Free Republic

The Trump administration just dealt another blow to the anti-energy, anti-prosperity agenda pursued by the Biden administration underpinned by the man-made “climate change” hypothesis. Under the proposed repeal of previous “climate” regulations on energy production announced this month, many of the power plants targeted for destruction could remain open, and CO2 would no longer be considered dangerous “pollution.” Naturally, that has the “climate” movement screaming bloody murder. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the effect of the so-called greenhouse gases coming from U.S. energy production using hydrocarbons (or “fossil fuels”) is so small as to be negligible. The agency...

Ammaad Akhtar, 33, is accused of trying to give money, guns and ammunition to someone he thought was part of the terror group, and of making antisemitic threats. Menachem Wecker, Izzy Salant ... The LinkedIn profile of Ammaad Akhtar identifies him as a resident of Stockton, Calif., and a “mechanical engineering graduate” who is “outgoing and friendly,” a “great team player” and a “great leader.” A very different picture emerges about Akhtar, who remains listed as a hazardous substances engineer at the California Environmental Protection Agency, in the criminal complaint accusing him of trying to give money, guns and ammunition...

The Supreme Court sided Friday with oil companies seeking to challenge California’s electric vehicle regulations. In a 7-2 ruling, the court allowed energy producers to continue their lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to approve California regulations that require manufacturing more electric vehicles. “The government generally may not target a business or industry through stringent and allegedly unlawful regulation, and then evade the resulting lawsuits by claiming that the targets of its regulation should be locked out of court as unaffected bystanders,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the majority opinion. “In light of this Court’s precedents and the evidence...

Now coming into view are the specifics of EPA’s strategy to end the Obama/Biden efforts to strangle the energy sector of the economy in the name of “saving the planet” from climate change. A document released by EPA last week on June 11 lays out the plan for repeal of the absurd (and dangerous) regulation that would have ended use of fossil fuels to generate electricity by some time in the 2030s. This EPA document is particularly interesting for the way it treats — and effectively sidelines — the so-called Endangerment Finding, the 2009 regulatory action that is the basis...

Yesterday, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the proposed repeal of the Biden-era’s Clean Power Plan 2.0, which ruled that coal-fired and many new natural gas power plants must capture and store over 90% of their carbon emissions by the 2030s—or shut down by 2040. It’s a costly mandate, resting on shaky legal and technical foundations. Americans would be fortunate to have it repealed. President Biden issued his Clean Power Plan 2.0 after the Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency that President Obama’s Clean Power Plan 1.0 exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) statutory authority. The Court’s...

President Donald Trump plans to sign a trio of resolutions Thursday to revoke California’s nation-leading vehicle emissions standards. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), author of a resolution to nix the state’s electric vehicle sales mandate via the Congressional Review Act, and Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) confirmed that the White House has scheduled the signings at 11 a.m. on Thursday. Trump’s signature will finalize his administration’s monthslong effort to thwart California’s authority to set stricter electrification rules for passenger vehicles and commercial trucks, along with higher standards for heavy-duty diesel engines. Trump’s EPA revoked an earlier version of California’s vehicle emissions...

When the head of the Environmental Protection Agency announced a wide-ranging rollback of environmental regulations, he said it would put a “dagger through the heart of climate-change religion” and introduce a “Golden Age” for the American economy.What Lee Zeldin didn’t mention: how ending the rules could have devastating consequences to human health.The EPA-targeted rules could prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion each year they are in effect, according to an Associated Press examination that included the agency’s own prior assessments as well as a wide range of other research.It’s by no means guaranteed that the rules will...

The suit alleges a coordinated effort to block medical care for those exposed to toxic chemicals. Also named are Vanguard, Mercy Health, and Quest Diagnostics, with the CDC accused of instructing healthcare providers not to test for dioxins or other hazardous substances. Plaintiffs claim this led to widespread misdiagnoses, delayed treatment, and that a letter was circulated telling providers to dismiss patient health concerns. ...

(NewsNation) — The EPA administrator has promised to end a contentious feature in many automobiles: the automatic start-stop feature that temporarily shuts down engines at red light stops. Lee Zeldin says the start-stop function, which automakers began installing to reduce emissions in return for federal incentives, annoys most motorists, who consider it “the single worst feature in their motor vehicle.” “They want it eliminated,” Zeldin told Blake Burman on “The Hill” Thursday. Democrats say EPA illegally canceled hundreds of grants aimed at boosting ‘environmental justice’ To that end, he said the EPA will seek to revoke its approval of credits...

The GOP-led Senate voted Thursday to take away California’s ability to set its own tailpipe emissions standards, effectively killing the country’s biggest driver of EV investment. The vote was 51-44. The move nullifies a measure, enacted by the state in 2022 and later adopted by 11 other states, banning the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. The House already passed the same resolution. Now it heads to President Trump for his signature. U.S. carmakers and auto dealers argued that keeping in place the waiver—which permits California to set stricter emissions rules than the federal government—could cripple the industry by...

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Transportation Department is expected to declare that fuel economy rules issued under then President Joe Biden exceeded the government's legal authority by including electric vehicles in setting the rules, automakers said on Monday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the department's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday submitted its interpretive rule, "Resetting the Corporate Average Fuel Economy Program" to the White House for review. He said in a statement the prior administration had "illegally used CAFE standards as a backdoor electric vehicle mandate – driving the price of cars up."

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...