP] .........The interests of many are served by this giant scam, let's take a look at them. There are three classes of people that worship at the climate change altar: Tree-hugging believers Money-grubbing shysters Power mad regulators These people are not only in the U.S. -- the United Nations also thinks it sees a bonanza. If nothing else wakes us up, it should be giving this whacky bunch of third-world petty thieves any more access to our money than they already have. I say move the UN headquarters to Somalia and see how they like parking wherever they want and...

Senate Democrats are about to burn the midnight oil to make their case on climate change. The previously rumored all-night session on the effects of climate change will take place Monday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse confirmed. “It’s locked in,” the Rhode Island Democrat told CQ Roll Call. “An all-nighter is an all-nighter. We’re going to go all the way through to eight or nine in the morning or whenever they need to clean it up for the next day.” That would clearly meet the established definition of an all-night session. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Whitehouse are coordinating the campaign. Whitehouse...

Washington, D.C. may have the highest number of certified green buildings in the country, but research by Environmental Policy Alliance suggests it might not be doing much good.The free-market group analyzed the first round of energy usage data released by city officials Friday and found that large, privately-owned buildings that received the green energy certification Leadership in Energy Design (LEED) actually use more energy than buildings that didn’t receive this green stamp of approval.LEED is the brainchild of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a private environmental group.

House Republicans are being accused of “environmental racism” by an environmental group that argues GOP efforts to reform decades-old chemical laws would disproportionately harm minority groups. At issue is draft legislation backed by Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) that would require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to focus on chemicals that pose the greatest risk to the public in enforcing environmental protections. Shimkus argues his bill would free up resources to focus on the most dangerous chemical threats, but the liberal Environmental Justice Health Alliance says it would end up hurting minority groups by moving resources away from policing the threats...