Free Republic

On Wednesday, December 6, 2023, the United States House of Representatives passed the CARS Act, which would defend American auto manufacturers, workers, and consumers from an unconstitutionally over-regulatory U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the many other related federal efforts to effectively ban normal petroleum-powered vehicles. Passing the House isn’t enough, of course. Like any other bill, it must pass the U.S. Senate and be signed into law – or override a veto – in order to go into effect. But it’s still worthwhile because bills like this one force politicians to go on the record, providing a legitimate campaign...

(EXCERPTED) Lawmakers in Sacramento pass plenty of complex, arcane measures every year that can be hard to wrap your head around. But they also pass laws that can have a pretty direct impact on everyday Californians’ lives, including some coming online in 2024 that could affect your commute, your annual camping trip or your paycheck. Here are 16 new laws that will kick in next year, beginning with the ones that go into effect on Jan. 1. Kicking in on Jan. 1 Campsite reservations Gender-neutral toy sections Speed cameras Expanded paid sick and reproductive loss leave Employment protections for cannabis...

(EDITOR'S NOTE: This piece was originally published on October 9, 2022, but is being republished after California Gov. Gavin Newsom claimed that the state's high gas prices are caused by "gouging" from oil companies during a debate with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Newsom signed even more regulations into law in 2022 and 2023. One law requires oil companies to inform customers about "how much money they're making off Californians on their websites; oil companies are now hitting back by posting QR codes at the pump where customers can learn how much they're paying in taxes and fees.)While gas prices in...

This spring, rumors were swirling that HERBL, one of California’s largest cannabis distribution companies, was on the verge of collapse. So Mike Beaudry, the company’s CEO, sent out an email on May 18 declaring that “these rumors are categorically not true. HERBL continues to be fully operational.” Less than a month later, HERBL had completely collapsed. HERBL’s failure left a trail of damage that hurt small pot brands and shorted the state some $17 million in unpaid taxes. HERBL is only the latest high-flying California pot startup to crumble, following companies like Flow Kana, which raised $175 million in capital...

Pennsylvania’s Peter Brothers Trucking delivers goods all across America. Owner Brian Wanner says Pennsylvania bureaucrats now are driving him out of his home state. “We have no say,” complains Wanner in my new video. “We can’t do anything about it.” “No say” because Pennsylvania’s new rules don’t come from Pennsylvania. They come from California. “I don’t want to be anything like California!” complains Wanner. Too bad for him and other Pennsylvania truck owners, because Pennsylvania’s Environmental Quality Board decided their state will automatically copy California regulations. California’s rules will raise the price of a new truck by about one-third. Trucks...

A group of 26 U.S. senators said they will be introducing legislation aimed at curbing attempts by the Biden administration to mandate electric vehicle adoption by American drivers through Environmental Protection Agency regulations. West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin joined with 25 Republican senators to create the Choice in Automobile Retail Sales, or CARS, Act. The legislation was expected to be introduced Thursday, Fox News reported. The legislation is in reaction to proposed regulations announced by the EPA in April, which Fox called “the most aggressive for federal tailpile emissions ever crafted.” According to a White House statement cited by Fox,...

The Biden administration is facing an onslaught of opposition to its proposed fuel economy standards, which critics say would increase consumer costs and unfairly burden U.S. businesses. The Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) received more than 62,900 public comments related to the fuel economy regulations it issued in late July during its comment period, which ended Monday. The so-called Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards received opposition letters from a wide range of stakeholders, including 26 states and the energy, agriculture and automotive industries. "NHTSA’s proposal is yet another attempt by the Biden administration to restrict...

McALLEN, Texas -- The Biden administration announced they waived 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow border wall construction on Wednesday, marking the administration’s first use of a sweeping executive power employed often during the Trump presidency.

The Biden administration finalized a new regulation taking aim at certain pool pump motors and their energy efficiency levels. The Department of Energy (DOE) published the new rule in the Federal Register on Sept. 28 establishing higher energy conservation and efficiency standards for pool pump motors that manufacturers will have to comply with starting in September 2025. Pool pump motors are the latest appliance to find themselves in the administration’s regulatory crosshairs, as the DOE has already pursued updates to energy efficiency standards for products like water heaters and portable gas generators. The pool pump motors rule could cost consumers...

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has taken to X to criticize Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday. Musk called the federal government’s approach to online streaming regulations “shameful.” Musk’s comments were in response to a post by journalist Glenn Greenwald, who described Canada’s new regulations as “one of the world’s most repressive online censorship schemes.” The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced a series of measures aimed at modernizing Canada’s broadcasting framework on Friday. Among these, online streaming services operating in Canada with annual revenues exceeding $10 million are required to register with the commission by November...

Looking at the big picture, the two things that corrupt ruling elites want to see TERMINATED are the Constitution and God Himself The U.S. government was never meant to be an all-inclusive entity involved in almost every aspect of our lives, the way it is today. So how did we get to this point and what areas of our lives need to be taken back from the illegitimate claims of government in order for us to be able to say we live in a truly free country? Watch the brief video below, provided by Hillsdale College, comparing the Founders’ vision...

President Joe Biden’s proposed energy efficiency standards for water heaters, released July 21 by the Energy Department, not only would raise the cost of water heaters for consumers but take certain products off the market. One popular tankless natural gas water heater, made by Rinnai in Griffin, Georgia, would have to be discontinued. The public has until Sept. 26 to file comments. Beginning in 2029, the Energy Department’s proposed regulation would set government standards for all types of water heaters, including gas-fired, oil-fired, electric, and instantaneous tankless water heaters. The proposed rule would raise standards disproportionately for tankless, gas-fired water...

Family-run fishing businesses face a fraught and competitive environment, even independent of burdensome regulations. But one such outrageous regulation is now before the Supreme Court, in a case with significance far beyond our nation’s fisheries. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), part of the Department of Commerce, promulgated a rule that pertains to most herring boats, such as those portrayed in the Oscar-winning movie CODA. If a vessel is determined to need a federal monitor and has not already been assigned one under a federally funded program, it must pay for the monitor itself. The cost of doing that for...

American truckers have issued a warning about the Biden administration's plans to reduce air pollution by cracking down on heavy-duty vehicle emissions, saying that President Biden's proposed policies will crush the supply chain and put the American food supply at risk. Under the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which aims to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides and other pollutants by enacting stringent new regulations on heavy-duty vehicles and machinery, businesses will be subjected to unattainable standards which will result in high inflation and put trucking companies out of business, American trucking officials warn. Mike Kucharski, vice president and co-owner of JKC...

The Biden administration weakened regulations protecting millions of acres of wetlands Tuesday, saying it had no choice after the Supreme Court sharply limited the federal government’s jurisdiction over them. The rule would require that wetlands be more clearly connected to other waters like oceans and rivers, a policy shift that departs from a half-century of federal rules governing the nation’s waterways. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan said the agency had no alternative after the Supreme Court sharply limited the federal government’s power to regulate wetlands that do not have a “continuous surface connection” to larger, regulated bodies of water....

The Biden administration has repeatedly prioritized policies critics argue are politicized environmental efforts which will make conservation and recreational activities on public lands more difficult. Rules coming down from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could make land unavailable for hunting, fishing and even hiking, outdoorsmen argue. "It really seems to show to me the lack of consideration and thought that is being put in from bureaucrats from D.C. making decisions about how public lands, in the West predominantly, are being managed," Sarah Montalbano, an education policy analyst at the Alaska Policy Forum told...

That’s the argument two distinguished climate scientists are making, and they’ve got the facts to back them up. Two distinguished climate scientists have filed with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a 45-page comment on the proposed regulation the EPA announced on May 11, 2023, setting emission standards that would require nearly all of coal- and gas-powered plants in the U.S.to capture almost all—90 percent—of their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2038 or shut down. In their comment, William Happer, professor of physics, emeritus, Princeton University, and Richard Lindzen, professor of Earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences, emeritus, make both a legal...

An overwhelming majority of Americans support the idea of tearing up regulations to boost domestic energy production and independence, ... 90% found at least somewhat convincing the argument that permitting reform would strengthen U.S. energy independence, enhance national security and allow the country to stand tall in the face of geopolitical challenges, with 64% of respondents saying that the idea was extremely or very convincing to them ... Eighty-eight percent of the poll’s respondents support improvements to the federal permitting system for energy infrastructure projects in order to keep energy affordable and reliable. Ninety percent of the surveyed individuals similarly...

Physicist, meteorologist testify that the climate agenda is ‘disastrous’ for America Two prominent climate scientists have taken on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new rules to cut CO2 emissions in electricity generation, arguing in testimony that the regulations “will be disastrous for the country, for no scientifically justifiable reason.” Citing extensive data to support their case, William Happer, professor emeritus in physics at Princeton University, and Richard Lindzen, professor emeritus of atmospheric science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), argued that the claims used by the EPA to justify the new regulations are not based on scientific facts but rather...

*Proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations for power plant emissions could spur blackouts in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) power grid region and cost stakeholders nearly $250 billion in the coming decades, according to comments filed in response to the rule by the Center of the American Experiment (CAE).*The average annual cost to stakeholders of building enough capacity to stave off the blackouts CAE projects in the MISO region is greater than the average annual benefit the EPA estimates its proposals will bring for the entire country by 2055, according to CAE’s analysis.*“This is the regulatory equivalent of studying...