Free Republic

......UW officials say that Walker's proposal to end funding for the bioenergy program would cripple broader energy-development research that is receiving $25million annually from the federal Department of Energy."I can't honestly say how we would replace it at this point,"said Michael Corradini,director of the Wisconsin Energy Institute at UW-Madison,which derives 90% of its funding from the bioenergy program...In 2007,Wisconsin landed the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center—the first federal research center the state had attracted in decades. The center received an initial five-year,$125 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.It was part of a $375 million package by the administration...

Roger Pielke, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado, and six others are under investigation by Congress regarding testimony they've given on the subject of climate change.Pielke, a believer in man-caused global warming, can't quite figure out why he's the object of a witch hunt....................... What am I accused of that prompts being investigated? Here is my crime: Prof. Roger Pielke, Jr., at CU’s Center for Science and Technology Policy Research has testified numerous times before the U.S. Congress on climate change and its economic impacts. His 2013 Senate testimony featured the claim, often repeated, that it...

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber is expected to resign Friday, perhaps in the early afternoon, multiple sources told KOIN 6 News. The decision came after intense debate among the governor and those close to him. These sources say Kitzhaber has wanted to pursue that course since the weekend but had been dissuaded by his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, and his legal team.

"This is probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the economic development model, for the first time in human history. This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for the, at least, 150 years, since the industrial revolution." Those were the words spoken on Feb. 4 by Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), under the auspices...

“А у вас негров линчуют” is a bitter Soviet-era punch line meaning, roughly, “But in your country they lynch Negroes.” There were a million Cold War variations on the joke: The Soviet farm minister meets his U.S. counterpart, who inquires about whether the heroic Soviet farmers are meeting their five-year plans. Asked about each crop in turn, the Soviet minister is forced to sheepishly admit that they are woefully behind on every goal, and then demands: “But what about the blacks in the South?” A U.S. car salesman asks a Soviet counterpart how many months the typical Soviet citizen must...

Governor John Kitzhaber of Oregon is hanging tough in the face of a scandal that makes progressives look bad on multiple grounds. Kudos to the Oregonian newspaper for calling him out and demanding his resignation. So far, the national media are ignoring the story, because it’s the kind of thing that makes greenies’ faces turn red with embarrassment (at least among those capable of embarrassment). Some background: The governor has a “fiancée” named Cylvia Hayes, who is acting as “first lady” without, as they used to say, benefit of clergy. And:.......

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican Gov. Scott Walker's budget would prohibit the state Department of Natural Resources from purchasing any land through its stewardship program until at least 2028 — if the program still exists then. The budget the governor released Tuesday would place a moratorium on stewardship land acquisitions. It would last until the DNR's debt service on purchases that already have been made drops to $1 for every $8 spent since the program's inception in 1989. The program won't reach that ratio until 2028. The moratorium is expected to save the state $13 million in debt by then,...

In Seattle, wasting food will now earn you a scarlet letter — well, a scarlet tag, to be more accurate. The bright red tag, posted on a garbage bin, tells everyone who sees it that you've violated a new city law that makes it illegal to put food into trash cans. "I'm sure neighbors are going to see these on their other neighbors' cans," says Rodney Watkins, a lead driver for Recology CleanScapes, a waste contractor for the city. He's on the front lines of enforcing these rules. Seattle is the first city in the nation to fine homeowners for...

... "'I'm not a scientist' won't be a winner in the presidential field," Republican strategist Ford O'Connell said of the now common response Republican lawmakers and candidates offer when asked about climate change. With the national party largely silent on the issue, conservative environmental groups like ConservAmerica are stepping up efforts to sharpen the Republican message. In recent months they have held meetings for like-minded conservatives and met with lawmakers and aides in a bid to help craft a new Republican environmental platform. Attempts to strike a softer tone will collide with entrenched resistance, primarily from the donor network in...

Near-term global warming projections (brick-red region) on[0.13, 0.50] K decade-1, compared with observations (green region)that fall on [0.0, 0.11] K decade-1, and the simple model's 21stcentury warming projections (yellow arrow), falling on 0.09 [0.06,0.12] K decade-1. Credit: Science China PressA major peer-reviewed climate physics paper in the first issue (January 2015: vol. 60 no. 1) of the prestigious Science Bulletin (formerly Chinese Science Bulletin), the journal of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, exposes elementary but serious errors in the general-circulation models relied on by the UN's climate panel, the IPCC. The errors were the reason for concern about Man's effect...

According to the press releases issued by the administration of then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm five years ago, Michigan's economy was undergoing a transformation. In a June 2010 press release, Granholm declared that the company LG Chem in Holland was making Michigan “a world capital for advanced batteries.” In October of 2010, she said in a press release about a proposed biogas facility in Reed City that the state was being transformed into “the clean energy capital of North America.” Five years later, plans for a biogas facility in Reed City died and LG Chem was made to repay $842,000 from a...

I never give time frames, because you never know where you'll have sufficient evidence to go public with a prosecution, " Mueller said.

Tom Steyer is telling potential supporters that if he were to run for Senate in California, he would set policy goals related to climate change, taxes and public education. If he does not meet certain goals in six years, Steyer would pledge not to run for a second term. The billionaire environmentalist and former hedge fund manager spent $74 billion in the midterm elections in an effort to elect more lawmakers who want to fight climate change. Steyer also wants to ensure that the highest income earners pay effective tax rates that are at least the same level as the...

In October of 2010, the state of Michigan issued a press release similar to many churned out during then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s tenure claiming that this state was on its way to becoming the “clean energy capital of North America.” In this instance, the release noted that the King of Sweden had honored Gov. Granholm with the insignia of "Commander First Class of the Royal Order of the Polar Star." The governor was given the citation “for her work in fostering relations between Michigan and Sweden in clean energy.” Part of that work included helping broker a deal between a Swedish...

There are 328 wind turbines in Huron County, which is more than in all of Michigan’s other counties combined. But now the county appears poised to say: “Enough is enough.” With a 6 to 1 vote on Dec. 30, the Board of Commissioners agreed to pay up to $1,000 for Foster Swift, a Grand Rapids law firm, to draft a moratorium on wind energy. John Nugent, a member of the board, said the board wants to at least push the pause button on new wind energy development so it can reevaluate the situation. “Huron County is large and primarily rural,”...

The house at 27 Crocus Place is listed on property tax statements for $1.06 million, but neighbors consider it priceless. Built in 1902, the yellow, two-story Victorian sits on a bluff, overlooking Pleasant Avenue and Interstate 35E. In November, trial attorney Fred Pritzker and his wife, Renee, bought the 4,200-square-foot home from his brother and sister-in-law with a singular goal: to tear it down and replace it with one that is more accessible to the disabled. At 64, Pritzker said he is slowly losing function on the left side of his body; at some point soon, he'll need a walker...

The fiscal impact of the ethanol mandate is huge — Michaels estimated it totals “billions, easily” in direct and indirect money — but it has come under attack by liberals as well as conservatives and appears to have lost some of its clout on Capitol Hill. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency — which administers the Renewable Fuel Standard — is considering a cut to the amount of ethanol blended into the nation’s gasoline supply. ... a growing number of environmentalists want the ethanol requirement eliminated, too. ... In 2007, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law...

<p>A San Antonio, Texas couple had build a 'tiny house' to commit themselves to 'green living' but the entire home ended up being stolen.</p> <p>Casey Friday says, "It was depressing, devastating, made me angry and shocked all at the same time."</p>

People who own all-electric cars where coal generates the power may think they are helping the environment. But a new study finds their vehicles actually make the air dirtier, worsening global warming. Ethanol isn't so green, either. "It's kind of hard to beat gasoline" for public and environmental health, said study co-author Julian Marshall, an engineering professor at the University of Minnesota. "A lot of the technologies that we think of as being clean ... are not better than gasoline."

"In 1993, the [Volvo Environment] Prize went to Professor Paul R. Ehrlich of Stanford University and Professor John P. Holdren of the University of California in Berkeley, whose work laid the foundations of our understanding of how the dynamics of population growth, rising living standards and changing technology, as well as the relationships between them, interact in the context of environmental problems." List of past winners (and their work) from 1990 - 2014 Professor Paul R. Ehrlich, Professor John P. Holdren