Free Republic

Gone are rules banning a wide swath of gas stoves. Gone are the strict water standards governing dishwashers and shower heads. And gone is the government-wide effort to force electrification of the economy through appliance regulations. It is all part of a historic action the Trump administration announced Monday, reversing dozens of energy regulations, saving consumers more than $11 billion, and cutting more than 125,000 words from the United States Code of Regulations. As part of the Department of Energy's sweeping action unveiled Monday, it will rescind dozens of energy efficiency regulations targeting common household appliances that the Biden administration...

We now have more information on the corruption involved in the pause in LNG exports. Joe Biden approved the pause but didn’t know he did. When questioned by Speaker Johnson, Biden said he wouldn’t do that. During the Houthi attacks and the Ukraine crisis, Biden paused all LNG shipments to Europe. He halted the approval process for export licenses and facilities being built/planned to save the climate. A Louisiana judge granted a stay. It turns out that Secretary Granholm, a wholly unprincipled agent for the hard left, buried a report with data and conclusions refuting the premise they used to...

Energy Department's inspector general warned that agency officials are not complying with conflict-of-interest rulesThe Department of Energy, in one of its final actions under President Joe Biden, earmarked billions of dollars in green energy loans to utility companies based in Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm's home state of Michigan—defying the agency's inspector general, who called on the Biden administration to suspend the loan program amid conflict-of-interest concerns.Some of Granholm's largest campaign benefactors during her Michigan gubernatorial campaign were among the companies receiving the hefty last-minute loans.The Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office announced Thursday that it awarded a staggering $22.9 billion...

Donald Trump rewarded the tycoons behind the shale boom, among his most ardent supporters, with the selection Saturday of Chris Wright as his nominee for Energy Secretary. Wright was front-and-center for the fracking revolution that reshaped the country as a band of scrappy wildcatters that reinvigorated U.S. oil and gas production to record heights. His $2.8 billion company, Liberty Energy, pumps water and sand underground to frack customers’ wells. Wright’s selection elevates a pugnacious branch of the oil-and-gas industry that is skeptical of climate-change science and mostly hasn’t pledged to build out low-carbon energy businesses, unlike giants Exxon Mobil and...

During an interview with the Fox News Channel aired on Friday’s “Special Report,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) responded to arguments that electric vehicle adoption should be determined by consumer demand by saying “Okay, but can I also remind you that the companies didn’t like catalytic converters? They didn’t like seat belts.” And that while companies should see what consumers want, “we also need to make sure that we are ready for the vehicles of the future and global climate change is real.” Dingell said, [relevant exchange begins around 4:45] “We are not banning the production of internal combustion engines. People...

Forty-five GOP lawmakers are demanding answers from the Department of Energy (DOE) after a government watchdog group accused the agency of covering up a key study that would have interfered with one of the Biden-Harris administration’s most aggressive crackdowns on fossil fuels. The lawmakers wrote to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Thursday to address a watchdog’s allegations that her agency conducted or drafted — and then quietly buried — a study on the emissions impacts of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports in 2023 before pausing approvals for certain LNG export terminals in January on the grounds that the... the agency...

The Biden-Harris administration is allegedly covering up an internal study conducted in 2023 that would have rendered its moratorium on natural gas projects unnecessary, according to leaders on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. The White House and the Department of Energy paused permitting for liquefied natural gas export projects in January—a policy critics said would cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs—to allow time for a federal study on those projects' environmental, economic, and national security impacts. That study, according to federal officials, wouldn't be completed until early 2025, effectively throwing the brakes...

During an interview with Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” released on Tuesday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm blamed the “hiccup” in electric vehicle demand on “a lot of talking down of electric vehicles,” and predicted that after the election, there will be “more positivity” around EVs. Host Michael Kosta asked, “It feels like electric — sorry to be the bummer — it feels like EV has slowed a little bit. What are some of the challenges you’re facing?”

LANSING — A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a Republican lawsuit challenging Michigan’s voter rolls, ruling the Republican plaintiffs failed to provide evidence the state was violating federal law and lacked legal standing to sue. The suit from the Republican National Committee and other GOP groups alleged Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was failing to maintain voter registration lists as required under the National Voter Registration Act, or NVRA. The complaint cited U.S. Census and state data indicating Michigan has more registered voters than voting-age adults. But the state says it is planning to cancel nearly 600,000 registrations...

In a gross violation of journalistic ethics, a CNN journalist gave the Biden administration a sneak peek of her article looking for the government stamp of approval before publishing. The Functional Government Initiative (FGI) obtained documents shared exclusively with MRC Business showing that CNN congressional reporter Clare Foran all but asked the Department of Energy to greenlight her story going after Republican politicians for pushing to prohibit DOE Secretary Jennifer Granholm from implementing any rule that would “limit consumer access to gas kitchen ranges and ovens.” The emails uncovered by FGI — dated March 30, 2023 — don’t denote a...

The Biden Energy Department on Thursday announced nearly $2 billion will be released to save at-risk or shuttered plants if they convert to electric vehicles across swing states such as Michigan or Pennsylvania. The Biden administration is using $2 billion that came from the Inflation Reduction Act, which is commonly referred to as a climate change bill, as it attempts to combine manufacturing and climate change policies. The funds will be used to help with conversions and retooling projects across eight states to make electric vehicles and other related parts. “This announcement is a hallmark of the Biden administration’s industrial...

When Biden took office, he inherited the over 630 million barrels of oil left behind by the Trump and other previous administrations.This was not far off the high of 727 million barrels in 2010.Biden allowed the reserve to begin falling and then catastrophically depleted it to improve his party’s chances in the 2022 midterm elections. And he’s been at it again in 2024.Now despite failing to refill the strategic oil reserve, he’s talking about emptying it further from the 300 million barrels or so in order to have an outside chance of winning the 2024 election.Jennifer Granholm, Biden’s Secretary of...

Three and a half years into the Biden Administration, and to an ordinary citizen on the ground it might seem like not that much has changed as to energy. Despite hundreds of government actions and initiative in an all-of-government regulatory onslaught to transform the energy economy, the important things have been remarkable stable. Production of oil and gas are actually up, and prices increases have been relatively modest — far less than one might have anticipated from the extreme regulatory hostility to production. The percentage of what is called “primary energy” (that is, energy for everything, not just electricity) coming...

The Biden administration finalized a rule Wednesday that bans the use of natural gas in new federal buildings. The Department of Energy announced the final rule, which requires federal agencies to “phase out” and ultimately eliminate the on-site use of fossil fuels starting in 2030. New federal buildings constructed after 2030 will not be allowed to have the natural gas hookups required to power gas stoves and other appliances under the final rule. “The Biden-Harris Administration is practicing what we preach,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said of her agency’s rule. “Just as we are helping households and businesses across the...

The Biden administration finalized regulations for residential clothes washers and dryers on Thursday. The Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it is locking in the “energy efficiency” regulations for residential clothes washers and dryers, marking the latest development in the Biden administration’s wide effort to shape markets to decidedly favor more energy efficient appliances in the coming years. The agency stated that the rules will reduce carbon dioxide emissions and save consumers money on their water and electricity bills over the course of many years. “For decades, DOE’s appliance standards actions for clothes washers and dryers have provided loads of...

On Friday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm stated that the pause in liquid natural gas (LNG) export approvals might actually be a pause on exports that are actually beneficial to the environment because LNG can replace far dirtier coal. Granholm stated, “[W]e just need to update the data associated with the factors. So, the factors are, does this impact — what is the impact on national security, what is the impact on foreign policy, what is the impact — in other words, our allies and whether they’re able to access the energy that they need, what...

An investigation has been launched into the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) after Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration was found to have sent billions of dollars in taxpayers’ money to a fraudulent solar company. Biden’s DOE recently gave a $3 billion award to a solar energy company that has been accused of scamming vulnerable customers. Republican leaders in the House and Senate are probing the DOE over the move. The investigations are being led by House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-WY). In a letter to DOE...

Proterra, which President Joe Biden once said was "making me look good," sold hundreds of electric buses to municipalities across North America. Every transit district Just The News spoke with, except one, has inoperable buses awaiting repairs. Across the country, towns and cities of various sizes envisioned an electrified public transit system that could shuttle residents with vehicles that produced no carbon-filled exhaust. Many of those communities purchased buses from Silicon Valley-based Proterra, which was able to produce 550 buses over its 19-year existence before it went bankrupt in August. The company announced last month it had concluded auctions as...

In case you haven’t noticed – The Biden regime hates America. Joe Biden’s handlers are out to destroy the country. Every single policy is meant to make life harder, more expensive, less free, and more dangerous for Americans. Crazy Biden energy secretary, jennifer Granholm, who has successfully decimated US energy independence, is now under fire for inviting top Russian and Chinese officials to tour the National Nuclear Security Administration site in Nevada— where sensitive nuclear experiments are carried out. https://twitter.com/VRWCTexan/status/1722678378300424360? https://twitter.com/Travis_in_Flint/status/1722665804305477814? Obviously, this won’t be making any headlines. Townhall reported: A senior Biden official is under fire after reports reveal...

In December, Energy Secretary Granholm announced that the administration had taken 110 actions on energy efficiency standards in 2022 alone...and are moving forward with rules impacting dozens more appliances. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Joe Biden administration continues to use executive authority to regulate popular household appliances at an unprecedented level, with claims that their changes will save consumers money and help slow climate change and its alleged effects on the environment. Though the latest set of restrictions the administration is mandating is for gas powered furnaces, that is only the latest and far from the last. “According to the current federal Unified...