Free Republic

Now that we're more than 100 days into the Obama presidency, the handwriting is on the wall regarding our new leader's game plan for America. Spend other people's money like a drunken sailor. Let every enemy on the planet know there's a wimp in the White House. Let every ally know the wimp in the White House will do nothing to help them when push comes to shove. Let the 50 states know there's a power coup in play that strips them of constitutionally guaranteed liberties. Let every company know that neither they nor their non-union employees are safe from...

The congressional Democrats’ cap-and-trade plan  to tax carbon emissions could cost every American family as much as $3,100 a year and is equivalent to a “declaration of war on the Midwest,”  Republican lawmakers told CNSNews.com this week.  But Democrats disputed the Republicans’ cost figure and said the plan can be accomplished without imposing a net cost on the American people.  In general, under cap and trade, the amount of carbon that energy producers emit is capped. They can exceed that cap through the purchase, i.e., “trade,” of carbon permits. The money for those permits would be collected by the government...

UNITED NATIONS -- The Obama administration, in a major environmental policy shift, is leaning toward asking 195 nations that ratified the U.N. ozone treaty to enact mandatory reductions in hydrofluorocarbons, according to U.S. officials and documents obtained by The Associated Press. The Montreal Protocol is widely viewed as one of the most successful environmental treaties because it essentially eliminated the use of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, blamed for damaging the ozone layer over Antarctica. Because they do not affect the ozone layer, HFCs broadly replaced CFCs as coolants in everything from refrigerators, air conditioners and fire extinguishers to aerosol sprays, medical...

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is telling representatives from 16 major world economies that the United States is moving quickly to address global warming. At an international forum on energy and climate change Monday, Clinton said the U.S. is fully engaged and no longer doubts the urgency or magnitude of the climate change problem. She cited the recent finding by the EPA that six greenhouse gases pose threats to human health and welfare as a sign that the Obama administration was taking action.

An under-the-radar provision in a House climate bill would give plaintiffs who claim to be victims of global warming a way to sue the federal government or businesses, according to a report Friday in The Washington Times. The Times reported that Democratic Reps. Henry Waxman of California and Edward Markey of Massachusetts added it into a bill they authored.