Free Republic

The deal that West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin reached with Majority Leader Charles Schumer that contains billions for clean energy programs also would mandate offshore oil and gas drilling in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. Additionally, the package commits Democratic leaders to moving new legislation to streamline permitting process for pipelines and other projects – a move Manchin called essential to his own backing for the package, which would include $433 billion in new spending as well as $739 billion in new revenue over a decade. 'Without what you just mentioned there is no bill,' Manchin told MetroNews in...

New York Senator Charles Schumer was instrumental in getting Bharara appointed to that position and in return was asked from time to time to do favors for the senator and his allies. Up until recently, President Trump had no idea what was really going on. Once President Trump’s staff understood the quid pro quo, they had no choice but to ask for Bharara’s resignation. In 2015, Puerto Rico defaulted on $70 billion in municipal bonds. Those involved panicked. There was ample evidence that the issuing agencies were technically bankrupt when they issued the bonds and that they purchased fraudulent credit...

Diminish Private Property Rights This article is based on a recently prepared memorandum of law and correspondences dispatched to 13 members of Congress explaining the unconstitutionality of the pending legislation discussed below. Energy and forest management are not generally assumed to be interrelated policies. Nevertheless, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (AK-R) is pushing a massive 792-page Senate Energy bill incorporating more than 393 amendments covering these and other policy areas which many in Congress have not likely read. The bill is No. S.2012 - the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act of 2016, which, according to nonprofit Western States Constitutional...

As one of our over 6 million FreedomWorks activists nationwide, I urge you to contact your senators and ask them to vote NO on the “Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act”, S. 2262. Introduced by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), this bill, while being sold as an energy efficiency overhaul for the country, is merely a conglomeration of government meddling and waste. The crux of the bill charges the Department of Energy (DOE) to “encourage and support the adoption” of efficiency codes, developed by unaccountable third parties, by the states. The bill appropriates taxpayer dollars to...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Wednesday that the Senate’s energy bill is necessary for the “environment and for national security,” adding that the legislation will generate jobs and lower energy costs for consumers. However, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of the Senate Energy and Public Works Committee, in a statement indicated that the Senate’s energy bill will eliminate jobs by making Obama’s oil drilling moratorium permanent.

Liberal and environmental activists say that Democrats will not suffer in November because of their failure to pass Senate climate change legislation. Charles Chamberlain, political director of Democracy for America, an advocacy group founded by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, said liberal voters are happy that a climate bill sponsored by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) was shelved. “The reality is that the base didn’t have a lot at stake in the climate bill,” said Chamberlain. “After the BP disaster, all we’ve heard from our members, the No. 1 issue is climate change and offshore oil drilling...

The hour is late, but there is still a sliver of time to pass a serious energy bill out of this Congress. To do so, though, would require President Obama to rustle up votes with a passion that he has failed to exhibit up to now, and, more importantly, it would require at least seven Republican senators to put the national interest above party and politics. Yes, I know that is all unlikely. You can laugh now. But just remember this: If we don’t get a serious energy bill out of this Congress, and Republicans retake the House and Senate,...

Today’s Daily Express (London) opens with a stark reminder that there are consequences to the foolishness being crammed down on you now — and which will be voted upon in the Senate, we are told, at the end of this month. BRITAIN faces years of blackouts and soaring electricity bills because of the drive toward green power, a leading energy expert warned last night. A growing obsession with global warming and “renewable” sources threatens the stability of our supply. Derek Birkett, a former Grid Control Engineer who has a lifetime’s experience in electricity supply throughout Britain, warned that the cost...

TRENTON - Last month, a state utilities board voted to allocate $15 million in federal stimulus money for grants to make businesses more energy efficient. The money for the program, which seeks to lower New Jersey residents' utility bills by reducing demand from the biggest users of the electric grid, should have come from a fee assessed on major commercial and industrial users since 2003.But the Retail Margin Fund, which holds that revenue, is empty - among the consequences of hundreds of millions of dollars in diversions from "dedicated" funds to help the state close a multibillion-dollar budget gap.Budget documents...

After meeting with President Obama, Republican senators said there's a path for a bipartisan clean-energy bill this year, but the major fault line remains as Democrats said they still want any legislation to set strict controls on greenhouse gas emissions. The Republicans said they were willing to work with Democrats on a scaled-down bill that would boost energy research and development and emphasize nuclear power so long as the majority took the idea of a carbon-pricing scheme -- which they have dubbed a "national energy tax" -- off the table. "As long as we take a national energy tax off...

Legislation could include a carbon cap on utility companies. With the gulf oil spill creating political opportunity, Senate Democrats will begin crafting a sweeping energy bill this week that could include a first-ever, though more modest, cap on global-warming pollution. Republicans dismiss such a cap-and-trade system as a new tax on households and business — "cap-and-tax," they call it.

Washington (CNSNews.com) – Vice President Joe Biden expressed confidence that the Senate would approve energy  legislation, including cap and trade -- which many critics view as an energy tax -- even though Congress-watchers think the chances of such legislation passing this year are slim.  “There is clear consensus out there that something has to be done,” Biden told reporters on Thursday. “All the folks on the [Capitol] Hill know we have got to do something about carbon emissions in the air and the amount of oil we consume from abroad.” "I think we're going to get an energy bill," said Biden....

Washington in the Obama era seems bent on imposing "solutions" that not only fail to solve Americans' problems, but make us poorer in the bargain. In a direct attack on Wall Street, the president and his ally, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), are bent on imposing the "Volcker rule," which would prohibit banks from making speculative investments with their own funds, and on requiring banks to divest their derivatives trading desks, or at least put them in a separate subsidiary owned by a parent holding company. Five major banks -- Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley...

President Obama held a meeting with Senators from both parties yesterday to discuss clean energy and climate legislation. The meeting came one day after the President gave his first speech from the Oval Office to address the Gulf oil spill. Al Gore applauded the President’s call for comprehensive climate legislation, and added “the only way to prevent this type of tragedy from happening again is to fundamentally change how we power our economy.” The Natural Resources Defense Council looks at several studies released in the last several weeks that find the American Power Act will be affordable and good for...

Washington (AP) - A climate and energy bill being pushed in the Senate faces bleak prospects, despite President Barack Obama's call for a "clean energy" future that lessens dependence on oil and other fossil fuels. A day after the president's Oval Office speech, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., reiterated that his party remains unanimous in its opposition to what he called a national energy tax. Even one of the bill's likely supporters said the measure does not have enough votes to pass. "You know, it would take 60 votes in the Senate to do that," said Sen. Byron Dorgan,...

Apart from the fact that last night's address from the Oval Office was nothing more than a PR campaign for the cap-and-trade energy tax scheme, Barack Obama's false reassurances to the residents of the Gulf coast show that either he lied or he is terribly misinformed. At this point in the disaster it is way too early to provide reassurances to anyone, anywhere. The reason is clear and dire. The Gulf oil disaster is much worse than anyone will admit, and the repercussions for human life could be potentially catastrophic. Obama repeatedly asserted that the disaster will not destroy the...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has "total confidence" that he can defeat the Senate energy bill with bipartisan support. After meeting with President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders, McConnell told reporters that Obama and his allies are trying to use the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as a "rationale" for passing cap-and-trade. Despite McConnell's (R-Ky.) confidence, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he has planned a meeting with Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) on Wednesday afternoon, and scheduled a caucus on the bill with Senate Democrats next week. Reid did not answer...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) alerted Senate committee chairmen Thursday that he plans to move comprehensive energy legislation in July. Reid asked the chairmen to recommend legislation to deal with the Gulf oil spill before July 4 so that leaders can include those ideas in the comprehensive energy package. “I think it is extremely important that you each examine what could be included in a comprehensive energy bill that would address the unfolding disaster in the Gulf of Mexico,” Reid wrote in the letter. “Among the actions I think we need to explore are ensuring that the oil companies...

In a high-stakes move, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) are planning to forge ahead with or without Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and introduce an energy bill next week, according to sources familiar with the planning. In addition to the uncertainty about Graham’s status on the bill, Kerry and Lieberman are gambling that the dramatic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will help, rather than hurt, momentum for the legislation. That’s not a sure thing. As described in interviews, the reform package includes provisions that allow an expansion of offshore drilling and generous revenue sharing for...