Free Republic

Congress should use the appropriations process to reassert its authority over the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a Heritage Foundation issue brief released Tuesday.The report, written by scholar Daren Bakst, identifies three issues on which the EPA has proposed rules and regulations that exceed its authority. In all three cases, Bakst recommends that Congress prohibit the agency from using its funding to implement the proposals. (RELATED: EPA Overrides Congress, Hands Over Town to Indian Tribes)According to the report, “the EPA is using the regulatory process to require greenhouse gas emission reductions even as Congress has been unwilling to take such...

Have you ever given a friend, co-worker or babysitter a ride in your car? You could be a criminal. Car service apps such as Uber and Lyft allow a user to request a car, pay the driver and provide feedback about the ride — all using one’s smartphone. Drivers for these car services commonly use their own vehicles and users can specify their preferred vehicle type. Ride-sharing apps have exploded in popularity in recent years. Uber, for example, now operates in 70 cities since its 2009 launch. Whether it’s the novelty of hailing a ride via smartphone, or the responsive...

The agency's needless new ozone standard could cost Americans $270 billion annually. In a town famous for inaction, Washington is gearing up to take action on a major policy issue. But there's a hitch: The outcome could be the most expensive regulation in the nation's history, possibly tanking the economy and costing jobs at a time when businesses, manufacturers and families are making a comeback. Later this year, the Environmental Protection Agency will decide whether it should tighten the air-quality standard for ground-level ozone. There are several things about this possible new standard that are alarming. No single regulation has...

Conspiracies to stifle competition never work very well or for long in the absence of government power. Besides, such conspiracies are illegal under the federal antitrust laws. Therefore, special interest groups desiring to minimize or eliminate competition usually look for ways of using government regulation for their purposes. It is not only far more effective, but also largely immune for antitrust attack. A case the Supreme Court will hear in October, North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC perfectly illustrates the way this nasty little game is played. Among the many cosmetic services Americans enjoy is teeth whitening....

AmericaÂ’s corporate officers and CEOs are deeply concerned about a variety of new financial and industrial regulations imposed on them by the administration. In a recent interview with The Economist, President Barack Obama addressed the concerns of American corporate officers and others in a compelling and comprehensive fashion when he told them, essentially, to shut up. From new regulatory regimes imposed by legislation, like the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank financial reforms, to executive actions like those which recently allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon emissions, many are sounding the alarm. The president, however, does not...

But the sales won't be so sweet starting this fall. Campus bake sales—a mainstay of school fundraisers—are going on a diet. A federal law that aims to curb childhood obesity means that, in dozens of states, bake sales must adhere to nutrition requirements that could replace cupcakes and brownies with fruit cups and granola bars. The restrictions that took effect in July stem from the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act championed by first lady Michelle Obama and her "Let's Move!" campaign. The law overhauled nutrition standards affecting more than 30 million children. The law also required the U.S. Department of...

The 1972 Clean Water Act requires anyone putting anything into a navigable or interstate watercourse or wetland to get a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. Tributaries to such watercourses are covered, but the word “tributary” was not defined. Now, for the first time, in pending regulations, the EPA proposes to do so. A ditch can be a tributary. They are mentioned explicitly in the rule. They are excluded only if they “do not contribute flow, either directly or through another water, to” a watercourse already reached by the EPA’s jurisdiction. They don’t have...

Beaver dams have so far prevented about 1 million gallons of fracking wastewater discovered spilled July 8 from a rural North Dakota pipeline from spreading too far. But area residents, environmentalists and even a Republican state legislator all want more reliable measures. The spill of the toxic saltwater, a byproduct of hydraulic fracturing, came from gas extraction operations at the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and occurred days before it was discovered. The federal Environmental Protection Agency said the underground pipeline spilled about 24,000 barrels, or 1 million gallon, in North Dakota’s thriving oil and gas region. The water, which can...

As Americans scrambled ahead of the July Fourth holiday weekend on Thursday afternoon, the Department of Health and Human Services released 1,296 pages of new regulations dealing with payment rates to doctors and hospitals. The timing of the news release is part of a long pattern for President Obama's administration, which has often used holidays as an opportunity to dump dense regulatory changes when most reporters and Americans are focused on their holiday plans. The release came at 4:15 p.m. Last year, the Obama administration used the days surrounding the July 4th holiday as an opening to announce a delay...

The Department of Health and Human Services released nearly 1,300 pages of new regulations related to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) at 4:15 Thursday, just as the nation was beginning their Independence Day holiday weekend. The regulations deal with payment rates to doctors and hospitals. How doctors get paid by HHS through the new, overreaching Obamacare guidelines has been an item of concern for the American Medical Association, a key supporter of the health care law. As Philip Klein at the Washington Examiner points out, the practice of dumping potentially controversial regulations on the eve of a major holiday has...

Since President Barack Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued 2,827 new final regulations, equaling 24,915 pages in the Federal Register, totaling approximately 24,915,000 words. The Gutenberg Bible is only 1,282 pages and 646,128 words. Thus, the new EPA regulations issued by the Obama Administration contain 19 times as many pages as the Bible and 38 times as many words. The Obama EPA regulations have 22 times as many words as the entire Harry Potter series, which includes seven books with 1,084,170 words. They have 5,484 times as many words as the U.S....

Jun. 19, 2014 - 5:57 - Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray on the impact of regulations on the energy industry.

If the government wants to make progress in lowering obesity rates, it needs to start regulating fatty foods much the way it does tobacco. That's the recommendation from a pair of international health organizations pushing policies it says would answer the obesity epidemic. Specifically, the groups recommend that the government control the way the food and beverage industry advertises, to ensure companies aren't implying unhealthy food is good for children and adults. Additionally, they advise governments to require statements on food packaging about how high or low the content of salt, saturated fat, and sugar is in relation to dietary...

Legislation aimed at preventing enforcement of potential federal limits on woodstove emissions has been introduced in the Michigan legislature. Senate Bill 910, which was introduced on April 24 by Sen. Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba, would prohibit the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality from imposing new state regulations limiting emissions from woodstoves and heaters, or enforcing federal regulations that do so. In January, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed rule changes that would dramatically tighten emissions requirements on new wood-powered heaters. Sen. Casperson "We believe environmental groups are really the ones behind those who have told the EPA they have concerns about wood...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed changes to oil refinery rules that would compel operators to monitor benzene emissions, upgrade storage tank emission controls, ensure waste gases are properly destroyed and adopt new emission standards for delayed coking units. The move is part of a consent decree that resolved a lawsuit filed by nonprofit environmental attorneys with Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project.

The Wall Street Journal has a good "Weekend Interview" piece with Bob Woodson, head of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise. The group works in low-income areas to foster entrepreneurship, value creation and faith-based enterprises. The whole interview is interesting, but one part in particular relating to government mandates for occupational licensing stuck out: Mr. Woodson says that many poor communities don't need another government program so much as relief from current policies. 'For instance, a lot of people coming out of prison have a hard time obtaining occupational licenses,' he says. Aspiring barbers, cabdrivers, tree trimmers, locksmiths and the like,...

You wouldn't think that the old saw, "Good help is hard to find," had anything left to it, what with last week's unemployment report out of the U.S. Department of Labor showing unemployment in America is still 6.3%. The fact that hourly wages in America grew a measly 1.9% over the past 12 months tends to suggest there's little slack in the jobs market, too. (After all, if it was hard to find good help, wouldn't it stand to reason that employers would be paying through the nose to attract workers?) In one industry, they may have to: trucking. Help...

Yes, someone is actually tracking the hidden weight of all those pesky federal regulations. Here’s the startling news: it cost Americans $1.9 trillion last year to comply with myriad rules and protocols that are issued at the rate of 3,500 a year - this according to one Clyde Wayne Crews, vice president for policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The regs are, in essence, like a hidden tax, he says.

For reasons passing understanding, the FDA announced recently that it was moving forward with invoking its authority to regulate cigars, along with other forms of tobacco. It’s a part of the Tobacco Control Act, signed into law in 2009, which gave the agency the option of casting its net down on cigars at the time of its choosing. In other words – it was only a matter of time before bureaucrats decided to be bureaucrats. It’s not set into stone, yet. Between now and July 9 the FDA will accept comments on its proposals, at which point it will the...

Washington (CNN) -- Flooded rail lines. Bigger, more frequent droughts. A rash of wildfires. Those are some of the alarming predictions in a White House climate change report released Tuesday, part of President Barack Obama's broader second-term effort to help the nation prepare for the effects of higher temperatures, rising sea levels and more erratic weather. "Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present," the National Climate Assessment says, adding that the evidence of man-made climate change "continues to strengthen" and that "impacts are increasing across the country." "Americans are noticing changes...