Free Republic

The share of coal in U.S. power-generation is rising for the first time since 2014 amid Joe Biden’s crackdown on oil drilling and pipelines. The Energy Information Administration found coal-fired power generation has increased by 22 percent over the past year amid surging prices of natural gas and oil. The cost of coal power stands at nearly $2 per million of British Thermal Units. Meanwhile, natural gas costs almost $5 for the same amount of energy. ... The coal comeback comes despite Biden’s calls to eradicate the use of fossil fuels and a Democrat push for electric cars, which end...

HELENA, Mont. — One Montana hospital went into lockdown and called police after a woman threatened violence because her relative was denied her request to be treated with ivermectin. Officials of another Montana hospital accused public officials of threatening and harassing their health care workers for refusing to treat a politically connected covid-19 patient with that antiparasitic drug or hydroxychloroquine, another drug unauthorized by the Food and Drug Administration to treat covid. And in neighboring Idaho, a medical resident said police had to be called to a hospital after a covid patient’s relative verbally abused her and threatened physical violence...

High winds pushed a wildfire into Denton, Montana Wednesday (December 1, 2021), destroying 25 structures and prompting an evacuation of the small Fergus County town. Structures lost included grain elevators and bridges. However, there were no reports of deaths or serious injuries, according to a release from the Fergus County Sheriff’s Office. The fire was first reported Tuesday in neighboring Judith Basin County and spread into Fergus County due to the high-wind event in northcentral Montana over the last several days. The Denton area saw peak wind gusts of up to 66 miles per hour, according to the National Weather...

In response to the recent tragedy in Oakland County, Michigan, what did the anti-gunners do? Following their standard course of action, they are politicizing the deaths of four high school teens in an attempt to undermine your constitutionally-protected rights. In fact, bowing to the will of their far-Left overlords, anti-gun senators are bringing H.R. 8 to the Senate floor—which is a bill to institute Universal Background Registration Checks (UBCs). And to make matters worse, they are trying to do this by unanimous consent—without an actual vote. Please, contact your Senators and make sure they know you’re opposed to H.R. 8...

Fifteen Republican governors, led by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, have launched “Operation Open Road,” an initiative that seeks to ease the U.S. supply chain crunch through a range of state and federal measures, including calling on the Biden administration to remove “burdensome” regulations on the trucking industry and to suspend President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for private employers. Lee announced the start of the operation in a statement on Nov. 22, the same day that he signed an executive order (pdf) deregulating critical trucking functions in Tennessee. “Republican governors across the country have committed to doing everything we can to...

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Friday recommended an overhaul of the nation’s oil and gas leasing program to limit areas available for energy development and raise costs for oil and gas companies to drill on public land and water. The long-awaited report by the Interior Department stops short of recommending an end to oil and gas leasing on public lands, as many environmental groups have urged. But officials said the report would lead to a more responsible leasing process that provides a better return to U.S. taxpayers. “Our nation faces a profound climate crisis that is impacting every American,″...

Five Democratic senators have told the White House they won't support Saule Omarova to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, effectively killing her nomination for the powerful bank-regulator position.Why it matters: The defiant opposition from a broad coalition of senators reflects the real policy concerns they had with Omarova, a Cornell University law professor who's attracted controversy for her academic writings about hemming in big banks.Their opposition also hints at a willingness of some Democratic senators to buck the White House on an important nomination, even if it hands Republicans a political — and symbolic — victory.Republicans...

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana residents should expect to shell out more money to heat their homes this winter due to an increase in energy costs, the Montana Public Service Commission said Wednesday, but there’s also additional aid this year for low-income residents. “Montana’s regulated natural gas utilities — including NorthWestern Energy, Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. and Energy West Montana Inc. — are forecasting residential bills to be 47% to 62% higher compared with bills last winter,” said Erik Wilkerson, executive director of the PSC. Utilities buy natural gas in the summer, when costs are typically lower, and store it for...

Late last year, the National Association of Realtors adopted a policy forbidding members from engaging in supposedly "harassing speech" or "hate speech" even in their private lives, entirely outside the context of real estate transactions. The Realtors are a private organization, so this isn't a First Amendment violation, just as blacklisting of supposedly "un-American" employees in the 1950s wasn't a First Amendment violation. But it strikes me as potentially quite dangerous, especially given that National Association of Realtors membership appears to be quite important professionally to real estate agents (more on that below). In any event, we're seeing now the...

As Montana struggles to attract and retain health care workers, Gov. Greg Gianforte announced Tuesday a health care workforce recruitment program that would cover relocation costs for providers who commit to moving to the state. The incentive would pay up to $12,500 in relocation expenses plus 35% to cover taxes. To qualify, health care workers must commit to permanently relocating to Montana and be employed at a health care facility for at least 12 consecutive months. The program is expected to launch by the end of November, Gianforte said. Prior to the press conference at Billings Clinic, Gianforte toured the...

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has come out against a revenue scheme proposed by his party that would have allowed the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to gather information on the inflows and outflows of American citizens’ bank accounts. The measure initially came to light as a part of Democrats’ $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. In an attempt to head off concerns from moderates, Democratic leaders and rank-and-file lawmakers have desperately marketed the bill as being completely paid for with no substantial effect on the deficit or national debt. The proposal was met with immediate backlash from Republicans and the private sector. House...

Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) got into argument on Wednesday during which the centrist West Virginia senator said he was willing to let go of all of President Biden's social spending plan, according to an Axios report that has been corroborated by multiple other senators who witnessed the spat. Fellow Democratic Sens. Jon Tester (Mont.) and Chris Coons (Del.), both of whom serve on the Senate Appropriations Committee and were both in the room when it happened, relayed details of the blowup to Axios. According to Tester, Sanders said, "Joe said, 'I'm comfortable with nothing.' ... We...

The Biden administration is giving America gifts that will keep on giving for generations to come, and one of the foremost of these gifts is the newly-arrived group of Afghan evacuees: 70,000 are now in the U.S., and the total number is expected to exceed 124,000 before long. One of Biden’s handlers, unnamed in a Wednesday Wall Street Journal report, has admitted that ten of these evacuees have already been detained as risks to national security. Only ten out of 70,000 isn’t bad, right? Sure. But Biden’s handlers’ catastrophic mishandling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan makes it virtually certain that...

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Ten states filed a lawsuit Friday to stop President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors, arguing that the requirement violates federal law. Attorneys general from Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming signed on to the lawsuit, which was filed in a federal district court in Missouri. The states asked a federal judge to block Biden’s requirement that all employees of federal contractors be vaccinated against the coronavirus, arguing that the mandate violates federal procurement law and is an overreach of federal power. “If the federal government attempts...

Cops in Missoula, Montana, have arrested an Afghan refugee in connection with the rape of a woman at a hotel. Biden immigration authorities “paroled” him into the country without screening

On Sunday, KGVO reported that a 19-year-old man “on a worldwide trip from Afghanistan” was arrested and charged with having “sexual intercourse without consent” with an 18-year-old woman at a Residence Inn by Marriott in downtown Missoula, Montana.According to KGVO and recent statements from Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, the suspect, Zabihullah Muhmand, wasn’t simply a world traveler. He was “in Montana under Humanitarian Parole, which is separate from the Special Immigrant Visa program.” In other words, Muhmand, the accused rapist, was an unvetted Afghan evacuee placed in Montana by the Biden administration.On Thursday, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte told KGVO he...

The big picture for Covid-19 in the US is looking a little brighter as new infections and hospitalizations decline. In 45 states, the rates of new Covid-19 cases either declined or stayed relatively steady this past week compared to the previous week, according to data Saturday from Johns Hopkins University. Five states -- Montana, Colorado, Minnesota, Michigan and Pennsylvania -- had at least 10% more new cases this past week compared to the previous week.

At least 50 people were injured after an Amtrak train derailed in Montana on Saturday afternoon, setting off a frantic response by rescuers who scrambled to extricate passengers from cars, an official said. The official, Amanda Frickel, the disaster and emergency services coordinator for Hill County, Mont., said in an interview that more than one person had been killed, but that the authorities were not yet releasing any more details. She said “well over” 50 people had been injured.

The Biden administration is delaying lease sales of federal lands for oil and gas exploration even after a court order, the head of the Western Energy Alliance said. President Joe Biden banned oil and gas lease sales by directing the U.S. Department of the Interior to pause new oil and natural gas leasing on public lands and offshore waters. It did not impact existing operations or permits for valid, existing leases, the agency said. After 13 states filed suit in federal court in Louisiana against the federal government over the ban, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty ruled that the Outer...

Senate Democrats have reached an agreement on a new set of federal voting rules again, but this time it is more worrisome for Republicans because a key Democrat is on board. In fact, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who has not been a fan of previous voting bills, spearheaded this effort along with Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and a group of cosponsors, NPR reported. The package is the latest attempt by Democrats to counteract Republican-led measures at the state level to restrict voting access and alter election administration. The new legislation, unveiled Tuesday morning by Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar...