Free Republic

The American coal industry is accusing the Obama administration of using the Environmental Protection Agency to end the use of coal despite the president's claim of having an "all of the above" energy policy. ... the EPA's MATS rules, which go into effect in January 2016, will devastate coal production in America and .. about 60 gigawatts of coal-fired generation coming off-line .. One of Monseu’s issues is the way she said the administration is targeting coal, which currently fuels around 40 percent of the electricity produced in the U.S. "Increasingly we face a situation where policy is dictated not...

Updated 6:37 p.m. | Sen. Ted Cruz gathered a group of House conservatives in his office Tuesday night, talking about immigration and House GOP leadership elections slated for after the midterm elections. As CQ Roll Call first reported last October, Cruz held a secret meeting with members at Tortilla Coast during the height of the government shutdown drama. Many of these same Republicans are the agitators who aren’t happy with Speaker John A. Boehner. The Texas Republican gathered roughly 10 members of the GOP Conference at 8 p.m. Tuesday for a 90-minute session that included candy bars, crackers and soda....

Frustrated with President Barack Obama’s reaction to Russian action in Ukraine, a group of Republican senators said Wednesday they will introduce legislation outlining a more muscular response. “What we’ve seen from the administration is a lot of rhetoric,” Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said on the Senate floor Wednesday morning. The White House has been dealing “with the situation after something bad has already occurred,” he said. Earlier this week, violence flared up in another area of Ukraine that hugs the Russian border, as the new government in Kiev criticized local police...

A new report analyzing the financial ramifications of a takeover of some of Nevada’s millions of acres of federal lands suggests the state would benefit from such a transfer. A transfer of 4 million acres of U.S. Bureau Land Management land could bring in anywhere from $31 million to $114 million a year, based on a review of four Western states that have significant amounts of trust lands under their control, the report says.

Some of the opinions on the Internet about refugee resettlement in Wyoming are inaccurate and racist, Gov. Matt Mead said. Wyoming is the only state without a formal refugee resettlement program, but there are likely refugees living in the Cowboy State, Mead said in an interview Wednesday with the Star-Tribune. At this point, Mead is working with volunteers to gain more information about establishing a refugee program in the state. Wyomingites will get to comment on a program as it’s developed, he said.

JACKSON, Wyo. -- What's happening in this Wyoming resort town might be better described as a land creep than a landslide, but the lack of speed has not hindered the sheer power of the moving earth. Over the past two weeks, a piece of East Gros Ventre Butte has slowly collapsed toward the west side of Jackson — shearing one hillside home in half, threatening to devour several others and looming ever more ominously over a cluster of businesses below. :snip: By Saturday morning, the shifting earth had caused bulges in a road and a parking lot at the foot...

The Bureau of Land Management is clearly having an image problem. As the outrage over its intimidating show of force during last week’s showdown at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada proved, the federal agency is now caught up in a controversy originating in Wyoming. According to recent reports, agents herded a large group of wild horses in the state before ceding control of the majestic animals to state authorities. At that point, Wyoming officials sold them off to a slaughterhouse in Canada. Obviously, this development outraged countless advocates already incensed by accusations that BLM officers gunned down multiple cows at...

The Wisconsin congressional district represented by Rep. Tom Petri (R) stands to lose nearly 2,000 jobs because of the Obama Administration’s “War on Coal,” but Petri has twice voted to let some of those more controversial – and burdensome – regulations stand. A nationwide analysis by the Heritage Foundation concludes that Wisconsin will lose an estimated 11,702 jobs thanks to Obama environmental regulations. The sixth district alone will lose more jobs than any other congressional district in the country the study concludes. ... Petri was the only Republican from Wisconsin to vote against suspending the rule. Voting with Petri was...

The resulting launch-ready total of 400 Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missiles would be the lowest deployed ICBM total since the early 1960s. The decisions come after a strong push by members of Congress from the states that host missile bases - North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana - to not eliminate any of the silos from which the missiles would be launched. Fifty silos will be kept in “warm” status - empty of missiles but capable of returning to active use. Sen. John Tester, a Montana Democrat, called the Pentagon’s announcement “a big win for our nation’s security and for Malmstrom...

Former Sen. Alan Simpson, a Republican, is making the case for a “live and let live” approach to same-sex marriage in a new television ad buy targeting Western states, just as a federal appeals court in Denver prepares to take up the issue later this week. “Whether you’re gay or lesbian or straight, if you love someone and you want to marry them, marry them,” Simpson, of Wyoming, says in the spot. The six-figure buy, sponsored by the pro-gay marriage group Freedom to Marry, is slated to start airing on Tuesday on national cable channels, as well as locally in...

April 6th, 2014 11:10 AM ET 39 minutes ago Pelosi: Cheney is ‘proud’ of Bush-era CIA that misled public Posted by CNN's Dana Davidsen (CNN) – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said former Vice President Dick Cheney "set a tone and attitude for the CIA" that allowed for the controversial techniques used by the agency in the Bush-era detention and interrogation program. Her comments follow a Senate Intelligence Committee vote last week to release key parts of a report that concludes the CIA misled the government and public about aspects of the agency’s practices in the post-9/11 program. The California...

An exchange student fell to his death after ingesting marijuana in Colorado - the first death linked to the drug since it was legalised in the US state. Levy Thamba, 19, plummeted from the balcony of a Denver hotel on 11 March after eating a cannabis-laced cookie. A post-mortem examination found marijuana intoxication was a factor in the Wyoming student's death. Colorado became the first US state to legalise recreational use of the drug in January. Mr Thamba, a native of the Republic of Congo, had reportedly begun taking classes at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming, the same month.

The Denver coroner says an exchange student from Wyoming fell to his death after eating a marijuana cookie, the first reported death linked to marijuana since the drug became legal for recreational use in Colorado in January. Nineteen-year-old Levy Thamba died after falling from the balcony of a Denver hotel on March 11. …

You should be able to drive across the Northwestern part of the United States a little more quickly in the coming months. Idaho and Wyoming have just passed laws to raise some interstate speed limits to 80 miles per hour. The Idaho law goes into effect on July 1, but there could be a delay because the Idaho Transportation Department is still conducting safety surveys to decide where to raise limits. It might be late summer before drivers actually see a change. According to a report from local television news station KMVT, the department actually opposed the bill, but it...

Lawmakers in Washington are debating whether to export more natural gas to combat Russian threats to cut off its gas supplies to Europe. Our D-C reporter Matt Laslo has a look at what that could mean for Wyoming’s economy – and environment… MATT LASLO: Wyoming's junior senator, John Barrasso, made waves when her first came to Washington. And while he's now in the Republican leadership team in the U-S Senate, he's starting to get brushed aside by many reporters and politicians because of his near singular focus on dismantling what he terms Obamacare. But this week lawmakers of all stripes...

March 24, 2014 Boehner Spokesman Calls Reid’s GOP/Crimea Comments ‘Unhinged’ STEPHEN KRUISER Somebody had to say it. “The Senate Majority Leader sounds completely unhinged,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told Business Insider in an email. “The House has acted, and is continuing to act, in a reasonable and responsible way to give the White House the tools it needs to hold President Putin accountable.”Every time Reid opens his mouth something remarkably ignorant comes out of it. Nancy Pelosi may be devious and an awful person, but she’s not stupid (she does dumb it down for the cameras, I believe). Reid, however,...

A spokesman for Republican House Speaker John Boehner called Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "unhinged" on Monday, after Reid charged Republicans may have had a helping hand in emboldening Russia to annex Crimea. "Since a few Republicans blocked these important sanctions last work period, Russian lawmakers voted to annex Crimea and Russian forces have taken over Ukrainian military bases," Reid said on the Senate floor Monday. "It's impossible to know whether events would have unfolded differently if the United States had responded to Russian aggression with a strong, unified voice." Reid was referring to the stalling of a Ukraine aid...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday that Republicans may have helped Russia annex Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in a surprisingly sharp attack ahead of a test vote on a bill authorizing more U.S. sanctions on Russia and $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine. […] Reid’s charge comes despite widespread support among Republicans and Democrats in Congress for providing Ukraine with much-needed economic assistance and hitting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government with sanctions. …

As we begin debate on this aid and sanctions package, I also hope that Republicans who stopped action on this legislation prior to the break have considered how their obstruction affects United States’ national security.” “In light of such clear-cut Russian aggression against Ukraine, it’s difficult to believe Republicans blocked this package at all. But it’s almost unimaginable why they blocked it – to protect the anonymity of their own big-money donors. ““Democrats fought hard four years ago to pass this landmark expansion of quality, affordable health care. And we will fight just as hard to make this law work...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–Nev.) is facing a revolt among Republicans for adding controversial language to an aid package for Ukraine.The Senate is expected to vote on the Ukraine measure next week. The controversial provisions, which have support of the Obama administration and liberals from both parties, would increase U.S. financial support to the International Monetary Fund.A growing number of Republicans warn that attaching the IMF language would reduce U.S. power while expanding Russia’s influence on the global stage in the wake of its annexation of Crimea.>>> Q&A: Why Do Conservatives Oppose the IMF Reform Package?Yesterday, Sen. Ted Cruz...