Free Republic

There’s a famous quotation about the town of Bến Tre, a Viet Cong stronghold, that was at the center of the Tet Offensive. According to Peter Arnett, an unnamed major told him “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” That quotation may not be real, but what is real is the news that Brazil is destroying tens of thousands of acres of rainforest to prepare for the upcoming COP30 climate summit, which will be held this November in Belém. Apparently, they have to destroy the rainforest, so that the climatistas can save it. Even the pro-climate change...

The Biden Administration's latest scandal reveals an alarming misappropriation of public funds that should have ignited outrage among taxpayers and watchdogs alike. Reports indicate that over $2 billion was quietly allocated to a start-up tied to Stacey Abrams, a prominent figure in the Democratic Party and a champion of unsupported election claims. This funding spree is part of the Biden administration's ongoing push to allocate climate-related initiatives, which, under the so-called "Inflation Reduction Act," is anything but what its title suggests. In reality, the $375 billion earmarked for climate initiatives can be seen as a slush fund designed to boost...

A major solar power plant project that was granted over a billion dollars in federal loans is on the road to closure, with energy experts blasting the project as a "boondoggle" that harmed the environment. In 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under former President Barack Obama issued $1.6 billion in loan guarantees to finance the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, a green energy project that consists of three solar concentrating thermal power plants in California. The facility was touted by then-Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz as an "example of how America is becoming a world leader in solar energy."...

EXCLUSIVE: Republican lawmakers are calling on the Trump administration to investigate President Biden's dismissal of a lawsuit claiming millions in fraud from a green energy project the day after the 2024 election. In 2011, President Barack Obama's Treasury Department granted Tonopah Solar Energy, LLC hundreds of millions of dollars for the construction of a green energy solar plant, the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, in Nevada. However, the energy group was eventually sued by CMB Export, LLC for alleged fraud involving approximately $275 million of taxpayer dollars in a qui tam lawsuit, which is a case on behalf of the...

A light just went off for the left: Americans don’t like paying higher bills for a climate war. Duh. Democrats (well, some of them) are suddenly recognizing the message of November’s victories by Donald Trump and other Republicans. First, that voters are deeply skeptical of a pricey (and likely futile) war on climate at their expense. Second, that those victories will make it harder still to achieve the greenies’ fanciful agenda. Hmm: With luck, the entire climate agenda might just collapse, saving Americans billions and bolstering energy security across the nation. “The public is exhausted,” admits Assemblyman John McDonald (D-Albany)....

Canadians are in for another year of record-breaking heat, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)'s latest report. The Canadian Centre for Climate Change Modelling Analysis forecasts a global mean surface temperature of 1.45 C above pre-industrial levels in 2025. It's slightly cooler than the record-high temperature of 1.55 C above the level in 2024, but the forecast is certain that it will be hotter than any year on record before 2023. "High temperatures are forecasted to persist despite the end of the El Niño event that warmed the tropical Pacific and boosted global temperatures in 2023 and 2024,"...

As fires wreak havoc in California, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., claimed in a post on X the catastrophe is “what a climate emergency looks like.” In another tweet, he took aim at President-elect Trump, asserting the incoming president has been bought off by the oil industry. “Trump has been bought for $1 billion by Big Oil. Just a payoff to kill the IRA and the Green New Deal. We know what will happen. More fires, more climate disasters, more death. The LA fires are preview of coming atrocities,” Markey declared in a post on X. Markey, who claims there is...

The Biden administration is banning certain natural gas water heaters from the market as part of its climate change agenda, a move critics say will jack up energy costs for low-income and senior households. The move in the final days of the administration will take non-condensing, natural gas-fired water heaters off the shelves by 2029 in a bid to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which climate change advocates and President Biden say cause global warming. The new rules will require new tankless gas water heaters to use about 13% less energy than today’s least efficient tankless models. The rules apply to...

The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee took aim at a group of US asset managers over their involvement with a “woke ESG cartel” — adding pressure against environmental efforts by large investors. The committee, chaired by Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, sent letters to 60 firms — including BlackRock, State Street and JPMorgan Asset Management — that are members of the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, or NZAM, an international group of investors that signed on to a pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. The letters, sent Friday, made claims in line with a committee report released on Dec. 13...

The Biden administration boasted in an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report released Thursday about the unprecedented prosecution of a California man for “smuggling greenhouse gases” across the border from Mexico and selling them online. Michael Hart, 58, was arrested in March and pleaded guilty in September to charges related to transporting refrigerants into the US to peddle on Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp and other online vendors between June and December 2022. Biden’s EPA touted the crackdown on Hart, the first-ever person charged for climate change-related bootlegging of refrigerants — namely, hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HFCs) — without the agency’s approval, in its report. When...

The climate activist groups that spent more than a year staging protests against President Joe Biden’s energy policies are pursuing a new strategy with his would-be successor: Get Kamala Harris elected now, ask questions later. Green activists are taking a do-no-harm approach to Harris’ candidacy, ditching demands for policy details and muting potential criticisms over reversing her past opposition to fracking. They say that’s because Harris has excited their base in ways Biden never did — never mind that he signed the biggest climate law in U.S. history. Stoking that activist fervor was one of the main goals behind the...

We’re barking up the wrong trees. A new study reveals that a majority of the 7 million trees in New York City are emitting “volatile compounds” that do more harm than good for our air quality — especially during scorching heat. “We’re all for planting more trees. They bring so many good things,” said study coauthor Róisín Commane, an atmospheric chemist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “But if we’re not careful, we could make air quality worse.” The arbors in question include oaks and sweetgums which produce high volumes of a chemical composition called isoprenes — and they’re rooted...

Vice President Harris’s ascendance as the likely Democratic nominee has sent a wave of excitement through environmental advocates and climate hawks in Congress, who point to her history of investigating the oil industry and support for the Green New Deal in the Senate. Environmental issues have not been a major part of Harris’s portfolio as vice president, but advocates see her as a figure who both has bona fides on the issue and is positioned to generate enthusiasm among younger and more progressive voters who were ambivalent about President Biden’s reelection bid. “I think she deserves more credit than she...

Anxious Democratic donors grilled Biden campaign officials on a Zoom call Monday, pressing Biden's team on how it will deal with new concerns about his fitness for office, according to four donors on the call. Why it matters: There wasn't much panic during the special call for wealthy donors — but there was a fair degree of skepticism. Donors' questions revealed deep doubts within the Democratic Party on whether Biden has the stamina, skill and substance to go toe-to-toe with former President Trump for the next four months, defeat him on Nov. 5, and serve another four-year term. Donors didn't...

Wealthy beach lovers are left devastated as they're forced to slash prices of their luxury seaside homes by millions due to climate change. Climate experts believe the rise in sea levels and unforgiving storms, intense rainfall and coastal flooding and erosion are the culprits putting homeowners in a precarious position - and the unpredictability of it all. The areas with some of the priciest real estate that have been hit the hardest include, Dana Point, California, to Long Island, New York, and Nantucket, Massachusetts, CNBC reported. In September, a beach front home on Nantucket that listed for $2.3 million, fell...

A House Judiciary Committee released a report Tuesday that alleges a ‘climate cartel’ comprised of left-wing environmental activists and major financial institutions colluded to force American companies to adopt anti-fossil fuel policies, which have in turn, harmed U.S. consumers. The interim report was the product of a two-year investigation by House Judiciary Republicans into whether “woke” companies were engaging in behaviors that violate antitrust laws. “Today’s report demonstrates a clear violation of antitrust laws among the companies cited. It indicates both an agreement and a reduction of output – the two standards necessary to establish antitrust,” Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo.,...

A “climate cartel” made up of left-wing advocacy groups and Wall Street firms have colluded to force American companies to reduce carbon emissions, a congressional committee charged in a scathing report Tuesday. The interim report is the first of its kind produced by the Republican-led Judiciary Committee in the House since it launched an investigation in late 2022 into whether corporate efforts to tackle climate change violate antitrust laws. It accused business groups and advocacy organizations of “muzzling corporate free speech” and “handcuffing company leadership” through “ever-escalating pressure tactics,” which included “taking out” directors at firms that are deemed “recalcitrant.”...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed Wednesday that he was saving his state from 'radical green zealots' by removing references of 'climate change' from the state's energy policy and banning offshore windmills. DeSantis, a failed 2024 presidential hopeful, signed into law a bill that additionally gives preferential treatment to natural gas companies and scraps a requirement that state-purchased vehicles are fuel efficient. With 8,346 miles of shoreline and water surrounding three of its side, Florida is the most vulnerable or close to being the most at-risk state when it comes to climate change impacts, according to a number of metrics. 'The...

‘NO Climate Crisis’ Says Coalition of 1,600 Actual ScientistsThe United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is ‘one of the worst sources of dangerous misinformation’ “There is ‘NO Climate Crisis’ says a coalition of 1,600 actual scientists” in a recent letter to the California Air Resources Board. In fact, the scientists find that “California is in no danger of unusual drought: The annual precipitation in California has fluctuated greatly over the last 150 years, with only a slight decrease.” California also has record low levels of air pollution that are below the threshold of human health effects, James E. Enstrom,...

CNN — The Chevrolet Malibu, the last sedan still sold by General Motors’ biggest selling brand, will end production this year, the company announced. Malibu production will end in November as the factory that builds it, the Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, Kansas, is reconfigured to build a new generation of the Chevrolet Bolt EV. With the Malibu’s demise, General Motors’ mainstream Chevrolet brand will sell only trucks, SUVs, and the Corvette, a two-seat sports car, in the United States. Chevy’s close competitor, Ford, made a similar move years ago when it stopped selling the Taurus and Fusion sedans,...