Free Republic

The Environmental Protection Agency is rolling back fuel economy incentives for start-stop technology, a system that automatically shuts off a car’s engine when stopped at a red light or in traffic. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the decision, calling the feature a “climate participation trophy” that drivers overwhelmingly dislike. The move marks a significant shift in federal policy, reversing regulations that encouraged automakers to include the system in new vehicles. Start-stop technology was introduced as part of Obama-era emissions rules, designed to reduce fuel consumption and lower carbon emissions. The system became widespread, with 65 percent of new cars featuring...

This is the most idiotic government regulation of the last decade (and that's saying something). The technology shuts off the engine every time the vehicle stops in traffic or at a red light/stop sign. The average driver might save $1,000 over a decade of using the vehicle if they live in an urban area with frequent stops, but Enhanced Flooded Batteries and heavy-duty starters also cost more, meaning maintenance swallows up much or all of their savings. (They also have to put up with the psychological torture of having their car turn off and on every five seconds.) Here's YouTuber...

What's the latest federal agency drawing the scrutiny of the Trump administration for inefficiency, expense, and administrative bloat? It's the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a federal bureaucracy long infamous for intruding into Americans' lives and making it more difficult and expensive to do business. The EPA's own administrator, Lee Zeldin, says the agency is overdue for reform. If he's open to suggestions, people who have been working on the problem for years have good ideas to offer. "Under the previous administration, EPA's buildings stood largely empty, with headquarters attendance peaking at just over one-third occupancy as the record high attendance...

Make Sunsets, sells “cooling credits," which pay to launch weather balloons made of biodegradable latex containing hydrogen and sulfur dioxide. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin is demanding a company that deliberately sends sulfur dioxide into the air to combat global warming provide detailed information on its practices. Critics of the practice, which is called geoengineering, say it puts potentially harmful pollutants into the air and needs more oversight. The company Zeldin is scrutinizing, Make Sunsets, sells “cooling credits.” The credits pay to launch weather balloons made of biodegradable latex containing hydrogen and sulfur dioxide. According to the company, each...

Just hours after The Post revealed that burglars broke into Nassau University Medical Center Chairman Matthew Bruderman’s home and stole documents tied to a federal corruption probe, the county’s top official abruptly fired him. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman — who once appeared to be aligned with Bruderman’s claims that the hospital was robbed of more than $1 billion by state and prior county leaders since 2006 — pulled the plug on his three-year tenure late Thursday. The county exec, who helped launch the federal investigation by meeting with FBI Director Kash Patel on Long Island in early April, declined...

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:Section 1. Background. The United States controls one of the largest and most abundant ocean resources in the world, with over 4 million square miles of prime fishing grounds. With this vast resource and centuries of hard work from American fishermen, our Nation has the greatest seafood in the world.Most American fish stocks are healthy and have viable markets. Despite these opportunities, seafood is one of the most heavily regulated sectors in the United States. Federal overregulation...

As other opponents of the climate hoax do, I eagerly await the Trump administration’s termination of the Environmental Protection Agency’s so-called endangerment finding (EF). I had imagined that the reversal would be accomplished over the course of at least a year and probably more through the conventional administrative process of notice-and-public-comment. But things may get much more exciting, much more quickly. Some brief history is in order. The EF is a December 2009 determination by the Obama EPA that emissions of greenhouse gases harm the public health and welfare. Since that time, the EF has been the factual and scientific...

A Proposed Rule by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 04/17/2025... The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (collectively referred to as the Services or we) are proposing to rescind the regulatory definition of “harm” in our Endangered Species Act (ESA or the Act) regulations. The existing regulatory definition of “harm,” which includes habitat modification, runs contrary to the best meaning of the statutory term “take.” We are undertaking this change to adhere to the single, best meaning of the ESA.

Last month, President Trump singled out Georgia activist Stacey Abrams as someone who helped orchestrate a controversial $2 billion deal between left-wing nonprofit groups and the Environmental Protection Agency during the Biden administration. “We know she’s involved,” Trump told Congress. He was right. But after his statement, the Washington media went into overdrive to pooh-pooh her role in a frenzy of “fact-checking.” The Washington Post, for one, claimed Abrams’ role in the Biden massive green-energy initiative has been “vastly overblown” by President Trump and the “right-wing media.” The paper’s top fact-checker asserted it’s “a stretch” to suggest the Democratic politician...

Acourt has temporarily blocked a ruling from U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan regarding the funding of former President Joe Biden's climate programs. The D.C. Court of Appeals halted the judge's Tuesday ruling that ordered Citibank to release billions of dollars in green bank grants as part of Biden's 2022 climate, tax and health care bill. Why It Matters The court's ruling is the latest development in an ongoing fight as President Donald Trump attempts to throw out Biden's climate and energy measures, and replace it with his cost-cutting and pro-coal agenda. Chutkan oversaw the president's now dismissed federal 2020 election...

Today, President Trump took action to ensure the United States is leveraging modern technology to effectively and efficiently conduct environmental reviews and evaluate permits. Permitting reform is a top priority for the Trump Administration and this action will accelerate the process, improve the transparency and predictability of project timelines, and eliminate unnecessary delays holding back the growth of the American economy.The Presidential Memorandum signed today calls on the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), in consultation with the National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC) and relevant permitting agencies, to issue a plan for modernizing the technology used for Federal environmental review and...

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said on the Breitbart Fight Club Founders’ Roundtable Tuesday that the agency is leading what amounts to the “largest deregulatory action” ever, slashing “trillions of dollars in deregulation.Environmental Protection Agency chief Zeldin spoke during the Breitbart Fight Club Roundtable with Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow and Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle about the agency’s efforts to slash government waste, fraud, and abuse.The EPA administrator, a former congressman, has moved to cancel over $22 billion in contracts as part of President Donald Trump’s initiative to eliminate diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) policies, environmental justice grants, and...

President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk, announced new contract terminations on Tuesday, saving American taxpayers $2.6 billion in wasteful spending. The agency highlighted presumably the most outrageous expenses, which total over $350,000 for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “plant maintenance” and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) social media programs. Similarly, DOGE recently revealed that minor routine website maintenance for the VA cost $380,000 PER MONTH. “That contract has not been renewed, and the same work is now being executed by 1 internal VA software engineer spending ~10 hours/week,” the department said. ... Contract...

The cancellation of a meeting of top advisors to the agency’s scientific research arm, with no explanation or plans to reschedule, signals bad news for public health and the environment, say former advisors... In what appears to be the latest attack on the science and regulations that protect public health and the environment, the Trump administration notified top advisors to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific research arm that their first meeting of Trump’s second term was canceled. The advisors received no explanation for why the meeting was canceled or any information about when, or if, it would be rescheduled....

Climate Depot Publisher Marc Morano says the National Environmental Museum and Education Center, located at the EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., is the most “propagandized” government site you can imagine. “$4 million to build, $600,000 to operate annually, less than 2,000 visitors per year—and I guarantee you they’re either EPA staff or maybe some other Biden staffers. The public didn’t even know about it,” he says.

The EPA’s plan to roll back regulations and cut climate programs will increase the cost of living for millions of people and bring about hundreds of thousands of premature deathsRepealing key protections could erase $254 billion in annual benefits for public health and the environment, compared with $39 billion in savings for regulated industriesLooser rules around air and water quality could also lead to worsening asthma attacks, increased ER visits and other adverse health outcomes The Trump administration’s slash-and-burn approach to federal programs has delivered a considerable hit to the nation’s environment, but experts say its plans to repeal hard-won...

When wildfire smoke drifts into the Methow Valley, it tends to stay, settling in the folds of the Cascade foothills like a choking fog. Recent summers have brought weeks-long binges of unhealthy air to one of Washington state’s poorest counties, rivaling some of the most polluted cities in the world. Countering this intensifying threat are small nonprofit organizations such as the Methow Valley Citizens Council, which has been distributing air purifiers, maintaining a network of air quality monitors, and spreading the message about how to keep safe when the smoke rolls in. Much of that work was funded by a...

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Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin is canceling a year-old museum dedicated to the EPA’s history — citing its $315-per-visitor cost to operate. The museum is located on the ground floor of the environmental agency, but recorded very little foot traffic, despite its prime location just a block north of the Smithsonian’s Natural History and American History museums on the National Mall. “The scarcely visited museum cost a whopping $4 million taxpayer dollars to build in accordance with Smithsonian standards and more than $600,000 annually to operate,” an EPA official said. “It had less than 2,000 external visitors between May...

President Donald Trump has launched a political counterrevolution in the early days of his second presidency. One of the most profound ways he’s doing this is by effectively cutting off the Left’s massive, government-funded patronage networks. What’s making Trump’s moves so effective is that many of these networks are based on government functions that long ago either waned in usefulness or have completely abandoned their purpose. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin appeared on One America News Wednesday and explained how the Left has insidiously transformed the federal government into a Democratic Party funding apparatus. Zeldin explained how the EPA...