Free Republic

California Democrats have written to outgoing Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to ask for more than half a billion dollars in funding for an ailing high-speed rail project that President-elect Donald Trump defunded in 2019. As Breitbart News reported, Trump withheld $1 billion in funding from the project after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) canceled the original project. Newsom had explained to the state legislature that the original plan for a Los Angeles-to-San Francisco “bullet” train “would cost too much and, respectfully, would take too long.” Trump then demanded the state refund the money federal taxpayers had given it — applying...

This summer, Bill Gates huddled in London with representatives of some of the world’s wealthiest people, including the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, the SoftBank founder, Masayoshi Son, and Prince al-Waleed bin Talal Prince of Saudi Arabia.They were evaluating their joint investments in companies that could help the world combat climate change. Among the businesses in their portfolio, four stood out as having a particularly audacious goal: They were working to strip carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, for a profit.As countries around the world continue to pump planet-warming pollution into the skies, driving global temperatures to record levels, the financial world...

Sacramento-area congressman Kevin Kiley took to the floor of the House of Representatives recently to declare the following: “Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to report that the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency has honed in on perhaps the single-greatest example of government waste in United States history,” the Republican from Rocklin intoned. “And that is California’s high-speed-rail boondoggle.”

In the wake of the election of President Donald Trump to serve a second term in office, along with presumptive Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, many are now asking about what the future will hold for the oddly named Inflation Reduction Act. Trump made it repeatedly clear on the campaign trail that he is not a fan of that law, which was passed on straight party-line votes in both houses of Congress, or of the hundreds of billions of dollars in green energy subsidies contained in it. But a full repeal of the IRA seems unlikely to succeed,...

Among the California police departments that have tried using Teslas was the Ukiah Police Department, the largest municipal police force in Mendocino County. There, Police Chief Cedrick Crook requested the City Council approve the purchase of two Tesla Model 3s, which is the company's sedan, on August 7, 2024. That purchase totaled nearly $150,000 between the cost of the cars and $35,000 in modifications to make the Teslas patrol-ready, Crook told the San Francisco Gate. He said the vehicles needed the standard emergency lights, sirens, radio, antenna, push bar, partition and gun rack, but the Teslas also needed to be...

Former President Donald Trump says he would create a government efficiency commission to audit the entire federal government Trump says he’d create a government efficiency commission led by Elon Musk PHOENIX (AP) — Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he would create a government efficiency commission to audit the entire federal government, an idea suggested by billionaire Elon Musk, who would lead it. The commission is the latest attention-grabbing alliance between Trump and Musk, who leads companies including Tesla and SpaceX and has become an increasingly vocal supporter of Trump’s bid to return to the White House. The Republican presidential...

Gov. Kathy Hochul, along with state officials and U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm, announced Thursday that low-income New Yorkers are now eligible to receive rebates for energy efficiency upgrades through a federal program called the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates (HEAR) Program, which aims to lower household energy costs. The governor, at a press event held at the Andromeda Community Center in Long Island City, unveiled the Biden administration’s new initiative that will help reduce household utility expenses via a rebate program that incentivizes energy efficiency upgrades. The plan, which stems from the Inflation Reduction Act and is...

Imperial College London research has found limits to how quickly we can scale up technology to store gigatonnes of carbon dioxide under Earth's surface. Current international scenarios for limiting global warming to less than 1.5 degrees by the end of the century rely on technologies that remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from Earth's atmosphere faster than humans release it. This means removing CO2 at a rate of 1–30 gigatonnes per year by 2050. However, estimates for the speed at which these technologies can be deployed have been highly speculative. Now, findings from a new study led by Imperial College London researchers...

LUBBOCK, Texas — Multiple volunteer fire departments responded to a “runaway research balloon” on Friday afternoon that was a possible danger to Bledsoe and Morton, according to the Whiteface Volunteer Fire Department. WVFD said crews were dispatched at 12:32 p.m. According to WFVD, the research balloon was full of helium and nitrogen. The fire department explained neither are explosive, but could displace oxygen in a confined area. WVFD also said there were lithium batteries on the balloon, which was a “substantial fire hazard.” Units from Whiteface, Morton, Levelland and Cochran County units responded to the incident. The Milnesand Fire Department...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is zeroing in on the policy goals closest to his heart now that he’s no longer seeking a second term and will visit New Orleans on Tuesday to promote his administration’s “moonshot” initiative aiming at dramatically reducing cancer deaths. The president and first lady Jill Biden will tour medical facilities, then, at Tulane University, will help announce $150 million in awards from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. Those will support eight teams of researchers around the country working on ways to help surgeons more successfully remove tumors for people facing cancer. The...

Vice President Kamala Harris, who was tapped to lead the administration’s rural broadband expansion, failed to connect one person with high-speed internet despite having $42.5 billion from the so-called infrastructure bill. During his 2021 State of the Union address, President Joe Biden tapped Vice President Harris to lead the effort “because I know it will get done.” Now, in 2024, it appears that the Biden-Harris admin has made little progress getting Americans connected to high-speed internet. ... Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commission Brendan Carr noted in June that Biden and Harris did not connect one American despite having access to...

First lady Jill Biden met with the families of U.S. Olympic athletes Thursday and spoke of a "united" America, just one day after President Biden addressed the nation after his decision to end his re-election bid. (snip) "When Team USA glides through the opening ceremony tomorrow night, they carry more than just our flag. They carry our nation's heart and our hopes with them too," Jill Biden said while joined by U.S. Ambassador to France Denise Campbell Bauer. "They show the world who we are as Americans – determined, optimistic and resilient. That our strength is found not only in...

California’s massive and ambitious project to connect downtown Los Angeles with the Bay Area via electric trains capable of reaching speeds of over 200 mph has cleared its biggest hurdle to date. On Thursday, the California High-Speed Rail Authority received complete environmental approval between the two regions, a historic milestone in a state notorious for holding up construction projects for environmental review.

This month, some 9,000 people will get to work guiding the country toward a cleaner future. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Within weeks, the nation will deploy 9,000 people to begin restoring landscapes, erecting solar panels, and taking other steps to help guide the country toward a cleaner, greener future. The first of those workers were inducted into the American Climate Corps on Tuesday during a virtual event from the White House. Their swearing-in marks another step forward for the Biden administration’s ambitious climate agenda. The program, which President Joe Biden announced within days of taking office in 2021, is a modern version of...

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to let voters decide on a potential sales tax hike to fund affordable housing and homeless services. According to the Affordable Housing, Homelessness Solutions & Prevention Now initiative put forward by the Our Future Los Angeles Coalition, the proposed tax increase would fund a “comprehensive homelessness response program” and invest in new strategies to address encampments and create affordable housing. Supporters of the initiative, who submitted more than 400,000 signatures to the county Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk last month, held a rally Tuesday before the Board’s vote. “We can no longer...

When it comes to wasting stupefying sums of money, few government-funded projects in American history can rival California’s so-called “High-Speed Rail.” After nearly two decades since California’s voters were conned into approving the project, and after already spending an estimated $11.2 billion, there is still not a single mile of installed track. Proponents originally estimated the total system cost at $33 billion; today, that cost estimate has ballooned to $128 billion. Everything about California High-Speed Rail is misguided. The money being spent to build it could instead be used to add lanes to every major freeway in the state, upgrade...

A drone view of the scene where vessels used for delivering aid to Palestinians via a U.S.-built pier in Gaza got stuck after they ran aground on the Mediterranean coast in Ashdod, Israel, May 25, 2024. (Amir Cohen/Reuters) On the menu today: The Gaza Pier — you know, the one where the U.S. and allied countries unloaded food, so it could be stolen off trucks before reaching its intended destination — is no longer operational, and it will be out of operation for “at least over a week.” It turns out that the pier system was not intended to be...

President Joe Biden's administration announced Tuesday their approval of another large offshore wind project off of the coast of Martha's Vineyard, despite ongoing legal battles to block similar projects. The Interior Department approved the New England Wind Project, a planned commercial off-shore project roughly 20 nautical miles south of Martha's Vineyard and 24 nautical miles southwest of Nantucket, Massachusetts. The planned wind farm would include up to 129 wind turbines off of the coast of the island, the location of some of the wealthiest homes in the United States. 'The New England Wind project will help lower consumer costs, combat...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WISH) — Indiana plans to rebuild a small section of highway that by next summer could charge electric vehicles being driven. Purdue University and Indiana government’s Department of Transportation, in separate news releases issued Wednesday, touted the construction project as the first highway segment in the nation with wireless charging. Construction could begin as soon as April 1. Neither Purdue or the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) reported how much the project will cost. Indianapolis-based White Construction was awarded a contract to build the wireless power-transfer technology in a quarter-mile of U.S. 231/U.S. 52 between Cumberland Avenue...

The Biden administration is funneling $1 billion in taxpayer funds to America's northern and southern borders to make dozens of federal ports of entry more climate friendly. The General Services Administration (GSA) announced it would direct Inflation Reduction Act funds to support the climate initiatives at the border, even as the ongoing surge of migrants strains federal resources. While GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan and Andrew Mayock, President Biden's Federal Buy Clean Task Force co-chair, said the action would reduce "harmful emissions," the move was slammed by Republicans and experts. “As usual, the Biden administration is refusing to address a problem...