Free Republic

Bulb Ban: As of Wednesday, the manufacture and import of 60- and 40-watt incandescent light bulbs will be illegal — one more setback in the fight against government interference into the daily lives of the American people. First they came for our light bulbs. Before the onset of ObamaCare and its mandate to buy health insurance as a condition of citizenship, there was the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), one of the first things Democrats took up on retaking the House of Representatives in the 2006 elections. A well-intentioned President George W. Bush signed the incandescent bulb...

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), which mandated a steep rise in domestic ethanol production, is causing unforeseen negative consequences for food prices while failing to live up to the desired gasoline results and other expectations, concludes a Texas A&M University research team headed by an economics professor who studies energy issues.James Griffin James M. Griffin, director of the Mosbacher Institute for Trade, Economics & Public Policy, which is part of Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service, and Mauricio Cifuentes Soto, a graduate student assisting him, say in their report that the goal of...

Canada has warned the US government that a narrow interpretation of new energy legislation would prohibit its neighbour buying fuel from Alberta’s vast oil sands, with “unintended consequences for both countries”. In a letter to Robert Gates, US defence secretary, Canada said that it “would not want to see an expansive interpretation” of the Energy Independence and Security Act 2007. A copy of the letter, from Michael Wilson, Canadian ambassador, and copied to Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, and Samuel Bodman, US energy secretary, has been obtained by the Financial Times. Section 526 of the law limits US government...

Al-Qaeda ace may have been arrested in UK By Peter Fray, Herald Correspondent in London, and agencies August 6, 2004 British authorities are believed to have foiled a well-developed plot to bomb Heathrow Airport by one of al-Qaeda's most senior operatives in Europe. The agent, known as Abu Eisa al Hindi, is believed to be among 13 men arrested by anti-terrorism police in Britain this week. Twelve of the men, aged 19 to 32, are still being questioned by Scotland Yard detectives on suspicion of being involved in the "preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism". Police have declined to...