Free Republic

SoloPower plans to halt operations at its Portland solar panel plant on June 17, company officials alerted the state today. The California-based startup plans to layoff 29 workers, including 10 engineers, as part of the move. It received millions in incentives to build the Portland panel plant, but its launch fell months behind its promised benchmarks. Julian Biggs, the company's chief legal officer, said the decision came as a result of "a significant downturn in business and the need for a major reorganization." The company sent the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act Wednesday to the state. It's unclear when...

As the White House moves ever so slowly toward a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, some environmental groups used Monday — Earth Day — to remind the president that approval of the massive project would carry real consequences. “You’ll see … the biggest spread of peaceful civil disobedience in modern American history,” said Becky Bond, political director of the liberal activist group Credo. The organization has been among the loudest opponents of the proposed pipeline, which would carry oil sands from Alberta, Canada, south through the U.S. heartland to refineries on the Gulf Coast. Credo helped organize a San...

The Economist and other journalism icons are beginning to reassess their position on global warmingThe overwhelming consensus on global warming among journalists may be cracking. Last week, the world’s most prestigious newsmagazine – The Economist – backed away from its past alarmist position, saying that “If climate scientists were credit-rating agencies, climate sensitivity would be on negative watch.” The Economist now discounts the high-end estimates of warming coming from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as being unlikely if not far-fetched. Carbon taxes offer economic pain for little to no environmental gain Kenneth P. Green: Whether or not one...

Genetic engineering in agriculture has disappointed many people who once had hopes for it. Excluding, of course, those who’ve made money from it, appropriately represented in the public’s mind by Monsanto. That corporation, or at least its friends, recently managed to have an outrageous rider slipped into the 587-page funding bill Congress sent to President Obama.[1] The rider essentially prohibits the Department of Agriculture from stopping production of any genetically engineered crop once it’s in the ground, even if there is evidence that it is harmful.

Tax could provide cover for approval of oil sands pipelineHello Canada! Are you ready — ready for a new national tax on carbon that will ding pocketbooks across the country? My bet is that a new carbon tax is coming, made almost inevitable by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s full-bore push to secure Washington’s approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.For early clues on the carbon tax/Keystone trade-off, tune in Tuesday night to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. As the president speaks, he will be alert to the chorus of Hollywood stars, environmental activists, editorial writers and industry leaders...

BOSTON — San Francisco billionaire Tom Steyer is giving Democrats a taste of the divisive, big-spending primary battles that have caused Republicans so much heartburn over the past four years.And he says it’s for their own good.The former hedge fund trader-turned-philanthropist is bankrolling a far-flung political operation pushing environmental causes and candidates, including his pricey effort to torpedo the Keystone XL oil pipeline. He's increasingly drawing scrutiny for trying to take down the Senate candidacy of Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Democrat who has expressed support for Keystone.Steyer is signaling that his efforts against Lynch are just the beginning of...

April 3, 2013 Feds look closer at cash source in McAuliffe car scam By Kenric Ward | Watchdog.org GONE AND DOWNSIZED: Though it’s still listed as their corporate address, GreenTech Automotive and Gulf Coast Funds Management moved out of their spacious headquarters office next to the Ritz Carlton in McLean. (Photo: Pamela Mullin) MCLEAN, Va. — A federal program that awards U.S. citizenship to foreigners in exchange for business investments is under increasing scrutiny as the assets of a Chicago company were frozen by the Securities and Exchange Commission.A Watchdog investigation found that Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe and...

A California billionaire is pledging to spend as much of his fortune as necessary to make climate change “the defining issue of our generation.” Tom Steyer, who made his riches as a hedge fund manager, told The Hill on Tuesday that he wants to make climate change a campaign issue for years to come and Democratic support for environmental protections as widespread as support for gay marriage and immigration reform. “The goal here is not to win. The goal here is to destroy these people. We want a smashing victory,” Steyer said of candidates he judges to be on the...

Genetically modified crops are not just those that have been selectively bred, but they have had their DNA modified in some way as to make them more pest resistant and produce better yields. In many cases genes from other plants or even bacteria have been added to the DNA of a specific plant.This process has caused great concern among some that question whether the plants with modified genes are safe for human consumption or if there may be any long-term effects from the continual eating of these plants. There have been numerous challenges to the use of genetically modified crops...

Environmental activists make money telling us all how terrible things are; climate scientists appreciate the help promoting their data, we do have a bit of a train wreck coming at us emissions-wise, but climate scientists also know there is a risk of backlash if there are too many hyperbolic claims, and that 'green fatigue' will set in if every change in temperature and every storm is attributed to global warming. That's why even the IPCC, no wallflower when it comes to using media talking points, wishes media would not attribute local weather to climate change(PDF). And then there is the...

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Wednesday that the United States’ coal industry’s days are numbered. “Even though the coal industry doesn’t totally know it yet or is ready to admit it, its day is done. … Here in the U.S., I’m happy to say, the king is dead. Coal is a dead man walking,” Bloomberg said at the Advanced Research Projects Agency — Energy (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation Summit near Washington, D.C. Bloomberg has been a vocal advocate for killing coal-fired power. He said health problems from pollution and climate change-exacerbated events like Hurricane Sandy have fomented growing recognition...

( http://wakeup2thelies.com ) On Tuesday the 1st of November in the Senate debate on the 'Clean Energy Bills', Senator Cory Bernardi gave a speech opposing the bills. This speech is a fantastic exposé on who 'The Greens' are what they stand for. In his speech he says 'The Greens' are a Marxist, extremist, Anti-Israel, alarmist, group of hypocrites who want a one-world government.

More than 20,000 protestors from around 160 organizations will swarm the National Mall Sunday in hopes of intensifying the pressure on President Obama over climate policy. The president has not yet detailed the specifics of how he will address the issue, aside from a pledge made in the State of the Union address to take executive action on climate if Congress fails to make progress. Demonstrators are likely to offer plenty of loud suggestions in what green groups are branding the largest ever United States climate rally. “We’re really past the point of playing games with any of this stuff,”...

It becomes a difficult task for those in power to resist the lure of acquiring even more power. The more they have, the more they want. No such example exists greater than that of New York City mayor-king Michael Bloomberg. This is the man who brought into existence the absurd and absurdly named National Salt Reduction Initiative, an incentive-based program designed to reduce the amount of salt in restaurant and prepackaged food. This is the man who, last year, banned the sale of sugary drinks, like sodas, in more than 16-oz containers. Why? Because what’s good for Bloomberg is what’s...

A large global warming protest with a very Canadian connection is scheduled for Sunday February 17th at the White House. The protest, organized by the Sierra Club and 350.org, is being dubbed as the biggest climate rally in U.S. history and is meant to encourage President Obama to veto the construction of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would carry oil from northern Alberta down to the Gulf of Mexico. In a telephone interview with Yahoo! Canada News, 350.org's Daniel Kessler said that he is expecting tens of thousands of people including "several groups" from Canada. Obama is expected to...

We all saw it coming and now it’s happening — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is going to announce an official ban on styrofoam containers in his State of the City address today. Just to clarify once again, uppercase Styrofam is a trademarked product used in insulation, while what we all know as styrofoam is really extruded polystyrene. Moving on! The ban on styrofoam is part of a larger program the mayor has planned for his last year in office, which will also include more recycling, a curbside food-composting pilot program and more electric vehicles cruising the city streets. His...

WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who won a Nobel Prize in physics but came under questioning for his handling of a solar energy loan, is stepping down. Chu offered his resignation to President Barack Obama in a letter Friday. He said he will stay on at least until the end of February and may stay until a successor is confirmed. Chu’s departure had been widely expected and follows announcements by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson and Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that they are leaving.

Today must be International Backpedaling Day. Obama says: “Never mind a million EVs by 2015.” Under a new strategy announced today, the Department of Energy promised to support research into new battery technologies and manufacturing methods that would lower the cost of lightweight materials and improve vehicles’ fuel-efficiency, Reuters reports. But the DOE backpedals furiously from a goal set out in a 2011 State of the Union speech, where President Barack Obama announced what he called “Apollo projects of our times.” One of them was the goal for the United States to be “the first country to have a million...

Be sure to wash those foods or cook them thoroughly... About 1 in 5 illnesses were linked to leafy green vegetables — more than any other type of food. And nearly half of all food poisonings were attributed to produce in general, when illnesses from other fruits and vegetables were added in... Many of the vegetable-related illnesses come from norovirus, which is often spread by cooks and food handlers. So contamination sometimes has more to do with the kitchen or restaurant it came from then the food itself...

Industrial policy: After lithium-ion batteries caught fire on Boeing's new Dreamliner, stories popped up about how dangerous they are. Turns out they're the same kind of batteries President Obama is forcing into U.S. cars. This month, a Boeing 787 battery caught fire while the plane was sitting at Logan Airport in Boston. Another 787 was forced to land while flying over Japan, forcing Boeing to ground its fleet of state-of-the-art 787s. In the wake of these events, the press suddenly took notice of the risks posed by lithium-ion batteries. USA Today complained that the FAA should have been more cautious...