Free Republic

Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Nate highlighted the exposure to life and property all along the Gulf Coast. Of the critical national assets that took a hit, the crux of the U.S. refining industry suffered dramatically. As a result of Harvey alone, twenty refineries in the 300 miles between Corpus Christi and Beaumont were forced to shut down or dramatically reduce rates. The spot price of ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) promptly increased by 10%, while that for gasoline and jet fuel increased by 25%. All three prices remain about 10% higher than before the hurricanes, in part due to regulatory constraints...

... "In this time of stress on our fuel supply system, why wouldn't we remove a barrier that would allow E15 to be sold less than two weeks before the allowable date of Sept. 15," said Paige Anderson, director of government relations at the Association for Convenience and Petroleum Retailing, representing gasoline station owners and convenience store chains that sell fuel. ...

Saying the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “blatantly” ignored his directions, a federal judge in Atlanta dismissed the agency’s claims against a metro Atlanta payment processor and three others for allegedly aiding fraudulent debt collectors... U.S. District Judge Richard Story sanctioned the PBGC by dismissing its complaints.... The judge said the PBGC repeatedly stonewalled the defending lawyer's efforts to find out the facts of the case against their clients. “The CFPB willfully violated the court’s repeated instructions to identify for defendants the factual bases for its claims and that, in each deposition, it willfully failed to present a knowledgeable …....

THINGS WE HAVE NO CONTROL OVER: Nature Consider this update on the cottage-eating sand dune near Lake Michigan that I reported on last month.  The cottage the sand dune swallowed in April, left, the threatened cottage, right.Man may not be able to dictate to mother nature, but government sure can. From the Detroit Free Press: Now, the state of Michigan has ordered the Dresslers to stop their latest effort to save the remaining summer home from destruction: The sand is protected as a "critical dune area," so trucking it away is forbidden. "They're killing us," said David Dressler, 58. "I'm...

The structure of North America's manufacturing networks will be on the line when the first round of negotiations to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement begins here this week. The central showdown is expected to revolve around the amount of regional content products must contain to qualify for duty-free status, the so-called rules of origin. How that contest plays out will have profound implications for the auto industry. Administration officials have pointed to stricter rules of origin as one way to address reducing the $60 billion bilateral trade deficit with Mexico and shifting more production to U.S. factories. In...

Tampa's premium cigar dealers aren't ready to light a stogie in victory yet, but they have more time now to argue against proposed federal regulations that would add to their costs.

President Trump’s assault on red tape has saved businesses nearly $4 billion per year compared with President Barack Obama’s pace of imposing regulations, a new study found Tuesday. Final rule costs during Mr. Trump’s first six months in office will cost U.S. businesses about $378 million per year, compared with $4.2 billion for the same period of Mr. Obama’s presidency, according to the conservative American Action Forum. “The results are substantial,” said Dan Goldbeck, an analyst at AAF who prepared the report. “New regulatory burdens are a fraction of those established under President Obama’s first six months; overall regulatory volume...

A 1,500 page Medicare payment rule and next year's physician fee pay rule both dropped last week...on the same day as the Senate revealed revisions to its plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. And none of it was kind to the healthcare industry. The payment change that seemed to most ruffle industry feathers was a proposal to halve what Medicare pays when patients receive services at facilities that are owned by hospitals but located off campus. The Obama administration last year finalized a rule that paid most hospital off-campus facilities the same as hospital-based outpatient departments. In...

Rio Tinto's proposed Resolution Copper Mine in Arizona would tunnel 7,000 feet underground, where rocks radiate heat from the earth’s molten core. It would suck up enough water to supply a city and leave a crater a mile and a half wide and 1,000 feet deep. Planned for more than a decade, the project would be a prototype for a looming era of more invasive U.S. mines as companies run out of easy-to-reach deposits, geologists say. It is also the project President Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, had in mind as he began crafting a "hit list" of regulations...

January 1, 2010: By this date there would be complete ban on the production and import of R22 and R142b. However, there is exception for the on-going servicing needs of the existing plants and equipment. January 1, 2015: By this date there would be ban on the sale and use of R22. There is exception for certain cases, including the serving needs of the existing refrigeration and air conditioning equipment. January 1, 2020: By this date there would complete ban on the production and import of R22 refrigerant. The gas would not be available even for servicing of the existing...

Not too long ago, Democrats complained about Republican governors and state legislators using their authority to fight Obamacare. Now, those same Democrats are encouraging state and local officials to fight President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris treaty on climate change. Such hypocrisy is, of course, bipartisan. Republicans who lauded state resistance to Obamacare are deeply troubled by state and local resistance to the Trump Administration on immigration and other issues. The blatant hypocrisy is one of many factors contributing to a toxic political dialogue. The only way to reduce both the hypocrisy and the political tension is to do something...

President Donald Trump appears ready to remake the Federal Reserve in an image that will be considerably different than what investors have known for many years. The president is prepared to nominate Randal Quarles and Marvin Goodfriend to two of three vacancies at the central bank, according to multiple press accounts that have not been disputed by the administration. Quarles likely would assume the role vacated by Daniel Tarullo to oversee the nation's banking system. White House officials did not respond to a CNBC request for comment. Should Trump nominate the two men and they receive confirmation, it will represent...

If you're wondering where the Washington, D.C., swamp is being drained as promised, look no further than the Federal Communications Commission and intrepid new Chairman Ajit Pai. For eight long years, the Obama administration circumvented our deliberative democratic process to impose laws via administrative fiat and his infamous "pen and phone." And no agency illustrated that malfeasance more than the FCC, where former Chairman Tom Wheeler in particular rammed through partisan policies and midnight regulations of dubious legality, often suffering the wrath of an unamused judicial branch for its shenanigans. Chief among those Obama FCC misdeeds was its relentless and...

Recently, President Trump signed a landmark executive order (EO) largely curtailing the climate change initiatives of President Obama. According to American Action Forum (AAF) research, this order addresses $14.6 billion in past rulemakings and more than one million paperwork burden hours. Designed to promote domestic energy, “with particular attention to oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy resources,” the order directs federal agencies to “suspend, revise, or rescind” past regulations, mainly from EPA and the Department of Interior. The order also states that these efforts may work in conjunction with EO 13,771, which established a regulatory budget in the United...

How did I manage to miss National Beer Day? Alas it was yesterday, so it’s too late to have a beer for breakfast.Yes, that’s exactly what it looks like: A baby. For awhile it looked like they would have to replace their 12 year old label because the Michigan Liquor Control Commission  suddenly realized that it violated one of their zillion administrative rules that states "an advertisement or label affixed to a container, covering, carton, or case of containers of alcoholic liquor shall not depict or make reference in any manner to minors."The Commission apparently relented after Founders apologized for...

- No one snatches defeat from the jaws of victory like congressional Republicans.: As he prepares to adjourn the House of Representatives for its completely unearned two week vacation, Speaker Paul Ryan announced that his GOP majority – which somehow managed to vote to repeal Obamacare dozens of times while it knew Barack Obama would veto any such bill – just cannot find a way to agree on a bill to modify the healthcare atrocity now that there is a Republican sitting in the White House anxiously awaiting to sign a bill – any bill – that comes his way....

Essentially, Too Big to Fail has been solved — taxpayers will not pay if a bank fails. The American public has the right to demand that if a major bank fails, they, as taxpayers, would not have to pay for it, and the failure wouldn’t unduly harm the U.S. economy. In my view, these demands have now both been met. On the first count, if a bank fails, taxpayers do not pay. Shareholders and debtholders, now due to total loss absorbing capacity (TLAC) rules, are at risk for all losses. To add belts and suspenders, if all that capital is...

President Trump’s appointment of former GOP congressman John Fleming, M.D., to newly created health technology post could portend ONC downsizing and MACRA changes. The new HHS healthcare technology top official's plans are still unknown, but signs point to possible changes to ONC that could weaken the agency's regulatory authority. The new HHS healthcare technology chief -- a longtime associate of HHS secretary, fellow physician and former GOP congressman Tom Price -- nonetheless also mentioned that ONC "may be reorganizing." Few in the capitol, other than his fans, want to comment publicly about what Fleming's ascension to the top HHS healthcare...

President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday proposed a 31 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency's budget, as the White House seeks to eliminate climate change programs and trim initiatives to protect air and water quality. The White House's proposed 2018 EPA budget, with the biggest proposed cut for any federal agency, comes as Trump seeks to clear away regulations he claims are hobbling U.S. oil drillers, coal miners and farmers. The proposed cuts are a starting point in negotiations with Congress, and could be tempered. The proposal would eliminate 3,200 EPA employees, or 19 percent of the current workforce....

March 2, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) -- Population controllers told the Vatican at a conference this week that the Catholic teaching of “responsible parenthood” in determining family size has “result[ed] in collective failure” in reducing the world’s population. They suggested that the only way to stop the exhaustion of “humanity’s natural capital” is by imposing a system of “taxes and regulations” that would help modify “social norms of behaviour.” This week’s Vatican symposium on Biological Extinction, sponsored by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences was a closed-door event. Speaking at the event were two controversial figures,...