Free Republic

For a number of years, I’ve been observing demands of activists and promises of politicians that we transition our electrical grid to being supplied mainly by the intermittent renewables, wind and solar, with all large dispatchable sources (fossil fuel and nuclear) banished. Early on, I thought it was obvious that such a transition would inevitably mean that the only way to make the grid function full-time would be energy storage — on a vast scale never before contemplated or attempted. How much storage, and at what potential cost? This is actually an arithmetic problem, somewhat cumbersome but conceptually very elementary,...

Oct. 24 (UPI) -- A truck hit a concrete pillar on a Texas highway Tuesday, causing hundreds of watermelons to spill into the roadway. VIDEO AT LINK.................. The 18-wheeler crashed into the pillar about 3:51 a.m. Tuesday in the northbound lanes of Interstate 69, near University Boulevard, in Sugar Land. The crash caused the truck's trailer to break open and flood the roadway with smashed watermelons. No injuries were reported. Multiple lanes were closed for about six hours while crews worked to clean up the melons and spilled fuel.

16 Million Trees Cut Down to Make Way for Wind Farms, Scottish National Party RevealsNearly 16 million carbon-catching trees have been cut down in Scotland since 2000 – in order to erect carbon-saving wind turbines – the Scottish National Party (SNP) admitted last week. An estimated 15.7 million trees – or about 1,700 per day – have been cut down on public land managed by Forestry and Land Scotland, Scottish Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon revealed in a letter to Scottish Tory MSP (Member of Scottish Parliament) Liam Kerr, who called the news “astonishing.” Sacrificing trees to build wind farms...

Washington (AFP) – US authorities announced the arrests Monday of the co-founder of the notorious Atomwaffen neo-Nazi group and a woman he met online in the latest extremist plot to attack public electricity facilities.The FBI said Brandon Russell, who helped found Atomwaffen in 2015, was arrested in Florida, after spending four years in prison for possessing bomb-making materials.The woman, Sarah Beth Clendaniel, was arrested in Maryland where she had also spent time in prison for armed robbery.Guided by Russell, Clendaniel had planned to acquire a gun and to attack five electrical substations around Baltimore, Maryland, the FBI said.SNIPIn February 2022,...

Environmentalist groups in Germany and the Netherlands are challenging plans for a new gas field in the North Sea, a German non-profit organisation said on Friday, possibly complicating Europe's hunt for alternatives to Russian fuel. Environmental Action Germany (DUH) said it had filed the lawsuit with the Court of Justice in The Hague together with Dutch organisation Mobilisation for the Environment (MOB) and a citizens' initiative from the coastal region of East Frisia. Privately-owned Dutch company ONE-Dyas has been given the go-ahead by Dutch authorities to develop its N05-A gas field in the North Sea, straddling German and Dutch waters,...

A National Refining Company could lower gas prices without giving up on climate targets.

The Department of Education revealed in a recent report that it will consider grant applications, in part, based on how "equity" is incorporated into grant proposals. The "2022 Agency Equity Plan related to Executive Order 13985," published Thursday, is part of one of President Joe Biden's first executive orders, the "Executive Order On Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government." The "executive summary" of Thursday's 19-page report reads, "As we enter a new era of possibility for our nation, education must be at the forefront of our recovery, rebuilding and resiliency efforts. To meet this...

Attacks on cattle and dogs by wolves that migrated into northwest Colorado from Wyoming have stoked a rancher-wolf controversy sooner than expected. Don Gittleson woke up Wednesday morning to a sight that’s starting to feel common on his North Park ranch: a cow torn up by wolves, the third attack on his livestock since a few days before Christmas. If this were Montana, Wyoming or Idaho, Gittleson could pull out a gun and shoot the predator dead. But this is Colorado. Wolves in Colorado are protected under state law. Killing them – no matter how many cows or sheep or...

Observed annually on August 3.Popular during the summer, especially at cookouts and picnics, watermelon is celebrated today with National Watermelon Day. There are over 1,200 varieties of watermelon. In the Western Hemisphere, it is grown in the United States, Mexico, Central America—particularly in Guatemala and Costa Rica—and South America. More than 30 states in the United States grow watermelon, the leading ones being Florida, Texas, California, Georgia, and Indiana. Watermelon is available year-round in the United States because of supply from south of the border. Watermelon is usually considered to be a fruit and eaten as one, but it can...

President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced this week it is poised to reverse former President Donald Trump’s Navigable Waters Protection Act that helped farmers and ranchers avoid penalties based on arbitrary definitions of navigable waters that could apply to rainwater puddles, seasonal ponds, and other natural water formations. DTN covered the reaction to the EPA’s move: The Biden EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a news release Wednesday the Trump rule has led to a degradation in protection of waters. The agencies asked a federal court to remand the Trump rule, to allow for...

This afternoon, the prominent newspaper published an article making a surprising claim about exobiology: that watermelons had been discovered on Mars. The article disappeared after about an hour, replaced by a message saying it had been “published in error.” Needless to say, there is no currently-available evidence of watermelons, or any other life, on the Red Planet. However, several NASA missions and a rover sent by China are all investigating the possibility of ancient life on our planetary neighbor, and scientists say it is possible that microbial life still lives there, likely deep under the surface. If there’s any evidence...

Customs and Border Protection officers at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry seized more than 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine — worth an estimated $2.5 million — in a shipment of watermelons last week, authorities said. Officers arrested the driver, a 47-year-old Mexican national, on allegations of attempted drug smuggling. It was the second major seizure of methamphetamine at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry announced in the past week. On Tuesday, authorities said they recently found more than 2,400 pounds of meth worth $5.5 million in a medical supply shipment.

<p>BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Biden administration announced Tuesday it will consider a ban on new mining on large expanses of public lands in Western states to protect a struggling bird species, the greater sage grouse.</p><p>The Interior Department review comes in response to a federal court order and is expected to cover millions of acres of sage brush habitat considered crucial to the bird's long-term survival.</p>

BRADDOCK, Pennsylvania -- Exactly two years ago, U.S. Steel Corporation announced that the company would turn its Mon Valley Works operations into a key source of lightweight steel for the automotive industry. At the time, local leaders and company officials called the investment "transformational." It involved a whopping $1.5 billion upgrade to the three Mon Valley Works plants, all in Pennsylvania -- the Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, the Irvin Plant in West Mifflin and the Clairton Coke Works in Clairton -- with technology and improvements that would have resulted in cleaner air for all three communities as well as...

Answer: Of course they will, with mining being among the many other issues in pushing to eliminate internal-combustion engines in favor of an all-electric fleet. No one who has studied the composition of the energy-storage systems in electric cars could possibly miss the environmental dangers of such a transformation. The most interesting point of this brief review of one potential environmental catastrophe is the media outlet raising the issue. Even if it got buried over the weekend, the fact that the New York Times raises the mining issues is significant: The United States needs to quickly find new supplies of...

The New York Times recently argued that abandoning the bathtub and ditching social hygiene can save the planet. Unfortunately, that’s no joke. The deranged Times story was headlined “See Fewer People. Take Fewer Showers.” Times “breaking news” reporter Maria Cramer propagandized how a preschool administrative assistant named Robin Harper allegedly has only “shower[ed] once a week” since the pandemic. In Cramer’s estimation, “The new practice felt environmentally virtuous, practical and freeing. And it has stuck.” Cramer cheered how “[t]here are now indications that [showering less] has caused some Americans to become more spartan when it comes to ablutions.” Cramer’s story...

There once was a time when leftists at least pretended to care about the environment. Remember the brouhaha over how plastic straws were going to destroy the planet and we had to replace them with those crappy paper straws that literally melt in your mouth? You know, for the sea turtles, or something? Well, all that was sooo pre-COVID. Get with the program, covidiot! Now, it's hip, trendy, and oh-so-woke to mass-produce non-biodegradable plastic "disposable' face masks" that litter the landscape (and the seascape) because pencil-necked leftists in power have decided that trying to stop the spread of a highly...

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday that it will move to grant California permission to set stricter climate requirements for cars and SUVs, a reversal of a key Trump administration policy. The step, coming days after the Transportation Department withdrew Trump-era restrictions of state tailpipe emission rules, could help pave the way for a broader climate deal with the nation’s automakers. The EPA will hold a virtual public hearing on its proposal on June 2, and will take comment on the plan until July 6. Alliance For Automotive Innovation CEO John Bozzella, whose members produce nearly all of the cars...

Jakjai Chamaimas Watermelon Farm in Si Sa Ket’s Muang district held an auction event on Friday to sell its signature heart-shaped watermelons, aiming to raise funds for the Si Sa Ket provinicial hospital. The event was held in cooperation with Tourism Authority of Thailand, Si Sa Ket Tourism Industry Council and Christina Sanitaryware Ltd, owner of the farm which grows heart-shaped organic watermelons in a greenhouse over a 1 rai (0.16 hectare) area. The bidding price for the heart-shaped watermelons started at Bt50,000 each. Si Sa Ket MP Wiwatchai Hotrawaisaya offered the highest price at Bt100,900. “I am giving this...

Police officers found the mysterious watermelon seller with his luxury Lamborghini in Istanbul, said to be an Iranian influencer who broadcasted the sale on his social media channels to his followers and fined him with 1,228 Turkish Liras ($165). The man following an internet phenomenon was fined for “using a vehicle with a reason other than mentioned in the license” and was also disqualified from driving for 15 days. The Iranian man, on Sept. 2, had stopped his Lamborghini in one of the busiest roads of the Beyoğlu district and started selling watermelons for five liras (60 cents). After the...