Free Republic

Gone are rules banning a wide swath of gas stoves. Gone are the strict water standards governing dishwashers and shower heads. And gone is the government-wide effort to force electrification of the economy through appliance regulations. It is all part of a historic action the Trump administration announced Monday, reversing dozens of energy regulations, saving consumers more than $11 billion, and cutting more than 125,000 words from the United States Code of Regulations. As part of the Department of Energy's sweeping action unveiled Monday, it will rescind dozens of energy efficiency regulations targeting common household appliances that the Biden administration...

We now have more information on the corruption involved in the pause in LNG exports. Joe Biden approved the pause but didn’t know he did. When questioned by Speaker Johnson, Biden said he wouldn’t do that. During the Houthi attacks and the Ukraine crisis, Biden paused all LNG shipments to Europe. He halted the approval process for export licenses and facilities being built/planned to save the climate. A Louisiana judge granted a stay. It turns out that Secretary Granholm, a wholly unprincipled agent for the hard left, buried a report with data and conclusions refuting the premise they used to...

Energy Department's inspector general warned that agency officials are not complying with conflict-of-interest rulesThe Department of Energy, in one of its final actions under President Joe Biden, earmarked billions of dollars in green energy loans to utility companies based in Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm's home state of Michigan—defying the agency's inspector general, who called on the Biden administration to suspend the loan program amid conflict-of-interest concerns.Some of Granholm's largest campaign benefactors during her Michigan gubernatorial campaign were among the companies receiving the hefty last-minute loans.The Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office announced Thursday that it awarded a staggering $22.9 billion...

Donald Trump rewarded the tycoons behind the shale boom, among his most ardent supporters, with the selection Saturday of Chris Wright as his nominee for Energy Secretary. Wright was front-and-center for the fracking revolution that reshaped the country as a band of scrappy wildcatters that reinvigorated U.S. oil and gas production to record heights. His $2.8 billion company, Liberty Energy, pumps water and sand underground to frack customers’ wells. Wright’s selection elevates a pugnacious branch of the oil-and-gas industry that is skeptical of climate-change science and mostly hasn’t pledged to build out low-carbon energy businesses, unlike giants Exxon Mobil and...

Forty-five GOP lawmakers are demanding answers from the Department of Energy (DOE) after a government watchdog group accused the agency of covering up a key study that would have interfered with one of the Biden-Harris administration’s most aggressive crackdowns on fossil fuels. The lawmakers wrote to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Thursday to address a watchdog’s allegations that her agency conducted or drafted — and then quietly buried — a study on the emissions impacts of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports in 2023 before pausing approvals for certain LNG export terminals in January on the grounds that the... the agency...

During an interview with Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” released on Tuesday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm blamed the “hiccup” in electric vehicle demand on “a lot of talking down of electric vehicles,” and predicted that after the election, there will be “more positivity” around EVs. Host Michael Kosta asked, “It feels like electric — sorry to be the bummer — it feels like EV has slowed a little bit. What are some of the challenges you’re facing?”

LANSING — A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a Republican lawsuit challenging Michigan’s voter rolls, ruling the Republican plaintiffs failed to provide evidence the state was violating federal law and lacked legal standing to sue. The suit from the Republican National Committee and other GOP groups alleged Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was failing to maintain voter registration lists as required under the National Voter Registration Act, or NVRA. The complaint cited U.S. Census and state data indicating Michigan has more registered voters than voting-age adults. But the state says it is planning to cancel nearly 600,000 registrations...

In a gross violation of journalistic ethics, a CNN journalist gave the Biden administration a sneak peek of her article looking for the government stamp of approval before publishing. The Functional Government Initiative (FGI) obtained documents shared exclusively with MRC Business showing that CNN congressional reporter Clare Foran all but asked the Department of Energy to greenlight her story going after Republican politicians for pushing to prohibit DOE Secretary Jennifer Granholm from implementing any rule that would “limit consumer access to gas kitchen ranges and ovens.” The emails uncovered by FGI — dated March 30, 2023 — don’t denote a...

Three and a half years into the Biden Administration, and to an ordinary citizen on the ground it might seem like not that much has changed as to energy. Despite hundreds of government actions and initiative in an all-of-government regulatory onslaught to transform the energy economy, the important things have been remarkable stable. Production of oil and gas are actually up, and prices increases have been relatively modest — far less than one might have anticipated from the extreme regulatory hostility to production. The percentage of what is called “primary energy” (that is, energy for everything, not just electricity) coming...

The Biden administration finalized a rule Wednesday that bans the use of natural gas in new federal buildings. The Department of Energy announced the final rule, which requires federal agencies to “phase out” and ultimately eliminate the on-site use of fossil fuels starting in 2030. New federal buildings constructed after 2030 will not be allowed to have the natural gas hookups required to power gas stoves and other appliances under the final rule. “The Biden-Harris Administration is practicing what we preach,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said of her agency’s rule. “Just as we are helping households and businesses across the...

On Friday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm stated that the pause in liquid natural gas (LNG) export approvals might actually be a pause on exports that are actually beneficial to the environment because LNG can replace far dirtier coal. Granholm stated, “[W]e just need to update the data associated with the factors. So, the factors are, does this impact — what is the impact on national security, what is the impact on foreign policy, what is the impact — in other words, our allies and whether they’re able to access the energy that they need, what...

In December, Energy Secretary Granholm announced that the administration had taken 110 actions on energy efficiency standards in 2022 alone...and are moving forward with rules impacting dozens more appliances. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Joe Biden administration continues to use executive authority to regulate popular household appliances at an unprecedented level, with claims that their changes will save consumers money and help slow climate change and its alleged effects on the environment. Though the latest set of restrictions the administration is mandating is for gas powered furnaces, that is only the latest and far from the last. “According to the current federal Unified...

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will not be replenished during Joe Biden’s current term. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As China expands its reserves with low-cost oil from Russia, the Biden administration has allowed U.S. stocks in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to hit their lowest levels in decades. The communist regime in Beijing is seen intent on stockpiling large amounts of crude oil in anticipation of a military move against Taiwan. When the Biden administration took office in January 2021, the SPR contained more than 638 million barrels of oil. Currently, according to Energy Department statistics, the reserve holds...

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Tuesday morning announced a probe into a recent interstate trip by Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm intended to promote electric vehicle (EV) adoption, during which departmental staff vehicles allegedly blocked off a charging station for her. In a letter Tuesday, committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and environment subcommittee Chairman Pat Fallon (R-Texas) requested documents and communications relating to the September trip, including the itinerary, names of drivers and passengers and a list of vehicles involved. The letter specifically mentions an incident during the trip in which a staffer reportedly blocked off an EV charger...

In a speech to a Seattle crowd Wednesday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm made the claim that lower oil imports improves U.S. energy security. Praising Biden’s historic green energy funding and 100% clean electricity goal by 2035, Granholm said “With all this electrification, we could slash our net crude oil imports by almost 60%, and that strengthens energy security.” Granholm, who appeared with Vice President Kamala Harris also said Harris "has been amazing inside the White House as the champion for clean energy." One of the most common critiques of Biden’s green agenda is that it has thus far achieved the...

The Biden administration’s top energy official held multiple talks with a Chinese Communist Party official linked to an oil company counting investment from Hunter Biden’s private equity firm just days before the U.S. moved to release oil from its strategic reserve in 2021. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm controversially spoke with China National Energy Administration chairman Zhang Jianhua one-on-one multiple times in meetings that had not previously been reported, according to internal Energy Department calendars obtained by Fox News. Granholm and her Chinese Communist Party counterpart met on November 19th and 21st, 2021, just days before the White House announced its...

President Biden frequently extolled an electric vehicle company — in which his energy secretary heavily invested — before it declared bankruptcy on Monday. Bay Area-based electric bus and battery maker Proterra filed for Chapter 11, with CEO Gareth Joyce citing “various market and macroeconomic headwinds that have impacted our ability to efficiently scale.” The EV firm, which sold more than 1,300 electric buses to public transit systems in the US and Canada, was valued at $1.6 billion when Biden, 80, took office in January 2021 — but closed with a market value of $362 million, according to Reuters.

Proterra, the electric bus company at the center of an apparent conflict of interest involving Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, has filed for bankruptcy, Reuters reported Monday evening. Granholm drew immense scrutiny when it was revealed that she maintained her financial positions in the firm, for which she used to sit on the board of directors, after she assumed her post as the leader of the Department of Energy (DOE) and began to direct policies which could have favored her own financial interests. Granholm eventually closed her position in the firm late in May 2021, and netted capital gains amounting to...

The energy decline of the United States has been one of the most prominent features of Joe Biden’s tenure in the White House. New reporting raises the question: Is all of this deliberately orchestrated in coordination with America’s enemies? According to previously undisclosed meetings revealed in internal Energy Department calendars obtained by Americans for Public Trust (APT) and shared with Fox News, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm met with her Chinese counterpart, China National Energy Administration Chairman Zhang Jianhua, right before the administration’s 2021 announcement that it would release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to fight nationwide high...

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm spoke with a senior Chinese energy official the same week that the US began tapping its Strategic Petroleum Reserve in November 2021 — later selling some oil to a Beijing-backed firm linked to first son Hunter Biden, newly uncovered documents show. Granholm called China National Energy Administration Chairman Zhang Jianhua for a half-hour conversation on Nov. 21 *** Two days after the Granholm-Zhang call, ***President Biden announced the release of 50 million barrels of oil from the reserve in an effort to bring down gas prices — “the largest-ever” energy stockpile sale in US history. ***...