Free Republic

The Biden administration boasted in an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report released Thursday about the unprecedented prosecution of a California man for “smuggling greenhouse gases” across the border from Mexico and selling them online. Michael Hart, 58, was arrested in March and pleaded guilty in September to charges related to transporting refrigerants into the US to peddle on Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp and other online vendors between June and December 2022. Biden’s EPA touted the crackdown on Hart, the first-ever person charged for climate change-related bootlegging of refrigerants — namely, hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HFCs) — without the agency’s approval, in its report. When...

The climate activist groups that spent more than a year staging protests against President Joe Biden’s energy policies are pursuing a new strategy with his would-be successor: Get Kamala Harris elected now, ask questions later. Green activists are taking a do-no-harm approach to Harris’ candidacy, ditching demands for policy details and muting potential criticisms over reversing her past opposition to fracking. They say that’s because Harris has excited their base in ways Biden never did — never mind that he signed the biggest climate law in U.S. history. Stoking that activist fervor was one of the main goals behind the...

We’re barking up the wrong trees. A new study reveals that a majority of the 7 million trees in New York City are emitting “volatile compounds” that do more harm than good for our air quality — especially during scorching heat. “We’re all for planting more trees. They bring so many good things,” said study coauthor Róisín Commane, an atmospheric chemist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “But if we’re not careful, we could make air quality worse.” The arbors in question include oaks and sweetgums which produce high volumes of a chemical composition called isoprenes — and they’re rooted...

Vice President Harris’s ascendance as the likely Democratic nominee has sent a wave of excitement through environmental advocates and climate hawks in Congress, who point to her history of investigating the oil industry and support for the Green New Deal in the Senate. Environmental issues have not been a major part of Harris’s portfolio as vice president, but advocates see her as a figure who both has bona fides on the issue and is positioned to generate enthusiasm among younger and more progressive voters who were ambivalent about President Biden’s reelection bid. “I think she deserves more credit than she...

Wealthy beach lovers are left devastated as they're forced to slash prices of their luxury seaside homes by millions due to climate change. Climate experts believe the rise in sea levels and unforgiving storms, intense rainfall and coastal flooding and erosion are the culprits putting homeowners in a precarious position - and the unpredictability of it all. The areas with some of the priciest real estate that have been hit the hardest include, Dana Point, California, to Long Island, New York, and Nantucket, Massachusetts, CNBC reported. In September, a beach front home on Nantucket that listed for $2.3 million, fell...

A House Judiciary Committee released a report Tuesday that alleges a ‘climate cartel’ comprised of left-wing environmental activists and major financial institutions colluded to force American companies to adopt anti-fossil fuel policies, which have in turn, harmed U.S. consumers. The interim report was the product of a two-year investigation by House Judiciary Republicans into whether “woke” companies were engaging in behaviors that violate antitrust laws. “Today’s report demonstrates a clear violation of antitrust laws among the companies cited. It indicates both an agreement and a reduction of output – the two standards necessary to establish antitrust,” Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo.,...

A “climate cartel” made up of left-wing advocacy groups and Wall Street firms have colluded to force American companies to reduce carbon emissions, a congressional committee charged in a scathing report Tuesday. The interim report is the first of its kind produced by the Republican-led Judiciary Committee in the House since it launched an investigation in late 2022 into whether corporate efforts to tackle climate change violate antitrust laws. It accused business groups and advocacy organizations of “muzzling corporate free speech” and “handcuffing company leadership” through “ever-escalating pressure tactics,” which included “taking out” directors at firms that are deemed “recalcitrant.”...

Alabama is spearheading a coalition of 12 Republican-led states in a federal lawsuit against five Democrat-run states, alleging the latter are trying to coerce the former into complying with strict climate-conscious policies that could imperil their residents' access to affordable energy. The filing was made at the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday as the plaintiffs argued that Democrat-led states California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey and Rhode Island are essentially forcing residents of politically opposed states to feel repercussions of their restrictions and, therefore, are dictating national energy policy. "California and New Jersey and the defendant states are trying to make...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed Wednesday that he was saving his state from 'radical green zealots' by removing references of 'climate change' from the state's energy policy and banning offshore windmills. DeSantis, a failed 2024 presidential hopeful, signed into law a bill that additionally gives preferential treatment to natural gas companies and scraps a requirement that state-purchased vehicles are fuel efficient. With 8,346 miles of shoreline and water surrounding three of its side, Florida is the most vulnerable or close to being the most at-risk state when it comes to climate change impacts, according to a number of metrics. 'The...

‘NO Climate Crisis’ Says Coalition of 1,600 Actual ScientistsThe United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is ‘one of the worst sources of dangerous misinformation’ “There is ‘NO Climate Crisis’ says a coalition of 1,600 actual scientists” in a recent letter to the California Air Resources Board. In fact, the scientists find that “California is in no danger of unusual drought: The annual precipitation in California has fluctuated greatly over the last 150 years, with only a slight decrease.” California also has record low levels of air pollution that are below the threshold of human health effects, James E. Enstrom,...

CNN — The Chevrolet Malibu, the last sedan still sold by General Motors’ biggest selling brand, will end production this year, the company announced. Malibu production will end in November as the factory that builds it, the Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, Kansas, is reconfigured to build a new generation of the Chevrolet Bolt EV. With the Malibu’s demise, General Motors’ mainstream Chevrolet brand will sell only trucks, SUVs, and the Corvette, a two-seat sports car, in the United States. Chevy’s close competitor, Ford, made a similar move years ago when it stopped selling the Taurus and Fusion sedans,...

Cities, towns and vacation spots across the American South are 'drowning' under rapidly rising tides that could soon put them underwater. Ocean levels are at least six inches higher than they were a decade ago along a swathe of the country from Texas to North Carolina. An overall rising ocean is coupled with vicious tidal events that wreak havoc and kill locals, especially when they coincide with storms. The problem is already affecting thousands of Americans living along the coast, and millions more across the US will feel it in the coming decades. Climate change is steadily raising sea levels...

No need to make a stink: Controlling bovine flatulence could be key to helping curb global warming. New research suggests that breeding dairy cows to fart less — and, therefore, release less methane — could cut down on greenhouse gases. The team from Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute in Australia combed through 27 reports, drawing conclusions about various ways to curb methane emissions in the dairy and beef sectors in the country. Food production is one of the leading causes of climate change — livestock farming accounts for about 10% of greenhouse gas emissions — with one 2020 study finding...

Scientists have created an interactive map that shows how parts of Illinois may be swallowed up by Lake Michigan as climate change bites. The Great Lakes in the Midwest comprise the largest unfrozen freshwater stores on Earth, but experts have forecast that rising water levels could have serious consequences. More than 30 million people live along the lakes' roughly 4,500 miles of coastline, which stretches across the U.S. and Canada, and touches upon the cities of Chicago, Detroit and Buffalo, New York. That means millions of families could be hit hard by new, higher water levels, which could potentially wash...

The Senate on Wednesday afternoon voted in favor of passing a bill reversing the Biden administration's actions mandating states to track and set reduction goals for greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles on highways. The chamber approved the resolution in a 53-47 vote in which Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz.; Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Jon Tester, D-Mont.; and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., joined every Republican voting in the affirmative. The bill was introduced in February by Sens. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.; Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.; and Manchin. "Few things are more frustrating in government than un-elected bureaucrats asserting authority they don’t have and foisting federal...

Senate Democrats were left red-faced at a hearing on climate change as their 'expert witness' proved to be anything but when faced by veteran senator John Kennedy. Budget Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse invited Olympic skier Gus Schumacher to give his perspective as the committee considered the impact of climate change on the recreation industry. But it was all downhill for the 23-year-old as he struggled to answer basic questions and could not remember his tweets claiming the war on drugs was designed to jail black people, and calling for the police to be abolished. The excruciating exchange continued with Schumacher insisting...

There’s no such thing as a wind or solar ‘farm’, just an ugly industrial siteIn a story filled with all the standard climate alarmist narratives, USA Today recently reported on the rising movement by local governments in the United States to refuse to permit unwanted wind and solar industrial sites in their jurisdictions. After setting the stage by parroting the Biden administration goals of “100 per cent clean energy by 2035, a goal that depends on the building of large-scale solar and wind,” USA Today points to the reality that such big, intrusive, ugly, and destructive industrial sites have been...

President Biden began his remarks during a Thursday visit to the southern border in Texas by addressing a devastating wildfire in the state’s panhandle and Oklahoma before calling climate change deniers “neanderthals.” Speaking in the border city of Brownsville, Biden first addressed the ongoing wildfire that has ravaged a portion of Texas and destroyed more than one million acres. “I’ve flown over a lot of these wildfires since I’ve been president,” Biden said. “Flown over more land burned to the ground. All the vegetation gone more than the entire state of Maryland in square footage.” “The idea there’s no such...

Moderate Senate Democrats were silent this week when Fox News Digital asked for a comment on President Biden's decision to appoint climate czar John Kerry's replacement without Senate confirmation. **SNIP** While Kerry will step down as special presidential envoy for climate (SPEC), Biden will not nominate a direct replacement, and Kerry's staff will report to another State Department official while Podesta coordinates policy with the SPEC office from the White House. The arrangement allows Podesta to sidestep a congressionally mandated Senate confirmation since the SPEC role will technically be left vacant. "Upon Secretary Kerry’s departure, the existing SPEC state team...

A con artist who is accused of defrauding the US Army out of $100 million has been given the green light to retire with full benefits. Janet Yamanaka Mello, 57, who is currently under criminal investigation, brazenly claims she “earned” her civil servant retirement package despite allegedly using the funds to purchase over 30 homes, luxury cars, and jewelry through the seven-year-long scheme. The military admitted that there is nothing that can be done to withhold Mello’s benefits from her as it’s protected under a federal law that was held up in government bureaucracy. “The command has no authority to...